Olivia's POV
"Charlie!" I scream.
I snap my eyes between the speeding car and the boy frozen in the middle of the road. Unconsciously I take a step forward, but before I can do anything else, Eliza grabs my hand.
"Don't." She shakes her head. "The carâ"
Before she can finish, I tear my hand out of her hold and sprint forward. There is only one thought inside my mind. I need to save Charlie.
I dive straight for the boy and knock us both down onto the road. Hitting the asphalt feels like I've intentionally run into a wall again. The pain, however, is dismissive in comparison to the crushing sensation that tramples my left foot a moment later. It feels like someone pressed the encyclopedia from my desk onto my foot and then jumped on top of it, just to make sure the pain would stick.
Half a second later, the same crushing repeats, and I can almost hear the bones in my foot snap under the pressure. I open my mouth to scream, but all that comes out is a breathless gasp. Then the surroundings blur and I'm swallowed into dark nothingness.
I'm not sure how long I'm gone before a loud bang pierces through the darkness. I open my eyes and find myself facing the dark asphalt underneath me while an uninterrupted car honk swipes through my ears. My body aches in all imaginable places, but I still force myself to lift my upper body a few inches off the ground until I'm leaning on my elbows.
Lying on his back right beside me is Charlie, with the crutches sprawled over the road on either of his sides. Opposite to me, however, his eyes are firmly shut.
"Charlie?" I whisper and strain my muscles to lift myself further off the ground. The moment I try to move my legs, though, a fire ignites inside my left foot. "Ah!"
"Don't move." Eliza crutches beside me, obscuring my view of the younger boy. "The bitch ran over your foot."
"Charlie?" I ignore the pain and Eliza's words. Before anything else, I need to make sure Charlie's okay. Because if I failed to save him again...
"Seriously? Worry about yourself first," Eliza snorts, but at the same time leans closer to Charlie. It takes her only a moment before she turns back to me. "He's knocked out, but still breathing."
My arms wobble at the rush of relief that surges through my body. I did it. I saved Charlie.
Before I can slump back onto the cold road, Eliza grabs my upper arms and helps me lift and turn into a sitting position. While my foot protests with every move I make, I finally realize what Eliza had said.
The bitch ran over your foot.
I know only one person whom Eliza has called a bitch.
While a part of me refuses to believe it, I focus on the other side of the road. A line of smoke is rising from the hood of a familiar black carâa car that has surged onto the sidewalk and now has its hood smashed into a nearby streetlamp. The front passenger door snaps open and a familiar Guardian staggers out. He confirms my growing suspicion of who the driver is, but a part of me still refuses to believe it. The chances of it happening twice...
"Are you okay?" Lucien lumbers a few steps closer to us.
Before I can answer, the driver's door snaps open and out staggers Anya. She rests one of her hands on the car and presses the other against her head. Her groggy state lasts only a moment before she straightens her back and turns directly to me.
"You," she hisses.
With quick and surprisingly steady steps for the heels she's wearing, she lounges across the road. Because my foot still feels like a fire is ripping through it, I can do nothing but watch as she strides toward me. In seconds she crutches in front of me, but instead of my shirtâor any other part of meâshe grabs a fistful of my hair and yanks my head to the side until my ear touches my shoulder.
"Ah!" I scream.
"Why is it always you?" she hisses; her dark eyes blazing into mine. "Can't you cross the road like normal people do?"
"Let... Her... Go." The whispered order comes from beside me, but instead of Eliza, the voice belongs to Charlie.
Instant relief washes over me when I realize that he's conscious again. The feeling, however, is short-lived as Anya tightens her hold on my hair, plastering my ear against my shoulder. I hear Eliza shift beside me, but because Anya is a human, I know Eliza isn't allowed to interfere.
I'm on my own.
"This is all your fault," Anya continues. "You're the one who jumped onto the road."
"You're right," I gasp out. "It's my fault."
My agreement must take her off guard because she loosens her hold on my hair and even scoots a foot away from me. The moment my hair is free, however, I continue.
"I know that I did wrong that night. Both with Charlie and with crossing the road without looking. But I'm not the only one who made a mistake."
"It was all your fault," Anya bits out.
"The accident maybe, but not what happened after. You made the decision to flee and leave me toâ"
Before I can finish, Anya slaps me. "It wasn't my fault. A single reek of an accident would have cost me my promotion. I had no choice."
The force of the slap nudges my head to the side and I find myself looking at Lucien's expressionless eyes. He's crouching beside the still lying Charlie and looks like he's about to say something. Before he can, though, I turn back to face Anya's dark glare.
"You did," I force out despite the now throbbing cheek. "You had a choice to help me."
"No." Anya grabs the front of my shirt. "I had no other option. Not if I wanted my promotion."
"Then why did you try to do the right thing?"
"Right thing? What are you talking about?"
"The car." I glance at the smashed car behind her. "You tried to avoid hitting us."
"You're wrong." Anya tightens her hold on my shirt, which causes its rim to bite into the back of my neck. "I'm not sure what happened to that stupid car, but it wasn't me. The wheel turned on its own."
Her words sound crazy, but one glance at Lucien reminds me that the wheel moving on its own isn't so farfetched after all. Can it be that Lucienâ
Before I can finish the thought, two pairs of strong hands grab Anya's upper arms and yank her away from me. Anya's immediate reaction is to start trashing and kicking around. One of her kicks collides with my left foot, which causes another wave of scorching pain to shoot up my leg. My vision blurs, but when the black spots disappear Anya is still struggling to escape her capturer's hold.
"Let go of me!" she screeches.
On either side of her and with their hands wrapped around either of her upper arms stand Samuel and Nick. Instead of on the struggling woman, though, both of them have their eyes focused on me.
"Are you okay?" they ask.
"I'm fine," I assure them despite the almost unbearable pain ripping through my left foot.
Relief flashes through both of their eyes, but it's short-lived. While Nick turns to the still lying Charlie beside me, Samuel lets go of Anya and lunges at Lucien. The other Guardian barely has enough time to rise to his feet before Samuel swings his fist. With a well-aimed punch Samuel forces Lucien to stumble a step back, but instead of pausing Samuel raises his fist again.
"It wasn't his fault!" Eliza shouts and jumps to her feet. Before I can stop her, she rushes toward the two Guardians, obviously intending to stop them from harming each other.
"Let go of me!"
Anya's shout pulls my attention back to her and I turn to find Nick with his hand still wrapped around Anya's forearm.
"Did you do this to Olivia and Charlie?" With a swift tug, Nick forces Anya to rise into a standing position.
Whatever Nick planned to do next, however, doesn't follow through. Because right then Anya lifts her foot and stabs her always present heel into the middle of Nick's shoe. Nick hisses in pain, but before he can do anything else, Anya lifts her foot off his shoe and slams her knee into his private parts.
With a groan, Nick doubles over and sinks to his knees. I wince at his obvious pain, but forget all about it the moment I see Anya turn away from us. As she stumbles forward, I immediately guess what she's going to do.
She's going to flee.
I glance from Nick, who is squeezed into a ball; to Samuel, who is getting ready to swing another fist at Lucien; to Eliza, who wraps her hands around Samuel's fist, holding him back; and to Charlie, who has managed to lift himself into a sitting position, but is now clutching his head with his eyes squeezed tight.
There is no one left but me.
In the split of a second I realize that if I let Anya go, I won't have to face the consequences of jaywalking. Anya won't get a chance to partly blame the accident on me. Charlie won't be dragged into all of this when I'll mention him in my statement to the police. And I won't hurt my parents with the knowledge that the guilt had been too much and that a part of me had been ready to give up after the accident.
No one around me will get hurt.
At the same time, though, Anya will get to walk free.
What should I do?
***
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- E