Page 81 of Into The Rabbit Hole

Footsteps sounded and then Ben emerged from the darkness of one of the passageways. He held the shotgun in position. The sight of a much bigger gun seemed to throwAaron.

“Here I am,” Benreplied.

“Youcame.”

“She’s my wife, of course Icame.”

Regina looked at him, surprised by hiswords.

“Don’t you mean ex-wife? You got divorced this morning,” Aarontaunted.

“I was married to this woman for over thirty years, you don’t wrap that up in onemorning.”

Regina was looking at Ben, but not once did he look at her. She never expected him to say anything close to that and it struck her that she really didn’t know him. She didn’t recognize this side of him, had never seenit.

“Howtouching.”

“Let her go and drop thegun.”

“No, I won’t.” Aaron had that angry look on his face. “You bastard, you had my mother killed and ruined my life. You had my grandmother committed to a mental institution and, when I tried to tell the police what you did, you paid them off. No one believedme.”

The more the story unfolded, the worse it revealed. Damaging any good she may have seen inBen.

“I can’t apologize to you, because what I did was pure evil, but I will ask that you let Reginago.”

Aaron shook his head vigorously. “My mother for your wife. A life for a life, killed the same way!” Aaron yelled. “But youfirst.”

In the split second that Aaron pulled back the trigger, Ben fired the shotgun and the bullet blasted the gun out of his hand. Regina jumped out of the way and ran towards the lift shaft where shehid.

Poking her head out, she saw Aaron lunge towards Ben. Ben could have shot him, but she understood that he wouldn’t. Instead he struck him on his head with thegun.

The blow produced a nasty gash but didn’t slow Aaron down. He managed to knock the shotgun out of Ben’s hands and the two ended up on the ground, punching each other. Regina was surprised that Ben could give as much as he got. He was over twenty years older than Aaron but fought like they were on the same age and level. The shotgun lay a few paces away from them, and Regina wondered if she could make it over to them and getit.

It was an option she would aim for if she could. Something fell out of Aaron’s pocket and she realized it was thebomb.

Shit, she’d totally forgotten that he had been carrying it and it was probably the worst idea in the world for them to fighting likethat.

She had to get that, too, and move it away from them. In her mind, she could just imagine Aaron grabbing it and setting it off, killing them all. All of them. She didn’t know if Wade had gotten to the girls, and Brian, she didn’t know what had happened tohim.

On that thought, Regina made a move and ran over tothem.

She managed to grab the bomb and rushed over to where the shotgun was, to get that, too, but stopped when she saw how close they were to the edge of thechasm.

“Ben, stop!” shecried.

Ben looked over at her momentarily, blood running from his nose. Aaron hit him again and again, and with one swoop, grabbed him, moving them to theedge.

“Ben!” she cried once more, moving to go and helphim.

“Stay back, Regina!” he yelled. “Stayback.”

She screamed as the area they’d been fighting on shuffled and started to crumble away, very much like the ground did on the passage she’d been walking on withBrian.

“Be—”

Her voice left her as she watched them both go over the side, falling away with the rubble as it crumbled beneath them. She couldn’t even scream, orbreathe.

Adrenaline moved her closer to the edge despite thedanger.