Paradise 69

61

THIS MAN, WHOM I once thought of as a romantic hero, a brave shining white knight is turning out to be a soldier of darkness. He is not a hero; he's a man with serious, deep emotional flaws, and he's dragging me into the dark. He is literally dragging me into the dark.

We are back into the room. He is pulling my hair. I can feel the tip of the barrel of his gun against my head.

"Sam. Please! Stop."

"Shut your mouth!"

I hear a gun shot. The explosion deafening. It sounded so loud that I duck my head. Then there is no sound at all. My ear drums keep ringing. I feel my heartbeat accelerating.

I catch movement out in the hall. Farouk's body is falling to the ground. There is a pool of blood under his body, and at the corner of his mouth.

Is this all part of a script?

Or is this real?

My eyes are drawn to Farouk. His eyes are still open. But he is dead.

This is real.

He is clearly dead!

I hear Mijan repeating the words 'I swear', but I don't know what he is swearing to.

Someone turns the lights off. I see the female with the bunny face mask and –

Maxx!

The guy that I followed out of the mansion to the limousine!

They were all having sex with me!

The female with the bunny face mask raises her hands to her mouth and screams.

"OH MY GOD! HE'S DEAD!"

"You're clearly going to be the next corpse if you don't shut your mouth!"

"What did you do Sam?" She is glancing at the gun in his hand.

"Shut up! Let me think!"

I see Mijan standing by the glass door that leads to the balcony. He is glancing at the ropes outside.

Is he debating climbing that?

"You won't have enough time to climb." I don't know why I'm deciding to help him think this through.

"STOP RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!" A police officer shouts as I watch him entering the room.

Mijan freezes.

I return my attention to Mijan.

I'm literally in the middle.

I see Mijan turning slightly to his right, he is looking at the police officer standing behind me. Two other officers start closing in with their weapons aiming at Mijan's head. Flashlights are beaming at him. Everything is quietly still. Silent. My throat clenches as I gulp.

Mijan moves his head to the left. From where I'm sitting, I catch a partial view of the ocean.

The room we are in, ends at the edge of the cliff!

The ocean is right below us!

"Drop your gun!"

"And keep your hands where we can see them!"

Mijan, miraculously, obeys. He drops the gun. But suddenly he raises his hands in the air and jumps towards the windowpane.

In that split second, one of the officers shoots at his direction. The bullet shatters the glass, and Mijan crashes through the window.

Plummeting into the water below.