𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 - JJ Maybank

Chapter 126: Deaf and Numb

Fun fact: everyone you know will die.

Your mother. Your father. The love of your life.

I like to think it's not so many years you get, but what you do with them.

Adventure.

Love.

Hatred.

Then... death.

You leave people numb in your wake; leave an emptiness that nothing will ever fill.

And that's what happened to me.

That numbness. The weight... it's my burden to bear.

I'll be stuck with it until I end up in the same place he does.

Hell, probably. If it exists.

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The sound of JJ's screams was what first caught John B's and Sarah's attention.

It was what drew them from their hiding spot deep in the heart of the city and out into the treacherous streets.

The fear in his voice as it called their names left them with no choice but to follow it.

Hand in hand, the couple ran, following the call of their best friend's voice as it bounced off of the sandstone and hit their ears.

It was when the screaming suddenly stopped, when they were left with an eerie silence, that their light jog morphed into a full-on sprint.

___________

I don't know how it happened. I don't know which sliver of movement, which tick of evil flashing past his eyes, triggered me to make the snap decision, but before I could catch up with my weary body, it was moving on its own accord.

The feeling of cold metal against my shaking fingers wasn't enough to snap me out of my daze, nor was the malicious grin growing on Groff's face as he slipped the dagger from his pocket.

My body moved before my mind could comprehend what was happening.

I acted without thinking. 

Without my brain processing what I was doing, my fingers had wound themselves around the pistol that was stashed in my waistband.

One bullet.

Make it count.

In a singular fluid motion I aimed it, squeezed the trigger, and felt the pistol jump in my grasp; as natural as breathing.

I didn't flinch. I hardly reacted.

The blast of the gun and the recoil that shot up my arm didn't faze me.

It felt simple, like I had done it thousands of times before.

Even when blood spewed and the loud thud of a body hitting the ground rang out, I was elsewhere, hardly seeing the world through my own eyes.

In less than a second I had made the decision, and I had acted on it.

As if it were the easiest thing in the world: I killed a man.

___________

Grace's hands were shaking rapidly, eyes empty with a far-off look on her face, blood splatter decorating her sunburnt cheeks.

I could hardly understand what had occurred; my brain was still catching up with the scene laid before me.

Groff, my father, lay splayed out on the ground in an unnatural position, a pool of red seeping from his head, the crown dropped unceremoniously on one side of him, knife on the other.