Consequences

Chapter 40: New Blood

I looked away as I fired, knowing the sight of it would make me freeze. And freezing is just what would get me caught.

In a split second, everyone's eyes turned as another gust of wind came up and I grabbed Jared's gun from his belt and shot the man behind him.

I turned with the gun in my hand and aimed it at Jerry number two who stood looking at me with a small smile on his face.

My heart pounded and my chest heaved. Jared stood astonished as he stared at me. The third guy had a gun locked on Jared.

I guess this rat doesn't have a gun on him. Stupid choice.

I could barely hold back the tremors that threatened to break through my steel facade. Instead I focused on that smile. That stupid, cocky smile that haunted the faces of rats and mice. The vermin of the earth.

To look at this man, you wouldn't think he's the Cane boss I'd heard so much about. There's an evil in his eyes that's impossible to miss. I suppose the ignorance of such a thing is what comes with selling yourself to the gangs.

"So what's it gonna be, princess?"
My eye twitched at the nickname
"My life for your brother's? Or yours?"

I let my eyes shoot to the side where my brother stood like a statue. I've never felt so much like an older sibling. Jared was always the most fragile of us kids. This life has inhaled him, chewed him up and spit him out. That's why he was so different when I first got into this. He was already dead.

"It's your choice. Shoot me and save yourself, in exchange for the death of your only surviving family. Which do you choose."

I knew what he was trying to do. He was manipulating me into giving up. But I've already come too far. I've killed not one but two men, I could feel the guilt coating my heart, slowly making it harder to breath.

I glanced over at my brother. My eyes wide with the adrenaline that rushed through my veins. He, on the other hand, looked broken. There was no light in his eyes. No determination to escape.. No will to live. He has gone through a lot. And he was tired of fighting it.

My heart cracked as he blinked slowly. As if nodding and conceding to what I was going to do. I tilted my head, silently begging my brother to fight and survive.

If he would just make a move. Right now... We can make it.

His time was up when Jerry number- two took a step forward and my eyes locked back onto my target. I blocked out my peripherals and shot the man in front of me before he could come any closer.

I heard a second shot and turned toward the third man. I shot him twice. And than another time. Not daring to look down because I knew what I'd see.

No matter how much I drowned out the sound of the other gun with my own, I knew it had gone off. I knew the second I pulled my trigger, the man pulled his.

The only reason my bullet was able to hit that guy is because he shot Jared instead of myself.

Instead of myself.. I pulled the gun's magazine out. One bullet left. 

The tremors broke through and I struggled to replace the magazine. I turned the gun in my shaky hands as thoughts of my brothers played in my head. I looked down and started to cry as I gazed at my brother's lifeless body.

I pressed the gun to my chest. My body seemed to buffer when thoughts of Lucas started to invade my mind.

The memories of all the times he scared me.. All the times he comforted me. The times when it felt as though we'd grown up together.