Smithereens

Chapter 5

I received the phone call at about four o'clock that afternoon. I didn't recognize the number, but whoever it was, I figured had to be a close friend or family member. I had set up my phone to automatically block all spam calls.

"Hello?" I answered. There was a brief silence on the other end, but I could hear ragged breathing.

"Uncle Tony?" The caller asked in a small voice.

"Percy?" I frowned. This was surprising. Percy never spoke to me, much less called me Uncle Tony. "What's up, bud?"

"I need your help. Please come. I'm at home." He whimpered. The shallow breaths continued, sounding like Darth Vader.

"Okay, I'm getting into my car now." I tell him, grabbing my keys and jumping into the elevator. Usually, I would have Happy drive me, but I needed to do this quickly. Besides, I figured Percy wouldn't want anyone there who didn't need to be. "Do you want me to stay on the phone?"

"Y-yes."

I settled into the car and pulled out of the garage.

"Alright Percy. I need you to tell me what happened."

"It's May, Tony."

I cursed and drove faster. I must've been going at least eighty. "You need to call the police, Percy. If something happened, they need to know."

The breathing picked up. "No, no. Please don't make me. Please don't make me."

"Then you need to tell me why,"

"I can't have anything else on my record, Tony. They'll separate Peter and me. I know it."

I cursed again. "Okay, we'll discuss this later. I'm coming. I'll be there as soon as I can," I checked my GPS. "five more minutes. Can you do that, Percy?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I can." We sat in silence the rest of the ride. When I was parking the car, I heard him say, "Uncle Tony, I called you because I think I'm having another panic attack or something."

I yanked the keys out of the ignition and slammed the door before running up the stairs to his apartment.

"You aren't sure?"

"No, it's different. Maybe it's anxiety?"

I knocked on the front door.

"I'm here, kid!" I yelled.

"It's open," he told me through the phone.

"I'm going to hangup," I told him as I opened the door. I slid my phone into my pocket.

Percy was sitting on the floor next to the door, staring at the cell phone in his hands. There was broken glass on the floor as well as a long bronze dagger.

"Percy?" I said, letting him know I was here.

"Tony," he whispered. He lifted his hand and pointed to the living room. His hand was coated in a layer of fresh blood and just the sight of it made me panicky. I followed his gaze into the next room. There, on the couch was May. Her neck was covered in blood. I reached down to touch it, but withdrew when my fingers slid into the slit on her throat. I pressed my fingers to her wrist, then her chest, searching desperately for a heartbeat, even though I knew it was futile.

"She's gone," Percy said. "I already did all I could. But I'm not good at healing other people. Just myself. And Will wasn't here to help me."

I frowned. What did that mean?

I walked back into the front room and knelt down next to Percy.

"Are you okay?" I asked him. He shook his head. I remembered he was covered in blood. I found my way into the kitchen. There were towels under the sink along with a first aid kit. I grabbed two towels and the kit. I turned on the tap and filled up a glass with water and then proceeded to wet one of the towels with the tap. When I walked back out, Percy was staring straight ahead, unblinking.