Remains

Survivor / 2WEI

❝Along with his arm around my throat, I felt the cold barrel of a gun pressed to my temple. 

I tried to gasp for as much air as I could while he applied pressure to my windpipe with his forearm. I winced at the coarse fabric of his sleeve rubbing against my skin, and I could feel myself beginning to rash from where it came into contact with my neck. 

"You're coming with me," he snarled, pressing the weapon harder into my head and pulling me into the forward direction. 

Fresh, burning hot tears spilled down my cheeks, overcome with fear and alarm as he dragged me towards the exit, forcing me to stumble and trip over the bodies that he had left behind. 

I let out a small whimper every time I felt my foot come into contact with a body, mentally apologising for it. 

I could hear Viktor's heavy breathing, and I could feel his cold fury emanating towards me as he pulled me closer to the glass doors. I had no idea what his plan was, but my stomach was churning as I frantically wondered what he had in mind. 

When we reached the doors, I could faintly see my reflection in the glass. Through my bleary eyes, all I could see was a broken version of myself within the clutches of a madman.

Without warning, he lunged forward and drove his foot into the glass forcefully, shattering it. I squeezed my eyes shut as shards of glass rained down on us. I didn't have time to react before he pulled me along with him, outside and in range of the authorities and their firearms. 

They lifted their guns, preparing for the worst as we emerged into the open. 

They had their weapons trained on him, and his gun was still ready to fire into my skull.

I felt like a rat in a trap, and I was sure that it was finally over for me. 

"Let her go, Solov! It's finally over for you," a man barked through the megaphone. 

Viktor chuckled sardonically. "What makes you think I would listen to you? Why  should I let her go? Why should she not suffer like I have? She deserves to be like everyone else in that goddamn store, dead. You want me let her go? Oh I'll let her go, alright. I'll let her go to the damn afterlife!" 

I shivered at his harsh words, sobbing silently, my knees weak and ready to buckle. 

He smacked the barrel of the gun into my temple threateningly, causing me to cry out in pain, and I heard the shuffling of the armed authorities as they readied themselves to fire. 

My heart was pounding out of my chest, and my mind was numbing as I braced myself for death. 

But it didn't come.

Instead, he spoke again. 

"Don't you all understand?" He started, his voice riddled with an unfamiliar, broken tone, "I just want my suffering to end. I've only done the things I have because life has been unfair. Why should I be the only one in pain when the fates have been cruel? If I have to suffer, why not everyone else? I just want others to know the hell that I have been through and how it feels!" 

His grip tightened around my neck and I gasped, weeping inaudibly. 

"Final warning, Solov! Release her and drop your firearm!" The man bellowed, his words becoming tinny through the megaphone. 

Viktor Solov growled, his frustration evident. 

What is he going to do now? I wondered, please, just let me go. 

I heard him inhale loudly, as if he were about to make an enormous decision. Then, he cleared his throat and shouted three words. 

"Go to Hell!" 

At once, I was thrown to the concrete, and I turned my head in time to see him raise the gun to his own head. 

He acted so quickly that I didn't even have time to close my eyes before he pulled the trigger. 

I cried out in both fright and relief as his body crumpled and dropped to the floor, the wound in his skull gaping open. 

I winced, curling into a ball, wailing. Large sobs racked through my body, and I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms. I writhed on the floor in both mental and physical pain, finally free to let my emotion run wild. 

I felt hands grab onto me and they pulled me up, and I was lifted into somebody's arms. My vision was too blurred with tears to see who it was, but I knew I was finally safe. 

Safe from him.

I knew he was gone, but I found I had the newfound fear that it would happen again. My breathing quickened, my built-up emotion weighing down on me. I heard voices around me, but I could no longer make out what they were saying. 

I felt myself slipping into nothingness, and the last thing on my mind was the aftermath of one man's own greed and injustice. 

And in the same way he lost his life, I lost the person I once was.❞