Page 66 of The Forgotten (Echoes from the Past #2)

Narrow shafts of summer sunshine pierced the leafy canopy and lit the murky green water, which sparkled playfully as it lapped against the shore.

The world seemed to stand still, nature awaiting the outcome of the human drama playing out on its barren shore.

She stared into the barrel of the pistol, unable to believe it was real and had been there all along, ready to be used by the hand of the person who’d harbored such malice for so long.

She’d never seen death up close, but it had been her constant companion these past few years.

It was death that had led her to this moment, this impasse. Or had it been life?

She took a shuddering breath and met her enemy’s gaze, hoping she didn’t look as scared as she felt.

But she was scared. Terrified, in fact, because everything that had happened had been her fault and she wouldn’t allow the person she loved best in this world to take the fall.

Could this really be it? Was her life to be cut short when it had only just begun, when she had finally come to understand what it meant to love and want, not as a child, but as a woman?

Would this person who was meant to love and care for her be the instrument of her destruction?

When the pistol wavered for just a moment, she thought the danger might be past, but she was mistaken.

She lunged for the gun just as the bullet erupted from the pistol’s toy-sized barrel, the loud crack startling a flock of cranes.

She crumpled to the porch, as if in slow motion, as searing pain tore through her chest. She watched in amazement as a bloody flower bloomed on her camisole, the petals unfolding with unnatural speed.

She heard the cry of a child, a sharp intake of breath from her executioner, and then the muted cadence of words, spoken harshly and with great purpose.

But most of all, she heard her own ragged breathing and the pounding in her veins, loud in her ears as the lifeblood began to drain from her onto the rough boards.

She lay on her back, her gaze fixed on a gossamer shred of cloud that lazily floated across the sun, momentarily shielding her gaze from the glaring sun.

Her heartbeat began to slow as she felt a trickle of blood ooze from the side of her mouth and onto her shoulder.

She used the last of her strength to reach out and clasp the hand of the one she’d been trying to save, and then let go.

The final thought that passed through her muddled mind just before darkness descended was that she’d never been meant to live in the first place because her very existence had been an affront to God.