I took a step toward him, my arms reaching out. He stepped back and turned his face away
from me.
“Cameron, don’t. You’re scaring me.” I wasn’t just scared; I was petrified. “Tell me what
’s going on. Please.” I lunged into his arms before he could react and latched my arms around
his neck. I heard him sigh, and he held me for a few seconds. Footsteps came from behind us. He
unhooked my arms and pushed me away. I followed his frightened gaze. Spider and Tiny were
standing a few feet away.
Spider had his gun pointed at us.
“What’s going on?” I asked, my voice shaking with the rest of my body.
Spider was staring coldly at Cameron. “You said your goodbyes, now we finish this.”
Cameron turned to Tiny. “Get her out of here.”
Tiny nodded and started walking toward me.
I pleaded to Spider. “Please don’t do this, Spider. We’ll leave. You can have it all, and you
’ll never have to see us again. You don’t need to do this. Please …”
Spider kept his eyes on Cameron. Tiny came to grab me from behind and started to drag me away.
I screamed through my tears at Cameron. “Cameron, do something! Don’t let them do this.
Please.”
Cameron glanced at me with eyes of pain, and then he took a breath, his jaw tightened and he
looked away. His face became expertly unaffected as he stared back at Spider’s gun, waiting. I
was in a nightmare. I needed to wake up. But the throbbing in my chest was too real for this to
be a dream.
By the time Tiny had dragged me to the door while I kicked and screamed, the first shot rang
out. I watched in horror as Cameron fell to the ground. Tiny had jumped too and momentarily let
go of me.
I ran back to Cameron and crouched to the ground, putting myself between him and Spider’s gun.
I looked down. The shoulder of Cameron’s shirt was already soaked through with blood. His eyes
found me, but they were dulled. Life was sapping from him and dragging me with it.
“Get out of here, Emmy,” he said too calmly, like he didn’t feel the gushing wound in his
shoulder.
“I won’t let him do this to you. I’m not leaving you. Why are you letting them do this?”
“I have no other choice,” he said. “It has to end this way.”
“I won’t say goodbye to you,” I resolved. “You can fight. Why aren’t you fighting?” I was
furious that he was giving up so easily. “Don’t let him win, Cameron.”
I could feel him vanishing. I put my hand over his wound and turned his face, forcing him to
acknowledge me. Tears were burning my cheeks.
“I love you,” I told him in a desperate whisper. My eyes homed in on his, but Cameron had
squeezed his eyes shut. It, love, was no longer enough.
Cameron pulled my hands away and yelled, “Get her out of here!”
Tiny had come back and, this time, picked me up off the ground, threw me over his shoulder, and
carried me out.
The last time I saw Cameron, he was staring at the ceiling and a tear had rolled out of the
corner of his eye.
I was still screaming and crying uncontrollably when Tiny finally set me down. He wiped the
sweat off his forehead and held onto me with one arm while I continued to fight him off.
“There’s nothing you can do, Emmy,” Carly’s shaking voice said. She had been standing next
to us outside.
Three more gunshots successively fired from inside the warehouse and then all was quiet.
Carly put her hands to her face. I lost myself and fell to my knees.
Chapter Twenty-Nine:
The One Who Holds the Gun
In that moment, when the last gunshot rang, I felt Cameron leave me. I snapped, like a wishbone.
Cameron was the lucky part that was broken off; left behind was the unlucky part, just hollowed
marrow, sucked dry. There was so much pain around me. It was as if someone were stabbing me and
slashing my skin open. I wanted to be dead. In a way, I already was—without Cameron, there was
nothing left.
My face was damp. My hair was sticking to my cheeks. I was still screaming, wailing. But inside
I felt and heard nothing. My voice was not mine. In my head, everything had gone silent and
black, a dark hole that I would never crawl out of. The old Emily had gone down with Cameron;
what emerged from the hole was some sinister thing.
When I looked up, when the Shadow-of-Emily looked up, I saw Carly. She was staring at me, her
waterlogged eyes terrified. She had reason to be scared—I was going to kill her, and the rest
of them. Hate and vengeance had spread through my veins, my heart, my brain, my skin, like a
cancer.
I lunged for Carly. Tiny was holding me back, with difficulty. Carly stood still in a stupor. I
was the caged animal waiting for any opportunity, and she was the prey that stood by the bars,
entranced.
“How could you do this?” The voice that escaped my mouth was hard and violent. “How could you
betray him like that?”
Carly was pale. She was shaking through her tears. “This wasn’t my decision. I didn’t want
this to happen. Not like this.”