Why Didn't I Die?

[Oxidizer]

Based on this song. I've uploaded it here for you to download. Enjoy!

Why didn't I die?

The heavy smell of thick and suffocating smoke clouded and swarmed her senses as she pushed herself up from the ground and saw through blurred vision the flames and falling beams surrounding her. The only sound what was audible was the screams of those who were searching for missing loved ones and the emergency services sirens echoing from outside and the seemingly everlasting ringing noise she had in her ears from the split second when the explosion ripped through the barn.

Tracey sat up and clutched at her throbbing head which had a nasty and deep looking cut just over her left eyebrow, her hair a mess with pieces of flint lodged in it.

She glanced around her to realise where she was and what had happened. Until she remembered who she should be really worrying about. Zoe.

Her pristine green eyes quickly darted across to her side and she dragged herself across the ground as not to draw attention to themselves. She was getting her girlfriend out of there no matter what. There was no way she was leaving her there to die.

Tracey put her arms around Zoe and tried to pick her up. "Come on, Eve. Wake up! I need you."

But there was no response.

Tracey tried her best not to breakdown there and then as she looked at Zoe’s limp and broken body, completely still, her eyes closed. Tracey checked but she wasn’t breathing. No pulse whatsoever. She was dead.

She didn’t care anymore. Not about herself, not about anything. As far as she was concerned, her life ended when Zoe’s did.

Tracey cradled and held Zoe’s lifeless body in her arms and kissed her head and smelt that scent of her hair one last time. A single uncontrolled tear streamed down the side of her face as she looked around at the flames licking and consuming the barn. She sniffled and held her dead lover closer and tighter. She didn’t want to leave her. She couldn’t.

She was lost in the deepest and dangerous of blank thoughts until she realised just whose fault this was and exactly what she had to do. Tracey had to do it for Zoe. She had to.

She glared at the paramedics who constructed a small scaffold to lift the fallen beam from his seemingly lifeless body. Tracey stared across at Peter with such hate as they hoisted him up on to a trolley and wheeled him outside to the ambulance as she continued to hold Zoe in her arms.

It was all Peter’s fault. If it wasn’t for him Zoe would still be alive. He’s the only reason she came back to this God forsaken town. She didn’t want revenge on the town, not anymore, she was satisfied with the torment she caused last year. No, this time it was personal; if it wasn’t for Peter ruining her final act last year she never would’ve had to of returned. Sure, she was pleased with what she had done, but she just couldn’t let this go. She had to go back and destroy him just as he had done to her revenge plot last year. She had no choice.

Tracey continued to hold Zoe in her arms, she just didn’t want to – she couldn’t – let go, there was no way she could tear herself away from her. She was her everything. Always.

She didn’t see the point in going after Peter now anyway. He was obviously going to die, he was thrown across the barn when the caterer came through the entrance, not to mention crushed by the beams and lost all consciousness. Until she remembered what she and him talked about only yesterday. It suddenly hit her.

Tracey took another sip from her drink and continued to converse with Peter in a corner of the Hen/Bucks night where they could have some privacy. "So what were all of those secret calls about at work today?"

"I’ve just been offered a flat." Peter joked before explaining more seriously. "You know that Mafia family Clare and I put away a few years ago-"

Tracey cut him off. She and Zoe had been learning all about him in the city, and this was one of the first things she knew. "The Gillans."

"Yeah." Peter chuckled. "Apparently Dennis Gillan has been set free so CID were worried that he’ll come after me." He continued to explain to a secretly enthralled Tracey.

She feigned concern. "So what does CID want to do?"

Peter quickly replied. He didn’t want to go along with it but he knew deep down that he wouldn’t have a say in the matter. "They want to put me in hiding. But look, I’m not going to put my life upside, well maybe, but not like Superintendent Murphy was going to take no for an answer."

"Maybe you should lay low for a while." Tracey suggested, biting the inside of her lip to stop herself from laughing. This was the stupidest and most dorkiest thing she had ever heard throughout her entire career in the law enforcement. What a lame thing to come out with to try and impress a girl. She couldn’t wait to get home and tell Zoe about this.

"I’ll be fine."

Tracey flipped her hair and took another sip from her drink. "Well, I hope so. I’d hate for anything to happen to you."

She kissed Zoe on the head and apologised. "I’m so sorry, my love. I’ll be back soon. I promise."

Tracey stood up and took the silenced 9mm pistol she had tucked in the back of her trousers and stealthily ducked passed the silhouetted figures which were screaming and crying in unexplainable agonies outside the oxidised barn.

She quickly moved across the grass and through the bushes where she had parked her and Zoe’s car. The same car they both arrived in last month and pulled up by the welcome sign together.

She slammed the door behind her and revved up the ignition. The rumbling sound of the engine starting bellowed through the dense woodland and two headlights burst through the trees, alarming those who were tending to the injured and dying.

The car did a U-turn and churned up the grass before disappearing into the distance.

"Who the hell was that?" Cassie asked as she sat beside Sally and Ric, who both stared on in confusion as screams of terror and pain continued to pierce the air in the background.

The doors were pushed open as the paramedics wheeled in a comatose Peter on a trolley and instantly grabbed Rachel’s attention who was in the corridor talking to Sally about the possible whereabouts of her missing loved one. "What have you got?"

The paramedic continued to wheel him further into the corridor whilst replying. "Male, 32, lost all consciousness due to severe smoke inhalation, possible carbon monoxide poisoning."

Rachel watched as they pushed him into a private room and closed the door on behind them.

The car came to an immediate halt and screeched across the concrete of the car park. Tracey stepped out of the vehicle, her gun held firmly in her right hand, as she walked across the darkly lit area towards the hospital entrance.

"But he’s breathing, his heart’s still beating." Dan tried to rationalise what Rachel had told him and Leah just second ago.

She looked at him sympathetically. "I’m sorry, Dan, but his brain was deprived from oxygen for too long. The damage is irreversible… he’s dead."

Leah tried to stop herself from crying whilst leaning up against the wall of the room that they were in but she couldn’t.

"I’ll give you a few minutes to say goodbye and then I’ll come back and we can organise what we’re going to do." Rachel finished apologetically as she bowed out of the room.

Dan just stared on blankly at his big brother, who was breathing, only due to the various tubes and syringes hooking him up to the ventilators and machines.

Tracey holstered her gun and looked from around the corner of the hospital and glared at Sally as she hugged Ric and Cassie as they were reunited. She quickly slipped passed and entered one of the rooms. Opposite her was Peter’s room.

She watched on from the shadows of the room she was hiding in and saw Leah and Dan leave the room, as the door slowly closed on, she caught a glimpse of her primary target and waited until the coast was clear.

Looking around from inside the room, she saw Rachel lead them away down the corridor and quickly darted across and walked into the opposite room.

Tracey closed behind her with her foot and stood above the seemingly dead man who was hooked up to all kinds of machines.

"Happy now?" Tracey vicious spat. "Now that you’ve finally murdered my precious little angel. Well, let me assure you that she will NOT die in vain. I’m going to make f*cking sure of that, you pathetic bastard."

She pulled up a chair and sat at his bedside, the silenced pistol pressed firmly against his head. Tracey used it to push the hair from his forehead and glared hatefully.

She scoffed. "I know what you’re planning, I know you’re not dead. The witness protection program slipped you a drug which induces comas."

"So what did you think you were going to do?" Tracey asked to the silent and dead-like man lied in the bed. "Did you think that once all of this was over that you could live happily with Drew? I’m only asking because you seemed so sure of yourself yesterday."

Tracey stood up and cocked her gun and pressed the nuzzle hard against the side of his forehead as a tear streamed down the side of her face. "You’re not going into witness protection, Peter. You’re not even going to make it out of this room. You know what? You’re going to meet the same fate as that stupid f*cker who was driving that van."

The van came to a slow halt as the driver did as he was instructed. The gun was pressed hard against his side as Tracey smirked.

"Get her out." She demanded as she walked him around to the back of the van. He got his keys from his pocket and reluctantly did as he was told.

The door sprung open and Zoe smirked. "Quickly kill him. We’ve got a lot of work to do."

Tracey smiled as she screwed the silencer on the end of the 9mm pistol which she had hidden in the back of her trousers and instructed the driver to make his last movements. "Step back."

He did as he was told, a violent tremble shook his entire body as he legs began to give way, he was terrified and could hardly breath. He closed his eyes and panted breathlessly in fear as Zoe walked past him and stood beside Tracey who aimed the gun at his head from a small distance.

Tracey pulled the trigger and a small popping sound accompanied the driver’s body as he fell to the ground. A perfect bullet hole in the centre of his head.

"Now are you going to uncuff me or what?" Zoe giggled and quirked an eyebrow as Tracey placed the gun in the back of her trousers again and smirked playfully.

She pulled out a key from her pocket and they both grinned in unison as the satisfying sound of a click confirmed her freedom. Zoe tossed the cuffs aside which fell into the dead driver’s lap and turned around to face her equally sociopathic girlfriend.

"I believe we’ve got a wedding to get to."

"The only reason Eve returned is because she couldn’t get on with her life until she finished what she started." Tracey explained tearfully.

She choked and wiped her eyes. "She told me that she couldn’t be properly happy until she moved on and finished you off. So if you think about it, it’s all your fault that my sweetheart’s dead, isn’t it?"

Tracey turned around from facing the wall and looked down at Peter as he just lied there mutely and completely still; the only sound was the artificial breathing from the ventilators and machines that pumped oxygen into his lungs.

"I should’ve died with her." She began to break down. "She was the one good thing in my entire life and you took her away from me!"

She wiped her tears away and glared at him blankly. "I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you get away with what you did to Eve."

Tracey unscrewed the silencer and aimed it at the side of his forehead and squeezed the trigger firmly. She flinched as the sound of the pistol fired. She looked down at Peter as he lied in his bed with a bullet lodged in his skull. The constant bleeping sound of the life-support machines ringed ominously throughout the hospital.

Rachel and the others looked on in deepest concern as they reacted to hearing the sound of a gun being fired and then the constant bleep of a life-support machine. "What the…"

They all looked at each other in dread as they heard the sound of a second and final gunshot emitting from the room Peter was laying dormant in.

END

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