Page 74 of Restitution

My mind skips through every time we’ve spoken, stopping at one of the last conversations we had, and it echoes everywhere. It makes my chest crack, and my vision blurs with even more tears.

Even if that means taking a bullet for you…

Jason kept his promise.

It’s been mere minutes since the shot was taken. Aria’s cries grow louder, and her screams for her husband vibrate off the walls, then he’s running down the stairs with a confused look, freezing when he sees the scene before him.

His wife with his dead son in her arms.

The boy who was born when he was only eighteen. The kid Aria has raised with him since he was a few months old.

Dead.

“No,” he whispers, not taking his eyes off them as he takes slow steps forward. “No. Jason.” He falls to his knees by his son’s side in slow motion, hands raised, his eyes flickering between refusal tobelieve and brutal shock. “Jason?”

He grabs his face, and his gaze searches every inch of it, his fingers hovering over the bullet wound. His eyes go wide, his lips moving without any words coming out.

The bullet hole in Jason’s head leaks crimson as Ewan shakes his son and begs him to wake up. He shakes him again with a strangled sound in his throat, then lowers his forehead to his as a guttural sob fills my ears.

Ewan becomes erratic. “Wake up, wake up, wake up. You need to, son.”

Lu and Base appear in the room next, and she screams and covers her mouth, nearly slipping on blood as she runs to them. “Oh my God! No! Jason!”

I lower my head as my best friend cries for her big brother.

I remember he used to pick her up from dancing when we were fifteen. We’d all blush because of his good looks and giggle when he made jokes to Luciella. I always fancied her twin, but everyone noticed Jason. She’d call him when she was sad. He’d call her when he was drunk and needed someone to hear how badly he played the guitar. Because no matter how terrible it sounded, she’d clap and tell him to keep practising.

He FaceTimed her when he was going to propose to Giana, and she helped him pick a ring.

They were close.

Jason vanishing years ago hurt her more than she’d ever admit. He stopped talking to everyone when he fell into drugs, but recently, she was getting him back.

And I have no idea what to say or do. All I can do is sit here and hold my best friend’s hand while she hyperventilates into herdead brother’s chest. I’m not sure if it’s survivor’s guilt or not, but I feel like I’m intruding. Like it’s my fault he’s dead.

“Wake up! You need to wake up, Jason!” Lu cries, taking his hand and sobbing into his palm while Ewan begs into his shoulder. “Please. Please wake up! Call an ambulance.” She looks at her mum. “Call an ambulance! Do something. Why aren’t you doing anything?”

A radio beeps then announces that backup is on the way. One of the men in the woods was found, but the other is still on the run.

The TV screens on the table show the massacre outside the lodge. Bodies from both sides have fallen. A white SUV is smashed into a tree, and Archie is lying face down in front of it, his hands cuffed behind his back.

Barry punches him to shut him up.

My attention is pulled back to the family falling apart before my eyes as Lu hugs into Ewan’s side. Both are coated in Jason’s blood. Both in hysterics, both waiting for Jason to part his lips and take a miraculous breath.

Base crouches behind Lu and kisses the side of her head, and I can see the rage building behind his eyes as they flick to the TV screens. He wants to go fight, but Luciella is his priority.

“You need to open your eyes, Jason. You can’t die! I need you. Please. Help him, Base,” she cries and falls back into him. “Please help him.”

Base looks at Jason then at me and shakes his head lightly. We both know there is no helping him. I think Aria is in shock. I don’t think she’s even breathing or blinking.

She very shakily presses two of her fingers to the side of his throat, even though it’s obvious he’s gone, searching for a pulse.A sign of life. A sign that the bullet wasn’t fatal. But his unseeing eyes and limp body tells a bigger, darker and harrowing story. When her bottom lip trembles, dimpling her chin, I know she hasn’t found any sign of life.

She moves her hand over his eyes, closing them. “I’m sorry, sweetheart,” she murmurs to him, a tear dripping from the tip of her nose and falling onto his face. “I’m so, so sorry we didn’t protect you. All of you.”

“Is he dead?” Lu asks in desperation, her eyes red as she pulls herself out of Base’s embrace. When her mother nods once, she cries even harder. So hard I feel splinters sinking into the centre of my heart. “No. There’s still a chance! Do CPR! Take him to the hospital!”

Aria slumps on her haunches, at a loss for words, splatters of ruby red all over her. She looks down at her soaked hands, the white dress now red, then shakes her head slowly. Her voice breaks as she says, “He’s gone. Jason’s gone.”