"What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Joe

Time had moved to a stand still. Everything was silent. That's when it happened, my channeling, or whatever it was, kicked in again. I could hear everyone's thoughts...

Hope was reasoning with her emotions...

Biff was wishing this was a dream...

Frank was bargaining with God...

Tony was feeling dizzy...fainting...

Akacia was fighting with her heart...

And I was trying to sort through all of these feelings...

...

Biff

My mind was blank. I was in shock, unable to move, let alone think. It was all happening in slow motion. Akacia's gun was pointing directly at Hope. At my fiancee. At my love. And yet I stood still watching it all play out in front of me.

"No!" I heard Joe scream from beside me. In a blur I saw him run towards Hope and Akacia. He flew to Hope's side knocking her down but not before a gunshot went off. That's when I finally regained control of my limbs and ran to Hope and Joe laying on the ground.

"Hope!" I yelled out of the tears threatening to pour down my face any moment. I saw Joe crawl of off Hope and to her side. I was standing above them when I saw it, the crimson, her blood was everywhere, it was the most horrifying sight I had ever seen. Hope lay their lifeless. It felt like hours before I was finally face to face with her stroking her unconscious features.

Akacia had managed to shoot Hope in the shoulder, but if that didn't kill her the loss of blood would. I ripped off my shirt and attempted to stop the bleeding as Frank dialed 911 with the cell phone he'd retrieved from a delirious Akacia.

"You stay with me Hope, you stay with me!" I told her desperately fighting back tears and applying pressure to the wound.

Joe had managed to get the gun out of Akacia's hands. She was frozen in terror and was talking to us but no sound was coming from her mouth. Then she finally managed to scream out.

"I-I didn't mean to kill her, no, no. I'm sorry, I'm sorry for all of this. Tony? Tony! No, no, no, what have I done? What have I done?" she kept saying in shock. Joe was trying to console her, even though only minutes ago she was attempting to kill us all. But I knew he had to keep her calm so that she wouldn't try to hurt us again while we waited for the police to arrive. She needed psychiatric help.

"It's okay, it's okay," he hushed the woman, "she's not dead. It's okay."

Tony had finally regained consciousness and was sitting in the corner watching the events before him. As well as Akacia, he was in shock. In the distance I heard sirens and I began praying and telling the still form of my fiancee that it would be okay. Time seemed to freeze right before us and it was almost completely silent. But then out of the eerie quiet another gun shot was fired.

I looked back only to see more red, but this time it was coming from a different body. In Joe's shaking arms was the unmoving, departed, form of Akacia Bernheart. She had shot herself in the head, despite Joe's struggles with the gun that now dangled from her cold hand. Her gold eyes frozen in a disturbing, scared stare.

This deadly woman, this deadly thorn, would never harm another again, but death was almost too great a punishment for Akacia, her power was so great, a gift that could have bloomed, but now would never be used again.

I could hear the sounds of sirens closer now, finally the cavalry had come. Too little, too late, I thought grimly, having to look away from the scene before me.

I gazed down at the floor beneath me. It was marred with drops of crimson.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, I am now accepting anonymous reviews, just FYI.