Chapter 25 Ryker
Ryker
FOUR YEARS AGO
Red drips onto the asphalt.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
I freeze when I see where the blood is pouring from, feeling my insides break. My R1 has skidded to a halt on its side. My eyes sting from the plumes of black smoke. My soul leaves my body when I see what’s trapped underneath the mangled mess.
Jace.
He took my bike and sped off down the strip. I’d only just turned away to follow Gianna, but the crash of warped metal rang out, rising above everything else. I’ve never run so fast in my life and when I reach him, I lift off the bike, throwing it to the side.
More red.
Jace gurgles as I lift his head, cradling his face in my palms. I take him all in. Broken bones and torn flesh. Crimson douses my hands, clothes and forearms.
The whine of a motor makes me look up in time to see the silver car that smashed head-on into Jace. The same Aston Martin that was at the animal shelter this afternoon.
Erik.
‘Told you you’d fucking regret it!’ he yells. ‘I was after you, but don’t worry. You’re next!’
The car fishtails off into the distance with a scream, squeezing between two parked cars.
I look down at Jace, his eyes glassy as he lies limp and heavy in my hands. His flesh is ripped from his bones while his legs bend in sickening directions. His chest barely rises and falls. His blinks slow, and I panic.
‘Jace!’ I rub his cheek lightly with my thumb. It does nothing but smear the blood across his face. ‘Wake up, man. You gotta stay awake.’
Heavy steps approaching make me look up. It’s Renny. He’s dialling emergency and keeps his phone pressed to his ear as he swipes a hand through his hair.
‘Merda!’ He paces while responding with a series of yes or no answers.
‘Tell them to hurry the fuck up!’ I scream at him. He continues a string of answers between curse words on the phone.
‘Hold on, Jace,’ I coax, but his eyes are glazing and his focus is drifting. ‘You can’t leave me,’ I demand, gritting my teeth so hard my jaw pops. ‘You’re my best friend. My brother.’
Jace’s mouth twitches and his unfocused gaze moves to me.
His palm wraps around mine loosely, enough to give me hope. His breathing turns grittier as he meets my eyes and mumbles something. I lean in, struggling to hear what he’s saying.
‘C’mon, brother. You gotta stay with me.’
‘M … Make sure you look after her.’ His voice is jagged and rough, as if it’s being dragged through barbed wire.
‘Who?’
‘Gia. You d … you dumbass.’ He coughs, blood sprays from his mouth. ‘You’re good together. I’m so … sorry.’
I swallow the scream. ‘Don’t.’ My voice cracks. ‘Don’t say that. You’ll be okay. We’ll look after her together.’
He shakes his head. His eyes have no panic, no pain, and its absence is worse than its presence. ‘I promised Pa I’d look after her. But if I’m not here, someone has to keep her safe. Promise?’
I nod once, looking up into the sky, praying for hope that isn’t there. The knot in my throat swells until it feels it will burst.
‘Jace, I’ll do anything. I promise.’
‘Scout’s honour?’ he asks weakly.
I can’t contain my sobs and am unable to see from the tears blurring my vision.
‘Scout’s honour.’ I nod profusely, promising him anything. Everything. Just don’t leave.
‘You …’ His words strained. ‘You were never a fucking scout.’ His eyes grow heavy and they close.
‘Jace!’ I grip at his shirt. ‘Jace! Open your eyes, Jace! Please.’
He doesn’t.
He just lets out one final exhale.
‘Jace?’ I whisper, only to be met with silence. ‘Jace?’
Nothing.
I glare at the stained fabric of his shirt in my fist. Blood trickles from the corner of his mouth and falls to the asphalt, the dripping sound louder than it should be as it embeds into my psyche.
A fresh wave of panic floods the chambers of my heart.
The breath I take feels the same as it does when you dive into the ocean and inhale before you break the surface.
Grief rises and hits me dead on, my mind not able to connect the bloodied corpse in my hands to my best friend.
I gently manoeuvre his body from my lap onto the ground, letting my head hang as my body curls in on itself.
I close my eyes, wishing to wake up. Hoping that it’s just a fucking nightmare.
Sirens wail in the distance. Ragged breaths saw from my lungs as I stare at the cracked asphalt where the swirls of black tyre marks cool.
‘Oh my god!’
A gut-wrenching wail brings me back into the moment. My eyes snap open in the direction of the scream. I leap to my feet, catching Gianna before she gets too close. My hands stain her with blood, but she can’t see this. I have to keep her safe. I promised.
‘Jace, no!’ she shrieks in a voice that I know will haunt me. ‘Jace!’
I hold her tight as her body collapses against me. Her cries hammer through me as she sobs. I hold her tighter, trying to keep her together as she breaks.
The sirens get louder until an ambulance pulls through, the crew immediately settling by Jace’s side. Gianna kicks and sends her arms flailing, fighting me with everything she has, but I hold on. I promised.
There’s a ringing in my ears, a high-pitched trill that drowns out everything else as the emergency crew rips open Jace’s shirt. His body jolts as they attempt to revive him. He remains limp.
None of this is real. It can’t be real.
Everything becomes a blur. I grow weak, finally releasing Gianna.
She rushes to her brother, only to be stopped by one of the responders.
My legs buckle and I sink to the ground.
I rest my elbows on my knees so my hands can support my head.
Still too heavy. I watch helplessly as my best friend’s body is covered with a white sheet.
My lip quivers when red bleeds through the white fabric, watching as he’s placed in the back of the ambulance.
A hole burns through my chest like battery acid, a deep searing pain that slowly spreads and eats away at everything.
Gianna steps up into the ambulance and settles with the paramedics. She looks at me, black mascara smudged on her blotchy face. She looks defeated, and something in me cracks at the sight.
Then they close the doors.
When the police arrive, they interrogate Tyler and Renny before sending them home. When it’s my turn, I answer in a series of grunts as I stay hunched on the ground, my mind unable to process all the pieces that form tonight’s picture.
‘That’s all for now.’ An officer closes his notepad. ‘We’ve got your details if we need anything further. You need a lift home, son?’
I shake my head and they leave. I trace the swirls of the burnt rubber in the ground with my eyes. This is not how tonight was supposed to turn out. This isn’t how we’re supposed to feel. How could life change so quickly?
Regret slashes through me and I tear at my hair as if I can reach inside my skull.
I want to rewind time. I want to stop the argument with Jace. I want to stop him from getting on my bike. I want to go back to this morning and never agree to The Prank. I want never to have told Gianna where we would be. Then, maybe, none of this would have happened.
Just let me go back.
Let me go back to yesterday and not follow her into that art room.
Then none of this would have happened.
Jace would still be here, living and breathing.
If only I had listened and stayed away from her. If only I’d kept her away. If only we’d gone to the carnival, instead of here.
My body shivers, a bitter reminder of how long I’ve sat in the chilling silence. Staring at the pool of blood, I let the red take over till it’s all I can see. I let it seep to my core, staining everything in its wake until my insides flare, rage burning my throat and pouring from my eyes.
This didn’t have to happen. I could have stopped this from happening.
But I was with Gianna.
My eyes catch on the burnt rubber ingrained in the asphalt from Erik’s car.
He has to pay.
‘He won’t get away with this.’ My voice breaks. ‘I’ll keep her safe.’
I’ll hunt down every Empire City maggot involved in this. I’ll drain their blood until death is something they yearn for. Something they’ll beg for.
‘You’re next,’ he had said.
Well … not if I get you first.