I rang the bell and waited for him to answer the door, my heart rising and falling in rage and my fists clenched in a tight ball. The door opened and without wasting a second, I pushed myself inside, brushing past him into the house.
Ryan gave me a hard look and stared at me intently.
"What the fuck, man? How would you barge..."
Before he could finish speaking, I landed him a punch right across his face. He staggered a little and steadied himself with his hand clutching to the sofa.
"You fucking asshole. You had the balls to go an inch close to her even after I warned your fucking ass to stay away!"
Ryan chuckled and stood straight again. He wiped his now bloodied nose with the back of his hand and right this moment, he looks nothing less than the psychopathic killer that he was.
"You are a smart guy, Connor. And since you are here instead of the morgue, I am pretty sure she made it alive. How unfortunate."
I gritted my teeth and rushed him, grabbing him by the collar and hitting his frame against the wall. He laughed with the pain.
"You did this, didn't you?"
"How rhetorical. Of course, it was me, you moron."
I punched him in the face again and he fell to his knees. He spits out blood and laughed again. His laugh pierced my ears and my insides twisted in disgust. I had come for his tears. Not his laugh.
"You are such a coward, Connor." He tried to get on his feet again. "You know everything. Everything. But you do not have the balls to tell on me."
I could not believe he was telling me this, right now. This asshole. I could not believe he was using my weakness against me.
"You hold friendship with such an annoying loyalty that makes me want to throw up." He chuckled again. "You cannot let go of the past Ryan. That weak little boy who always needed you."
I was instantly teleported back to sixth grade in a school where Ryan was a thin boy with weak limbs who was always bullied by the older boys. The boy was always teased and never engaged in anything. The boy who I always stood up for even though I knew I was only going to end up with bruises and twisted arms.
My friend.
It was always me and him. I hated all the parties my mother made me attend. At those parties, I had to wear the finest of suits and play the perfect child. But I always looked forward to these parties because I knew he was going to be there. And then, we would escape the parties and hide atop the high roofs, pointing shooters at people and hitting them with pebbles from the top. It was our little secret.
But time changed everything. College changed everything. Graduation and facing the real world changed everything. And I lost the only friend I had...to himself.
"You still don't get it, do you?" He was standing in front of me now, but still cautious enough to keep the distance between us. "You can end everything. You can give me out. Tell them about Lilian, Tessa, Kelly and the others. Even your fake girlfriend. Kenzie Seattle."
My nose flared at the mention of Kenzie. And worse, at the fact that Ryan was right and I was only a coward who could not control the things he does.
"It hurts me that you still think I am that little boy from yesterday." The corner of his lip lifted in an evil grin. "Oh, how wrong you are...dear best friend. How wrong."
I could feel my body weaken and once again, I was plunged fast into the reality that no matter what I did, no matter how hard I tried to hide his secrets, he was no longer the boy I used to know. He was a man now. A dangerous blood-thirsty killer who was after the girl who held the strings to my heart. The mother of my child.
"You know..." I found my strength again at the mere thought of Kenz and her pregnancy. "I might not have been able to do anything about the murder of the other women. I might not have the guts to tell on you. To lock you behind bars and give you what you deserve. But if you ever dare to go a foot close to Kenzie again, I will make sure I destroy you myself."
"Fine." Ryan finally gathered the rest of his confidence and he began to walk toward me, closing the space between us. "I will let go of your woman. But first of all, she has to return what's mine."
"She doesn't have anything that belongs to you." He was standing right in front of me and we had our gazes locked on each other. I wished I have the guts to tear him apart, limb by limb until his soul finally leaves his body.
I wished I didn't know him as a boy. I wished I never promised to stand beside him and protect him from the world...even if he was in the wrong.
"Oh, but of course she does. And I can bet on my life that you sure know about it too." He sneered. "You know, getting rid of her would be doing you and my lovely sister a favour too. You'd never have to choose between the both of them anymore. So, permit me, dear best friend,...to caress my knife down the neck of your woman and slit her pretty throat..."
The sound of my fist cracking right against his nose stopped him abruptly and he stared wide-eyed at the blood that stained his hand when he reached to touch his nose again. With a cry of rage, Ryan charged at me and sent a blow right on my upper eye. The pain stung but I did not have the time to brood over it. I grabbed Ryan's hand when he tried to hit me again and twisted it behind his back, causing him to cry again in pain. He freed himself with so much force and lurched at me again, this time, by my waist. His force sent me flying to the ground and as he tried to pin me to the ground and sent another blow to my face, I quickly pushed my weight off the ground, rolling on my back till he was the one whose back kissed the tiled floor. I raised my hand and sent him a blow on the face. When I tried to blow him again, he shifted his head and I missed by an inch, causing my fist to collide with the ground with so much force that I could hear my knuckles crack from the impact. Seeing this as an opportunity, Ryan pushed me off him and scrambled off to the sofa.
I groaned at the pain on my hand and when I lifted my head, Ryan was towering over me, a pistol in his hand.
"You little brat." He spat on my face.
"You are so pathetic, Ryan."
He chuckled at my reply and cocked the gun.
"Yea? You think I am pathetic?"
"You are going to rut in hell for everything you have done."
He laughed again. "Really?" His laugh slipped from his face immediately and his countenance switches to a dark one. At this point, I was beginning to suspect Ryan had an issue of Botherline Personality Disorder.
"I guess I'll let you burn in hell first."
My guts tightened and I shut my eyes, waiting for the bullet to hit me.
And then the sound of the gun filled the room.
