Divisions

Part 4- Chapter 18

He was there, standing in front of me, more beautiful than ever. He was wearing a crisp black suit, and he smiled as we moved closer to me, ever so slowly, ever so sweetly.

"I love you, Natalia Hayes," he whispered, taking my hand.

I was crying, I did not know why, but tears were flowing down my cheeks, and I stared back at his expecting eyes.

"I..." I began, but choked. I kept trying to get the words to escape my lips, but there was an invisible wall stopping me from saying the phrase.

He slowly let go of my hands, and I could see his face drop, ever so slightly, in disappointment.

"I understand," he whispered. "You love him,"

"No," I managed to choke out. I could not breathe, I was suffocating as I tried to speak, my words swallowing back inside of my throat.

"Natalia..." Jarred whispered his body still, tears freely flowing down his face, staining his clear blue eyes, his beautiful face distorting into one of utter dismay.

I clutched my throat, and felt my body dropping below me, I looked down at my body, I was wearing a red dress, the one from the press-briefing the first night we'd met.

"No..." I moaned. "Jarred, no," I kept trying to form the words in my head but they would not come out.

A single flower appeared in his hand, one that he let go of, almost as if he was repulsed by it.

I clutched at it, still unable to rise or speak from where I was on the ground, and saw that it was a rose, a red rose.

I stared up at him, and he turned away from me, his face twisted back into a cold mask with an expression I could not decipher.

In his hand appeared a gun, one he'd removed from his suit. He pointed I at me, and without another word, cocked the gun, and fired.

I clutched at the area he'd shot, and it was my heart.

My red dress had suddenly turned red and a pool of red, a simple shade darker than the rose, was forming on my chest. The pain was piercing, and it forced me to cough. Pools of the blood-red liquid formed on my hands as I wiped my mouth.

Jarred was already gone,

"Jarred..." I whispered.

The words finally came out, the words I had suppressed until the last moment.

"Jarred, I love you," I choked. The last pool of blood that was in my body came out with that phrase, and I was empty.

Soon there was no patches of white on my body; the blood had mapped out the area of the whole dress.

I dropped down, lying down to face the sky. The storm clouds were approaching me, and I held my arms out to shade me from the eminent thunder.

I could not move my legs, and could only stare at my pale white arms, the hands stained red.

A single tear fell from my left eye, as I stared at the sky, and dropped my hands.

I love you, Jarred Dunn, I love you, I repeated, whispering this in my ear as the final drops of life began to run out.

I stared, numb, lifeless, as the grey, stormy sky, began to rapidly grow brighter and brighter, and the sky took on an unnatural, blinding, snow-white tone, and the icy coldness of the air sent me to sleep.