In the Land of Giants - Book 2 of the Acropolis series

Prologue

  There was a knock at the door. "Mr. Allers, sir?"

He glanced up from his place on the couch, setting down the bundle of papers he'd been reading. "It's open." He called.

The man who stepped into Everett's home was very scrawny, and young, with stringy hair and dirt covering his face. His outfit suggested he was a mechanic. He put his hands in front of himself and began to wring them nervously, avoiding Everett's gaze when he spoke. "Sir, my name is Ryan. Uh, Ryan Logan."

Everett nodded, an eyebrow raised curiously. "What can I help you with, Mr. Logan?"

"Well, umm...I'm here because of your sister, sir." He said, the volume of his voice getting more quiet and anxious with every word. "I wanted to..."

"To apologize?" Everett asked. Ryan wasn't the first, nor would he likely be the last. Almost every single person on the island had approached him over the last several weeks, all with the same message. His home, the island, had become very repentant of that event, that black mark on all of their souls. "It's all right." Everett told him. "I've come to terms with what happened to Sophie."

"No, you don't understand..." Ryan said, scratching the back of his head. "I'm...here because of...my part in it all."

Everett blinked, staring at the man without expression. What was he getting at?

"I'm...the one who pulled the trigger, sir." Ryan said slowly. "I killed Sophie."

Everett's mind went blank. He knew he recognized the man from somewhere. That scared face in the crowd, backing away when Everett's sister had collapsed to the ground, a bullet in her chest. A red filter was filling his vision, and he couldn't think. "I see." He heard himself say. Here he was, his mind was telling him. Here was the killer you searched so long for.

"I'm so sorry, sir." Ryan said, dropping to his knees on the floor. "I had no idea what I was doing...I am so sorry." Suddenly the boy reached backward and produced a pistol from his belt behind him, holding it out toward Everett. "I don't deserve to live after what I did to you." He said, and Everett could see tears in his eyes. "Please, sir."

The pistol was all but pushed into Everett's hand, and he held it awkwardly, half-pointed at Ryan's lowered head. He could see the gaunt, haunted look on the boy's face, the way his eyes were constantly filled with a kind of dull incomprehension. He was struggling with what he had done on such a fundamental level, it seemed, that he had come here to confess his crime with the hope that Everett would kill him.

His eyes went down to the gun. It was a weapon just like this that had killed Sophie. For all he knew, it was the same gun that Ryan had wrenched from her hands and turned on her. Maybe he had kept it, a grim reminder of the atrocity he had committed. It was all Everett could do not to close his eyes, knowing he would see her face if he did. He would never forget the way her big green eyes went wide as the shot went off, the way she stumbled backward with a sad sort of confusion on her face.

Everett looked at Ryan now, opening his mouth and trying to speak. An odd choking sound escaped him instead and so he closed his mouth, swallowing a dry lump like sandpaper in his throat and trying again. He had to work incredibly hard to make the words come out of his mouth.

"I don't want to avenge Sophie." He said in a slow voice.

"It's not vengeance." Ryan said through his tears. "It's justice! I murdered her in cold blood, please, I deserve it!" He leaned forward to bring the barrel of the gun against his forehead. "Please."

Everett stared down at him. It would be so easy. He remembered the way everyone had turned his back on him when he had wanted to find the killer. He remembered how Sophie's memory had been sneered at by most until only a few weeks ago.

"Just do it, do it now!" Ryan was all but shouting, pressing the barrel hard against his skull, with tears streaming down his face. "You don't know how it's been! Everywhere I go, I see her face. Every time I close my eyes, I remember the way she laughed out on the farm fields. I can't sleep. I can't eat. I'm a murderer, so pull the trigger! Shoot me and end this now!"

"You don't think I know how that feels?" Everett roared at the man, not moving the gun from its place against Ryan's forehead. "Do you honestly believe that I don't think of Sophie just as much as you? More than you. I wake up and swear that I can hear her cooking in the next room. I come home and look at the couch, and for an instant she's there, reading a book or listening to music." He sniffled, fighting back tears. He had shed so much for Sophie, and it seemed he wasn't finished yet. "How could you do that to her?" He asked coldly, and his grip on the pistol was tightening, his finger comfortable over the trigger. "She was nineteen. She was barely finished being a child. She was the single sweetest person I've ever known, and you ended her life without even thinking about it."

"I know." Ryan said, and he spread his arms out. "There is no excuse for what I've done. I can't make up for this. I can't atone." He looked up and into Everett's eyes, and the pain reflected there was almost too much to bear. "Please." He whispered.

Everett stared down at him. Ryan was in so much pain, and God how he hated the boy for what he had done, hated everyone for the way things had happened...but so many people had already died. Sophie hadn't been the first and surely wouldn't be the last in this long and horrible war. Before this had all began, he had told someone that humanity was on the verge of extinction. It was still true, as they still had a long way to go – but more killing wasn't going to help anything. Human beings couldn't afford to kill other human beings anymore.

Before he could allow himself to think any further about it, Everett clicked the release and the pistol's magazine fell into his other hand. He set it aside and then cocked the slide backward, the bullet in the chamber falling to the floor. He set the gun on his lap and then looked at Ryan with a sigh.

"I forgive you."