Seeing Ari move closer, I lifted my head and tried to shout. When nothing came out, I said what I could, praying she heard me. “Ari, run!” But my words came too late. Jekyll stood right behind her and pricked her skin with a small dart. I watched in horror as Grimm came over and licked her face, grabbing her chest. “I warned you to leave. You didn’t listen. Now, you are mine.”
“Grimm,” I gasped. “Don’t do this.”
“Thanks for leading us to her, fucker,” Jekyll grinned, hauling Ari up and over his shoulder as if she were a sack of potatoes.
“We better hurry,” Grimm said, looking at his watch. “We’ve got a time schedule to keep.”
With that, both men left, taking Ari with them, while the darkness crowded around me.
Someone grabbed my face firmly, shaking me. “Bullseye? Come on, man, wake the fuck up.”
A piercing pain cut right through my leg, making me gasp, as I quickly sat up, swinging at anything and everyone around me. Fuck, I thought the pain had numbed, but my leg was on fire.
“Bullseye, what happened, man?”
There were so many people around me. All were talking and tugging on me. I wanted to shout at them to leave me the fuck alone. Wherever they touched, hurt, but I couldn’t get the words out. My body was surfing in a sea of pain. The only thing I could do was ride the waves until they died out. Trying hard to breathe through the pain, I gasped, “Saw him.”
“Saw who?”
“She’s gone.”
“Man, you’re not making sense,” I heard Massacre say. “Who’s gone?”
Looking around the room that was all too familiar, I saw the person I needed most. God, she hadn’t changed one bit. Still determined and beautiful as ever. “Aunt Roxy,” I muttered, and the whole room froze.
“Oh God,” Roxy whispered as she moved the hair from my face and looked down at me. “It can’t be. Dylan?”
If I could cry, I would have. Instead, I lifted my left hand and opened it, showing her a small wooden dart as I whispered, ‘Help me before the darkness retook me.
The muffled sounds of voices woke me sometime later as the fog in my brain began to lift.
“He was going places. He wanted to be an astrophysicist or some shit like that. He wanted to work for NASA. He was awarded scholarships to Harvard, Yale, and Berkley. He was going places.”
“What happened?” I heard Massacre ask.
“None of us know. One minute he was getting ready to leave for college. The next, he left and joined the Marines.”
“You talk too much,” My raw voice muttered.
“Hey, Tadpole,” Ravage smiled down at me, and I groaned. Fuck, why did it have to be him? Where was Aunt Roxy? “Glad to have ya back. You still owe me ten bucks, by the way.”
“Ghost?”
The next person I saw was Ghost leaning over me. “I’m here, Bullseye.”
“Saw him.”
“Saw who?”
“Took Ari.”
“What?”
“Couldn’t stop...” I muttered, right before I passed out again, hearing Ghost shout, “Bullseye!”
I woke up to bright lights shining in my eyes. Blinking a few times, I let my eyes adjust to my surroundings. My body felt stiff and sore all over. I could barely move my left leg. It hurt like a mother fucker.
God, I was so thirsty.