I’ll never forget the last words my fiancé said to me before I watched him die. You want me to end all of your problems, Amber? Ill end them all right now! He spat his words through clenched teeth, his jaw was locked. Kirks normally composed personality had disappeared, replaced with that of a hysterical mana man who was right in front of me. His wrath had quickly diminished what I knew of the easy-going man I was scheduled to marry in two months. He struggled and clawed against the air, moving toward our bedroom. The breath locked in my lungs when he reappeared clutching his father’s 9mm Smith & Wesson. His forehead was slick with sweat as he buried the muzzle into his right temple. A pang of futility pierced through me, blanching the color from my face. The pulsing terror was so acute I was virtually paralyzed. My mind struggled to defy this indefinable moment as Kirk wielded that gun. I was frantically holding onto his life by willpower alone, but my wits were sapped. Wrestling with reality, my vision distorted, watching my life played out like a movie on fast-forward, jumping from one random event to another. I wasn’t in a real-life drama but a nightmare. How can this be happening? Kirks legs quavered as he tried to stabilize himself. I could feel my throat begin to swell when he narrowed his eyes and tightly pursed his lips. I struggled to escape the rising panic that twisted within my newly pregnant belly and coursed up to my fingertips. His nostrils flared as his index finger curled around the trigger. Oh no. Please, God, no.
