<h4>Chapter 143: Chapter ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-THREE: The Falling Sky</h4>


    Christy’s POV


    I couldn’t breathe, because my lungs felt like they had been filled with lead as I stared at the floor.


    Piper’s bodyy there, twisted and still, the dark pool of red spreading toward my toes like a hand reaching out to me.


    I didn’t cry or scream. I just stared at her with a strange, hollow numbness.


    She had tried to kill me seconds ago and hated me. She med me for everything that didn’t go well in her life, despite all my years of sacrifices for her. But seeing her discarded like a broken toy made a cold shiver crawl up my spine.


    "You shot her," Zain whispered again, his voice cracking slightly. He just couldn’t get over it. "She was on our side, Curtis. She did everything for you."


    Curtis didn’t even look at the body. He tucked the gun into his waistband with a calm expression that made him look like aplete psychopath. There was no remorse in his eyes or even a flicker of guilt. There was just a cold, terrifying emptiness.


    "She was noisy," Curtis said tly. "And I’m tired of noise."


    He turned those empty eyes toward me, and my heart hammered against my ribs so hard it hurt. I shrank back against the damp wall, but there was nowhere to go.


    "Now, Christy," he said, his voice dropping into that soft, possessive tone that made my skin crawl. "No more interruptions from anyone, okay...It’s just us now."


    He reached out, his fingers brushing my jaw where a bruise was still throbbing. I flinched, pulling away, but he justughed. It wasn’t a normalugh. It was the sound of someone who had finally let go of thest string of reality.


    "Don’t touch me," I rasped, my voice sounding extremely hoarse. "You’re insane.


    You’re staying in this hole forever...Kendrick is right behind that door."


    "Kendrick can’t get in here, honey," Curtis smirked. He grabbed my wrists and yanked me forward so hard I stumbled over Piper’s legs. "There is no going back now, Christy. Do you understand? The world you knew is gone and you belong to me now...You’ll learn to love the silence."


    He dragged me toward the back of the room where another narrow opening sat waiting. Zain stood there, frozen, his face pale as he clutched his bleeding shoulder.


    He lookedpletely broken, his jaw hanging open as he nced between Curtis and the body on the floor.


    "Move, Zain," Curtis barked. "Unless you want to stay here and exin the corpse to the police."


    Zain blinked, the shock finally giving way to a desperate, panicked survival instinct. He didn’t say another word. He just lowered his head and followed us into the darkness, his steps heavy and uneven.


    The tunnel was tighter here and the air felt thin, smelling of salt and rotting wood.


    I could feel my panic rising with every step.


    My mind was screaming Kendrick’s name, praying for them to find a way to us as fast as possible. I prayed for any sign, a shout, or anything to stop this nightmare. But all I heard was the sound of our breathing and the wet p of my bare feet against the stone floor.


    Suddenly, a gust of cold breeze hit my face. It carried the heavy scent of the ocean.


    "Almost there," Curtis whispered.


    We rounded a final corner and stepped out into the shadows evening air. I blinked, as my eyes adjusted to the light. We weren’t at the vi anymore. We were on the edge of a cliff on the far outskirts of town, overlooking the churning waters of the bay.


    The city lights were a million miles away, twinkling like cold diamonds. I immediately felt a wave of despair wash over me. We were out...He had actually gotten me out of the perimeter.


    "What are we doing here?" Zain panted, leaning against a rock. He was gray in the face, the blood loss finally catching up to him. "Curtis, we’re boxed in. The roads are crawling with cops...There’s no way out of the city."


    "Who said we were using the roads?" Curtis asked, looking up at the sky.


    "What do you mean?" I asked, my voice trembling. "Curtis, let me go, please. You can still run...If you take me, they will never stop hunting you. My brothers, Kendrick... they will burn the world down to find me."


    Curtis turned to me, his expression waspletely unreadable. He stepped closer, invading my space until I could feel the heat radiating off his body.


    "Let them burn it," he said. "We won’t be here to see the ashes. I have everything arranged...A new life and a new name. In a few hours, we’ll be across the border, and in two days, we’ll be on a different continent."


    My heart dropped. A new life? A different continent? The realization hit me like a physical blow. If I got on whatever transport he was waiting for, I was dead.


    Even if I lived, the Christy I used to be would be dead. I would be a prisoner in a gilded cage forever, hidden away by a man who killed his own people without a second thought.


    "No," I whispered, tears finally stinging my eyes. "No, please."


    Then I heard a low, rhythmic thumping in the distance. It started as a faint vibration in the air, growing louder and heavier with every second.


    Whump-whump-whump!!.


    I looked up, my eyes wide with terror. A dark shape was cutting through the clouds, moving fast over the water. A ck helicopter was heading straight for the cliffside where we stood.


    "There’s our ride," Zain said, a weak, hysterical smile breaking across his face. "We’re actually doing it...We’re getting out."


    Panic reached its peak in my chest. I started to thrash, trying to kick Curtis and scream, but he was too strong. He spun me around, pinning my back against his chest and locking his arm around my throat.


    "Look at it, Christy," he hissed into my ear. "That’s our future. No more rules or hiding, just the both of us forever."


    Before I could pull away, he forced my face toward his and kissed me. It tasted like copper and I felt sick, my stomach churning as I tried to bite him, but he just pulled back and grinned, his eyes bright with a feverish light.


    "See how beautiful it’s going to be?" he whispered, watching the helicopter drop lower, the wind from its rotors beginning to whip my hair across my face.


    The noise was deafening now. The helicopter was hovering just fifty yards away, moving over the crashing waves to reach the tnding spot on the cliff. Zain was already moving toward it, waving his good arm, his eyes filled with desperate greed to escape.


    This is it, I thought, my eyes closing as a single tear escaped. Goodbye, Kelvin. Goodbye, Kendrick...I’m sorry.


    But then, I saw a sh and it came from the tree line a mile away.


    A streak of fire hissed through the air, moving with impossible speed. My eyes snapped open just in time to see the missile collide directly with the side of the ck chopper.


    BOOM!


    The explosion was blinding. A massive fireball erupted in the sky, lighting up the entire bay in a hellish orange glow. The sound was like the world cracking in half. I felt the shockwave hit us, knocking me and Curtis back several feet.


    I hit the ground hard, the air leaving my lungs in a painful gasp.


    Above us, the helicopter was a skeleton of burning metal, falling apart in mid-air. Pieces of the rotor des flew off like shrapnel, hissing as they plunged into the dark water below. The main body of the craft tilted sharply, engulfed in mes, before mming into the waves with a massive ssh.


    Silence returned, broken only by the crackling of fire and the distant sound of the sea.


    Zain fell to his knees, clutching his head. "No... No! NO!" he screamed, his voice full of pure frustration. "That was it! That was the only way!"


    I stayed on the ground, gasping for air, with my heart racing. Someone had shot it down, which means someone was out there.


    I looked over at Curtis. He was standing at the edge of the cliff, the orange light of the fire dancing in his eyes. He didn’t look angry or scared.


    "Hah...hahaha!!!!" He began tough.


    It started as a low chuckle and grew into a loud, hysterical howl that echoed off the rocks. He looked up at the falling debris, his arms spread wide like he was watching a firework show.


    "You see that, Christy?" he yelled, turning back to me with a look that told me he had finally,pletely lost his mind. "The sky is falling! Everyone wants a piece of us!"


    He walked toward me, the burning wreckage reflected in his , and I realized with a jolt of pure terror that he wasn’t nning on escaping anymore.