Just a little thing before the next chapter goes up. It's probably going to be up sometime in the next few days hopefully. This should tide everyone over until then.
Dying Light is owned by Techland, I'm sure you all know that by now.
My headset beeped. In almost a trance, I pressed the button.
"Hey Ari." Jade. Shit. How was I going to tell her this?
"Hey Jade." I replied wearily. "What's up?"
"You haven't seen Rahim have you?" I winced. I'd hoped to make it back to the Tower before this happened. "He hasn't been answering me, and the only time he does that is when he's with you. You got him out there at the Nest?"
"No," I snapped, a little too harshly. I could almost see Jade wincing away from the radio. I sighed and sat down next to Val. "Sorry. We aren't at the Nest. Not that one, at least. Look it's been a rough night, can we just do this when I get back? I don't want to do it over the radio." It slipped out before I could stop it. Val winced beside me, she could see this coming, and probably thought I deserved it.
In all honesty, I probably did.
"What do you mean, 'don't want to do it over radio?' What happened?" Silence. "You didn't? Fuck! Where is he? I'm gonna kill him." I stayed quiet. I didn't trust myself to say it. "He's… he's dead, isn't he?"
"I'm sorry." It was all I could choke out, before tears started to fall again. I could hear things being thrown around in my ear. I ignored it as the reality of what I had just done hit me like a Demolisher.
I'd killed Rahim. All those afternoons, sitting on the roof, watching the sunset. Watching as the last rays cut between the far off cityscape, embers dancing in the air.
Our first kiss. Lit by a single flashlight, bouncing off the mirror behind us, cards scattered on the concrete.
Every night after that. Talking, sitting, doing nothing important.
All that was gone. It felt like a shard of ice through my chest. But in the middle of that shard, was a spark.
He lied to you. The spark hissed. He did. He lied about being bitten. Why would he do that to me? We held no secrets from each other. So why would he not tell me this? I could have helped him.
I still can. Pushing myself away from Val, I walked back into the terminal, over to the car that held Rahim. I pulled back the door.
He looked so undignified, motionless in the middle of the car. I sat him up against the wall carefully, it was the least I could do. After everything he'd done for me. It seemed wrong to leave him here. But I had to. Reaching into the top pocket of his pants, I pulled out a folded photograph. I unfolded it.
I sat, smiling at the camera. Jade sat to the left of me, Nadeau to the right. Rahim stood behind me, an arm around my shoulders. We were happy. It was the only photo of all of us together. I heard Val step up into the car behind me.
"So what do we do now?" She asked the question that had been on my mind since… since I had to kill Rahim.
"We leave. I can't go back there, not after this. There has to be somewhere we can go."
"There is. Follow me." And with that, we turned and left.
On a cliff, far to the east of the city, a small wooden cross stuck from the ground. It was nothing fancy, he wouldn't have wanted that. He was always down to earth, an extravagant display was just not him.
A bundle of flowers was tied to the base, the petals ruffled softly in the wind. A single, plastic photo was nailed to the middle.
Four people smiled happily. As if nothing could ever go wrong.
Tears ran from my eye. A smile sat on my face, much like the one in the photo.
At least for Rahim, he would always be happy now.