Even If It Ends With Blood.
~🖤
---
Maya didn't sleep that night.
Elias held her close, his arm heavy around her waist, his breathing steady and deep — but her body remained tense beneath the covers, her mind echoing with Jax's final words.
> "Then you don't deserve what's coming next."
She'd seen something in his eyes.
Not just pain.
Not even just hatred.
It was certainty.
The kind of certainty that meant a line had already been crossed.
And now she was standing on the edge of something irreversible.
---
The next morning, Elias kissed her before leaving for class, lingering at the door like he didn't want to let go.
> "Text me when you get to school," he murmured.
> "I will."
> "Don't talk to Jax."
> "I wasn't planning to."
He searched her face. His expression was soft but strained, like he could feel the ground shifting beneath them.
> "You're mine," he said quietly. "No matter what he says. Or does. Or takes."
> "I know."
But even as the words left her lips, a chill settled deep in her bones.
Because something inside her whispered:
> This won't end with a fight.
It'll end with a funeral.
---
At school, whispers followed her down the hallway like shadows.
Jax wasn't there.
Neither was Serena.
Maya tried to focus, to breathe, to exist without crumbling under the weight of everything. But her skin felt too tight, her heart too fast, her vision too sharp.
During third period, a note was slipped into her locker.
It wasn't signed.
It only said:
> He's going to make you choose.
And he's going to make sure you regret it.
---
She left early.
Elias's house felt like the only place left untouched.
But when she arrived, she wasn't alone.
Jax was waiting on the front porch, sitting on the steps like he belonged there.
He stood when he saw her.
No smile.
No sarcasm.
Just fury, barely contained beneath the surface of his calm.
> "What are you doing here?" she asked.
> "You stopped answering me."
> "Because you threatened me."
> "No," he said. "I warned you."
> "Is there a difference?"
> "There is now."
He stepped toward her slowly.
She didn't move.
> "You don't get to be angry," she said, voice low. "You lied too. You played games. You kissed Mira to hurt me."
> "I kissed Mira because I knew I'd never have you."
> "That was your choice."
> "No, Maya. You were the one who chose him. Even when he hated you. Even when he broke you."
She folded her arms.
> "So what? You're going to punish me for that?"
Jax's jaw ticked.
> "I'm going to make sure you finally see the truth."
> "I already have. Mira lied. You lied. And Elias—"
> "Is no different than the rest of us."
---
She tried to step past him.
He grabbed her wrist.
Not hard.
But enough to make her stop.
> "I never stopped loving you," he said.
> "And that's why you're hurting me now?"
> "No," he whispered. "That's why I'm going to hurt him."
---
Maya froze.
> "What are you talking about?"
Jax let her go and pulled something from his jacket.
A gun.
Small. Black. Cold.
> "You're not serious."
> "You think I'd let him take you after everything? After Mira? After me?"
> "This isn't love, Jax."
> "It's all I have left."
---
She reached for him, desperate.
> "Please. Please don't do this."
> "It's already done."
> "You'll destroy everything."
> "He already did that when he chose her over you."
> "You don't get to rewrite the story now!"
> "No?" he hissed. "Then let me end it."
---
He turned and walked away.
She stood on the steps, shaking, the sound of her own breathing too loud in her ears.
She didn't go inside.
She ran.
To Elias.
---
He was waiting in the music room at school — one of the few places left that still felt like theirs.
He looked up as she burst in, wild-eyed and out of breath.
> "Maya?"
> "He has a gun."
The words fell out of her in a rush.
> "Jax. He came to your house. He—he's going to hurt you. I think—Elias, I think he wants to kill you."
Elias didn't speak.
Just stood.
Walked toward her.
And pulled her into his arms.
> "He's not going to touch you," he whispered. "I won't let him."
> "I'm scared."
> "You should be."
> "Why?"
> "Because I don't know what I'll do if he tries."
---
That night, Maya didn't go home.
They locked the doors. Closed the curtains. Left the lights off.
Elias paced the living room like a lion in a cage.
Maya sat on the floor, knees to her chest, Mira's locket clenched in her hand like a shield.
> "Do you trust me?" he asked.
> "Yes."
> "No matter what happens?"
> "Yes."
> "Even if I don't come back from this?"
Her heart stopped.
> "Don't say that."
> "I need to know."
> "I love you."
He knelt in front of her.
> "Then remember that."
He kissed her — soft, slow, final.
And for a moment, they were just a boy and a girl who had loved too hard and too wrong and too long.
---
The storm came at midnight.
A window shattered.
A scream pierced the air.
Maya ran.
Elias shouted.
And the sound of a gun cocking silenced everything.
---
Jax stood in the hallway, the gun pointed at Elias, hands shaking, tears streaming down his face.
> "You took everything from me."
> "I never had a choice," Elias growled.
> "Liar."
> "You want her? You want Maya? Then take the shot."
> "No!" Maya screamed.
But Elias stepped forward.
Closer.
Closer.
Until the barrel was pressed against his chest.
> "Do it," Elias whispered. "Because if you don't, I will."
> "What?"
> "You're not the only one who's been waiting to die."
---
Maya ran between them.
Arms outstretched.
Tears pouring.
> "Stop! Please. Both of you."
She turned to Jax.
> "If you kill him, you kill me too."
> "Good," Jax said, broken. "Then we can all be free."
---
Silence.
One breath.
Then another.
Then—
BANG.
---
🖤