Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 134654 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134654 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
My hands tightened. My heart lightened.
I’d made my father bow.
I’ll make him do it again.
Breathing hard, I served a heavy slug, snapping his head back. He crashed against the bed, whirling away from me.
I’d never felt such freedom. Every punishment was medicine to my heart. His every cry soothed me, knowing I destroyed the monster of my past.
He deserved this and so help me God, I would end this.
Rubix slumped to the floor, shaking his head from dizziness.
I advanced.
We both knew who’d won.
It was schematics now. Inevitable.
For a moment, I paused. I could drag this out. I could wait for him to climb to his feet and torment him again and again. Memories of the past—of a childhood where firing guns, smuggling drugs, and assassinating business rivals was more common than barbeques or homework—I struggled to let go. To stop my tangled history having any sway over me—to stop pining for Cleo’s teenaged ghost before she was scared and inked.
I hadn’t been strong enough or cold enough to do what was needed all those years ago. I wasn’t able to protect her.
But by fuck, I’d do it now. For as long as I lived, Cleo would always be safe, loved, and protected.
Rubix stood up. His nose was broken and his right elbow didn’t bend correctly. My heart thumped to think of the agony I’d caused the man who gave me life.
Then I remembered his threats toward Cleo. I recalled his every torture and trickery, and nothing could stop me from exterminating him.
I was doing the world a favor. I was doing the only thing I could to finally find happiness.
Spinning in place, I roundhoused him. My boot landed squarely on his chest. The crunch of ribs cracked in the stagnant room as he folded to the floor. His scream bounced off the walls, sounding sickly weak.
Standing over him, I said goodbye to every hatred I’d carried for so long. I let go of what’d driven me and embraced a fresh beginning.
“Goodbye, Rubix.”
He raised his hands. “You’ll fucking regret it, boy. You’re my son!”
I raised my boot. “Not anymore.”
I kicked him. He rolled to his side, bellowing in agony.
Then I did something I wasn’t proud of.
I stood over my father’s body and kicked him in the head.
One last severance to end it all.
My father twitched and fell broken.
It’s done.
The silence that followed didn’t make any sense.
I was eerily empty.
Strangely calm and not entirely satisfied.
After four million minutes—eight long years—I finally had cessation. However, there was a part of me that didn’t settle. It didn’t feel final.
He’s dead … isn’t he?
I bent to check his pulse.
There was a faint beat—his last attempt to cling to life.
Goddammit.
Why couldn’t anything relating to my father be easy?
The fact he wasn’t dead destroyed my inner calm. Even unconscious and barely alive, he still made me go into the pitch black to win.
Standing, I did the only thing I could. Grabbing the knife from the bed, I rolled Rubix onto his back and hovered over his unconscious body.
Hatred heated my blood, warming me despite the torrent soaking my T-shirt and jeans. Not only had I beaten him to a pulp, but I now had to murder in cold blood too. End an unconscious man—put him down like some sick dog.
Sucking in a breath, I wrangled my thoughts in order.
He’s a monster.
He has to die.
Almost ritually, I pierced the blade between his ribs and plunged the knife deep into his heart.
He didn’t open his eyes. He didn’t flinch. There was no sign of him slipping from one world to the next. Only the barest stutter as his pulse ceased.
The room seemed to contract and exhale. Relief dripped down the walls and finally I felt a thawing inside me.
Everything I’d been carrying suddenly shot free.
The guilt, the fear, the betrayal—it all disappeared.
It was as if I’d somehow found my innocence that was lost that horrible night. Finally believed I deserved Cleo, even though I’d become a monster in order to slay one.
Everything was as it should be.
I’m finally free.
The only thing left was to drench the place in gasoline. To destroy the scene of carnage once and for all and say goodbye forever.
So much fire in my past.
So much destruction.
There would be no need for such violence ever again.
No need for revenge.
No need for hatred.
It’s over.
The flames devoured the corpses.
The Night Crusader Clubhouse was nothing but ash, and the women left behind scattered like mice.
We stood there, retinas burning with bright orange and skin prickling with heat—each man closing this chapter of his life in his own way. Never again would I kill. Never again would I wear someone else’s life on my soul.
The victory wasn’t celebrated. We’d won, but lost. Mo’s and Beetle’s empty presence blemished the night.
No one spoke as we waited for the fire to fully take hold. Crackling and spitting echoed in the darkness as the fire chewed its way through filth. We waited until the evidence was consumed by the blistering heat before straddling our bikes and roaring for freedom.