Page 219 of Under an Endless Moon

Twice more before it finally busted open and slammed against the interior wall.

All five of them piled in, ready for a fight, eyes scanning the area.

Confusion wound through him when they found the living room empty. No motion at all. Until he heard the tiny moan echo from somewhere deeper in the house.

He shared a look with River before they went running, boots thundering across the floor before they dove through a nook and into a kitchen.

A howl of pain ripped out of Otto when he made it inside, and he slipped through the streams of blood weaving across the floor as he fumbled to his sister’s side. He dropped to his knees with a wail.

She was surrounded by a pool of blood, her brown hair saturated, her throat slit and gaping wide.

Gasping, he pulled her into his arms, begging, “Haddie. Oh God, Haddie. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Grief bound. So tight he couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t see.

“Haddie. Oh God, Haddie. Please, no. No.”

River was shouting, “Raven, Raven!”

Otto could hardly look that way. His stomach revolted when he saw Raven in her own pool of blood, face down before River turned her over. He brushed back the black locks from her hair as he felt for her pulse.

She moaned again, and River screamed, “Call an ambulance!”

Raven. Oh God, Raven. And Haddie.His spirit moaned. A guttural cry that begged for the both of them.

The rest of their crew gaped in horror from the opening before Kane snapped out of it and pulled his cell from his pocket and called 9-1-1.

“Hurry,” Otto mumbled, brushing back Haddie’s hair, rocking her and rocking her.

Hurry.

Except he knew it was too late. Haddie was too light. Too still. All wrong.

The loud rumble of a truck engine turning over thundered from outside. It revved high, tires squealing as it sped away.

Motherfuckers running.

He didn’t make to chase them. He held his sister knowing it was going to be the last chance that he got to do it.

Let them fuckin’ run.

Let them know what was coming for them.

Because if there was only one thing that remained in his life, it would be hunting them.

And when he found them, they would come to their end.

“We ride tomorrow.” River gripped his shoulder, dipping down to try to get in his line of sight.

Otto sat on his bed propped against the headboard.

Numb.

Dead inside.

All except for the rage that simmered in a place inside him that he hadn’t known existed. The famished need for vengeance that fermented in the hollowed-out hole that had been carved in the deepest, darkest recess of his soul.

It was the only feeling that remained.

---