Nigel Nelson and the Artist | #Wattys2019

Nigel Nelson and the Artist - Chapter 7

                                      Chapter 7

There was a secret in the egg. I looked at the contents. I knew not to what the contents belonged, but I knew that there were answers here. There was a key in the egg and a few other things. I looked at the key and how small it was. There was a keyhole in the egg and I put the key in the hole and turned it.   

I stood with the egg in my hand. The egg began to smoke and I knew immediately that I had to hold my breath. There was enough smoke to fill the room in a matter of seconds. I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. The sliding glass door shattered and a river of shards was flung every which way. I fell to my knees after dropping the egg. In the disorientation of the moment, I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head that sounded like an eagle cry. Everything went black in the next moment.    

I awoke in what felt like a second. My eyes were closed and I couldn't open them. For that matter, I couldn't move. A fresh breeze took my breath away. I could hear honking horns and white noise. There was a time that I could handle a breeze and being outside.

I had passed out or rather, I was knocked out. I felt the bright light of the sun hit my corneas like a sledgehammer. When my eyes finished focusing I felt my stomach contents very nearly come up. I was sitting in a chair and my body was suspended and was hanging over the side of a skyscraper. I was on a platform that was shaking in the wind.   

My eyes were crying whether I liked it or not. The platform turned and I saw a black figure. The figure was walking behind another figure with a hood over the head. I saw the black figure had a gun to the other figure's head in front of them.

Was this figure going to join me? I saw the figure in front of the figure in the back take the robe off. My heart felt as if it would die at that moment when I saw who the figure was underneath the robe. The figure was Taylor. My head dropped and the tears were flowing even more freely than before.

The figure stood and Taylor looked up from where she stood. I knew now that she would be the one that was going to be killing me, not because she wanted too, but because she was being forced. Tears rolled from her eyes as she began walking towards me.

She had C4 explosives strapped to her waist and she appeared to be a different person than when I knew her. Bags that were a purple shade were under her eyes, and her hair was a short shave. She took a desert eagle from her holster and stomped on the platform to me and put the gun to my head. She turned and screamed to the sky.

"Why?!? Why didn't you listen to me?" asked Taylor hitting my bullet wound on my shoulder.

"I tried, dang it! I TRIED!"

"Do you know what I am? I am a slave! A bounty hunter! You should care, or so I would have thought. I either kill or I shoot myself in the head. This isn't a game," yelled Taylor irately.

"Who's doing this?" I asked very angrily to her.

The fact that I was on a skyscraper was minute in comparison to the fact that Taylor was going to kill me. I flashed back to Bella Burns' apartment. There was a painting that I haven't paid attention to. It was a painting of a woman. The picture that was sent to me was a picture of me dying. The picture in Bella's apartment was of a woman shooting a man. I was going to die. I was sure of it.

"Someone, you know...you really haven't figured it out? You are losing your touch," she said shoving the barrel in my bullet wound again.

I winced in pain, the black powder from the gun was cleaning the wound and cauterizing it. The bullet had passed all the way through my shoulder.

"Kill him now!" yelled the robed figure.

"What do you want me to do?" asked Taylor.

"You want me to shoot you? Or do you want me to shoot me?"

"Shoot the robed figure," I whispered.

"I can't do that! I have C4 strapped to my waist."

"Shoot me," I said as my heart fluttered. Taylor looked at me and shook her head.

"I can't do it, not now," said Taylor as she put the gun to her head.

"No! I can't live without you!" I said just weeping.

I closed my eyes and rested my head on Taylor. I knew at that moment who the robed figure was. I could not believe it.

"You think that I can live without you?" she asked with the gun to her head.

"So, where are we at then?" I asked with a troubled look on my face.

"I can shoot the robed figure, but then I would still die," said Taylor.

"One or both of us is going to have to die. That's just how it goes," I said.

I thought of the painting of the clocks. There were clocks all over the place with wisps that look like eyelashes. There were ants and a fly on one of the clocks and a horse-like figure.

"Shoot him or I will shoot him myself," said the robe.

"I'll do the job! Just give me a minute!" said Taylor.

She took the gun from her head and kissed me like she never had before. She caressed my face and I closed my eyes. My heart was breaking. I could feel a coldness in my chest. My body was getting weak.

"I love you," whispered Taylor in my ear.

A second later I heard a gunshot.