The end of "A Different Beginning"!
DISCLAIMER:
This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the Furnace series, which is trademarked by Alexander Gordon Smith.
Carl Donovan, Toby, and Alex Sawyer are characters created and owned by Alexander Gordon Smith, and I do not claim ownership over them or the Furnace world.
Please enjoy!
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"Hello, Alex. And you too, Donovan. I remember you two from school." Toby looked at the other two boy's confusion. "This is all a hologram", Toby explained. "Except for me, of course. My father works for the government, and we know how you've been robbing houses. We know about your disguise, Donovan, and where you currently live."
"So…..what are you going to do about it?", Alex asked. He was stupefied and bewildered at this boy who knew what he couldn't have, but he thought it was best for him to appear nonchalant and indifferent. He slowly relaxed his posture and stifled a fake yawn.
Donovan, on the other hand, was unsurprised. In fact, he had been half expecting to be caught. His disguise wasn't the best, and come on, what were the chances of two greedy teenagers against the government? He vaguely remembered a Toby from his old classes. Donovan had stopped attending school since he ran away. Donovan glanced at Alex, who winked at him. He decided to play along.
"Yeah!", Donovan said." What are you going to do? Arrest us? You're just a teenager, like us."
Toby smiled and shook his head in an infuriatingly smug manner. 'Well, boys, you're right, I can't arrest you.", he said. "But you heard me say my father works for the government, did you not? Ever since the Summer of Slaughter, we can't be lenient with juvenile crime." Just then, a hidden door opened, and menacing men in black suits trooped out. They weren't carrying any obvious weapons, but Donovan and Alex sensed that these men could kill them a million ways with their bare hands.
"As if you were lenient before!", Alex spat. "My friend here was sentenced to adult jail after an accident! He was only eleven! You know what jail does to people? You call that lenient?" Toby smiled again. "Ah, yes. I remember that case. But, age eleven or not, he still committed murder. Jail would have reformed him. But, enough of that. You guys don't have to be punished…."
Donovan eyed the men. He knew how to spot concealed weapons, and he thought he could notice a small bulge where an ankle holster would be on the man closest to him, about a foot away. He saw Alex look at him looking at the man's ankle out of the corner of his eye, and gave an imperceptible nod.
Alex knew what Donovan was thinking and began talking to distract the men. "What? Why? Please, give us another chance!", Alex cried out. Toby said, "I want an apology for something you did in the first grade."
"What is it, I'll apologize sincerely, just please, don't punish us!" Donovan sank to his knees. "Yes, Alex, apologize to this wonderful boy!" He even managed to squeeze a few tears. Alex sank to his knees beside Donovan and they both started crying. They would have made impressive actors.
Toby laughed at their cowering figures. "Remember in the first grade, when I stepped in cat crap, and you pointed this out to everybody? And do you remember how they laughed?
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please, please forgive! I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive that horrible, horrible crime!", Alex pleaded. Donovan was thinking in his head that Toby was too sensitive and very bitter, but on the outside, he continued pleading incoherently.
Then, Donovan started howling. Alex joined in. Along with the weeping, and the howling, and the incoherent pleading, it was quite chaotic. Donovan saw his chance, and quickly dived at the man's ankle. There was a small handgun, but Donovan was sure it was deadly. He grabbed it, and dived out of range. There was a click, and he turned around to see all of the men in black suits had deadly looking guns pointed at their foreheads. He turned to Alex, who was standing next to him. They made eye contact. Donovan looked at his gun. Alex shook his head imperceptibly.
Donovan didn't know what made him do it. In his later years as a serial killer, whenever he thought back to that moment, he only remembered that he had a compulsion to pull the trigger. He loved the feeling of a gun in his hand, the lovely, addictive feel of power. But back to the room.
Donovan pulled the trigger, aiming at a man in a black suit, but at the very last millisecond, he jerked his hand the tiniest bit to the side, and the bullet hit Toby instead.
The men in black suits reacted, and shot Alex. Alex's last thought was how his friend, his dearest friend, had turned into a monster. They were just turning to Donovan, before Donovan shot a man's foot and sprinted out the door. He sprinted, out of the house, out of the neighborhood, and out of that city.
For some reason, he escaped the wrath of the blacksuits, but filled with paranoia, he disguised himself and hid in several continents before he lead the Winter of Slaughter.
One day, a bodyguard that was only referred to as Sawyer, her surname, hired a private investigator to find a man named Donovan. After some phone calls and favors, they located a man named Carl Donovan in a maximum security prison. He was currently on death row, charged with mass murder. Sawyer had a long, private talk with the executioner, and after some careful flattery and persuasion, the executioner agreed that he would let Sawyer carry out Carl Donovan's execution.
A prison guard led Carl Donovan to the execution chamber, here Sawyer awaited him. While Donovan was walking to his death, Sawyer thought of her brother. How even though she had always ignored him, how she couldn't move out from her family fast enough, she had always loved her younger brother. When her mother called and told her about Alex being murdered, she had wept. He had died too soon, much too soon. Alex's father had told her of how he suspected that Alex had turned to crime, but she had always knew that one day, he would change for the better and show the world he was a new man. But Alex's time had been cut short, and she couldn't even remember her last words to him. Sawyer thought of everything she loved about Sawyer, and then focused on the thought that his murderer was coming, and she had the honor of carrying out his death sentence. She was determined to be angry as she injected the arm that killed her brother indirectly.
When Donovan walked in, and looked into the eyes of Sawyer, he saw the eyes of his friend. He saw the eyes of Alex. And he remembered his dear old childhood friend, he remembered their good times, and he remembered shooting Toby, shooting the black suit, the black suit shooting Alex.
He was chained to a chair. The woman took a long look at him. Her eyes, Alex's eyes, showed no mercy, no compassion. She asked him one simple question. "Why?"
Donovan shook his head, he looked away. He couldn't look at her. " It wasn't my choice. I regret nothing".
Sawyer took his arm, and started the saline drip into his arm. She was handed a syringe and injected the doses of fatal drugs. She watched as he went to sleep, and his absence of breathe when his lungs collapsed. She watched as his pulse stopped. She watched as he left the world, the world here she no longer had a brother.
The prison guard led her out, telling her he would take care of the rest.
She collapsed to her knees and wept for her brother. She wept for everybody who had died too soon, too young. She wept for herself.
