His Birthday part II

Cautiously opening my eyes, I groaned out in pain

“My head hurts”, I whispered to myself, holding my head in my hand to ease the throbbing pain that was beating around in the walls of my skull only to see my hand fully covered in blood

“What the-”

“Glad to see you're up”, a voice suddenly said and my eyes shot up to see a dark haired woman sitting in front of me, holding one of the sharpest knives I had in my kitchen in her hand. “Don't even think about screaming, you'll be dead even before anyone rushes in here to save you”

“Who are you?”, I croaked out silently out, and I forced myself to sit up to lean against the couch. That blow to the head really did a number on me, I felt so deflated, weak and very lightheaded. I noticed a trail of blood following from the door to where I was and guessed that she probably dragged me all the way to the carpet while I was still unconscious.

“If you're so interested and must know my identity; I'm Aria and I would say I'm Nathan's secret admirer, but it's way more than that”, she said confidently, and I blinked repeatedly at her

“What?”

“You heard what I said. I'm the woman of his dreams, who just happens to be as equally in love with him as he is with me”, she trailed her fingers on the blade, poking her index finger on the sharp end.

“How did you get in here?”

“Your guards are actually kinda clumsy with the keys of this building. Once I turned on the seduction and the charm, I managed to distract them while I made a copy of your key”, I blinked repeatedly at her. That's all it took for her to make a copy of my keys and break into my apartment.

“Enough about that though”, she got off the sofa to kneel in front of me and my eyes kept dropping from her eyes to the knife she was holding

“I didn't think you'll be back from the party so soon though. How was it?”, she smiled maniacally as folded her legs and leaned in to listen attentively. “Did Nathan seem to enjoy himself? Was he happy?”

She kept the questions coming, and I really didn't have the strength to answer all of them because I think I was suffering from mild confusion from the heavy blow I suffered back there. Everything seemed and sounded foggy.

“Well did he?”, her enthusiastic voice pulled me back to the devastating reality and I slowly nodded my head. “That's wonderful”

“Was it you?”, tears started welding up in my eyes, and she titled her head to the side a little, giving me a questioning look for me to explain what I was saying. “The flowers that were sent to my office?”

“Yes”, she snicked maniacally, successfully sending chills down my spine. “I thought your coffin would look good with your favorite flowers on top of it”

My breath hitched in my throat. How did she know? Has she been stalking me?

“You thought Nathan sent them to you, didn't you?”, she questioned with a deadly look in the eyes and I didn't show any signs of answering her question

“It's just so fucking frustrating, to see you getting all the flowers, he's taking you places, giving you all his attention, you're all over his insta feed because he's not afraid to show you off to the world, you're just fucking everywhere”, she drew a deep breath

“You're probably the first person he thinks about when he wakes up and the last when he goes to bed at night. He lives for you, breathes for you and at the same time he's acting like I don't even exist while all I want is to love him. I want it to be me. Me!”

I just sat there staring at her wide-eyed, incapable of understanding how, how did I even get here, in this compromising position of being held hostage at knife point by a freaking psychopath that's in love with Nathan

The expression on her face changed when she probably realized the way I was looking at her and I could see her eyes darken through her thick eyelashes

“You see that look on your face right now? I hate it. Stop looking at me like I'm fucking crazy”, she started screaming at I flinched at her tone.

“I- I'm sorry…y”, I stuttered nervously as I saw her starting to wave the knife in my face, closing my eyes and looked away from her

“No, no. Look at me”, she forcibly grabbed me by the chin, turning my face so that I looked at her, her dark eyes pierced through mine and I held my breath. “I want to see what he sees each time he looks at you in the eyes. Your beautiful golden eyes”

I could hear a hint of jealously in her voice as she kept describing my physical facial features, enunciating dangerously especially at my eyes... like she would love nothing more like to plunge them out. I let out a shaky breath, calming myself down so that I don't break down into tears.

“I don't know what this is, but I didn't do anything to you”, I reasoned in my defense, but a wry smile grew on her face for a second before it completely disappeared the next

“That's what you think, but we both know that's not true now don't we?”

“Why don't we talk about this? Calmly like adults then maybe we can reach some kind of alternate solution”

“The only solution we're going to reach here, is when we both decide who's going to make it to the finish line in order to keep Nathan and by the looks of things, it's not going to be you”

My heart started beating fast in my chest as those words escape her lips

“If I can't get Nathan, no one else will”, she was now pointing the knife in between my eyes, aiming for the attack, but then the door knob started jiggling as someone was trying to get in

“Liv?”, Nathan's voice called out from the other side of the door, still turning on the door knob and Aria panicky tensed up

“Nathan help!”, I used the last bit of energy I had in me to scream at the top of lungs and the door was kicked open shortly after

“You bitch”, Aria seemed infuriated with what I had done as she jumped behind me the exact time Nathan stormed in, and she held the knife against my throat while forcibly pulling me to my feet

“Aria, don't be hasty now”, Nathan held out both his hands, motioning she comes down and Aria started dragging me around the lounge as Nathan stepped closer and closer to us

“One more move and I slit her throat open”, she warned sternly, causing Nathan to stop in his tracks and take a step backwards

“Listen, it's me you're looking for. Why don't you let her go?”

“Why would I want to do that?”, she quizzed, and I felt the knife being pressed a little harder across my skin and I bit my cheek to hold back the tears

“It's me you want, and now I'm here”, he reasoned with her and I could feel her violently shake her head

“It didn't have to come to this you know”, she continued moving us around in circles. “All I ever wanted to do was to love you but you didn't want to give me that chance”

“Like I said, I'm here now so why don't we have a little talk about that and find a way forward”, he spoke so calmly, it seemed to be working because she stopped dragging me around, mesmerized by the sound of his soothing voice and for a second I believed she was going to release me, but then something snapped in her again and her grip roughly tightened around my neck, causing me to let out a little cry

“Aria, you're hurting her”, Nathan's voice was full of concern as we locked eyes for a mere second

“Do I look like I give a fuck?”, she quizzed, pressing the knife a little harder than before to prove a point that she actually didn't give a fuck, in one swift it could be all over for me

“Listen, let's just talk about this...after you put the knife down”, Nathan was still talking calmly, but it sounded like Ariel was no where interested in talking

“It doesn't work like that. You'll have to choose. It's either me or her”

“I chose you, Aria”, he looked her straight in the eye as he said those words, not even daring to lock eyes with me this time because that would just send her on an uncontrollable rage rampage

“Really?”, her voice was a lot softer and her grip on me loosened a little. “You really mean that?”

“Of course”, he took another step towards me. “I was a fool for not seeing this from the beginning but you and I belong together”

He was using the reverse psychology card on her, and she was eating it up from the palm of his hand

“Oh Nathan”, her voice started breaking as a small chuckle left her lips. “I've been waiting for you to say these words to me for so long”

His eyes finally met mine again, briefly as he was giving me some sort of signal to make a move

“Why don't you slowly put the knife down?”, he was slowly taking her through it, and it seemed to be working, and I felt her weight on me lifted little by little

“Good, good”, he cooed softly at her as he motioned she comes closer to him. I felt her sigh of relief as she slowly unwrapped her arm around me.

“Okay now Liv”, he suddenly screamed out, catching Aria off guard a little and I gave her the elbow strike, causing her to stumble back a bit and Nathan grabbed both her hands. I managed to crawl away from them as they fought over the knife, causing chaos around the apartment before they both fell on the floor.

“You bastard, you lied to me”, she screamed at him as they continued with the struggle

“Call the police Olivia”, Nathan yelled out as he and Aria fought over the knife, with him pinning her hands down trying to knock it out of her hands and restrain her. I forced myself up, racing to where my purse dropped to the floor near the door but just when I was about to get to it, I could see Aria standing to her feet through my peripheral vision, shortly after punching Nathan off her and quickly picked up the knife as it had slid across the floor, far enough that it was out of reach for the both of them and marched in my direction. I grabbed the nearest object near me so that I could smash it against her face when she was close enough but then in a blink of an eye, Nathan was now in-between us, shielding me from her and Aria impulsively jammed the knife deep into his abdomen.

Everything happened so fast and yet at such a short time period as the sound of the blade piercing through Nathan's skin echoed loudly around the room, followed by my screams of horror blended with his stifled painful groan, seeming to lose his balance a bit

Aria's eyes widened as she yanked the knife out and dropped it to the floor, causing Nathan to stumble backwards and fall towards me, his hands clutching over his stomach

I caught him in my arms, falling back with him and his wound begun oozing out a huge amount of blood. When I looked up, it was only the two of us left in the apartment. I was panicking over Nathan and attending to his wound, I didn't even see when Aria ran out the door.

My hands were trembling as I searched for his phone in his pocket and used it to call the emergency number for medical assistance. The dispatcher started asking questions and my voice started breaking as I answered them, shortly giving her my address and she told me the paramedics are already on the way.

His body started twitching as I grabbed the cloth on the coffee table and applied pressure onto his wound to stop him from bleeding out before wrapping my arm around his shoulder, placing his upper body on my lap

“Can you please hold my hand?”, he asked, trying to clasp his hand my other hand I was using to hold him up and intertwined our fingers over his shoulder. Tears started gathering in his eyes and he took a deep breath to stop them from falling. He looked scared, the fear in his glassy eyes as they locked with mine was unbearable, I started crying.

“Liv-”

“You're going to be okay, help is on the way. Just hold on”, his eyes searched for mine as I was focusing on applying pressure onto his wound.

“Listen to me”, he asked because I wasn't listening to any word he was saying. There was so much blood, soaking the material of his shirt, slowly turning it dark crimson while pouring onto the floor- with that metallic scent filling up the room discreetly.

“Olivia...”, he placed his other hand over mine as I was still pressing onto his wound, talking over him with constant reassurance that it was going to be okay. “Please listen to me, you're not listening”

I finally turned my attention away from his wound to look at him

“No matter what happens; I need you to be strong enough for the both of us, okay?”, a tear escaped his eye before he threw his head back in agony, barely able to control the urge of releasing a painful grunt and I shut my eyes for a second, hearing and seeing him like this was excruciating, it was killing me

“I don't know if I can”, I shook my head. “I don't want you to go, please don't leave me”, I begged desparately, and I felt his hand squeeze mine.

“I need you to do that for me”

“Please don't do this to me”, I rested my forehead against his and whispered, “I need you to not give up, I still need you”

“I'm not giving up-”, he whispered back as his breathing swallowed but before then, a faint smile appeared on his face. “I promised I wouldn't”.

Crimson blood started dripping on the side of his lips, making a small trail down his cheek

“I love you, okay?”, his eyes start to get drowsier and began slowly to narrow shut

“No!”, I screamed while shaking him to keep him awake, but then I felt his body starting to get a little heavier, his grip on my hand loosened around mine, but I kept holding on

“Baby no, don't close your eyes please”

I was still shaking him, but he was starting to get unresponsive, slowly slipping into unconsciousness and there was nothing I could do about it

“Nathan please, stay with me”

Silence.

It was so quiet the only thing I could hear was the sound of my own ragged breath and heart beating in my chest. I lightly tapped the side of his face continuously.

“Baby?”, I gently turned his face and continued tapping his face again hoping to disturb his peaceful state....but he still wasn't coming around

The sound of the sirens started echoing around the neighborhood and then there was a little hope in me that everything was going to be okay but then the fear that it might be a little too late became an immediate reality yet again. I held back a loud sob that was threatening to escape my lips as I bought my face closer to his.

“.....please wake up”