"NO! GOD DAMN IT!" Arin yells as he runs into a large collection of Mini Ztars. Dan, Arin, and I are playing Mario Party 9 once more to try to get our minds off of Emmett, and it's working. I'm thinking about him less and less.

"Ha! Suck it!" Dan yells in victory as he becomes the player in first place while Arin quickly moves down to last place. It's a very close game. I'm only behind Dan by two Mini Stars.

"I-I want. My life. To end," Arin groans, burying his head in his hands.

"What a baby," I scoff, rolling my eyes.

Dan giggles. "Indeed." He then smirks. "Oh, Arin~!"

Arin looks up at Dan. "What?" he growls.

"It appears that there's a new video game boy in town!" Dan says. "Now, I'm the one who wins!"

I laugh at the reference Dan made. However, Arin doesn't appreciate it nearly as much as I do. He responds by whimpering and curling into a ball on my couch.

I poke Arin's side, making him whine. "Stop! Let me suffer in peace!"

I poke him once more. Arin responds by scooting away from me, whimpering.

"Oh, yes!" Dan says in victory as he runs into a collection of ten Mini Stars. Yoshi celebrates by throwing his hands in the air. Dan does the same, giggling like a child. "I'm so good at this!"

"Yeah, you're so good," Arin mumbles in a sarcastic tone, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I'm sorry, who's the one in first place?" Dan smirks. "Because I believe it is the sexy God known as Dan Avidan. And who's the one in last? I believe it is the comparably less sexy Arin Hanson."

I laugh, and Arin growls. "I can come back from this. And, just so you know, I'm the sexier one."

"You are not!" Dan argues.

"Am too!" Arin fires back.

"Are not!"

"Am too!"

"Okay," Dan says, "how about we have (Y/N) settle this dispute?" He smirks, knowing what my answer will be.

"But she's biased!" Arin whines. "She's obviously gonna pick you! What about Suzy? Let's ask her!"

"She'll be biased too!" Dan says. "Fine. Let's agree that we're both sexy, all right?"

Arin thinks for a minute. "Fine. But I gotta go to the bathroom. Pause the game, will ya?"

I nod, pausing the game as Arin skips to my bathroom down the hall.

After about a few seconds, there's a knock on the door.

I look at Dan. "I'm too lazy to get up."

"I am too," Dan says. He then looks like as if a lightbulb goes off in his head. "I know! How about we play Rock, Paper, Scissors to solve this?"

I'm hesitant to agree, but I eventually do. "Fine."

We then throw our signs, and Dan throws rock, while I throw scissors. Damn it!

Dan smirks, waving. "Have a nice journey to the door!"

I groan, standing up. "I hate you."

"No you don't! You love me!" There's a pause as a nervous expression crosses Dan's face as he realizes that we've never said that to each other before. "Right?"

I smile. "Of course. And you love me too, right?"

Dan smiles back. "More than you know, (Y/N). More than you know."

Feeling uwu soft for my boyfriend, I skip to the door and pull it open, not thinking to look at who it is through the peephole.

I see a smudge of black dashing toward me, whoever's behind the door moving so fast that I can't see them. They cover a calloused hand over my mouth and hold me in place with the other. They then speak, and I know exactly who it is I'm dealing with. "Don't make a sound. I'm not gonna hurt you as long as you cooperate."

My heart sinks.

Emmett.

My ears ring, so I barely hear Dan say, "What the hell are you doing here? Let her go!"

Emmett turns us around to face Dan, who charges at Emmett and tries to grab me away from him.

Emmett shoves him away with surprising strength. So much strength that Dan falls backwards onto his butt.

Emmett is reaching in his pocket for something, so I take that opportunity to push his hand away from my mouth, which I do, miraculously. I then stumble over to Dan and help him up, my heart hammering uncontrollably in my chest.

Once I do, I hear the unmistakable click of a loaded gun.

If I thought my heart was beating fast before, it's beating Sonic speed as I slowly look up at Emmett, who is pointing a handgun right at Dan.

No. I can't let this happen.

I go to reach for my phone to call the police, and that's when Emmett moves his gun over to me. "You call the cops and I'll blow both of your brains out. Got it?"

Tears blur my vision as I slowly retract my hand. "Why are you doing this? Why are you here?" The words fall out like vomit. I can't control them. They just come out.

"I thought that'd be obvious," Emmett says, moving the gun between Dan and I over and over again. Where the hell is Arin? I could really use his help right about now. "I'm here for you, (Y/N). I want you for my own. I have since high school. You would be the perfect wife. The perfect mother of our children. The perfect person for me to unleash my anger on.

"The want for you just kept getting stronger and stronger every day. So I killed your parents. That was me. I did it so I could get closer to you and make you my own. Only then, I wanted it to be a slow process so that you'd trust me more. So that when the time came, you'd go with me willingly.

"But then I met this guy." Emmett gestures toward Dan as anger flares in me. He was the one that killed my parents? "And I knew the only way I'd be able to get you was a violent way that I really didn't wanna resort to." He sighs, as if this whole thing is bothersome to him. "And I'm afraid that way starts with eliminating your knight in shining armor."

Then, before I can protest or beg for him not to, Emmett keeps the gun focused on Dan and fires.

A sickening bang resounds throughout the house as the bullet leaves the gun. It hits Dan right in the stomach, and his mouth falls open in a silent scream, blood immediately beginning to go through his shirt. He crumbles to the ground, not able to support himself anymore. More blood leaves him as his face goes pale. His breaths are shallow, and his eyes are wide and are staring at the ceiling.

No.

No.

NO!

I kneel down and immediately apply pressure to Dan's stomach with my hands. The action makes his breathing waver with every push of my hands. The blood of my boyfriend soaks my hands, but I couldn't care less. Tears fall freely from my eyes and onto Dan.

This can't be real. He's not gonna die like this...

He can't...

~~~

OH MY GOD THIS MADE ME REALLY SAD TO WRITE. HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER BUT HOLY HECK IM A MESS RIGHT NOW.