Ella's knees hit the wet marble with a painful crack, but she barely felt it. Her fingers clawed through the rubble, broken nails scraping against cold stone as she dug desperately, her breath coming in sharp, ragged gasps.
"Leon!" she screamed, her voice raw, tearing through her throat. "Where are you?! Answer me!"
The storm outside raged louder, as if the heavens themselves were mocking her desperation.
Her mind spiraled into chaos, memories flooding back uninvited—Leon's maddening smirk, his whispered promises in the dark, the way his eyes softened only for her…
And then his final look.
That damned, broken smile before the ceiling came crashing down.
She should hate him.
She should leave him buried with the ruins of their toxic love.
But all she could think was—please… don't die. Not like this. Not without one last chance to hate him properly. To love him honestly.
Her heart felt like a fragile glass goblet, cracked and seconds away from shattering under the weight of regret. Every breath tasted like ash and failure.
And then—
A faint cough.
Ella froze.
From beneath the rubble, so faint she thought it was her imagination—
"Ella…"
His voice.
Broken. Barely there. But real.
She tore through the debris with a strength she didn't know she had, blood running from her hands, her vision a haze of tears and dust.
And then she saw him—half-buried, his face pale, lips stained red.
But alive.
Barely.
"Leon…" Her voice cracked, her hands cradling his face. "Stay with me. Do you hear me? You don't get to leave me like this!"
Leon's heavy eyelids fluttered open.
Through the pain, through the wreckage, his lips curved into that infuriating, familiar smirk.
"Still… mine…" he whispered.
And then his eyes rolled back, his body going limp in her arms.
The sound of approaching sirens was the only thing left between her and the terrifying silence.