Chapter 18 (End)

Gabrielle screamed at the sight of his blood. She sat up quickly, crawling over to his body which had convulsed in an effort to survive. Her hands automatically covered his wound, putting pressure to stop the blood flow but he was already exhaling the last breath left his lungs.

“No,” Gabrielle whimpered, choking on sobs and yelling for him to wake up. She was never to let him die, he was too important. It was not supposed to happen because he was the one with so much wrong in his life. The cruelty of death took his cruel life away and that was an injustice she couldn’t accept.

“Please,” she begged with the lifeless body. “It’s not fair! You can’t be dead. Jason, you can’t be dead.”

The man holding the gun lowered his arm, breathing heavily and staggering back. He was horrified with himself. He never in anyway wanting to hurt Gabrielle, he was only trying to protect her. That’s all Charlie was ever trying to do. He dropped to his knees and watched scarlet blend with the wet soil.

Her cousin was going to kill her. Charlie saw the way the boy aimed the quivering gun while she laid dizzy on the ground. Jason’s eyes had looked maliciously at Gabrielle and out of reaction, Charlie wrestled him for the gun. He was much stronger, even with his wrists still taped together.

Now of course, her cousin was dead at his feet by his doing. He wasn’t sure if his love would ever see it as self defense. It was truly kill or be killed and her love made him want nothing more than to live his days with her. He doubted she still felt the same.

Charlie dropped the gun into the mud and reached for Jason’s fallen knife. Slowly, he cut the duct tape from his wrists but with the fatigue from his adrenaline slowing, his arms felt heavier than lead. Once his bonds were finally ripped apart, he removed the tape from his mouth and tried to ask for forgiveness.

“Gabrielle? I didn’t mean—”

“Just stop,” she cut him off. Tears burned her bottom eyelids and ran freely down her cheeks. “He’s gone. He’s dead and gone from the world. I can’t… I don’t… Why did he do it?”

“He loved you,” Charlie mumbled. His eyes stared at the boy too, barely focusing from being so appalled by his actions. “When you love someone, in any form of love, you’d do anything for them.” Charlie paused before glancing miserably at Gabrielle. “Anything,” he reiterated.

The sky gradually darkened and it began to drizzle once more. It felt appropriate for the rain to come, seeing as it hid her misery. Blood mingled with the mud and bitter tears, enhancing the grizzly horror that became of the night.

Charlie had to pull his love away from Jason’s body. Out of respect, he closed the boy’s eyes. Gabrielle still sat there staring at her cousin. Other than the bullet hole in his chest and the blood that came along with it, Jason looked as though he was sleeping. She kept waiting for his chest to move up and down, gasping for air and saying it was all a joke. But he never did.

Sirens began to cry in the distance. Charlie’s fatigue disappeared with the fear for his life again. The emergency was not for them but sooner or later, someone would come for them. He shook Gabrielle out of her trance.

“My love?”

“I get it,” she numbly replied. “You have to go. It’s okay.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Charlie pulled on Gabrielle’s upper arms and helped her uncooperative legs to stand. Her eyes didn’t want to focus but somehow, he made her aware enough to look to his chin. His fingers fondly traced the curve of her jaw line, waking her with his tender touch. Gabrielle sighed uneasily. Her left hand went to wrap around his wrist to pull him away but she couldn’t make herself do it. It was more for her lack of willpower to do anything than for her wanting his touch. Charlie didn’t know the difference. He continued to caress her skin soothingly.

“We don’t have much time,” Charlie told her. “They’ll find his body. They’ll know you were here.”

“I know.”

“They’ll think… We’d never see each other again.” Charlie paused, waiting for Gabrielle’s reaction but none came. The water from the sky and the river were the only sounds. She was still too absent from the world to be bothered with what would happen eventually. “We can forget this. We can start fresh. There are two choices for you: stay here and be caught. Or… or come with me.”

Gabrielle blinked but her mind had yet to be responsive. Slowly turning her gaze to look into his eyes, she could see the desperation in his face. Charlie would get what he wanted in one way or another. Gabrielle knew it was a matter of time and she didn’t know how she would explain the death without telling the whole truth. She saw nothing but an unforgiving jail cell in her future. Giving up on the hope of a regular life ever again, she agreed.

“Okay,” she whispered hoarsely.

She traced the arch of his eyebrow under the birthmark on his left temple. Her cousin’s blood, which stained her fingers, was unintentionally wiped on him but he didn’t mind. His Gabrielle had accepted to runaway with him. Disregarding all that had happened, he chuckled and interlaced her fingers with his.

“Good,” Charlie said, trying to tease her. “If not, I’d have had to kidnap you again.”

Gabrielle shook her head. She was led to the car still beside Jason’s body. As she climbed into the passenger seat, Charlie pulled her cousin’s corpse out of the way to sit up on a nearby tree.

“I know,” she murmured her belated reply to Charlie. Rain pelted the windows in a twisted yet gentle song. She cleaned her face with her sleeve but more tears replaced the ones she wiped away. “I’m so s-sorry. Jason, I’m sorry.”

Gabrielle sobbed some more but quieted herself as Charlie got in. His pants were covered in mud, his wrists were red from the tape and he had a deep cut from the struggle with Jason for control of the gun. All of this and Gabrielle knew there was still good inside him.

But no way in hell would she deny the evil she saw there too.

Her face turned to look out of the window as Charlie started the car. Gabrielle’s forehead wrinkled in concern. Fate seemed determined to keep her with Charlie. Whether she wanted to be with him or not, she knew there would be no way of running from him, only to run with him. Charlie would never harm her. He’d keep her safe amid the roar of her horrid life. All that she saw in him, all that she loved in him… she loved alone.

And that was the thing that scared her most.

~*~

A Dream Within A Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow-

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand-

How few! yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep- while I weep!

O God! can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?

O God! can I not save

One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?

—Edgar Allan Poe

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you, as always, for reading my poor excuse of a novellette. I had a hard time finishing this since I didn't want it to end. But it had to. Amid the Roar is over but... their story will continue. That won't be for a long while though. Click the vote button if you want more/if you liked this. While I have ideas on what I want to happen, leave suggestions on what should go on in the third story. I'm not promising that I'll start it right away but I know it will happen eventually. Gabrielle and Charlie aren't through yet.

     Stay insane! <3

          –Allie Lynn