There was nothing I could’ve done. I sat there fearing for what was about to happen. Would he really be able to kill someone, let alone Gerald? Then again, he did shoot Isabelle and did unlicensed surgery just for the pure fun of it. “How could you have done it?” I whispered.

“Oh Kim. It was easy. There’s this thing called a gun. One you aim it at your target, which was her, you pull the trigger.” He explained.

“How could you have hurt them? They’ve never done anything to you, ever!” I spat.

He sighed, “It’s my duty to do this. He should’ve known better than to come to this small town and invade. And you, you should’ve known better than to go onto that team. I really am sorry that you got in the middle of this.” He shrugged innocently, “But there’s nothing more that can be done.”

I eyed the steering wheel. “That’s where you’re wrong,” I muttered. I grabbed onto the steering wheel and spun it left with all the energy I was able to stir up. The car spun in a circle and my body began to ache because I was restrained by the seat belt.

“Let go!” He screamed, and pulled my fingers off the steering wheel, one by one. “You little !” When he stared back on the road, he didn’t see the car that was coming straight us, but it was too late to brake.

It was a head on collision, but thank goodness for the air bags and seat belts. It took me awhile to wake up and become aware of the smoke coming out of the hood. I coughed feeling spasms of pain everywhere in my body, and felt blood trickle down my forehead.

It was a struggle to get out of the car, but I did, and when I did, I collapsed onto the ground coughing. “Oh God,” I muttered under my breath.

When I pulled myself up, I looked back inside and saw that Jake was unconscious with blood gushing out his head. I groaned and looked around me. There was a crowd beginning to surround us, and I heard sirens in the close distance. The other car in front of us only had a driver. I personally thanked God that it didn’t have any children. The driver didn’t look too injured, however he was limping.

He limped all the way towards me an grabbed onto my arms, “Are you okay? I’m not sure what happened, you came out of nowhere.”

I pushed him away and looked at the street sign. My leg was growing heavy and I found out that I was just two blocks away from Erich’s house. I started limping towards her house and gradually picked up speed.

I rang her door bell repeatedly and that’s when the exhaustion truly hit me. I put my hand against the brick wall and closed my eyes taking deep and slow breaths. Where was Gerald when I needed him the most?

“Oh my goodness! Kimmy!” She grabbed hold of me and held up my weight. “You look like you’ve been in an accident! Come inside, let me call the hospital. Does Gerald know? Where is he? Oh my God, Kim!”

I shook my head, and cut her off, “No, no. Stop, Erich!” I demanded. “I need your car!”

“No, Kim, you need a hospital.”

“Erich! You’re not listening to me! I need your car. I can’t afford to explain right now, but I need your car keys!” I pleaded staring into her eyes with all the desperation I had in me.

I could see she was terrified, “Kim, you’re scaring me.”

“Please!”

She finally nodded and grabbed her keys. “But I’m driving.” She helped me into the car and got into the driver seat.

We passed the scene of the crash and my pulse quickened when the scene was just as I left it, but Jake was nowhere to be found. “Oh no,” I took another breath. “Go to the warehouse on third and twenty-seventh street.” There was only two in our little town and I figured he needed to go to the abandoned one, since the other one was full of workers until late at night.

We arrived there shortly after. She stopped in the parking lot and looked over to me, “Kim, what’s going on? I really think you need to go to the hospital.”

I shook my head, “Stay here, okay?” I opened the door and was surprised when I was walking perfectly fine. The door was already opened and when I walked into it, the smell hit me like a deer in headlights. I covered my mouth and my nose with my hand. It smelled like garbage and rust.

I walked slowly inside and the only light source inside was coming from the windows on the top floors looking down to the bottom. It was absolutely disgusting; I saw rats running around, cobwebs everywhere. I walked around slowly looking around. For the most part, it looked empty. But from what I learned in the last couple of months, I knew looks could be deceiving, starting with Jake.

I felt my cell phone vibrating, and I dug in my pockets for it, causing pain to hit every part of my body. “Hello?”

“Kim, where are you?! Erich called me and said it looks you’ve been in an accident! Why haven’t you called me?” Gerald’s voice was concerned and scared. “Kim, I told you to be careful. What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Please don’t start. I’m at the warehouse on third and twenty-seventh street. But be careful, I think Jake’s been follo – oh my gosh!” I cried out. There was a dead body right in front of me with flies surrounding it. I covered my mouth. “Gerald!” I screamed.

“Kim! Kim, what’s wrong?!” His voice was stern and demanding. “Talk to me!”

“Ahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LET ME GO! LET GO OF ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU’RE HURTING ME! LET ME GO!!!!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. His grip was so strong that I dropped my cell phone. It was Jake right in front of me.

“Kim!!!! Kim!!!!!!!!!!!” I heard his voice and then the car start, and then it went dead.

He slapped me across the face with the back of his hand. I fell to the ground with a grunt. “That was a nice trick. I bet you hoped that would’ve killed me,”

I spit out blood, and looked at him, “Well a girl could hope.”

He laughed, “And then you thought you could hide the bullets. It’s a good thing I went looking before the cops arrived. You almost gave me a heart attack when you weren’t there.” He looked down to the body just a couple of feet away from me. “I see you met my friend, John Doe.”

“You killed an innocent bystander? What’s wrong with you?!” My whole body was trembling when he took his gun out.

“Actually, I didn’t kill him. He killed himself. Couldn’t deal with the task he did.”

“He shot Isabelle.” I whispered finally understanding.

I heard tires screech outside and then yelling. “Why didn’t you bring you her to the hospital!?” I heard Gerald yelling at someone, most likely Erich.

“And the games finally begin. Get up!” He ordered. When I didn’t follow his rules, he grabbed me by the arm, and that pushed a pain like a bullet down my am. I cried in pain, and he held me up with a firm grip. “And this,” he took out a syringe, “is a drug. A friend of a friend of mine stole it from a lab where they’re testing some sort of illness.” He laughed and I felt his breath on my ear. I tried to push away. “So maybe it’s not a drug, but a disease. Let’s see how willing your boyfriend becomes when I put it in your system. I bet he’ll be more than happy to sacrifice himself to save his precious, precious Kimmy.”

The held me so tight that the pain from the accident came rushing back. I tried pulling away, but he kept squeezing my arm and hurting me.

“Let her go!” Gerald screamed coming through the doorway.

My breathing went shallow and came out in quick gasps when I saw him. So he was okay, but what about everyone else. And then there was Erich. Her eyes widened, “Jake? What are you doing?”

“You should’ve listened to your best friend when she told you to stay in the car. And now there has to be more lives taken.” Jake said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Just let them go!” I said trying to pull away, but he was dragging me up the stairs now. My legs felt like they were going to give out. “Please, let me go!”

“Oh, Kimmy. Stop struggling, and the pain will go away.” He whispered in my ear.

I started crying and looking back at Gerald and Erich. And a huge wave of relief came over me when I saw Chris and Isabelle run in. “Now this will be interesting.” Jake muttered. He adjusted me in his arms which in return freed mine. I elbowed him in the ribs which caused him to free me and grunt, and turned around to kick him away from me. I started running as fast as I could; as fast as my legs would allow. I could see Erich and Gerald running towards me as well, and it all stopped when there was a gunshot behind us.

Erich stopped, as any normal human would do, but Gerald continued running. Only to have Jake beat him to the punch. “I always knew you had a little fight in you. I bet Gerald taught you that.” He pulled me back up and banged my side against the wall. I cried out in pain knowing for sure I broke it.

Chris restrained Gerald and Isabelle grabbed Erich’s arm, whispering something in her ear and then she ran out. Isabelle ran up the opposite stairs. “This is between us, isn’t it, Jake?” She breathed in deep. If I didn’t know any better, she didn’t have any injuries. “Just let her go, and you can fight for what you want.”

He laughed, “What fun is that without having something to bribe you with. And we all know Kim has a special place in all your hearts.” He turned to smile at Gerald who was trying to get away from Chris.

Isabelle walked closer to me, “You’re going to lose Jake. There’s three of us here and only one of you. So really there is no fight.” She tried to rationalize.

“You’re right. I guess I’m going to die anyways. But really I didn’t expect to live through this. Have you ever heard of a hunter living passed their confrontation? My goal was to just bring at least one of you down, and since Kim is on your side, she’d be a good candidate.” He said pointing the gun in my neck.

I cried out in pain as his grip around my arm tightened. Gerald finally got free and ran up the stairs to corner him.

Right at that second, my Dad showed up with Erich. “Jake! Let go of my daughter!” He yelled.

My head was spinning, and all I wanted to do was to close them, but I needed to stay awake for this, not fall into the darkness. “Daddy, go!” I cried.

Another gun shot was heard and I flinched at the sound. “What is with the growing party?! Oh, Kim, now more people have to die because of you.”

Alessandra entered and I heard Jake sigh behind me, in relief of course. She came behind my Dad and hit him in the back of neck with a gun in her hands. “Daddy!!!!” I screamed, my lungs screaming in pain also.

Chris spun around and was fighting her for the gun, only to be shot himself. He fell to the ground. “No!!!!!!!!” I yelled again.

And she moved quite quickly, pointing the gun to Gerald. “Don’t worry sweetie, the bullets aren’t iron. They’ll just be in a whole lot of pain.”

Seeing Gerald being pointed at gave me a shot of energy, allowing me to break free from the hold he had on me. Isabelle grabbed hold of him and slammed him against the wall.

I ran down the stairs and ran into Gerald’s arm when I heard a third gunshot. I held onto him like my life depended on it, in which it did. If it wasn’t for his quick feet, we would’ve been killed already, but four consecutive shots later I was still in his arms. “I’m so sorry!” I cried in his arms.

He shook his head and brushed my hair back. He was smiling and crying at the same time, but the smile disappeared abruptly when I heard the fifth shot. His arms went limp around me and I stared at his face and his eyes looked so empty. “Gerald?” I whispered. “No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” It seemed like my scream went on for ages. He fell to the ground in my arms, but I could still feel him breathing.

In a twisted way, I was thankful that it was Alessandra who shot him and not Jake. At least this way, I knew he wouldn’t die. I got up, and ran to Alessandra who looked terrified. I grabbed the gun from her hands and did everything I knew how for her to let go. It almost felt like we were in a movie, but what killed me was that it wasn’t and that some people were not going to make it.

I kicked her in her in the stomach and she yelled. She dropped the gun and then I kicked her again pushed her against the wall, banging her head first. She fell right to the ground and I ran for the gun. I looked up and saw that Isabelle was still fighting Jake. The next thing that caught my eyes was my Dad. I ran to him, and I started shaking him. “Daddy! Daddy, wake up! Get up!” He opened his eyes and I helped him up.

“Kimmy, let’s go! We have to go!” He grabbed my arm.

“No! No! I’m not leaving without them!” I screamed. “Daddy, I can’t leave without them.” I said out of breath.

And then I felt a gun to the back of my head. I looked at my Dad whose eyes went so wide. “Jake!” He screamed.

He took me back into his arms and I felt him breathing hard. “Give me the gun,” he whispered, “Or Gerald dies.” I looked over at Gerald who was still on the ground.

He put the iron gun in his back pocket and took the gun away from me. And he did what I didn’t think was even possible. He shot my Dad in the arm and he went down. “No!” I screamed.

He dropped the gun, hit me against the wall, pulled me back and threw me to the ground. I cried out in agony. I sat up and saw him walking towards me. He spit, and stared back at me with blood trickling down his head. “So I think I’m going to be the first to admit that it’s not what I thought it’d be. But nothing ever is, right?”

Tears were streaming down my face because from what I could see, everyone I loved was hurt. It was only me now, and this was probably how it was going to end. He pulled me up from the arm I thought was broken and I shrieked.

That’s when I saw Gerald slowly get up. And with that, everyone else did too. Jake quickly realized this too and took out the syringe from his pocket. He pulled me outside, dragging me across the gravel.

[OKAY, NOW IT’S THIRD PERSON NARRATIVE]

Gerald got up and saw that there was blood on his arm, but his first thought was about Kim. She was nowhere to be seen and neither was Jake. He ran upstairs and found Isabelle get up slowly. He helped her and half-carried her down the stairs. Her body was almost limp and he knew it took everything just for her to be awake right then and there. He put her down carefully next to Kim’s Dad, and then checked for his pulse. It was faint, but the only news he could really take care of was that he had one.

The next person was Chris. He was holding onto the wall and was stretching his neck from side to side. “You okay?” Gerald asked him grabbing a hold of him.

Chris nodded, “That psycho shot me in the back.” He groaned. “Where’s her psycho partner?”

“He has Kim,” Gerald was almost sure. He knew in his heart that she’d never leave him, though he hoped otherwise.

Chris nodded and told him to go out there. He’d deal with Alessandra and meet him out there in a few. Gerald nodded and ran outside. “Kim!” He screamed.

On the other side of the warehouse, Jake slowed down his pace. He was growing tired also. “You know Kim, it could’ve been different. We really didn’t have to go through all of this if you just stayed my girlfriend.” He said in a normal tone now.

“It was over between us way before I caught you with that girl,” Kim explained. “And Gerald, it started before that too.” She took a deep breath, “You think you can win, Jake? You have the power here, just turn yourself in.” They all could hear the sirens now.

He laughed, “Right, and get charged for…attempted murder? No thanks. And you’re wrong, I don’t expect to get out of this alive.”

“So what? This was all just a lost cause? You really want to die?” Kim tried to talk to him; talk to the Jake she once knew. “Jake, what happened to you? What made you do this? Please, just end it.”

“It will be over soon.” He promised.

“Are you going to kill me, now? You going to shoot me? I thought we had something before. Before all of this. Jake, you had something going for you. Can’t you just remember who you were before all of this happened?” She cried.

He sighed, bit the top off the syringe and spit it out. “See Kim, I did love you. And all of this, it wasn’t supposed to be like this. I could never kill you. But now…I don’t have a choice.”

The sirens were loud and clear, like they were just a few feet away. “No, please. Don’t do this! Please, Jake. No!” Kim could feel the tip of the needle against her neck dig in deep.

“I’m sorry, Kim. I’m sorry it had to end like this.”

“No,” her voice faded out as he pushed the needle in and then pulled it out. He dropped her limp body and ran, but it was too late.

He was right. Four gun shots later, it was all over. Jake Cuenca was dead.

Gerald ran to Kim, “Kim!!!” He screamed. He pushed the hair away from her face and shook her, “Kim, wake up!” He cried, tears running down his face. “Help!” He screamed behind him, but then put all his attention on her limp body. “Kim, wake up! Please, Kim! Kim!”

The ambulance arrived and took her from Gerald’s arm and put her on the stretcher. He wiped his face with his hands and followed the medics.

Everyone else was carried out also, Isabelle with Chris by her side; Kim’s Dad with Erich following them; and Alessandra alone.

He jumped into the ambulance with Kim, and took her hand holding it against his mouth. “Please, you need to save her.”

“Sir, you’re bleeding.”

“I don’t care!” He screamed at the doctor. “You need to help Kim! You need to do everything you need to do to save her.”

The doctors started hooking her up to an IV and checked her body for injuries. “She was injected with this,” he pulled out the needle, and handed it to the doctors. “It’s some sort of disease or something. Why aren’t you doing anything?!” Gerald yelled looking at the paramedics who were moving as fast as they could in a moving vehicle, but it was in turtle mode in the eyes of Gerald.

“Do you know what it is?” One of the doctors asked.

“It was from a medical lab. I don’t know…” He could see her heart rate was slowing down and her forehead was beginning to glisten. Obviously the Doctors saw something more because they figured it out and called the hospital to know what to do.

Gerald wiped his face again, and ignored the torturous affliction in his arm. He grabbed hold of Kim’s hand once again and kissed it, holding it against his lips. He leaned forward so Kim could hear it if she could. “Kim, just hold on, okay? You’re going to be okay, you have to be. Just stay with me a little while longer, they’re going to be able to fix you, okay?” He cried. “Just….just fight it, Kim. I need you to fight; fight for me Kim.” He whispered. “Kim, I need you to fight, I know you can do it. I need you,” he pleaded. “I can’t lose you, Kim. I love you,” his voice broke, “Stay with me, Kim. I need you.” He kissed her hand again, “Please Kim, I love you.”

I'VE BEEN WORKING FOR HOURS ON THIS ONE, AND IT'S NOT EDITED SO PLEASE FORGIVE ME [BUT NEITHER ARE ALL MY OTHER CHAPTERS; I WORK BETTER THAT WAY]. I REALLY DO HOPE YOU LIKE IT, I KIND OF LEFT IT OFF AS A CLIFF HANGER TO SEE HOW EVERYONE REACTS TO THIS. I REALLY HOPE EVERYONE WHO READS IT COMMENTS, I REALLY WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU GUYS THINK ABOUT IT, ESPECIALLY THIS CHAPTER. I TRIED MY BEST FOR IT TO BE ROMANCE-SUSPENSE TYPE STORY AND I WANT TO KNOW IF I'M DOING AT LEAST AN OKAY JOB. I UPDATE BECAUSE OF YOU GUYS, ALL THE KIMERALD FANS, SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COMMENT.

P.S. HAS ANYONE EVER SEEN THE MOVIE "HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS" OR "THE UGLY TRUTH" [WHICH COMES OUT TOMORROW IN CANADA] BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT FOR THE NEXT FANFIC. A LITTLE BATTLE OF THE ES BETWEEN OURS TRULY KIM CHIU AND GERALD ANDERSON. SO PLEASE COMMMENT AND TELL ME WHAT YOU GUYS THINK. XOXO ROSE<3