21 Hours

Malcolm and Selena have been thrust together by a woman acting as a puppet master, threatening and seeing through them. Now there is only one obstacle left, leaving two out of the three living.

“Kill her,” She hisses, her voice like glass shattering. “She is the only thing between you and your beloved family.”

Selena looks at him, her eyes filling with unshed tears. The way she looks at him makes him want to cry. He hasn’t wanted to cry since he was a little boy. Her face is realization, hope, defeat, and reassurance all bled together. The defeat, that part is what confuses him the most. He can only describe it as proud. “Do it.”

He swallows and shakes his head dumbly. The gun in his right hand seems to weigh 300 pounds.

“Malcolm, please,” she chokes as her voice breaks. “Kill me, it’s okay.”

Kill me, it’s okay. What part of this is okay? Killing isn’t okay. Killing Selena isn’t okay. Selena shouldn’t be okay with her death.

“Selena Montgomery has no one to care about. No one cares about Selena. She wants Death. She would’ve killed herself by now anyway.” She hisses again. Malcolm tears his eyes away from Selena to glance at Her and the gun.

“Selena…”

“Malcolm, I want this. Just shoot me, and you can be back to your family. It’s a win-win.”

This girl. She is trying to convince him to kill her, so he can be happy. Who can be that kind? He decides to stall. “Is it true? You were going to kill yourself?”

She looks him in the eye. Her voice is a soft breath, “Yes. I…wrote a note saying, quote: ‘If anybody smiles at me, I won’t jump’.”

He made a mental note to smile at every goddamn person he saw. “Why are you okay with this?”

“I…just am. I don’t know why. No one cares, I guess.”

That’s not true.

“I do.”

“You don’t.”

“What?” he splutters.

“Please, Malcolm. I’ve spent my whole life being left and disappointed and everything negative under the sun. I think a person learns to see when people care and when they don’t. Trust me.”

“No,” he is defiant now. “I care. If I didn’t, you’d be dead by now, wouldn’t you?”

“Not necessarily. I’m alive right now because of Human Compassion. A perfectly stable person will hesitate. Now, do it!” he can detect a hint of hysteria breaking through her calm. No, no, no. He could never kill Selena even if she was 100% unafraid.

“Selena…I…”

“Malcolm, remember when we were stuck on that bus and you told me about how your niece’s birthday party was going to be so beautiful? How you couldn’t wait to give her that custom made doll house? You need to go to that party, Malcolm. You need to give Cindy that present and you need to live.” She is pleading with him and he’s sure that this stranger can feel his heart beating wildly against his chest. But Selena isn’t really a stranger is she? In the last twenty-one hours, he’d gotten to know her better than he’d known anyone outside of his immediate family.

“I’m so sorry, Selena,” he whispered. “I love you.”

The loud crack and watermelon-exploding sound hung in the air for several seconds after Malcolm pulled that godforsaken trigger. He dropped to his knees, the Desert Eagle hanging limply in his hand. He felt numb, but slightly ahead of the numb was relief. The relief made him sick to his stomach. Before he knew it, he was on all fours, the contents of his stomach emptying.
It was over, finally over. He was safe! Cindy, Duane, Lori, Ma, Dad, Mikey, Angela; they were all safe.

He finally looked up into glassy forest-green eyes. Her hands were over her mouth and she was breathing rapidly.

“Malcolm!” she whispered, before flinging herself into his arms.

Selena was safe. “Selena?” he finally breathed, tentatively.

“I can’t believe you,” her voice faltered, “you shot Her! Why? Why did you do it?”

He felt uncomfortable, his nervousness and the events that had just occurred played out before him. “I didn’t want you to die,” he said meekly.

Malcolm glanced over at the fallen body of Valerie, if that really was her name. For just under a day, she had played puppet master of their lives. She had forced the two together, telling them to do illegal, probably terrorism-worthy acts. They hadn’t been caught, however, they were always two steps ahead of the people following them, thanks to Valerie.  

When he tore his gaze from the fallen body on the floor and into Selena’s eyes, she surprised him. She took his face in her hands and kissed him. Ha, she’d kissed him. After only twenty-one hours, he’d confessed his love for her and she’d kissed him like there was no tomorrow.

Maybe things actually would be alright.

Author's Note

I'm sorry this story was so short, usually mine are a lot longer. This is my first story that I've had the courage to post.

Reviews

[Jordan's Back]

This is a wonderful Story. You do well with these.

[Ricky Charles Dodson]

You should post more of your works.

[Sophie]

more. now.

[Here Beyond]

That was pretty good. I like how you with held who was shot for a while, it was some good suspense.