Prologue
Who had crossed the line first? That was the great question. Depending on whom you ask, the story differs. Some would say Victoria Grayson did first, others, Emily Throne. But it didn't matter now, not the tears, the blood, the sweat, or prayers. Emily had been to a place so dark that she no longer believed in anything but revenge.
They stared at one another from across the length of Conrad's study desk. It had come down to this but even in these last moments Victoria still managed to maintain the persona of a cold-hearted bitch.
Smirking at Emily, her eyes were full of only evil hatred, "Your father left you to die."
"All talk, aren't you Victoria?" Emily tried her best to ignore Victoria. She had a few remarks of her own to share, "Well now you better learn to fight or your death is going come real soon."
Lowering her gun onto the table, Emily saw a look of relief wash over Victoria. It read of an easy escape, like the cards were falling into her hands. But nothing about this was going to be easy. Emily was going to make sure of that.
"God wants no harm to come to me," Victoria said with more delusional conviction than necessary. Her eyes darted around the room looking for an escape route.
Emily slowly lowered the gun "God cares nothing for you," she whispered a smirk of her own now forming, "the only thing that matters now is that I'm here and He's not. We're going to play a game, Victoria."
"I don't want to play any games—"
"—Oh you think it's an option, do you? Let me tell you now that nobody gets to choose when they want to die."
"Aiden did," Victoria was calculated, "That's what this all about, right? Will let me tell you that he got to choose every part of the way he died the moment he decided aligning with you. I didn't kill him. You did. Just being around you put him in danger. But Aiden knew the risk and he took it."
Visions of Aiden began to flash before Emily's eyes. The memories were too painful of the happier times that no longer exist. Once the chance is gone she knew you could never get it back. It was too much and she exploded in anguish and fury, "You took him from me! You stole from us, the precious life we could have spent to together in peace. You stole our time!"
"Oh yes…time. If there is one thing you don't have to lecture me about Emily, it is time; I've lived enough to know what it is truly all about. They say that it is the worlds one real commodity, the source of all others. You can change it into something else, but you can never change it back to what it once was…and when it's all used up…"
Emily knew Victoria was talking about the mistakes she regretted making with her father David Clarke. Was it remorse? If it was then it was too little, too late.
"What would you like to do with the time you've got left?" Emily spat, "Try and appeal to my human side? Let me tell you a secret, Victoria, the human part of me left the moment you put your hands around Aiden's neck! But it was drifting much more before hand when you let my father rot away in jail for crimes he did not commit. I had no one! I was only a child and you took everything from me. Try as I might to take everything from you, nothing ever seems to work. You're like a roach… you always find a way to survive."
"The life I've had, I've had no other choice but to survive! I was treated by garbage by the mother who was supposed to love her child, raped by my own stepfather. I was thrown away to a pack of nuns and force to give up my baby! All my life I have been fighting and surviving. I've lived it so long I don't know anything else. So if you want to kill me you better just do it now because the clock is ticking and once it's all used up…"
"Oh you'll kill me?" Emily laughed hysterically for a moment before staring Victoria down coolly, "I'm willing to take that chance. We're playing Russian roulette after all. I've got a 3" chamber and one bullet, " slowly she slide the gun across the table, "game over, Victoria."
They both knew that neither could live while the other was alive. The world was now much too big for the pain they both bore. Maybe that's why Victoria was so willing. Slowly Emily watched as her nemesis raised the gun to her own temple. Emily pulled out another gun just incase their were any last minute changes of heart. She was surprisingly calm and peaceful watching Victoria's trembling hands and an old saying rang through her head…
Who had crossed the line first? That was the great question. Depending on whom you ask, the story differs. Some would say Victoria Grayson did first, others, Emily Throne. But it didn't matter now, not the tears, the blood, the sweat, or prayers. All Emily hoped for her enemy was that Victoria be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows she's dead.