Chapter 25:

Will remembered watching, confused from the doorway, half concealed in the corner, as Guy and Vaisey had disappeared out the back, watching the scene suspiciously. As Vaisey left his henchman alone to complete the deal, his intense hatred for the teenager grew.

Drugs. It was a drugs deal. And Vaisey obviously didn't want to get his hands dirty. Leave it to the lesser mortals to organise and then reap the benefits himself.

He remembered watching, as the gang of teenagers, about nineteen years old, and huge, with vile black tattoos patterning vastly muscular arms. They looked like they could kill a man with their bare hands, yet they all carried guns. He felt a shiver run down his spine. He didn't envy Guy, having to complete a deal with those vicious looking brutes breathing down his neck. The negotiations obviously weren't going well.

All that he remembered hearing from around the corner was a sound that would stay with him forever. He recognised the dull click, the soft thud, and his blood ran cold. His brain pieced the missing information together without prompting.

They had guns. Probably fitted with silencers to avoid attracting attention. Far easier, quieter and more deadly.

He took a quick look around the corner, dreading what he saw. Guy's body crumpled on the cobbles, beside the ominous-looking sports bag that he had been carrying. The leader snatched the bag up and turned to go. Guy was completely still, blood draining slowly from his silent body, face screwed up in pain and confusion, eyes clamped tightly shut.

A hundred thoughts hit him at once, gushing like blood through his brain, processing at a million miles an hour. They had tried to kill Guy, if not succeeded. Amber's brother and his own archenemy lay bleeding on the cobbles. He was a human being at the end of the day. Those responsible were leaving. Running away from the scene. He had to stop them.

Knowing it was the worst possible thing he could do, but the only real option, he yelled at their retreating backs.

The gang stopped in their tracks. Cursing his stupidity and his own tendency and desire for heroics, he gulped as the youths twice his size turned around to face him. He felt every inch of him shaking, and tried desperately to hold himself rigid, so that they wouldn't know just how scared he really was.

He faced the leader squarely, trying to look braver and taller than he felt. Dilated pupils, wide and insane stared at him. His words froze Will to the marrow. A dense, low growl escaped the youth's tight-lipped silence. Words, barely intelligible, yet full of meaning.

"No witnesses."

----------------------------------------------------------------

Then all he knew was lying face down on the ground, trying to remember if he had ever felt pain like that before. All he knew, was that he was bleeding. A lot.

He put a hand to his chest, the fingers coming away blood-drenched and sticky. Mind swimming, he blinked, putting pressure on the wound, causing himself pain to keep awake.

Holding the bullet wound with one hand, he inched slowly, gradually into a sitting position beside his archenemy's still body.

As he touched the boy's shoulder, the eyes flickered open, uneven, exhausted, pain-filled.

Guy recoiled, something vaguely connected to fear evident in his eyes. Waiting for something to happen.

"I'm sorry." Guy choked hoarsely, taking both Will and himself by surprise.

Will looked confused. "What for?"

"For.." he paused to gasp for breath, "For what I've done to you and Marian…… this year."

"It's okay."

"No. It's not. I really am sorry. I just… wanted to tell you…in case…"

"Guy, it's fine."

Will twisted back around, ignoring the agony that rippled through his chest as he did so, to grab his jacket, trying to staunch the blood, stop his archenemy turned mutual friend from bleeding to death.

"Will…you're bleeding." Guy whispered, his voice fading as his strength dropped with the blood loss.

Will stared back, holding the gaze. "I know."

"Don't…… don't die…because of me." Fear seized Guy's voice, choking him as blood bubbled in his throat.

"I chose to come out here and act the hero. I'll take the consequences of my actions. It's not your fault. I made this decision."

Guy nodded tiredly. Will watched with a stab of terror as the eyes flickered closed, heavy, tired. He reached out with gradually numbing fingers to shake the shoulder, provoke a reaction from the still, unmoving form.

"Guy. Guy?" His heart stopped as the body fell silent, unmoving, maybe not even breathing.

As the first droplets of rain began to fall, he felt the cold water penetrate his soul, and for the first time since his mother died, he was terrified.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rain pattered down, soft at first, then harder and harder, as if the sky was crying, shedding endless teardrops for them, as though its tears would wash away the blood, the pain, the sorrow, and start afresh.

Rain dribbled down his face, trickling over his skin, soaking into his bones. It was cool and refreshing, like water to a parched traveller, lost in the desert.

He felt the agony anew as more blood was pumped from his body in waves as his own heart forced the crimson fluid from his body. It was a steady, constant rhythm, like the regular patter of raindrops.

It was peaceful, calming.

Maybe dying wasn't so bad.

He didn't hear the shriek as Amber found him crumpled in a pool of blood, beside his enemy turned brother in their agony. He didn't feel her tears as they dipped onto his face, hot and salty s she cried, phoning for the ambulance. He could only feel her hand clutching his, tightly clinging onto him, as though if she held onto him hard enough, he wouldn't disappear.

He could see nothing but the rain, as it washed away death, pain and grief; feel the rain as it trickled over his skin; hear the rain as it pattered down in a steady rhythm in parallel with his own heartbeat.

And when darkness claimed him, he went willingly.

------------------------------------------------------------