Chapter 16

He drops his office bag onto the floor, noting that the shoes have been tidied away into their respective shelves.

“You’re home early.” Ella feigns a smile.

“Cut the crap, Ella.” He launched at her, her body now pressed between the dining table and him.

“I don’t get it, Shaun. Why don’t we –”

“I said, cut the crap.” The ring holding his keys snaps in half across the floor.

“Oh, the cheating?” Ella smirks. “Took you long enough to find out.”

“I spent months trying to figure out a way for us to work together, be together and you threw me away at the earliest convenience –”

“You mean, spending weeks at a time at work? Ignoring my text messages? That was your way of ‘figuring’ shit ou –”

“Well, what the fuck did you do? You let another cock fuck your pussy.” His hand wraps around her throat.

“Shaun.” – she coughs violently – “Let. Go. Of. M –”

“This is what you deserve.” She struggles against his grasp, her legs continue kicking in a futile attempt to get him off of her. Any residue of love had most certainly crumbled away.

“Shaun, please –”

A shockwave throws the two apart.

Death claims Ella before she could struggle any further, her body now impaled onto the leg of the capsized dining table.

Shaun’s body slams into the fridge, before something atop delivers the final blow to the back of his skull; there is a buzz against his ears for a minute, maybe two, before it disappears, leaving him in a vacuum of silence.

Ella, he calls from within. His limbs remain unresponsive to his command.

He struggles for one last breath against the thick, dense smoke before death closes in.