Alternate Chapter Thirty-Four
A/N: This is an alternate chapter of 34, followed by an alternate epilogue. This alternate chapter starts off from the middle of the original chapter 34 (Mid-endingish) from where things proceed differently than the original chapter 34. Hope you guys like this version of the chapter!
Here's a quick recap of the 34th chapter:
Shay wakes up to complete darkness, realizing that she's been tied up. Her leg aches and Shay suspects that it is a ligament tear. James enters the room, with a lit lighter in his hands. Shay looks around to see Rose, Kaya, the rest of her friends, her mom and Will's dad. James seems surprised Will was alive, angry because he released the gas to kill Will, but Will didn't die. After showing footage with Will's mother's final moments, James flicks the lighter off to kill Will.
Shay screams loudly, and James turns the lighter on again: now annoyed. He stomps on Shay's bad leg to quieten her. James starts listing off about his past and his plans: how he had 'important things' planned that day, hence the less security and he couldn't check if Will had indeed died or not. Saying that he was the one behind killing the citizens of Blackwood, kidnapping the kids and killing The Royale Pharma's workers for vengeance and that he would kill Shay and others too, as they got to know too much.
Will passes Shay a knife, and Shay realizes that Will's hands were free and he was just acting that he had been tied up. Shay cuts the ropes behind her back too, making sure James didn't notice it.
The part of chap 34 from where things proceed differently:
He (James) stopped near Will again and knelt down. "Time to say your goodbyes, Will. Do you have any last wishes? Do tell them." He pauses and looked at the wicked-looking knife in his hand, the light from the flame bouncing off its surface. "Okay, not that I would actually grant them even though I do have the power. But I just want to listen to your wishes and tell you to fuck off."
Shay opened her mouth again to scream, piss him off which will make him stamp on her foot again.
But James didn't pay her any attention, blowing to extinguish the flame. Her heart lurched with fear. The sound of a fist hitting bare flesh echoed throughout the room, followed by a series of grunts and sounds of kicks. The lighter was flicked back on, and relief rushed through Shay.
Will held the lighter in one hand, illuminating the room. His other hand held a knife which was pressed against James' throat. He had pushed James against the wall, trapping him completely. Will ripped the tape from his mouth and raised his eyebrows, panting.
James laughed cruelly, his eyes darting to Will's phone which showed an ongoing call with the police. "You think you're gonna be saved, aren't you? Wrong." The knife against James' neck stopped pressing into his flesh. James smirked, "Oh, how silly you are. You think you tricked me?
The guy you trusted? He's George's friend, isn't he? Poor guy, he died in an accident." Shay gasped, her arms trembling. James continued with a smug expression, "Your Peter got a few high positioned and trusted officials with him into a car. Some police officers whom he knew he could trust. Little did he know there were two snakes with him. As Peter started telling them everything, showing the documents with proof in them, the snakes grew alarmed. They called me, which they rarely do because they are scared of me. Soon, they received a call: your call, Will. So the entire thing you thought could be used as another proof? Poof. Waste. Those trusted officials couldn't really believe that something like this could happen, but they ordered some cops to come here."
"But," James raised a finger, "The two snakes got off the car convinced that they heard something loud. When they get off the car, the accident happened. The other police, who were still on the line, would obviously hear something was wrong and would rush over to the accident site. So, I have some time on my hands. The car's blasted to bits, by the way."
Will glared at James as he pushed the knife harder against James' neck to kill him, but James was faster. The lighter's flames blew off again, but Shay could tell by the sounds that the fight was intense. The lighter came on again, and James had trapped Will again: no knife in sight. James gritted his teeth, "When I'm saying something, listen."
James glanced at everyone in the room as Shay cut the ropes around her leg free. As he focused on Will again, Shay passed the knife to Kai: it landed a few inches away, and Kai strived to reach it. She struggled to come to her feet as James started with a sober expression, "I have to admit this, though. The luck is on my side this time. If things proceeded differently, I'd be doomed by now. Those two snakes actually wanted to get on a different police car, and if that had happened, they would never know what was happening in Peter's car, they would never call me to warn me, they would never lift Will's call and Peter would've gotten the most solid proof he could get."
James laughed, kicking a struggling Will at the same time. "The police would come here, and I wouldn't know about it till the last minute. They would arrest me, and you guys would make it out alive, getting your happily ever after. Too bad that can't happen."
Shay finally managed to stand on her both feet, dragging her bad foot and walking as quickly as she could towards Will and James. At the precise moment, James aimed a punch at Will which he dodged and a kick which he didn't. Getting the minute he needed, James ran towards the door and Will followed.
Shay looked back at her mother, and her friends, then back at the door. She looked at the ropes binding Kai's hands. The blade of the knife wasn't too sharp and was taking time to break the rope.
Shay hopped and dragged her bad foot around, lessening the pressure on it as she darted towards the door. She heard glass shattering as she held onto the door's frame for support.
Shay blinked multiple times to adjust herself to the bright surroundings. She was standing in a deserted hallway, and a few steps away from her, slumped on the ground with a glass piece sticking out of his chest was Will.
A heartbroken sob made its way out of Shay's mouth as she staggered towards the boy bleeding on the floor. She observed with relief that he was still breathing, but judging by the laboured breaths and the rapid flow of blood, it would be bad if help didn't arrive soon.
Shay crumbled in front of him, her hands hovering over his chest as she sobbed. His green eyes were unfocused as they fixed upon her, but suddenly widened and filled with fear and worry as he looked at something behind her.
A hand roughly caught her face, pressing a handkerchief into her nose.
The last thing Shay saw before she blacked out were those beautiful green eyes locking with hers, full of terror and alarm.
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Shay's eyes fluttered open, adjusting to the dim surroundings. Shay groaned, her brows creasing as she looked around her. She was in what looked like a cabin, bare without any furniture or decorations. In front of her were floor to ceiling windows, showing some trees, and a white building beneath the cluster of trees.
She gasped as everything came back to her, her heart throbbing painfully. Will had been on the floor, bleeding with a piece of glass stuck where his heart would be. Tears trickled down her cheeks as she trembled uncontrollably, screaming. "Oh, you're awake," a cheerful voice called out.
Her head whipped in the direction of the voice, her hand now trembling with rage. "You," she snarled. "I'll kill you. If something happens to Will in the building, I'll fucking kill you. I'll make sure you die slowly, painfully," her hands were straining against the ropes binding her to the chair.
James did not seem to be fazed by the threat, "I see my younger self in you, sweetie. I swore the same thing when Sam killed everyone close to my heart and framed me for what I didn't do. I swore I would destroy him. At first, it was so painful, but now I see that it's for the greater good. I'm handing my powers to you as someone who would wipe away evil."
Shay didn't seem to hear what he told, all she could see was red. Yes, she would kill him in the cruellest way possible for what he did to her father, and Blackwood. And if something happened to Will, her mother or her friends, she would...
Her fists clenched, and she looked down at her shackled hands. They were bathed in blood. She didn't know if she was seeing it or blood was on her hands. "That, my dear," James said, his voice sending a flare of hatred down her veins. "Is how you'd be framed. For the deaths of your mother, Will's father, Will himself, and your best friends. If you remember, the two snakes had claimed they heard something loud. What they heard would be an explosion, and when they go further to investigate, they see your house in flames and a girl covered in blood, with blood all over her face and body, laughing hysterically. That blood? It's your Will's."
The hate now simmered, fear bubbling to the surface. If Will had lost this much blood...
Shay whimpered loudly, broken sobs tearing the way out of her throat. "They'll find seven completely unidentifiable corpses in the ruins of your totally gorgeous house, the DNA pointing out that it's your friends, your love, your mom's bodies. Completely fake, though. Everyone is still inside that building. The police will momentarily be occupied with the accident, but soon some people will be sent here and I intend to make sure this place looks how it looked before."
There was a small click sound as if a button was tapped on. The small sound was soon overpowered by the sound of a deafening explosion. The white building erupted in flames, crumbling as a series of explosions followed. Shay's body went limp, her mind blank.
Time was meaningless. Overwhelming grief seized her, and Shay screamed and cried until her throat was hoarse. Her eyes fixed upon the ruins of the building, debris scattered on the ground. Her world, everything she lived for, now lying amongst the dead ground.
Somewhere, the remains of her sweet mother would be on the ground. A few paces away maybe, the charred bodies of her friends would be crumbling against the black ground. She screamed again, the sound burning her throat. Somewhere else, the bloody glass piece might've been separated from the body of the guy she so deeply loved.
The door to the cabin opened, but Shay barely heard them. She was beyond hearing, sensing, seeing. Everything which was natural to humans couldn't be done by her. She was numb to the entire world.
James clapped, "Ah, here you are! My two dear snakes! You did a good job, and you'll get a good reward. But one thing: make sure someone cleans up this place so that it looks like how it did years ago. And take her to the police."
Someone picked Shay up, carrying her and hauling her into a car. But she didn't process it, her eyes fixed upon the black ground. They might've stepped on any of her friends remains, was the only thought she had.
Throughout the car ride, her numbness transformed into rage. Her grief into a thirst for revenge. She was screaming by the time they had reached the police station, screeching that she would make sure they would die.
The two snakes seized her as she kicked and writhed blindly, every nerve in her body alight with rage, yearning vengeance. "I'll kill them all, I'll end them all!"
Her eyes darted around the police station, a crazy, manic glint in her eyes that promised death and destruction. Something inside her had snapped. Her hands which were smeared with blood strangled the air. Shay laughed darkly as she pictured James' neck in her hands, the air not quite reaching his lungs. She was suddenly delirious, a barrel of wild laughter leaving her lips as she imagined James' life slowly vanishing beneath her hands.
The police around her eyed her with apprehension even though she was completely bound. "I'll kill them all, I'll end them all!" Shay screeched again, dissolving into giggles as she imagined killing James again. Any police officers who were reluctant to believe that a young girl in her teens killed the people she loved brutally had no problem believing it as they watched her now.
The manic energy left Shay after a night or two, leaving her with rage, revenge, an ocean of grief and unresolved trauma. She spent the next few weeks crying for her mother, for her friends, for him. No matter how much she cried, the trapped grief didn't leave her.
After a month, Shay swore to destroy James and the people involved with him. Shay, who never deliberately hurt anyone, who let ants crawl onto her hands to steer them away from water, swore to destroy James. Any traces of the gentle, loving Shay left, leaving the dark side of Shay who was craving for vengeance.
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