𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡

𝟓𝟔 | 𝐰𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥

I slowly opened my mouth and let the rest of the air escape my lungs. The blood in my veins froze. I stopped perceiving my surroundings and focused only on getting to Otto as quickly as possible. The echo of the shot kept ringing in my ears. I felt it was ten times louder and stronger. It was as if the sound had turned into an electric shock and passed through my body. My palms got wet from the sweat, and even though I was shaking, I was on fire.

„Is-is he dead?" A friend asked in a squeaky voice. For a moment I forgot to breathe. I refused to believe the image I had in front of me. Otto stood on the stairs with a gun in his hand, looking down at the end of the stairs, where someone's body lay on the ground. A scarlet liquid spilled out from under a man dressed in black.

„How did you...," I stammered, snapping my eyes incomprehensibly. Is what I see real? What if Otto is dead and this is just a hallucination to protect me from a complete short circuit in my head?

„Well, how do you think," Otto said, like nothing, and fired into the air. I jumped from the fright.

No. This is reality. I'm sure of that.

Otto shook a little. I stared at him blankly.

„I'll probably never get used to this," he said, turning the pistol in his hands.

„Where the hell did you get it?!" I blurted out. When and how did he come to it?

„Be glad I got it, or I'd be in his place," he said, tightening his grip on the instrument of death. I realized he point out to the corpse below us. „We should go." Otto trotted forward slightly. I stood on the stairs with my mouth wide open. I was scared to death. My brain didn't listen to me, even though maybe a thousand red lights flashed in my head with warning signs: Run away! Do something! They are on your heels! Trained assassins are after you!

All I had left was to wait for Leo and Tom, hoping that they had managed to get rid of most of Mercado's men.

„Or maybe not," a friend commented on my illogical behavior and sighed. „Why would we even bother to be advanced of some killers, right? We'd better wait for them here with open arms," he muttered under his nose. He walked a few steps and stood next to a bloody puddle. He stared at her. Disgust appeared on his face. „We are all already dead. And we will rot in hell for our bloody sins."

His words gave me a painful slap.

I felt like I was standing on the edge of a cliff, and those two seemingly ordinary sentences pushed me into a deep abyss. I realized my failure. Otto is alive, but his innocence died the moment he pulled the trigger and killed the man. And I didn't stop it in any way.

I froze. Otto noticed it and immediately realized how bad the words he said sounded.

„Ria," he muttered softly. "It's not your fault." Of course, it is.

I looked up and looked into Otto's eyes. No matter how hard I tried to see the light in them, I had only darkness in front of me. Blackness. I was frightened by the idea that this blackness would grow like a lichen. It would swallow Otto inside and out and take him from me, while I would stand by motionlessly.

Just like now.

Like my father, who did nothing when my own demons lured me to join them.

„I had to do it. It was self-defense. You had no way to stop it," he poured out a series of excuses, pausing for a few seconds after each sentence to give me room to process. Or to give himself time to believe it.

I was in such a mess that I overheard heavy footsteps over my head.

Leo and Tom.

Panting, they rushed down the stairs, their stormy debate didn't get around without swearing.