Children of Redemption (Children of Vice 3)

I looked down, and immediately wished I hadn’t because it was then I saw the blood all over my thigh. I was shot.

I looked to Wyatt, who was still firing. Still standing. I wondered how the hell he wasn’t hit, and it was only then that I saw…he was taking bullets! He was taking bullets! Oh god! He was fighting and taking bullets.

Crawling on to my stomach on top of the glass, I dragged myself over to the guard, and just when I was about to reach, it felt like my hand was on fire.

“HELEN!” I heard his scream through the silence.

I looked to him, and he looked to me, wide-eyed and screaming something I couldn’t hear. All I saw was the man in black pointing his gun toward Wyatt.

Ignoring the pain. Ignoring the blood that now soaked my fingers, I grabbed the gun, turned onto my side, and fired. Gripping on for dear life, I fired at them again. I watched two of them go down, but I didn’t stop. My throat hurt and I thought maybe I was screaming, but I didn’t stop. Not until the gun wouldn’t fire anymore.

When I stopped to breathe, they were on the floor. The only one still standing. The only one covered in blood, shaking - was him.

His eyes were glazed over, but he smiled. “Good shot, baby.”

“Wyatt!” I screamed, pushing myself off the ground as he began to fall. I caught onto him just before he went to the ground, his hair soaked in blood. I held on tight, inhaling quickly, and he just looked at me with that stupid beautiful smile of his.

“Why…do …they… always …gotta…gotta ruin my day?” Just like that, his eyes closed.

“WYATT! WYATT! NO!” I screamed, frantically looking around for help, but no one was there. “WYATT!”

“Please no! Please!” I take it back! I’ll give it back! I’ll give him up, but please just let this be a dream! Please!

“So Callahans can cry,” a voice said behind me, and I felt the gun pressed against my skull. “I’ll let the commissioner know.”

BANG!

“No. I’ll let him know.”

Turning around, all I could see were the bright headlights…and then suddenly a dark shadow. The closer it came, the better I could see the leather of his jacket and then his face. I smiled, and everything blurred after that.

“I told him you’d grow a beard.” I just liked that everything was black, but I wanted to cry because this isn’t how you wake up from nightmares.

Wyatt, you wouldn’t leave without me, would you?

I have no future without you.

So don’t go.

Please don’t go.

Let’s go back.

Let’s just go back.

To the time when we were kids.

I want to go back.

Please.

NINETEEN

“He was my most beloved friend and my bitterest rival,

my confidant and my betrayer,

my sustainer and my dependent,