Page 95 of Z For Butterfly Man
CHAPTER 44
Tristan
The light leaves her eyes. The blue fades to something empty. Something that isn’t her anymore. Just a body. Just meat and bone and cooling blood.
I’ve seen it in my head a thousand times. I’ve feared it. I’ve craved it. Every time I’ve pictured her lifeless face, her flesh I’ve carved to wear as mine, it felt like she was still there.
Now that it’s happened, it doesn’t feel like the fantasy I’ve imagined.
She’s gone. Reagan is dead.
“No.” The word comes out small. Childish.You can’t leave me. How could you do this, darling? How could you just leave me like that?
Brandon is screaming. Doing compressions. Breathing into her mouth. Begging her to come back. I know she won’t. I’ve seen enough death to recognize it. She’s gone. I killed her.
And yet I crawl on top of her and push Brandon aside. He fights me, but he’s weak and injured. I shove him aside.
My hands cup her face. It’s still warm. “Reagan, come back.” I shake her. “Come back to me. You don’t get to leave. You can’t leave me like this.”
Haunt me then! The murdered do haunt their murderers. Be with me always—take any form—drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!
Her head lolls. Lifeless.
“REAGAN!” I bury my face in her chest and sob uncontrollably. “You were supposed to be mine.”
I shift my blurry stare toward the gun on the floor. The one that killed her. “I said I’d carve a hole in the sky just to follow you. I will follow you, darling. Wherever you go. Whatever comes next. I’ll find you there, too.” I pick up the gun and look at her one last time. “You’re my obsession, my addiction, my salvation and my destruction as I will be yours. You’re the reason I breathe, the reason I live, the reason I kill.”
Brandon’s gaze catches my hand as I place the muzzle under my chin. “Morra, don’t.”
“She’s all I had,” I tell him.
He lunges too late. I pull the trigger.
The world explodes into light and pain and then—
Nothing.
Just dark.
And somewhere in that dark, I swear I feel her.
My little butterfly. Finally, completely mine.
Epilogue
Did any of Tristan, Birdie or Jacob survive? Read the epilogue to find out
Reread this series to enjoy all the hidden clues that have been put there! I promise it’ll be a different experience, as if you’re reading the series for the first time.
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Thanks for reading and goodbye.
NJ over and out.
THE END
