Chapter 35

Darius stood on the very edge of a building that stretched three hundred feet above the ground. The wind whipped around him as it was funneled through the other buildings that made up Ashebrook’s skyline. It was a sharp, bitingly cold wind and even Darius felt it a bit through the clothes he wore. He basked in that feeling, in feeling something anyway. It took his mind off the face he saw whenever he closed his eyes. A face full of terror, sorrow, and pain. It was the look a person got when they knew death was coming for them and their time was up.

The night’s events would not stop playing in his head. The crushing guilt and the overwhelming sense of loss were so painful he didn’t know how to face it. He wanted her back. He wanted to hold her. He wanted the chance to do it all over again so he could protect her. He would make sure he didn’t let that animal kill her or let anyone else hurt her. He needed that and even prayed for it with a mindless fervor. In the end, however, Anna was still dead and he was still the one responsible.

He clutched his fists in rage and screamed out with that old, familiar hatred. It was fast becoming a friend to him, and despite the fact that his rage was the instigating factor in Anna’s death, he still let it wrap around his mind like a comfortable blanket. He slammed his fists down on the cement of the building’s edge again and again, not even noticing the clouds of dust and constant bits of flying shrapnel that flew up. His world went white as his anger consumed every part of him, like a wildfire that chewed into a dry forest. He didn’t stop until he was weak with exhaustion. Whatever energy he had left was quickly spent. He tumbled backwards, too weak to even try to catch himself, and fell about four feet off the ledge to the roof itself.

He lay there panting like a tired dog, watching the night’s gray clouds drift past a bright, silvery moon. His vision swam in front of his eyes, and a nauseating sensation gripped his stomach. He absently took a Power Bar out of his pocket and ate it so quickly that he didn’t even taste it. The entire act was more of an automatic response as opposed to any sort of self-preservation. In fact, he would have preferred he didn’t preserve at all. Going on without Anna was too hard and it was worse when he realized he had nothing in life to look forward to but the pain of his own memories.

Dying would be the easy way out and for the crimes he committed, he deserved something much worse than that. The pain he felt was a fitting punishment and his memories would make sure it never faded.

He rose slowly, his legs still weak but growing steadily stronger. He had another Power Bar out, his last one, and ate that too. He could almost feel it when the food was converted to energy inside him and rushed into every part of his body. He got to his feet and went back to the portion of the building he’d been standing on. A section about three feet wide and four deep had been reduced to rubble. He ignored that and glanced down to the street below.

The world down there moved on. Cars went rolling past and people walked around, going about their business. Traffic lights switched from red to green to yellow and the blinking green stick man turned to a red warning hand at various crosswalks. He knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that seeing all that was a sign that he needed to move past what happened to Anna, but in his heart, he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to move past it. He wanted that to be the thing that drove him forward. He wanted it to be the force that kept him going. Without it, he’d be nothing. He knew that as sure as he knew the sky was blue. Moving on was just another easy way out for him and because of the anger and overall disgust he felt toward himself, he refused to let it go. It might not have been the sanest thing to do, but for Darius it was the only choice.

I killed her, he told himself harshly. She died because of me.

Those words kept echoing through his mind, pretty much from the moment Marks shot her. It fed his anger, which in turn fed those accusations. Both thoughts did nothing but fuel the other and Darius did nothing to stop it.

He turned from the shattered wall and then sat with his back against a section that was still whole. He pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his arms lightly on top of them. His head was tilted toward the sky and he closed his eyes. He already knew what he was going to see there when he did and, sure enough, Anna’s dead body flashed inside his closed eyelids like it had been printed there. He cried silently. He was wracked with sobs so harsh, his body violently shook. Tears flowed and he had no idea how long he sat there like that. It could have been hours.

“Hey!” a sharp sounding voice shouted.

Darius slowly opened his eyes and saw a pair of black, polished shoes in front of him. Then the long, metal end of a flashlight was being poked into his shoulder. He reigned in his growing irritation.

“You deaf son?” the man asked, obviously a security guard for the building. Then he poked Darius with his flashlight a few more times when Darius refused to look up at him.

The stranger’s continued poking served to snap him all the way out of his dark thoughts and he peered up at a man who looked like he was somewhere in his late thirties or early forties. His hair was speckled with tiny threads of silver but most of it was tucked underneath a black ball cap. He had a slight gut, but still managed to hold himself in a way that suggested he could fight if provoked.

Darius took in the guy’s full measure. The newcomer was dressed in a gray, button-up shirt with a solid black tie threaded through a stiff collar. Two pockets could be seen on either side of his chest, a black name tag pinned above the left pocket in a neat, precise fashion. The name, stenciled in plain white letters, read Forbes. His black jacket hung open and Darius could see a bunch of silver keys dangling from a loop on his pants.

Forbes was looking down at him with hard, suspicious eyes.

“Son?” Forbes asked and nudged one of Darius’s feet with his own.

“What?” he replied with a tone of disinterested boredom. He dropped his head back down and rested his chin on his chest.

“You gotta leave. No one’s allowed up here but authorized personnel,” the guard instructed.

“I know. That was kind of the point in coming up here,” Darius replied in that same flat, bored voice.

The guard bristled in anger at Darius’ attitude. He wasn’t going to be disrespected by some punk kid. Darius, on the other hand, went back to ignoring the guy.

The guard let out a frustrated growl. Then his eyes finally noticed the damage Darius had done to the ledge and he went from mere frustration to shocked anger.

“That’s destruction of private property,” he accused, reaching for a walkie-talkie attached to his belt. “I’m calling the cops.”

Darius suddenly lashed out, way faster than the guard. He snatched the man’s walkie-talkie out of his grip with ease. He held it up in one fist and crushed it, making sure to let Forbes watch the little pieces fall to the ground. The security guard backed away quickly, his face suddenly wide with fear.

How the hell is that possible? he asked himself. He knew the walkie-talkie was built strong and could take a beating. The case itself was made from a hard, extremely durable, plastic. To see this kid just crush it like it was made from a cracker was terrifying to say the least. He’d thought the guy bashed the ledge apart with some kind of bat or pole but now he didn’t think that anymore. Despite how crazy it was, he was certain the kid had bashed the cement into dust with nothing but his hands. The only thing that kept Forbes from running away in wild fear was the fact that he felt no obvious signs he was in danger. The intruder didn’t look menacing. Mostly, he just looked sad.

Darius glanced at the hole in the ledge and then looked at the guard.

“I didn’t do that.” he said, a small smile stretching his lips. “Lightning hit it.”

“Sure. Whatever you say,” Forbes stammered. He wasn’t fooled, not even for a second. As much as he would have liked to believe it, he knew better and the footage from the security cameras on the rooftop would prove that. “Just leave, all right? I ain’t looking for trouble, son.”

A faint scream cut off whatever comment Darius was about to make. The sound stopped his heart for a beat or two. The voice was Anna’s. He was taken aback, thinking that he’d finally pushed his mind over the breaking point and it just snapped. Then he heard the girl…

Anna!

...scream again. That made up his mind. It was definitely her. Impossible, but true. Anna was calling out for him.

He ran to the side of the roof, going in the direction of where he’d heard the scream, and peered down at the alley sandwiched between the building he was on and the next one over. Dimly, almost too faint to really make out anything, he saw a woman racing down the alley. Two other figures that looked like men were running after her.

His anger flared, white hot.

He wasn’t going to let them get Anna this time. He was going to stop them. It drove every other thought out of his head. He climbed onto the ledge and peered down.

“Get down from there!” Forbes called from behind him. “You’re gonna kill yourself!”

Darius just gave him a backward glance and then leaped over the edge. Then he plummeted like a rock, feet first.

“Don’t…,” he heard the guard yell, but it was already too late.

The voice died quickly as the harsh sounds of rushing wind filled his ears. He felt free in that moment, as if whatever line holding him to the world had been severed.

He landed in a crouch, a small crater forming in the already cracked asphalt where he landed. A sharp boom! washed down the alley, causing the three people in it to stop and stare out of pure reflex.

Darius rose slowly, his rage still twisting the features of his face.

“Leave her alone!” he bellowed, his voice deep and coming out in a leonine roar.

The two men stared at him with blank looks on their faces. They stayed that way, looking pretty stupid, until one of them got it in his head to confront Darius.

“Get the bitch. I got this fucking loser,” the guy told his buddy.

Darius’ anger was a living cyclone inside him and one that only got worse when the guy called Anna a bitch. He was pretty tall, about an inch or two taller than himself, and well over three hundred pounds. His fat cheeks were flushed red from the exertion of running after Anna. He had beady, dark eyes that were nearly swallowed up by the roundness to his face and his hair was long and as dark as a raven’s feathers.

He stomped up to Darius as Darius raced toward him and tried to pound his big meaty fist into his face. Darius was much faster. He moved out of the way of the fist and dodged every other clumsy-looking attempt the guy made to flatten him. It was laughably easy and for a long time the guy had no real idea what was going on. After about the fourth failed attempt to land a punch, he finally started to realize things weren’t going as planned and he wanted to back out of the fight.

Darius, however, moved in and lashed out with a hard punch to the man’s considerable gut. His breath exploded out of him in a pain-filled gust, a little spray of blood flying out with it. He instantly doubled over and struggled to get breath back into his lungs. Darius backed away and waited for him to get up again. As soon as the guy was able to stand, he tried to run away as fast as he could.

Darius caught up to him with ease and grabbed him by the throat. He easily lifted the roughly three hundred pound man into the air, watching in satisfaction as he struggled weakly to get away. His eyes grew wide with fear but Darius barely even saw it. He winded up like a pro pitcher and flung the man as hard as he could toward the nearest wall. A sharp cracking sound filled the air as the man’s neck broke. Then there was a crashing sound as his corpse dropped to the ground in a limp heap.

“NO!” his friend shouted. This one forgot about Anna, who Darius could now see was crouched behind a dumpster, waiting for everything to be over. “You son of a...”

Darius shifted his eyes from Anna to the other man. They locked onto him and he abruptly shut up, fear choking his words. This one was a good deal shorter than the other guy but built with lean, wiry muscle. His right shoulder bore the tattoo of an intricately stylized wolf.

“You don’t touch her!” he screamed back and watched as the guy suddenly quit acting tough. Now, he looked like a scared little boy who got an up close and personal view of the Boogeyman.

He started nodding his head in emphatic agreement.

“Sure man. Whatever you say, o-okay?” he stuttered, his eyes scanning the alley for any way of escape while sticking his hands out in a gesture of surrender. “Whatever you say.”

Darius heard Anna whimper and cry from her hiding place and after hearing that…well, after that he lost track of what happened next. The few seconds he couldn’t remember flew by in a confusing blur of motion, sounds, and color. When it was over, the second guy was also dead. He lay on his stomach, draped across his fat friend with his head turned around to where Darius could see into the man’s dead, gazing eyes. He twisted it almost a full, 180° to where the man's chin now rested near the center of his back.

He turned away from the men he’d killed and went to where he could hear Anna crying harshly. He found her still behind the dumpster with her knees drawn up to her chest. She was rocking back and forth with her eyes cinched tightly shut.

“Anna?” he called, cautiously. His voice was drained of its rage and was filled with a deep concern instead.

Anna looked up at him and Darius’s world seemed to fall apart all over again. The person looking back up at him was about sixteen, possibly even seventeen. Her blonde hair was wet with sweat and she looked at him with watery brown eyes. Tears were cascading down her cheeks in steady streams and her face was red and blotchy. She tried to huddle further into herself, as if she could get away from him by phasing through the wall behind her.

She looked nothing like Anna and even from the top of the building he’d dropped from, her golden hair couldn’t have been mistaken for anything but blonde.