Week 107 – You can’t live without me

Astor was glad that the men had separated her and Frost, she didn’t want him to see this.

She knew how this was going to end.

She had always known how this was going to end.

And she didn’t want Frost to go down with her.

She didn’t want him to see this.

It was dark down here in the basement, and quiet, the sounds of the party going on upstairs didn’t reach down here.

They weren’t alone in the basement, the man who had her by the arm was dragging her down a long hall, past cages and boxes with helpless young girls, abducted, sold, now suffering again. The cop in her wanted to free them, but the sister in her had to finish what she started.

So she did nothing and allowed herself to be dragged down the corridor and into a room. In the middle of the room was a man sitting in a throne.

A throne.

Astor almost rolled her eyes. Who did this guy think he was? Sitting in a basement on a throne waiting for young women to be delivered to him for him to rape and beat and who knew what else he did to them.

The man was dressed all in black and he looked up slowly as she was dragged over to him and shoved onto her knees.

She knew the second he saw her face because his eyes grew wide.

Good.

He recognised her, or at least he thought he did, and he was probably having a heart attack wondering how she was kneeling before him. She and her sister were identical twins, so he was no doubt freaking out thinking she had somehow come back from the dead.

Astor looked at him and smiled. “Miss me?” she whispered, quietly enough so the men standing guard around the room wouldn’t hear her.

“How are you here?” he demanded, jumping to his feet and roughly grabbing her, dragging her upright.

“I’m here for you.”

“You can’t be,” he growled, shaking her violently.

“And yet I am.”

“No,” he backhanded her and she tasted blood. “Who are you?”

“You know who I am,” she goaded, she just needed to push him a little more.

“Who brought you here? They said you came with a man. A man who said he owned you but that you needed better training. Training is what I do, but you know that. This is some sort of trick, isn’t it? Isn’t it?” He shook her again, then his fist connected with the side of her head. “You think you can trick me? What did you think you were going to try to get your revenge? You stupid, pathetic girl. Lets go get your man, show him what happens to people who think they can mess with me.”

He spun her around, crushing her against his chest with an arm pressed against her neck.

This was the moment she had been waiting for.

Her colleagues thought she had pushed so hard for the undercover gig to bring down the human trafficking ring. Frost knew she was here for revenge, what he didn’t know was that the only way she could kill him was this.

Astor reached into her dress and grabbed the small gun that she had hidden under the fake breasts she had put on for the party.

She only had a split second to do this before the man’s bodyguards were on them.

She pressed the fun to her chest and fired.

The bullet passed through her and into the man behind her.

She didn’t know his name but she knew he was and she knew what he had done to her sister, and she was content knowing that even though she was going to die and she would never have the future with Frost that she wanted at least this man would be dead.

As blood drained from her body the world began to go fuzzy.

She dropped to the floor with a jarring thud.

Gunshots filled the air.

Then she was being grabbed, cradled, hands pressed to her wound, someone stroked her hair.

“No, Astor, don’t you dare die on me.”

Frost’s voice.

Frost was here.

She wasn’t sure how, but that was nice. She couldn’t think of a better place to die than in the arms of the man she loved.

“Astor, stay with me. Come on. You can’t live without me, say it, because its true. I can’t live without you. You just think about that before you leave me. Say it,” he ordered. “Say ‘You can’t live without me’.”

She didn’t have enough energy left for so many words, but she summoned what little she did have and whispered, “Love you.”