Page 58 of Devil May Lie

He riffled through his right pocket for the correct vial, pulling out one with a gold cap which he discarded carelessly onto the ground. There was the brief sound of shattering glass, but that swept away into the abyss as swiftly as anything else.

The next one had a red cap. Not right either.

Maybe it had been the gold after all…

Shit.

He couldn’t think straight.

At least he found the syringe. He’d need that for when he—

“Bergie,” the tone was different this time, off and shaky. Scared.

His gaze snapped up and he gasped when he saw red appear at the center of her chest and begin to bloom outward. “No.”

They hadn’t gone anywhere. He hadn’t followed her!

“We can’t go down there.” He wanted to reach for her again, but if he did he’d get her dirty. Their dad hated when they were dirty. He couldn’t do it. He’d mess up her dress. “No.”

But how could he not grab her? There was a niggling in the back of his mind, something bothering him about the scenario. Like he’d made this choice before and it’d messed everything up.

What was it?

“Don’t touch him. He’s volatile in this state,” a male voice spoke close to Berga’s left ear, familiar.

Annoying.

He swatted whoever it was away.

Someone cursed and then there was pain in his cheek. The hit took him down and his palm landed in broken glass. It didn’t matter though. His eyes found the girl in pink again, desperately crawling toward her.

He had to do something before it was too late.

Wait.

No. That wasn’t right. It was too late.

“Too late…” he mumbled the words, but they felt foreign on his tongue. When he turned his hand around, there were tiny shards of glass sticking out of his palm. “…I don’t need a bandage.”

“Kaz don’t!” that annoying voice again. Why wouldn’t it shut up?! Couldn’t that person see Berga was trying to think?!

A fist shot through the girl in pink’s chest, straight through like she was ghost. It landed against Berga’s nose. There was a crack and a gush of blood, but he shoved it away and got back up.

The girl held form for a moment longer, then she shifted, breaking away into colorful bursts of dust before his eyes.

“Bergie.”

“No.” His bloodied hands grabbed at nothing, grains of pink slipping through his fingers like sand before vanishing in the wind. “No.”

She was here.

Right here.

She was here and then—

Berga lifted his head, mind finally processing another person there, a man, staring down at him with rage in his somewhat familiar eyes.

Rage?

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