The Innocents, Nathan Senthil [best life changing books .TXT] 📗

“I don’t have time for this.” Gabriel clenched his teeth, trying to concentrate. “Drop your friend and kneel!”

Ryatt didn’t drop Leo. He gently placed him down but refused to kneel. “Shoot me. I can’t hurt my mom by going to prison.”

“Should’ve thought about that when you pulled the trigger for the very first time, under that bridge.” Unable to lift his gun arm, Gabriel dragged himself towards Ryatt, his shoes drawing crimson trails behind him.

“You may be fast with a gun,” Gabriel whispered once he was near Ryatt, “but I’m fast with…”

Ryatt asked, “You’re fast with what?”

Gabriel smiled. “This.”

And he quickly slapped one end of a handcuff on Ryatt’s wrist, the other locked to Gabriel’s own.

Ryatt looked shocked, but that slowly transformed into a smile. “You don’t remember me at all, do you junior?”

Appalled, Gabriel tried to open his mouth but it was cottony. His skin felt cold and clammy, and things were getting very confusing. The blood loss must have caught up with him.

Finally, gravity triumphed, the handcuff being the only thing slowing his plunge. He gained some of the consciousness back from the shock of the fall, and he lay still. The gun slipped from his numb fingers.

Ryatt, whose arm was pulled down, sat Indian style on the ground, beside Gabriel.

Did Ryatt say something just now? Something important? Gabriel couldn’t recall. “I don’t think I’m gonna be conscious for long.”

“I agree. Give me the key and I’ll take you to a hospital.”

Shivering, Gabriel inserted his hand into the jeans pocket and brought out the handcuffs’ key.

“That’s it. Give it to me.” Ryatt extended his arm.

Gabriel brought his shaking hand up. When it was near his face, he put the key into his mouth and swallowed it.

The last thing Gabriel saw before passing out was Ryatt laughing and shaking his head. “You’re a stubborn bastard, just like your old man.”

Chapter 49

May 13, 2019. 10:01 A.M.

Gabriel resurfaced from oblivion, then sank again, before gasping and waking once more. Gurney rolled, overhead lights flickered past, and white uniforms huddled over him. Ghosts. Loud ghosts.

Gabriel grabbed one and pulled it close. “Lolly?”

The ghost shouted. “Sir, please don’t stress yourself. You’ve lost a lot of blood. We’re taking you to the ICU.”

“I know that,” Gabriel said. “Where’s the man who was cuffed to me?”

“W-we don’t know,” the ghost said. “You were dropped at the entrance.”

“By whom?”

“An older African American gentleman in a Camaro…”

How the hell did Ryatt manage to unlock the handcuffs? Gabriel lifted his arm. The chains were there alright, but obviously not holding the most wanted bank robber in the US.

A thin metal wire protruded from the handcuffs’ keyhole. Was… was that a paperclip?

Suddenly everything felt so utterly hopeless. All the work he and his dad had done was for nothing. Lolly had disappeared yet again. And Gabriel knew, this time he had escaped for good.

As his heart shriveled in agony, the blackness that enveloped him was actually a blessing.

Chapter 50

May 13, 2019. 10:30 A.M.

Ryatt drove across the city center, through the streets he had known as a kid and was hit with a dreary nostalgia. The porno mag and VHS shop had been replaced by a fancy Apple Store. Fitting since it was technology that killed them.

Killed. Everyone and everything Ryatt knew ceased to exist. Thomas, Leo, Young Boys Inc., Bugsy, Roman, and the Detroit Alliance. Everything had died.

Everything except Ryatt and Iris. Only they survived the old Detroit.

When Ryatt had called his home phone earlier, his mom was unavailable. Seeing that the Chase boy had discovered Ryatt’s noxious secret, the cops and the FBI couldn’t be far behind. But Iris not answering the phone made little sense. They should have tapped the line and forced his mom to pick the call, so that they could track or trap him.

But they didn’t.

Meaning Ryatt might have a bit of time left, until Gabriel gained consciousness. He must quickly take Iris and leave the state before that.

Five minutes later, he turned onto the cul-de-sac leading to the back of Goodwill. Chances of pigs watching this side were slim. No one knew about this route.

The rundown plot of vacant space that once festered with vermin was now a basketball court, and kids were shooting hoops.

Ryatt left the keys in the ignition, hoping some desperate boy would steal the car. He skirted the ground and crossed the path that snaked to the rear door. No hobo piss in the backyard anymore, but a small garden with daisies in it.

Ryatt unlocked the door with his key and stepped in.

Iris had renovated the shop in the early 2000s, tearing down the walls, making it a single space. What used to be their “kitchen” and “bedrooms” were now aisles and aisles of candies. However, she had a separate room for goods, where she also ate her lunch. It housed a portable stove and some utensils.

“Hello?” his mom called out from the billing counter in the front.

“It’s me, Ma.” Ryatt ambled inside.

Her demeanor suddenly changed. She stiffened for a moment and then galloped around the table, walking purposefully in his direction.

As she marched towards Ryatt, he spotted purple bruises on her wrists. Enraged, he wished to revive Bugsy, only to kill him again. Maybe when they met in hell, Ryatt would torture the son of a bitch for eternity.

Iris halted two feet from him and stared, her mouth tautened into a thin line.

It unnerved Ryatt, his stomach churning. He hadn’t seen his mom so spiteful.

Her dry lips parted, her voice a whisper. “Are you Lolly?”

Ryatt did a double take, and that one moment of hesitation was all she needed.

Iris’s face curled in disgust like she had just touched a hairy spider.

“Ma—”

She slapped him