Fallen

Chapter Sixty Six

Jason drummed his fingers against his knee and nodded his head to the quiet music playing from the car stereo. He ignored Carter's sighs beside him and let his eyes fall closed.

"Get your feet off the dashboard," Carter huffed, shoving at Jason's slim legs. Jason grumbled and lowered his feet to the footwell. The music was sharply turned off by an irritated Carter. Jason shot an angered look towards him.

"I was listening to that," he mumbled before staring out of his window, nibbling on his bottom lip.

"I can't think with it on."

Jason slowly turned his head and met Carter's distant eyes. "Do you think he's okay?" he asked quietly.

A long pause followed.

"Honestly, I don't know," Carter replied.

Silence fell around them that only made the worries in their heads louder. Carter noticed Jason had the similar expression he wore the day of their parents' deaths, a spectrum of emotions. Worry, anger and guilt. Knowing. Knowing they could have done more to save their parents, Kieran and Maria. Today, both men sat and thought that they could have stopped Blaine from running after Anna, but in reality there was nothing they could have done. The two men, however, took it upon themselves to take the blame.

"I'm scared," Jason whispered.

Carter shot a glance over to his friend who was staring at him with frightened eyes. He placed a comforting hand on Jason's shoulder and opened his mouth to give some reassurance, but a shrill cry that sounded like Blaine echoed through the darkness surrounding them. Carter and Jason flinched and shared a look they both understood. Simultaneously, the men loaded their guns and ran out of the car to see thick smoke wafting up from the trees.

"Come on," Carter ordered.

Without a second thought, they both ran into the forest.

*****

Blaine

This was it. Jackson was going to end it all here tonight. I could hear Anna just beside me crying and begging for mercy. Maybe I wasn't meant to share the rest of my life with her, but I couldn't die knowing she wasn't safe here without me.

As the knife pressed into my skin, another pair of hands came over mine to push Jackson's blade away. When I looked up, I saw Carter's tense expression as he helped save me.

"Let go!" the Demon cried, fighting dangerously under me. He was desperate and ready to do anything to get what he wanted. In the mad frenzy of it all, Jason had knocked the knife out of Jackson's grasp, making the Demon angrier than ever. After throwing Carter away, he landed a punch to Jason's face, knocking him down heavily. Then he took me down, pinning my body to the ground and holding my neck the same way I had been holding his. This time I was fighting for my life, gasping for air and squirming violently.

"I'm going to squeeze every last bit of breath from you," he spat. "Then I'm going to devour you and your fucking friends for the last time."

Tears gathered in the corner of my eyes. I saw Carter try to use his gun, but just like mine it didn't work. Both men fought to knock Jackson off of me. With every second I got weaker in my struggle. The corners of my vision grew white. I came to realise this was how it was always meant to end. I'd die cold and painfully in the dirt. I didn't want Anna to see this.

As I lost the strength to fight anymore, I heard Jason cry out Anna's name.

Jackson turned to her and just like that I was let go of. Desperately gasping for air, I saw each person's face as they looked towards Anna.

I finally followed their gaze. She stood with Jackson's knife in her hand. It was covered in blood. From her stomach, a growing patch of red seeped through her beautiful blue dress. Tears silently fell down her pale face.

"Anna?"

Her eyes finally met mine. I pushed Jackson off with ease and scrambled to my feet. She dropped the knife to the grass and stumbled back as I approached her. I caught her in my arms and looked down to the stab wound in her gut. Tears filled my eyes.

"Baby, what have you done?"

Her knees gave way under her and I helped her lay in my arms. Carter sat the other side of her, using his jacket to put pressure on her stomach. Jason called for an ambulance.

"I figured it out," she croaked. "This is the only way to end the war. It's been going on for too long."

Her words made my chest constrict. "Baby, this isn't your battle to fight."

"It is," she said. "Jackson would never have let me go. Now he doesn't have a choice. You're safe."

My throat was tight. "I'll-I'll keep fighting until you're free. You know that, Anna. Please."

She smiled up at me with so much beauty. "I'll never stop loving you, baby."

I couldn't breathe with the heavy sobs tearing through me. More heartbreak, more pain. It was never fucking over.

"This can't be our ending," I cried. "I can't lose you as well."

She grabbed my hand weakly. "It's okay. I made the choice to die."

By now, I'd accepted the torrent of thick tears trailing down my face. "You're not dying. You're going to be okay."

"I did this so you'll be okay. All of you. No more revenge."

I cried, heavy and harder than I wanted to. Anna still smiled, even though she was dying. As she wiped the tears from my cheek, I grasped her hand so tight.

"I love you," I whispered.

Anna blinked out a few tears.

"Kiss me," she said. "Just like Liesel and Rudy."

I did as she said, pressing my lips to hers with so much earnest. They were soft and familiar, but just like everything else I loved, there was always a last time for them. She kissed me back with everything she had, right up until her last moment. Her mouth stopped moving, but I didn't let go straight away. I wanted her to feel what love was really like until the very end. She deserved to drift away in comfort.

Her chest stilled and I couldn't feel her breath anymore. My world had stopped. I cradled her in my arms and watched down on her, waiting for her to open her eyes and tell me this was all a dream, but that moment never came.

Beside me, I heard Jackson cry out. The Demons had come to get him. Anna was gone, so the pact was broken. I watched as muscled, black arms reached up from within the crack in the earth.

"Help me," he begged.

I turned to see him on his stomach pleading for me to save his life.

"Please."

Angry tears filled my eyes. "Rot in Hell."

He used his last few moments to struggle against his own kind. One claw caught his ankle. He kicked at the hand with his other foot until his calve was grabbed.

"No...no, you can't do this....no!"

His sharp fingernails dug into the ground in a weak attempt to prevent the inevitable. Finally, with a loud cry, he was snatched down into the underworld where he belonged. The noise was left ringing in my ears as the crack sewed itself back up.

The forest fell silent and I was left with the reality of all that I'd lost. In that moment, something inside of me changed. I snapped and finally lost all control, letting out the most painful scream. Then I cried. So much that my throat dried up and my eyes hurt. So much that I was uncontrollable. So much that my heart shattered into a million irreparable pieces.

Eventually, my friend's held me, but I felt nothing, not the cold air over my numb body or the hard ground under my knees. The voices trying to comfort me weren't enough to make me feel anything. I knew that the last of my happiness had been taken with Anna. I was completely and utterly broken.