Page 138 of Firefly
“Meet me if you want her alive.” Then another sound. Ophelia’s crying in pain somewhere nearby.
My vision blacks out around the edges completely.
“WHERE?”
Brayden gives me the location. An abandoned Augustine property outside Brimstone.
Of course.
Then, right before the line disconnects, I hear Ophelia whisper brokenly through tears, “I love you.”
The line goes dead as silence crashes through the apartment for exactly three seconds, then I move.
Fast. Violent. Focused.
I yank open the hidden lock box beneath my bed, grabbing every gun inside without even thinking.
Extra mags, knives, and a few pistols.
Pure rage pumps through my bloodstream so hard I physically shake.
Nobody touches my Firefly. Nobody fucking hurts her.
By the time I storm back toward the door fully armed, I’m not even thinking like a person anymore.
Just vengeance. Just blood.
“I’m going to kill you Brayden,” I whisper murderously while cocking the gun. “I’m going to make you beg for death before I save my girl.”
Ophelia
“Nightmare-Halsey”
Pain has a sound. I never understood it before today.
Not physical pain. Not bruises, broken ribs, or blood running down your face.
No.
Real pain sounds like Hayden screaming my name while they beat him to death in front of me.
It sounds like chains rattling roughly while I fight hard enough to tear skin from my wrists.
Like my throat shredding apart from begging. Like my own sobs echoing through this abandoned warehouse while Brayden Augustine stands beside me smiling like the fucking devil himself.
Hayden came for me.
Of course he did.
My stupid, violent, beautiful boy came crashing into Hell with bloodlust in his eyes and my name on his lips like he genuinely believed he could save me.
And for one terrible second…
When I heard gunshots outside and screaming, then men dropping around us… I thought he actually might.
Then they overpowered him.
Too many men. Too many guns. Too much rage slowing him down the second he saw what they’d done to me.
