Better With You | EDITING

Chapter 25

TORI

"Say hi to Malcolm for me." And just like last time, Kelio pulled the trigger, in which I saw Elijah's body fall limp on the floor.

"Noo!"

I rushed over to him and crouched down, pushing off Cleo who managed to stumble and fall on top of him.

"Elijah! Elijah! Stay with me! Please."I cradled him in my arms and looked down at his now blood stained shirt.

This cannot be happening. He cannot die.

"No." I rested my head ontop of his and started to cry. A tear that rolled down my cheek, fell on his and he started to cough.

"Elijah?" He stared at me for a moment before he took me in his arms and hugged me.

"Are you okay?"he whispered in my ear and asked me.

"You're asking me? You're the one who's covered in blood."

It was only then that he looked down on his shirt to see it completely covered.
"This isn't my blood."
"What do you mean this isn't your blood?"
He didn't give me a reply, just quickly glanced to his right, in which I followed his line of sight.
There Cleo was. The white shirt that he was wearing now getting ruined by the excess blood that was escaping the hole that was now in his chest.
"Oh my God. Cleo!"both Elijah and I ran over to him, trying to stop more blood from escaping.
"Stay with me Cleo. I know you're a bastard and all, but you don't deserve to die."
Elijah put as much pressure as he could to Cleo's wound, but more blood kept escaping through his fingers.
Cleo looked at us through his frozen state, every few seconds flickering his eyes to his wound then back to us. He lifted his arm to rest it on Elijah's shoulder, squeezing apologetically.
"I-I'm. S-Sorry."
"Don't say it like that. Like you're saying goodbye."Elijah placed his hand on top Cleo's. He then looked at me then to Kelio who now towered over us.
"Help him!"Elijah screamed at Kelio.
"Gladly."
Kelio smiled sinisterly before he raised is gun and shot Cleo square between his eyes.
I didn't have any control over the words that left my mouth after.
"No!"
I watched as Cleo's eyes locked onto mine before slowly shutting down.
"Cleo no! Stay with us. Please!"the tears were already present on my face. I just simply sat there and stared at him, hoping this was a joke and he would get up soon.
"Oh stop the crying. I did all of you guys a favor. He was a douche."
I glared up at Kelio from under my eyelashes, fists forming at my side.
"You bastard!"I slowly started to rise to stand on my feet. "At one point he was our friend. He's somebody's son. Did you ever consider that?"
"Oh my God."Kelio brought his hand up to his mouth when he let out a gasp. "You just made me realize something. I. Don't. Care."
Almost instantly, he dropped his hand and turned away from us, ordering Dylan to clean up the mess.
I slowly started to walk up behind him.

Surprise attack is the way to go.

"Tori. What are you doing?"I heard Elijah call after me.
I waved him off and continued to take slow strides.
When I was close enough, I lounged at him and jumped on his back. He fidgeted and spun, causing me to become slightly dizzy, but I held on tighter.
"You little bitch! Get the f**k off me!"
He tried to reach behind him to grab me but I bit him on his neck which caused his hand to instinctively go there instead.
"You're a dead man walking Tori Valentine!"
The word dead distracted me for a brief moment, which was enough time for him to grab me by the arm and pull me off of him, spinning me around so that I was pressed against his front and now facing the others.
He then pressed his gun to my head.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you now?!"
"Because. You need me as leverage."I said confidently, holding my head high.
To that, he scoffed and held me by my throat, squeezing.
"I think you should know that your position as leverage was taken away when I got Elijah here. Matter of fact, I got everyone here. So I could easily kill you now, with a bullet through your brain, or the simple snap of your neck."
The grip he had on my neck tightened, causing me to gasp for air.
"No answer? Then I guess I'll settle for the latter."
He then held my head in a certain position and was about to snap it when Elijah stopped him.
"Wait! Don't hurt her."
I felt Kelio's grip loosen which gave me the opportunity to run to Elijah. He welcomed me with open arms then pushed me behind him.
"You know Kelio, you never told me why you hate me. Or why you want me and Tori dead."Elijah pressed.
Kelio scoffed before walking further away from us.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm doing this to avenge Nat!"
We all looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
"You're avenging a dead girl?"Vaughan asked, stepping closer.
"Don't you dare talk about her like that!"Kelio took a shot at Vaughan and purposely missed.
"You don't understand. I loved her. I f**king loved her. She was all I had. She was all I ever wanted. All I ever needed. And you took her away from me!"Kelio now had tears in his eyes.
"Kelio. I'm sorry. I really am."Elijah took slow, cautious strides towards him.
"No you're not! You guys are just like your parents. Inconsiderate and manipulative. Well atleast not all of you. Mostly you Elijah, and Vaughan."
All of us looked to Elijah and Vaughan with raised eyebrows. When Kelio noticed this, he let out a humorless chuckle and continued.
"You think I don't remember? My dad, Elijah's dad, Vaughan's dad and Malcolm all use to work together. They were sort of like a gang. Your parents kept you in the dark about the situation but my dad told me about everything, just in case I may have to use various information to manipulate one of them one day. When they were getting old in age, they went their separate ways. Vaughan's dad became close with Elijah's dad and mine with Malcolm. You could even call them bestfriends. But everything changed when they both met Simone. They both fell in love with her, but she only loved one. It came to a point when they fought to the death, winner gets the girl, and unfortunately, my dad lost, taking Elijah's father in the crossfire. I lost everything that day. I thought I would never be the same again, that is, until I met Nat. She was the light to my world, the apple to my eye. I was so naive. I wanted to settle down, even runaway with her. I thought she loved me just as much too. That is, until I found out she's been lying to me and secretly pinning after you. When I found out, I lost it. Went as far as to change my gender to the opposite sex, joining Jodie's crew just so I could torment her. A couple months passed until I found out she was pregnant with your child. I tried to confront her and tell her that I wanted to raise the child as my own, but she rejected me and went to you. After you shunned her, she called me telling me that she wants me there when she takes her last breath, and made me promise, that as long as I'm alive, I will avenge her and her child that didn't get to see the world."
We were all left speechless after his long talk. I saw Micheal and Damian starting to sneak up behind him while he was still vulnerable, so I made myself useful and came up with a distraction.
"How is this going to make you feel better Kelio? If you kill us, you'll only end up in jail."
"I don't mind. As long as you're dead."
He then raised his gun, pointing it between Elijah and I.
"Who do I kill first?"
It was at that moment, that Damian lounged at Kelio, managing to take the gun from his grasp. We all scattered after, finding different places in the room to hide.
Kelio managed to over power Damian, aiming the gun and shooting him in his shoulder.
"Ahhh!"
My response to Damian's cry was the movement of my feet running towards them. I pushed Kelio as hard as I could and the gun fell out of his grasp once more and slid across the asphalt.
"You bitch! I'm going to enjoy killing you."he made a move to grab me but he suddenly stopped when he heard the cocking of the gun.
"Don't. Move. Kelio."
Kelio slowly turned to face Elijah who was aiming the gun directly at his head.
A hint of fear flickered across his face before he quickly masked it.
"What? Are you going to shoot me? You and I both know that you don't have the guts to do it."
"Don't tempt me Kelio. Based on everything that you've put me through, I won't hesitate."
Elijah placed his index finger on the trigger, ready to pull at any moment.
"Then do it! Do it you imbecile! Do it!"
I swore I saw Elijah's finger pull the trigger slightly but someone stopped him.
"Freeze! This is the LAPD! Drop the weapon!"
We all turned our heads to the now open door to see multiple men cladded in different police gear, pointing their guns at us.
My eyes widened when I realized that they may have had the wrong impression, thinking that Elijah was the bad guy and not Kelio.
My focus went back to Elijah and I saw him slowly lowering the gun. From where I was standing, I saw Kelio grin and whisper something that only Elijah was supposed to hear, but unfortunately, I did too.
"I told you that you couldn't hurt me. If I get out of here, I'll be sure to come for your whole family next time."
Something in Elijah snapped. I watched as he quickly raised the gun again and pulled the trigger, lodging a bullet in Kelio's chest, right where his heart should be. I watched, horrified, as his lifeless body fell to the ground.
The police team ran over to Elijah and tackled him to the ground, while I watched with my mouth agape.
"You are under arrest for the murder of........the following victim. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney during interrogation; if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you."
The handcuffs that they placed him in looked tight on his wrist, it was only when they brought him up to his feet and shoved him forward that whatever was happening finally registered.
"What are you doing?! He's innocent!"I made an attempt to push pass the officers to get to Elijah but they only pushed me to the ground. Elijah made eye contact with me from the floor and stopped in his tracks. He whispered something to one of the officers in which I saw them reply with a kurt nod. I locked eyes with him as he made his way over to me and crouched down to my level.
"Hey. Are you okay?"
Just the sound of his voice made me break down in tears.
"Please don't cry."
"How can I not. You're going to jail."
Despite his hands being in handcuffs, he still found a way to comfort me by leaning into me.
"Look at me."
At first I refused, but when he repeated himself, I locked my gaze onto his.
"I may be going to jail, but that doesn't mean I won't always be with you. I love you Tori. I really f**king do, and I would do what I did a thousand times over if it meant it would keep you safe."
My eyes glistened with tears by the time he was finished. I flung my arms around him and hugged him. When I pulled away I smashed my lips to his before he got the chance to say anything else.
He was the one to break the kiss. He then placed his forehead on mine and smiled apologetically.
"I love you too Elijah. So very much."
"It's time to go."our moment was ruined when a police officer hauled Elijah to his feet and dragged him in the direction of the elevator, me hot on their trail. We all entered the elevator and waited impatiently for it to reached the top level. The soft 'ding' that it made indicated that we have reached our destination and we were greeted with flashing lights and different microphones being shoved in our faces from all directions. News reporters and camera men flooded the scene. In the midst of it all, I saw Margaret trying to maneuver her way through the crowd, trying to get to her son. Elijah was escorted throughout the household and out the door where other reporters and the neighbors stood, with their phones in hand. They walked him all the way over to the awaiting cop car, bending his head slightly, until he was seated. Through the transparent window, we made eye contact. I saw him mouth five words.

I will always love you.

I felt the hot tears drip on my hand before I wiped them away. The car slowly started to drive off, but not once did we break eye contact.
I only looked away when I couldn't bear the pain much longer.
My heart ached and clenched, one thought in mind.

I will never see the only man I fell in love with ever again.

And it f**king hurts.

The End.

An: Last chapter! Not every story has a happy ending 😣. I'm sorry if I've upset you by ending it this way, but that's how I want it to be.
Because! There's a sequel coming! Forever with you!! It's on my profile! Be sure to check it out🙂

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Yours truly,
Gea💛.