Epiphany

Chapter 49 Part 1~Never

“Alyssa!” This was Andre's voice.

But I didn’t give him a glance nor my attention as my eyes were stuck on the barrel of the gun.

Edward's intense gaze was taunting me—as though smiling—as he aimed the gun at me. I flinched, a surge of electricity rushing through me when the gun blasted.

Eyes still screwed shut, I heard the echo of the gunshot.

No pain could be felt and that left me confused. Before I could look at my body, to check for any wound, I heard something slump on the ground.

My attention was drawn to the sound, and there was a body at Edward’s feet. Even from a distance, I could see the crimson pooling around it.

The next thing I felt were hands on my shirt, followed by dirt smacking the side of my face as I was thrown out the window.

Another gunshot was discharged. This time, the flopping sound came from the other side of the window.

A groan escaped my lips as I pushed my body off of the ground.

With twitching fingers, I grabbed the window frame to pull myself up to investigate what that noise was.

I refused to believe what my mind was telling me.

Heart thrumming in my ears, and legs shaking beneath me, I managed to stand up.

“Ma—” The words got stuck in my throat, alongside the air that I was exhaling.

My knees then buckled beneath me, but I managed to cling to the window frame with my arms.

Blood.

Dark metallic blood was splattered on the floor. It trailed from the person lying ahead of me.

Someone was sprawled on the ground, hands spread out in an odd angle, as this person bleed.

The fact that this person had long hair bothered me. Her hair was the same shade as mine.

The sound of the gun being loaded again was as clear as the person lying limply in front of me.

Something unexpected happened next.

My whole body flew backwards in the air for several long seconds, as did my heart, with the only difference being that my heart had a ribcage to protect it from the impact and my body didn’t.

As my back collided with the ground, a throb of pain pulsated through my entire body, reaching every inch, every cell of my being. The pain was not the usual pain I had experienced; rather, it was the same pain multiplied by a million. At least that was how it felt. Every cell of my being felt like an individual being beaten until he was left on the ground writhing in excruciating pain and unable to stand back up.

It wasn't long before I heard an ear-splitting scream, but it was muffled by a resonating, piercing sound so loud that I couldn’t tell if it was coming from my own ears or from an external device. The thing that gave it up was the stinging feeling in my ears, as if it was being stabbed repeatedly.

My lungs were the next part of my body to become the main punching bag, receiving most of the agony.

Small specks of something were prodding and jabbing at my lungs, scorching the inner walls of my lungs, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were needles.

My body's first reaction was to try to get the needles out of my lungs before they destroyed the organ, so my head convulsed forward as I abruptly expelled air from my lungs, coughing the needles out.

It hurt.

I grasped a handful of dirt as I tried to force my upper body up, still trying to cough the needles out.