The Blood Between Us.
~🖤
---
Maya hadn't meant to go to the old gym.
But her feet carried her there anyway — the echoes of her past pulling her through the quiet halls like a ghost.
The gym was cold.
Dim.
Empty.
Except for him.
Jax.
He was sitting in the corner, back against the wall, eyes red-rimmed like he hadn't slept in days. A cigarette dangled from his fingers, unlit, trembling slightly.
Maya paused in the doorway.
> "You shouldn't be here," she said softly.
> "Neither should you," he muttered. "But we're both good at going where we don't belong."
She stepped inside.
The door creaked shut behind her like a warning.
---
They sat in silence for a while.
Her across from him, knees drawn to her chest.
Him slumped against the wall like something broken.
> "You love him now?" Jax asked.
> "It's not that simple."
> "Then make it simple."
> "I can't."
Jax laughed — bitter and sharp.
> "Of course you can't. Because people like you never do. You just keep dragging everyone into your storm and pretending it's rain."
Maya flinched.
But didn't deny it.
Because maybe it was true.
---
He tossed a worn-out notebook onto the floor between them.
Maya's breath caught.
Mira's diary.
> "You showed me this already," she said.
> "Not all of it."
She picked it up carefully, fingers trembling as she flipped through the pages.
And then she saw it.
A page tucked deep at the back — one Jax had torn out and kept for himself.
---
October 7th — 1:21 a.m.
> If Elias knew what I did to Maya, he'd never forgive me.
But she deserves it.
She was always the favorite. The soft one. The one boys looked at first. The one who made me feel invisible in my own skin.
So I made sure I was the one Elias fell for. Not her.
I lied to him. About her. About that night. About the pregnancy.
She doesn't even know what I took from her. And she never will.
God, it feels good to win.
Maya felt her throat close.
Pregnancy?
> "What is this?" she whispered.
> "She lied to both of you," Jax said, voice hollow. "Elias thought Mira was carrying his child. That's why he stayed. Why he protected her. Why he hated you."
> "But she wasn't—?"
> "She was never pregnant. She told him that just to keep him away from you."
Maya stared at the page, the words blurring under tears.
> "Why didn't you show me this before?"
> "Because I didn't want to hurt you."
He looked away.
> "And because part of me… liked that you were broken. It meant maybe you'd come back to me eventually."
> "Jax…"
> "But you didn't. You kept going back to him. Even when I tried. Even when I begged."
---
Silence fell between them.
It was heavier now.
Deadlier.
---
> "You know what I realized, Maya?" Jax said, his voice shaking. "He gets to destroy you. He gets to have all of you. Even the broken pieces. And I'm just… left with nothing."
> "You're not—"
> "Don't lie to me now."
> "I never lied to you."
> "No. But you never chose me either."
Maya lowered her gaze.
Because that… that was true.
---
> "Mira was cruel," she said after a long pause. "She hurt us both."
> "And yet she's the dead one. You're still here. Still his."
> "You don't mean that."
> "Don't I?"
He stood slowly, walking over to her. His eyes were wild now — glossy with rage and grief.
> "What if I said I could make the pain stop?" he whispered.
> "Jax—"
> "One bullet. That's all it would take. One moment. One heartbeat. No more pain. No more Elias. No more anything."
> "You're scaring me."
> "Good. Because I'm scared too, Maya. Scared of how far I'd go just to feel like I mattered."
---
Maya backed away.
Her heart thundered in her chest as Jax reached into his jacket and pulled out a small object.
Not a gun.
A locket.
He tossed it at her feet.
> "She wore that the night she died."
Maya bent down, shaking, and picked it up.
Inside the locket was a photo of the three of them — Mira, Maya, and Elias. Smiling. Young. Whole.
On the back, something was etched in Mira's handwriting:
> "He'll never love you like he loved me."
---
Maya's knees gave out.
She crumpled to the floor, the locket pressed to her chest like it might still beat for her twin.
Tears streamed down her face as her voice cracked:
> "Why would she do this to me?"
Jax knelt in front of her, softer now.
> "Because she wanted to win. And in the end, she lost. But Elias never forgave you. Not really. And you never stopped trying to make him love the ghost."
She looked up at him through tears.
> "What do I do now?"
> "You leave him."
> "I can't."
> "Then he'll destroy you."
> "Maybe I deserve that."
> "You don't."
> "Then why does it still feel like I do?"
---
Jax reached out to touch her face, but she flinched.
> "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I can't be what you need."
> "And he can?"
> "He already is."
Jax's face twisted — pain and fury colliding in his expression.
> "Then you're already gone."
---
He stood.
Turned.
Left her there.
Alone.
With the locket.
With the truth.
With the blood between her and the only sister she ever had.
---
That night, Maya didn't go home.
She walked the streets until her feet bled, until the rain soaked her to the bone, until she could no longer tell if she was crying or just drowning.
The ghosts were everywhere.
Mira's laugh.
Elias's voice.
Jax's warning.
> One bullet. One moment. One heartbeat.
She stared up at the sky and whispered:
> "Why didn't I die instead?"
No one answered.
Only the only darkness.
---
🖤