Page 161 of Corrupted Heart

“Like I needed a hole in my head, you psycho bitch. Let. Her. GO.”

The room is silent and still. Amaya shakes as she keeps hold of me. Slowly, I watch her thumb draw back the hammer on her gun.

My eyes start from my head as her lips curl into a sneer.

“No.”

Everything goes into slow motion. I shriek as the gun goes off. The bullet explodes out and punches through the air just as Kratos lurches toward us. My scream sounds like it’s underwater, a slow, drawn-out wail as the bullet slams into Kratos’ chest. Blood explodes out of his back like a ketchup packet popping.

He doesn’t stop. He doesn’t slow. He just mouths the words “I love you” as his eyes lock on mine and he grabs me out of her arms and tosses me to safety.

My head snaps around. My breath leaves my body and my heart rips in two as Kratos slams into Amaya and the two of them topple backward.

Out the window, and into the night.

I scream so loud my ears pop, scrambling to my feet and bolting for the window. The silence is punctuated by a loud splash of water way down below. My fingers cling to the edges of the window frame, my eyes wide as I stare down into the inky blackness, waiting for him to surface.

And waiting.

He’s not coming up.

Something changes in you when your love is ripped from you. Something snaps, and you forget yourself, all your demons, all your fears.

At least, I do. Because in an instant, ignoring whatever Drazen is yelling at me, I’m bolting to the window, leaping out into the night, and plummeting into the dark abyss below.

31

KRATOS

All I know is darkness. Like a black snake, swallowing me whole. Like pure nothingness, its silence drowning out everything else.

Cold surrounds me, sucking me down. Pulling me deeper.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Like the tick of a clock. Like grains of sand slipping through an hourglass. They’re slowing. Time is slowing.

I’m slowing.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

No. It’s not sand. It’s my pulse. I can feel it growing weaker, slowing to a deadly pace as the cold inkiness surrounds me and pulls me deeper and deeper into the empty embrace of nothingness.

I want to tell her I love her. I want to tell her I’m sorry that I’m leaving so soon.

I want to tell her she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and that I’m going to haunt the fuck out of her after my heart finally stops and the darkness swallows me up.

My vision clouds. The swirling shadows slow to a crawl as my limbs go numb.

This is it. Fuck, I wanted more time with her.

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