And he attacked anyway.
“Here’s another lesson, my dear nephew,” Budimir continues as I stand there, frozen in place, with the butt of a gun pressed to the back of my head. “Loyalty and stupidity aren’t so far apart. These men that surround you were smart enough to recognize power when they saw it. That is why they answer to me.”
Then he turns his gaze to Cillian, who is now chalk-white and weakening by the second.
“Where’s the girl?” he asks.
“What girl?” Cillian asks, so convincingly even I almost believe him for a moment.
“Artem’s fucking wife,” Budimir snarls.
“She abandoned him the first chance she got,” Cillian replies. “We haven’t seen her since the clinic.”
Cillian, you fucking legend. I will forever be in your debt.
“Well, then,” Budimir sighs, “you’re of no more use to me.”
He cocks the gun and fires.
Once.
Twice.
Three bullets emptied into my best friend’s chest.
I roar wordlessly at the top of my lungs. It’s a primal, haunting sound, ripped straight out of my soul.
I don’t even realize I’m moving forward towards Cillian until something hard and blunt clocks me at the back of my head.
I drop to the ground, soft dirt squishing between my fingers as I stare at the body that’s just dropped limp at Budimir’s feet.
“Cillian,” I whisper. “Fuck… Cillian…”
I try to keep crawling forward, but I’m hit again, right on my spine. I fall flat against the fallen leaves. They scratch at my face and I suck in my breath as their rotting smell fills my nostrils.
Cillian…
I hear footsteps moving closer. Someone puts a boot toe under my ribs and rolls me over. Every motion is agony.
As I peer up, I catch a glimpse of the crescent moon hanging over me, just before it’s blocked out by Budimir’s face.
“You see, Artem?” Budimir lectures. “You see how much more satisfying it is to be patient? Now, I get to walk away and you get to lie here in the dirt where you belong. You get to lie here with your dead friend and bleed out slowly while you go over all your mistakes.”
He spits on my face. Cocks his gun one more time and unloads it into my stomach.
Then he turns and pads away.
The forest slowly empties. Silence takes over once more.
My head spins with memories, past and present, but none of them feel real. None of them feel like they belong to me anymore.
I see a tan woman with haunting hazel eyes, a mangled body and a bloody baby in her arms.
I see an old man with heavy brows and a wizened sorrow on his face.
And last of all, I see a blonde Irishman, with a smile on his lips and an apology in his too-blue eyes.