𝑅𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑃ℎ𝑜𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑥 ✔︎ || 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑑

23

~phoenix~

I didn't have time to react.

Before I knew it, more gunshots were going off. Each one as deafening as the last. Chaos ensued in the chapel. Every male in the room brandished a lethal weapon, even the Priest who jumped out from behind me. The women and children were ushered behind pillars.

I watched in horror when a silver handgun materialised inches away my face. Ilya pulled the trigger again and again, his face without the slightest remorse. My eyes couldn't follow the bullets fast enough to see their victims crumple lifelessly to the ground. Pale corpses swam in the sea of blood below. I couldn't stop myself from gagging.

A hand suddenly ripped me away from the bloodshed. Tabitha's face appeared inches away from mine and I almost stumbled in shock.

There were no words exchanged as she tugged me from the stage and into a small passageway. I heard the roar of my name behind me. When I looked back, my train was soaked with crimson.

When the gunshots became mere echoes, we stopped running.

"You look like quite the bride," Tabby suddenly spoke.

The grim joke hang in the air between us as I laboured to catch my breaths.

Eventually, I regained the ability to speak. "What have you done?" I gasped in horror, panicked tears swimming in my eyes.

She tried to smile but failed.

Another voice sounded in the air. "We came to save you."

Gianna materialised in the shadowed courtyard, clad in black like the death reaper himself and on her flushed, sweaty features was something dark.

I couldn't understand the fierceness in her eyes. "B-but why?"

"When I was leaving your grandparents' estate last week, I saw him. I knew his face was familiar but I had no idea where until I told my brother, Vincenzo. That bastard killed our uncle in Madrid the night you disappeared. We had to save you."

Were they talking about Ilya? But that would mean...

"Your uncle was in the Italian Mafia..." The statement echoed around us.

Did that make Gianna part of them? The monsters I didn't want to be a part of? My heart stopped beating in my chest.

"Phee," Gianna murmured as she stepped closer, "I found out last week. How did you know?"

"Ilya told me," I sniffed, frozen and shivering. Dusk had fallen and the night grew blacker with each passing second. "So you're not part of them?" I asked, desperately.

Her face blanched, almost comically if my stomach hadn't been queasing from the bloodshed and gore. 

"Of course not!" she exclaimed, thrusting her arms up.

Then, her outrage began to falter.

"What?" I asked, uneasily.

Tabby appeared beside me as Gianna's eyes began to well up. Her warm arms slid around my trembling frame. What did they know that I didn't?

"Tabby?" I pressed, keeping her eyes trapped with mine.

Tabitha shifted uncomfortably, her gaze flicking between me and Gianna. "She, um-"

"We need to get out of here," Gianna suddenly interrupted, her stare piercing into a silent Tabby beside me.

Silently, their silhouettes began to move away.