Psycho Love

1

"Your five minutes are up. Pick up the gun and make your choice." A cold, mechanical voice echos through the large, dark space. It bounces off the walls around me. "Make your choice or both will die." Where is it coming from? It feels as if it is all around me. My head aches and i reach up to touch it, but when I pull my hand away it is covered in blood. I go to take a step forward, but my foot nudges something on the ground. A gun. 

"Fuck you!" I curse, staring at the weapon. I am so shocked that I almost miss the chains that are clasped around my ankles keeping me in this spot. Almost.

"Hey trouble, look at me." A familiar voice says. Zander. His leg is bleeding; Zander looks at me lovingly, "it's ok. This isn't your fault, and no matter what happens, I will always love you."

"I can't lose anyone else... I just can't." The tears start to come and I can't hold them back. My boyfriend or my best friend. How could anyone make that choice?

I look at Chloe, her cheeks have black stains on them from the mascara she is wearing. "Please Ember, I don't want to die. Don't let me die! Please I'm begging you!" She sobs.

"Choose!" The voice booms.

"I... I can't!" The words have barely left my mouth when I hear a noise come from behind me, then-

Bam! Bam!

Their bodies haven't even hit the floor when I start to scream. I try to run forward to them but the chains won't let me, as I struggle against them I can feel the metal dig into ankles drawing blood.

"NOOOOO! Zander, please wake up! Chloe, no, don't leave me! No! Please!"I beg dropping to me knees. This is all my fault. It's all my fault. I let out a blood curdling scream, and I scream until my lungs burn from lack of oxygen.

I have no idea how long I have been sitting on the floor but it feels like an eternity, when a malicious laugh cuts through the stale air.

"Oh Ember, look what you have done."

A man dressed in black steps forward, he is wearing a clear mask that distorts his face and when he speaks his voice sounds metallic, almost like a robot. As he approaches he starts making a 'tsking' sound and gesturing with the gun in his left hand to Zander and Chloe's bodies. On instinct I grab the gun at my feet and quickly stand up. "Who the hell are you?"

"Who? Me?" He points at himself and mockingly looks around seeing if there is anyone else here, "I'm no one really, I've just been... how should I put it? Observing you."

I don't know if it is the grief or the exhaustion from crying but it takes me a couple of seconds to realise that it is the same voice from the speaker.

"You! It was you!" I almost spit the words at him.

"No, well yes, technically I pulled the trigger, but you were the one who killed them. I told you to chose and you didn't, you weren't playing the game right."

Game! "You think this is a fucking game! You just killed the two most important people in my life because of some sick game!" My anger starts to bubble over. I aim the gun directly at the masked man's chest with shaking hands.

"What are you going to do, shoot me? Aww, that's cute, but you and I both know that you don't have the guts, babydoll."

"Did you really think you would just walk away after killing my best friend and my boyfriend? You really think that I'd let you get away with that?" I yell.

"I don't think, I know baby." He taunts me.

He is completely sick!

I feel the war rage inside of me, one part is saying that even after everything he has done, I can't kill him, I'm not a murderer, I'm better than that; the other part reminds me that the last little bit of good I had left died when Zander did. He was my light and without him I there is nothing but darkness.

"You obviously don't know me that well then."

I close my eyes as I pull the trigger, not wanting to see what happens next. I fire three bullets. The gunshots reverberate through the dark, empty space, leaving silence in their wake. The only sound I can hear is my heartbeat.
Gradually I open my eyes unsure if I am ready to see the scene before me.
The mysterious murderer is laying on the ground motionless until...

"Bloody hell!" The man bursts out with laughter, "I have to admit I didn't see that coming. I didn't think you would actually pull the trigger."

How the fuck is he alive?

He rises to his feet and rests his hands on his knees, talking in between bursts of laughter "You should seen your face! You really thought I would put real bullets in the gun? This is priceless."

"You sick son of a bitch!" I scream and throw my gun as hard as I can at his head, which he dodges with ease.

"Woah, calm down babydoll. I think there has been enough screaming for one day."

"You piece of sh-!" Electricity courses through my body as someone tasers me from behind, causing me to fall to the floor and writhe in pain.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that, what were you saying?" His voice is full of amusement.
Everything starts to become fuzzy and dark.
————————
"Ember! Hey Em! Wake up!"

I bolt upright, the gun I hide under my pillow, in my hand and aim it straight at the person standing at the foot of my bed. His hands fly up in surrender.

"Woah, Em it's me! It's Trey!" Slowly my eyes begin to focus and I see his face.

Trey. He has been my roommate for eighteen months, when I was struggling to find somewhere to live he gave me a place to stay and from then on we became good friends. He is around twenty-three years old, so the a few years older than me. His slick black hair is hidden underneath his favourite lakers hat, even at 3 in the morning he is wearing that stupid hat, he never takes it off.

"Same dream? Are you ok?" The sympathy in his voice is clear.

My breath comes out fast and short-winded, and I'm drenched in sweat. I place the cool barrel of the gun against my temple and focus on my breathing; in and out. I can't believe it has been three years and yet I am still having these flashbacks. "It's nothing you need to worry about, go back to bed." I sigh. I really hate lying to him.

"Em, was it the same dream about your parents?" He pushes.

When I was sixteen my parents died in a home invasion, I watched from the top of the stairs as they were shot. The killer heard me scream and looked straight at me but ran away. After that I moved in with Chloe and well the rest is, as they say, history. I told Trey that story about my parents because I didn't want to talk about what happened three years ago but I had to come up with something to explain my nightmares.

"Please don't shut me out, just tell me what I can do to help you." He pleads, taking a step towards me.

"You really want to help me? Then go back to bed." I grunt. The expression on Trey's face tells me that I have hurt him but finally he nods and heads back to bed. Once he leave, closing the door behind him, I let out a long breath and being shaking uncontrollably.

By the time I have calmed down it is after five. I force myself out of bed and throw on the first set of gym clothes I find, finally placing my 9mm beretta in my gym bag, I throw the bag over my shoulder and head for the front door