1.

Ellie's husband, Mark, is killed. She's going to find out answers, no matter what.

“God, Mark!” I screamed as I ran towards his bleeding body, lying on the cold linoleum. His suit was damp with blood, making it even darker than normal. I cupped his head in my hand, while my other hand was pressed against his chest. I pushed onto the bullet hole, trying to heal it. The tear would start to come together, then would fall apart all over again, only resulting in more bleeding. The wound was just too extensive.

He couldn’t even look at me. His gaze landed straight ahead, out the window and at the pine trees shaking fiercely in the storm raging outside. My champagne colored dress was stained with his blood, developing its own trim of deep red.

His breaths were shallow and filled with pain, as his chest moved only rigidly. Even now he tried to hide it from me, not wanting me to know the agony that he was in.

“It’s gonna be okay, Mark. I’m healing you, it’ll go, just give it some time,” I frantically cried as I tried desperately to fix his bullet wound.

A breathy “I…” was all he could muster before he stopped, reaching at my hands to brush them aside. I couldn’t help but whimper at his defeat, unable to hold back my own despair. All the while he just stared ahead, out the window. In the background of everything, I heard a car leave our driveway.

I should have gotten up and stopped it. Killed everyone. Mark was going to die in a matter of minutes anyway. He wouldn’t want me to watch him fade like this.

I just couldn’t though. I couldn’t leave him there, alone on the floor, to bleed out in silence. I couldn’t let him sit there with no one to accompany him except the falling raindrops, ramming themselves against the window. I had to be there with him. So I held his hand and cried, watching the black Chevelle drive away. No license plate. I watched his chest rise and fall raggedly, and watched as the pool of blood continued to expand, feeding off of his pain.

His breath slowed and then stopped. His hand released from mine, and I knew it was over. I failed him. I closed my eyes as I pulled his suit together, covering where he’d been shot. I wailed as I closed his eyes, and his empty pupils were forever burned in my mind. Even as I closed them, I knew that they only stared straight ahead under their veil.

The service went by quickly, as only close friends and family members came to say their final goodbyes. No one stayed the entire time. Only me.

I can still remember all of our happy memories, but they’re being drowned by my latest bloody one. Even as he lies in the casket, lined in creamy white silk, dressed in a clean suit, hair perfect, eyes closed...I still look at him as though he may take one more painful breath. As though his eyes may open, and stare straight ahead.

I followed the hearse to the cemetery. The line was only one car long. The storm from his death day had cleared off earlier, and the sun shone mockingly in the sky, daring to cast such cheerful light on my truly most sorrowful day.

My heels sunk in moist dirt, and dew licked my feet enough that grass adhered itself to my skin. The tears never stopped falling, but the only time I became audible was when I put a rose on his coffin as they lowered him into the ground. Other than that, my tears were silent. Even as I shoveled dirt onto my love’s covered body, truly signifying his departure.

I didn’t leave right away. I cried in my car, face on the wheel, hands gripping it hard enough to make my knuckles turn white. I barely heard any cars drive by me, all of them ignorant to the striking pain in my own chest.

After about 10 minutes of pure emotion, I pulled myself together enough to start my car up. It purred to life, and I hesitantly drove away, no destination in mind. As I drove, I couldn’t help but look in my rearview mirror, back at the cemetery. My soulmate’s last home.

I snapped my face forward, and told myself to be strong. He’d want me to be strong.

So I stared straight ahead.

“Hey there,” a man in his late twenties confronted me in the crowded club. His light blue button down contrasted against his deep blue eyes, which bounded with energy and life. He couldn’t have been here long, because his shorter brown hair was perfect and not like a man who’d been dancing at all. “I just wanted to say hi.” He smiled to show off a picture-perfect white grin.

“Well. Hi.” I said much too sweetly, and turned away from his to order a drink. I’d hoped to avoid most people by just sitting at the bar. A few seconds later I felt a more forceful tap on my shoulder, and slightly irritated I turned to face him again. He was practically beaming.

“I also wanted to tell you that you’re beautiful.”

“Awesome. Thanks.” I started to turn back.

“Mostly because you are, but I also noticed that no one’s told you yet. So I wanted to be the first.” That was more unexpected. Not too cheesy I guess. I faced him once again.

“Well...thanks. But maybe no one’s told me for a reason.” The bartender put my beer on the countertop.

“Are you dangerous or somethin?” he chuckled.

“Maybe I am.” I raised an eyebrow and folded my arms across my chest.

“Well I hope so,” he said as he took my beer off the counter. “I like a good adrenaline rush.” He took a long sip, and winked at me as he put it back on the counter.

I stared at the mirror, hair dripping all over the floor. I wanted so desperately to see Mark come up behind me, wrap his arms around my waist and lay his head on my shoulder. He’d whisper “Everything’ll be okay. Stop overreacting,” in my ear.

But I was alone.

I put on black jeans and a dark purple button down. As I brushed my hair I breathed slowly, and pushed out every thought in my mind. I had to be emotionless. There was no other way to survive the moment. If I was to go on living, I had to get rid of my feelings.

I put on my makeup and left the house. My black Benz waited dutifully in the driveway, ready to go.

It was time for answers.

The rocks jumped out from under my car, and growled at me as I drove over them. I parked behind a black Camaro. The tags were from California. “Far from home,” I muttered to myself.

As I got out of the car, a fat, balding man in a dangerously stretched suit walked out from behind the garage.

“Hey! Ellie, how’s it going?” He held his arms straight out as I exited my car, and wrapped me up in a stiff embrace. “How are you doing, angel?”

“Okay,” I quickly lied.

“Why don’t you come in, baby?”

“Why don’t I,” I said sarcastically, but he didn’t seem to notice, or mind. Inside I felt instantly sterilized with the stark white environment. White walls, white ceiling, white carpet, the only thing not white was the ocean, which could be seen out the great french doors in his living room.

“Take a seat sweetheart, I’ll go get us some drinks. Any preference?”

“No, anything,” I said seriously this time but he laughed, and walked behind a wall cutting the kitchen off from the living room. I pulled out what I needed from my purse, and stood, waiting for him to come back.

As soon as he came around the corner, 2 wine glasses in hand, I pointed the gun straight at him. Though he seemed a little startled, he didn’t spill a drop of red wine on his white floors.

“I want a list of everyone that worked with Mark.”

“Maybe you should go to the corporation then.” I could feel the twinge of annoyance in his voice, hiding his own anger. Finally revealing a part of his true self.

“I’m not innocent, and I’m not stupid. I know what Mark was involved in.”

“Ha! Sure. Well, if he was meddling in something he wasn’t supposed to, maybe he got what was comin to him.” I cocked the gun.

“Woah, woah,” he almost laughed. “Relax baby. You don’t want to shoot me.”

“Currently I feel quite the opposite.”

“You’re just upset, I get it. Puppy love, but your puppy got shot. Put your gun away so I don’t need my guys to blow your brains out.” I looked at the doorway just as two guards calmly walked in, guns already pointed at me. “I don’t want to kill you, baby. It’d be such a waste of a pretty face. And then I’d have to pay to get it scraped out of my carpet.”

“I’m not the one you should worry about.” I pointed the gun at the left guard, and pulled the trigger. Before the other one could even think about pulling the trigger, I shifted the bullet over, making it jump from one head to the other. Both dropped dead with one shot.

Ernie now dropped the wine while he was sprayed with blood. “F**k, oh f**k,” he looked like he’d pee himself. “I knew it. I knew something...you’re one of them…” he choked on his own words as I stepped towards him. I grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him towards me, like a playground bully.

“A list” I hissed in his face.

“Of course!” he nodded frantically and backed into the wall with a thud as I let him go. He slunk to his office as I followed, and he pulled out a desk chair and paper and pen. He frantically wrote down names on the paper. I held the gun to the back of his head, for extra motivation.

“This is all the main guys you want to talk to.” He held the paper up and I snatched it from his hands, putting it in my back pocket. “Listen, Mark was not the guy you think he was.”

“Oh, shut the f**k up. What could you possibly know about him? You didn’t know him at all like I did.” I said with clear disgust in my voice. “Now, go to the bank vault that I know you have in your bedroom.” He complied, walking with his hands up into his bedroom. He had the door to the vault unoriginally behind a painting.

“Listen, Ellie, I can open it for you, but why do you even need money? I know Mark must’ve left you a fortune.”

“Get on your knees.” I said, and he turned around. “I don’t. This is just to throw police off my scent.” He turned back towards me.

“If you’re gonna kill me, then I’m not gonna-”

“Fine.” I cut him off and shot him in the head. A ‘robbery gone wrong’ is what I was hoping for. With that, I left his body and the guards to stain the white floor and walls, and left the house. I got in my car and looked at the list. 14 to go, apparently. I started to drive off to my next name.

Author's Note

Let me know if you're thinking this should be teen or mature.