“No, no, no, no,” Mimi backed up in her frozen position, raising her hands in defense. As if her hands could defend the bullet. “Sofia, this isn’t you. Put the gun down. We can talk this out. Please, Sofia, I’m your cousin.”

                “You’re jeopardizing my safety.” Sofia said.

                “Please, Sofia!”

                Sofia bit her bottom lip, not breaking her eyes from Mimi. “I’m sorry, Mimi. I am. But do you really think I have another choice?”

                I looked back and forth between the girls, my heart pounding in my chest. My hands shook rapidly by my side. I sucked in short gasps of air between my slightly parted lips. The tension in the room was thick. I could almost feel Sofia cracking under Mimi’s attempts to fight for her own life. That thought alone was enough to send fear through my veins.

                “Yes!” Mimi shouted. Her eyes were wide, pleading with Sofia to let her go. “Yes! You always have! Put the gun down!”

                “And let you go to the authorities?”

                “I won’t let them take you away, Sofia! I love you!”

                She loved her? I couldn’t help the small thought of surprise pass through my mind. I didn’t realize girls had that kind of thing on this side. Homosexuality had always been frowned upon on the Boys’ Side.

                Sofia’s next words brought me back to the situation we were currently in.

                The life or death one.

                Sofia snorted, rolling her eyes, “You needed a place to stay Mimi, and because I loved you, I let you. I really shouldn’t have.”

                “Sofia—!”

                “None of this would’ve happened if you simply hadn’t come, Mimi, don’t you see? And now that you’ve come, you’re going to ruin everything!”

                “What?!”

                Sofia sighed, shaking her head. Her eyes shimmered in the light, red around the edges, “I’m so sorry, Mimi, I really am. I have to.”

                “You’re picking that over me?!” Anger flashed through Mimi’s eyes.

                “Apparently!”

                “You hate boys! They’re the enemy! Why the hell are you protecting him and threatening to kill your family?!”

                Sofia shook her head, “You never understood. No one ever did. They’re not the enemy. We’re all humans. We’re genetically made to coincide.”

                “These are just lies!” Mimi’s head turned my way, her eyes cold and dark, “YOU! You’re the reason she’s out of her mind!”

                “Shut the hell up!” Sofia screamed.

                I couldn’t bring myself to even talk. I was in pure shock at how this situation had turned and at what was happening.

                Mimi closed her mouth silently, her eyes falling back on Sofia. But not before she shot me a look of pure hatred.

                Sofia ignored that.

                No one spoke for a moment.

                “You’re the one who has been fed lies, Mimi, and it’s too late for you. I’ve done studies, experiments, tests, everything!” Sofia shouted, her voice piercing through the silence, “Our bodies were designed to work with theirs. Everything about it! It’s all in the data! It’s facts, Mimi, and facts don’t lie to us.”

                “What are you saying? That this war has been a complete waste of time?” Mimi snorted sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “Come on. Get real. Put the gun down. They have plenty of data showing just how opposite our sides are.”

                “Really?” Sofia asked, annoyed, “Really? How would our species exist without a male and a female? How would any species exist that way?”

                “Our scientists are amazing! They could make it work!” 

                “It takes a sperm from a boy and an egg from a girl.” Sofia raised the gun, pointing it at Mimi’s chest, “You’ll never understand that. No one will. But I do. And I need to fight for what I believe. You’re only getting in the way.”

                “Think about what you’re about to do!”

                “I’ve thought.” She laughed once, “Oh, don’t tell me I haven’t thought this through, thought everything through.”

                “Then what are you doing?!”     

                “Protecting myself. Protecting Clayton. Protecting our species.” Sofia listed the names off as she flicked the power on.

                The sound of the gun starting up filled the room, a hum increasing its pitch quickly. Mimi’s chest rose and fell quicker as the noise increased.

                “Please, please, please!” Tears trickled down the sides of her face as she pleaded. Sobs ripped through her chest.

                She was looking at death in the face.

                I’d be terrified too.

                Hell, I was.

                “I’ll see you in Hell, Mimi.” Sofia whispered.

                The red dot appeared directly over top of where her heart laid inside of her chest. Mimi began to bawl, unable to hold anything back.

                Sofia closed her eyes.

                Her finger pulled the trigger back.

                I looked away, flinching. I couldn’t take watching another person die today. My eyelids closed tightly as the sound of the bullet leaving the gun erupted in the room.

                I waited until I heard the loud thud.

                Mimi was on the ground, face up. Her body was slumped in a heap, blood trickling out of the new hole in her chest.

                Sofia turned the gun off, lowering it.

                It clattered to the ground.

                Hesitantly, I took a step towards her.

                She didn’t move, her chest rising and falling slowly. Her eyes never left the girl she had just killed. I stepped around John, wrapping my arms around her.

                I pulled her against my chest.

                “Thank you so much.” I whispered.

                “I…I need…” Sofia pulled from my grasp, looking at me straight in the eyes. “I need a minute please.”

                I nodded.

                She sniffled before taking off and up the stairs, not looking back at the two bodies on the floor as she went.

                I stared down at the two bodies next to us.

                Two people killed today.

                Glancing back at the stairs longingly, I stepped around the bodies.

                I couldn’t refer to them as people.

                Both of them had threatened my life.

                I walked over to John, standing with my feet next to his head. Turning his head with my foot, I stared down at his empty face.

                Only moments before there was a soul in that carcass.

                “I’m sorry, John.” I whispered into the silence. “I really am. I wish we could’ve ended on better terms. You were always a brother to me.”

                I knew he couldn’t hear, but I had words to say.

                He may have been my enemy, but he was my friend first.

                “If you were to die, I wish it had been by my hands.”

                The words were out before I thought them through. Maybe it wasn’t appropriate, but I was being honest.

                He may have been my friend, but he was my enemy now.

                My dead enemy.

                I looked around the house, listening to the silence.

                Silence…

                The thick silence….

                A thought struck me at that moment.

                “Fuck, Cassie.” I whispered to myself. My feet bolted to the basement where the door was wide open.

*******

Yeah, I know, short, but I wanted to leave you in suspense :D!!