Page 134 of Madness Behind the Mask
The blackness comes.
It’s gone.
I jump from one place to the other, my fury building with each failed attempt to stay in that place, to linger for more than a second. But I know she’s in it because I’ve just caught her scent.
A fleeting drop in the wind that I can’t hold.
Can’t track.
My heart thundering, I growl like a man obsessed and phase again.
Forty-Four
ANTONIO
25OCTOBER1961
There isapoetic justice to this – killing the last ofthat bitch’schildren on his own wedding day, the same way I tried to killherall those years ago.I hope his death is whatendsher. I hope it makes her heartfinallygive out as she lies on her deathbed.
Perhaps then Siome can rest in peace.
Liningup the shot fromthespireof a churchsix blocks away from the Shadow’s street,I place my finger on the trigger.Guns have come so far in the last four decades, and I have been practicing hunting with them up in the Blue Mountains. I haven’t missed a single shot in over a year.I’m not going to miss this one.
The butt ofmyrifle presses into my shoulder.
The breeze picks up, and I wait for it to die, my sights on the curly black hair of Sau’s firstborn. That title shows everything that is wrong with the Shadow Domain. Whentheir children die, they just wipe them from history as if they never were. Monsters like that, who can forget their own damn children, don’t deserve to live.
The breeze dies.
The music starts up as the bride arrives.
Ryo turns to look at her.
His face lights up.
I fire,splattering his brains all over the officiant behind him.
I swing my rifle over to the Shadows’ residence, seeing if anyone comes out. The commotion at the wedding is frantic and chaotic. Even at this distance, I can hear all the screaming.
Yet, the Shadows’ door stays closed.
No one comes out to see about their little boy.
“Fucking monsters,” I mutter as I pull my rifle up and turn away from the Shadows’ street.Shedidn’tdeserve to be a mother, not like Siome did.
Not like us.
My chest tight, I sling the gun over my shoulder.Ihope Sau rots away on her deathbed.
But if not, I’ll be back to kill her too.
The bitch is actually dead.
I watch as the Shadow Domain rips itself apart, once-allies attacking each other on their street. The Shadow bloodline is gone,and Caden is about to be overthrownor perhaps even killed. He was a good leader once, but now he’s just a shell.
I doubt he’ll even put up a fight.
Not that I care about him. He was never on my list to kill.
