Chapter Thirty-six

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They made great time getting to the church

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They made great time getting to the church. There was a bonus to traveling in a squad car in an emergency. Officer Ryan had her siren blaring. Soon, they closed the gap in time between when John had left and they had arrived. 

However, now they had to play the waiting game. Waiting here seemed wrong. His brother was out there, and so was Angelique. What if they were in trouble? What if they needed him? He paced back and forth outside of the rectory.

Officer Ryan rested a hand on his shoulder to stop his movements. "Reid will be here. Soon. I promise. We need you here. They won't know where to go otherwise."

Michael nodded. He understood, but his skin was still crawling and so he went back to pacing. He wanted to run the moment he had seen both of their cars parked in the lot. That John had gone after Angelique and that neither of them has shown up to Michael did not bode well.

He prayed harder than he ever prayed before.

Suddenly, a shot echoed through the woods. Michael became glued to his spot. His eyes met Mary's. She had her gun pulled and was trying to decipher where the sound was coming from when a second shot rang out.

Michael would wait no longer. He started running. Mary was close on his heels. They heard a third shot as they made their way to the glade that Michael knew was the spot Danny had chosen.

A fourth and final shot rang through the air. Michael felt sick to his stomach. He heard a scream, but it sounded like a man's voice. Soon crashing through the brush was Danny, looking like a madman. Running without direction, blindly almost barreling them down. He did not even take notice of them.

He just kept screaming as he ran past. Officer Ryan stopped running, now torn between following Michael or pursuing Danny.

"Go!" Michael told her, and she pursued Danny. Taking different paths they separated, each having their job to do. Michael entered the glade, and it looked like a war zone, bodies laying everywhere. There were four shots fired. Were they all dead?

"John!"

Recognizing him, Michael ran and slid to the ground next to his brother. He was bleeding, but alive.

"John!" he yelled again, but no response. 

He lost a lot of blood. Michael did what he could to stop the bleeding, wondering if John was in shock. He pulled out his phone and called 911; he gave the dispatcher his GPS location from his phone. Hoping it would help.

He ran to the next body. It was a teenage boy who had no gunshot wound but looked to be unconscious. The third was another teenager. Michael could tell as he approached, he was no longer breathing. He checked for a pulse, to be certain. He blessed the boy, and that's when he noticed the arm of Angelique's coat sticking out from under the boy's body.

Michael looked around wildly. "Angelique!" he yelled. She had been here. Where was she now?

He stood up and yelled at the top of his lungs, "ANGELGIRL! WHERE ARE YOU?"

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