Page 38 of Cursed to Be Mine
“Step away from the car, Scarlett.”
“Ma?”
“Do it!”
I thrust the gun at her, holding back the tears. My side splinters in pain where I was cut by the roof of the van, but that’s nothing to the agony ripping apart my soul.
A mother should never have to make this choice.
But she’ll turn and kill me just like the reaper was warning me about.
She’s already dead,I tell myself, keeping the gun steady.
Infected.
One ofthem.
Just like a fetus will grow into a baby, shewillchange into a monster.
“Ma!”
“Do it, Scarlett Jo!”
Tears flood down her face as she holds up her hands, begging me with words lost beneath her sobs.
“Move!” I stride towards her, the gun leading, and she steps back with a whimper.
“Ma, please! What are you doing?”
I herd her towards the treeline, off the road.
“Ma!”
I don’t let her get to me.
Ican’t.
I won’t let the devil take her soul.
“Ma! Please don’t do this! Ma!Ma!”
As her pleas pound my ears, each one a sledgehammer to my senses, tears erupt from my eyes. My heart shakes, but my arm stays steady. She’s bitten.
She’s already dead.
She’ll kill me if I don’t kill her.
This is mercy.
“Ma! Please!”
She’s sobbing now, her words broken into incoherent pleas that wring my heart and make me –
No.
Stay strong.
She’s been bitten.
