Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 114247 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114247 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Like taking a hit to the back with a crowbar, all the air left my lungs. My nails dug deeper into my palm. The woman was smiling at the little boy, then she smiled at the baby. I could feel my body shaking. I could feel my stomach tightening.
Shut the fuck up, boy, and get down there. I heard his voice say in my head. Sinners belong in the dark.
Then I could hear her begging, Leave him alone. Please, just leave him alone…
I blinked. I shook my head, desperately trying to get their voices out of my head. I shot my eyes to AK. He was still talking to the Chechen. I could hear grunts and growls coming from my throat. I stood off my saddle.
Viking’s head turned to me. “Flame?” he said slowly, but I didn’t look at him. I needed AK to hurry the fuck up. I had to get out of this fucking place. I looked to my right. The woman was still there with the baby and the boy. They were crossing the road. Then the blood drained from my face.
The little boy was looking at me as they waited. His eyes were watching me, just me. He pointed at my bike and said something to his mother. She smiled at him. His mother smiled at him. Then he waved. My nails dug in harder. But vomit was clawing up my throat. The pain of sharp nails didn’t remove the sick feeling in my stomach, of the puke climbing up my throat. I stood, watching the boy wave as he began to cross the road, and I froze.
My eyes were filling with black spots. My throat was closing up, as the darkness crept in. I couldn’t take the darkness. I couldn’t stand the motherfucking darkness.
I was losing my shit.
“Flame. Brother. You need to calm the fuck down. You need to breathe. You’re growling out loud. You’re fucking pulling attention.” Vike was in front of me, but the black spots were blurring his face. “You’re having one of your freak outs. Just try to breathe.”
“The flames,” I said as my fingers began clawing at the skin on my throat. “The flames are choking me. They’re fucking choking me.”
“Fuck!” Viking spat. I saw AK up ahead turning to look at me. His eyes found me. He quickly said something to the Chechen.
AK began walking back. I counted his rushed steps. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven—
Then three loud bangs suddenly shot out into the street, the clear sound of gunfire piercing through my head.
“Get down!” Hush shouted from behind. But I couldn’t. My eyes scanned the road, tracking the people falling to ground. The Chechen had been hit. His body sprawled on the asphalt, blood leaking from his skull.
My body burned, burned with need to kill as I searched for the shooters. Then a high-pitched scream almost burst my ears. I ran forward. But the more the screaming came, the more I lost my shit.
Then I stopped dead, heart beating way too fast, black spots still filling my eyes. The mother had been shot. The little boy sat beside her, crying… and the baby… the baby was no longer in its white blanket. It was on the ground. Its legs were kicking. Its arms were flailing. Its face was red with its cries.
I glanced back to the little boy who was beside his mother. He was crying, this time looking at the baby on the ground. But he couldn’t touch it. He couldn’t fucking touch it.
Then he looked up at me. He looked up at me and held out his arms. His face was pleading. His mother was shot, but he held up his arms for me.
Pain rushed through my head and my hands balled into fists at my side. The boy was screaming, still holding his hands out. The baby was still on the ground, crying. Then the boy moved. He started crawling toward me. His dark eyes look up at me, but I was rooted to the spot. He was crawling to me, wanting me to hold him… to touch him.
No, no, no… He was getting closer, still I couldn’t move.
His screams got louder. The baby’s fucking screams got louder.
The screams were filling my head to bursting. They were poisoning my head. The boy came closer still.
I had to move. I had to get the fuck away.
Then the boy stopped at my feet.
He reached out. He almost touched my leg. Then feeling the rage take hold, I roared, “NO!”
The boy fell back in shock. I turned. Hush and Cowboy were running my way. They ran past me and I saw the Hush pick up the boy. I saw Cowboy pick up the baby. They gave them to a woman on the street; she was speaking into a cell.
The screams were getting louder in my head, screams I couldn’t stop. The baby’s screams. The boy’s screams… fuck, they were his screams… In my head, they were his screams!
“Stop!” I yelled, as AK and Viking rushed toward me.
When they reached me, AK held his hands up. "Flame, fuck,” was all he could say.
My eyes snapped up. “I need blood,” I growled. “I need to kill.”
“They went north,” Viking informed. I heard the sound of a bike racing away down the road. I didn’t hesitate to fucking move.
I ran to my bike. In seconds I was cutting up road, AK and Viking racing behind. I heard the truck, I heard AK calling my name, but I didn’t slow down. I had to kill the fuckers. I had to kill the fuckers that shot the woman. That made the boy cry. That made the baby scream.
Throat tense, I screamed as I burned more gas. And then I could see them. Two bikes up ahead. Two dirt bikes. Two white men on cheap shitty dirt bikes—the shooters.
I accelerated as we left the town limits, nothing but farmland came into view. No cars were on the road. There was nothing but me and the dead men riding ahead. The dead men I was closing in on. The ones that would pay for the screaming.