Reminiscence {Book Two of the Vengeance Trilogy}

Chapter Twenty: There's No One There

After making a right down the street, I rushed by the same houses and gardens that I had seen from the bell tower. I didn't run, in fear that there would still be humans lurking around. My eyes scanned every corner and crevice, trying to find Peter, but he was nowhere to be seen. I knew that he wouldn't be so close to the church if he had tried to run away, but I couldn't afford to skip over anything. I glanced over to the left at the cemetery, trying to see if he had hid somewhere in the sea of headstones.

You son of a bitch! I heard Emmet's voice echo inside my head. Before I could look, I was swept off my feet as I felt a body collide with my own from across one of the lawns. The two of us crashed into the iron fence, ripping through it as if it were made of paper. The minute we landed on the ground, I managed to kick Emmet off of me. I rolled off of my back as I tried to catch my breath. When I looked up, I saw Emmet in the same position as I was. His eyes met mine and it was like a pair of bright blue bonfires looking at me. Of course, I knew what Emmet was angry about and just by looking at him, I knew there was nothing that could calm him down. Chances were he saw what happened before Tom and I even took her down to the tunnels.

"Alright, let's just take some deep breaths and try to calm—" I began to say, but Emmet was already preparing to lunge at me again. Right before he could attack me, I sprung out of the way, but he was quick to turn around, swinging his fist towards my jaw. I could feel my bones dislocating as I was sent flying into a tree. My backside collided with the tree trunk and my limp body slumped down to the ground. My vision was fuzzy and it only got worse as I tried to set my jaw back into place. A sharp pain ran through my teeth and all the way into my skull. Once my vision cleared, I saw Emmet towering over me. He had an expression on his face that could strike fear into anyone. For once, I actually felt threatened by Emmet.

"You, fucking, traitor!" Emmet yelled.

"Look, how about you and I find a nice cafe and talk things out over a nice cup of coffee? I hear Finnegan's has a peppermint latte that is to die f—" I started to say, but Emmet picked me up by the collar of my shirt before I could finish.

"Shut the fuck up," he sneered as his fist landed hard into my gut. I coughed hard, feeling the bitter, sticky venom seep into my mouth. I tried to muster up the energy to squirm from his grasp, but it wasn't doing anything to help. "You betrayed the pack and now you have to pay."
"I didn't have a choice, Emmet. I was following Elliot's orders!" I struggled to say, venom now dribbling down my chin. Emmet landed another punch to my rib cage and I could already feel the bones breaking underneath his fist. I coughed up more venom as I let out a cry in pain.

"You tortured Bridget after she showed you nothing but kindness. I don't care who gave you the damn orders!" he screamed, then tossed me across the cemetery like I was a rag doll. I tumbled over headstone after headstone, breaking each and every one like it was made of plywood.

I finally stopped rolling and I took a few seconds to just lay there in the freshly fallen snow. I knew that there was no point in trying to reason with Emmet. At this point, he was dead set on pinning all of this on me. Emmet had been waiting for his chance to have a reason to kill me and now he had it. There was nothing that could stop him now.

When I picked my head up, I saw that I was facing away from Emmet. There were a few chunks of a headstone that were scattered in front of me, though one piece in particular caught my eye. It wasn't big, but I still knew exactly what it was. At first, I begged whoever was listening that I was just seeing things. That the name I was seeing was just someone I didn't know. Still, when I reached out for the piece and read the name, I felt my heart drop. The edges of the stone were sharp and cold in my trembling hands. Aileen.

"Get the fuck up, Danny. I'm not done with you," Emmet growled. Anger boiled in my veins. I wanted to scream. I was biting down so hard that I thought some of my teeth would actually break. It was as if there was a pit in my gut that was being filled with a raging fire. The piece of her headstone was reduced to dust as I felt my fists clench over it. As I stood up, I slowly turned around to face Emmet and at first he had that same threatening look on his face, but as soon as his eyes met mine, his anger shifted into confusion.