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Chapter Twenty Five

Byron

M y eyes focus on Gabriela as Ren continues to dig up the soil. “You know, Sato, you should have taken my advice and left when you had the chance. Jail won’t suit you,” Kevin teases as he continues to torment my sister, gripping her waist, feeling her up all while I’m hopeless because he has a gun to the head of the only person worth saving. The kicker...,. the bullet too the heart is that, no matter what, she looks at me as if I can fix it. Big brother will come to her rescue. “You know, Byron, I was looking forward to this moment,” he says looking at me .

“Why? Just that desperate for me to gut you like a pig?” I ask, leaning on a nearby tree, using it to support my weight. “No, so I can watch you fail to protect her for a second time.” The words are like a knife piercing straight into my heart. My leg is bleeding causing me to feel weaker than I already do; it’s not like I was getting five star level treatment from my friendly psychopath. The dirt turns with every scrape of Ren’s hands, the sound of it too loud, too calm. The wind cuts through my shirt like teeth, and Kevin’s laughter makes it colder. I let out a breath, and look over at Ren who must have found the bag of money considering the look on his face. “Kevin, let her go,.” he says with finality and a coldness in his voice, that sends shivers down my spine. I should be afraid of him. I should hate him. But right now, I’m praying he doesn’t stop. My leg is throbbing. Every heartbeat pushes fire through the wound. It’s getting harder to stay upright, but I can’t go down. Not now.

I couldn’t fail her again, even if I bleed out... even if I die here, it will be for everything. “I hate repeating myself Kevin,” Ren says, causing me to look at him, to focus on the determination in his coldness, and to see Ren for who he truly is and be able to determine what he will do next. He was no hero, Ren was a villain through and through, but he will offer me an opening. But this wouldn’t come for free, this was a bargain—her life for mine. Giving me a silent deal, one he knew I wouldn’t refuse. In order to save my sister, I need to surrender myself to death. Pushing away from the tree, I say, “Hey, asshole, did you hear him?Let her go.”

And just like that, Kevin focuses on me—so quick to take the bait. A small man with an ego too big. The wind hisses between us, sharp and biting. The air feels tight, like it knows what’s coming. That’s the second that Ren needed—the moment the scales flipped.

Ren hurls the bag of money, and all I see is the bag moving across the air as Ren moves in— a blur of precision, violence waiting to snap.

The gun falls to the side, catching Gabriela in the eye. Her head jerks, but she doesn’t cry out—just gasps, a muffled sound against the gag. I don’t have a chance to register my movements, but my body acts on instinct. My arms wrap around my sister just as I see Kevin pull a knife from behind his back.

I take a deep breath in. Closing her into me, I flip us around, my back connecting with the knife. The sharp end pierces my skin, tearing through the muscle. The world goes quiet. The knife slides into me like it belongs there—like I was always meant to die this way.

I thought I’d be brave. I thought I’d be ready. But the pain makes a liar out of me. It feels like fire and ice. I feel the cold twist inside me, causing me to scream out in pain. Gabriela chokes on her screams, and I hear the sudden, sickening sound of Ren’s wrath.

I hear the sound of a rock connecting with bone. Over and over. The sound of bone and rage and finality. Kevin doesn’t get a chance to pull the knife from my side. His hand loosens its grip mid-twist, and I can finally breathe again.

The smell of home, of cinnamon and roses—my sister.. I pull her back to look at her, almost collapsing into her as I hear the wet sounds of Kevin’s skull being bashed in. Each impact lands with a sick rhythm—meat and stone, hate and love. The sounds of wet flesh and Ren’s grunts fill the air as I remove the gag from my sister’s mouth.

“Byron,” she breathes, her lips quivering before she’s sobbing again. “Oh, Byron.”

I hug her. “You’re okay?”

She sobs harder, her shoulder moving with each violent sob, her tears soaking my shirt.

Her breath is shaky, and warm against my chest. I don’t know how much time I have.

If this is what it takes for her to live—then let me bleed. Because what comes next… doesn’t matter.

She’s safe.

The woods spin around me. I’m so caught up in the moment checking on my sister—that I don’t even register the second he’s behind her. My hand moves too slow.

“No,” I shout. “Ren, stop”

Everything slows. “Why? ”

I see the rock arc through the air like it’s been waiting. I hear the dull crack before she slumps into me limp, warm, and still.

Cradling her head, I feel her blood before I see it. It spills between my fingers. Hot. Familiar. Terrifying.

My ears ring. My chest tightens. My throat locks. I can’t speak. Can’t think. Only feel. Her blood on my hands. Her weight in my arms. Her silence screaming through me.

I look down at her face. Eyes fluttering. Lips parted.

Then—a breath.

Soft. Shaky. Warm against my chest.

She’s breathing.

And for the first time in forever—so am I.

My eyes rise.

Ren stands there, blood across his face, red tangled in his strands of onyx. Unblinking. Calm. As if what he’s done was sacred.

“Why?” I whisper. But the answer is clear now, and it hurts more than the blood still pooling beneath me. Shakingly, I collapse with my sister in my arms, cradling her head, shielding her, and grieving her. Making him believe he won to spare her. I sob as I kiss her forehead, the sound of sirens closing in catches my attention, growing louder with every breath. Salty tears roll down my nose onto my lips, bitter and warm.

“I love you so much, pendeja,” I whisper into her hair before I cradle her firmly, close to me, pressing her into my chest like I can keep her there forever. Before laying her on the ground, I lean over her, placing one final kiss like a blessing and a goodbye. “Live, kid. For the both of us.”

Before turning my attention to Ren, sobbing, I try to find the strength to stand. We are so close to the edge, but I can’t even stand. My legs tremble, my vision spins. “Ren.” I call to him like a god, desperate and delirious, as I crawl pathetically to where he stands; knife still stuck inside me, bleeding, weeping, and broken.

“Ren.” Finally, my God listens, falling to his knees. I see his tears mixing with the blood.

“It has to be this way, we need to leave,” he repeats over and over, like it’s a mantra he’s trying to believe. As he helps me to my knees, cupping the back of his neck, I press our foreheads together. The warmth of him floods into me like I’ve finally made it home.

“I see you, Ren.” And my free hand moves over the knife handle in my side, tightening my grip around it as I pull it out while crashing my lips into his. I kiss him. Devour him. My tongue greedily demands entrance as we both cry; our tears mixing with the blood that invades our lips, the salt stinging but grounding us. My hand moves, burying my knife into his chest, causing him to bite down on my lip. His pain is mine. Our breaths are one.

“By-” he whispers against my lips before his eyes move down to where we connect, and he smiles and kisses me again. As I turn my hand, causing him to groan, I move in deeper, hugging him with death’s embrace, and he lets me.

This is how it would always end for us—bloody, breathless, and bound. You can’t redeem a monster. And sometimes, you just don’t heal. You break .

I pull away from our kiss. One final time, I look at my heart and see the steady rise of her chest. She’s alive. Peace washes over me, despite the void that consumes me. My lips stretch into a weak smile as I turn to the man who saw me, and I smile again—blood-stained lips trembling—as he coughs, and I can feel myself growing weaker.

“Byron,” Ren breathes weakly, as his body wobbles a bit, barely holding on. “You were to stay with me.”

Weakly, I cup his cheek, my fingers shaking. “I’ll follow you.”

“Good.” He coughs up blood, splattering my neck, sticky and hot. “I...” he chokes out his words, voice thready and trembling. “Like.” A single tear slides down his face just as I pull out the knife, casting it to the side like the final act of mercy. “That.” He looks up at me again, his voids finally full of life. “In.”

“Another life.” I finish his sentence before placing a kiss on his lips and letting him fall to the ground. My body collapses, and I face my mirror—my shadow, my sin, my twin. His hand stretches out for mine and mine for his, but then—the light leaves his eyes and nothing is left. No breath. No warmth. Just stillness.

I smile as my body begins to drift, my limbs going cold, blood soaking the earth beneath me. “By…” her voice, cracked and broken, calls me home.

I don’t turn. I don’t need to. She’s safe.

The sirens close in and the sounds of dogs filter through the woods, distant but coming. And my eyes close, my body shuts down, and the void swallows me whole—but this time, I don’t fight it. Because I know he’s waiting, and the dark doesn’t scare me anymore.