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As soon as he heads out the door she takes a pair of scissors from the desk, runs forward and cuts underneath my wrists so it still looks like I’m strapped to the chair She puts the scissors into the back of my pants and runs back to the desk

God, I love this woman

Omarr co He vows, "Not an olive in sight, boo"

She plasters on a smile, kisses his cheek, and says, "Thank you, baby"

Oun out of his pants and aims it at my chest Tina shrieks, "Omarr, no!"

Ohtens and tells him ,"Baby, I won’t be able to eat if you do that now C--Can you wait til I’m done, please?" She sounds a little too shaky and I know Omarr senses it But he nods and moves to sit with her

She picks at the food I know she doesn’t want to eat but does a pretty good job atit She even offers bits of food to Omarr who eats out of her hand like a pet She strokes his head like a little child

This dude is one serious case of fucked up

After Tina finishes eating half of the o-time

Omarr holds his hand out to her and she takes it He leads her towards me but stops halfway and tells her, "Baby, stay back here You don’t want to get his blood on you"

Then he walks forward and aier and hisses, "This is for Marcus" Just as he’s about to do it, two ss wrap around his waist Tina chokes O she has

Goddaht her but she has her head behind his so he can’t even hit her with the butt of the gun He turns ashy as he tries to shake her off I see his eyes widen and he falls hard onto his back crushing asps She’s winded and can’t pull in a full breath

Enough is enough

I can’t wait for the guys I have to act now

I’e the back He turns, howls in pain, lifts the gun, and shoots Tina

Everything turns to slow motion

Tina’s body jerks backwards and I feel her blood spatter across my face Her face shows aunconscious in a pool of blood

Tina’s a bleeder

She’s going to bleed out

I kick Oain, rolls to his back, aiain I feel the bullet hit ister Pure adrenalin courses through ht hard to keephands and shoot hiht fades from Omarr’s eyes I feel a moment of intense satisfaction followed by the hollowness of dread

I stagger forward and fall into the huge pool of blood next to Tina’s body

I’ive my life for yours

I see darkness and shadows form over our bodies Hands are all over us

As I lay next to Tina, I take her li to be the way I died, at least I was in the hands of someone I loved

My vision fades to black

I ith a start

I can’t see! And I’ up withmy eyes I take them off and look at them

Eye patches?

What am I? A freakin’ pirate?!

I try to s but so blocks my throat

I start to panic I can’t breathe

A shrill beeping pierces my ears and I htened!

Tears fill in to shake and silently sob

"Hush, dearie, hush It’s alright now, girlie You’re just disorientated Open your eyes for htly at the sound of a smooth voice I open my eyes and it takes a while to focus

I see an older, round nurse at my hospital bedside

She s time for you to show me those pretty eyes of yours"

I’et here? What happened?

Iand my nurse chuckles She says, "Yes, you have a tube in your throat I can get that out for you now but you’ll be sore so try not to speak" She walks out of my room and comes back a fewand says, "Dear ht, Valentina There were tiht you wouldn’t make it You lost a lot of blood We did four blood transfusions How are you feeling?"

Ahh, I have a tube in e

I ain and the doctor touches her forehead and chuckles, "How about we get the tube out and then you answer me?" I nod and she sag on the tube as it comes up and out of my throat I breathe deep and even that hurts The doctor asks ?"

I whisper, "Tired Sore Confused"

Wowza, that hurts

I put a hand to my throat and my face pains The doctor looks at me sympathetically and says, "You’ll be sore for a while, sweetie Getting shot is never an easy thing for the body to recover froot shot

The memories drift back

Oet shot

That’s all I can remember

I whisper, "Nik"

The doctor smiles softly and says, "Maybe you should wait for your friends to get here I called Natalia Kovac as soon as I was told you were awake"

I nod but I can’t help the anxiety that coils in the center of me

She didn’t want to talk about Nik I hope he’s okay

I’hts for a while Just when I feel at peace the door bursts open Nat stands there and when she seesface she collapses to her knees in the doorfra my friend in pain hurtsdown my cheeks and my throat hurts like a mother Ghost appears behind her and picks her up He places her next toher weakly She sobs into my shoulder I look up at Ghost He smiles and pushes my hair behind my ear