Sitting Ducks

Alternate Epilogue: 768

"I'll love her forever Bradley. She gave up her life for yours, even though hers is worth much more. Even dad agrees with me." That stung.

"Why does dad want to know about me so much. If I don't fucking recall correctly, he threw me out on the street! I was fourteen, and he dumped me off in front of Dodd's office! At fourteen, I was killing, I should have been in school! If it wasn't for her, I'd be dead, and I should be!" I turned back to her grave, and lost it. 

"Join us." Two words. That's what this was about, he wanted me to join them?

"Why did you have the order to kill Elise? Jared, answer me." I avoided Tyler's words.

"She betrayed me, even though I loved her. She had to die, because she was going to give away our secrets. It was just in case I died, so it never happened." It made no sense!

"Any more questions?" Tyler asked, frowning. I paused for a minute, thinking. 

"You know she never loved you, right?" Hook, line and sinker. Tyler's body went rigid, and he pulled out his pistol. Please shoot me Tyler, please!

"Join us, or die with her.  But we won't stop at you Bratley, no way. We'll kill off all your resistance members, Jared has their names. Men and women, there are even a few teens. Imagine how many orphans there would be, widows too. Join us, and we'll spare them." Fuck. I thought of Andy, the seventeen year old. I couldn't let him die, I couldn't have anymore blood on my hands. 

I turned to Tyler, frowning. 

"What will be expected of me, while I'm at BrickStone with you." Too formal.

"You'll be running it with me, traveling the world. Of course you'll never be truly free, and all your decisions will have to be looked over by me. The whole world will know you, because I'm finally going public with my identity.  So Bradley, what do you say?" I squeezed my hands together. 

"I'm in." 

Three Months Later

"Brad, Bradley, over here!" Annie shouted and I jogged over to her. Smiling, I picked her up and spun her around, and she giggled. 

"How are you doing Annie?" I kissed her on the cheek, and gave her a hug.  She wove her fingers through mine as we walked down the sidewalk in Boston. 

"I'm great, how's BrickStone? My nephew Max just started working there, and he already loves it." I nodded and pointed to a diner. 

"How about here?" She nodded, and we crossed the street.  I held the door open for her, as the hostess greeted us. 

"Table for two, right this way." The redhead grinned at us. Annie's grip tightened on my hand, and the waitress winked at me. Really?

 "I don't like the way she looked at you." I caught a curl of brown hair in my finger and started twisting it around. 

"I don't like the way that your English professor looks at you, but I tolerate it." I murmured into her hair. The door opened, and there stood Jared and his girlfriend. We waved them over, and they pulled a table to us. I noticed Marissa was looking a little bigger.

"Hey Mari, ease up on the potato chips!" Annie joked, but winked at her. Marissa winked back, leaning into Jared and nodded. Annie squealed and hugged me. 

"Tyler said he couldn't make it, too much work." I nodded. Annie pouted. 

"He's so uptight, he really needs to get laid. I mean, he's never had a girlfriend since I met you, and that was almost three months ago!" I stole a glance at Jared, who was shaking his head. 

"He works really hard, he doens't have time." That ended the discussion. A thought came into my head, and I blurted it out before I could stop it.

"Mar, are you preggers?" I covered my mouth as Jared started coughing. Annie giggled. 

"Surprise Jare!" That's just how Ale- Snap out of it Bradley. It's in the past, don't think about it so much. You have a good life, you're rich with a lovely girlfriend, and tons of friends. 

"I'm going to be a daddy?" He almost shouted. Grabbing Marissa, he kissed her, wrapping his arms around her. I smiled, and Annie leaned into me. I heard the door open, and turned to see Mark and Maya holding hands.  They spotted me, and nodded to a table. Excusing myself, I went over to them. 

"What do you two want?" I snapped at them. Mark already had his computer out, and it was starting up. Maya looked a little different though, she looked a little sick.

"You to come back Bradley, we need you." Wow. I shook my head, and started to walk away. 

"Look what you've become, she would be so ashamed of you." I froze, and slowly walked back to Mark. 

"Alexa is dead. I saved your fucking lives by joining BrickStone, you know that. I released Danny, what more do you want?" I saw Annie looking around, and I caught her eye. Smiling at her, I saw her blow a kiss then turn around. 

"We want BrickStone to end dumb ass. We can't lead the Resistance anymore, only you can." I wasn't listening to this. 

"Listen to me. BrickStone is stronger than ever, partially thanks to me. You won't ever beat us, so don't even try." I sneered at them. Maya shook her head sadly, then looked around. I watched in horror as she started to peel her skin off. I nearly fell over when Alexa's face replaced her own. Mark helped her remove the plastic from her face, while I stood there dumbly. 

"What have you become Brad?" She was alive! Alexa, was alive, but how?

"We had people switch the bodies, even though she was wounded." Mark almost read my mind. I felt Jared's hand on my shoulder, as he spotted Alexa.

"Alexa! My goodness I haven't seen you in three months!" It was fake. She stood up, grabbing Mark.

"Game On." What? She started to leave, but turned back. The smile on her face was sadistic, scary.

"Game on 768."