365 Days

17

D POV

It wasn't the shadow first spotted that caught me off guard, but the one spotted too late. I was the one first shot. It came from somewhere above us and it embedded itself in my shoulder. One officer was caught in the arm with the second shot. I looked up, but saw no sniper until another shot was fired off and landed in the dirt next to me, sending up a puff of dust.

Officers ran in different directions: some to the back of the house, othesrs taking cover behind trees, trash cans, or cars. I fired off three shots and missed twice. The third one I thought I could almost hear come in contact with the meat of a human body, and I saw a dark figure on top of the roof keel over and disappear behind the house. I went for the back, dodging around officers and praying I wouldn't get caught in the crossfire from the first shadow, who had started shooting along with the sniper.

If the first bullet didn't kill him, I thought the fall off the roof would. I was wrong. I found him huddled behind the house on the grass in a pool of blood that was growing slowly as he bled out through a bullethole in his arm, two in his stomach, and one grazed off a chunk of his neck. Two officers were shooting at him, and one had a blown off finger.

He never saw me coming until I tripped up. I knocked over a flower pot, and in a blurr of gunfire, blood and adrenaline, I fired the shot that killed him. We fired at the same time and as my bullet embedded itself in his head, his went into my kneecap. I watched his chest fall with his last breath before I hit the ground.

.

Tyler POV

Towards the end, I had become no better than a vegetable. I had lost everything but my ability to walk, and of all days, today was the worst day I could imagine for it to go. It had been fading fast, but when I needed it most, it abandoned me.

I couldn't see or hear her, but the vibrations throughout the house made it obvious that something was happening with Kayla. I was fine with finding her, the trouble was trying to help her.

I knelt beside her, and my knees and palms went into something warm, wet, and thick. Her convulsions shook the house. I tried to hold her head as a wash of a warm fluid seeped onto my lap. My attempts failed, and I reluctantly scrambled to my feet and left her.

For once I was glad Jinni had hired a babysitter for us. I had complained silently to myself about it ever since she showed up, but as I ran for the upstairs bedroom where she was watching a movie, I thanked God Riley was here.

Half way up the stairs, I fell. This has happened to me often, and I always pick myself up again and continue on.

But I couldn't get up this time.

As I scrambled for a hold on the railing, the thud of my fall must have alerted Riley because after a moment of trying to get up the stairs I felt her hands on me. The way she held onto me told me she saw Kayla downstairs. I pulled away from her and I could feel her footsteps falling away from me. A few moments later and I recognized the slight vibration through the house as the door slammed shut. I breathed out a gush of air I wasn't aware I was still holding and relaxed on the steps, closing my eyes, praying Kayla would live to see tomorrow.