Four (Their Dead Lives,1) (59 page)

“Kale!” Alec flushed with light, eyes glossing white.

Holy—
 

“I thought his ugly-ass arm broke?” Scot questioned.
 

“It healed, thanks for noticing,” sniped Kale.
 

Alec stepped closer.
 

“Wait, now wait a second.” Kale dragged Nicole closer to the edge.
 

What are you doing? No, Kale.
“You promised.”
 

“And I’ll stick to it, but I need assurance I make it out of here alive.”
 

“You cowardly piece of shit.” Scot stood next to the others. The three of them prepared for whatever Kale did next.
 

“Words like those, man, Scot, they just lack the assurances I search for.” He popped his lips.
 

“Kale,” snarled Alec.
 

“Look, here, I’ll let you two say hi.” One quick rip took the tape off Nicole’s pale mouth.
 

“Baby.” Alec stepped closer but Kale warned him back.
 

“Alec, what’s going on?” Her innocent eyes filled with tears as she looked at the light in Alec’s own. “Your eyes?”
 

“Yeah, tell her,” said Kale.
 

“I’m getting you out of this, I swear. You trust me, right?”
 

“I do.”
 

Kale grinned. “So cute.”
 

There will be no saving him or Alec if she dies. Think, Jeff, you can save everyone.
“Kale, she has nothing to do with this, let her go.”
 

“Ah, Homer, on the contrary, she has everything to do with this.” He raised the bone-dagger off her neck.
 

“What are you talking about?” Scot asked him.
 

“You see, she—” Kale’s words were cut off by Nicole slamming her bound arms into his stomach. She crawled right for Alec, his hand nearly touching her.
 

Kale was quicker, and he yanked her back, pressing against her neck once again. “Ah, ah, bad, bad,” he admonished. The blade slid against her flesh, lightly nicking it.
 

Light sparked brighter in Alec’s body. “Kale!”
 

“Relax, only a scratch.” Kale relieved the pressure.
 

“Why, Kale?” her words shook. “I thought we were friends.”
 

“Friends? Ha! If we were friends, why did you try crawling away? Don’t you trust your friends?”
 

“Enough.”
Alec crouched, keeping his eyes with Nicole. “We will let you go, Kale, I promise. Just let me have her.”
 

They were separated by mere feet. But Jeff, like Alec, knew no one would be faster than Kale’s blade.
 

Kale grinned at them all. “That’s nice of you to let me go, Alec, really is. But I want something else.”

This is not the Kale I know.
“What?” said Jeff.
 

“You see, Homer, when I said you were wrong about her, I meant it. She’s the reason Alec never did anything but care for her. So much power, and it went to waste.” Nicole looked up at him and he forced her to face Alec. “The regret on your face right now, Alec, it is quite—”
 

“I regret nothing,” stated Alec, “except not killing you sooner.”
 

Kale shrugged, “Meh.”

“For fuck’s sake,” interrupted Scot. “Say what you want, you insane freak.”
 

Kale glanced at all three of them. “This.”
 

“Don’t!” begged Jeff.
 

“Kale!” Alec lunged.
 

Nicole made another attempt for Alec as the bone-dagger swung. Alec’s fingers touched her, but the blade impaled her heart first. Nicole slipped right from his touch, pulled back by Kale.
 

The creature before them dangled Nicole over the edge of the roof with his one hand, grinned at Alec, said, “I want you to watch her die.”
 

She fell.
 

A throat-ripping roar broke from Alec, and he flung to the edge. His fingers grazed her ankle, but he missed and he collapsed, his frozen body hanging off the roof.
 

Kale swiped his bone-dagger for the unseeing Alec’s neck. Jeff rushed forward, grabbed Kale’s shirt and tossed him away from the edge before he could take Alec’s head.
 

Scot chased after Kale’s rolling body, kicking several times, but the blade sliced his ankle open. Falling over, Scot squealed away from the Embracer.
 

Jeff passed him and lunged onto Kale. He slammed a fist into his once-close friend’s face. Crack. Another. Crack. Black blood stained his knuckles. “What have you done?”
 

“Meh,” he choked and grabbed Jeff’s large fist on the fourth blow. His dark veins bulged as he crunched bones. The blade swiped, taking the tip of Jeff’s nose with it. Shoved off Kale, Jeff crawled for composure.
 

Kale lunged across the night, swinging down for his face.
 

Scot flew from the side, slamming into the Embracer’s ribs. They tumbled across the roof, bodies tangling as one.

Jeff rose.
 

Kale shot to the air, blade first, stabbing Jeff’s breastbone, then he wrapped his own legs around Scot’s neck.
 

“Get off me!” screamed Scot as he grabbed Kale’s ankles crushing his throat.
 

The three of them were locked.
 

Kale fought free from Jeff and went for another stab but Jeff strafed away. The Embracer’s face collapsed to the roof, legs falling off Scot, who grabbed his neck, coughing away from everyone.
 

Jeff didn’t recognize his friend. What had happened to the boy who wanted nothing more than to be a hero? What had happened to his
Nightwing
? The body that resembled Kale possessed too much evil, hate, and death.

And he had to die.
 

Alec flashed like lightning into Kale and threw him to the edge of the roof. Catching himself, Kale stabbed the ground before falling over. He pounced to his feet, staring at the heaving Alec, said, “We
will
never
leave as four.”
 

Alec clenched his teeth. “We never did.”
 

Light clashed with dark. Two bodies flew off the roof, vanishing from Jeff’s eyes as he sprinted after them. Skidding to a stop, he witnessed their descent.
 

Kale fell back first, Alec right above him. Three stabs broke Alec’s flesh but he flipped Kale over, forcing him to fall face-first. Jeff swore Alec yelled, “Die,” during the last few seconds of their lives.
 

Kale’s face slammed into a yellow fire hydrant and pieces of him exploded across asphalt.
 

Three bodies. All broken, lying next to one another.
 

Alec’s hand landed on Nicole’s back, their faces inches apart. His fingers managed to graze her cheek before dropping limply to the ground.
 

I saved none of them.
With this realization, Jeff fell on all fours. Gagging and choking, he turned away.
 

Scot rubbed his own neck as he grabbed Jeff’s shoulder. “They—?”
 

“Yes.”
 

Eyes breaking away, Scot’s hands shook in front of his face. “No, fuck, shit.”
 

Drool fell off Jeff’s lips as he tightened his eyes from his friends’ corpses. “Scot.” He fought to keep his quivering lips still. “What have we done?”
 

His eyes straining, Scot lowered and grabbed Jeff. “Come on,” he said confidently. “We’ve all died at least once now.”
 

Jeff wrapped an arm around his smaller friend.
Even if Alec lives, Nicole is surely dead. Her death will be worse than anything Alec could ever suffer.
Glancing back at the end of the roof as Scot helped him walk, Jeff fought to maintain his strength.
I wanted to save all of us. Can I still? I need to. I will.
 

“Things could be worse,” said Scot.

“How?”
 

Scot
’
s eyes were a watery blue. “We could still be in that well.”
 

They went to the entrance of the complex, while the death of night flushed with life upon the arrival of morning.

ALEC
 

His arm snapped into place as he lifted his crumpled body off the sidewalk. With trembling limbs, he wrapped around his frail, shattered Nicole. His grip tightened and he whispered constant apologies. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” His eyes shut. A sharp pain welled up in him. The world crushed against his chest.
Without love, without her, I have nothing.
 

Alec had felt her skin for the shortest of seconds before his love fell from Kale’s hand, and as he hung off that dreadful roof, staring in shock, loss, and defeat, he knew he’d never be a hero. He’d never accomplish great things. Killing Kale had been his goal when he threw the both of them off of the roof, even hoping to end his own life, perhaps getting a chance to see Nicole again.
 

But he didn’t die.
I cannot.
 

Moans of the undead surrounded him and Nicole. The hordes’ remainders closed in. They wanted her flesh. He wouldn’t allow it. After carefully lowering her head, he let light blast throughout his body, and, jolting from one corpse to another, he ripped each head off with one clean swipe. Anger, vengeance, and hate pulsated with each flash through his veins. By the eighth dropped corpse, Jeff and Scot reached the street. If they helped, Alec didn’t notice, nor did he give two shits. Zombies number nine and ten fell in the same manner as the others. The last three he left for his
friends
to handle, then he returned to Nicole.
 

Curled up against her, cheeks touching, he kissed her blood-drenched head. “I want to be with you.”
 

Scot yelled for Jeff to watch out. Seconds later, he said, “Holy crap, did you kill it with a scalpel throw?”

A few last moans and the night became silent.
 

Alec rose, keeping Nicole dear to his chest.
 

“Alec!” Jeff rushed to them, heaving for air. Scot followed. They glanced at Kale’s body. The yellow fire hydrant had scrambled his entire face. His arms and legs hung limp. Chunks of his flesh were scattered across the street.
 

Jeff touched the massacred head.
 

Turning his back to them, blood falling down his throat to his stomach, Alec started walking, unsure to where.
 

“Where are you going?” Scot’s voice.

“To bury my fiancée.”
 

“I’ll help.”
 

“Fine,” mumbled Alec.

“Jeff, come on,” Scot said to him.
 

Jeff mourns Kale. But Kale died back in high school. We all did.

By the time they reached the beach, the day had grown bright. But it did nothing for Alec. The world had descended to a dark, spiraling hell with Nicole’s fall into death. They dug a hole close to sand. Down the beach, waves crashed, and a salty smell snuck into his nostrils.
 

It was all shit.
 

After he finished digging, Alec lowered down into Nicole’s grave, lying with her one last time.
I’m grateful for everything you gave me.
He swiped hair off her face and touched her chin.
I’ll see you again.
His lips pressed against her and he wanted to keep them there forever. Bury him. Leave him there to rot with love.
 

But she would’ve wanted him to continue on, as cliché as it sounded.
Fuck moving on. I want to die with her.
 

Yet he found himself climbing out of the grave, assisted by Jeff and Scot. He wanted to bury her alone and forced them to step aside. Each clump of falling dirt killed his heart. The light he once felt vanished with every passing second.
 

A Guardian of Life? Never. Whatever that so-called Curer of Death had said was a lie. Death took his brother. Death took Nicole. The only thing left for him was suffering.
 

And vengeance.
 

“Do you think Kale is really dead?” Scot asked Jeff, standing behind Alec as he buried Nicole.
 

“You saw him.”
 

“Yeah, well, I was shot in the head and came back.”
 

“I don’t know, Scot. We can go and check.”
 

If Kale lives, I will kill him a thousand more times.
 

Scot continued, “If he
is
alive, hopefully that fire hydrant knocked some sense into him.”
 

“Alec, I really want to help.” Jeff moved closer.
 

“Get away from me,” he snarled back.
 

“Let him do his thing.” Scot pulled at Jeff. “Here, Addison gave me this paper on the roof. Check it out.”
 

“What’s this?”
 

“A name.”
 

“Brody Vitaly, who is that?”
 

“I have no idea, man, but Addison said that guy has all our answers. What we are, what we can do. I think you’ll appreciate him more than me.”
 

Jeff fell silent as Alec continued to bury his fiancée.
 

Sweat covered Alec’s body, a drop falling from his upper lip. The last two piles of dirt fell on his soul. He flattened the grave and dropped his necklace, a golden cross, on top of it. His eyes shut.
How can I move on? How can I keep going?
 

Jeff and Scot’s voices drowned to a bottomless pit behind him as he lowered to the grave. Face pressed against dirt, he held back tears fighting to escape. He remembered those tears he’d fought back just days earlier. Cries because he was denied a position at the Green Hills Fire Department.