Morphine (Complete)

𝟒𝟓

Warning: degradation

The time has come.

Chapter Forty-Five

Bam. 

Ringing....ringing....ringing...ringing in her ears.

Like a shard of ice sliding down her spine, a voice whispered over her shoulder. 

"You hesitated," it croaked angrily.

She became achingly aware of the way her finger was frozen on the trigger, unmoving, undecided, weak.

The familiar nozzle of an old smoking gun beside her head, aimed where she could not bring herself to shoot.

She wasn't quite sure what spirit possessed her body; certainly, she could not be accountable for the things her body did at that moment. Surely, with the stress and trauma, she could not be expected to rationalize her actions. Because she recognized the voice. She knew it well.

And she still swung the butt of the gun back to knock out that person. They fell to the ground without any fight, any staggering, and collapsed with the sharp sound of skull hitting pavement.

Not breathing, she looked back over her shoulder to see a crumpled, crippled body. The person--his unmoving hand still clutched a black cane between mutilated fingers, and a gun in the other.

"Dad..." she whispered under her breath.

She looked back at the remaining Amirs. Red...red...red was all she saw.

No thoughts entered her brain. She moved with a numb body. Something took over her, something good, something that she could never be.

She ran forward and leaned by Carter's side, sliding a knife from the strap on her thigh. The cutting of rope reached his ears and he stared down unblinking at the girl by his side.

One knot came undone. His feet were free. He tensed, resisting the urge to get up and land a good punch to Rannia's face. But he waited as she cut through the binds of his wrists.

As the last rope fell loose to the floor, Rannia stepped back. She didn't look at him. "Take them and go."

"You--"

"Go," Rannia hissed, voice ice, eyes blank.

She heard his footsteps run towards his mother, and his stressed breathing as he untied Romina. She couldn't look at the woman.

She couldn't bear to look at the person her father shot.

Labored breaths left Carter's lips as he lifted his mother onto his back and tried to walk forward.

"Guards. Help them out," Rannia ordered.

The guards followed her command, through the confusion and without hesitation.

Carter stumbled towards the door. Two guards came forward and to help get Romina off his back, carrying her for him. Another guard tore the bottom of Romina's dress and pressed it tightly to her stomach, where red was quickly spreading.

Rannia looked at Carter. He hesitated.

Both their stares shifted towards Mykel still tied to a chair. The man stared back at both of them idly, cocking his head to the side.

Carter waited one moment.

Then he turned and left.

Mykel supposed he was not to be surprised. Sure, they were family, but Carter and everyone else deserved better than him.