“Run! Run, Nyssa, come on!” Kimmie shouted in Nyssa’s ear as she grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her into motion. “Come on!”
Nyssa stumbled after Kimmie, following her down the hallway until they crashed into Sebastian’s bedroom. Nyssa could hear the intruder running after them, but she felt frozen to the spot, her whole body completely limp and useless as she watched Kimmie throw herself against the door. “Fucking—not—fucking—today!” Kimmie grunted out as she locked and latched the door closed right as the intruder turned the last corner and dashed toward them.
Thud. The intruder knocked his body against the door, which creaked a little under his weight but held firm. “Come on, help me with this,” Kimmie said. She struggled to move the dresser out from its place against the wall opposite the door, but Nyssa moved to help her and together they managed to shove the dresser against the door.
“Do you think that will keep them out?” Nyssa whispered. Her heart was pounding at the base of her throat and in both of her temples, but she felt weirdly numb, like her body had run out of adrenaline and had no other alternative to keep her alert even in the most frightening moment of her life thus far.
“Not for long,” Kimmie said, and as if on cue, someone slammed against the door again, grunting in frustration as it held up. Nyssa felt like she could feel the vibrations of the intruder’s body rocking through the whole room. She felt like she was going to be sick, but she couldn’t afford to throw up right now. Not when Kimmie was tearing the room apart, clearly freaking out.
“What are you doing?” Nyssa asked, watching helplessly as Kimmie ripped the sheets off the bed.
“Looking for a weapon,” Kimmie said. “That door isn’t going to hold up for very much longer, and we’ve got to have something to defend ourselves with.”
Nyssa’s stomach turned over. She placed a hand over her abdomen, wishing she could feel the weight of her child inside of her. But it was too soon for that. Too soon, and too late. They were going to die here, together, before they even got a chance to meet. Nyssa should have known better than to hope for anything different. She was always going to end up here, on the wrong side of a weapon, someone bigger and stronger than her standing over her useless body. This was what she was meant to do, how she was meant to die. Like helpless prey, stuck in a corner with nowhere left to run.
But even though Nyssa felt like she couldn’t even move, Kimmie kept looking, tearing the room up from top to bottom. “Come on, I know Sebastian has to keep a weapon in this room somewhere,” she muttered to herself as she tore his closet apart, throwing various items of clothing across the room as she searched every inch of the closet frantically.
“Kimmie…” Nyssa sighed out.
Kimmie didn’t turn around, still sifting through clothes to try to find something she could use to defend them against the intruder. “Yeah? What is it?”
“I just want to say…” Nyssa trailed off, unsure of how to articulate herself clearly. After a few seconds of struggling, she gave up, walking over to Kimmie instead and wrapping her arms around her shoulders. “I love you, Kimmie. Thank you for… for being my only friend. For being my sister. Thank you. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Kimmie whispered. Her hand came up to touch Nyssa’s, giving it a reassuring squeeze before she shrugged out of Nyssa’s grasp. “We are not fucking dying today, honey, okay? You hear me? So save your good-byes for another day. I’m not going to let you die.”
Nyssa smiled sadly, jumping a little as she heard another set of footsteps head down the hallway. “There’s more than one of them now,” she whispered, straining her ears to try to hear what the intruders were mumbling about on the other side of the door.
“Fuck this,” Kimmie said, turning to the nightstand and knocking over all of Sebastian’s belongings to the floor. “There’s—got—to—be—something… yes! Yes, I found it!”
Kimmie turned around with a small black gun in her hands. She pressed one finger to her lips and arched her head toward the door, wordlessly telling Nyssa not to announce the presence of the gun to the intruders, who could definitely hear them. Nyssa nodded as Kimmie walked past her, going up to the door, which was rocking back and forth in its hinges with the doubled efforts of the intruders trying to break in with the force of their bodies.
“Fucking—bitches—gonna die!” one of the intruders yelled from the other side of the door. The next second, Nyssa heard a loud crunching sound, right before the dresser wobbled on its legs and then tipped over to the ground, revealing a foot wedged in the middle of the door. Somebody had kicked their way in.
“Kimmie…” Nyssa said. She didn’t know what to say that hadn’t already been said, but she needed to say something, to hear her friend speak at least one last time. She needed just one last sentence to give her the strength she needed to die bravely rather than on her knees.
“I love you, Nyssa,” Kimmie said softly, reaching behind her back to give Nyssa her hand. “I love you. Now get down!”
All at once, the intruder kicked the door again, sending it tumbling to the ground, while Kimmie’s hand shoved Nyssa to the bed, right before a gunshot went off. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
“Shit,” Nyssa cried into the pillow. The whole world was dark around her, her vision suppressed by the pillow around her eyes, and she couldn’t hear anything other than the ragged sound of her own breath. What had happened? Had they killed Kimmie? Had Nyssa died already, too? Was that why everything felt weirdly calm and peaceful, because she wasn’t located in her body anymore but sandwiched somewhere between Heaven and the void?
Nyssa finally realized there was an ache in her back, like a cramp that just wouldn’t go away. She had felt it earlier that morning, too, but with all the activity she’d forgotten about it until now. I guess that means I’m not dead, Nyssa thought, feeling her lungs burn a little with the effort of breathing so hard into the pillow.
But somebody had been shot. Maybe all of them, Kimmie and the intruders alike, all were dead or dying now. Nyssa inhaled deeply and steeled herself as much as she could, given the circumstances. She had to be strong. She had to be brave and get up and look, even if it meant seeing her dead friend sprawled bleeding across the floor. She had to do this.
Nyssa forced herself up off the bed, only flicking her eyes open after she was on her feet again, ready to fight if necessary. But there was nobody to fight. The leg sticking through the door was stiff and motionless. Kimmie must have shot the first intruder before he could finish kicking the door down.
It took Nyssa a few moments before she spotted Kimmie next to the closet, lying down on the ground with her hands wrapped around her ears. Nyssa’s heart froze in her chest, her blood turning to ice water as she slowly leaned down to check if Kimmie was dead.
For a few excruciating, hopeless seconds, Nyssa didn’t hear anything, nor see any movement anywhere on Kimmie’s body. She can’t be gone. She can’t be. She can’t be, she can’t be, she can’t be dead! Nyssa thought about screaming, but she still wasn’t sure if there were other gangsters somewhere in the condo waiting for her to make her presence known.
Finally, mercifully, Kimmie inhaled deeply, several times in a row, like she was just shaking herself awake after passing out. “Oh, Kimmie, thank God,” Nyssa whispered, leaning down to wrap her body around her friend’s. “Kimmie, you saved me. You saved us.”
Kimmie laughed lowly and reached behind her head to tangle her fingers together with Nyssa. “Don’t count your chickens yet, sweetheart. We still don’t know if we’re alone here.”
“You’re not,” a male voice said from somewhere out in the hallway.
“Oh, fuck, oh, fuck, no, fuck! Shit!” Kimmie whispered, slapping her head roughly.
“Give me the gun,” Nyssa said in a rush. “It’s my turn. I can do it this time.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Kimmie said. Her eyes were full of tears now, making Nyssa feel like something in her heart was breaking apart. “There’s no bullets left in the gun! I used them all, and I don’t see any spares around here that we could use! We’re stuck! We’re stuck, Nyssa! We’re going to die!”
Nyssa felt a thousand emotions at once. Terror stopped up her throat, making her feel like she was going to suffocate before the last gangster could come in and shoot them both. Despair clutched at her heart, wrapping it in dark shadows so thick that no light could ever pierce them. Resignation set in, finally, making her whole body go numb and fuzzy-feeling, like she was a little drunk. So this is how it ends, she thought to herself as she wrapped herself around Kimmie more tightly than before. With two bangs and my best friend’s whisper. I can live with it.
Still, tears flooded her eyes, hot and insistent, as she kissed the side of Kimmie’s head, wanting her to feel as close to safe and loved as she possibly could. Nyssa blinked the tears away, focusing all her energy on treasuring this last moment that she had with her best friend on this Earth.
The door creaked open. Footsteps, slow and heavy, crept up behind them.
The man was there. Right there behind them. There was nowhere to go. There was no way to hide.
This was it.
I’m not scared. I’m not scared. I’m not scared. I’m alive. I’m alive and in love and I’m a mother and a friend and a warrior, and I am not scared, Nyssa thought, her breath coming out hard and quick as she dug her hands harder into Kimmie’s sides, holding her as close as possible. I am not scared.
“You can get up now,” a familiar voice said.
What?
“You can get up. It’s over, baby. It’s over,” the voice said, right as a warm strong hand landed on Nyssa’s back, rubbing over her spine soothingly.
Looking back on it, Nyssa couldn’t figure out why it took her so long to realize it was Sebastian. Her brain must have just been overloaded with stimuli, too distracted to be able to piece even the most basic signals together.
But eventually, her body relaxed into his touch, and she knew it was him, instinctively, immediately, without any doubt. And she knew they were saved.
Nyssa slowly let go of Kimmie, turning to see Sebastian squatting on the ground next to her. “Are you hurt?” she whispered as she reached out to grab his face, forcing him to look her in the eyes and tell her the truth.
“No,” Sebastian said, smiling a little at her. His fingers found the tears that had fallen on her cheeks seconds earlier, wiping them away gently.
Nyssa reached down to try to find his other hand, so she could grip his fingers and wrap them under hers, but there was something cold and hard in his hands. Sebastian pulled away, then, lifting his hand to show her what it was. A gun.
“So they’re all dead?” Nyssa asked in a hushed voice.
Sebastian nodded. “There was one of them stationed outside and two of them in here. But I guess you guys took care of one of the guys before I got here.”
Nyssa shook her head. “Not me. It was Kimmie. All Kimmie.” Nyssa reached over to press a hand on Kimmie’s back, just to reassure her that she still there. “She saved me. She saved… both of us,” Nyssa said, gesturing to her stomach.
Sebastian put his hand on top of Nyssa’s, his fingers rubbing over her skin lightly a few times, but his eyes became unfocused and glassy, like his mind was a thousand miles away. “Is everything okay?” Nyssa asked hesitantly. She’d never seen Sebastian look like this, like he’d just seen a massacre happen, like he was genuinely shaken up.
“No,” Sebastian said, shaking his head. “It’s not okay. But it will be soon.”
“What do you mean?” Nyssa asked.
“The Giustinis. I’ll make them pay for this.”
“Please, don’t,” Nyssa said, feeling panic surge within her chest, her body slowly waking itself back up as fear returned to her. “I just want it to be over. I just want us to be safe.”
“We will be,” Sebastian said. “I promise. And I’ll bring you in when we are. It’ll just take me a few hours. I swear.”
“Swear on what?” Nyssa asked.
“On us,” Sebastian said, rubbing her stomach a little before pulling away. “I’ll be back. Take my gun. It’s full of bullets.”
“What about you?” Nyssa asked.
“I’ve got plenty more,” Sebastian replied as he got to his feet. “Just wait here. And take this burner phone, too. I’ll call you on it as soon as everything’s taken care of.”
Nyssa nodded as Sebastian exited the room, leaving Kimmie and Nyssa alone with the two bodies. Nyssa knew she should have been freaking out still, consumed with worry about what Sebastian was up to. But at this point she was too exhausted to be afraid. She’d faced death and walked away tougher, harder, and less frightened.
For now, at least, she just wanted to hug Kimmie. So that’s exactly what she did, remaining cuddled up with her best friend even as some of Sebastian’s friends came by to dispose of the intruders’ bodies. She held her close, hoping that in some way she could take the pain and fear and exhaustion away from her best friend, even though she knew there was no way she could really comfort her at the moment.
But it was okay. Somehow, Nyssa just knew that it was over. It was all over, and they were alive. They were safe. They were together.
Some six hours after he left, the phone Sebastian left with her rang. Nyssa answered it right away. “Hello?” she said.
“It’s done. You can come home now.”
“What?” Nyssa asked, confused. “I am home.”
“Home to the brothel. You know, Katrina’s old palace. It’s ours now. Come claim your throne.”