All I Ask of You
Chapter Fourteen
Jackson reached out and grabbed Lisa's ankle, pulling her from the security of her newfound crawl space. Water soaked through the thin dress shirt and she shivered against the cold water as it soaked her scalp and ran over her face causing her told her breath until Jackson reached the carpet again and yanked her from the pool. Lisa found herself lying flat on her stomach coughing and hacking, trying to regain her breath when Jackson reached down and flipped her onto her back.
"Ian!" she screamed as Jackson straddled her hips and pinned her to the floor.
"Lisa, I thought I told you, Ian is-,"
"Right here!" Lisa and Jackson both looked up to see Ian standing in the entrance from the kitchen. In his Right hand dangled a packet of stage blood, and his left hand he triumphantly held a staple gun. "Leese, are you alright?"
"Yeah," she breathed.
"I killed you!" Jackson snarled.
"You know the great thing about being an actor, Jackie?" Ian chanced a few steps closer to where Jackson was still sitting on top of Lisa, "You get used to playing dead, right, Lisa?"
She opened her mouth to reply, but Jackson slapped her across her face. "Give it up, Rickler," he laughed as he stood to his feet, pulling Lisa with him. "I'm not about to let my Lisa spend the rest of her life with someone so pathetic!"
"You claim that you love her so much, yet look at the bruises that you've inflected on her?" Ian said dropping the packet of stage blood on the floor.
"She misbehaved," Jackson looked at the small woman in his arms, "Bad girls are punished, right, Leese?"
"Then punish her by hurting me," he said desperately.
Jackson thought for a moment, "You would rather die then let me harm her?" Ian nodded, "See, Leese, you're not the only one who likes to play the heroines." He grinned, "You've got yourself a deal, Rickler." He removed his arms from around Lisa and she fell to the ground, "So how do you think he should die, my love?" Jackson asked menacingly as he began to walk towards Ian.
"Ian, don't do this," Lisa begged when Ian dropped the staple gun, "Please."
xXx
Don't give up, Lisa. He silently pleaded with her as their eyes locked. Jackson taunted him as he made his way behind him; Ian saw a single tear fall down Lisa's cheek and she looked down. "Do you trust me?"
Lisa looked back up at him, "What?"
"Do you trust me?"
xXx
Lisa was sure Ian had lost his mind, do I trust you? You are about to die and that's what you ask?
"O-of course I trust you…" A smiled spread across his lips and that's when she saw it. A gun was tucked away in his pants and he was slowly pulling it out.
"Good," Ian turned to Jackson, ready to pull the trigger, but Jackson was to fast.
xXx
It all happened as if in slow motion. Jackson pulled the gun on Ian just as he turned to him, behind Ian somewhere he could hear Lisa yell out his name and something along the lines of, "Jackson you bastard!" Just as Jackson pulled the trigger, Ian's foot landed on the empty packet of stage blood and he went tumbling to the floor.
Jackson growled deep in his throat as the bullet narrowly missed Ian, he looked down at the man on the floor when he heard the sound of a woman scream. Time seemed to speed up again, as he looked up to see Lisa fall to her knees. Blood pouring down her front.
xXx
Ian could not believe, the bullet that had been meant for him had instead pierced Lisa's skin. Jackson Rippner had shot Lisa. "Oh my Gosh, Lisa!" he shouted as he scrambled to his feet, rushing over to Lisa, he pulled her into his arms.
"Ian… I'm so… so sorry…," she whispered as her eyes drifted open and closed.
"No, no, Lisa, you're gonna be fine… just… just keep your eyes open, baby." A tear escaped her eye and Ian quickly wiped it away, not bothering to acknowledge his own.
"You were… you were right… Ian…,"
"Right about what?" he shook his head and clung to her tighter as he began to rock her back and forth.
"That drink… it decided my… my future…,"
"Lisa… Lisa, I don't understand?" his eyebrows furrowed in confusion and he open his mouth to ask her what she meant when she slowly reached up and placed a cold on the side of his face.
"Had I not gone with you… to get that drink… I wouldn't have died happy...," she laughed as her eyes began to flutter closed, "I… love you, Ian."
Her head lolled backwards and when Lisa stopped breathing, Ian heart stopped beating.
One more chapter, but be warned, the next chapter is sad :.(
With All Due Respect
-Nina Rippner-