I never thought Mason would find me and commit murder.
Mason slides the gun between Louis’s lips and pushing it down his throat until Louis gags. When he coughs, he spits up blood. Tears trickle down his cheeks, and he slides his eyes to me, silently begging me to help him.
“You aren’t ever going to hurt anyone again,” Mason says to Louis.
Louis grips Mason’s bicep with a bloody hand, squeezing it, but doesn’t have the energy to push him off.
I can’t have Mason kill someone else for me. I’m not worth it. I run to him, and right as I’m about to launch myself at my foster brother, my feet digging in the sand to push me off the ground, he pulls the trigger.
The breath is knocked out of me when blood splashes against my face, warm and wet. I close my eyes, not wanting to see the raw scene in front of me. I can’t figure out how to breathe. I’m panicking. The sirens are getting closer, the world is caving in, and the only person I could count on just ruined his life for me.
How am I going to live life without Mason? He’s the only reason I’m alive.
“Thomas, open your eyes and look at me. Look at me!” He shakes my shoulders until my eyes snap open. “Breathe.”
I manage to pry my wet kids back and peer into the eyes of the only person that’s ever given a shit about me. I’m trembling.
“The cops are going to come, and they are going to arrest me.”
I shake my head back and forth, dislodging the pools of water filling my vision. The droplets drip down my cheeks, and when I look away from Mason, I see three dead bodies. Blood is everywhere.
So much blood.
“Thomas, I need you to run.”
I’m so confused as to how we got here. My stomach is rolling. I think I’m in shock, or maybe I’m dreaming. “We need to get out of here Mason. Let’s go.”
“There isn’t time. You need to hide. They are going to be here any minute. I want you to go to that biker bar we pass all the time, okay? Tell them I sent you. Tell them you don’t have anywhere to go.”
“What?” This makes no sense. Why the hell would he know any bikers? “Bikers? Mason, you aren’t making any sense. Come on, we can cut through here—” I point over the fence where the mountains are “—We can keep running until we are far away from here, and we can start our lives.”
“No. Someone has to take responsibility for what happened here, and it’s going to be me. I shot them. I do the time. You always take responsibility. For everything you do, you hear me, Thomas?”
“Mason, please. You’re all I have. This was all my fault. Let me take the blame. This is my fault. If I had taken the other route, you wouldn’t have looked for me and grabbed that gun from… where did you get it?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
The sirens are only a block or so away. I turn around to look down the road to make sure we are still alone. “Please, we don’t have much time. Mason, let’s go. Let’s go now.” I tug on his hand and try to pull him to the fence, but he stays in one spot, unmoving, the blood spreading across the ground and touching his sneakers.
“Let’s go. Why aren’t you coming!” I yell. “Damn it, Mason. You’re the only person in the world who has my back. I need you. If you do this, I’ll never see you again. Please.”
“I will always have your back. Always.” His head jerks when the sound of squealing tires comes ripping across the road. He pushes me toward the abandoned building. “Go. Go, Thomas. Now!”
I stumble when I see the rolls of dusty clouds from the police cars speeding down the road getting closer and closer. The sirens are ear-splittingly loud. The hints of red and blue lights are already filling the distance. I don’t want to leave him. I open the wooden door to the rundown shed. It’s dark, musky, and cobwebs are all over me. The only light that spills through is from the window that’s clouded with dust and grim. The bottom right square is broken, but I can see Mason from this spot.
The wet, humid air sticks to my skin, and when I grab onto the ledge of the window, beads of sweat mixed with blood drip down my lips. I almost lick them.
Almost.
Until I remember it isn’t my blood I’m about to lick. I wipe my mouth on my shirt sleeve and hope Mason makes it out of this situation okay.
“Put your hands behind your head!”
I inhale a sharp breath, staring at a cop who has his weapon drawn, pointing it directly at Mason.
“He’s armed!” the cop announces, and three other officers flank each other, pointing their guns at Mason.
Four cops.
Four guns.
One Mason.
No hope.
“Please,” I beg, someone, anyone, to not take Mason away from me.
“Put down the weapon,” the cop barks at Mason.
“Okay,” Mason says, giving me a quick parting glance. He has no fear, at least none that is showing, which only makes me admire him more. But I know the look he gives me, and it isn’t one filled with hope.
It’s one that says goodbye.
He leans down to place the gun on the ground, but the barrel is pointed at the police officers, and the first gunshot sounds.
Then the next.
And the next.
I place a hand over my mouth to stifle my sobs when I see Mason’s body jerk until he is boneless on top of Murray, Louis, and Peter.
I flip to my back and slide against the wall, unable to look out the window a second longer and cry silently. My best friend is dead. For some fucked up reason, he decided I was worth it.
Worth what? I have no idea.
“Fuck, Ripley. He was putting the gun down,” one officer says.
“Like it matters.” One snorts. “Look at the kids he killed.”
“We didn’t know the story. He was just a kid himself. You never pull that shit again; do you understand?”
“Yeah, Nolan. I got it.”
“Call it in. Let’s get this crime scene taped off and these bodies bagged.”
I cup my hands over my ears and begin to rock back and forth. I don’t know how long I sit there, but the zippers of the body bags are so loud they break me open. The sirens come and go.
And soon, the only thing left is silence.
The wind blows through the broken piece of the glass, blowing against the sweat on my neck. All I can see every time I blink are the bullets piercing through Mason’s body. I stand on unstable legs and open the wooden door that leads outside. It’s colder outside. The night sky reminds me of the night I lost my entire family.
My real family.
My sister. My mom. My dad.
It’s only fitting I lose Mason on a night that feels so similar. Cold, beautiful, star-filled, and the crickets… yeah, the crickets were just as loud as the night of the accident. Life goes on even when you don’t want it to.
Taking a lungful of air, I make my way to the left, and the door behind me slams shut. My nerves are shot, and I jump from the loud boom it brings over the empty pastures on either side of the road. My heart thumps in my chest as I stare at where Mason was shot hours ago.
Four people died today, right here, right in the middle of the road, but it’s like it didn’t even happen. The road is clear, disappearing into the edge of the sky. The silence, the world around me, the crickets… everything is as it was, but I’m changed forever.