He drops to his knees before falling face first into the dirt.
Derek screams, running to him, crying out his name over and over.
“You killed him. You killed my brother,” he screams.
But I toss the crossbow I found in the back seat down to the ground. “I was just sticking to the script, asshole.”
Chase closes the trunk, a meat cleaver now in his hand. He looks back at me over his shoulder.
“Close your eyes, baby. You’ve seen enough for today.”
Derek’s yelling and sobbing, but I turn around, closing my eyes and putting my hands over my ears as I start to hum “Baby I Love Your Way” by Big Mountain.
But I know when it’s over because I feel the cleaver hit the ground.
Chase’s arms encircle me, keeping my face hidden before I look up at him splattered with blood.
Normal people would be falling apart. Normal people would be scrambling to call the cops, but there’s nothing normal about us.
We’re just two traumatized versions of Romeo and Juliet who would kill for each other.
“Sooo,” I breathe out, taking his hand as we turn away from the carnage, my eyes lifting as I hear sirens off in the distance. “This feels like the wrong time to say this, but I love you.”
He grins, showing off that dimple. “Thank fucking god, because I’m not sure I could best murder.”
His hand cradles my face as he stares down at me, then frowns, letting go to grab my still-damp shirt and wiping his mouth on it.
“Gross,” he says, looking back at me again, retaking theI’m about to kiss youposition before he does just that.
He kisses me long and tenderly before pulling back. “Hey, you probably already know this, but I love you too.”
This is where the movie would end if this were fiction, but instead, I scream ... because Noah flies out from the cabin, with the knife Goldie threw earlier in his hand.
“Fuck ... youuuu.” Chase jump scares, almost breaking my arm to put me behind him.
Noah’s chest is rising and falling at breakneck speed, his pulse visible on the side of his neck, as we all stare at each other before he looks at the crime scene behind us.
“Oh ...” he breathes out, still a little breathless as he lowers the knife. “Okay. So, handled.”
Chase nods, running his hand through his damp hair. “Yeah, but I may never make lamb chops again.”
Goldie’s voice comes from the cabin, so I rush to her, wrapping my arms around her. “Oh my god, you’re okay?”
She nods weakly. “It’s gonna take more than that to kill me. I’m the main character.”
Damn. She has no idea how close her joke is to the truth.
The boys take a seat on the steps as my sister and I hug on the floor in the doorway, and art imitates life imitating art all over again.
Police descend, ambulances tear in behind them, and even the familiar sound of a chopper kicks up dust around us. But the four of us sit, looking between each other.
“Can I say it?” Chase grins as Noah chuckles.
I nod, rolling my eyes. “Yeah. Do it.”
“Cue the credits.”
I hate him. And god willing, I’ll never have to live without him.
