Victor, Victorious

Chapter Twenty-Five

The crowd scattered. It wasn't the first time the kids had heard gunfire, but it didn't mean they were sticking around to find out where it had come from. They ran away from Victor, Colin, and Sway, down the opposite end of the alley. Only Sergio, Bart, and Courtney remained.

Victor released his hold on Sway when he realized the man was screaming. Not because of the voltage Victor pumped into him, but because he had been shot three times.

On the ground, Sway lied facedown in the dirt, next to Colin. The man cried out like a wounded beast. Blood seeped through the seat of his pants.

Victor smiled. Sway had been shot in the ass. But...how?

"M-my g-gun!" shrieked Sway. As he rolled around in pain, his shirt crept up his back. Sure enough, a pistol was tucked in his waistband, near the base of his spine.

"He brought a gun!" Victor shouted to his friends. "And it went off!"

How was that even possible? Had Victor's actions triggered it somehow? Could large quantities of electricity cause a gun to fire?

Victor might have to ask Ms. Todd the next time he saw her.

Sway moaned. He was in bad shape. Which was good for the rest of them. But it wasn't right to make him suffer any more than he had to.

"We gotta get him to a doctor!" said Victor.

"No," Colin croaked. He bled from his nose, mouth, and above one eye. "He's mine."

The boy held out a palm, controlling the power line behind Sway, raising it like a snake charmer, turning its flickering end toward the fallen man. The wire was a cobra, ready to strike.

Victor shouted, "Colin, no!" but it was too late.

The boy unleashed the wire on Sway. It sprang forward and caught the man below his shoulderblades. Sway barely made a sound as he was fried. He shook like he was having a seizure as his shirt was set ablaze. His flesh melted. His body smoked.

Within seconds, he was dead.

The wire then set its sights on Victor, controlled by its furious master. Colin's eyes glowed with power.

Victor went back to his friends, never taking his eyes off the other boy.

Courtney looked like a fish out of water. "What just happened?"

Sergio said, "Your brother...He killed Sway..."

Courtney held her hands over her mouth. "No..." Tears welled in her eyes.

"Oh, crap," said Bart. "Crap, crap, crap!"

Colin was on his feet now, although he seemed to be a little shaky. He dropped the power line and paused over Sway's corpse. "This..." The boy gestured to the dead man. "This felt good!" He grinned.

He made his way toward the quartet. The three boys backed away, but Courtney stayed put.

"Colin?" said his sister. "What the hell's going on? Colin!"

"Shut up, Courtney!" He said to Victor, "You lied to me! Now's the time to get on the ground, kiss my feet, and beg for mercy!"

Screw that. It was time to get the hell outta there.

"Run!" Victor yelled.

He and his two pals made a break for it, in the direction the other kids had fled. Victor winced at the flashes of pain in his knee, in his back.

"Nice try!" Colin shouted as he brought down more live wires, cutting off the boys' escape. Courtney's shoes plummeted to the alley floor.

Bart almost met the same fate as his cousin, but he jumped back just in time to dodge the hungry mouth of a swinging power line.