“Oh—last name goes first?”
He nodded.
“Hui. Lang.” The words clunked from Brendan’s tongue, and Aiden chuckled at the attempt. “I’ll keep practicing.”
“Mmm.” A full smile spread across his face. He leaned harder against Brendan’s chest and allowed the warmth to take him away.
• • •
“Are you two decent?” Diane’s voice called from the other side of the door.
The two boys shared a glance. Aiden pushed himself away as Brendan turned toward the door.
“Do you want us to be indecent?” he called.
The door flew open, and the hallway light streamed into the darkness.
“Someone grew a mouth while I was watching people kill each other." Diane smirked. She held her hand out and pulled each of them up from the ground.
Aiden’s numb legs almost collapsed underneath him.Did it really take that long?he wondered, shaking his legs awake. He looked over to Diane with clean hair, clean face, and clean clothes.
She crossed her arms. “Let’s go get your stepsiblings and get the hell out of here.”
“Wait.” Aiden grabbed her arm. “Are there any survivors?”
She afforded a glance. “Your stepmother. She escaped after they turned their guns on each other. Quite impressive really. She certainly knows how to survive if nothing else.”
The weight against his chest lifted into the air. “Anyone else?” Aiden pressed.
Diane sighed. “I suppose Chen is still alive rightnow, but he’ll bleed to death.”
“I’ll go help him.” He turned toward the meeting room.
“Why?”
He continued walking forward. “Because that’s what I want to do.”
“Wait.” Diane shoved Brendan back into the closet and closed the door. “You don’t want to see it, Prince Charming. There’s blood everywhere.” She followed after him.
The strong scent of iron curled in his nose before he even reached the door. Hand steady, he slid the door open to a room of bodies. Groans croaked from the ground, corpses laid flat with eyes wide open, and guns scattered in the crimson blood pooling on the floor. Diane skipped around Aiden, and he watched her swiftly navigate with her heeled boots avoiding the splashes of red.
He followed her, staring at the ground with every step he took. He could see the chandelier hanging on the ceiling reflected in its entirety of the blood that streamed from Mr. Yang—dead and riddled with bullets. Aiden clenched his mouth. Mr. Yang’s eyes stared at the ceiling, and his mouth was agape not with his usual smirk, but with a scream. His rigid shoulders and tangled legs looked to still want to run from where Mr. Yang died.
Mr. Chen wheezed on the ground in the corner of the room. Blood fell from two bullet wounds and a slash in his shoulder. Diane lowered to the ground and forced Mr. Chen’s hand to press against the smaller wound. She ripped up the shirt of a fallen guard and tightly wrapped the remaining wounds. “There. You’ll survive. How lucky you are.”
Mr. Chen’s eyes shifted over to Aiden, and recognition filtered in through the haze of pain and desperation. “I didn’t mean to kill your mother.” The broken words dropped unevenly from Mr. Chen’s tongue.
Strangely, Aiden believed him. Mr. Chen reached for him with pleading eyes, and sympathy welled inside him. He reached to grab Mr. Chen’s hand.
“It was an accident. A misunderstanding.”
Aiden stopped reaching.
Mr. Chen’s voice oscillated in volume and pitch. His legs pushed against the ground, but his body remained twisted in the corner of which he hid. With a cry, he fell over, splashing into blood. Diane quickly returned to Aiden’s side with a roll of her eyes, but Aiden froze, watching Mr. Chen’s continued struggles. He tried to turn over, but he stayed frozen on his back, gazing upon Aiden upside down. “You must believe me—it was a misunderstanding.”
“I do.” Aiden said, hiding his shaking hands.
“Then do not do this. Do not destroy Infinite. This isn’t just our legacy. It’syours. It’s everyone’s. From the workers without education to those in the actual business. This is our community. Our home.”
