“Just like she didn’t want to kill my father,” Matt said. “She did that all the same. When the dice were down, and real life demanded a sacrifice, Becca walked up to the plate and paid tribute. It would only be fair if I paid my own share.”
The boy wasn’t completely gone. He couldn’t be. He was just in an even deeper place, one where all light and method of escape seemed futile. He was like a kid who got off the wagon and the first real-time when they have to deal with something without alcohol in their veins and liver, they think why not go for it and do what you wanted to do anyway. Life had dealt you a bad hand, and what were you supposed to do with it?
You could try and play it, but flipping the table over is so much easier. It was like the time all those years ago when Beth died, and Walter bought some liquor, thinking about trying to get back on the wagon and just go for it. Like them, he had stopped. Matt could stop too. All he had to do was try.
“Killing us won’t bring Jolie back,” Walter said, regretting it immediately. “When my wife died, I wanted to do terrible things to people, even worse than when my kids died. I know what you’re going through here, Matt, and I doubt Jolie would approve.”
“No, nothing will bring her back,” Matt said. “If none of this had happened, then in a couple of months I too could have been a father, a better one then Robbie or Nigel. I could have made someone’s life better, making sure they felt loved. Becca took that from me, just like she took Nigel.”
The wind around them grew stronger. Snow started to fly about them. Down the street, police cars and sirens were blaring, along with an ambulance or two and a fire truck, though exactly what fire was going to be put out wasn’t apparent to Walter. If anything, a fire at this time would be good to warm up the cold air around them.
Matt laughed, two lines of tears running down his cheeks.
“I thought about naming the child Robbie,” Matt said. “If it was a boy. At the time, Robbie had given me everything. He had cured me, my mom, himself. Life was going all so well.
“But Robbie was a snake in the Garden of Eden, promising things and then biting you once it got its way. He never tried to find a cure for me until he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and my mother had cancer. I was always an obstacle to him. Becca herself is quiet on this matter because she knows I speak the truth.”
Rebecca stirred next to Walter.
“My father made many mistakes, Matt,” she said. “Stop being like him and don’t make any more.”
“So, you would have me die?” Matt said. “Wither away into nothing, so you get to live?”
“You saved me, Matt,” Walter said. “You could have let me die, let the life leave my body all of those hours ago at the rest stop. But you didn’t. You said it was because you thought you could turn me to your side, but I think it was something different.”
“And what, pray tell, is that, Walter?” Matt said. “What inherent wisdom can you bestow upon us?”
“You don’t want anyone to die here tonight, Matt,” Walter said. “That includes me, and it includes your sister. You don’t want to do this.”
“And here we go ’round and ’round,” Matt said. The sky around him started to radiate; green light flowed up and down his arms. “We’ve been through this all before, Walter, and I doubt that either one of us is going to make any headway.”
Becca activated her father’s NaU, her skin turning purple.
No, no, no. There didn’t need to be a fight here. There was still some way to—
And then Matt hit him.
Walter was thrown down the street. The pavement broke under him, and his insides turned to jelly. He crashed into a parked car down the street. The side of the car had jagged up and was sticking out of his chest.
He might be able to regrow back everything, but he still felt pain enough. He fell off the side of the car onto the ground.
Down the street, Matt and his sister were going at it.
Chapter Twenty-One
Becca and Carol resent me for making us leave Matt and his friends behind. They’ll get over it, though. Once they see the power that Becca has, they’ll understand why Matt and his friends would kill her for it. At least they have to see it. If only I see it, then it’s bad. If they see it, then I’m just logical.
-Robbie’s Journal
Becca tried to view the man above her as a monster, as someone who was going to try and kill her and hurt everyone else that got into his way. He had killed Kent only hours before, and he had stopped Walter’s death by giving him Danni’s and Peter’s NaU.
But instead, all she saw was her brother.
“I won’t fight you, Matt,” she said.
“That’s the best news I’ve heard all day,” he said.
She felt his touch on her. She resisted it, though, bringing out her father’s NaU. Most of Matt’s NaU would be ineffective against Robbie’s NaU. Perhaps that was why he had given it to his daughter, knowing full well that Matt wouldn’t be able to stop her.
“Robbie might have given you the strongest NaU,” Matt said, “but I have four of them in me.”
His eyes grew pink.
Becca doubled over in pain, bringing her hands up to her ears. A high-pitched scream was coming from every radio in the immediate area. The people down the end of the street were all doubling over and falling to the ground.
“Kent never tried experimenting with his NaU,” Matt said. “If he had, he would have realized that he was one of the strongest amongst us. He might not have been
