Caught in the Crossfire

Hoards of people surrounded the large clock tower, posing for pictures and laughing with their friends. It was a tourist trap if Valentine had ever seen one, and she simply hated that. Tourists always came into her city, acting like they owned the place, and it drove her mad. The only person who hated tourists more than she did was Niall, so she knew that when they stood around the tower, pretending to fit in, he was mentally going insane.

They’d been prepping for the attack for what felt like months, but in reality, it had only been a few days. Even so, Valentine was more than ready for Chaos Crawler and Gemini to become world famous. She’d been waiting for it all her life.

Batting her eyelashes, she turned to Niall, whose eyes quickly met hers. He knew by the look on her face exactly what she wanted, and he simply smiled his wicked grin back.

“Soon, baby. Soon,” he cooed, as he wrapped his hand around hers.

She sighed. She didn’t want soon. She wanted now. She wanted to end everything now.

His hand gripped more tightly around hers, and he slowly pulled her closer to the clock tower. She could feel his pulse beating against his fingers and she wondered when he had become so nervous. He’d never been the type to tremble at excitement, but she did suppose this was the biggest stage they were ever going to act on. It was their final moment, and Niall was going to make it big.

His hand moved to his shoulders, where he slowly slipped off the black backpack. Inside it sat enough explosives to demolish a skyscraper, which was good because there target was Big Ben and everyone surrounding it.

As casually as he could, Niall dropped the pack to the ground, and it seemed to go unnoticed by everyone. His pulse was still pounding, as he pulled Valentine in the opposite direction.

The two of them walked until they were a fair distance away. Usually, they’d be further back, tucked away in safety, but Niall was so excited about their show that he wanted to see it up close, and she didn’t see any harm in it.

“Ready, babe?” he whispered.

She nodded, a large grin sprawling across her face.

He reached into his pocket, for the small cellphone he had hooked up to the bomb. All he had to do was dial one simple number and London would be up in smoke, with the citizen’s screams being the only thing louder than the explosives.

Niall pulled the phone from his pocket and brought it to his ear, with Valentine’s eyes on him the entire time. She couldn’t believe it was here. She couldn’t believe the moment was finally here. Everything they had been working towards led up to this, and she couldn’t wait to see everything unfold.

Just as Niall was about to hit the button, Valentine spotted a figure running in the distance. He seemed almost inhuman, moving so quickly and with an ease like Valentine had never seen before. His shaved head bounded through the crowd, diving in and out of people, and Valentine was so fixated on his moving figure that she didn’t even think to warn Niall.

Her eyes refused to leave the running man, as he headed straight for her, and there was something about the scene that just left her frozen.

Before the man could reach her, Niall’s finger tapped against the button, and in seconds, the London square was nothing but chaos, just as they had hoped.

There were people screaming, running, and coughing like mad. They clutched to their children, as their eyes searched for anywhere that could be safe. Many of them were so dazed by the explosion that they couldn’t move, but the man was still running and heading straight for Niall and Valentine.

Niall spotted him just seconds before he reached them, and at first, he had no clue what the man was doing, but it only took him seconds to figure out.

His veins popped out of his muscles, which didn’t seem large enough to contain the strength that he had. His eyes were almost red in fury, and he moved so quickly that neither Valentine nor Niall had time to react.

In seconds, the man had wrapped his hands around Niall’s throat and hoisted him into the air, tossing him to the side in anger. If he’d been thinking rationally, he might have gone about destroying the villains differently, but he was to angered to do anything but lash out.

Valentine watched as Niall fell back to the ground, in pain but still alive. He groaned through the smoke, and struggled to pull himself back up to his feet. She saw him as he reached out for her, mouthing something that she couldn’t hear.

As she watched Niall mumbling and tossing about on the ground, the man reached out for her, wrapping his hands around her neck. She didn’t know if he knew how much strength he had, or if he planned to kill her, but with every bit of pressure he put on her neck, she felt herself breaking.

Niall cried out, as the man gave a twist of his hands, which caused Valentine’s world to go black. She felt nothing but pain, as he dropped her to the ground. Her body laid lifeless against the concrete, like so many of the people she had hurt. She deserved what happened to her, but Niall didn’t see that. All he saw was a man rip the life from the only woman he had ever loved.

He wanted to save her, but it was too late, so he took off running as fast as he could.