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But it’s too late, the door slams shut. A body falls beside me, but I ignore it; somehow, I’m able to keep pushing forward—I’m just not fast enough.
The car with my baby boy in it bursts forward and quickly disappears into the smoky night.
“No!!!” Agony rips out my heart and throws it into the fire. Still, I can’t stop crawling forward. My mind shatters as I force mysel
f to hold out hope. I’ll catch up to the car... I have to...
My vision is suddenly blinded by the barrel of another gun. “Crazy bitch,” some faceless soldier curses. They’re the last words he ever says. Before he can pull the trigger on me, someone else pulls one on him. His head explodes like a bloody pinata and I’m covered in his gore.
We both collapse beside each other. I may have been spared from instant death, but I feel utterly lifeless. My legs don’t work and my mind is too broken to make them to move.
My baby boy is gone. They took my son...
Suddenly, a new pair of hands find my shoulders. I don’t fight them. I can’t. What’s the point?
My head falls to my chest and I start to sob. Misery becomes me.
The new pair of hands somehow seem to sink with my soul... They aren’t even cold. No. Instead, they’re hot. Searing fucking hot. I let them burn me to the ground.
26
Angel
Oscar is gone.
“Cat!” I struggle to break her out of her misery. There’s no time to waste, but her shoulders are limp under my grip, and I can’t quite seem to pull her up.
A primal agony has its claws dug deep into my soul. I try to shake them away, but it hurts too much.
I let Dante’s men take my son...
For the first time in my life, the fight is drained from my fire. All that’s left behind is my exposed heart. It beats pitifully...
And then, Cat looks up at me.
“Angel?” Her voice is so soft and broken, and I can tell that we’re both feeling the exact same thing. Her anguish wafts up to me like smoke.
We failed.
Dark bile weeds its way through my nerves. I stand over top of her, trying to fight back the encroaching darkness.
“... They took Oscar...” Those words are too heavy for Catalina to bear, and her watery eyes fall back to the ground. She hangs her head in shame, and the hopelessness that weighs down my soul sinks with her.
For a moment, we don’t move. I stand over top of Cat and she crumples deeper into herself. Blood runs through the streets and a fire blazes behind us. I’m almost ready to give in. My grip eases on Catalina’s shoulder...
And then, I feel a warm hand fall over top of my mine.
When I look down, I see Cat’s limp finger slide down the back of my hand.
... She uses the last bits of her strength to comfort me...
And it works.
The heavy hopelessness that weighs down my soul cracks and splinters, shaking under the revitalized fury that’s begging to smash through it.
My grip tightens back up around Cat’s shoulder and my heart explodes in a fireball of pure rage.
They took our son.