Page 76 of Where We Found Our Home
“You want to claim you don’t fear me now, doll? Fine. We’ll see how you feel when this is all over.” He barely finishes his sentence before he redirects his aim right at Sasha.
“No!” I lunge in front of Sasha as she screams and Eddie pulls the trigger. I don’t register any pain so he must’ve missed. I take a split second to notice Sasha is still standing before I lunge for Eddie. He tries to fire off another shot, but I’m on him before he gets the chance. We wrestle each other to the ground, and I manage to hold my own. I vaguely hear Sasha on the phone with the police, but I can’t hear her words I’m so focused on getting Eddie incapacitated.
Eddie gets out of my hold and yanks us both up, but as he takes a step forward, I shove him hard so that he loses balance and stumbles back into the backroom shelves. I take that opportunity to run through the door and up the stairs to the roof. It’s a risk. He still has the gun and my back is to him, vulnerable. Plus Sasha’s still down there. He could decide to go after her instead of me, but I feel like I know him well enough to know that he’s not about to let me run away from him. He talked a good game in there, but his focus is squarely back on me now. Where it belongs. I hear his growl and loud footsteps clamoring up the steps.
The door to the roof gives way and I glance around quickly. There’s nothing for cover up here. I can hear people living their lives below me, completely unaware that there’s a battle for a person’s next breath happening above them. I’m cornered up here. I may not make it back down. But if I don’t, then at least Sasha got away and she won’t have to deal with the trauma of cleaning my blood out of her shop. I steel my nerves and stand by the side of the door, waiting for my moment.
Eddie bursts through the door, and I pounce. I land a blow to his stomach and he folds over briefly, but that grip on the gun remains ironclad. My fist goes flying toward his face, but he dodges at the last second. His cold eyes are alive and manic now. He’s practically salivating over this. It makes him happy that I’m putting up a fight so he can enjoy snuffing me out that much more. Fine by me. If he wants me dead, he’ll have to earn it. He wraps his pale, leathery hands around my throat, but before he can tighten his grip I drive my knee up into his groin. He releases me with a grunt right as I wind my fist up and pummel it into the left side of his face.
Finally, the gun gives way and falls out of Eddie’s hand as he slumps to the ground. I jump on top of him and punch him in the face repeatedly. My hands are already sore from the sheer force I’m unleashing, but if I let up he’ll get the upper hand again. He intercepts my last punch and bends my wrist to an unnatural position. He moves to stand to his full height above me, still holding my wrist, but he loosens his grip for a split second. It’s enough for me to kick at his leg and scramble away, closer to the gun. When I look up, the look in his eye is pure evil. He looks completely deranged. He advances toward me, and I grab the gun and point it at him. I hear the door open and I know Sasha’s here, but I can’t afford to take my eyes off of Eddie. Dammit, Sasha. You were supposed to get far away from here. He smirks, like he doesn’t think I have the balls to pull the trigger. I know in this moment it’s him or me and everyone I love. He lunges at me, and my choice is made. I pull the trigger.
His body lands with a thud an inch away from me. I don’t have to check. I know he’s gone.
“Ciara!” Sasha runs over to me. The adrenaline is wearing off, and I feel tired and weak.
“Are you okay?” I ask Sasha. She looks me up and down, and her eyes freeze on my chest. Her face goes pale.
“What?”
“Ciara, you’ve been shot.” I look down at my chest and see the blood pooling there. Adrenaline is a powerful drug. I now understand how anime characters keep talking long after a hole has been blown through their stomach. It’s as if my brain didn’t register that I’m hurt until I physically saw it. I feel myself going down, but Sasha catches me. I hear voices yelling in the background, and even in my haze I know he’s here.
I turn my head to look at him one last time, and I hope he can see the apology in my eyes before the darkness overtakes me.
Lincoln
She can’t die. She can’t die.
I can’t believe I was too late again.
No.
I can’t think like that. She’s going to make it. I won’t accept any other outcome. She has to make it through this. And when she does, I am going to spend the rest of my life making sure she knows how much I treasure her. We wasted so much time fighting our feelings for each other. Our time can’t be up.
When I got to the roof of Sasha’s bakery and saw Ciara fall into Sasha’s arms, my world stopped spinning. When I looked over and saw Eddie lying in a pool of his own blood, the only regret I had was that I wasn’t the one to end him. Death was too kind for him, but I hope he’s burning in hell right now.
I’m pacing back and forth in the waiting room of the hospital, irritated that I can’t be with her. The doctors and nurses will bend the rules for me to go back to an exam room with her when she’s conscious, but giving me her medical information when she’s been shot is a step over the line.
My entire family is in the waiting room with me, anxiously waiting for Ciara’s mom’s arrival so the doctors will tell us something. I left her mom a voicemail letting her know Ciara is in the hospital, but I know she and the girls are on a flight trying to get here. I can’t take anymore waiting. I’m about to come out of my skin.
The police arrive to get Sasha’s statement about the events. She asks them to allow her to give her statement in front of all of us so she won’t have to repeat it again. Our eyes are glued to her while she gives us every painful detail of Eddie’s delusion. How brave Ciara was, distracting Eddie so Sasha could edge closer and closer to safety. How he told Ciara he was going to kill every single member of our family and Ciara’s before finally killing her. How he aimed his gun at Sasha before Ciara jumped in front of the bullet and fought him off. How Ciara fired the shot that killed him.
“When he fired, Ciara lunged in front of me, but she never stopped moving so I didn’t even realize she was hit. I just thought he missed. I wanted to help her, but I knew the chances of me making everything worse with them wrestling over the gun were too high. After it was…after it was over, she…umm…she just wanted to make sure I was okay. She didn’t even realize she’d been shot. I was the first one to notice.” She struggles through her last sentence. I take a break from my pacing to hug her. My dad lays a hand on her shoulder. My mom rubs her back. Reggie grabs her hand. Isaiah reaches across and lays a hand on top of her thigh. I notice his other hand is holding Nina’s, and he’s rubbing circles on her palm. “I know she blamed herself for Nevaeh being grabbed. I didn’t get a chance to tell her I didn’t blame her. I didn’t get to tell her it wasn’t her fault. That I love her like a sister already. But she still protected me. She jumped in front of a bullet for me. I can never repay that. I didn’t…” She chokes out a sob, and I hug her tighter.
“Shh, I know. She knows. She knows you didn’t blame her.” Despite what she said during our fight, I know she knows how much my family loves her. How much I love her. “She did what she did because she loves you too.”
Ms. Angela, Brittany, Simone, and Sarah burst into the waiting room.
“Where is she?! Ciara Jeffries. Where is she?” Ms. Angela runs over to the information desk.
“Ms. Angela.” I run over to join her, and she pulls me into a hug.
“Are you family?” a nurse asks.
“I’m her mother,” she shrieks. The nurse nods and goes to get a doctor. “Lincoln. What happened to my daughter?” Sarah, Simone, and Brittany crowd around me, wondering the same thing. I decide it would be best to tell the story while we’re a distance away from everyone else. I tell them everything Sasha just told us, and they all burst into tears.
“Fuck. I can’t believe this,” says Sarah.
Simone opens her mouth to say something, but a doctor comes out and she closes it again.
