The two of them were nearly spinning in circles, wrestling over the knife between them. Unlucky for her, Carl suddenly got back up, grabbed the truncheon Joseph had been using earlier, and swung it hard into Misaki's back, sending my girlfriend crashing to the floor, giving Bryan the opening to finally rip the knife free.
"Misaki!" I screamed when she hit the ground. These shameless bastards! I would never forgive them, not ever. Joseph came back in then, but he'd only managed to grab Serenity, who was crying and fighting to break loose.
"Let me go! Help!" Serenity screamed for help with everything she had, but there was no way anyone could hear us over the music pounding from downstairs.
"Shut up!" Joseph yelled at the kid, but that only made her cry harder. Misaki started pulling herself back up the moment she heard her cousin crying.
"Why are you dragging even a child into this!" Misaki shouted, but Bryan only pulled her hair, making her clutch her head in pain.
"Then you should've thought this through from the very start, before you ever dared to cross me!" Bryan shot back, furious. Tears spilled down my face at what he said. If I'd never gotten mixed up with Bryan in the first place, none of this would have ever happened.
"You know what happens if we let her go, right? This kid's just gonna run her mouth, and since she can't mind her own business—" Joseph said, grinning, already bringing the knife close to the kid's throat.
"Don't!" Misaki screamed. Watching all of it unfold, my rage only kept building. There was nothing I could do, tied up the way I was. I couldn't even protect them. I felt worthless. I kept blaming myself, since I was the whole reason any of this was happening at all.
I watched Joseph stab Serenity in the neck without a shred of mercy. The suddenness of it froze her whole body, and she collapsed face down on the floor. I knew she'd only passed out, but if this went on much longer, she'd bleed out completely. Bryan let go of Misaki and let her run straight to Serenity, who lay there bleeding.
"S-Seren? Baby girl! Please wake up!" Misaki's voice shook as she cradled the kid's body, pressing down hard on the wound at her neck, trying to stop the blood, but it still wasn't enough.
"This is your fault too. If only you had not been so stubborn and had chosen to stay with me from the start instead of that coward, none of this would have happened to them." Bryan said, calm now. Misaki stopped sobbing. Still on her knees, she looked up at him, no anger left in her eyes, just something close to pleading.
"Bryan, why can't you understand? I don't want you, I love Anthony with everything I have. Whatever you do, even if you kill all of us, that's never going to change, and I'm truly sorry for that. Please, try to understand what I'm feeling too."
I could feel the plea in Misaki's voice, every bit of it. I hoped Bryan would feel it too, but instead of taking in what she was begging him to understand, his face only darkened further.
"Why can't you love me, Misaki! Why!" Bryan screamed with everything he had. I caught the tears welling up in his eyes, though he fought hard to hold them back. He grabbed one of the metal chairs stacked behind him. His eyes locked on me again, and I already knew, that chair was coming for me. Maybe it was the adrenaline that let him lift it alone, no help from his friends needed.
I tried to lift my head to look him dead in the eye. Before he could hurl the chair at me, I smiled at him.
"If I disappear, will you finally leave her alone?" I asked him, calm.
"Yes!" he answered, fierce, without hesitation.
"If that's the case, then after this, do not bother her anymore." Bryan didn't respond after that. I just closed my eyes and waited for something heavy to slam into me. I heard the chair crash down hard, clearly thrown with everything he had, but I never felt it hit me.
My eyes snapped open, and I wondered why Bryan had stopped what he was about to do, only to slam the chair down onto the floor instead. But the moment I opened my eyes, I instantly regretted it, Misaki's body sprawled out on the floor, covered in blood, completely unconscious.
"Misaki." Her name came out of me shaking. Even Bryan's eyes went wide, like he couldn't believe what had just happened.
"N-No... No! Misaki, wake up!" I kept calling out her name, even though she couldn't answer me anymore. I shook my head, staring at her, unable to process what had just happened. Bryan dropped to his knees and reached out with a trembling hand to touch her face.
"Misaki, I didn't mean to." Bryan said, unable to hold back his own tears anymore.
"It's not your fault, dude. She's the one who chose to jump in the way." Fear was clear in Carl's voice, though he tried to steady himself, tried to calm Bryan down too. So that meant it. Misaki had thrown herself in the way just as Bryan was about to hurl that chair at me. With the weight of it, combined with every ounce of rage Bryan had put behind the throw meant for me, the impact when it struck Misaki's head was brutal enough to knock her out cold.
A moment later, we heard footsteps rushing toward us. Flashlight beams started cutting through the darkness from outside the room, but I couldn't bring myself to care who was coming, I couldn't tear my eyes away from Misaki. I wanted to crawl over to her, but I couldn't move my body at all, still tied down.
"Dude, someone's coming!" Joseph said, panic in his voice.
"That's it, forget them! Let's go!" Carl said, hauling Bryan up by force, who was still crying, still staring back at Misaki.
His friends dragged him out of there just before five people arrived. Two guards, two janitors, and one janitress carrying Theo in her arms, they were the ones who came to help us. When Mommy found out what happened, she nearly fainted on the spot.
We were rushed to the hospital right away. And since they didn't want to disrupt the event or send everyone into a panic, the ambulance picked us up from the private car park, the one reserved exclusively for the university's high ranking officials.
We were confined in the hospital for several days, but Serenity never made it that far. She lost her life right there at GLU, from how much blood she'd lost. Our parents filed a case, but the school president, Mrs. Felicity Ocampo, Art Bryan Ocampo's mother, pleaded to keep the whole incident confidential so it wouldn't damage the school's reputation. Still, the case moved forward in court regardless.
I'd already been discharged from the hospital, though Misaki was still recovering. Unfortunately, the three of them were never proven guilty, on top of being minors. I felt for Theo too, since Nanny Tessie had pushed him to testify, being one of the only witnesses who'd actually seen us that night. But all his tears and effort every time he gave his statement in court amounted to nothing, since we never won the case. Even though he'd clearly pointed the guards and janitors straight to where it happened.
What I still can't wrap my head around is why no CCTV footage ever surfaced from the hours they ganged up on me in that hallway. I also noticed that despite everything Bryan and his friends had done, not one of them was ever suspended from GLU. Probably because of how high up their parents ranked at the school.
From Art Bryan Ocampo's mother, the school president, to Joseph Jimenez's father, the dean of the College of Criminology Department, to Carl Cain Perez's mother, one of the school's stockholders. Their children were nothing but a massive embarrassment to their parents' reputations. I understand a parent would do anything for their child, but it's never right to use that kind of power to excuse the terrible things their children do.