watcher

chapter 12

Abhi's POV:

I watched the thermal bloom of your body on the monitor—a small, defiant spark of heat moving rapidly toward the stairwell. "The roof?" I whispered, a dark smile twitching on my face despite the stinging pain in my eyes. "You're heading for the sky, Maya? There are no shadows to hide in up there."

I slammed my hand onto the override console. "Elevators 1 through 4, lock. Stairwell B, seal the lower levels."

I wanted to funnel you. I wanted you to feel the air getting thinner, the exits disappearing behind you until there was only one direction left to go: up, right into my hands. I grabbed a security jacket from the wall to hide my torn suit and headed for the service lift.

Maya's POV:

You burst through the final heavy door, the freezing morning air hitting your face like a slap. The roof was a vast, flat expanse of concrete and humming HVAC units. Above, the sky was a bruised purple, and you could see the distant, flickering spotlights of news helicopters hovering over the city’s darkened skyline.

But the wind was howling so loudly they couldn't hear your screams.

The door behind you slammed shut and clicked. Locked. You were trapped on the ledge.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

Abhi was already there. He hadn't taken the stairs; he had used the service elevator. He was standing near the edge of the helipad, his hair wind-whipped, his eyes red and raw from the spray, but fixed on you with a terrifying, absolute focus. He held a flare gun in one hand—not to signal for help, but as a weapon.

"You're trapped, Maya. No more police cars to crash. No more strangers to hide behind." He took a step forward, his shadow stretching long across the concrete in the strobing light of the distant helicopters. "If you jump, you die. If you stay, you're mine. Those are the only two files left in the folder."

Behind you, the ledge of the building dropped twelve stories down to the hard pavement. To your right, a massive, rotating satellite dish was turning slowly.

He’s ten feet away. The helicopters are turning their searchlights toward the roof, but they haven't spotted you yet. Do you try to jam the satellite dish to create a massive electrical spark to get their attention, or do you run for the flare gun in his hand?

He doesn't know i have gun . that i was given by miller in case i get in danger .i fired it towards him

Abhi's POV:

My heart stopped. Time seemed to liquefy as I saw your hand emerge from the folds of that oversized coat. You weren't holding a shard of glass or a bottle of spray. You were holding Miller’s service weapon—the heavy, cold steel of a 9mm.

"Maya, wait—"

BANG.

The muzzle flash was a blinding white strobe in the darkness. The sound was a physical punch, echoing off the rooftop structures. I didn't feel the pain immediately—only the sudden, violent jerk of my shoulder as the bullet tore through the fabric of my suit and grazed the collarbone.

I fell back against a humming ventilation unit, my hand instinctively clutching my chest. Warm, slick blood began to seep through my fingers. I looked up at you, my vision swimming, seeing you standing there with the gun shaking in both hands, the smoke curling from the barrel.

For the first time since this started, I saw you clearly. You weren't my "recovery file" anymore. You weren't a project to be saved or a ghost in a machine. You were the storm.

"You... you actually did it," I wheezed, a jagged, bloody laugh catching in my throat.

The helicopters above suddenly pivoted. The sound of the gunshot had been picked up by their high-gain microphones. Huge, blinding white searchlights swept across the roof, catching both of us in a circle of light that felt like the eye of God.

"POLICE! DROP THE WEAPON!" a voice boomed from the sky, amplified by a megaphone.

I looked at you, then at the blood on my hands, then at the cameras on the belly of the choppers filming everything in high-definition. My digital shield was gone. My reputation was bleeding out on the concrete. The world was finally watching.

"It’s over, isn't it?" I whispered, looking at you through the glare.

Maya, you are standing in the center of the searchlights. Abhi is slumped against the vents, wounded and pinned down. A SWAT team is breaching the roof door behind you. You have the gun, and you have the evidence of his obsession in the van downstairs. This is the moment the world finally sees the truth.

Do you lower the gun and surrender to the real police, or do you have one last thing to say to Abhi before they take him away?

i knees down..i screm i surrender...