Page 91 of Imperfection is Beauty

Lifting my head to look at the clock, I said, “It’s…”

And that was when we both heard one of the floorboards outside our bedroom door, squeak.

Kalani was at the door, growling.

But apparently, that didn’t stop someone.

The moment before either of us could move, the door to our bedroom was opening, in a split second, I recognized the woman.

And then… my eyes trailed to the gun that was coming up and pointed directly at Marcus.

She wasn’t taking him from me.

Not when I finally got the honor to call him mine.

Then, I didn’t even think.

I just moved.

And just in time to take the bullet that was meant for Marcus into my body.

Everything around me went quiet.

All I could hear was the blood rushing to my ears.

All I could feel was the blood that was pouring out of my back.

I didn’t hear Marcus screaming.

I didn’t hear the woman’s gasp of outrage as Kalani attacked.

I missed when Kalani ripped the woman’s throat out.

I didn’t feel the pressure Marcus had used with our sheet to try and slow the blood flow.

Or how he rolled me to my back hoping to use the mattress to help put pressure on the wound.

Feeling sleepy, I whispered into his skin, “I love me some of you, Marcus.”

I smiled up at him, not realizing that I had blood trailing from the corner of my mouth, and then I felt something hit my face.

Looking up into his eyes, I was shocked at what I saw there, his eyes were wet.

Quietly, from far away, I heard his ravaged voice say, “You don’t get to do that.”

“I… don’t… get… to do… what?” I asked him. It was getting hard to breathe.

“Tell me goodbye.”

“Even if this is goodbye, I could never leave this world without you knowing how I feel about you.” and then… everything went black.

Marcus

The next twenty-five minutes flew by like a whirlwind.

The call to 911 was nothing but a fucking joke. They couldn’t be there until thirty minutes from now as the other units were responding to calls.

Kalani was on my heels, the dead woman with blood leaking from her throat was left behind in our wake as I carried my entire world out to the SUV.

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