Chapter 17

It ends here, for me, for Chan. I cocked both guns and walked on, surprisingly there were no guards. When I reached the door, I found it unlocked.

"I've been expecting you." I heard from inside. "Come in, have a seat."

I walked into the shadowy interior, it was a simple place, a small gas stove for cooking, a few other pieces of technology, but other than that, quite rustic.

"It appears that you've regained your memory."

"I will never forgive you for taking advantage of me." I sat opposite of him at a small card table. A deck of cards were in Chan's hands. "You sent me against my own brother."

Chan didn't say anything. He picked up a card from the deck. "Oh? I didn't know. Heh, king of hearts." He held the card up.

"Bullshit, you knew who I am, and you knew my brother." I took a card from the deck.

"You lose." Chan took my spade seven and he put his own card into the deck too. He shuffled and drew another card. "Well, let's say I did know. So what? Think of it like business eh? I need your brother dead for me to live. King of clubs."

"How bout the opposite? I kill you and Matt lives on. I like that better."

"Don't think that's gonna happen today. Come back when your lucks a bit better eh?" He took my heart ten and shuffled the deck again.

"You seem pretty calm for a man whose about to die."

"That's only your opinion eh? Ace of clubs."

"My opinion, well that's one way to look at it." He took my diamond jack and reshuffled.

"Heh, well since your so determined to kill me, let me tell you something my teacher once told me." Chan drew another card. "You can sleep even in pain. But if you cause pain, you will never be able to sleep. Ace of hearts."

"Well then, from this day on, I will never sleep again." I flipped the table over and whipped out my guns. In a flash of movement Chan grabbed my left arm and bent it towards me. With his other hand he held down my right arm.

"I win again boy." My left gun was pointed at my face, and my right gun was pinned to my side. "Say hi to God for me."

"Heh." I dropped the gun that was pointed at my face and on its way down I kicked it at Chan. It caught him in the stomach, I didn't expect it to hurt him, just surprise him a bit. He let go of my right arm and I threw him off of me.

"Not bad, but your luck's bad today, looks like I caught your gun."

I held my card in my left hand and showed it to him. "Ace of spades." Two shots rang out simultaneously and two holes appeared on the card.

"Haha, not bad boy. Looks like God just smiled upon you." Chan fell to the ground and my gun clattered onto the floor. "Take care of Kayla eh?"

I took out another morphine packet and injected it into my thigh. His shot hit me a bit below the heart, almost pierced my lung. But other than that, just a flesh wound. I took a towel from the closet and stuffed it into my shirt. It immediately became soaked in my blood. Ironically, the hole in Chan's heart didn't bleed much, looks like the fields are going to be red with my blood instead of his.

I stumbled out of the cottage, it was almost morning. It's been a long night, perhaps I am watching the last sunrise I'll see. Perhaps…I fell to my knees and looked at my chest, the blood kept coming out, I was loosing too much of it. The morphine kept the pain away but it wouldn't keep the blood in. Is this the end? I remembered an old song that I heard before.

"…I will be anything, to be by your side, to keep your fears away, I will be anything for you. A flower that blooms, to cheer you up when you're sad, after your smile I will wither away silently. A letter on your desk, to remind you when you're lonely, that you are not alone…"

I have been redeemed, of all my sins and all my deeds. This is what I've been looking for all my life, a chance to say, I am innocent, I am not involved, I am just me. To gain this I must lose my life, a trade done many times by people, I give my life for peace. Peace…no more fighting, no more killing. I'm done. The sun was fully visible now, no longer did it have a weak glow. I closed my eyes and fell flat onto the grass, I smiled. I'm done.

"There he is."

"Danny!"

"What the hell happened to him?"

"Who knows? Get him into the car quickly, there's a hospital not too far from here."

"He looks bad…"

"Don't worry, he'll be fine."

"You sure?"

"Of course I'm sure, we don't die that easily."

From what Christy told me, I spent two weeks in the hospital unconscious. She told me that Kayla came home and told them where I was. By the time the four of them got there I was already on the ground, the last of my life flowing out of me. I'm not sorry for being alive…but dying wouldn't have been too bad. When I said that aloud Christy slapped me.

"Your selfish, you know? There are people who care about you, people who want you alive, people who want you to be happy."

"You?"

"Of course me! And Matt, Kayla, and Julie. We all love you in our own ways, and you better live and appreciate that."

I tried to sit up and hug Christy but I felt my chest rip open, I spat out blood onto my bed and fell back down.

"Nurse! Nurse!" Christy started screaming. "Someone get a doctor!"

Matt rushed into my room. "What's wrong?"

"His wound opened again, it's my fault, he tried to sit up and give me a hug." Christy started crying.

"Stop crying," I said weakly, I pushed the pain out of my head and gave her a smile. "Don't worry, I won't die this easily." I felt weak all of a sudden, I had tried to reach for Christy's hand but my arm fell onto the bed again. I closed my eyes and fell into the darkness.

"Danny?"

"Danny!" Christy screamed. "You said you wouldn't die! You lied to me again. Why? Dammit answer me!"

"Come on, the doctors here." Matt took Christy's arm, "Let's leave him alone for now, he needs the rest."

"Another week eh?" I opened my eyes again.

"Don't you dare get up this time." Christy said sternly.

"Fine, fine. By the way, where's Kayla?" I asked.

"She's outside, she said she doesn't want to see you."

"Why?"

"How should I know?" Christy sounded angry now.

"Alright alright, forget I asked. Sleepy time for me."

"Hey! You can't just fall asleep on me! I want to talk to you. Hey you can't do that!" Christy could barely restrain herself from strangling me.

"Watch…me…" I yawned and closed my eyes.

"I brought you your dinner." I heard a quiet voice say. "Christy told me that you wanted to see me."

"Hun?" I opened my eyes and looked at the blurry ceiling. I rubbed my eyes with my right hand, I saw a needle coming out of the back of my right hand. Boy I must be messed up. "Oh yeah, that's right. So…how ya been?" Trying to sound cheerful.

Kayla looked down at her hands. "I'm sorry."

"Bout wa?" I saw tears falling into her lap. "Aw come on now, don't cry. You know I don't like seeing you cry."

"I'm sorry." Kayla's shoulders shook a bit.

I tried to sit up again, more carefully this time, slower too. If I hurt myself again Christy's gonna kill me…

"Hey." I whispered into her ear. "It's not your fault. Don't worry bout it." I gave her a hug and ended up falling on her. Still too weak.

"I shouldn't have left you, I should've talked to my dad, he would've listened." Her tears fell onto my left shoulder now, they slowly soaked into my wounds dressing.

I glanced at my shoulder, it was all wet, that can't be good for my wound. Oh well, there are more important things at hand. "Too late for regrets now, besides this is for the best. I wouldn't have been able to do what I did in front of you."

"But…"

"Yeah I know, you have a nice butt." I laughed a bit. "Come on, cheer up, I'm alive right?"

"Right." She looked up at me and smile, a smile I would sacrifice anything to see.

"That's my girl," I gave her a kiss. "Mind feeding me? I can't eat by myself in this condition."

"Sure." She picked up the spoon and fed me my dinner. I never had a mom who did this for me, I was never fed before, I ate each bite slowly. Chewing thoroughly like Kayla told me to. This was nice, my own piece of heaven.

After dinner she stayed and we talked about random things, it was like old times. The one thing I didn't hate about staying with Chan was being with Kayla. We talked late into the night, Christy came by but didn't stay. Around three in the morning Kayla fell asleep beside my bed.

"Hey man, how's the wounds?" Matt asked. It was around noon. The sound of his voice woke me up.

"Hun? Where's Kayla?"

"She left about ten minutes ago. I think she went to get you some fresh bandages." Matt turned the chair over and sat on it facing the back. He rested his arms on top of it. "Now that you're awake, the doctors are gonna try to remove the bullets from your body. They didn't want to do it till they knew your condition was stabilized."

"Eh? That's nice…"

"Well I got some good news."

"Hun?"

"Good news, we don't get enough of those these days eh?"

"Yeah…"

"Well anyways, after you killed Chan the other gangs all co-operated and paid me what they owed my father. I got a more than a fortune now. I think I have enough to pay for the rest of our lives. All five of us I'm sure."

"That's nice…" My mind was elsewhere thinking. The rest of our lives…What am I gonna do for the rest of my life?

"Hey bro, doctors gonna come soon ok? Try not to embarrass our family name by screaming like a girl when they operate on you."

"If I could move, you'd be crying like a girl right about now."

"Oh yeah? Too bad you can't haha." Matt ruffled my hair and I shook my head to get away from his hands.

"Hey!" Christy grabbed Matt and threw him out the door. "Leave him alone."

"I was just playing." Matt gave her a shrug and left.

"Honestly, sometimes he's a bit too rough, you're still injured."

"Naw, I'm fine." I saw doctors come in. they moved me to an operating room.

"How's it feel?" I opened my eyes and saw one of the doctors talking to me.

"Hun?"

"How does it feel?" He pointed to my chest.

I looked down and saw a bunch of stitches around my wound. "I'm fine."

"Didn't sound like it when you were screaming."

"Eh? Hehe…Well…Couldn't help it." I smiled sheepishly. Outside Matt was at the small window. He had a stern frown and his arms crossed. When he saw me looking he uncrossed his arms. He pounded his left palm with his right fist. Then I saw Julie grab him by the ear. She led him away from the window, before she disappeared from my sight, she turned and gave me a wink.

"What about your thigh?" The doctor asked.

"I dunno, a bit weird?" The truth was I couldn't feel my right thigh or my right leg.

"It's under heavy anesthesia right now. I promise it'll hurt when the effect wears off." The doctor laughed.

"Thanks…"

"The bullet went in quite deep, and you moving around a lot didn't help. So the surgery for that got a bit messy."

"When can I leave?"

"A few days later. You still need to recover your strength and wait till your wounds close internally."

"Thank you for your help."

"No problem kid. It's what I do. Now, there are some people outside who are anxious to see you. We'll return you to your room now." The doctors helped me stand up and walked me to the door.

They let my friends to carry me to my room. They sat by my bed and asked me about my injuries.

"I'll be fine in a few days, then I'll be back to my old self." I smiled.

"Eh…" All four of them started thinking. "Maybe you shouldn't…"

"Well, your old self is too messy, you never do your own dishes." Julie said.

"Hehe, sorry."

"And you're too lazy." Christy said.

"Can't help it, it's in my genes."

"No it ain't, I'm not a lazy slob like you." Matt said.

"Aw come on…give me a break. At least Kayla likes my old self. Right?" I gave her a smile.

"Well…you are a bit wild in bed…" Kayla said, Christy immediately jumped on me.

"What?! What did you two do together?" Christy yelled.

"Nothing!"

"Doesn't sound like it!"

"Really! Nothing!"

"Tell me!"

"No!"

"Tell me!"

"No!"

Matt and Julie left me with the two girls. Kayla was blushing and after a minute of watching Christy and I yell at each other, she left too.

"Tell me tell me tell me!"

"No way!"

"TELL ME!"

"Only if you do what me and Kayla did together. Hehehe" I gave her a sly smile.

"Say what…?"