The Poisoned Vow
575 Words
The Forbidden Room
2:03 AM | Archer Tower Penthouse
The air in Clara’s room smelled like dust and decay. Selene’s fingers trembled as she flipped through the leather-bound diary on the desk. *October 12th: Kael promised me the world. Today, I learned his world is built on blood.*
A floorboard creaked behind her.
“Curiosity killed the thief,” purred a voice.
Selene whirled. Clara leaned against the doorway, her crimson dress slashed at the thigh, a pistol dangling from her hand. Alive. Smirking.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” Selene breathed.
Clara laughed. “And you’re supposed to be rotting in a jail cell. Yet here we are.” She stepped closer, tracing the urn labeled with her own name. “Kael’s little shrine. Pathetic, isn’t it? He’d rather mourn a ghost than face what he did.”
“What did he do?”
The gun clicked. “Ask him. But first—” Clara tossed a phone to Selene. A live feed glowed on the screen: Luna, gaunt and trembling, strapped to a hospital bed that wasn’t St. Mary’s.
“Tick-tock, *Eva*. Bring me Kael’s head, or your sister flatlines.”
The Ultimatum
2:47 AM | Kael’s Office
Kael slammed the safe shut, the pill bottle rattling in his grip. *Two pills. Just two.*
The door burst open. Selene stood framed in the light, Clara’s gun pressed to her own temple.
“Call off your wife,” she hissed. “Or I pull the trigger and paint your walls with *fiancée* brains.”
He froze. “You don’t have the nerve.”
She stepped closer, the barrel digging into her skin. “Luna’s dying because of you. What’s one more corpse?”
His mask cracked. “Clara’s alive?”
“Surprise,” Selene spat. “She wants you dead. I’m tempted to agree.”
The gun trembled. Kael lunged, disarming her in one fluid motion. They crashed into the desk, breaths mingling, rage and something hotter twisting between them.
“You’d die for her?” he growled.
“In a heartbeat.”
His thumb brushed the welt on her throat. “Then let’s keep you alive.”
The Exchange
3:30 AM | Abandoned Steel Mill
The mill loomed like a skeletal beast. Selene’s boots crunched over broken glass as Kael gripped her wrist, his touch searing through the cold.
“Stay behind me,” he ordered.
“Or what? You’ll shoot me too?”
His jaw tightened. “I don’t miss.”
Clara awaited them on a catwalk, Luna unconscious at her feet. “Kael Archer,” she crooned. “Still playing hero?”
“Let the girl go.”
“Gladly.” Clara kicked Luna’s IV pole. It teetered toward the railing. “If you jump.”
Selene’s scream tore through the night. *“No!”*
Kael didn’t hesitate. He vaulted onto the railing, wind whipping his shirt.
“Kael, don’t—”
He winked at Selene. “Never liked heights.”
And jumped.
3:59 AM | Freefall
Selene lunged for Luna as the catwalk shuddered. Below, Kael’s body struck a rusted conveyor belt.
*Silence.*
Clara pressed a knife to Selene’s back. “Oops. Looks like you’re mine now.”
Then—
A gunshot.
Clara staggered, crimson blooming on her shoulder. Kael stood in the shadows, pistol smoking, eyes wild.
“Missed me,” he rasped.
Clara grinned through bloodied teeth. “But *she* won’t.”
The knife plunged.
- Writer
