Part 27

[Present]

"Sent."

Alden smiled at Lara who looked back through tired eyes. She had finally listed all her crimes out one by one, and somehow the list just seemed never ending.

She loathed herself for choosing Lucien. She could have saved herself. But its also true that she no longer had any future.

"So now that we're done here..." he walked back to a table at the corner and picked up a syringe, "let's get out."

"So what, like a cliché villain you're gonna kill me in the end anyway?" She closed her eyes, laughing. "I should have known."

"I'm pretty sure your lover will never come to find you. Didn't you two have an agreement that he would let you run away?"

"If you think he will let me go so easily... You're a stupid bitch," before the words were out of her mouth, Alden felt something sharp against his head. A cold round object.

The muzzle of a gun.

"Welcome, dear cousin."

"Missed me?" Lucien smiled toothily. Lara knew what was coming next but she could not close her eyes quick enough.

She felt warm blood splatter against her skin. She heard the dull thud as Alden's body hit the floor.

"Sorry I was a little late, I legit thought you had been able to get away for real this time." He sat down and began cutting through her ropes. "No security footage, no traces. Took me a little bit of a time."

"Why did you come back?" Lara felt tears roll down her eyes. How could she now tell him what was coming next?

"I know you were scared but don't cry. I already have tickets booked, lets get out of the country," he wiped her tears away. "I promise this time I won't fuck up."

"But-"

"No, I won't listen to anything."

"I confessed to all our crimes, Lucien. It's over."

"What did you just say?" His hands stilled.

"I confessed to all your crimes," Lara said calmly. "They'll arrest me any minute now."

"Lara, what the fuck?" Luciens eyes widened. "Why would you do such a stupid thing? I didn't think you could be that dumb."

"They have evidence, Lucien. More than you can cover up. Your uncle he... he dug up every fucking thing. He has a tape of you shooting Michael. He..."

"It doesn't matter if he has a tape or not! A tape like that can be easily taken care of. I could have framed him back! Why-"

He stopped mid sentence. He knew why.

"No Lara... please God no..."

How ironic of a sinner to call for the God, Lara laughed.

"I love you Lucien."

"No..." he shook his head childishly. "No no no, you're lying. You always lie..."

"Its the truth though," she cocked her head to the side in an innocent display. "I do love you."

Lucien stood so still that she thought he had frozen into a statue from shock.

"I took the blame to clean your name. I confessed I killed the students during our school days. I confessed about what Michael has done and when your name came up I made up a story about how he was going to kill me and I manipulated you into killing him for me since the video just shows you shooting him and that's it. Our conversation wasn't audible from the distance. I took all the blame since that way at least nobody would wanna dig deeper into the incidents. They would have somebody to blame and it would be me."

"I don't care. I don't care!" he grew desperate. "Let's run away. We can leave this all behind right now. He's dead anyway he won't come after us ever again. He's gone."

He took out his cell phone and called Jack. "Yes I need two plane tickets to... what?" He slowly turned around to look at her who gave a sad smile in return.

"They have suspended all flights for an unknown period of time," Lara clarified. "I'm said to be armed and dangerous. They have my photo all over the media. It's all over."

"No we can still make it," he tugged on her hand and began walking away. "Let's hide till the situation dies down. Come on..."

He looked back as she slowly let go of him, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I'm sorry..." her voice broke. "I'm so sorry... I don't want to live like this anymore. I've been running and hiding ever since I've met you again. I don't want to live in this hell anymore."

Lucien stared at her with emotionless eyes. He felt like the incident from six years ago was repeating itself all over again. Except this time, he knew he would never get her back. If she turned herself in, if they took her... she would never come back.

"How many people have we killed, Lucien?" she paused. "We didn't kill just those students, we killed their families with them."

"But I killed them, you didn't do anything."

"Yes, I didn't do anything." Lara smiled through her tears. "I stood by and let you kill them because I love you. I know what you're doing isn't okay but I let you because I love you. And I was afraid of being like you so I kept denying it. Over and over and over again. I called you sick but looks like I've caught your sickness too." She took a deep breath. "I killed Veronica out of jealousy."

It took a moment for the name to click in Lucien's mind. The girl he kissed in the library to show off in front of Lara.

"Then I disguised her death as an accident. Remember I was always good at hiding crime scenes?

We are both poison to this world, Lucien. They'll never accept us," she touched his face tenderly. "If we leave this world we'll be happier. No more running, I promise."

"Don't say stupid things. Let's go home..." Lucien could feel himself repeating the same words over and over again knowing how stupid he sounded yet he could not stop. "We will go someplace else and begin a new life. Lara, please don't leave me. Please don't leave me, fuck please..."

"I wonder just how far you will go for me?"

Her cold hands left his as her body toppled to the ground. It happened too fast for Lucien to comprehend.

He looked at the body on the ground, now blood pooling out around her head where she had just been shot.

Shot?

He slowly turned around to see armed men pointing guns at him. And the one who had shot her was the one in the front, with his gun now pointed directly at him.

He smiled. He smiled as he felt his insanity slowly leaving him. He lost all grasp of his senses. His body fell to the ground with a thud beside Laras.

He touched her body, cold as ice. Even when his mother had died he had made sure not to touch the body. But this was Lara. He could not not touch her.

His body shook with silent pain. His ears ringed and he could not hear anything beyond his own heartbeats. He took her in his arms and screamed for the first time in his life. A scream filled with so much agony that it made everyone else halt in their positions.

He screamed and screamed until his throat went sore. As he screamed he felt a new emotion he's never felt before.

Regret.

It's all my fault. It's my fault it all ended up this way.