Outside

Chapter 23

I lunge to Occi's side. Everything around her becomes stained with red, including her platinum hair. She glances up at me, her eyes becoming hazier by the second. Drew and Kyan follow my lead, and the three of us surround her. Kyan and I are still in deep shock, but to my surprise, the weight of what happened hits Drew immediately, and his breath hitches in his chest, sobbing heavily.

"Hey, hey, don't cry." She mutters. "I get to be with Tom now." A single tear drops from her left eye, her breath shaky.

"Don't say that, Occi." Drew tells her, his voice swimming in tears. "Don't say that. I can't lose both of you. Please... you're gonna be ok. You have to be ok."

He's right. He's going to have no one, and it's all my fault.

"I killed him." I blurt out.

"Wh...what...?" Drew stammers.

"I killed Tom..." I confess. "I'm so sorry... I... I was seven and he attacked me when he broke into the Aequa and I killed him. I just... I had to tell you that before you... before it's too late."

"Nox, what do you mean... you..." Occi begins.

"I'm sorry!" I cry out, my eyes filling with tears. "I'm so sorry!"

"Nox, you what?!" Drew's eyebrows knit together. "You ki—"

"I'm really cold..." Occi cuts in, and even though her voice is barely audible, it silences Drew instantly.

"No... oh come on... don't die, Occi..." Drew's words stumble out, his attention shifting back to her. "Please don't die!"

"Drew, I should have... picked you..." Her voice comes out as a whisper. "I don't know... what came over me. I guess I hoped that... that no matter who I chose, you'd be strong enough... to live. No one's as strong as you. As resi...lient as you... I... I love you... Please... please forgive me..."

"I... I..." Drew begins. His hand wraps around hers, both covered in blood. Her eyes glaze over and she goes limp. Drew freezes and he looks down at her, forgetting to breathe the moment the realization hits him. "Wait..." he falls over on top of her, shaking her by the shoulders. "Mom!" He screams. "Please wake up!" He grabs her and pulls her close to him, getting blood all over his clothes. "Please, mom... please...!"

"Drew..." I grab his shoulders and pull him towards me. "Stop... stop shaking her. There's no use—"

"No!" He yells. "She isn't gone! She can't leave me! First Tom, now her? Can I ever just have a family? They're gone? They... they left me...?"

"I'm so sorry." I tell him.

"She's gone... All because of..." His sadness instantaneously turns to rage, and his eyes jolt to Elizabeth, who's standing back, watching it all. "Because of you..." He grabs the gun from my hand and points it at her. "You killed her! You took her from me!"

"Do you realize what you're doing?" Elizabeth asks, worry hiding behind her smug face. "If you kill me, there'll be no one to run this country. There will be riots and warfare and many innocent lives lost. Is that what you want? If that is the case, then you are nowhere near as good of a person as Occi told me." Her eyes watch the trigger, hopeful it would stay put.

"I'm not." Drew's steadies his hand firmly on the gun, still and calm, and aimed at her head.

Any self-righteousness left on her face drops away, her eyes widening and her mouth ajar, waiting for the right words to come out. In the end, she only said one.

"Drew—"

And he pulls the trigger.

She hits the floor, followed by his weapon, and then his tears. Silence fills the room and I reach out to put my hand on his back. He pushes it away without moving his eyes from Occi. When he speaks it's as if his words are a dagger twisting itself into me.