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“Run” I whisper.
“What?” he asks.
“RUN!” I scream. And we run. We push through the crowd to escape the men. I could hear our pursuer’s footsteps behind us. As we break the edge of the crowd Alec puts on an all-out sprint. I follow in suit. All these years later I still remember the bright lights, the examining tables and the strange masked people with their sharp scalpels and their apparent lack of any form of anaesthetic (apart from the short blackouts from the pain). Once out of the packed park we change course and head to the tall city buildings. We could lose them in there. I think. It worked last time. We run into an office building, up the stairs and to the balcony. I go first, jumping with my heightened agility to the opposite roof. Turning back for my brother to see him land into a roll gracefully. I make my way to the stair way door and force my claw into the lock.
“Hurry Elaine!” Alec whisper-yells into my ear.
“I am!” I insist just as the lock clicks.
Shouldering the door open we barrel down the next three flights of stairs of the apartment block. I see a large balcony on the other building and in silent agreement with Alec, fling myself out the open window. I land on all fours and slide down a nearby pole to the next floor. I hear him land above me and seconds later is standing next to me. The alley way we’re above is now only two stories away. Alec jumps just as I see them. But my cry is too slow, the almost perfectly aimed bullet too fast. Time seems to slow as the deadly shot escapes the barrel, flying through the air to my brothers’ doom. I notices in the last milliseconds the purple sheen plastered over the bullet. Venom. I manage to think just as it contacts his shirt, his skin, and right below his heart.
“NO!!” I scream.
I jump and land lightly next to him. I know they won’t kill me. They’ll let me suffer over my loss. And they’ll enjoy it.
“Alexander Nightingale you will not die on me!” I yell, feeling angry at myself more than him.
I know it’s hopeless.
“Hey sis, it’s ok. I’ll be ok.” he whispers to me, his voice breaking.
My sight blurs as my eyes well up with tears. Fifteen years and he’s still trying to comfort me, no matter how much pain he’s in. I can see through the thin material of his shirt to the dark lines of venom spreading to his heart.
“Don’t go” I cry.
“Y-you can’t leave me. I-I need you” I splutter between tears.
But I’m crying to nothing, his soul is too far gone to hear me now.
The ghost of a smile hints at the corners of his lips, and his glazed eyes stare blankly into the distance, as a last sigh escapes his frozen lips.
I cradle his limp body to mine, crying into his cold shoulder. I hold him for the rest of my short life, even when I feel the pistol held to my back, even during the split second where I hear the shot fire. *BANG*.