I am so sorry I haven't updated in a long time. This semester has been crazy. I have school classes, plus my piano and acting lessons so I don't get as much time to write as I would like. I will definitely be continuing the story until the end so if you don't get an update for a while it's not because I'm not finishing it. I just have a really hectic schedule. Now I completely understand why other writers that I follow can't update as often as I would like. These stories take a lot of thought and being able to update even once every week can be hard. Anyway, enough of my excuses. Here's the next chapter.
9:01PM…
Hello, 9-1-1, what is your emergency?
Callie stands frozen in fear, unable to move, speak, even think clearly.
"Hang up the phone, now."
Callie stays still, processing what to do next.
"Hang it up!" Wyatt whispers angrily.
Hello, are you alright?
"If you don't hang up the damn phone, I'm going to put a bullet right into Jude's head! Now, hang it up!"
Callie reluctantly hangs up the phone.
"Good, girl. Now, give me the phone."
Callie slowly walks over to Wyatt and hands him the phone. Wyatt snatches the phone away from Callie and puts it in his back pocket.
Wyatt lowers his gun and looks at Callie for a moment. He can still feel the throbbing sensation in his head. I don't know what to feel right now. Angry? Upset? Callie is my everything and she just betrayed me. She hurt me, again. She keeps hurting me and I just keep coming back for more, because I love her so much. How can I have so much love for someone that hurts me? Maybe this is pointless. Maybe Callie will never feel the way I do. Maybe I should just end this right now. Or maybe I still have the chance to make her feel the way I do. After all, I'm still in charge. One thing is for sure, I can't keep allowing her to hurt me and get away with it consequent free. Wyatt back slaps Callie so hard that she almost falls over onto the ground.
"Wyatt! Leave Callie the hell alone!" Stef yells.
"SHUT UP! THIS IS BETWEEN ME AND CALLIE!"
"Wyatt, I'm sorry okay," Callie apologizes as she rubs her face with her right hand.
"NO, CALLIE IT'S NOT OKAY! YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST KEEP HURTING ME AND NOT HAVE ANY CONSEQUENCES FOR IT!?" Wyatt grabs Callie's arm roughly and brings her in closer so that he is right in her face.
"Look, I freaked out, okay. It had nothing to do with you. It was my fault."
"You hit me Callie! We were about to make love and you hit me in the head with a lamp!"
"I told you, it has nothing to do with you Wyatt!"
Wyatt pulls Callie by her arm toward the couch she was on before. He throws her onto the couch in anger.
"Callie, I'm losing my patience with you! I don't want to hurt you! I love you! But, if you don't show me love in return, I'll have no choice but to hurt you! Is that what you want?"
"No, Wyatt! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you!"
"You never mean to hurt me! But you keep doing it! You keep hurting me and getting away with it! I'm not just some punching bag Callie! I'm your boyfriend. I'm the man you're supposed to love."
"I do love you Wyatt. I really do."
Wyatt stays quiet while he gathers his thoughts. I want to believe her, I really do. But, something is telling me I can't trust her. It's crazy. I can't even trust the woman I love! Maybe if I have her prove to me how much she loves me. Maybe then I can trust her. "Okay"
"Okay?" Callie questions Wyatt. "So, you believe me? You believe that I love you?"
"I want to. So, I'm going to give you the chance to prove it. Prove how much you love me."
Callie looks curiously at Wyatt. She can already sense what he is thinking. She's almost afraid to ask him what she has to do to prove to him that she loves him. She can feel it in her stomach that whatever he has in mind has to do with Brandon. "How?" Callie asks hesitantly.
Wyatt looks over at Brandon and glares at him. A small smile creeps onto Wyatt's face as he just looks at Brandon. This was all going to end now. The one thing standing between him and Callie was going to finally be gone.
"Wyatt? What do I have to do to prove it to you?"
Wyatt releases a calming breath before replying, "You have to kill Brandon."
Callie's stomach drops. How do I get out of this? I'm obviously not going to kill Brandon. Knowing how crazy Wyatt is he'll just hurt Jude or someone else that I love if I don't do what he says. But, I can't hurt Brandon. I won't! I have to find a way out of this. I have to get through to Wyatt. I screwed up upstairs. I have to fix this. "Wyatt, that's cr-crazy. I'm not going to kill Brandon."
"Yes, you are."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are! Callie, if you want to prove to me that you love me, you'll get rid of the one person standing in our way, Brandon."
"Brandon isn't standing in our way. How is me killing Brandon going to prove to you that I love you? It doesn't make any sense Wyatt!"
"Don't tell me what does and doesn't make sense Callie! If you want me to believe that you truly love you, you are going to have to kill Brandon!"
"Callie, just do it!" Brandon yells out.
"Brandon!" Stef yells.
"No, if this is what it takes for everyone to get out of here alive, then do it. Kill me!"
"Brandon, stop it!" Callie scolds Brandon.
"No, Callie! He wants me dead! That's the whole point of this! So, do it! If you kill me then this whole nightmare ends!"
"I'm not going to kill you Brandon! That's ridiculous!"
"You have to!"
"No I don't!"
"YES YOU DO!"
"NO I DON'T!"
"Yes, actually you do," Wyatt calmly interrupts. "If you don't kill Brandon, then I'll assume you don't love me and I'll have to move on to giving you a little bit of the incentive to love me. That of course means I start hurting the people that you love."
Callie looks over at the rest of her family. How do I choose between Brandon and everyone else that I care about? If I don't kill Brandon he's going to start hurting the rest of my family. But, then again even if killing Brandon was an option for me, there's no telling if he's actually going to let everyone go after I do it. It's not like he can be trusted. He's freaking crazy! I brought this lunatic into their lives. I mean Brandon even warned me not to go out with Wyatt. Grant you it wasn't because he thought he was a psychopathic obsessed freak. But, he still did have a feeling about Wyatt. If only I had listened to his warnings then, we wouldn't be in this mess. I have to fix this for my family. "Fine"
"Fine what?"
"I'll kill Brandon."
Brandon lets out a sigh of relief, while the rest of the family looks at Callie with worry.
"Callie, you can't kill Brandon." Stef tries to reason with Callie.
"If I don't kill Brandon now he's just going to hurt the rest of you until I don't have a choice but to kill Brandon. I have to Stef."
"No, you don't. Callie, you have to listen to me here. You can't kill Brandon. I know you're trying to save everyone, but killing Brandon isn't the answer."
"How do you want me to do it? With the gun?"
Wyatt laughs. "Yeah, right. You want me to give you my gun? No, Callie. You're going to go into the kitchen and grab the largest knife you guys own. Then, you're going to come back in here and slit Brandon's throat."
Callie looks disturbed at Wyatt's request. "Why can't I just shoot him and end it quickly?"
"Well, for starters I don't intend to give you a gun. I don't really know if I can trust you yet. Then there's the fact that I don't want Brandon to die quick and painless. I want it to be slow and agonizing."
Callie looks over at Brandon. Brandon looks into Callie's eyes and nods. Callie gets up from the couch and starts walking into the kitchen.
"Wyatt! You can't do this! Brandon didn't do anything to you! Please, I'm begging you!" Stef pleads.
"I'm really sorry about all of this Stef," Wyatt apologizes sincerely. He really was sorry. He didn't want to hurt any of the Fosters. But, he needed to get Brandon out of the way.
Callie comes back into the living room with a chef knife from the kitchen.
"Callie, wait, don't do this. We'll find another way out of this," Stef tries to plead to Callie one last time.
"There's no other way out of this for me Stef. Everyone has to get out of here alive. I can't lose any of you." Callie walks toward Brandon.
Stef pauses to question Callie's words. "There's no other way out of this for me Stef. Everyone has to get out of here alive. I can't lose any of you." That doesn't make any sense. She's about to kill Brandon, but then she said everyone has to get out of here alive. Does she mean everyone but Brandon? "There's no other way out of this for me Stef." What does she mean by that?
Callie gets to Brandon and looks at Brandon in the eyes. Callie has tears in her eyes as she says, "I love you Brandon."
Brandon returns Callie's profession with a sad smile. "I love you too Callie."
Stef looks over at Callie and Brandon looking into each other's eyes. Maybe Wyatt's right. Maybe they do still have feelings for each other. Feelings that brothers and sisters don't have for one another. "There's no other way out of this for me Stef." Oh no! There's no other way out of this for her. That's what she meant!
Callie raises the knife up, but instead of bringing it to Brandon's throat; she brings it to her own and holds it there as she turns to Wyatt with anger on her face.
"What are you doing?" Wyatt questions Callie.
"I'm not killing Brandon and you're not going to hurt the rest of my family! If you want to threaten the people who are most important to me, then I'm going to threaten the person who is most important to you. Me!"
"Callie…"
"SHUT THE HELL UP WYATT! If you don't let my family go, I'm killing myself!"
I know it's kind of slow but there's going to be a lot more action and violence coming up. Unfortunately, I have to add the slow, boring parts to lead up to the good parts.
As always let me know if you have any thoughts or ideas or if there's anything you'd like to see happen. I always appreciate the feedback.