~ đź–¤
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---
It started with silence.
Not the kind that comforts.
The kind that warns.
The kind of silence that presses in like smoke before fire.
Maya stood in the hallway of Elias's house, the evening air heavy with heat, the sky outside bruised purple and red — like the world itself knew what was coming.
Elias was gone.
They'd taken him for questioning that morning, and he hadn't come back.
She wore Mira's locket around her throat like armor.
The only sound in the house was the ticking of the clock above the fireplace.
Then the door creaked open.
And everything shattered.
---
She turned fast.
> "Elias?"
But it wasn't him.
It was Jax.
Alive.
Standing in the doorway.
Eyes sunken.
Skin pale.
Gun in his hand.
And smiling.
> "You thought it was over?" he asked softly.
> "You were in the hospital."
> "And now I'm not."
He stepped inside and shut the door behind him. Slowly. Quietly. Like he was home.
> "What do you want?"
> "Closure."
---
Maya took a step back.
He followed.
> "You always chose him," he said. "Even when he hated you. Even when I would've died for you."
> "You almost did."
> "And what did you do? You let him stab me. You let him win."
> "You brought the knife to our door, Jax."
He raised the gun.
> "Now I'm bringing something else."
---
Maya didn't scream.
She didn't run.
She simply stood there — blood cold, hands shaking.
> "He's not here," she whispered.
> "I know," Jax said. "That's why I came now."
He tilted his head.
> "You were always his, weren't you?"
> "Yes."
> "Even when you hated him?"
> "Especially then."
> "Then you don't deserve to love again."
---
The trigger clicked.
But no shot fired.
Maya flinched anyway.
> "I didn't load it yet," Jax said. "I wanted to see you break first."
> "Why?"
> "Because I loved you. And you destroyed me."
> "No," she said quietly. "You destroyed yourself the moment you decided love was about ownership."
---
Then another voice broke the air:
> "Drop the gun."
Elias.
Standing in the open doorway, eyes dark, jaw clenched, a gun of his own in his hand.
Jax turned.
> "You always show up when it's too late, don't you?"
> "Not this time."
> "She should've chosen me."
> "She did. That's why you're going to lose everything."
---
Jax raised the gun.
This time, it was loaded.
Maya screamed.
A shot rang out.
But neither Elias nor Jax fell.
It was Maya who did.
---
The locket around her neck shattered as the bullet hit her chest, and her body dropped with a sound that didn't belong in this world.
Elias roared.
He didn't shoot Jax.
He tackled him.
They fought — violent, messy, desperate.
Elias disarmed him.
Jax bit, clawed, screamed like a beast, until Elias shoved the barrel of his gun against Jax's temple.
> "You want to die?" Elias hissed. "Then look at what you did."
Jax turned his head.
Saw Maya.
Bleeding.
Still.
Silent.
And he started crying.
> "I didn't mean—"
> "You meant every second of it."
---
Then Elias pulled the trigger.
And Jax's body went limp.
He dropped beside Maya.
Pulled her into his lap.
Her eyes were barely open.
Blood stained the carpet.
> "Stay with me," he whispered. "Please, baby. Please—"
Her hand reached up, brushed his cheek.
> "Don't cry."
> "You can't leave me."
> "I… I was already yours."
> "Then fight."
> "It's too late."
> "No. No, Maya—"
> "Tell me the truth," she whispered. "Did you love her?"
> "I hated her… because she wasn't you."
---
Her eyes fluttered.
Her lips parted.
And the last thing she said was:
> "Then maybe I didn't lose after all…"
Her head tilted back.
And she was gone.
---
Elias didn't scream.
He didn't cry.
He just held her.
And rocked.
And whispered her name until it meant nothing but pain.
---
The police arrived twenty minutes later.
They found Jax dead.
Maya gone.
And Elias covered in blood, still holding her body like letting go would kill him too.
---
At the funeral, they buried her beside Mira.
Two sisters.
One grave apart.
No one spoke to Elias.
He wore black.
Said nothing.
And when the service ended, he remained at the grave, long after everyone left.
He knelt beside the headstone.
> Maya Grace Lane
Beloved Daughter. Soft Soul. The Girl Who Loved Too Hard.
> "I told you I'd never let go," he whispered.
> "And now, I never will."
---
That night, he went home.
And set fire to everything they touched.
The photos.
The letters.
The bloodstained sheets.
And finally, to himself.
---
When the firefighters arrived, the house was already consumed.
And in the ashes, they found two things:
A melted locket.
And a charred bracelet.
---
They loved.
They broke.
They burned.
And in the end — they died as they lived.
Too much.
Too soon.
Too forever.
---
đź–¤ THE END đź–¤