Believe

I glance back and forth between the two barrels. One pressed against my mom's auburn curls. The other held trembling against his matted brown hair.

"Just do it," he whispers. "You have no other choice."

I know he's right. If I don't kill him, then my mom will die. Then my dad. Then my baby sister. And then he'll still die and I'll be taken away.

"I can't," I whimper, my finger rattling against the trigger.

"Look at me," Mycale says sharply. "Maryiah, you don't have much time. Pull that beeping trigger."

I laugh weakly and tears start to streak down my cheeks.

"You better hurry up," Mitceel interjects sharply. "It's almost midnight."

Mycale locks eyes with me and nods, accepting his fate.

"Wait!" I cry and kiss him once on the lips. Then I press the barrel firmly against his head. I pull the trigger just as the booming chimes of the grand clock began to sing their haunting song.

A loud crack of a gun shooting rebounds around the room overpowering the noise of the midnight chimes. And it's not my gun. My gun does not shoot.

"No!" I hear myself scream and hear my dad screaming in the background with me.

The head with the auburn curls falls to the ground.

My dad tries to wrench free and run to her, but he can't get out of the Beetle's grip. The barrel then points to him and I run to him, but I'm too late and he falls too.

"Roze!" I shriek and throw myself at the other Beetle.

He staggers back a step, surprised, but he quickly recovers. He tries to grab me, but I punch him in the nose.

He's at an advantage though. He doesn't care about the little bundle that fits in his callused hand. I do.

I claw and bite and I don't know how, but Roze somehow ends up in my arms. I clutch her tightly to my chest.

"Stop, Maryiah," a voice commands and I freeze against my will. "Look at me.

I refuse to turn around knowing all to well what I'll find.

"Look at me!"Mitccel yells.

I turn around, trembling, and see a silver dagger pressed against his throat.

"Give me the girl," he growls and I cry out as I watch a bead of blood trickle down his neck.

It splatters onto his white shirt and mixes into the filth.

As much as I love Mycale, I could never give up Roze.

"No," I say in a wavering voice. "You're going to kill us all anyways."

Mitccel laughs.

"Not all of you. Just the boy and the baby."

"Then why would I save the boy?" I ask. "Since you're going to kill him anyways?"

He grins.

"Becuase this way his blood is on your hands."

I just grip Roze tighter and she begins to wail.

"It's her destiny," he hisses in a voice unlike his own. "You must fulfill yours."

A pit of dread forms in my stomach, but I refuse to give her up.

"I have no destiny!" I shout. "I'm undetermined."

Mitccel points his gun. I cover Roze with my body.

"You'll have to shoot me before you get to her!"

He hesitates. I know he'd never shoot me.

Mitccel inclines his head at me and the Bettles advance. I glance around and I see no escape route. I have no chance. Just one of the Beetles with one of their hands could kill me, but their goal isn't to kill me. It's to kill everyone I love.

I back away as they slowly advance, smiling sadistically, enjoying my distress.

"Mycale!" I scream just as the Beetles reach for me. "Promise me you'll find her!"

Then I throw myself out of the window, sheltering Roze from the flying shards of colored glass.

"I will," I hear faintly, ringing louder in my ears, then Mitccel's agonized screams as I plummet down twenty stories to the water below.

I won't survive. I'll take the impact with my body. I'll be crushed to death.

I don't know how Roze will survive, but I have to believe she will. I have to believe Mycale will find her. I have to beli...