Adam: The last man

Chapter 26: A reason to live

"Let's go to my room," said the blonde woman that time, in a suggestive tone. "I'm not going to wait another day to have you."

"It's been half an hour since I should have left," commented Adrian, uncomfortable.

"Come on," she insisted, calling him with the gun in hand.

"If only you put that aside," he complained, referring to the object.

The woman giggled innocently and put the gun aside along with her cell phone. She didn't want any interruptions. Adrian sighed silently. In part, he felt like a gigolo since he would do it in exchange for a payment, although it was for his sister, and he had run out of time and money. It was also illegal because he was underage, but she could kill him if he rejected her...

His stepfather thought he would always have him under his shadow. An evil shadow because he was nothing more than a monster, a heartless murderer whose shady deals only ended the lives of people his dirty hands could not reach. Maybe Susana had discovered that Adrian had been sent to come over and poke around at the competition's plans, but they still didn't know about the boycott the man was planning.

At least, that was what he believed.

When he passed by the round table where the woman's cell phone was, he noticed a message had arrived. It seemed to be a question from her older brother, an actual demon.

"Is he still with you? I need time..." was its preview. Something like that, knowing how he was, chilled Adrian's blood.

"Won't Omar mind?" He commented. "I mean... if he hears something. You said he is downstairs in his office..."

"He doesn't have to. I'm an adult woman."

She was lying to him. His heartbeat sped up with fear. He grabbed the gun and the cell phone as fast as possible and ran off.

"Hey, where are you going!" the blonde screamed, warning the boy's suspicion. "Come with me, or there is no deal!" She wanted to chase him, but he was faster.

He jumped into his car and started burning rubber from the abrupt acceleration. Susana clenched her fists. He had taken her cell phone, so she would have to decode the key of her father's office phone to use it and tell her brother, but the woman smiled. Anyway, it was too late for Adrian.

Adrian stared with horror at the open door of his huge mansion, the usually empty one.

"No," he whispered, running inside.

He lost his breath when he saw one employee dead, shot in the center of the forehead. Beyond, his inert stepfather against his desk. He climbed the steps two at a time in desperation, and what he saw when he reached the private hall would never leave his soul.

His heart clenched, stopping, killing him from now on. He ran and fell to his knees beside the small body—a shot in the center of her chest.

"No... No, no, no, no," he began to deny feeling the tears flow from his eyes, burning like his chest and throat. "No!" He hugged her, stifling a loud sob followed by torrent of tears. "Marjory... Forgive me, forgive me, little sister..."

"Too bad," said a man who came out of one of the rooms pouring fuel on the floor. "She called you, but you were not here. Distracted with Susana, huh?"

The brunette boy was devastated, apologizing to the girl's corpse in his arms. His innocent little sister, his adoration, was cruelly killed because of him. He failed in every way by not protecting her from his stepfather and every dangerous situation around them. Everything was going to shit.

"Why her!" he asked, opting for a tone full of bitterness despite his cracking voice.

"Hey! I did you a favor. A sick girl was only going to take money from you in interventions. Plus, she was going to die anyway, right?" The man emptied the flammable liquid around him.

Adrian began to hyperventilate in anger.

"Damn you, son of a bitch," he growled.

"I know, you too. Now get moving."

Two more men joined the man, and Adrian heard them speak. Susana wanted him alive and back. She had categorically forbidden them to do something to him since he belonged to her.

Adrian spun to his feet, holding the girl against him with one arm, and fired with the other, but the men reacted, and although the scream of one indicated that he had hurt, in milliseconds, he had them shooting at him as he escaped like a soul chasing the devil.

He hid in a panic room, hopefully dodging the bullets, listening to how they recriminated themselves because Susana wanted him alive. However, Omar gave the order to set fire, and he would see what he would say to his sister.

Adrian hugged the little girl's body, closing his eyes, beginning to feel the heat and smoke that rapidly spread thanks to the fuel. He knew the mansion's security exits, so he moved quickly, reaching the first level by other stairs. He got into another car from the garage and drove off.

Adrian stared at the ceiling, tortured to remember that. The day when the doctors couldn't even do anything for his sister. 

Sometimes life seemed to him that it could be returned. Sometimes he came to think it could be as simple as repairing what had failed and resurrecting the person. Why couldn't it be done?

That was what called him to study medicine and why he wanted to study robotics. He dreamed of ever bringing them together, achieving 'repair' the body and keeping it functioning.

He dreamed a lot and lived little in a world where only the selfish and cruel advanced.

"I want you to live and be happy. You study a lot and don't take care of any girl... I like many of your friends more than Susana. Go out one day, play a bit, and put down your books. Do you promise?"

That night, after cremating his sister, the only reason to fulfill those dreams, he climbed to the top of his apartment building at the university and was about to end his life too. But if Marjory had promised to be happy if he lived, whether there was an afterlife or not, he couldn't allow himself to risk it and disappoint her again.

He couldn't.

Now he could fail again. He was sure women would continue to seek to eliminate him, being considered an inferior and troublesome being. He looked at Teresa sleeping in the next bed, at her mother beyond. He had broken into their lives; they didn't deserve to pay any consequences.

Even though he came to think of possible life in peace with the girl at some point, it was just that: another dream from which he had already awakened, finding reality waiting for him with other plans. He tried to be ready, attaching a small weapon to DOPy, but he felt it was not enough.

He did wish he could do more with his existence. Now he only had to hope not to be captured and not cause more trouble for that sweet girl.