Page 77 of Shifted

"Pick, pluck, and poke." I spit out as he twirled the knife on his finger. But my words confuse him. He was probably expecting me to look around this cell for the hundredth time, counting the barbed wire pricks on the tinted windows, giving no light. This place I’d grown so accustomed to with only the imagination of her keeping me sane.

"Pick, pluck, and poke?" He asks.

"Pick at me, pluck at me, and poke at me, hell just kill me. It would make your job a hell of a lot easier." He didn't respond. Instead, his eyes grew darker. A button is pressed, and a buzz echoes throughout the place, and two men twice his size dressed in red uniforms enter like some psycho-thriller. The door locks behind them, sealing off the room.

"Finish him." He steps back. I always knew him for what he was: a coward. His weakness was me, and he hated that. He could kill me, but he couldn’t do it himself, and my blood on his hands. That would haunt him; I was the key to finding my mother and sister. But he’d grown weak and tired. As a punishment to himself, he eliminates the hunt by killing me. But he can’t do it; he can’t kill his own blood. He seemed to still get his happy ending, the one where he sent his soulless sycophants to kill me in revenge for me almost killing him.

He leaves the room. He could never watch his son die, no matter how much he hated me. I killed my father to protect my family. So I continued to do that job, to protect other families. From Chicago to New York, Boston, and Seattle. Where a business trip led me, so would a kill, one for the assured safety of another. I wanted to get the bad guys not just in my life but in other people's lives.

So, if I knew it wouldn't ruin my life if I were to have killed Reed. I would've done it, no questions asked. I would've killed him. Because he was a bad guy who fucked up the best thing anyone could have.

The two men approach me, and I’m trapped. I could barely breathe or move as it was, and so maybe this was the end. So, as I close my eyes, I picture her. She's on the beach in a sundress, and she doesn't cartwheel by the seashell. Instead, she picks it up and looks inside. And we started lives together like we were supposed to. I don’t screw it up and say goodbye, leaving her. But she wouldn’t have Joely, and that little girl is her world. She isn't my child, but I'd always treat her as if she was. If that meant I'd be with Hope and be that figure as a father for Joely. I loved them more than they knew, and they deserved to know. Hope deserved to know.

The sound of choking can be heard, and then a thud. As I opened my eyes, the two men who were ready to strangle me till my last breath had fallen to the floor, foam of the mouth. She stands still, almost in shock. Angel is staring at my face.

Angel knows who I am.

"You owe me," She simply whispers as if this was a regular mission.

She saved me; I always wanted to kill her. It was because she killed my friend, who was a pure and good man. I learned later that Isaac had lied to her. He wasn’t always a truthful man and sent her to do his dirty work some days. I thought she knew, but she didn't. It was evident now that when she killed my good friend, a man of good deeds, the prime minister of Mirini, leaving a wife widowed to five kids. She didn’t know; he hadn’t told her the whole story and was set up. I hated and resented her for being too good at her own game.

"Our game is over, I guess?" I ask, and a weight is lifted off of me as the chains are free from my neck, followed by my wrists and legs. Then her fingers graze the new cut against my face. Tender with her touch, I watched her eyes change, and I noticed the difference in color. They weren’t the same as they usually were.

"Unfortunately, you aren't Chris Evans," She jests. Her arms wrap around me as I struggle to move. I was glued to this floor, my body tied up and useless of any type of escape. Now, it was worn and weak. But she hoists me up, leaning me against her body.

"Angel," I whisper as she continues forward. I was too heavy for her to get us out of here; we both knew that, but she didn’t want to believe that. One of us wasn’t making it out, and that’d be me. I needed to kill Eros because nobody was safe, not even her if he were still out there.

"Amartolós," she reassured as we moved forward. She swiped a pass, gaining us access outside these walls that I'd been trapped in. I don’t know what’s beyond this wall, and the groans of other inmates could be heard, a haunting sound that had something I learned to get used to. Yet she simply ignored it and carried me forward.

"We have to kill Eros. He knows me. He'll kill me and my family," I reason, but she doesn’t listen. “Angel, he’ll kill you. He knows who you are,” She doesn’t look back at me and continues to ignore my pleas. Continuing forward, she picks up her pace as we move towards somewhere.

Alarms sounded, and they blared from every crevice of this dark place, "Fuck" Her eyes shifted to me; she was worried. "You have to run with me," She whispered, staring at my wounds. She cares, a woman presumed so heartless cares, she has a life of her own on the outside of these walls. Eros seemed to have her figured out as well, and now she knew our options were closing in.

Angel drove me crazy, absolutely insane, and what's worse, she couldn't be mine. Mentally, I belonged to another woman, and physically, she belonged to another man. We weren't meant to be together; our professions showed that to be true. You're never meant to fall for someone in this game because you'll always get hurt.

"Isaac is meeting us at the helipad. We have to get to it on the other side quickly," She explains urgently, rushing us down the halls. Panic erupts within the walls, and guards and residents frolic in the halls in a frenzy. She braces us through, making it towards the stairs that lead to the roof.

"Don't move!" The sound of a gun clicking freezes us. We turn slowly to face three guard's guns aimed at our heads. She stares down at their feet, causing them all to look down. We take it to our advantage. The neck of the man in my hands snaps as the other two are tossed to the side by her. She rasps in pain, and as I look at her arm, they sliced it as blood began to leak out her arm slowly.

"Angel-"

"I'm fine; I can take care of myself," she snaps. She gestures to the stairs, and I don't argue. As she helps me up, the sound of gunshots can be heard as they grow closer. She pushes me forward, and we make it to the roof. A chopper waits for us in the distance. Freedom was in our grasp.

But then it happened the sound of a bullet, followed by another. The ringing in my ears from the shock, and as I look down at me, I find myself untouched. But when I look at her, my stomach drops. A bullet ripped right through her torso.

"Angel…" She turns around, firing back at the guard that shot her. She pushes me to move forward as she continues firing.

"I'll be fine. Just go." She yells, "You've been hit," I say, and another shot fires into her. This one knocks her down, and she falls into my arms as I hold her as she struggles to get free of my grasp. I felt a wetness in my fingers. It was her blood, and as she saw it, fear was shown in her eyes. Like she knows she won't make it.

"I have to go kill him." Her words ripple through my chest. This wasn’t over for her, but I couldn’t let her continue.

"No, you don't, you can't." Her arms force me back as we’re feet away from the helicopter. Isaac yells at us to go as she stands still in conflict. But then she raised her gun at me, and everyone froze. She was gripping her wound she slowly backed away.

"I'm as good as gone; I might as well make my death worth something." She stares at me for a moment and pauses. Her fingers fiddle with the bottom of her mask, and I feel a tightening in my chest.

But then it happens, she lifts it.

As it slowly peels back, my heart stops. Her soft brunette hair and lush lips were as perfect as I’d seen days ago. Those eyes struck familiarity earlier because it had been her, the woman I’ve never stopped loving. My biggest regret and failure, was when I failed her. But now she’s risked it all to save me. Her hand was placed on my heart as she stared at me, teary-eyed, as if this was goodbye.

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