Page 51 of Save Us
“Is that what you told Jonah, Ollie?” Kai suddenly asks as he grips hold of the gun more tightly again, aiming it right for his heart. I step back with shock and confusion over what Kai has just said. “That you let his sister go?”
I look back at Oliver for some sort of explanation, but all he offers is a blank expression.
“What are you talking about, Kai?” I ask him, darting my eyes back his way.
“Ever wondered why Ollie’s best friend suddenly wanted him dead?” Kai smirks. “They were as close as brothers once upon a time. That is, until Ollie, here, slept with Jonah’s sister, Aria Fox. Told her he loved her, that he planned to marry her, but then he met Carl Steele. He found out about you, Beth, and decided he wanted power more than a woman whom he professed to love. He kept her on a string until he met your father. Given the timeline, he must have dropped her as soon as he had your signature on the dotted line. Aria was more or less deemed unmarriable by this point. Ollie, here, had kept her as back up, even though he knew she had none. He had, in effect, ruined her. And just to rub salt into the wound, she then had to hear about how he had also been sleeping with Felicity Marson behind her back. Shortly after she found out about that, she took an overdose.”
I look back at Oliver with even more disgust for him, hating him for making me part of another woman’s heartbreak, simply because of my DNA. He only looks back at me, his mouth clenching up in anger because I’m daring to show how little I think of him.
“Where is she now, Kai?” I ask, even though I’m not sure I want to know the answer.
“Didn’t survive it, did she, Oliver?” he replies, shooting his hateful eyes back on the man behind me. “She wasn’t like Felicity; she expected to find love and live happily ever after. Jonah only found out about it after she died; Aria had left a note, apologizing for her shame, her heartache, and her inability to go on.”
“Oh my God!” I whimper.
“You talk as though Jonah is as innocent as the driven snow,” Oliver tries to argue, “don’t think he wouldn’t have done the same. He’s just as driven as I am!”
“Why? Why do you do this to people?” I ask through a painful lump in my throat. “Why is Mayfield so-“
Before I can finish that question, I feel someone tugging at my hair, pulling me back and spinning me around to face Oliver’s furious-looking face. I’ve seen this face before. It’s the face he pulled when he had found my pills, when he had raped me, and whenever he has been about to cause me as much pain as he can.
“Beth is all I see now, all I want, and there’s no way in hell she’ll be going anywhere!” he shouts at Kai, even though he’s looking right at me. Within seconds, he’s pulling me in front of him, using me as a barrier between him and Kai, like a human shield. “You want to kill me; you’ll have to kill her first! And then,” he says against my face, forcing my hair to blow away with his venomous breath, “then we really will be together forever, won’t we, darling?”
“Oh, why am I not surprised, Ollie? Using the woman you ‘love’ as a shield? What a big fucking man you are, Mayfield!” Kai laughs at him, still with the gun aimed at us. “Then again, you attack women, murder innocent people, and stab people in the back. Am I missing anything?”
“Kai, drop the gun and go; it’s not worth it,” I beg him, “I’m not worth it, please!”
“The police will be here any minute now, K, and they will shoot you dead,” Oliver threatens as he moves his hand up to place around my neck.
“Beth, he’s going to end up killing you!” Kai says as he ignores Oliver and looks right at me, pleading with me to do something I’m not sure of yet.
“And if they don’t shoot you, then I will come after you myself!“ Oliver continues while Kai steps toward me with his gun pointing outward.
“You’ve more or less signed your own death warrant coming here, boy, just like your father-“
“Beth, do it, fight him!” Kai pleads with his eyes widening and his brow lifting toward his hairline.
“Beth won’t listen to you, she’s mine, always has been!” Oliver shouts at him.
“Let me do this, Beth, let me free you!”
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do!“ I try to argue.
“Beth, duck!” Kai shouts, and without even thinking about it, I push down with my knees and fall to the floor. I guess I’ve been so used to doing what I’m told, it was instinct to follow through on his order.
“Kai, what-“
My words are stifled by the sound of a gun being fired at close range. After that, everything begins to play out in slow motion. My hearing is blown, my vision blurred, and my head threatens to make me pass out.
It takes a few, long moments for my senses to begin to to clear, when I am forced to take in the scene of Kai having just shot Oliver in the stomach. He clutches at the wound where blood is gushing out all over his hands, causing him to double over and sputter. Kai remains standing, now looking completely emotionless, all the while he stares at the man dying in front of him. When sound finally returns to my ears, I realize I’m screaming, and Oliver is desperately gasping for breath.
Instinctively, I run toward the dying man, Oliver, as he falls to the floor with blood now sputtering out of his mouth. He’s desperately trying to gasp for any air he can get inside of his lungs. Flying to the floor with him, I take hold of his bloody hand with my trembling fingers. I look at his stomach, which is such a mess, I can no longer distinguish where his hands are. When I look back at his face, he is staring at me and smiling. He strokes my cheek with one of his hands, releasing the wound and letting it run out with blood…so much blood.
“Shit, Kai, call an ambulance!” I shout with a pitchy, unfamiliar voice. “Oliver, it’s ok, we’ll get you help.”
“Beth,” Oliver gasps, “y-you’re smart…” he tries to say before falling into coughing as he tries to push the words out. I attempt to silence him, to offer some hope, but he keeps going. “There’s a h-hole in my s-s-stomach. I’m d-dead!”
His words, together with his knowing that he is not going to make it, has me squeezing his hand tighter, but I don’t cry. I feel heartless for it and even though I want to offer some sort of comfort to him in his last moments on Earth, I can’t cry for him. Not even when I see tears falling down his cheeks and he looks at me with such adoration, it’s almost too painful to watch.