Right when he has done the job, he dropped his gun, regret hit him like a wave.

/Maybe if I get there fast enough, I could still save her,/ Elemarus thought to himself. He ran out the door, not bothering to close it behind him.

This was a horrible mistake. If only he had never gotten involved with these people. If only he weren’t so foolish. But Elemarus had no time for such considerations. He needed to get to her before it was too late.

Marus (the nickname in which most referred to him) skipped many steps as he finally got to the main floor. His feet hit the ground, hard.

/Stay alive, Beth,/ he kept commanding in his head. /Stay alive, I’m coming. I’m coming, and then after your safe, you never have to see me again./

He ran out the door, his brown hair bouncing on his forehead. He’d never sprinted so fast in his whole life.

Elemarus made it into the building and ran past the secretary and standby security guards. They shouted at him to stop, but he did no such thing.

A life without her was no life at all. It was fine if she absolutely despised him for this, afterwards, because she should. Even /he/ hated himself.

With hands so shaky, he pressed the button to her floor as fast as possible. Once the elevator doors opened, he was running down the halls trying to find her room number.

/Please, be okay. Please./

Finally, he found it. The door was locked. He stood back and kicked it open with all his strength. His ankle hurt badly from the impact, but he ignored the pain and pushed through the door.

“Beth,” he called. There was no answer. “Bethany!”

But once he made it to her bed, he found her. She was laying on there with white sheets stained red, and roses strewn across the beautiful fabric when she knocked over the vase trying to steady herself.

The memory of his mistake was unbearable. The expression of pain that immediately consumed her beautiful portrait when the bullet connected with her skin was daunting.

Elemarus ran to her. She was coughing up blood. It turned her lips a deep color and stained her face.

The cream-colored gown she had on was ruined. There was a hole where the bullet shot through.

He jumped onto the bed and grabbed her hands. His fingers slipped on hers due to the amount of blood.

“Beth,” his voice cracked. “Beth, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, Beth. Please don’t go. Don’t sleep.”

Her deep, brown eyes were wide and petrified. She tried to pull away from him. He felt it in the way her hands kept shaking and her breathing became more hard. Never had Beth ever looked at him like she was now. He knew it. Elemarus was a monster.

Murus’s head turned upward to the window, as a voice rung in his head. “I’m in position. Just tell me when.” Elemarus had forgotten his tiny communication chip was still in his ear.

He saw a barely visible figure in all black staring down at Beth and him. And then he witnessed the man raise his gun.

/No./

In one, swift movement, Marus lifted his hand to the chip and pressed it. “Stop,” he yelled. “Fall back—!”

But it was too late. In a flash, the windows weak glass broke, and the bullet hit Beth just under her heart.

Elemarus Crude stared in horror. She sucked in one last breath, but stilled before she could exhale.

Her eyes were still just as wide. She did not move. Her chest no longer rose and fell, and the blood pooled in the matted flesh of her skin.

“Beth,” he said. “Beth?” He shook her even though he knew she was gone. “Beth, please!” He was shaking and collapsed onto her lifeless body. Tears fell from his eyes. His hands grabbed small clumps of her dress.

“Damnit,” he yelled. He looked up for just a moment. His blurry eyes struggled to fix onto the figure that still stood, staring at them. “Fuck you,” he cursed. He put a bloodied finger to the button and spoke those exact words again. His voice was trembling and his finger struggled to hold down on the chip.

He glared at the man in black and watched him stalk away from the window after Elemarus cursed him.

Then he turned back to Beth and held her face. Her teeth were stained and her blonde hair was as well. “Shit,” he said. It was all he was able to get out. “No, no, no, no, no…”

He kissed her face and begged her to return.

Marus knew his mistake was great. It would stick with him forever, to the end of time. He did not even feel sorry for himself. Elemarus knew this was his own doing. It was nobody else’s, although he was compelled to think otherwise.

When security came bursting into the room, what happened after that was a blur. The last thing Elemarus Crude remembered, were sets of arms prying him from Bethany. His Bethany. His love that he killed.

He remembered trying to resist arrest. He wanted to stay with Beth. But one of the guards hit him over the head, and everything went black.

When he woke, he was in a blank room. It was small and cramped. He sat up and nearly passed out. His head was bandaged and he was undoubtedly in a cell.

There was a single toilet, a bar of soap, a shower with a curtain. The floor was white tiled and just infront of him was a wall of metal bars.

This was the price Elemarus would pay for his wrongdoing. This is what he deserved. He wanted no better and he knew he deserved worse.

He stared at the floor, recalling the circumstances of, what seemed to him, only moments ago.

Crude would never be the same. Maybe that was for the best.

Lamentable, to think that it took someone he loved dearly, dying, in order for him to finally admit to his wicked ways.

The more Elemarus Crude stared at the ground, the more heavy his body became. He fell off the bed to the ground, and held himself. Marus curled up like a frightened child and wept.

As tears fell from his eyes, the man spoke in a low, breathy tone; “Too late. Too late. Far, far too late…”

No action is without consequence…