Kissable Assassin

Chapter 13

“If all our life is but a dream, fantastic, posing greed that we should feed our jewelry to the sea. For diamonds do appear to be just like broken glass to me.”

I awake to Cathar kicking the door open so hard that it makes a large imprint on the wall. I shoot upward and come face to face with his fury. I quickly crawl over the back off the bed and back against the wall as he advances on me. Sean and the girl have both woken up by now. Sean leaves the girl and strides over to Cathar.

"What now?" He asks darkly.

"She's crossed the line. She's dead," He answers, his face contorting with anger. "What is it with you and her? You used to not even care and now..." Cathar trails off.

"It's wrong," Sean responds.

"You love her," Cathar muses. I wait for Sean to deny it, but he doesn't say a thing.

"Just leave her alone," He finally does say.

"You do, don't you?" He repeats. Again, there was no denial.

"You're being stupid," Sean growls under his breath.

"We don't have time for love, okay? Love is just a stupid feeling that gets in the way of getting things done! It makes you weak!" Cathar yells with such rage that I suck in all of my breath. He then turns on me. "I'm going to kill you, Adriane. I'm done with you, Little Tramp. You're just a liability that I don't need," He grunts, pulling out his knife.

"No!" Sean yells, lunging for the knife.

"Stop, Sean! I said-" Cathar stops, then smiles dangerously, "You kill her."

Sean's face is immediately drained of all color. "No. I won't," He fights.

"Yes, you will. You will, or Chris and I kill her. The only difference is that you will make it quick. Chris and I will make it much, much slower. And much, much more painful. We'll take a week if we have to. And we won't stop at her begging for death. We’ll take our sweet time. So you kill her, or we will," Cathar threatens, handing Sean his own knife.

Sean looks at me, his eyes full of an unfathomable sympathy, sadness, helplessness, pain, tragedy, loss, and something else that I couldn't get a grasp on.

"No," I say, "You can't."

"You don't have a say in this!" Cathar yells.

"I do if I kill myself!" I yell back. And I grab the knife blade in my hand and try to take it from Sean. The metal digs into my palm as it slices it open.

"No, Adriane! I'm not going to let you!" Sean fights, trying to ease it out of my grasp, only opening the gash wider.

"And you think I'm gonna let you?" I argue. When he doesn't let me have the knife, I let go, only to thrust my wrist against the blade and pull it back sharply.

Then the blade is gone and I hear a yelp. I open my eyes and see Cathar on the ground, his own knife embedded into his shoulder.

"Dammit, Sean!" He screams reverently. Chris runs into the room then, take my switchblade from my bra, release it, and throw it at him. The knife impales his neck, making its fatal mark.

He's dead before he even hits the floor.

Cathar isn't, though. He grips the hilt of the knife and slowly pulls it out. Blood spills from the fatal wound as he throws it at us. Sean and I hit the floor immediately and watch the knife fly over our heads and into the wall.

It clatters to the floor and Cathar starts to stand, hissing as he makes slow progress. I'm on my feet before him and manage to kick him square in the forehead, sending him onto his back.

He's still hissing through his teeth in pain, but trying to shake himself out of it. I jump over him, retrieve my knife from Chris's neck, and race out of the room, yelling for Sean and the girl to follow me.

They do.

Behind me, I hear the jingle of metal scraping across the counter and fumbling in the kitchen. But I don't look back. I keep running out, until I hear Sean yell my name.

"Adriane! In the car!" The headlights blink on, indicating that he'd unlocked it. I jump into the backseat just before Sean does. He turns it on before he's even fully in the seat. He begins driving away before the girl even shuts the door to shotgun behind her. He backs out as I lean forward, and I see Cathar on the front deck, standing straight and yelling as we leave.

Sean speeds out, not even bothering to drive on the designated dirt driveway. He skids onto the asphalt road once we get there, and speeds down that too.

None of us talk.

We all just catch our breath.

I rip off the bottom of my shirt and tie it around my wrist. The blood only seeps through and it's only now when I register the pain in my hand and wrist. I open my hand to see the damage, and have to squeeze my eyes shut when I see the slightly visible white bone.

"Sean...I think we might have to stop by the hospital..."