Tears I’d never seen him shed fell freely down his bloody face as he tried to beg for the impossible. This was the life we led. Actions had consequences and his were great. He was going to have to live with the decisions he made. He would now feel what true hell was like. There was nothing I could do to save him from that misery. Like me, he would have to find a way to survive it.
“Dylan, help me.”
“She’s dead, Max.”
Sitting there on the ground, surrounded by death and destruction, Max screamed into the chaos as my words filtered into his brain. Rocking her back and forth, her blonde hair, caked with blood, blew in the breeze as he held onto the last vestige of a life he would never have. He was lucky. At least he could say goodbye. Kiss her one more time. Hold her in his arms. I never got that. I just had a vague memory of the last time we were together.
“Max…”
A loud pop sounded, making me stumble back a few steps as a burning sensation spread out across my shoulder. I saw a trickle of blood oozing from my right shoulder. Turning, I looked at Max, who lowered his gun and screamed. “SHE ISN’T DEAD!”
Mother fucker shot me.
Shaking my head, I turned my back on him.
There was no talking to him right now.
He was going to have to travel this path alone. There were still people I needed to get out of here. If they were still alive.
So, I kept searching.
So many dead.
Men I knew, cared about, who had absolutely nothing to do with this fucked up mess, now lay dead on the ground because of him and his actions. As much as I wanted to blame him for all this, he wasn’t guilty. Goldman was. The Society was.
I would never forgive Max for what he did. His part in this fucked up game.
I should just end it all right now, but something stopped me.
I wanted him to see the devastation he caused. To live with the repercussions of his actions. To know that no matter what he did from this moment forward, nothing he did would absolve his sins. Now, her death was on him too, just like my wife’s.
The mother fucker was a dead man walking and I was going to be his executioner.
And I would kill him.
Only when I was ready.
Only when I felt he suffered enough.
Scouring further into the chaos around me, I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw pink hair blowing in the breeze. Running, I fell to my knees and gathered her in my arms. “Come on Aunt Roxy. Not you, too. Dear God, please not her!” I shouted, holding her tightly as her head lolled to the side.
I knew she was gone but didn’t want to believe it.
Couldn’t believe it. Not my aunt.
Not the woman who loved me like a second mother.
Tears ran down my face as I rocked her lifeless body in my arms.
“Dylan, she’s gone, man,” Ink said, carefully kneeling next to me. “You can’t help her anymore. Let her go.”
“She shouldn’t have been here.”
“There’s nothing more you can do. Let’s wrap this up and get the hell out of here before the local authorities show up. The whole fucking town felt that explosion. They are on the way.”
I knew what Ink was saying was true.
The explosion was probably felt for miles.