Blanket of Fear

“Don’t do this. Please,” Eliza cried, putting herself in front of Zack as she glared at a person she had thought was her friend; a person who was now holding pointing a gun straight at Zack’s head. The tears couldn’t seem to stop falling out of Eliza’s eyes, and she wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and die. But she knew that if she did that, Zacky would die at the hands of someone he’d trusted; someone he’d considered almost family. And Eliza couldn’t let that happen; not if she had anything to say about it.

“Eliza, move. This isn’t personal between the two of you,” their friend told them. The voice didn’t sound like anything they’d ever heard from the person before. It sounded cold, with just a hint of regret mixed in with the tone. Eliza knew their friend didn’t want to do this. She knew she could talk the person down.

“Don’t let Sean control you! We won’t let anything happen to the baby, you know that,” Eliza yelled, holding her hands up as if her body could shield Zack from death. “You know he’s going to kill you as soon as you go back.”

“I’m not going back to him.”

The reply was bitter this time, with anger instead of regret. Eliza felt Zack’s hands move onto her hips, and she shook her head as she tried to stop him from pushing her out of the way. She wasn’t going to stand aside and watch him get shot; not like this. He didn’t even have self defense. She couldn’t let this happen.

“It’ll be okay,” he whispered into her ear, pressing a small kiss to the back of her neck. The kiss seemed almost inappropriate in a situation like this, but she knew it was because he was trying to convince her to move aside. He was facing death in the damn face, and he was still trying to play hero.

“No, Zack. I’m not moving,” she told him, holding her hand as she looked back up at their friend, who had pulled the safety off the gun.

“Don’t make me have to shoot you, Eliza. Only one of you has to die. Let it be him. Please, let it be him. Isn’t he the one who kidnapped you into all of this anyway? You should want to see him die.”

“I love him!” Eliza yelled at their friend. She couldn’t believe she’d been so blind; so naïve. She couldn’t believe she had had such misplaced trust in a person she’d thought was so harmless. “I can’t let you do this. Just put the gun down. We can find another solution to all of this.”

“Move now, dammit! Don’t you get it? It doesn’t matter if you tell me that you’ll find another solution. There is no way to stop him unless he gets what he wants! Zacky’s death will bring an end to all of this!”

“Eliza, move,” Eliza heard another voice speak. She turned her head just briefly to the side to see Matthew standing there, a fierce look on his face as he moved to grab her arm. “Don’t interfere in this. It isn’t your place.”

“You traitors!” Eliza screamed at them, jerking her hold out of Matthew’s hold as she pushed her back against Zacky’s chest once more, blocking him from the gunshot. She could feel his hands shaking as she guarded him, and she knew that he was just as frightened at this point as she was. The difference between them was, he wasn’t showing it. He wasn’t fighting this, and Eliza didn’t understand why.

“He’s not a traitor, Eliza. Right now, he’s the only one who can fix this. Just step aside,” Zack said calmly into her ear, trying once again to move her. She could hear the protectiveness in his voice, and she didn’t want to make him angry. She knew what he was like when he was angry, and she hated it. But she’d rather face that than face his death. She couldn’t lose him; not after all she’d gone through with him in the last year.

“No. I’m not letting you get shot, Zack,” Eliza shook her head, feeling more tears falling out of her eyes. “I’m not letting you die.”

“I won’t die,” he said smoothly. “You know me. I don’t die. I always find a way out of shit. Just move. Please, Eliza.”

“No!” Eliza screamed out, not understanding why everyone kept telling her to let him die. She couldn’t let that happen; she didn’t want his blood on her hands, and that would be precisely what happened if she just stepped aside. She wasn’t stupid. She knew that his body couldn’t withstand a bullet. He may be a vampire, but he wasn’t immortal; not in the ways that Hollywood said they were. He would die, here and now, and she couldn’t let that happen.

“Matthew, grab her. Don’t let her go,” Zacky sighed, looking up at his assailant. “At least give her the courtesy of not having to watch.”

Eliza started kicking the second she felt Zack’s brother grab her and pull her away from Zack. He held her arms tight so that she couldn’t fight her way out of his hold, and then turned away. “Zack, no!” She screamed, a sob wracking her body when she knew that she wouldn’t be able to stand in front of him any longer. She couldn’t stop that bullet anymore; not if Matthew was holding her.

“I’m sorry, Zack.”

The words were whispered so quietly that Eliza barely heard them. The next thing she heard was Zacky’s voice telling her that he loved her, and after that, a gunshot. For several seconds, it seemed as if everything had gone silent. Matthew let go of her, and she spun around to see Zacky still standing there; a stunned look on his face. She then looked to the assailant, and saw that her body was sprawled out on the ground, hair hanging in her face, mouth slack, and gun fallen a few feet away from her hands.

“I couldn’t let her kill you. I loved her, but I couldn’t let her kill you,” a familiar voice said. Eliza didn’t have a chance to see who had spoken as everything faded to black.

-x-

Eliza let out a loud gasp and sat up straight as a pin on the mattress, her eyes wide open as she tried to figure out what she had just seen. She looked around the darkened room, trying to figure out where she was, and she let out a breath of relief when she saw that she was in the bedroom she shared with Zack.

“Eliza?” Zack’s groggy voice asked through the silence, causing her heart to jump a beat. She turned to see him propping his body up on the mattress, his green eyes wide open as he looked at her, worry on his face. “What’s wrong, baby?”

She didn’t know how to answer him. She couldn’t explain what she had seen. Surely, what she’d been dreaming of was just a nightmare. The worst nightmare she had ever had in her life, yes, but a nightmare all the same. There was no way it could have been true. The person she’d seen holding that gun to Zacky’s head never would do such a thing in real life; it just wasn’t something that could ever happen. Was it?

“I…” she started, shaking her head as she sighed, pushing her hand back through her hair. “I don’t know. I just…had this dream,” she murmured, blocking everything out. She wasn’t going to let Zacky’s mind interfere and read her thoughts. She didn’t want him worrying about her; she didn’t want him seeing what she had seen. “I’m going to go get a glass of water, alright?”

“Sure, baby. Come back to bed when you’re done,” he murmured to her, lying back down on the pillows and pulling the blankets up around his body again as she got out of the bed. She made her way quickly to the kitchen, and she couldn’t help but feel disturbed at what her nightmare had shown her.

“Eliza?”

Eliza stopped dead in her tracks, and then turned around to see the person from her nightmare; a person she’d considered such a close friend. Instead of seeing that friend, she could only see the nightmare she’d had, and the person that had tried to kill Zack.

She didn’t say a word as she turned and continued making her way to the kitchen to get her water. She didn’t know what to think of the nightmare, but she knew that it sure as hell was the scariest thing she had ever seen. She just hoped that it wasn’t true. Because if it was, it meant that everything was going to change in a bad way.