Veronica's POV

When the gunshot fired, the air around us shattered.

Derek positions himself in front of Shanice before we can ever react. The panic on his face freezes the blood in my veins. I look up in anguish at him resting his hands on his chest, frantically trying to locate the wound, his body slowly losing balance.

The next thing I feel is my arms instinctively yanking at the rope, cutting through my skin as my flesh is scorching. I don't hesitate. I pull all the ropes in the urge to free my body. All in vain.

I let out a bloodcurdling scream through the duct tape. My ears ring and then silence falls upon us when Derek drops to the ground in a puddle of blood.

I know I am shouting, but I feel like no one can hear me. My heart crashing against my ribcage, wanting to escape the pain I just witnessed. The whole room turns grim and the next thing I know is that Derek is dead.

Shanice falls to her knees, laying her hands on his chest, crying her heart out in guilt. That bullet was for her, and he didn't think twice to save her. That's how selfless Derek is.

Tears stream down my face, blurring my hazy vision. I tug at the ropes again, and again, and again, until blood lingers on my skin. My throat goes arid and I can't wail anymore.

But I know it's not over when one of the monsters points the gun at me. I don't recoil.

"Do it!" I mumble through the duct tape, but no one can hear me. It's like I'm alone in the whole world and I watch everyone slowly losing their lives while I can do nothing to stop it.

I beg you, shot me. I want to die, I never wanted to be less alive than I am now.

Then I hear the gunshot bang again. I whimper when the man that was about to shoot me falls flat to the ground, looking at me while his head got blown up. Blood covering his face and making him resemble the monster that he is.

I look at Derek for a split second, limp on the ground while Dominic and Shanice try to save him.

Is Derek dead or am I and this is my hell?

The man shot in the head stares into my soul with widened glass eyes. As if this is far from over for us.

The other monster runs to the person that shot him. I can't see who did it, the dim light is blocking my view.

I hear a bang and a female voice groaning in pain. Irène.

Dominic suddenly stands up and runs after them. He hits the monster in the head and holds him while Irène shoots him again, missing the first shot.

Two more gunshots fire and the monster collapses to the ground in a pool of blood, groaning in pain for a few seconds until he can't endure anymore.

I let out a shallow breath when I acknowledge both of the men are dead, and so could be Derek.

Dominic hands Nicole a knife and she looks at me, her eyes filled with tears and anxiety as she carefully approaches me.

Nicole cuts through the rope pulling at my crimson flesh and she mutters, "oh my God, I- I am so sorry, Ronnie."

I glance at Derek. Dominic places his hand on his chest, trying to stop the blood flow.

Irène walks to the first man she shot in the head and kneels near him. The realization of what she did is catching up to her. She shouldn't feel remorseful, but she feels it anyway.

Nicole frees me from the ropes and I stumble sprinting towards Derek, falling to my knees.

"He lost a lot of blood but he is still breathing," Dominic announces in relief as he reaches for the phone in his back pocket.

I shudder while looking at Derek's inert body. He's alive. He is going to be ok. We are going to be just fine.

I repeat myself those sentences over and over again.

"FUCK," Dominic yells at the phone. "No fucking signal."

I let out an erratic breath as I cup Derek's face with my hands, wanting to frustratingly cry but not a tear comes out of my lifeless body.

"You c- can't die," I mutter through sobs as I stare at his pale face. "I beg you, Derek, don't leave me alone." I won't survive it.

"You need to find signal, the closest hospital is two hours away and he won't survive in the car!" Irène outcries in an unstable voice and I peek at her for a second. She comprehends our pain more than we could ever think.

She saved us all.

Dominic runs outside, trying to find a signal at higher altitudes.

"Go away," Irène mutters to Shanice and me as she kneels near Derek. She takes out her top and places it on the wound as she applies strong pressure.

Seventy-eight minutes later

Derek is still breathing but he is unconscious.

When we hear the ambulance sirens, we breathe a sigh of solace.

Derek got lucky, he wouldn't have survived this long if he was shot in a vital organ. He saved Shanice from imminent and inevitable death. The gun was pointed at her head.

The paramedics come inside and immediately notice the two dead men on the ground, blood everywhere. They rush to Derek and place him on the stretcher with extra care but rapidity.

"Is he going to be o- okay?" I ask them and they don't reply as they rush him out of the abandoned warehouse.

Two more hours until they reach the hospital but at least they would medicate and disinfect the gunshot wound.

Dominic tries to run after them and asks them if one of us can come. They deny it.

I grumble in pain. I suddenly look down at my dirty arms, painted with blood around the wrists.

"Are you okay?" Dominic asks me and I shake my head.

How could I be okay after what happened in the past twenty-four hours?

Dominic pulls me in for a hug and I wrap my arms around him decisively. I want to let it all out, and cry. But I just can't.

"It's going to be okay," he mutters through my hair and I nod.

Irène kneels next to Shanice and tries to put an arm around her to help her stand up but Shanice doesn't flinch or react at all.

"It's all my fault... that bullet was for me- he shouldn't have done that!" she cries in Irène's arms.

"Shh..." Irène tries to calm her down but Shanice sobs harder.

Nicole comes to us and I hug her tightly. She sniffles back a whimper. She wants to stay strong for the rest of us. I know she wasn't close with Derek at all, but everything that happened is still traumatizing.

"I'm just glad you are alive," she whispers and I think back to how Derek could die any moment from now.

"I wish I wasn't," I mutter.

"Don't say that Ronnie, please. He will survive," she reassures me but it falls short.

When is it ever going to be okay?

It seems as if death is my only remedy.

Irène helps Shanice stand up, her arms still around her waist trying to pull her towards the exit of this sickening place.

Dominic and Nicole do the same for me.

Now the world feels so deserted. The noisy silence filling our ears as we try to pull through everything life throws at us.

Once I step outside, I cover my eyes with my hand. I haven't been in the daylight since yesterday.

My face still aches from when the attacker punched me, but it is nothing compared to how my heart suffers.

I sit in the passenger seat and Dominic gets into the driver's seat. We need to reach the hospital. We have to be there for Derek when he wakes up. If.

Irène is in the rear seat, still holding Shanice as she is silently sobbing onto her chest. I swallow the lump in my throat. Our life is changed forever now.

We hear police sirens in the distance and soon they come out of the alleys and pull up near us.

Of course, they called them. There was a gunshot fight and two men are dead in the warehouse.

"Don't worry, I'll talk to them and call my dad's lawyer," Irène explains as she gets out of the car. She holds onto Shanice's hands for a second and they lock eyes with each other. Shanice seems to regret Irène has to leave.

We roll the windows down. The cops talk to Irène and she calmly explains what happened.

One of the cops comes to the left window and talks to Dominic.

"Show me your ID," the cop says to Dom and he gets the wallet from his jacket and takes out his ID.

"Is anyone else hurt?" the cop asks as he looks at Dom's ID.

"No, only our friend, Derek. They took him to the hospital and we're going there," Dominic explains.

"Knoxville hospital?

"Yes, sir."

"We will have to talk to all of you one by one. Come in tomorrow. For now, we'll talk to miss Leroy."

We nod and close the window. Dominic drives off one minute later. We seemed calm, a bit too calm considering what happened.

What did Irène tell them to make them so empathetic to us? Did she take all the blame and said it was self-defense?

Well, it was. They were about to kill all of us one by one.

I didn't even know Irène owned a gun.

I glance at Nicole, looking out the window, seemingly fallen in her thoughts. She suffers too. She isn't used to this—as if it gets any easier even if you are used to it...

She must feel so frightened and alone now. She deserves comfort too.

"Hey... Nicole. I love you and appreciate everything you did for me," I confess a bit awkward as I turn to look at her in the rear seat.

I'm not used to saying I love you. And this ruined everything between Derek and me.

She glances at me for a second and she smiles warmly but her eyes are loopy and exhausted. No one slept much last night.

"I know. I love you too, Ronnie," she mutters and I give her a broken faint smile.

Dominic looks at us for a second and then he proceeds to drive through the narrow alleys, out of the woods.

Two hours later

We are in a town I never visited before, but the hospital staff is nice and only the doctor asked us what happened.

Now that the police is involved, Felix's men will come after us.

I'm tired. I can't handle this anymore. If this is how we'll have to live, I'd rather be dead.

The problem is that I want Derek more than I want to be dead. And the fact that I can't have him tears my soul.

We are waiting for Derek's surgery to be over. My theory was true. He wasn't shot in any vital organ and he will be fine. They need to remove the bullet, repair the blood vessels, and stitch it.

"Are you sure you don't want me to disinfect those cuts?" the nurse asks me as I look down at the cuts on my wrists.

She looks at me with compassion and I know it's because my whole face is bruised and purple-ish. She must think someone assaulted me.

"It's okay. Thank you," I mutter and she smiles.

One slow hour passes. We filled it by fidgeting and waiting around in the lobby.

"He is medicated now, still sleeping," Dominic explains just after he talked to the doctor.

Derek truly has no family other than us. No one will visit him. I know he seems tough and mature on the outside but he is hurting.

I need to talk to my mom, she needs to know I'm okay even after what happened. I want to tell her she can be with anyone she wants and I won't bat an eye.

I overreacted, it hurt to see her with another person one year after my dad died but I know my mom misses him and crying won't bring him back. She wants relief from her pain.

Don't we all?

The doctor comes out of the surgery compartment and we all stand up to talk to him.

"Derek will be fine. We safely removed the bullet but right now he needs to rest. You can come tomorrow," the doctor says and we all breathe a sigh of relief.

I smile, and I even laugh.

We all hug each other and cry tears of relief and happiness. He will be fine. I will talk to him. I will tell him how much I love him and how glad I am he is alive.

He is a hero in my eyes.

I don't even think about what he did before that night, Antonia doesn't matter anymore-

"Hey..." a woman mutters and I instantly break the hug and turn towards her. I recognize Antonia's voice from miles away.

"What are you doing here?" I spit through gritted teeth.

"I told her..." Nicole explains and my eyes widen. Yeah, she didn't know Antonia is a fake bitch.

I don't want to make a scene, it's not my place to be jealous. She has every right to be here—even if she barely knows him.

That's his decision to make, but I don't want to be in the same room as her.

The next day

Shanice booked the nearest motel and we slept here the night—without Antonia. Well, at least we tried to sleep.

We talked about Derek, random memories of him, mostly happy ones.

Shanice sees him as a hero just as much as I do.

While I understand it was Derek's fault we were in that situation... he tried his best to save us and he kept me at arm's length the entire time.

"You missed your suspension decision," Nicole reminds me and I shrug.

I will probably be expelled but I don't care as much as I should. College isn't for me, it doesn't make me happy in the slightest and I hate the degree I chose.

I'd love to travel and run away from my problems somewhere no one can find me.

I look at Dominic who is just glaring at his phone, apparently waiting for something. Anything.

Soon we can visit Derek and I cannot wait.

Dominic always seems so calm and keeps everyone grounded but I know he conceals everything inside. I'd love to be like him, I'm a mess both inside and out.

Nicole helped me clean my wounds and they aren't as deep as they appeared at first. The blood dried up.

"Let's go," Dominic announces and I look at the clock. It's 8 AM and they allow visits now.

Dominic hands me his jacket—mine tore up the night they kidnapped me—and I put on the shoes I wore for the past two days. The sneakers are still dirty even though I cleaned the blood off them.

The hospital is only ten minutes away from our motel.

~

They decided to let me see him first. Shanice couldn't stop crying and she said she will go after me.

Antonia, luckily, isn't here today. She will probably come later, though.

I stand in front of the door, my hands shaking and sweating as I put my hand on the doorknob.

What am I going to tell him? Does he even want to see me? Is he okay?

I open the door slowly and I walk inside. The white walls giving me countless flashbacks of the time I spent in the hospital a year and a half ago.

Derek turns his head towards me and the first thing I notice is his bright and hopeful blue eyes, then the stubble framing his face perfectly. His dark circles are prominent but he seems slightly happy and at ease.

"Hey," I mutter unsure. He gives me a faint smile. His eyes gleam for a bit.

I walk to his bed and he tries to sit up but he quickly groans in pain. I rush towards him and I place my hand on his arm.

He seems as surprised as I am and I quickly lift it. "Be careful," I say.

I look at his chest, a bit of the bandage is showing through the white shirt.

He was shot below the collarbone but to the right.

"You are alive..." I mutter, still happy that he is here with us.

"Pretty much," he jokes and I chuckle in sad disbelief.

I know he is analyzing my face, my bruises, my black eyes, and swollen cheeks. He slightly furrows his eyebrows in guilt and regret.

"How are you? How do you feel?" I ask frantically.

"I'm okay, physically." He sighs. "It was all my fault... I did this to you," Derek says as he reaches to grab my hand and my eyes widen in shock when he caresses my skin.

He puts my hand on his stomach and rolls it over as he looks at the fresh cuts caused by the rope.

"It wasn't your fault," I correct him convinced.

"This is why I kept you away," he mutters as he looks away. My skin feels naked and cold now that he isn't touching my hand anymore.

"It should have been my decision."

"You would have picked the wrong one, Veronica."

I shudder when I hear my name on his lips.

"It's not the wrong decision to pick you."

I sit near him, a bit too close than I originally planned.

"But it is. This will continue happening. Nothing changed except that I got shot and you got hurt."

"Do you think there is no hope?" I ask him trying to mask away the pain in my tone. Here it goes again.

"They won't stop. They will never stop. You have to move on, go to college and stay as far away as possible from me."

This time I reach to grab his hand and he flinches for a second. "What if I can't stay away from you?"

"Don't make me do this..." he mutters and I furrow my eyebrows in confusion.

"I'll do anything to protect you. And you still don't get it," he explains.

"You stayed away from me and I still got kidnapped. It didn't change anything."

"You got kidnapped because you didn't listen to any of us. You were supposed to never talk to me again," he clarifies and I sigh disappointedly.

He is right, but he shouldn't be. This isn't fair.

"I just want to know that you will forgive me one day for what I did," he mumbles again and I look at him hopelessly.

I free his hand and I stand up.

"There is nothing to forgive. I just wish it didn't happen that way," I say referencing what he did with Antonia and me getting kidnapped because I went to his apartment.

Before I leave the room, he calls out my name and it aches my hollow heart even more. His tone is soft and caring. "Take care."

I won't.