The consequences of being the hero

I looked up at the stands towards Landon who stared nervously at his mate. His nerves were very clearly evident by his aggressive biting of his nails and I wondered now whether he was more afraid for his mate than himself. Eventually he picked up on my staring and his eyes wandered to mine. As expected, they were not pleading, begging me to go easy on Jared in hopes of sparing him. Instead he gave me a curt nod, as if to say, "I know you have no choice." But the truth was that I did have a choice, not much of one, but a choice, nonetheless. I *could* throw this fight to save Landon for Jared. Or I *could* beat Jared to save Loren. These choices, however, also depended on my ability and thus the possibilities changed to questions: could I throw this fight to save Landon for Jared? Could I beat Jared to save Loren? There was no way I could choose one without sacrificing the other and I had no desire to choose, because I knew Landon and I knew Loren. It was no longer just about sacrificing someone's relative, this was more personal, and, although I knew neither would feel the same, winning or losing would mean that I cared less for one than the other... at least to me it would. And so, it was then that I made my final decision to save both. I had no clue how I was going to do it, but I would find a way. For now, though, I had to focus on trying to beat Jared. I knew it would be the only way to try to save both. Jade walked up to me and removed my shackles as Oliver now shoved Jared forward, closer towards me. I could see that he had a left blackeye and wondered if it was as a result of some stubbornness on his part. He said nothing to me as he stared at me, I doubt there'd be anything he could say. The choice for him was just as hard, if not harder than mine because, although I had quite a different relationship with Loren- with me being the receiver of her affection- he knew her longer and more intimately than I did. He knew everyone in the organization because he was the one who helped us all escape from our horrid pasts.
"I'm sure I don't have to announce the two people you will have to save. It should, by now be obvious, what with Loren loving you, Jasmine, and Landon loving you, Jared. Lucien thought it would be delightful to save the best for last. So, in five, four, three, two-"
And on one, the gunshot sounded, and Jared was already on top of me, with his fists pounding against my face.
"I just got him back... and her too. I hate this so much."
"Me too," I said, after I'd had enough of his punches and caught one of them in my fist and mustered up enough strength to push him off. It gave me enough time to get back up to my feet and I spat out some blood to the side as I held my fists up. But before either Jared or myself could make a move, Loren decided to shout out towards us.
"Jasmine, you don't need to save me. As far as I'm concerned, I'm dead."
And that last part brought up the chilling memories of her funeral. I never ever wanted to bury her under the cherry tree again, at least not anytime soon.
"There's no way I'm not saving you Loren. Now shut up and continue sitting there. Today will not be your last day loving me." And it seemed my statement worked as she reclined further into her seat and resorted to keeping quiet. Meanwhile, Jared and I continued trying to save the two idiots in the stands. Jared lurched forward, fell to the ground into a forward roll and then, as soon as he returned to his feet, he attempted a kick into the side of my face. I ducked though and took the opportunity to knock him off of his feet by swiping my leg under his, knocking him to the ground. I crawled towards him, picked him up by the collar of his bloodstained shirt and started punching him in the face, making blood splatter all over the place. Then I grabbed him by the throat and began applying some pressure on it. He began scratching at the fingers of my hands, attempting to get them off of his skin as he attempted to gasp for air. Unfortunately, I was so focused on the struggle his fingers and throat were going through that I forgot to check on his legs which he used to launch into my stomach, sending me flying for a few feet before I fell hard on my back. I was heavily winded and attempted to turn over onto my side but was unsuccessful as his elbow plummeted into the centre of my already sensitive stomach. I screamed out and clutched at it and to my side began throwing up blood.
"Jasmine!" It came out of Damon's mouth, and I was about to reassure him when Jared's foot hit the side of my head, whipping it to the other side. Blood pooled in my mouth, cascading between my gums. I could feel my vision fading, the darkness rimming at the edge of the ground and the stands. Slowly I tried to begin fighting off this darkness, willing it to disappear, but my attempts were nothing but futile. No matter how hard I tried, my hands could not manage to push the weight of my body up from the ground, and my will to fight, to save both of the people I loved was strong, but not strong enough it seemed. I was just about ready to give up, tears falling from my eyes when Damon shouted out loudly, "Jasmine, you need to get up and fight!"
It was strange, him wanting me to fight given both people he loved were now being offered up as sacrifices and it was only when the next few words left his mouth, that I understood what he was doing, and why he was doing it.
"Come on Jasmine, you still have some strength left in you. Don't give up now, fight, because if you don't give it your all, I know you won't be able to live with yourself. So, fight until you can't fight anymore."
And that was it, that was what I needed to help me push away the darkness. So, with my dwindling strength, and my shaky arms and blurry vision I pushed and pushed and pushed until I was off of the floor, stopping Oliver who was ever ready to give the order to kill Loren who already had her eyes shut in anticipation of her death.
"Hold on... she's getting back up!" Macy uttered next to me.
I was barely up and almost lurched forward to the ground again but held myself steady and clutched my aching stomach. Jared turned towards me, horrified.
"I honestly didn't think you'd get up. Not even after Damon's speech. But I understand why you have to. In a way, I'm doing this for myself as well, so that whoever dies today died not in vain, but with every drop of blood, sweat and tears I had to give." He said.
I nodded at him in agreement and got into a fighting stance. He mirrored my movement and again, we began to run at each other. Fists flew, so did legs and nails. There was blood splattering everywhere to the point that we were soaked in red, some our own, some each other's and I was sure that at one stage, I'd lost a good tooth here and there. By the end of it all, Jared and I were barely able to keep our legs from giving in under us and we both collapsed next to each other, panting, exhausted, beaten and bloodied. I'd given it my all and my skin, muscle tissue and bones could validate that. But so had he, and now, there was not much left in us.
Despite knowing that I had given this fight my all, and despite knowing Jared was passed out next to me, I could not help the sickening feeling growing in my stomach, not because of his assault on it, but because I knew something bad was brewing.
"Oh, deary deary me! It seems they've knocked each other out... what the hell is supposed to happen now? Do we spare them both or kill them both? Spare or kill... Well, since Landon has been nothing but a pain in my ass since we were younger and Loren was, at once stage engaged to *my* man, I think I'll just have to *kill* them both."
"No!" It came out of both my and Jared's mouth, but did nothing to save both Loren and Landon from the bullets that flew from both of their chests, not even Damon who, at the time, attempted to break free from his seat, could help them. And as the bullets tore through their flesh, a soft, reassuring look made its way on Loren's face as a tear fell down her cheek and she gazed at me. And as Landon was about to slump over, he whispered, almost inaudibly, "I love you, Jared."
Those two actions broke me and as I lay there, unable to move I did nothing but sob as the pain surged through me. The physical pain was nothing compared to the ache I felt in my chest and the dense fog cloaking my brain up with sadness.
As if to make it worse on me, Jared took a moment before he whispered, "I love you too," under his breath. They were words I knew Landon would never ever hear. They just hovered in the air, floating into nothing but dust.
They were gone. Landon and Loren were gone. The love of Jared's life, and the person who claimed I was there's. I'd hoped that at some point in this battle I'd be able to rescue both or at least one of them, but in thinking that way, in trying to be the hero, I ended up costing two people their lives. And as I watched Jared sob next to me, I couldn't help but selfishly, yet humbly wish that I had been alone on this ground, hating myself for letting Loren die, and not Landon. Maybe then, Landon would have been alive to hear Jared say those words to him, and finally save him from that eternal loneliness he once told me about. But now he was alone again, alone in his death, his cold, dark void of death.
After their bodies were collected, Macy, Oliver and fake Jade nodded at each other and Macy began clapping.
"Right, that was epic. I must say, Lucien himself enjoyed that quite a bit, didn't you, Lucien?" She asked at the camera which was once in Oliver's hand but had now made its way onto a stand in a corner of the field.
After receiving nothing but silence in response, she clapped again and said, "Now it's nearly time for my love's turn to suffer through his own torture. God, I'm going to enjoy watching you squeal! And then, after that, you two will finally have your awaited reunion with Lucien himself. He's so excited to see you both, especially after the hell you've been through."
At this point, Lucien could go fuck himself for all I cared.
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Stay safe! Stay healthy! Sending all my love!