I DO NOT OWN THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES. THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS ATTEMPTED MURDER; READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Howell House. Logan, West Virginia. A week later.

Eventually, Coriolanus Snow's war on Samuel Howell came to a bitter and brutal end. The final battle began when Coryo returned home after a long day of work at the auto shop. He was taking a brief nap before supper when the door opened and he saw Samuel standing in the doorway with a pair of scissors in his hand.

"Hello Samuel, come to give me a haircut, have you?" Coryo asked with a smile, showing Samuel that he wasn't afraid of him. Not after what he had done to Lucy Gray Baird, the only woman he ever loved.

"You fucking bastard, it's you. It's always been you!" Samuel declared angrily as he moved towards the bed. "Stealing Lucy Grey's money, stealing that girl's candy, blaming me for everything that goes wrong; it's you, you've been turning my family against me!"

"You know, if you're going to be a delinquent, you should at least own up to it." Coryo replied calmly. "You didn't think you could hurt Lucy Gray and get away with it, did you? She's mine and mine alone."

"I'll chop off your balls and shove them down your throat!" Samuel exclaimed as his face turned red.

"Poor Samuel. So violent, so disturbed. If you don't watch out, they're going to lock you up in jail and then who will protect sweet Esther?" Coryo asked as he wanted to get Samuel as riled up as possible.

"YOU'LL NEVER TOUCH HER, I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" Samuel roared as he pinned Coryo to the bed with the scissor pointed at his throat.

"Go ahead, kill me, a little piece of advice though: Once you've jammed the scissors into my neck, you'll be tempted to pull them out; don't. The blood will go everywhere and you'll never be able to clean it up." Coryo said as Samuel stayed still, trying to gather the courage to kill the evil Snow. "Do it...Do it." Coryo taunted with a face of stone.

"Coryo, have you seen..." Joshua said as he walked in the room, only to see Samuel over Coryo with scissors at his throat. The capital boy immediately did a 360 turn.

"Joshua, please help me!" Coryo cried out as if he genuinely feared for his life. "Please Samuel...I didn't tell your dad that you stole the candy."

"You piece of shit! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Joshua asked enraged as he pulled Samuel off and began smacking him mercilessly. "Answer me, damn you!"

"Don't be mad at Samuel, he's not himself." Coryo lied as he tried to make himself seem noble.

"The Hell he ain't. He's a bastard and a piss poor excuse of a son. You could have killed him, you bastard!" Joshua exclaimed as he kept smacking the boy.

"He's the killer, you stupid old man. Coryo's a monster!" Samuel cried out as he tried to break from Joshua's grasp.

"Samuel, I only wanted to be your friend." Coryo said, feigning heartbreak in his eyes.

"You ain't going to disgrace my name, boy!" Joshua said as he reached for his belt. But Samuel had been pushed over the edge as he jammed his scissors into Joshua's into Joshua's kneecap.

"FUCK YOU!" Samuel screamed as he pushed his father in the face. Joshua groaned in pain as he collapsed to the ground, shocked by the actions of his only son.

Meanwhile, Coryo had fled and had gone outside where Ruth, Esther, and Lucy Gray were working in the garden. He gave a Tony winning performance as he ran to the arms of his songbird.

"What's wrong, sweetheart? You're scaring me." Lucy Gray said as she took Coryo's face in her hands. The 2 heard a scream and turned to see a tear stricken Samuel with a bloody pair of scissors running out and tackling Coryo.

"I'll fucking kill you, you sick fuck!" he screamed as he tried to stab Snow, but missed every time.

"Stop it Samuel!" Ruth screamed as she held Esther, who was terrified by her brother's actions. Lucy Gray rushed over and tried to pull the Howell boy off of her man.

"Let 'im go...I said, let 'im go, you sonovabitch!" She cried out as Samuel turned around and stuck her across the face. Lucy Gray winced in pain as she fell to the grass.

"You just his skank!" Samuel declared as Coryo'd had enough. He pounced on Samuel and began to beat the tar out of him. Samuel tried to cover his face, but Coryo kept punching and punching for 2 minutes straight as the Howell women begged him to stop. Eventually, Samuel ran the scissor's across Coryo's arm. Coryo winced in pain as the blood sprayed from his forearm. As Coryo fell to the grass, Samuel raised up to deliver the final blow. A gun shot then rang out as everyone was horrified as a red spot on Samuel's chest grew bigger before the boy fell to his knees before falling dead. They turned to see a tearful Joshua leaning against the porch with a bloody kneecap and a revolver in his right hand.

Later that afternoon.

"Are you OK, Coryo?" Lucy Gray asked as she had helped Ruth apply a bandage to the nasty cut on his arm. The police had been called and they were taking statements from everyone about the incident while Samuel's body was being taken to the county morgue.

"I think so..." Coryo replied as his songbird held him close and gave him all the love she could muster as the officer was taking his statement.

"So...what started the fight?" the officer asked as Coryo knew that he had to make himself look the victim. However, he also realized that he had the chance to tie up a final loose end in the bargain.

"He was...cursing me. He said that I'd stolen his father's love, that Mr. Howell wished that I was his son." He lied as Joshua and Ruth looked heartbroken at his claims. "Then Samuel put the scissors to my neck...and said if I didn't take Lucy Gray and get out of Logan...that he'd put me in the crawl space; just like Laurel Simms." This got everyone to stop dead in their tracks.

"Laurel Simms...the kid that went missing o'er a month ago?" the officer asked as Coryo nodded.

"I think he did something to him." Coryo replied as everyone looked horrified at the thought. Lucy Gray didn't like what Coryo was doing, but kept her mouth shut; knowing the alternative was losing him. She made a mental note to back up his story now and grill him later.

"Mr. Howell...we're gonna need to check out that crawl space o' yers." The officer said as Joshua gave him a weak nod.

"It's...this way..." He stuttered as he led the cop into the house while everyone else was dumbfounded.

"Did Samuel kill somebody?" Esther asked as tears rolled down her face.

"It must be a mistake...maybe Sammy didn't know what he was saying...my baby can't be a killer..." Ruth muttered as she didn't want to believe it. However, 5 minutes later, Joshua's blood curdling scream gave them all the proof they needed. Joshua ran outside and collapsed onto the ground while the officer went for his walkie talkie.

"We gonna need some backup here...turns out the Howell boy did kill someone after all." the officer said as Ruth and Esther sobbed and held each other tight. As Lucy Gray buried her face in her lover's chest, Coryo could hear the sound of snow falling on top of Samuel Howell.

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