Chapter 95
NOVA play: Mad World by Demi Lovato
Iscreamed as the gun fired, not once, but twice… As if one shot to the head wasn’t enough to kill the love of my life.
My world was ending, and my heart felt like it was literally withering and dying in my chest.
He was dead.
After everything we’d been through, I’d still lost him…
I was so lost in my own anguish that I barely registered the heavy sound of a body hitting the floor next to me.
Shocked out of my hysteria, I blinked past the blinding blur of tears to find Marcus lying dead at my feet.
Wh-what?
“Sebastian!? What the fuck!” Luke coughed from somewhere to my right, and my head snapped in his direction. He was on the ground now, his back leaning against the desk as he bled profusely from what looked like a bullet wound through the chest.
Marcus was dead, and Luke was bleeding.
There had only been two gunshots.
I dared to look over at Seb and Jay, and I started sobbing again in relief to find Jay still sitting on his heels, blinking up at Sebastian, looking just as shocked as I was.
Seb was now pointing the handgun at Luke, with that eerie, unhinged smile painted across his gaunt face.
“If only revenge were sweet…” Sebastian sing-songed as Luke coughed and choked out a giant mouthful of blood. It looked like Sebastian had punctured a lung. “But it’s not, is it? Because where do I go from here, Dad?”
“Sebastian! Stand down!” His father roared, but Sebastian just cackled and shook his head.
“Old chip, remember? Hahaha! You said I didn’t need a new one. You said my mind was yours. Well, you were wrong, wrong, wrong, and now you’re dead, dead, dead.”
“Sebastian, I swear to god—”
“Probably shouldn’t swear to god. I don’t think he likes you very much.” Sebastian cackled before putting another bullet in the chamber. “Say bye-bye. See you in Hell. May the Devil break you like you broke me.”
Luke roared in rage, but it was abruptly cut off as Seb put a bullet directly in his father’s skull.
Silence rang out around us, somehow feeling louder than any gunshot ever could.
Sebastian let out a relieved sigh before turning to face Jay and me as we stared at him in complete and utter shock.
“There. That’s better,” Sebastian said before frowning at us like he was confused as to why we were still on our knees.
“Ah! Keys for the cuffs… keys for the cuffs… If I were a key, where would I be?” he yammered, and Jay and I watched completely bewildered as Sebastian gently pawed through a dead Marcus’ clothes until he uncovered the small keys to the handcuffs he’d strapped on us.
Sebastian undid mine first and carefully removed the gag from my mouth before moving on to help Jay.
“Sebastian…” Jay croaked, his eyes wet with tears as he looked up at Sebastian like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “You saved us.”
Sebastian gave Jay a sad smile before reaching into one of the pockets in his tactical pants and pulling out what looked like a NeuroExtractor.
“Saved this too. Watch them for me? I kept them just for you,” Seb said, and for some reason, warning bells began to fire off in my brain.
Jay took the NeuroExtractor from him delicately without ever looking away from Seb’s face.
“Of course, Sebastian. What did you put in here?”
Sebastian gave him another sad smile and shrugged.
“Memories, of course.”
My gaze kept dropping to the gun he was clutching loosely in his hand, and the warning bells ringing in my head got louder.
“Sebastian… Why don’t you pass me the gun?” I asked gently, creeping closer to him.
He flicked that one blue eye at me, and his smile widened.
“That’s okay, Milo. I think I’ll keep it.”
“Sebastian…”
He turned back to Jay, reaching out to gently cup the side of his face.
“Don’t cry, little brother. I’ll meet you at the pond, okay? We can catch frogs together, like old times.”
“Sebastian—”
I think both Jay and I figured out what he was going to do in the same instance.
But it didn’t matter.
Neither of us was fast enough.
There was another bang…
And another thud…
And this time, Jay was the one screaming.