A gun… she has a gun.
“Shelby, please…” I lift my hands, palms up. “Please don’t do this,” I beg, but she only smiles at my pleading. She smiles as if this is some kind of joke to her.
Banks must hear me, because the next thing I know, he’s barreling up the stairs calling out for me.
“Don’t fucking come any closer,” Shelby yells. “If you do, I’ll shoot her. I’ll do it right now!”
I don’t look back at Banks, but I can hear his footsteps falter somewhere behind me.
“Okay, okay, I won’t move,” Banks answers, his voice abnormally shaky. A stark contrast to his usual cocky, unfazed demeanor.
Shelby sneers, “This is all your fault, you know? Your dad and I could have been happy. I could’ve had it all. He loves me, and the only reason we can’t be together is you.” She points the gun at me as she speaks.
“What do I have to do with you and my father’s relationship? If I have a say in it, I’ll never see him again. You can have him.”
Her pale cheeks flush with anger, “It has everything to do with you!”
“Every time I was with him, all he wanted to talk about was you. What you were doing? Who you were seeing? He was never interested in what I was doing. All I wanted was his attention. I wanted him to see me, and the only way I can have him is by getting rid of you. Then everything will be perfect.” Her smile is frightening and makes the blood in my veins turn to ice.
“Please, Shelby! I’m pregnant,” I sob, cradling my stomach.
“I know,” she snickers. “The plan didn’t go as expected.” She shakes her head and points the gun at the ground.
“What do you mean?”
“How do you think you got pregnant in the first place? I exchanged your pill for placeboes. You’ve been taking nothing more than sugar candy,” she admits, shocking the hell out of me. My mouth opens, and for once, I’m speechless. She… she did this?
“Why… why would you do that?”
Shrugging her shoulders, she says, “I thought if you got knocked up by one of the Bishops, your father would finally disown you. I guess that didn’t work out. So, I’m going back to the original plan I had. It sucks a little, but killing you is all I can do now.”
Shelby raises the gun again, and my mouth opens, a scream on the edge of my tongue. Then the doorbell rings. With the gun still pointed at me, she tilts her head, looking at me with shock and anger in her eyes.
“Expecting someone?”
“I-I don’t know…” I really don’t know. Were we expecting someone? I can’t think straight with that thing pointed at me and my life on the line.
No one moves for a moment, and then the doorbell chimes once more. Then that same impatient person starts to pound on the front door, the sudden, loud noise making me jump.
“Harlow, I know you’re in there. Open up!” My stepmom’s muffled voice carries through the heavy front door and silent house. “I’m not leaving until you open this door and let me know that you’re okay!”
Why the hell is my stepmom here?
“Well, I guess you better let her in. I can go ahead and kill two birds with one stone… Or two people with one gun,” Shelby cackles.
“If you hurt her, I swear to god you’ll wish you were never born,” Banks threatens.
She rolls her eyes, “Go get the door, Romeo, or I’ll shoot her right now, and you won’t be able to do a thing to stop me.”
Listening as Banks descends the stairs, I start to shake; fear and panic bubbling up.
“You don’t have to do this. We’ve always been friends, and we still can be. Just put the gun down,” I do my best to keep my voice even, but Shelby can see right through me, and instead, she takes a step closer, her eyes darkening.
“Maybe a long time ago, we were friends, but not anymore. Not ever again,” tears pool in my eyes because even as crazy as Shelby is, as lost as she is, I still yearn for that person that I once knew. The person who was a friend.
I can hear someone climbing the stairs, and when I peek over my shoulder, I find my stepmother at the top of the landing. What the hell is going on? My body is caught in the crosshairs between two crazed women.
“Shelby, don’t be stupid, drop the gun. Harlow, everything is going to be okay.” I can hear my stepmother speaking, but I don’t feel the emotion in her words. It’s not going to be okay. None of this is okay.
“Me?” Shelby laughs like an evil villain, and my stepmother strolls right past me, closing in on her. “I’m not stupid. I’m not the one who doesn’t even realize her husband is in love with someone else. He loves me, not you, you old hag.” I can see the glint of metal peeking out of my stepmom’s sleeve, the edge of it red with blood, droplets falling casually to the floor.