Underestimated

Underestimated
OPAL

I should've known that he would be standing at the very top of the city, watching his plan unfold right before his eyes. 

Alistar Building is the highest in the entire city. I have the gun Kyle gave me concealed. It's tucked in my jeans, hidden by the shirt I'm wearing. I can't see him as I approach the building, but I know he's watching. 

He wouldn't trust me to come alone. 

I have to enter the building, walk right past his guards who don't ask me who I am, just let me through, and head to the elevators. I'm sweating profusely. If they searched me, they would've found the gun, but maybe I was right in assuming that he would underestimate me. 

It takes a long time to reach the top of the building. The elevator keeps going up and up until it reaches the very last floor. Once there, it opens, and I have to walk to the end of the hallway, where a metal door will take me to the rooftop. 

The whole way there, my heart beats uncontrollably. I’m a nervous wreck. I don’t know how this is going to go down. My confidence is faltering right now. What if he senses my intent to kill him? He’s never been stupid. 

I finally step outside. The wind is blowing so hard that for a moment I think that it’ll knock me off my feet. But I keep going.

I only stop when I see him standing close to the ledge. He’s dressed in the same black uniform as the men shooting innocent people. He’s peering down at the world. At the destruction he created. He’s not aware of my presence yet. I should grab the gun and shoot him. Be done with it. 

But before I can even move my hand to grab the weapon, he whips his head around and locks his gaze with mine. 

“Opal,” he exclaims. “I didn’t hear you coming.”

“Your men must’ve told you that I was coming up.”

“That they did,” he smiles in that sinister way of his. He turns his whole body around to face me. There are several feet between us. “You wanted to meet me. Talk to me.”

“This has to stop.”

He laughs out loud as soon as the words leave my lips. “Oh, Opal. You’re so naive. Do you really think that your command or wish or whatever you want to call it will make me stop? This is the idea of a child.”

“Why do you even want to be a leader if not to take care of everyone and be fair?” I question, stepping closer to him. “You’re creating all these problems…do you really think that people won’t find out?”

“And why should they when I’ve made sure they wouldn’t?” he smiles condescendingly. “I want to be in charge because I’m tired of taking orders from weak men who would put their women before the country. I’m tired of pretending that rogues don’t make a mess and shit on everything we’ve been trying to build for years. I hate rogues and I want them gone because my father died when my whore of a sister showed up with you. A man can be motivated by a lot of things. Everything can be true at the same time.”

“You’ve killed innocent people. They never did!”

“Sometimes, people have to be sacrificed for the greater good.”

I pause. “Like me.”

“Exactly.”

I shake my head. “I don’t know how I could call you Dad for all these years.”

“You say this because you’re ungrateful,” he remarks, not sounding at all upset. “Not because you’re smart. If you knew what was good for you, you would’ve joined my side. Begged for my mercy.”

“After everything you did to me?”

“And what did I do to you?” he questions. “I gave you a home. A name. Do you think you would’ve fared better as a rogue? Do you think my sister would’ve been a better parent? She was too busy jumping from cock to cock to care about you. I was there. I made you a queen.”

“Because it benefited you. You wanted to use me! Don’t stand there and act like you ever cared about me!”

He tilts his head to the side. “What do you want from me, Opal? What is your goal? If you’re not here to ask me to take you back, then what do you want? You already know you won’t convince me to put a stop to this.”

With one sweeping glance, I try to figure out if he has a gun on him or not. He’d move much quicker than I. 

I don’t want to make a mistake to get me killed, or worse, let him get away. Looking at him now, I’m pretty sure that I can shoot him. 

If I let him go, the whole werewolf world will pay in blood. 

I remember the children who had to watch their houses burning. People getting hurt. Defenseless rogues dying in their own homes.  

No, he must be stopped. 

“You look so much like your mother right now,” he remarks. “You’re looking at me in the exact same way she did before I killed her.”

My eyes widen. All the blood in my face drains. “What? You…You killed her?”

“She didn’t understand my goal,” he shrugs carelessly. “So, she had to go.”

I don’t think twice. I reach for the gun and head toward him, firing once, then twice. For the first time ever, Walter panics. I can’t believe she’s dead. 

I can’t believe he killed her. 

“YOU MURDERER!” I shout. “YOU DON’T DESERVE TO LIVE!”

“Opal!” he exclaims. Oh, now he’s panicking? “You don’t want to do this! You’re making a mistake!”

I shoot him again and miss. When I pull the trigger the next time, the gun doesn’t go off. 

I’m out of bullets. 

Walter doesn’t hesitate. He starts toward me angrily, crying out. I try to run, but he grabs my hair and pulls hard enough to make me yelp. 

“You want to kill me!?” he exclaims. “I’ll kill you before you ever have the chance to kill me!”

He starts dragging me toward the ledge, and I know he’ll throw me over. I know for a fact. I act on impulse. I shift. It’s the only thing I can do right now.

Because my body changes and becomes larger and heavier, this destabilizes him since he wasn’t expecting it. So, he starts stumbling backward. I turn around and watch him fall right over the ledge. 

I hold my breath.

He’s gone. 

I turn around, disoriented and shocked by what happened. He’s truly gone. This horror will end now. I start toward the exit, not sure where to go or how to even navigate all this. I have to find my way back to Bruce. Yes, he’ll know what to do. 

I’m so distracted that I don’t hear him creep up behind until it’s too late. Apparently, he didn’t fall at all, but held on to the ledge. 

He wraps his arms around my head and squeezes.