Copyright © 2012 Kirsty Moseley
Chapter 37 - The Showman Himself
I don’t know how long I was alone in my misery, but it didn’t get any easier. The sound of the tape continued to blast in my ears, my heart continued to break each time I heard her cry my name. I was going to kill everyone, every single person on that tape was going to die a slow painful death - but Eli, I’d definitely take my time with him. He needed to suffer for what he’d done. Tyler was already so broken; she’d already been through so much in her life that this now was just inhumane. I had no idea how she’d recover from this, maybe she wouldn’t.
The emotional pain of this situation was even worse than the physical pain that I was in from the beating - and that was saying something because the physical pain was enough to make me nauseous. My body was broken in many places, but my right leg hurt the worst. The air continued to be tainted by the drug so I couldn’t heal myself. It looked like I was doomed to suffer.
When the door clicked, my eyes snapped open. I expected it to be Eli, back to cause more damage or turn up the volume of the horrifying tape so that I had a mental breakdown or something. My lips pulled back into a snarl unintentionally as I tensed in the seat, pulling against my bindings.
Instead of Eli though, someone new entered the room. I hadn’t seen this guy yet. He was wearing a mask too as he closed the door behind him. “Please turn this off, please,” I begged unashamedly, looking anywhere but the TV screen and the tape that they obviously had on a continuous loop.
“No. You watch it,” he replied, stalking towards me. I groaned and closed my eyes, defeated. I stiffened when I felt a poke on my chest. I forced my eyes open again, looking up at the guy who had planted himself firmly in front of me. “I have water for you,” he stated casually, producing a bottle of water from his pocket.
“I don’t want it,” I grumbled, closing my eyes again.
Another poke to my chest had me growling in anger. Could this fucker not just leave me alone? I opened my mouth to shout at him, threaten to kill him, or maybe even just beg for his help, when I saw he was holding a piece of paper close to his chest. He nodded down at it discreetly. There was black scribbled handwriting on it, I recognised it as the same writing from the other note I’d received telling me to call the number and trust no one.
‘I’m Billy. Don’t acknowledge this at all, there is a hidden camera in the corner behind me. When I leave the room I’m going to cut the air flow in here. DO NOT make a move until Byron gets here, you’ll know when.’
“Drink it!” he ordered harshly, but at the same time he smiled apologetically, his eyes sympathetic as he looked at me through the plastic of his bulky gas mask. He obviously needed to keep up the act for the cameras.
I nodded in acknowledgement and opened my mouth as he shoved the note in his pocket and unscrewed the bottle top. I looked up at him gratefully. So this was Billy, the one that was going to help me out of this mess. I raked my eyes over his face, memorising his features so that I didn’t accidently kill him when the time came. He said that his brother, the one that I was to protect, looked a lot like him, so I’d need to be on the lookout for him too.
I gulped down the water as he tipped it into my mouth. I winced as it hurt my damaged throat and jaw as I swallowed the cool liquid. When most of it was gone he pulled the bottle away. “Now you just be a good little boy in here and this’ll all be over soon,” he said tightly.
“Where’s Tyler? Is she okay? Please, please tell me she’s okay,” I begged. Maybe he could get in to wherever she was and tell her that I was here, that I was here to help her. That wasn’t the plan though, that wasn’t what we worked out and I couldn’t exactly ask him to do that now because the cameras would see.
His eyes tightened, his lips pressed together in a thin, grim line. From his expression alone I knew she was in a bad way. “She’s alive,” he answered.
I knew I needed to keep up the act even though this guy was on my side. I needed to be convincing that I was on my own for Byron to come here and take a risk for once. “I’m gonna kill you, everyone on of you fuckers are gonna die for this!” I screamed, making him flinch as I thrashed in my chair.
“You’re no threat at all. While that drug is in your system you wouldn’t even be able to stand on your own,” he shot back. He smiled at me weakly before he turned and marched out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
I closed my eyes and prayed that he kept true to his word. So far I’d done everything that he’d asked of me, I’d come alone, I’d let myself get captured, I’d swore to protect his little brother. I prayed to God that he didn’t back out now, because if he did, if he didn’t cut the drug supply like he’d promised he would on the phone, then I was totally screwed. He was right in what he just said, while the drug was in my system I was as good as useless, and Tyler was as good as dead.
I needn’t have worried about him backing out though, because less than twenty minutes later I knew he was on my side. I clenched my jaw tightly so that I didn’t scream in pain as the burning started all over my body. The pain from the bones fusing back together, the bruises healing, the skin mending itself, all of it was almost too much to bear. The fire that felt like I’d swallowed a gallon of acid, burned its way around my whole body, healing everything and making me twitch and writhe in agony but I tried to keep my movements to a minimum so that the cameras that were somewhere in the room, wouldn’t get wind of anything happening.
My breathing was labored by the time the fire seemed to put itself out. Finally I could think clearly instead of the pain being a constant in my head. The noise from the tape was still deafening, but I was trying my hardest to block it out as I focused on remaining calm. Now that the drug was out of my system, my hands were shaking with rage, my wolf was right at the front just waiting to shift and rip the whole place apart. It was taking every inch of my strength to actually stay still and look defeated for the camera. I knew that I’d still be covered in blood so they wouldn’t know without looking really closely that my wounds were healed, I’d just have to put on a bit of an act if someone came in. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too long until Byron Jefferson made his appearance, and then I could snap these chains and kill everyone and everything and then go find my wife.
I focused on Tyler, trying to feel any signs of her, talk to her through our link, but she was still gone, it was almost like I’d made the link up completely and it had never even existed in the first place. My mind flicked to a place where I felt the point to my life just disappear, I suddenly wondered if she was dead. I hadn’t felt her for so long that she could be dead for all I knew and that was why I couldn’t feel her. The more rational part of me scolded the other more terrified part though because she couldn’t be dead, I’d know if she was dead, the pain of losing her would tear me apart so I knew she had to be alive. My thoughts flicked to Jeremy, the technician at the lab that did all the experiments on us with the drug. He’d said that the inhibiter drug took about four hours to get out of her system, just like with a normal shifter. Maybe that was why I still couldn’t feel her, maybe even though Billy had cut the gas, maybe it was still in her system and I’d just need to wait the four hours before I could speak to her again. I prayed that Byron got here before that time though, I couldn’t listen to this tape for four hours without my wolf taking over, and then they’d know that someone was helping me, then Byron wouldn’t come at all.
In my head, to keep myself sane I recounted the last conversation I’d had with Tyler, we were fooling around on the way to the labs, she was whining because she wanted to take a boat trip up the Thames and not be stuck in an office building all day. If only I’d taken her on that boat trip then none of this would have happened. But I couldn’t really think that I guess, if this hadn’t happened that day then it would have happened eventually. With Edward feeding them pricks the information, it was only a matter of time before they came for us.
What seemed like forever waiting and playing out happy memories of Tyler in my head to keep myself sane, the door opened. I held my breath as Eli walked his smug face into the room, still wearing a gas mask so I guess Billy helping me had been kept secret. I squirmed in my seat, trying to look defeated because if he got suspicious and looked too closely then he would see that it was just dry blood on my face and that my wounds had healed up.
He nodded towards the TV, smiling wickedly. “Have fun? That’s a turn on watching that, huh?”
I hissed a string of expletives through my teeth, clenching my hands into fists as I tried my hardest not to just rip the chains of and choke the life out of him slowly. “I swear to all that’s holy, I’m gonna tear you apart for that,” I promised.
He laughed and reached out, grabbing the remote control, finally turning off my nightmare. I breathed a sigh of relief as the horrifying noise of her crying finally stopped. For a couple of seconds my ears still rang from the volume of it, but then it died out to leave silence in the room.
“My grandfather is here. Are you ready for this?” he asked, raising one eyebrow behind the mask.
“Where’s Tyler?” I asked, praying he’d tell me.
He smiled and nodded back at the door behind him as he unclasped the metal headband that was holding my head in place. “She’s up there waiting for you. My grandfather, he’s a bit of a showman, he wants to do this all properly and show people that there is no doubting that the prophesy is wrong,” he stated.
I frowned, confused. “Showman?”
He nodded, looking a little bored of it all as four other masked men walked into the room behind me. I recognised one of the as Billy but I forced myself not to react to him in any way. I couldn’t react until Byron Jefferson was within arm’s reach of me. “Yeah. It’s stupid really; personally I don’t see what all the fuss is about. To me you’re not worth all this effort and I’d happily slit your throat here, but he wants to be all grand with the plans,” he replied. He turned back to the four guys. “Take his chains off and put those cuffs on him,” he stated, nodding at one of them who was holding a thick pair of iron handcuffs. They looked even thicker than the ones I was wearing now, but I could easily still get out of them.
“Tyler’s gonna be wherever you’re taking me?” I asked, not really sure how I felt about that. On the one hand I wanted to see her so badly that it was making my whole body ache, but on the other hand I didn’t want her anywhere near trouble when the fighting started. My eyes unintentionally flicked to Billy who’s jaw twitched as he clenched his teeth.
Eli smiled nastily and stepped back as the other four converged on me, pulling at my restraints and clipping cold metal cuffs around my wrists. “Yeah. We want her to watch as we kill you, it’ll be good to catch her reaction on tape,” he said coldly.
They were going to tape me getting killed? Sick bastards. “Why would you tape it?” I asked, shaking my head incredulously. Not that I was bothered, maybe the tape would catch me ripping them to pieces, maybe I could watch that again and again with the volume turned up, I’d actually quite like that. Wow, I was turning into a sicko too.
“Mmm hmm. I think the council would appreciate seeing for themselves that they put their faith in the wrong person all along. Once you’re dead then the prophesy that they hold so dear will be dead too,” he retorted. “Get up,” he ordered, waving a hand at me.
I had no idea how I was going to fake being hurt. I forced myself to my feet, purposefully swaying and crying out as if in pain. I obviously did a good a job, because two of them grabbed me, one either side and took most of my weight. I let them drag me out, and we followed after Eli. My eyes were raking over everything quickly. As we stepped out of the room I was kept in, I noticed that another steel door at the end of the hallway was open wide, a quick look in showed me that the room was empty but there was a chair in the middle of the room like the one I was strapped in. A little blanket thing was piled in the corner as if someone had been sleeping there. I felt my heart sink, was that where they’d been keeping Tyler?
I sporadically let out groans and grunts as I let them drag me up the stairs and through the house that I’d seen momentarily before. As we stepped out into the farmyard, Eli pulled off his gas mask, tossing it to the ground carelessly as he took in a couple of deep breaths of fresh air. I smiled as I looked down at his mask that he’d just abandoned, thinking he wouldn’t need it anymore. Little did he know how wrong that was….
The others took off their masks and tossed them down too, dragging me towards the red wooden barn that I’d seen on my way in. My eyes raked the darkness, the tree line, but there was nothing there in sight. An owl hooting caught my attention and I fought the smile that twitched at the corners of my mouth from the sound of it. One of the guys slid the heavy looking wooden door open and about thirty faces all turned in my direction.
I gulped. Wow, that was a lot of people; a lot of them had guns too. This could be more awkward than I thought. The crowd seemed to be standing in a sort of arc shape, their bodies facing in the same direction, so I looked at what they were crowding around. There was a chair in the middle of the room; a camera was set up on a tripod, facing the chair, obviously ready to record my demise.
An excited murmur went up around the room, people looking at me excitedly. “Guess I’m quite the celebrity,” I said nonchalantly as the two guys continued to half drag me into the barn.
“Absolutely, you are quite the celebrity,” came a mocking voice amongst the crowd.
I looked in the direction of the voice only to see the man himself. I recognised him from the photos I’d seen of him in the council’s files. Admittedly he’d aged a lot since they got a glimpse of him, but this was Byron Jefferson, I’d stake my life on that fact. In my head I’d killed him twenty times already, but I needed to see Tyler first and make sure she was out of harm’s way. My priority in life would always be her; once she was out of the way everyone else in this room was dying.
“Where is she?” I growled. I felt my body tense, my act of being hurt slipped slightly as my fists clenched and I tried not to run to him and shove my fist so far down his throat that I ripped his heart out.
The old man with the grey hair smiled at me knowingly. “Right here,” he stated, nodding to the people that were standing next to him.
The crowd immediately parted and I saw Tyler sitting on the floor next to him, making no noise, just staring at a bale of hay as if it was the most important thing in the world. She actually looked really out of it, stoned, and like she didn’t even know where she was. Her beautiful face was marred with bruises, old and new, and dirt was smeared over her arms, her fingers looked like she’d been scratching at something because her nails were all broken and sore looking. I couldn’t see any more of her body because she’d raised her knees to her chest and pulled the t-shirt right down to the floor, covering everything apart from the tips of her toes. There was a camera aimed at her too.
Seeing her like that hurt me so much. It was so painful that my knees went weak for a second and I was grateful that the two guys were holding me up because I surely would have fallen to the floor form the horror of seeing her like that.
“Tyler?” I croaked. She didn’t even move, it was like she didn’t even hear me at all, she just sat there staring at the same spot, her breathing laboured as if it hurt her to draw breath. From what I’d seen on that tape I was pretty sure she’d have broken ribs because of Eli, she obviously hadn’t healed from any of that so she must be suffering. “Baby? It’s me, Sean,” I tried again, moving to try and go to her but the two guys held me in place firmly.
Byron’s hand shot out, slapping her across the face. She yelped, clutching at her face as her eyes raised to meet his, a frightened expression on her face as she cowered away from him.
“Don’t you touch her!” I shouted, fighting my wolf again. I couldn’t, not yet, I needed to wait for just a couple more minutes, it wasn’t time yet.
Byron raised one eyebrow at Eli who stepped forward and aimed a nasty kick to my stomach making bile rise in my throat as I doubled over. The pain was gone within seconds, but I didn’t show that on my face as I looked up at Byron as he spoke, “Keep your mouth in check, boy,” he spat angrily. He turned to Tyler and raised his hand again. She flinched, whimpering and squeezing her eyes shut. He didn’t hit her though, instead he laughed wickedly. “Seems she’s well broken in now, thanks to Eli,” he teased, winking at his grandson. “Tyler, you have anything you want to say to Sean before we kill him?” he asked her softly.
Tyler’s chin wobbled, her mouth opened but nothing came out at all, it was almost as if she’d forgotten how to talk or something, or that she didn’t understand his question. What the hell had they done to her?
Byron turned to me and shrugged, his smile playful. “It appears there’s no last goodbye for you,” he chirped. “Put him in the chair. Let’s get this show on the road.” He nodded towards the chair in the middle of the room. Instantly I was being dragged again, the two guys dumping me down roughly. My eyes flicked back to the doors as they slid shut again, closing me and Tyler in with about thirty shifters, only one of which I knew for sure was on my side - Billy. My eyes searched him out, I found him quickly. His eyes met mine and he took the arm of the guy who was standing next to him, he looked like him, that must be his little brother Thomas. Billy sidestepped, positioning himself closer to where Tyler was back to staring at the hay again.
I gulped. Surely it had to be time. How long had I been in here?
Byron stepped in front of me, turning his back on me as he faced the camera. “Today is a joyous day. Today the Organisation fulfils one of its dreams. Today we eradicate and disprove the prophesy once and for all. You see, I have here, ‘The One’,” he stated theatrically, turning and waving a hand to me in example. Another of those murmurs went up amongst the crowd. He smiled at me happily before turning back to the camera. “I want you all to witness the demise of the so called saviour. His name is Sean Houston, and the council have proved beyond a doubt that he is in fact gifted with incredible abilities. But none of that matters today, for today I’m going to kill him and then I’m going to send his head to the council as a reminder that no matter what they think, the Organisation will never be quashed, never be pushed to the side. The Organisation will rule and wipe out all mongrels worldwide. We will purge the tainted blood from our society and bring about a new beginning, a cleaner beginning. And it all starts tonight.”
My eyes locked on Billy; while everyone was busy he’d positioned himself behind Tyler. That was his only part here tonight, he had to get my wife out of harm’s way and everything else would be taken care of. He nodded reassuringly so I turned back to Byron who was still delivering what was sure to be an award winning speech. Eli was right; he certainly was a freaking showman alright.
He turned back to me, pulling a silver blade with old shifter inscriptions running down the blade. My hands gripped the chains at my wrists, moving so that there was some slack to play with. “Sean Houston, you have been sentenced to die for your crimes against the pure breed race. Do you have anything you wish to say before you sentence is carried out in front of the whole world?” he asked, raising one eyebrow curiously.
The same owl hooted again outside and this time I didn’t fight the smile.
“Yeah I have something to say,” I agreed, nodding and looking into his delighted blue eyes. “You fucking suck at speeches,” I growled, throwing my arms up quickly and wrapping the chains around his neck at the same time that the door burst open and gas canisters were thrown into the barn, hissing clouds of white smoke.
All hell broke loose then.
A team of police, all of them wearing gas masks, rushed into the barn their guns raised. The gas that they’d thrown in was just a very mild part of the inhibitor drug, not strong, just enough to stop them from shifting into their wolves so that they could be rounded up quickly.
Byron thrashed in my arms, clutching at his throat as I pulled the chains tighter. He gagged, elbowing me in the ribs trying to fight me off as he was slowly asphyxiated.
“Billy, get Tyler!” I screamed, squinting into the smoke, but I could already see he’d done his job. She was thrashing against him as him and Thomas shoved a mask on her face and dragged her to the back of the barn like we’d agreed. Billy obviously had no idea that I’d made a backup plan, but even shocked he still executed his part to perfection.
The fighting around me was loud. Guns were going off here there and everywhere so I dropped to my knees, dragging Byron down with me, not loosening my hold at all. I was supposed to let him live, I was supposed to let him stand trial for his crimes against humanity, but screw that - he didn’t deserve to spend his days in a nice cell having three meals a day. I hated him and everything he stood for; he needed to die so that Tyler would be as safe as possible.
I leant forward as his movements became less violent. I pressed my mouth to his ear to make sure he didn’t miss the words I needed to say before I killed him. “You were right earlier. Today is a joyous day, and I promise to purge the tainted blood for you, just liked you planned. Only it’s not the mongrel blood that’s tainted, it’s the Jefferson blood; I won’t rest until I wipe out every single Jefferson in the world. Starting with that pervert of a grandson you have. You go to hell now, you’ll see him there soon,” I growled. His eyes went wide and I moved my hands, the chains loosening around his neck and he dragged in a ragged breath. That breath didn’t do him any good though, because I gripped my hands either side of his head and twisted so hard that I heard several cracks and his body went limp, his head facing the wrong way.
I didn’t feel bad. I probably should have done, but I didn’t feel one ounce of remorse as I shoved his lifeless body off of me and jumped to my feet, snapping the chains that bound my wrists. The fighting was still going on around me. Although the gas had stopped everyone from shifting, it wasn’t strong enough to knock everyone out, so there was a gun battle going on amongst the police and the organisation.
A blond head caught my eye, he was fighting with someone. He raised his hand and punched the guy square in the face, making the other one stumble back. While he was disorientated, he lunged at him, shoving him against the wall of the barn, turning and grabbing the other guy’s arms and yanking them behind his back quickly.
I ran over there, ducking as a bullet hit the wall just an inch away from where my head was a second ago. I slammed into the wall next to the blond and he jumped, immediately readying himself for another fight. His face relaxed instantly when he saw it was me.
“Alright? Where’s Byron?” Ryce asked, snapping plastic cuffs on the guy he’d restrained, before smashing the butt of his gun into the side of his head, knocking him out cold.
“Er…. Accidently killed him?” I offered sheepishly. He groaned and looked back at the fighting. My eyes searched out Tyler; she was hiding behind a wooden wagon type thing at the back of the barn, Billy and Thomas both in front of her protectively, but they were well away from the fighting. My whole body wanted to go to her, but I needed to help these guys first. “You took your sweet ass time with the signal. I thought maybe you were actually gonna let him kill me,” I joked.
He grinned. “Would I do a thing like that?” he replied, gripping my shoulder. “I’m going to help them,” he said, nodding deeper into the barn, over to two police officers that were engaged in a nasty looking fistfight with more than two members of the organisation. “Stay here, stay out of trouble, don’t kill anyone else,” he ordered, before turning and running into the fight fearlessly.
Stay here my ass.
I scanned the room looking for my target. Eli. He was mine and there was no way he was leaving here alive. But I couldn’t see him anywhere. A gunshot went off to my right, the direction that Ryce had gone in so I looked there quickly to see a cop fall to the floor. I needed to help them, it wasn’t a fair fight, there were too many members of the organisation there, they were getting the upper hand.
I ran into the fight, smashing my fist into the small of someone’s back. My rage took over, I didn’t need to think as I threw blow after blow at the people around me. A high pitched scream broke into my cloud of rage that I seemed to be stuck in. The guy I was beating fell to the floor limply when I moved away from where I was pinning him up against the wall.
I looked around wildly only to see Tyler disappear out of the door of the barn. What the fuck? I looked over to see Billy was lying on the floor, Thomas cradling his head as he cried.
Dread settled in the pit of my stomach. “Ryce, Tyler’s gone!” I shouted as I just ran out of the fight, abandoning the police to go get my wife. As I ran full pelt through the barn, jumping over bodies that littered the floor, some bleeding, some unconscious with their hands tied behind their backs in the plastic police cuffs Ryce had used.
Cold air blasted in my face as I ran out of the barn, my eyes scanning the surroundings for signs of her, my ears trained to listen for the tiniest sound. A whimper and a soft thud to my left caught my attention and I didn’t pause to think as I just ran in that direction. My abilities weren’t hindered from the tiny amount of the drug the police had pumped into the barn, so I caught up with them incredibly quickly.
Eli had his hand gripped around Tyler’s upper arm as he dragged her forward, towards the treeline. She was blindly stumbling along behind him, her bare feet bleeding and broken as she slipped on stones and sticks.
“Fucking move faster, bitch!” he growled, yanking her forward again as he picked up his pace.
Rage. That was the only word that even came close to describing the all-consuming anger I felt inside. My wolf demanded his blood, but I didn’t want to shift, not unless I had to, no, I wanted to take my time with this one, draw it out, make him suffer.
“Eli,” I called. He jerked to a stop, yanking Tyler to his chest as he stepped behind her, using her body like a shield as he pressed a black handgun into her side making her gasp and grimace in pain. I held up my hands innocently, showing him I wasn’t armed. “Don’t hurt her,” I begged.
He smiled wickedly, his eyes raking down my body as he considered his options. He obviously wanted to live, but it looked like he was intent on taking Tyler with him, he must have a soft spot for her if he had risked grabbing her from the barn, it obviously would have been better for his chances if he was alone instead of dragging her along with him.
“I could kill her,” he spat, shoving the barrel of the gun harder into her side.
She screamed, jerking her body, but he pulled her back to him again.
“Don’t. Just let her go and I’ll give you a head start. How about that?” I offered. “A ten minute head start for you to get away before I hunt you down and tear you apart.”
He laughed. “I think you’re forgetting that I have the upper hand here, I’m the only one with a gun, and you, well you have all that drug up in your system too so you won’t have your fancy little healing trick to help you,” he growled. Quick as a flash the gun moved, pointing towards me. I heard the shot before I felt it. It blasted into my chest, ripped the skin and muscle as pain radiated through my whole body. As the healing fire consumed my chest, I distantly heard Tyler gasp.
My eyes snapped up to see a triumphant looking Eli, lower the gun, obviously thinking that it was really going to be that easy.
“Wrong move,” I spat venomously.
Eli’s eyes went wide as I ran forward, closing the distance between us in a split second. My left hand clamped around Tyler’s wrist, pulling her out of the way as my right hand smashed into Eli’s horrified face.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. I savoured every second of it as I let out all of my anger, all of my helplessness and hurt. His broken and bloody body jerked with every blow that I threw, every kick made him groan and writhe in pain. The sounds of his snapping bones resonated amongst the trees, but I still wasn’t satisfied because I could still hear him dragging in painful sounding breaths. He was begging for mercy, begging for me to kill him. His pleas sounded a lot like Tyler’s from the tape, and that just spurred me on more.
“Enough, Sean!” I heard from behind me. I recognised the voice, I knew it was Ryce, but I just didn’t care what he said, I wasn’t done, I’d never be done. I was going to beat him until I broke every bone in his body and then I’d cut him into little pieces and burn them. “Sean, stop,” Ryce commanded again, grabbing me from behind and dragging me back a step. At this point I was so far gone into my anger that I even considered killing Ryce too, just so he’d let go of me. “Enough now,” he said softer as he gripped my body in a bear hug from behind, clamping my arms at my sides. “Don’t let her see you kill someone,” he soothed.
The fog lifted. I looked over at Tyler to see she was watching me with wide eyes, a terrified expression on her face.
I nodded quickly and Ryce let me go. As I stepped away, towards Tyler, I saw movement from the corner of my eye. Eli rolled to the side, his teeth gritted, his eyes determined as he grabbed the gun that was near him. I didn’t have time to react as the shot went off, so loud in the darkness that it echoed and sent a flock of birds flying off into the night sky.
But I felt nothing.
I looked down at Eli, wondering why he hadn’t shot me. I was standing so close. How could he have missed me from this close? But the gun wasn’t even pointed in my direction, it was pointing off to one side…..
I looked in that direction in time to see Tyler cough up a mouthful of blood, her shaky hands clutching at her stomach. Dark blood was seeping out, soaking her dirty t-shirt. She dropped to her knees as another gunshot went off. This one came from close behind me, obviously Ryce’s gun. Eli slumped to the floor, a hole in the middle of his forehead but I couldn’t focus on that now. I blinked, unable to move as Tyler fell backwards, gasping for breath as she clutched at her stomach.
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Cliffhanger, I know. Sorry! Two more chapters will be posted tomorrow, and the Epilogue will be posted on Fridat then this story is done!
PLEASE DON'T ASK FOR A SEQUEL, I'M NOT WRITING ONE - EVER!! LOL