Page 60 of Agony

The rational part of his brain reminded him of the fact that he hadn’t known about the cages.

But was that any excuse? He knew Solomon had been a sick fuck.

Fisher had begged him to release him that day and he hadn’t listened.

Instead, he’d walked away.

Didn’t that make him Fisher’s abuser? He wanted to rage at the injustice of it all and his own stupidity.

One thing he knew for certain was…

Fisher would never forgive him.

And he would never forgive himself.

“Justice, don’t shoot.” Steel’s voice came from the entrance, near the aisle of boxes.

“I won’t,” he croaked.

Axel went ballistic with his hair raised, barking and snarling.

“Down,” Justice said and the dog dropped to his haunches.

Steel’s boots crunched on the junk-riddled concrete floor and something crackled beneath his footsteps. The former soldier cursed, the sound muffled.

Glancing that way, Justice found Steel holding a hand over his mouth and nose.

Axel snarled and Steel gave the dog a wary look.

“He won’t kill me, will he?”

As much time as he had spent with Steel, the guy still had a healthy respect for his dog.

“I told him we’re friends.”

“Yeah… that’s why Cujo acted like he wanted to eat me just now.”

Justice would have smirked if he could have mustered the energy, but faced with this fucked up place and his own burgeoning guilt, he found only bleakness.

After a moment, Steel spoke nasally from behind his hand.

“Can we talk outside?”

Rather than answer, Justice walked out of the cage past Steel, and out the door of the warehouse with Axel at his side. He stood in the afternoon sun and gulped in huge breaths of air. Steel joined him and did the same.

“How’d you know I was here?”

“Wrath called Real.”

Justice gazed at his friend. All the horror and pain returned and crushed him as he imagined Fisher subjected to a place like that. What he was feeling must have shown on his face because Steel gripped his shoulder hard.

“What is it?”

“Solomon caged them like animals and I did the same thing.”

“Look, you didn’t know,” his friend said, giving him a firm shake.

“I should have!” Justice snapped. Shaking off Steel’s hand, he walked to the end of the narrow parking lot and gazed through the chain-link fence at the junkyard beyond.

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