Work Text:
When Oren and I finally got the top off of the tomb, and I looked inside, we didn’t find a corpse, and I let out a small breath I didn’t know I had been holding. The container was empty, except for a small rectangular USB, just like the one in my room.
“You know, Avery I want to be surprised that you got here first. But I'm not.” I recognized the voice. It was Eve.
I spun around and faced her. “Go away, Eve. This isn’t your game.”
Her false smile faltered. If I hadn’t been staring intently at her face, I would have missed it.
“Oh, but I think it is.” Eve took a step closer but Oren stood in front of me. She ignored him and kept her gaze on me. “How about you walk away, Avery, and you forget you found that. She pointed to the USB I still held in my hand.
“I think that’s going to be a problem.” She took a gun out from her back pocket, and pointed it straight at me. At my heart.
Oren took a few steps towards Eve. “You need to put that down. You could hurt someone.”
Eve laughed, “Oh, but that's the point, isn’t it?”
She pulled out a smaller sleeker looking gun from her other pocket and pointed it at Oren. “I knew you would be close to Avery. Don’t think I forgot you.”
Without a second thought, she shot him. She shot Oren. She only glanced at him as his body hit the ground. “Don’t worry. It only knocked him out. I’m saving the big show for you.”
I took a few steps away, until I backed into a wall. “Eve, please this is not worth it.”
“You don’t understand, I need that USB, the next clue.”
“Avery!” I heard someone yell my name from outside, the chapel, it sounded like Grayson
“Grayson!” I yelled back telling him that I was in here.
I saw the door shake, but it didn't open. I realized that Eve must have locked it before she made herself known.
“Eve-” That was the last thing I was able to say before she pulled the trigger and the world went quiet. I knew that she was picking up the USB from where I dropped it, but I also didn’t at the same time. It’s hard to explain, it's like my consciousness was out of my body. It was a few seconds before I realized that she shot me and the world became clear again.
My knees buckled and I fell to the ground. The pain was unbearable, But I watched the door break down, and someone ran into the room. I wouldn't be alone. The person looked at Eve before she turned, ran out the back and into the night. I always knew that when I became the youngest billionaire in the country I would not have a pretty death, I just didn’t expect it so soon.
The person who ran into the room a few seconds ago, or was it hours? I didn’t know how long it had been since Eve shot me, but it felt like years ago, when in reality it was probably only minutes. The person was Grayson. He ran to my side and lifted my head from the puddle of my own blood, holding it in his lap. He was crying now, I tried to comfort him but I couldn't bring any words out to tell him it was all going to be okay. I guess I shouldn’t lie anyways. I knew it wasn’t ever going to be okay again.
I knew I was slipping, but I needed to stay awake as long as I could, for Gray.
He looked down at my face, and wiped some blood that was starting to come out of my mouth, “Avery. An ambulance is coming, it’s all going to be alright. Jameson will laugh at me when he’s seen I cried over nothing…”
We both knew that wasn’t going to happen, but I could at least let him pretend for a second.
I wiped the tears from his cheek and smiled. Or at least I think I smiled. Everything started to go numb and black dots were creeping at the edges of my vision. He returns the smile, a bit more watery than mine was. I start to laugh but it just turns into a cough.
I can hear an ambulance in the distance, but I know it’s already too late. My eyes start to slip close and Grayson shakes me, “No, no, no, You have to keep them open alright? You have to stay awake, you can rest when you're safe.”
My eyes slowly open, I have to try for Grayson. For Grayson. For Grayson. For Grayson. I kept repeating the same phrase over and over again in my head, hoping that it would be enough to hold out.
“Grayson… I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
his voice felt so far away, no no, stay awake, For Grayson.
“Everything.”
“Avery, You have nothing to be sorry for.” He smiled softly, “When you first came here, I didn’t like you. I thought you were a threat. But, you’re not.”
I smile as an old memory comes to my mind, “Est unus ex nobis. Nos defendat eius,” I say, growing more tired by the second, “You said it to Jameson, it means “She is one of us. We protect her.”
Grayson nodded, “I did.” His voice broke, “And it’s true. That’s why you have to survive.”
Instead of agreeing this time I shake my head, “Gray… Thank you” I let out one last tear and my eyes closed for the final time as I slipped into the black abyss. The last thing I felt and saw was Grayson Hawthornes broken expression, and his hand carding through my hair.
Grayson POV:
When I heard the bang of a gun go off I threw my entire weight into the door. When it broke open it took me a moment to see Eve slipping out the back with gun in hand. The next thing I saw was Avery, lying in a pool of blood. Her blood.
I held her close as she let out her last breath and her body relaxed in my arms.
I cried and yelled out. She didn’t stir.
After a few seconds paramedics and security burst into the room and took in the scene. There was a shocked silence for a second before they crowded around me and Avery. A few of them went over to Oren who I had forgotten about and lifted him onto a stretcher, wheeling him away. I tried to compel myself to calm down but I couldn’t. Paramedics were yelling things I didn’t understand over my head, maybe I didn't want to understand. They started to take her off of my lap but I held on.
“Grayson.” One of the security said, I think I recognized him from somewhere, “You have to let go, we’re going to try to help alright?”
I nodded and let go. At the same moment Jameson, Nash, and Xander ran into the room.
I glared at them and got up, looking at the three but still trying to keep an eye on Avery, who was now getting hooked up to a Defibrillator.
I tore my eyes away from the scene and looked into each of my brother's eyes, “And why did it take you forever to get here?”
None of them responded, they were all looking at Avery. The paramedics were now yelling “clear!” but I couldn’t bring myself to look.
Eventually Nash walked up to me and put his hands on my shoulders, pulling me in for a hug, “Let it out.”
The 3 words were enough for the tears I had been holding in to break the dam and come rushing out. I fell to my knees and sobbed into my older brother's shoulder, gripping his shirt.
A second later I heard it, “We have a pulse!”
I whipped my head around and shot up from the floor. I could see Avery's stomach rising up and down. Slowly but surely.