Lucky and the Killer ✔

He'll Eat You Alive

It was morning by the time Lucky finally decided to stop staggering aimlessly across the city. Well, it wasn't that aimlessly, because she found the portal. Gray leaned against the thick pole of a nearby billboard and let out a sigh. She was exhausting. She'd probably only found it through process of elimination at that point.

"I found it," she said to herself, and the shock in her own voice made her smile a tired smile. "I did it! I just thought about it, and I went that way. Here it is. I'm hurrying, Zee."

She reached her hand out and looped a few fingers around the sleek, black door handle. She took in a breath and swung the door open. She knew where she was going to go. She was going to find King. He would help. Someone had to.

Gray let her go inside the portal. He waited a few minutes before he decided it might be okay to go in after her. If she saw him, she would just start running again, and he didn't think he had it in him to keep jogging after her.

"Five, four, three, two, one...," he mumbled as he put his hand on the door that hid the portal.

"I want my gun back, asshole," King's voice said from behind him. It was solid, firm, and very-much there when it shouldn't have been.

"King?"

It really was King. He was standing there, alone, with his hand palm-out and waiting for him to hand back the gun.

"Yeah?" King spat. "Miss me?"

"You're alive?"

"Back from the dead. Do it all the time," King said. "Now, my gun. Please."

"How? I shot you," Gray stammered, and his hand finally fell from the portal's door. "I know I shot you in a vital spot."

"Magic," King said.

King popped his neck and began to analyze Gray. He could bolt into the portal, or he could stay and attempt to shoot him again. Zee was recovering, tied up, but recovering. He'd sent Lilly off to look for Sarah. They wouldn't be there to be used as leverage. Once again, it was the perfect moment. One-on-one: King and Gray. And, this time, King had a gun.

King watched his hands closely—waiting to see which direction Gray was going to go. Lucky must have gone ahead into the portal. Regardless, she had to be in The Kingdom, or Gray wouldn't be heading that way. That was good, too.

"I can kill you this time," King smiled. "You know, I go crazy when I'm alone."

"You weren't so crazy last time," Gray said as he pulled King's gun from his side.

"I want my gun back," King said. The two locked onto their targets, but neither of them moved. It would be a who-shot-first kind of thing, and they both knew that. What was good for King was that Gray was very-much a regular human. Gray didn't have a chance.

"I'm kind of glad you're alive," Gray said. Gray grew up watching King, and he wasn't stupid, either. He analyzed, too. A fight with King wasn't something he needed.

"Yeah," King said, "I'm alive, and I'm going to stay that way. Trust me on that."

"I'm sure," Gray said. He tossed King's gun down at his feet. King didn't move. He didn't bend to pick it up. He just kept his borrowed gun pointed at Gray's chest. "You should have left her here, you know. It's safer."

"No where will be safe if you bring about the Third Moon," King said. He mused about the rules of the outer planets and thought back to their twisted creator. There was no way Gray could have known as much as he did about them. Gray had to have met King's own father. He had to be influencing him—forcing the cards. It was what his father did. Gray probably thought he was being helped instead of manipulated. It was something King'd speculated all along, but he could finally ask.