Page 31 of Professor Obsessed

My head whirled. I was getting confused as the creak of the massive vault behind the tellers was being opened. The blonde woman who greeted me when I came in had mascara and lipstick smearing her face as her hands shook.

“Faster!” the leader of the trio hollered.

She didn’t even waver as she stepped over the bodies of the workers she was just chatting with. Once it was open enough, the leader shoved her aside. She fell over the masses of flesh as he went in and filled more duffel bags full.

“This isn’t all of it,” his voice wafted through the crowd of tears and sobs, “where’s the other vault bitch?” his head peaked out.

The blonde woman just shook as he pointed his gun, “I’ll paint the walls with your pretty little face if you don’t fucking answer me.” He shot into the ceiling, as it cracked, water rained down on us as the sprinklers activated.

Blood and cold water rained down on all of us as the room became an ocean of bodily parts and fluids.

“Basement,” she stuttered out, motioning towards the stairs near the ATM in the corner.

He turned to look to his buddies, “Get down there, get as much shit as you can, and let’s get the fuck out of here,” his voice died off and his eyes widened.

I looked to where his gaze fell and saw one of the men in a heap. Eyes open, his mask half off of his face, his head twisted the wrong direction on his body.

What the fuck was going on?

“Who the fuck are you?” the one still in the vault exclaimed, his line of sight traveling to the other side of the room where his remaining living partner stood in a chokehold, feet suspended just off of the ground, a gun pointed at his head.

“No one,” the deep octave penetrated the room, “touches what’s fucking mine,” said the man, the growl menacing, igniting my body. The voice I could pick out of a crowd.

The crack of another bullet thundered, my ears felt like they were on fire. I squeezed my eyes shut begging for the pain to subside, only to open them to Chase, his face covered in blood. His pupils were tiny in his eyes as he continued to use the headless body of the man he shot in the head as a carcass shield. The carotid artery splashed up like a water fountain soaking more of Chase’s devilish features in blood.

He was here.

Like a crazed vigilante, he was here.

My body moved of its own accord, crawling over the bodies towards him. The man in the vault took notice, aiming the gun at me. “Who told you to move bitch?” His finger twitched on the trigger when another bullet darted through the air in a perfect hit on the man's arm. Dropping his weapon, he screamed in pain.

“You bastard,” he crawled towards his gun as Chase dropped the dead man he was holding, taking off towards him not caring whose body he trampled in his haste. The cold water soaked through my clothing as the sprinklers continued, an alarm started buzzing, flashing red as sirens could be heard making their way here.

Chase and the man had one another in a death grip as the hostages who were still alive took this opportunity to run out of the building. One woman tried to drag me along with her, but I tore out of her grip determined to stay with Chase.

“Suit your fucking self,” she rushed the words out as she ran out into the night.

I turned back to see Chase overtop the man laying his fist into his face. The water rained down on me, I slid and fell as I made my way to him. His eyes softened the moment they saw me.

“Kitten,” his lips moved but I didn't hear the sound. The distraction I caused, the moment Chase removed his fists from the man, the opportunity I gave the shooter.

He crawled out of Chase’s grasp, slipping on the water as his gun took aim at me “And here I was going to let you live,” the gurgled voice spat teeth out as the words fell out of his mouth.

The shot that followed corrupted my ear drums.

The bullet buzzed through the air at such an octave, I was sure it could be heard city wide. It almost happened in slow motion, the tiny metal bullet that penetrated the air towards me, sure to maim me, to rip apart my skin as it ricocheted through my body.

Not wanting to watch it happen, not wanting to see the satisfied expression on the man who was going to end my life, at least I got to hear him call me kitten one last time.

28

CHASE

She was injured, my sweet kitten had blood running down her face. The mark it would leave was going to stain her beautiful pale skin with a scar. And it was my fault. I left, making it all the way to the airport in Wyoming before canceling hastily, and boarding the next available flight back to Pittsburgh. I was sick the entire plane ride with worry.

A devastating emotion that pulsed through my veins with each passing minute. The sinking feeling left me struggling to breathe, like my lungs were full of sand. I didn’t understand why I had been feeling that way, only that I had to get back to Emma. That was the only thing I was certain of. Even as the dean of the college I was supposed to be visiting berated me over the phone, and when I hung up, through email.

Emma was the only thing I was sure of.

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