I stumble as I fall to my knees beside Anon. Tears falling down my face as I gingerly roll him on his back.

“A-anon? Anon! Say something! Please…” I shake him gently, desperately trying to get him to respond but…there’s nothing. My heart starts to break as I look at him, the blood on his clothes and the small streaks dripping from him. He took three shots…two to the chest and one to his shoulder. This…this can’t be. Life can’t be this cruel to me after so long!

“Please…you can’t leave me alone like this. Not after everything!” My tears turn to mournful sobs as I hold him close to me, pressing his body against mine as I hug him tight. Naomi isn’t moving, shock taking hold. Reed runs up beside me as Trish and Naser climb on stage. Reed puts his hand on my shoulder, but I won’t let Anon go. I can’t…this isn’t real. I’m asleep, I have to be!

“Bro!” he shouts as he looks at Anon’s face. “C-come on, dude…w-wake up.” His voice begins to crack as he stumbles through his words. “Fang needs you, man!” Anon still doesn’t move. If he is breathing, I can’t feel it. I try to check for a pulse, but I can’t stop shaking. I let out a sorrowful scream as I continue to hold him tight, all my dreams shattering in my arms. My new life, the family I was going to build with him….

“Fang,” Naser says as he tries to get me to look at him but I keep staring at Anon’s face. “You need to set him down. He might still be alive, but we could hurt him worse if we move him. Please, sis, lay him down.”

Naomi still hasn’t budged an inch. Whatever plan she had in her fucked-up head didn’t play out like she thought. It takes me a moment, my sobs not quieting in the least as I softly lay him down on the stage.

I’m so sorry Anon…you didn’t deserve this. You gave me everything…even your life. How…how can I do this without you? My heart shatters into pieces as I lose control again, wailing in agony as my tears drop to his face, splashing across his forehead.

Naser tries to comfort me with a hug, but I feel nothing but pain. Trish says something but…I can’t hear it. In a moment, something inside snaps. I let Naomi live. I was going to go to school that day and put an end to her. A bullet to her brain to make her pay for all the damage she did to my life, to everyone’s. She manipulated us all into whatever she needed us to be so she could have her perfect life with my brother, and now she has taken my Anon from me…the only person who truly loved me.

A dark void starts to take hold in my heart. Hatred quickly burns out my misery and I feel a surge of rage through my veins. She took him from me. She took everything from me. My dreams, my life, my future family…all because she couldn’t have her perfect life. I could have stopped this. I could have killed her that day and she never would have ruined another life, even if I might have lost my own. I need to correct that mistake, for you, Anon….

“Naomi…” My voice comes out in a cold fury. Even my brother is taken aback as my muscles start to tighten and I slowly raise my gaze to her, my amber eyes burning bright with loathing. She’s too terrified to move as I start to get to my feet, adrenaline pouring through me as I stare at the bitch I hate most in this world.

“Fang, what are yo—” Trish starts to speak but I ignore her. My wings flare out behind me and all of my feathers bristle with anger. I flick my eyes to them all, shock rooting them in place and freezing the words in Trish’s throat when they see such hate in my eyes.

I lock my gaze with Naomi’s.

“I’ll fucking kill you!!!” I scream as I use my wings to launch me off the stage toward the startled girl. She tries to raise the gun to stop me but I grab her wrist and bite down hard, my teeth sinking into her flesh with ease as she screams in pain. The gun falls from her hands and she frees herself from my grip and staggers back. She grips the wound, blood trickling from the punctures, and tries to say something before I lunge at her again.

“You killed him! You killed Anon!” I scream with bloodcurdling fury as I claw her across her face, leaving jagged tears across her cheek as she feebly attempts to stop me. I grab her arm and pull her in close, my hateful gaze burning into her eyes. I see the abject terror in hers. “You expected to get away with this…that it’d go perfectly like the rest of your plans. I’m going to tear you apart!”

I spin her around, locking her arm fully extended before driving my elbow into hers. There is a massive crack as her arm breaks and she cries out in pain. I let it go and it hangs limply at her side. She backs away from me again, hopelessly trying to put distance between us. I stand there, breathing heavily as her blood drips from my teeth, my wings still fully extended out, my hair covering my eye. I feel nothing but hate, a spark of joy flits through my heart watching her flee after what she’s done.

“P-please! I’m s-sorry! I-I-I I didn’t—” she tries to talk but I’m having none of it and I sprint toward her again, driving my fist into her cheek, causing her to stagger backward.

“You didn’t what?” I clench my teeth as I grab her by the throat and lift her off the ground. She loses her grip on her bag and a couple spare magazines fall out. She…she wasn’t going to let any of us live. “You didn’t think this would fuck up? Like every other fucking plan you’ve had?!” I slam her into the floor and she yelps. “You are the one who’s going to be paying today!!!”

I swing my leg back before landing a bone-crushing kick to her ribs, and she gasps for air. I fall on her, sitting on her stomach as I raise my fists again. “You took him! He saved my life. He saved yours! I have nothing left for you to take!” I drive my fist into her face over and over again, each hit giving me a small bit of catharsis. One punch lands and shatters her glasses and I fling their broken remains across the restaurant.

“S-stop…s-stop,” she pleads but I’m hearing none of it. Would she have spared me? She was about to kill me! She just shot the wrong person. She should have killed me…it should have been me! No, I will not. I will never show you mercy after what you’ve done.

“Stop…talking.” I don’t want to hear anything else from this fucking piece of shit. I grip her snout in both of my hands and she stares back in horror. My eyes are pure fury at this point. Any hope of me stopping is lost as I single-mindedly focus on one thing, killing her.

With one swift motion, her snout lets out a sickening snap as it breaks in two, unnaturally jutting at an angle as she agonizingly groans in pain. Blood bubbles out of her mouth as she gurgles, no longer able to speak as shock overwhelms her.

She’s going to pay. She’s going to suffer for all the lives she has ruined…my life. Anon’s life. Our life….

For a moment I pause, the dream of my life with Anon flashing before my eyes again. Our house…our happy home. Our beautiful child. Sorrow grips me again before rage boils it right out and I raise both my hands over my head as I get ready to make the last fatal blow. She looks on helplessly, tears hanging from her eyes.

“You don’t have the right to cry! Not after you killed him!”

Something grabs my arms and stops me. I snap my head back to glare at who would fucking dare, and it’s Naser and Trish. They pull me off of Naomi and lock my arms in theirs. I struggle against them, twisting and pulling, trying to free myself. No! She has to pay! She needs to die!

“Fang…stop! You’ve done enough!” Naser shouts as he desperately tries to hold me back, struggling as I pull as hard as I can to get loose.

“Fang, she’s a piece of shit but you have to stop!” Trish echoes Naser’s plea as she uses all her weight to stop me. Why? Why are they doing this!? She killed him! She deserves to die for this!

“Let me go!!! She can’t get away with this! Not again!” I try with all of my might to wrench myself free of them, blood dripping from my fists—but it’s not mine. Everything in me screams for revenge, to make her pay for ruining my life, and they are trying to take this from me!

Naomi looks up at me and for the first time, I stop, staring back at her. A few quiet painful moans escape her broken snout as she tries to mouth words but I don’t know what she’s saying. I can see remorse in her eyes. Remorse!? You were going to kill me! You only failed because Anon sacrificed himself for me!

“Fang…” a weak voice calls out from behind me and it stops me dead, all my fury disappearing as I recognize the voice. Anon looks over at me from the stage, reaching out his arm. “Fang, don’t let…don’t let her make you the monster she believes you are. S-stop.” As if the words took all the strength he has left, he slumps to the floor again. Anon!

My jaw drops. I calm down, the sea of hatred dries up in an instant on seeing him alive. Naser and Trish—seeing me staring up at the stage—let me go and I leap up back on stage beside Anon.

“Anon? Anon, please…” I fall to my knees beside him, gently pulling him up to my lap as he breathes shallowly in my arms. He’s alive! But…but he’s so pale. Oh god, he needs help now! I look over to Naser and he’s checking on Naomi. She’s alive, but she looks like raw meat. I…dear god, I did that much to her? I mean, she was going to kill us…but fuck. She reaches out a hand and Naser holds it. He looks so sad but I can see veiled disappointment in his eyes, not wanting to believe his ex could fall so far.

A few moments later, I can hear sirens and I snap my head up and look toward the door. There are several cop cars out there and what looks like an ambulance. My father busts through the door, along with a pair of cops with their guns drawn.

“Nobody move!” He shouts but in seconds he realizes whatever situation unfolded is already over by this point. He looks down at Naomi’s mangled body with Naser close by. His eyes widen as he looks at the blood scattered across the floor and up at me holding Anon. He sees me covered in blood and holsters his gun before he sprints across the floor toward me. “Fang! Oh shit, Fang, are you okay!?”

“Dad…help me, p-please!” Tears burst from my eyes as I cradle Anon in my arms. “Anon’s hurt really bad. S-she tried to kill me, and he…h-he jumped in the way! He’s lost so m-much blood…please help him!” I can barely hold myself together as I stroke his bald head with my bloodied hands.

He nods and then sees the wound in my side. “Fang, you are hurt too! Jesus, that looks painful.”

“I’m fine!” I shout through my sobs. “Just help him!”

He instantly turns to the officers at the door. “Get the paramedics in here right now. We need to get these kids patched up!” He swings his massive arm and points out the door and they both nod and sprint outside. He turns back to me and puts a hand on my shoulder. “Come on, honey, you need to get taken care of too. He’ll be okay…I promise.”

“N-no, I don’t want to l-leave him. Not like this.” I keep my grip on him. I sway him gently in my arms, tears splashing down on his face as I refuse to leave his side. My dad doesn’t try to move me and instead he goes to check on Naser.

“Shit, son…are you alright?” He takes in the sight of Naomi, the mangled mess I left her in as she labors to breathe.

“I’m…no, I’m not okay, Dad. Look at her.” He doesn’t try to touch Naomi, anywhere he did would most likely just hurt her more. “Fang tore her to pieces. Naomi was going to kill us all and Fang definitely saved our lives, but I’ve never seen her so enraged. I know she would have killed Naomi if we hadn’t jumped in.”

My dad kneels down beside Naser and puts a hand on his shoulder. “People will do terrible things when they believe their world has been stolen from them.” From the corner of my eye, I can see him look up at me but not with anger. “Imagine how she feels right now. You know the hell she’s been through…just be glad you stopped her from killing Naomi. And even though she’s injured, we will still need to arrest Naomi.”

“I know…” Naser replies in a low whisper as he gently caresses Naomi’s hand. “They’ll take care of her first, right?”

My dad nods. “Of course, son. She’ll be taken to the hospital in custody and after she’s recovered, we will see what happens then.”

A couple seconds later, the medics come in and scatter around the restaurant. Two come up to Anon and I finally let go of him as they take him into their care. They quickly load him onto a stretcher and wheel him out the door. The same is done for Naomi, with a cop riding with them in her ambulance.

Why, Naomi? Why did you do this to us? Just because you didn’t get what you wanted? Now look at you…was it worth the cost to try to force it?

I get up and try to go to Anon’s ambulance, but my dad stops me. I glare at him as I grit my teeth. “Let me go. I need to be with him.”

“What you need,” he says as sternly as possible as he holds me in place, “is to get that wound checked out and cleaned, Fang. Then I will take you to the hospital myself and we will go see Anon. Now move.”

I want to fight him, but I don’t have it in me. I take a seat outside on the curb and a medic comes up to me.

“Let’s take a look at the gunshot wound, miss.”

I sigh as I lift my arm out of the way. I wince as he tends to it, disinfecting it and stitching it closed as he puts a heavy band of gauze over it and ties it down. “Alright, that should take care of it for you. Just keep the wound clean and it’ll heal fine. The bone will take a little longer so you will be sore there for a bit but it looks like it just grazed the rib.”

I shrug. “It won’t be the worst pain I’ve been in before, so I’ll be fine.”

His eyebrow cocks up but he doesn’t say anything as he packs up his kit and heads back to his ambulance.

Shortly afterward, everyone else leaves the restaurant and comes over to me. Naser and Reed sit down on the curb beside me, and Trish kneels on the ground in front of me.

“I’m sorry, guys…” I say as I look down at the ground, ashamed of what I’ve done. “I…I was going to kill her and I couldn’t stop myself. I’m so sorry.”

Trish lets out a grunt as she stares at me. “Bitch woulda deserved it.” Everyone gives her a look. “What? She was going to kill Fang! She fucking would’ve if Anon hadn’t jumped in the way. Fuck her. Fang, you didn’t do anything wrong. We just didn’t want her to make you into a murderer. She wasn’t worth it.”

I sigh heavily as my brother carefully pulls me to his side. “I’m sorry you went through that. You’ve already dealt with so much shit. Fucking hell, I can’t believe she was going to kill you just because she couldn’t have me!” A tear slips down his beak as he struggles with the reality of the situation.

“Don’t you dare blame yourself,” I say as I turn to him, fully embracing him as my wings wrap around him. “Nobody could have seen this coming. I just hope Anon’s going to be okay. He needs to be…” I choke out a sob. “I…can’t do this without him.”

Naser hugs me back, pressing his cheek against mine. “He’s going to make it, Fang. He’s tougher than he looks. I mean, he fell down all those stairs and didn’t break a single bone!” I let out a half-hearted chuckle. “See? There you go. Have faith in him. He’ll pull through.”

“Sure will, dude,” Reed says as I let Naser go and look over at him. “Just happy you guys are still here. Fuck me…that…that was too damn close. I’m just glad someone called the cops. I…I wasn’t sure what to do.” His eyes gloss over as he looks at the ground. “Just can’t have a happy moment, can we?”

I almost died…again. Just like the last time, Anon saved me. I don’t know what I did to earn a kind of love like that, but I will never stop being grateful for it. Please, Raptor Jesus, don’t let him die. There is so much more I want to show him, so much more life for us to live together. I don’t want to face this world without him…it wouldn’t be worth it anymore.

We all sit quietly on the curb, the breeze shuffling the scattered leaves and paper on the ground the only sounds we hear. The full impact of what just happened hits us all. We would’ve died. I doubt she would have stopped with me. Naser was right…she was probably going to kill us all. Considering how many bullets she had, I was just going to be the first. Anon fucked up her plan by doing what he’s always done, ever since I met him…saving me.

I look around at my friends and my brother. They are all lost in thought, tears in their eyes. Another moment of hell…another terrible memory for all of us. I look down at my hands, still covered in blood, barely any of it mine. I clench my fists tight as I start to tremble, suppressing the fear trying to take hold. Goddammit, why can’t things just go right.

A moment later, my dad walks up to us. He winces as he looks at my bandaged wound. Another day where he could have lost his daughter, and he would have been helpless again, just like before. I don’t want to think about how much that would have hurt him, it’s too much. I just want to see Anon.

“Come on, guys. It’s time to go. We’ll deal with police reports and everything and get you guys to the hospital to see Anon. I already called Moe and he’s on his way to take care of everything here.” He helps me back to my feet as I wipe away my tears. I’m a fucking mess. My outfit is almost certainly ruined and my makeup is running all over my face. “We’ll stop by the apartment and get you a change of clothes first, Fang.”

I weakly nod as I swipe my arm across my face. “Thanks, Dad. Come on, I want to get there as fast as I can.”

He sighs as he pulls me close to his side. It only takes a few minutes to deal with the stupid police crap before he hurries us to my apartment. I grab one of my halter tops and jeans after washing up and we drive as fast as possible to the hospital. I hate being here. Nothing about this place brings back good memories. I almost lost my own life here. Trish almost died. And now Anon. It doesn’t take long for us to make our way as my dad pushes his way through the halls toward Anon’s room.

Gavin is there with his clipboard in hand as he turns to face us. “Hello again…I wish we could meet on better circumstances for once, but at least I have good news.”

Tears cling to the edge of my eyes as I look at him. “Is Anon okay? Please tell me he’s okay! Please…”

He holds his hand up and smiles a little. “He’s stable. The wounds are deep but superficial. They missed any of his internal organs. He has a cracked rib, and the bullet in his shoulder broke the bone but he will recover. He is unconscious right now, but you can go see him.”

I give Gavin a hug as I shake, the emotion of knowing he’s going to be okay nearly making me break out in tears. “Thank you! Thank you so much…”

He pats me on the head. “Just doing my job, ma’am.” I pull back from him and he opens the door for me. On the bed I see Anon, tubes everywhere and bandages covering his body where he was hurt. My heart aches seeing him like this…a look of pain on his face even as he sleeps. I can only imagine that this must have been how he felt when he saw me after my suicide attempt, to see me in pain but clinging on to life. It brings everything into perspective. I’m so sorry, Anon….

Everyone filters into the room as I walk up beside him, taking his hand in mine. The gentle beeping of the monitor is the only thing I hear as I caress his hand, interlocking my fingers with his.

My dad sighs quietly as he whispers to the rest of them. “Come on, guys, he’ll be alright but…we should leave the two of them alone right now.”

I don’t turn but I hear them agreeing before the door clicks gently closed behind them.

A few tears slide down my face. “Anon, I love you so much. Thank you…thank you for saving me again. Now it’s my turn to take care of you.”

I climb up into the bed beside him, resting my arm across his chest and draping a wing over us. My fingers glide across his chest as I feel him breathing steadily. I don’t want to think of the pain he is going to be in when he wakes up. I’ll be there just like he was for me…right by his side, through it all. My Anon, my future, the only person I’ll ever love.

My eyes grow heavy as I snuggle as close to him as I can without hurting him. Warmth fills my heart knowing this won’t be the last time I sleep beside him. We still have so much life left to live…and he’ll be with me for the rest of mine.