Page 222 of Overcast

The words don’t leave my mouth before I hear the two shots. Marty goes down on one knee then his left palm.

“Fuck!“ he roars, head bowed in pain.

“Marty,” I cry out, wanting to go and comfort him, but if I get close enough—again—he’ll do some crazy shit.

“Stormi,” he grounds out then lifts his chin to look up at me. “Don’t do this to me.”

I’m doing it because I love you.

Maybe my life wasn’t supposed to be a long one. It never was full of friends or family but scary nights and men who wanted to use me. A person put and destined to save and protect others.

I’m not a martyr nor a hero.

I’m the woman who fell in love with a man that has a dark cloud over his head but adores his blood and group of friends.

It’s not his time yet.

Not if I have anything to do with it—and I do.

“I want you...to shoot me,” Marty fumes through furrowed brows. “Not yourself.”

“If you don’t kill him now,” Eli conveys. “I’m going to shoot both of you.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Marty snarls in his direction then comes back to me. “C’mon, sweetheart, I’m begging you.”

“No,” I deadpan.

“I swear to fucking God I will kill you my Goddamn self if you don’t point that gun at me.”

“Close your eyes,” I command as roughly as I can. “And count.”

“Fuck that.” He scowls at me with such ire that I can feel it hit my whole body. “I’m telling you, woman...do not touch that trigger.” I do, and he attempts to stand but falls short with a distressed grunt. “Stormi!“

It’s now, or never, I know that.

And when he reaches for me, his hazels allude that his heart is about to combust in his chest. That he’s not going to close his eyes and watch me do this.

Just like how I would have had to see him fall to the ground after pulling the trigger on him.

I step back, keeping my eyes locked on his and feeling my hand begin to violently shake in anticipation of the unknown.

I’m doing this for him and only him.

“Stormi,” he imparts again, his hazels glossing over. “Don’t...please, baby.”

My index finger grips the trigger. “You’ll always be the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Then I hear the singular gunshot echo through the room.

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