Hi everybody! Sorry I made you wait so long for this update! Life got in the way... Enjoy!
As she twisted around there was a loud bang, and the air left Jo's lungs.
She heard a dry chuckle, like the crunch of leaves in autumn. She felt the world around her shatter into a million tiny pieces, falling about her like the soft rain in spring. She smelt smoke, like the first fire in winter. She tasted blood, the sweet wine of the summer.
All she saw was an old fashioned peaked cap before everything faded to black.
A loud bang echoed down the hallway to where Henry sat on the couch. He jumped up, rushing from the room and down the corridor. What he saw next took his breath away, and he stopped dead in the door way, the cold wind from outside blowing through his hair.
"Jo," Her name left his mouth as he collapsed next to Jo's lifeless body on the cold concrete steps. One of her hands was flung over her chest, half covering a growing circle of deep red, her life blood draining away.
"Henry…" His name was a croak leaving Jo's mouth, startling Henry who had thought she was already gone. "Henry, I'm scared."
"Shhh, Jo, it will be okay." Henry squeezed one of her hands gently, trying to look more in control than he really was. Inside he was cursing himself for not yielding to Abe's demands he buy a mobile. "Where's your phone? I need to call an ambulance."
"Pocket." Jo's voice was fading fast, her eyes drooping lower and lower. "Henry," She paused, taking a deep breath. It rattled in her chest. "Henry, I'm dying."
"No, don't say that." Henry busied himself with sliding the phone out of Jo's pocket without causing her more pain.
"It's the truth." Her eyes fluttered open as she said this and locked on Henry's. "It's too late. Don't call yet."
"Don't call?" Henry was appalled, clutching the phone like the lifeline he supposed it was. "Jo, there is always a chance…" He trailed off, knowing as well as she did that there was no chance. She had lost too much blood; a pool of it was growing around her, like red wings of an angel.
"Tell me a story." Jo's voice was a whisper by now, and Henry had to lean in closer to hear her.
"A story?" He sat back on his heels, confused, one of his hands still cradling hers.
"Please. Tell me one of the stories you would have told me about your long life." Jo's eyes began to glass over, her breathing becoming shallower and slower.
Henry felt tears beginning to well up in his eyes at the request. It drove home the fact that Jo was dying, and that the two of them would never have a life together. "Is a funny story okay?" He asked, his thumb rubbing small circles on the back of Jo's hand.
"Perfect." She replied, forcing her eyes open to look at Henry, who found himself launching into a story about how 7 year old Abe had decided he wanted to learn to fish, and had run away from home with a ball of string and a can of worms he had found in the garden, mud all over his clothes.
Jo's mouth turned up into a small smile as Henry reached the end of the story, her eyes slowly closing, and her breaths becoming shallower and further apart.
Henry reached out and brushed the hair back off Jo's face, thinking how relaxed she looked in death, as though the bullet had taken not just her life, but also the trauma of losing her husband and the stress of her job.
"I love you, Jo Martinez." He whispered, as he gently traced her face with his fingers, tears dripping off his face onto hers. "I will always love you." He sobbed as he picked up her phone, preparing to make the hardest phone call he'd ever had to.
He pressed the power button, watching the slide to unlock message flash across the screen through tear filled eyes, the words blurry. His fingers trembled as he pressed the buttons, numbers blinking up onto the screen He steeled himself to press the green call button-
-and dropped the phone in shock as there was a small flash of light and Jo's body disappeared. Henry stared at the spot where, until moments before, had held Jo's lifeless body, and was now empty.
"Adam." He said in shock, before rising to his feet and entering another number into the phone as he pulled the front door to Jo's house shut before setting off down the steps and along the street. "Abe?" He asked when the phone was picked up at the other end. "We have a situation."
As he talked to Abe, who was already on his way out of the shop, keys in hand, Henry failed to notice the man clothed in shadows lurking nearby, a faint smirk on his face.
"Slow down." Abe said to his father as he drove towards the river. "Start again. You think she has the same curse as you? Then why didn't she tell you before?"
"No, I think it happened because of Adam." Henry explained, his words tumbling over each other in his haste. "I think this is one of Adam's sick games. 'Let's shoot someone with Henry's gun and see what happens'." Henry was fuming. "Who gave him the right to experiment with people's lives like that?"
"Come on, Henry. You can't possibly know it was your gun that did this. You don't even know if it was Adam." Abe replied as he turned into the parking sport by the river for the second time that night.
"Of course it was Adam. He's psycho." Henry muttered as he wrenched the car door open and jumped out before Abe could pull to a stop. He disappeared into the darkness before Abe could react, leaving the door hanging open.
Abe lent across the car to pull the door shut. "That's right, jump out of a moving car. Anyone would think you want to kill yourself." He rolled his eyes to himself as he pulled into a park.
Meanwhile, Henry was heading to the edge of the river. "Jo?" He called, his voice floating through the air. "Jo, are you here?"
"Henry?" A small voice drifted out from behind some bushes, and Henry turned to see Jo peeking out from behind it, eyes wide.
"Jo, are you okay?" Henry started towards her, but stopped when she edged further away from him.
"Henry…" She looked embarrassed. "Henry, I have nothing on."
Henry flushed a deep red, his cheeks on fire. "Of course." He averted his eyes, looking everywhere but at Jo. "Umm," he trailed off, looking around for inspiration.
"Would this help?" Abe suddenly appeared from behind him holding a towel. "Sorry it's not much, Jo." He said as Henry took it from him, "I only had a second to grab something."
"You could have mentioned the fact you had a towel before I got out of the car." Henry grumbled, passing it to Jo, her hand reaching around the tree.
"I would have, if you hadn't jumped out before I even parked the car." Abe shot back. "My whole life you've been giving me lectures on patience, but I think you're the one who needs to-"
The two stopped their bickering as Jo stepped around the tree, tightly clutching the towel to her chest. Her eyes were ringed with red, as though she had been crying, and she looked exhausted.
"What the hell happened?" She asked as she stumbled over a loose tree root. Henry immediately leaped forward to help her, and she lent on him gratefully.
"Adam happened." Henry said, gravelly, as they began to make their way towards the car.
"Adam?" Jo asked, ducking her head to watch her feet, her hair falling in a wet, bedraggled curtain around her face.
"That's a story for later," Henry opened the car door for her, all too aware of the cold, hard eyes watching his back, "but rest assured, when I find him, he will pay."
He turned to face the dark car park, a determined look on his face. His eyes scanned the bushes, the benches, anything that could conceal a person. His voice carried, loud and clear, across the deserted concrete. "Rest assured, when I find you, you will pay."
OOOOOOOHHHHH ANGRY HENRY :)
I promise the next update will be up sooner, stuff just happened last week and I was too busy trying not to kill someone/myself :)
Please review :) I'm a needy person who needs attention ;) Come on, it will take you less than a minute and it will make me smile for a while (which, believe me, is a hard thing to do). I'm not trying to force you to review, but PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW :)
Have a good day/night everyone
