Arrested in Love: UsUk Prisoner AU

28: Dead

A teasing shot.

Alfred felt his hand ache and ache. Ah, she didn't shoot his head. His hand suffered. That wasn't fair. He just had gained his arm back!

He groaned, glancing over. All of the blood just gushing and gushing. It didn't hurt, oddly enough. But it didn't feel good either. It was just there. Like the adrenaline of nearly dying was ridding of the pain. Better than feeling all of the pain. His teeth gritted and whimpered.

Arthur blinked his eyes, tears rushing down his face. He just kept seeing more, and more, and more blood fill the carpet. He was terrified. It wouldn't stop. He was sure Alfred could die.

"It's all your fault. My husband, my sweet husband. He's dead. He's dead." She whispered, gun pressed to her temple, before moving it into her mouth, sighing quietly before removing it again.

In the distance, sirens wailed. Police sirens. Michelle noticed and opened the curtains slightly. "These damn rat neighbors. Never done nothing right. Never minded their own." She whispered, firing a warning shot as one tried to approach. She quickly grabbed Arthur and pressed the gun to his head for the cop to see.

"Yeah, recognize him?" She grinned. "I'll blow his fucking brains out if I need to. I'll make sure he never comes back again. Yeah? Back up, pig." She spat, the cop backing up, gun pointed at her as he did so. He didn't threaten her or anything, just stepped back.

More aggressive units turned in with reports of a now hostage situation, barricading the whole area with cars and such.

Alfred took his own shirt off and wrapped it around his hand, the adrenaline slowing. The pain stabbing his hand was excruciating. By this point Arthur and Alfred were unable to control their tears.

Alfred was forced onto his knees, standing next to Arthur. The both of them joined hands, sniffling. Arthur sighed heavily, wiping his eyes. He didn't want to go out with tears down his face. At all.

They knew they were going to die. There was no way around it. She had a gun and they didn't. It filled Arthur with even more fear. His children, to know their mother had killed him. They'd be sent to foster care. His girls were too sweet for such a cruel system.

And Alfred, his sweet Alfred. The one he had planned to marry since the beginning. How could he let him get away so quickly? They had fought so hard. Through so many ups and downs. Alfred had just survived one shot only to be greeted with another. And another one would soon finish them off.

At least they would die together. That's what reassured Arthur in the long moments separating him from life and death. Though he would still die young, a successful cop, slain by his own ex-wife. It almost sounded silly. He'd heard of cases like this before, but he'd never seen one.

Now he was living one.

"Michelle, your husband tried to kill Alfred. After we were mending things- for the kids, for our better health." Arthur said calmly, no longer able to wipe the tears from his eyes. So he'd die crying after all. "You have to see what you're doing is wrong. They'll just throw you in prison too."

Michelle staggered for a moment, her face falling into a small frown. Only to then regain her composure again and press the gun to his head. "Are you saying you want to die first? So you can feel the pain he did when he was killed?" She hissed, and Arthur jolted from the tone in her voice. It didn't sound like her at all. All sense in Michelle had died when Francis did, seemingly.

"I want to die first," croaked a small voice, and it had indeed belonged to Alfred. "I don't want to see Artie die. I can't see it. Please, blindfold him and kill me." He softly begged, looking up at Michelle.

Unable to look them in the eyes she kicked his back, Alfred plummeting to the ground with a groan. His hand continued to bleed and the surrounding carpet was beginning to stain a sticky red around his hand. The shirt had done no more help to the bleeding. He was just left to bleed out.

"I don't wanna argue with your wishes." She said slowly, seeing a policeman slowly creep closer to the front door. There was a glass pane that made it easy to see any shadows approaching. "If Alfred wants to die first, I myself could understand." She sighed, looking at her gun.

Arthur sniffled quietly, shaking his head. He didn't want anyone to hurt Alfred. He couldn't take it. He couldn't bear to hear the shot that ended him. He'd want to die just as quickly.

All of the sweet memories held up on Alfreds brain just spilt out onto the carpet. He couldn't fathom it. His smarts, his whole personality. Just an organ splattered out onto the floor.

"You bastards ruined my life for the last time. Try to take my girls? Arthur? Huh? You thought yourself to be the greatest father. What about me? The greatest mother? The worst mother? How will they imagine me?" She spewed, looking around the room. "And what about you, Arthur? The best husband? Tch, you'd barely made a good boyfriend. You couldn't protect Alfred, what kinda pig are you?" She said, a chastising grin on her face as she directed the pistol back to Arthur.

"Last words?" She asked, seeing the cop right outside the door, ready to barge in. Her eyes peered towards the armored man, humming softly as she awaited shaky replies from Alfred and Arthur.

They softly said 'I love you' to each other. Arthur reached over and grabbed Alfred's hand. "I'll see you on the other side of this." He said with a small smile, Alfred slowly nodding his head.

***
The next few moments happened rather quickly. The loud sound of the door barging open was replaced with the sound of a gunshot. Alfred and Arthur screamed, Arthur plummeting to the ground.

The policeman looked around, before noticing his gun had not fired a single bullet from the chamber.

There laid Michelle, gun still in her hand.
And an oozing bullet wound to the skull. Half her own brain had splattered behind her head, and her face was unrecognizable.

Though her bottom half was still intact, you could make out that she was smiling when she pulled the trigger. A sick 'fuck you' to the world as she departed. She felt no guilt for what she'd done. To Alfred or to herself.

She had gotten away with it.

"Suspect down," The Officer called. "Two hostages inside, both alive. One has a critical injury, call it in! Get that ambulance ready." He called in to his radio, multiple officers running in to assist Alfred and Arthur.

They picked Arthur up, who was too shaken and in shock to speak. They asked his name, birthday, children's names, anything to get him to speak. He just couldn't get out a word.

Alfred was lifted up into a stretcher. His eyes had faded and he'd fallen unconscious while he was assisted, sickly pale from the blood loss sustained.

He glanced at Arthur, who they had placed on another stretcher to go to the hospital as well. For mental evaluations, and an overall wellness check. Arthur was just staring at the ceiling, blankly. The last he remembered from that day before he fell unconscious was seeing Arthur's eyes travel to Michelle's body.
And a single tear leaving the Brit's eye.

Author's Note: I don't wanna say 'I'm back' because I always leave again. But I've found a new interest in writing again, sooooo... I'm back??
This chapter was in the works for a few months but a lot of stuff kept pushing it back from being published. What made me wanna finish this chapter???

You guys got this story to #2 on the usuk tag!! That's amazing!
I would have never imagined something of mine to be anywhere near that. It's crazy! Thank you so much!
- Ciaran