“Your time is finally over.”
No...
The front door burst open behind me, and a furious cry shot through the air. “ No! ”
Before I registered what was going on, someone shoved Josh off me, and the sound of cracking bones filled the hallway. I forced myself to my feet and cried out in dismay when I recognized Hayden’s tall form on top of Josh. He was hitting him repeatedly, smashing his fist against his face in rage.
“What. Are. You. Doing. Here?” Hayden spoke after each punch.
I bolted to the phone in the living room and dialed 911, bewildered that Hayden had come to my rescue. I explained everything in a rush and gave my address, hoping the police would come before anything tragic happened.
By the time I finished the call, Josh managed to push Hayden off him, and they continued their fight on their feet. My insides churned with desperation as I tried to decide what to do.
Hayden received and dodged several blows before he got the upper hand. He pushed Josh against the wall and pressed his forearm against Josh’s neck.
“I’ll ask you one more time before I make a mash out of you. What are you doing here?”
Josh barked a laugh, wheezing and coughing blood. “What the fuck do you think, smartass? I came to finish her.”
He looked at me over Hayden’s shoulder with a sick grin, his face distorted from injuries. “This bitch was supposed to pay a long time ago, but instead of showing her her place, you decided you wanted a taste of her.” He returned his gaze to Hayden, his eyes conveying the full extent of his hatred and lunacy.
“You can have any pussy you want, but you want this cunt that deserves—” Hayden cut him off by punching him in his stomach. Josh cried out in pain, but then he continued laughing, looking psychotic. “You were kissing her on your own brother’s grave. You’re a fucking disgrace.”
“What are you talking about?” Hayden growled, pressing him harder against the wall. Josh looked like he didn’t have any air left in his lungs, gasping for oxygen.
“Hayden!” I stopped behind him. “You’ll kill him if you keep pressing his neck like that!”
“This shithead deserves to suffer,” he bit out, staring Josh down.
“Hayden, please!”
Josh chuckled, or at least tried to, but it came out like a croak. “S-Shithead? And here I t-thought we were f-friends,” he said with great difficulty, rasping.
“I’m not your friend . Now, answer my question!”
“You’ll kill him if you continue like this! Please!” I tugged at his arm as forcefully as I could, hoping I could manage to pry his arm off Josh’s neck. “The police will deal with him!”
I pulled his arm again and thankfully, Hayden moved it enough to allow Josh to breathe.
Josh let out another chuckle, which came out like sandpaper rubbing on dry wood. “You really fell hard for this cunt, huh? Listening to her like some lapdog. Was her pussy that good—” Hayden landed another punch on his stomach, and blood spurted out of Josh’s mouth.
He sneered at Hayden. “I could never stand the sight of her. She was always so stupid, annoying, and whiny. I always told Natalie there was something going on between you two all along, but she didn’t believe me. She had to see you two kiss at your brother’s grave to finally get into her head what I was talking about.” He stared at Hayden with such hate that it gave me shivers.
My thoughts returned to that day in the cemetery when I saw a drunken Hayden behind me. We ended up kissing, but I never saw anyone then, even after I ran away from Kay’s grave.
“You started sending me those messages because Natalie saw us kiss?” I asked in astonishment.
“That kiss just sped up our plan because it confirmed you and Hayden weren’t enemies. Natalie always wanted revenge, but she thought Hayden would finish you off sooner or later. So after she saw you kissing, she went to your place and slashed your tires, but then I thought it would be better to mess with you with those texts before we finished you off.”
My legs were shaking, my mind racing to comprehend their cruelty. So, Hayden had told me the truth. He didn’t slash my tires. It was Natalie.
“What do you have to do with anything?” Hayden asked him through gritted teeth. “Why are you helping Natalie?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I love her,” he said simply. “I always loved her. I was so jealous of Kayden, who couldn’t even appreciate what he had. I would never betray Natalie the way he did. Never.” He glared at me with accusation, as if it was my fault that Kayden fell for me while loving Natalie at the same time.
“Still, Natalie never stopped loving him, and my heart broke when I saw her after his death. She wasn’t the same person anymore, and it was all your fault, bitch. You made her lose her mind. I would do anything to make her happy—anything to see her smile like before—even kill you.”
The level of his obsession and lunacy sickened me. He was so attached to her that he would even kill me for causing her pain, and it was crazy. Both of them were deranged. No matter how much Natalie loved Kayden, nothing justified such hatred. She was plotting my death . That wasn’t normal at all, and I couldn’t wrap my mind around it.
“So you two plotted to kill me?”
His grin was sick. “Damn right, but because your boyfriend here decided to meddle into something that’s none of his business, he’ll pay too.”
Josh drew another knife out from under his jacket and raised it quickly into the air with the intention to attack Hayden... “I’ll kill you first!”
Hayden tried to dodge him, but unsuccessfully. The knife cut into him, and I screamed, watching him take several wobbly steps backward. With a growl, he clutched his left shoulder. His crimson blood soaked his T-shirt fast and trickled down his arm. My head spun. Oh my God.
He was hurt. There was so much blood already. Oh no.
No, no, no.
I reached with my hands to support him, a new-found fear for him gripping me, but he pushed me away with his right arm.
“Go away, idiot!” He glared at me, his bruised face twisted in pain. “You’ll get hurt! Get out of the house!”
No. I couldn’t do that. I had to stop being so useless and figure the way out of this craziness. Where were the police already? How much time had passed? Five minutes? Ten minutes?
I couldn’t leave Hayden here alone! He got hurt, and if I didn’t do something soon, he could...
Die.
NO.
Josh moved to the side, blocking the way to the front door, and directed his bloody knife at me. “You aren’t going anywhere. I’m going to kill you before you get any closer to that door.”
“No, you’re not,” Hayden grunted in response and lunged at him. He managed to dodge Josh’s strike this time by a hair's breadth, receiving a kick in the stomach that almost made him fall. Josh didn’t stop, swinging the knife once again.
In the last possible moment, Hayden grabbed Josh’s arm with both hands and moved the knife away from him, despite the injury he suffered.
“Sarah, run away,” he yelled, focused on the knife. Josh grabbed Hayden’s neck with his other hand and squeezed it hard.
No, I wouldn’t run away! I desperately looked around the hallway for any object that could help me defend him, but then I saw Hayden letting up, and the knife got dangerously close to his chest...