Survived Me: a Shatter Me fan-fiction (Warnette)

Chapter 42 - Secret Gardens

⚠️TW⚠️
Blood
Kidnapping
Hostage
Death
Murder
Threats
Torture
Injury details
Cruelty
Mention of war/attacks
Anxiety/stress
————
(⚠️A very dark chapter, so if you don't want to read about that then skip this chapter. Read only if your comfortable with a lot of blood and gore, kidnapping and death⚠️)
————
AARON'S POV:
The walls are white, the floor is cream, the door is cold and the room is best known as Antarctica. It's torture in here, I'm cold behond comprehension. The white. Walls are pristine except for the far back one, that one is splattered with blood.

I look and see the faces that have noticed us all barging in, they have guns and knives. They want us dead just as much as we want them dead. So be it, either us or them will get our pleasure.

Past the guards and past the men and women in white lab coats I can see Juliette. She is laying there, on the cold, hard floor, in a pool of her own blood. She's unconscious and seems as if on the brink of death.
I shoot, starting the battle that is about to commence. My bullet lands in the chest of one of the guards, he falls to the ground with a thud and a loud grunt.

Chaos

The room is now a battlefield, my men against the RARE's men. I see Sebastian emerge from a door, a door I had not noticed, I badge through the fighting, shoot and stabbing people who tried to stop me.
I stand in front of him. I want to rip his head off, slowly and painfully, I want him to lay on the floor, like Juliette, but I want him to end up dead. I want to be the one to kill him.
He smirks, walks back through the door he just came through, I follow.

We're in his office, it is, as expected, luxurious. He is in here and Juliette, she has to live in god knows what hell hole, I know it wont be in the room we were just in, there are no locks on the door, no way to keep her from escaping. So that must be a sort of lab, a sick lab, full of sick people. It repels me.

"So." He starts, I feel the need to chop off my own ears just so I don't have to hear his utter another word. "I'll be honest with you Warner, you worked it out quicker than I anticipated." He shows a malicious grin. "But, somehow, you were still too late. You see once I heard your little speech this morning I figured you'd be arriving here soon-"
I cut him off, "how did you know about that? That's impossible."

He laughs, snorts even. "Me and my father always saw the need for a backup plan. You see, all my father needed to do to notify me of your realisation was press and button that was placed in his tie, suited to fit every tie he owned, every shape, pattern and style." He is searching for something on his desk, something he deemed necessary, because I know that he would love to see the hurt in my face right now.

"Why though, why do this?" He finds what it is he was looking for, it's a letter, the envelope has my name on, written so perfectly. There is no doubting who's handwriting that is, it's Juliettes, neat and elegant, cursive yet firm.

"What is this?" I shout, why didn't I receive this, it's addressed to me.
"That, Warner, is a letter that your precious, little girlfriend tried, ever so hard, to send you." He chuckles, "she begged me, pleaded with me, told me she'd reveal nothing about her whereabouts".
He opened a blind that viewed perfectly where Juliette lay, now with other bodies, fallen from war. "She said she needed to tell you how much she loved you, she said she wanted a final goodbye." He pauses, watches as the final few of his men and women drop dead. "Read it, it's awfully funny." He shuts the blind and sits at his desk.
I open the letter, pull it out and read;

Aaron,

I know you think all this is your fault, that you should never have left that house, but it truly wasn't your fault. How could you have known, how could anyone have known?

I need you to stay strong for me, live, be happy, find peace, because it really doesn't look like I'm going to make it out of this one.

I want you to know that, whenever my last moments arrive, I will be thinking about you, picturing your smile and the times we spent together. Playing Pool Stick and dancing in the rain. I would like to imagine that I did read the book you gave me, The Secret Garden, and was able to know what those words meant to you and why they meant so much.

I love you beyond words can express, Aaron. Beyond this world can hold. I love you and that is why, no matter what, you have to save yourself, don't go after the people who did this. Stay safe and well.
I love you.

I am off to my own Secret Garden,
Your love, your Sweetheart , yours forever and your angel,
Juliette xxx

My eyes shine, tears consuming them, I take out my gun, aim it and pull the trigger.
But no, it stops, bounces off something halfway through its journey to collide with this head.

"I think you're forgetting that I have a power too."

I did forget that, I forgot that he can put up walls, invisible ones. He can block everyone and anyone out, or in.
I just ran, ran out the door and to Juliette pushing past the people who are aiming guns at the door, my own men, thankfully, they would only shoot him, not me.

She's laying there, in the middle of a crowd, bleeding out and unconscious. Kenji is sitting with her in his arms, crying with closed eyes.

"Juliette," I cry.

Kenji opens his eyes and looks at me, I walk towards the both of them and he lays her in my arms as I stand up with her. "Is she alive? Is she stable?" I panic.

"She's alive, but barely." Castle spoke.

With that we are fleeing the base and shooting anyone who tries to stand in our way. I am here, walking out of this place with about seventy percent of my men, that should be a victory, yet it's not. Sebastian is still alive, probably planning his next moves and I am here, holding a barely breathing, tortured and bleeding out, Juliette.

There is no victory here.
None.
————
Word count: 1185

(A/N): (Thank you all so much for over one thousand reads! That's actually insane.)

( Thank you so much to anyone who has ever voted for a chapter and thank you to everyone for reading. I really hope you have enjoyed the story so far and will continue to enjoy with every new chapter.)