The Wallflower Effect

Chapter 20: All's Bloody That Ends Bloody.

"Um, okay, Jessica, like what the hell?" Morgan sputtered.

She seemed to be not getting it like I was. But It all made sense to me now. How she reacted to things differently than she should have. How she approached me in the library, offering me exactly what I wanted and needed. How she had never teased me quite as badly as Morgan and Adira had teased me.

"You just don't get it, do you?" Jessica snarled, stepping forward so she was in full view of us. She held the gun with deadly precision, telling me she knew her way around the thing. She walked right up to Morgan, putting the gun an inch away from her head, not making any facial expression.

"Jess. You're scaring me. Why are you doing this?" Morgan plead, denying what was in front of our faces.

Jessica chuckled darkly.

"You always were incredibly stupid, Morgan. Maybe that's why you thought you would stand a chance with Eathan when we all know he likes Zoey." She spat cruelly.

"It's you!" Morgan whispered, paling. This time, she had the sense to look frightened.

"Took you long enough." I muttered, attempting to put humor in a not very humorous situation. Morgan glared at me, and Jess whipped around and her face... softened? I stared back at her. If she wasn't standing right in front of me, I don't think I ever would have believed that she had killed two people. Or that she was looking at me in a way that was... not at all platonic. But the proof was staring me in the face. 

"So, what, are you like a lesbian?" Morgan asked.

The question kind of felt out of place in the situation we were in. But then again, Morgan was just  the kind of person who asked personal questions when there was a gun literally shoved into her face. I almost felt like laughing. It was just funny. We were sitting in an ominous library bathed in the moonlight, both of us getting threatened, and she decided to freaking ask if Jessica was a lesbian. Okay, I couldn't help but wondering too, actually.

"If you must now, I'm actually a pan-romantic grey-asexual." Jessica rolled her eyes.

"What? What is happening?" I yelled, waving my hands in the air in protest of everything.

"What's happening is that I love you. More than Gage or Eathan or anyone else ever will! And Morgan-" She swung around, pointing the gun at her again, "is going to die."

"Please, don't." I begged, not even thinking. Jessica tore her eyes away from Morgan but kept her firearm aimed at the girl equally as confused and scared as I was.

 "Why shouldn't I do it?" Jessica screamed, beginning to cry now.  What sounded like a few pairs of footsteps running up the stairs made her spin around her head to face the sound. As always, she kept the gun aimed precisely at Morgan. Eathan and Gage stumbled in, both stopping when they saw Jess with a gun in hand. Detective Coleman was behind them a second later, with four police officers in tow. The four officers drew their weapons automatically, not saying a word. Again, the detective surprised me by not doing anything at all. Derek always seemed to be a step ahead of everyone else.

"I have to say, miss O'Brian, I would have thought one of miss Castro's boy-toys would have been the killer. I confess I didn't see this coming." Derek chuckled, before sobering. "Whatever your reasons, you don't have to do this."

"I know I don't have to, I want to." She answered, walking closer to Morgan with a psychotic look in her eyes. Morgan backed away from her, whimpering at her friend's behavior. Her back hit one of the heavy golden drapes and she stilled, realizing she had no where to go.

"Don't move any closer, put down the firearm!" One of the officers who looked to be in his early thirties screamed at her. Gage locked eyes with me and started walking towards me even as Derek and his companions yelled at him to not move.

"What are you doing?" Eathan growled, grabbing his arm. Jessica spun around and pointed the gun at him instead. 

It was all chaotic, I wasn't sure what was going on. With the lack of real light, I couldn't see very well and I'm sure no one else could either. Derek begging everyone to calm down. The officers shouting. Morgan standing in the corner with tears beginning to fall down her face now. Eathan and Gage now fighting for some reason. I wasn't listening. I stood in the center of it all, watching in confusion as everything was turned upside down. What I did see, however, jolted me back into action.

"You! Why does she love you? Why couldn't you have just dated Adira like you were supposed to? But no, you had to fall for the only person in the entire world I want!" Jessica fumed, crying.

"Jessica? Just be reasonable about this, I'm sorry about-" Eathan began, subtly moving in front of Gage. He was protecting him, I realized.

"You don't get to be sorry. Now, you don't get to be anything!" Jessica screamed, pointing the gun at Eathan. She fired at him, and I cried out as I watched him get shot in the chest. Crimson blood started flowing from the wound and pouring from his mouth.

The officers tackled Jessica, and she laughed as they cuffed her. They dragged her out as she kicked and fought while laughing like the Joker. Derek stayed in the room, glancing at us as he frantically dialed an  ambulance. "Put pressure on his wound!" He ordered.

I jumped into action. I knelt next to him and Gage was beside me, supporting me silently as tears streamed down my face and my hands shook. He took off his hoodie and hand it to me and I shoved in on Eathan's wound.

"Don't worry, I'll be okay." Eathan smiled. I glared at him through my tears.

"You literally just got shot!" I fumed, applying more pressure.

Eathan screamed and Gage gripped his hand. "Just hold on. The paramedics are on their way and the hospital is only a ten minute drive from here. You're bleeding a lot but I think it only hit you in the lung. So don't you dare die on my best friend." Gage growled intensely, his brown eyes darker than I'd ever seen them.

Gage and Eathan stared at each other for a long time, seemingly having a silent conversation no female being could ever hope to decipher. After a few tense minutes, Eathan nodded and Gage sighed. I held of his hands, saying 'you're going to be okay'  every few second, while Gage silently held the other. He squeezed mine so tight I though I'd loose blood flow. He cried out every so often, obviously in a lot of pain. I smoothed back his golden hair, trying vainly to comfort him. He was bleeding too much. I could see him struggling to breathe.

No. Not him. I can't lose him. I just found him! 

"I love you, Zoey Castro." Eathan whispered tenderly, his eyes shining with adoration. For me. More tears started flowing down my already damp cheeks. His grip on my hand weakened slightly. His breathing became more erratic. Fear raced through me. I knew what this meant, all of it combined together. I wasn't ready. We didn't have enough time together.

I swallowed thickly before answering. "I love you more, Eathan Harker, just hol-" Eathan let go of my hand entirely, his chest stopped heaving, and his eyes closed. "Eathan?" I shook him, careless about the blood of his that I was covered in now. "Eathan?" I whimpered.

"Eathan!" I wailed. My voice sounded forlorn, as if something precious had been destroyed in front of me. And it had. Tears of agony slipped down my face as I held my dead boyfriend in my arms.

I don't recall much of how the rest of the evening went. Just that the boy I loved bled to death in my arms and the other one comforted me. Detective Coleman silently watched and we waited for the paramedics to take away him away..

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I'M SORRY BUT THIS WAS THE PLAN FROM THE BEGINNING EATHAN WAS ALWAYS GOING TO DIE I'M SORRY PLEASE ONLY SEND ME A MODERATE AMOUNT OF HATEFUL MESSAGES THANKS ILL UPDATE SOON BYE

~Mage