Chapter Text
Pip
❛She'd never be more than a teenager.
A girl lost in time.❟
The sound of a car pulling into Green Scene Ltd filled the air. And in that moment, Pip knew—it was too late.
She'd done everything she could. Left her DNA in his car, under his nails, all over the room. Pip had scraped her head against the metal shelves, trying to leave her hair—maybe even blood, if she was lucky. She'd pressed her fingers against every surface she could, hoping her fingerprints would remain, even if the DT Killer decided to wipe the whole place down.
And Pip had cried until her eyes were bloodshot, screamed until her throat was raw, and fought until her muscles begged for mercy.
She heard the car door shut. The sound echoed outside the building. Pip strained her ears, listening. The crunch of footsteps against gravel. The scrape of a long key with jagged teeth. The shriek of the hinges. The sharp click of footsteps against concrete.
The DT Killer was back.
Back to kill her.
The realization hit her gut like a mace, knocking the air from her lungs. Ravi had promised to be with her. To the end. And he was. She could feel his voice in her head, hear his gentle words promising she'd be okay.
But Pip was no fool. She knew she wouldn't be.
Her breaths quickened through her nose. Her chest tightened as panic pierced her body like a thousand nails. Fear paralyzed her like venom. Breathe, she told herself.
But how could she possibly breathe when death was so close?
Her lungs refused to obey as one thought dawned on her.
She was going to die. Forever eighteen.
She'd have to feel the rope tighten around her throat as the DT Killer choked her. She'd have to feel the panic and the raw, desperate will to live. And then everything would go black. She would be gone. She wouldn't remember anything—wouldn't remember living. Wouldn't remember her family or friends. Wouldn't remember how to love. She'd fade into history.
If she could, she'd curse herself for being so reckless. She hadn't planned for any of this, and now she'd pay the price. Jason's voice sliced through the silence. Pip could imagine how his eyes lit up at the sight of her terror.
'You should have stayed out of it, Pip, but you couldn't help yourself, could you? Always had to be the loud one. Always thinking you're better than everyone. Smarter. But you're not. You're nothing.' Jason took slow, taunting steps toward her.
'You should have stopped digging, Pip, but you didn't. And look at you now—wrapped up and all alone. Where are those friends of yours, hm? That 'amazing' boyfriend of yours? Nowhere to be seen. They're not here to save you.'
More footsteps. Closer this time, until they stopped in front of her.
There was a moment when nothing happened—a moment where the only sound was the sound of Pip and Jason's breathing. The sound of their heartbeats.
And in the next moment, he grabbed her chin and yanked her head up toward him.
Pip thrashed, jerking her head back and forth, but his grip remained firm. His grip was like iron, and she didn't have the strength to break it.
'You, a little girl? The detective? The heroine? Did you really think you could outsmart me? Play the detective and solve it all?' he spat, anger laced in every word.
'You're not my first, Pip. You're nothing special.'
How could she ever think she'd make it out alive?
Less than one percent.
She wasn't anything special—not anymore. She'd just be a number after this. A dead girl that wasn't walking.
And then Ravi started talking to her again. His words, soothing in a time with so little comfort.
'No, Pip. You're my girl. My Sarge. And you are most definitely not a number. You're one in a billion—you're Pippa Fricking Fitz-Amobi. You can't give up now. You need to come back to me. You need to come back home. Home to me.'
Home.
Home was wherever Ravi was. Home was with him.
Pip squeezed her eyes shut behind the duct tape mask, fighting the tears. Fighting against the longing for more time. She let out a cry, the tape swallowing the sound.
I'm going to die.
The chorus was back into her taped-up head. She wouldn't see her friends again. She wouldn't see Cara, Nat, Connor, Jamie, or Naomi. Wouldn't see Josh all grown up. No graduation, no first date, no first heartbreak.
She wouldn't be there for any football games. Wouldn't be there to hold him when he needed her. She wouldn't be his sister anymore.
And what about her parents?
Would they be able to handle losing their first child? Would they remember her face? Her voice? Her laugh? Would they remember their Pip? Their baby girl?
She'd never watch them grow old—never see them as grandparents to their daughter's children. Pip would never be an aunt or a mother.
She'd never be more than a teenager.
A girl lost in time.
And what about Ravi?
She'd never grow old with Ravi. She would never follow him on the journey of becoming a lawyer. She would never hear about his first case.
And there wouldn't be a Team Pip and Ravi. It would just be Ravi. Without Pip.
And then Ravi would find another Pip. Another girl. A girl he'd want to marry.
And she'd be forgotten.
The last victim of the DT Killer.
A number.
The thought made her very heart bleed. It made her soul shatter into a thousand pieces. The thought of Ravi moving on. The thought of Ravi kissing another girl and flashing that dimple of his.
'It's poetic, isn't it?' Jason said, distracting her from the thoughts. 'You spent all this time trying to find me—chasing me, and here I am, right in front of you.' Pip tried to block him out.
He wouldn't taint and stain her last moments.
'It's a shame I taped you up this much. It would've been fun to watch your expression as I choke the life out of your pathetic body,' Jason said, his tone dipping lower, his voice laced with sadism.
And suddenly, something wrapped around Pip's neck.
The blue rope.
She knew it would be the blue rope.
It tightened. And tightened. Until she was unable to breathe.
Pip thrashed against her restraints. The tape bit into her skin as she writhed—desperate to free herself. She tried to let out a strangled gasp. But no sound came out of her mouth.
Jason groaned. The rope dug into her neck even harder. The rough material grinding into her skin.
Air.
She needed air.
She couldn't breathe.
Fear surged through her veins. Every other panicked thought disappeared. Every thought about her family and friends was replaced with one command.
Breathe.
She wanted to fight. She wanted to scream.
But her limbs felt too heavy.
Her body betrayed her.
Her body wanted one thing only.
Air.
'Come on, Sarge! You don't get to leave me like this! You don't get to die like this! You have to come home! Fight to come home—fight for us!' Ravi's deep, normally calm voice now came out panicked and desperate.
Pip drew her legs up to her stomach and kicked Jason hard.
But he didn't let go.
In fact, his grip was stronger than ever.
Jason started laughing. The sound bounced inside of Pip's head. It mixed with a high-pitched ringing. The rope pushed against her windpipe. Her throat hurt. It burned. She wanted to claw her way out of the tape. To save herself. Pain pulsed through her skull. Her wild heartbeat mixed with the pain.
It sounded like gunshots.
It sounded like the gunshots that killed Stanley.
The tape bit deeper into her wrists as she desperately fought for her life. Pain shot through her stomach. Not because of the lack of air. Because of a strong want.
She wanted to be held. She wanted to be held as she died.
'Pip!' Ravi screamed. 'Don't leave me like this!' He pleaded, his voice coming out chocked. 'Please! Fight to stay! Stay with me!'
Ravi's crooked smile flashed through her mind. His warm, steady hands that would grip her whenever she was about to fall off the edge. She couldn't lose that—she couldn't lose him.
Pip's vision darkened behind the tape. Black spots swarmed her vision. Jason's laugh was further away. She couldn't hear him anymore. It was only Pip and her fear of death.
It was Pip and her love for Ravi.
Pip's thrashing slowly faded as she died. 'I love you!' Pip cried to the Ravi inside her head. She hoped—no, prayed—that he'd somehow feel the three words. She should have told him 'I love you' even more. What if he didn't know she loved him? She loved him to death.
And Josh. What about him? Did he know she loved him? Josh needed his sister. And Pip is his sister. He needed her. She let out a silent groan. She gathered up the remainder of her strength. Every taped-up muscle screaming. And Pip fought against the tape for one final time.
'Pip! Don't lea-'
And then—
Blackness.
Everything stopped.
Silence.
Ear-deafening silence.
Then...
Nothing.