Page 113 of A Thousand Cuts

“He’s at the house?! Morgan! Tell me!”

“N-no…”

It was getting harder to hear, a commotion around him forcing him to put the phone back to his ear as he sweated through his shirt.

“Morgan! Tell me where he is right now!”

“I don’t know!” Morgan said. “It’s not the house, it looks abandoned. Liam is running… How…? Oh my god, it’s being broadcast. Fix, he found a way to broadcast his stream. It’s on my fucking television!”

The noise around Fix filtered back in and he looked around to see everyone with their phones out pointing upward. Fix followed their line of sight and froze.

Above him, instead of a haircare ad, was a stream of Liam running for his life for the world to see. He stumbled and Fix swayed on his feet as well. He cried out and so did Fix’s heart. The background was a blur, dark and dirty and hard to make out.

Where the sky meets the star.

Where the sky meets the star.

It was running through his head on repeat, taunting him, haunting him.

“Fix?” Morgan called in his ear. “Fix?”

It was white noise.

A nightmare.

He couldn’t wake up.

He was frozen in place as Liam ran in terror in front of his eyes.

“FIX?!”

His phone had fallen away from his ear, slack in his hand. He looked back down at it in a daze as a new notification flashed up.

Unknown:MOVE ASSHOLE!

It was a shock to his system, the words becoming paddles on his chest that brought him back to life.

He gasped for air as the pieces slotted into place, Liam’s voice ranting to him in his head about his favorite show and how the main characters met.

He knew where Liam was.

People were shoved aside as he sprinted for his truck. He slammed the phone into the handset holder, pulling up Liam’s stream easily. It was everywhere, broadcasting live on every social media platform and news station.

Liam’s face filled the screen. He was ducked down with his eyes tightly closed, a hand over his mouth to prevent sound as he hid. Fix could hear his shuddering breaths and whimpers through the speaker now, and it made him feel sick.

He wanted to reach straight through and comfort him, but he couldn’t.

“Liam,” an unfamiliar voice called, and Liam squeezed his eyes shut tighter. “You can’t hide from me.”

Something metallic fell over close to Liam, and he screamed and ran from his hiding spot, the camera shaking everywhere before cutting out completely and going dead.

Fix put his foot to the floor, pointing the car in the direction of the mall. “Fuck!” he yelled, hitting the steering wheel and willing the thing to go faster. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

Unknown:You can say that again. This whole plan just got fucked 10 ways to Sunday

Unknown:I don’t know how the stream got broadcast when I was streaming it privately to the cops

Unknown:It makes no fucking sense!