Count The Shadows (Prequel to Test the Limits)

Never Forget

Anti got very little sleep since he would constantly wake up to check on Dark and make sure he was still alive as Mad flew the trio back home.

"Anti?" Dark spoke softly as he woke up, his eyes barely cracked open to watch Anti get out of his chair and hastily walk to Dark's side to see if he needed anything.

"You're not hurt, are you?" Dark asked, his voice tinged with concern for Anti.

"No, you saved me." Anti gave Dark a small reassuring smile as he checked Dark's bandages. The once white bandages were stained a dark brown by dried blood.

"I mean Infelix...he didn't do anything to you, did he?" Dark winced as Anti peeled the bandages off, tossing it aside since there wasn't a trash can anywhere on the jet much to his annoyance.

"No, why would he?" Anti frowned as he examined Dark's wound, cleaning it with a disinfectant wipe. Dark clenched his teeth, but made no sound.

"He has a bit of a temper." Dark chuckled weakly once Anti finished.

"This might hurt, I have to stitch the wound up now that the bleeding has finally stopped." Anti warned as he fetched a needle and black thread from the medical supplies they kept on the jet behind the minibar.

"You need this?" Anti held up a half empty bottle of whiskey.

Dark instantly shook his head, wrinkling his nose in mild disgust.

"Don't blame you, I'm not a fan of alcohol either." Anti admitted as he knotted the thread to the needle.

"Why not? I thought all Irish people loved Guinness and being drunk." Dark teased with a smile, causing Anti to tense up as he remembered his father.

Dark seemed to sense that he dredged bad memories up for Anti since his smile was replaced by a sincere, apologetic expression that Anti had never seen before.

"Sorry." Dark apologized, his gaze lowering to look at the ground.

"It's fine, it's just....my dad was an alcoholic, he tended to spend his time at the pub instead of at home." Anti explained as he started stitching the wound shut.

"Mine was in the military....I wish I could be as good and brave as he was. He was rarely home, but when he was, he would make chicken and dumplings with my mom and tell war stories." Dark closed his eyes with a fond smile.

They both fell silent as Anti finished patching Dark up.

"Welcome back to Sweden." Mad announced as the plane started to descend towards the familiar hangar they had left only three hours ago.

"Thanks Mad." Infelix yawned as he woke up, stretching his arms high above his head as he sat up.

"When we land, we're having a little chat." Infelix glared at Anti, either ignoring or not noticing the glare Dark shot back at him.

Once the jet touched down on the concrete ground of the hangar, Infelix stormed over to Anti and dragged him by the arm down the boarding ramp.

"Why did you kill Jake? Did you already forget what the second rule was?!?" Infelix slapped Anti hard on the cheek, causing him to stumble back in surprise and nearly fall over as he gently pressed a hand to his cheek where an angry red handprint was already beginning to form.

"Leave him alone!" Dark growled threateningly from where he was limping down the ramp.

"Dark, you'll pop your stitches out if you keep moving." Anti quickly darted over to Dark.

"I'm fine." Dark waved off his concern, his gaze skimming across the mark Infelix left on Anti's cheek.

"Whatever pansy!" Infelix spat the childish insult at Dark with a sneer before storming off back towards their base.

"Why'd he call you a pansy? Seems kinda like an insult a toddler would use." Anti spoke to lighten the mood.

"Yeah..." Dark replied absent mindlessly before following Infelix back to the tunnels they called home.

"Anti!" Infelix beckoned Anti over to his bed, his expression solemn. Dark took that as his cue to leave and started heading towards the arcade room to wait for Anti.

"Are you still loyal to the Shadows?" Infelix demanded, scrutinizing Anti.

"Of course I am!" Anti exclaimed.

"Prove it." Infelix challenged, handing him the knife he had forgotten on the beach in Jake's forehead. Anti instantly felt a wave of guilt wash over him when he thought of the people he had already killed with the knife.

His dad.

Billy.

And now a teen that tried to protect his dad.

"Good. I need you to hunt down Alexander and kill him yourself since you failed the first time. Mad traced him back to beach house." Infelix commanded.

Anti opened his mouth to argue that he couldn't do it alone, but quickly shut it when he realized that arguing wouldn't help his case. Instead, he nodded and trudged back towards the jet.

The flight felt shorter than usual since Anti was lost in thought, remembering the people he had killed with the knife he held in his hands once again.

"Came back to finish the job, huh?" Alexander sniffed when Anti approached him. His eyes were bloodshot and red from crying, tears shining on his cheeks from the light provided by the rising sun.

"You took everything from me!" He sobbed, falling to his knees in the sand with his head bowed, as if he was accepting his fate.

"I left to get him the butter cream cake he wanted for his fifteenth birthday, and when I came home-" Alexander broke off with a hiccup.

"I'm sorry." Anti apologized lamely, tightening the grip on the knife so much that his knuckles turned white.

"Me too." Alexander looked up at Anti's eyes, his expression filled with utter devastation and defeat.

Anti took a deep breath and killed him mercifully with a stab to the head, unable to look at anything but his forest green eyes that reminded him of Jake, yet another person that died because of him.

Anti dumped the body in the sea to cover his tracks, too tired for tears as he trudged back inside the jet.

Once the jet took off, Anti shakily made three deep cuts in his left arm to remind him of the people he killed. He still had the scar across his neck from Billy.

Anti didn't even bother bandaging the wounds up either. Instead, he kept his sleeve rolled up to hide them as he crawled into bed and stared up at the ceiling, exhaustion filling his mind.

Anti rolled over when he heard Dark's footsteps quietly pad by him towards his bed.

"Goodnight Anti." Dark whispered to Anti.

Anti clutched his bleeding arm tighter to his chest, a single tear trailing down his cheek as he squeezed his eyes shut, praying for sleep that he knew wouldn't come.