Page 84 of Unhinged Cain

I punched in the code, but the door wouldn’t budge. Son of a bitch, he changed it. Luckily, I’d been prepared for a time this might happen. Not that I thought it would be Abel that I’d have to use the override code for, but in hindsight, he’d always been the ultimate threat. My fingers held down the four buttons that would release the door and override the system.

As soon as the lock clicked open, I was bombarded with Abel’s annoying one-hit-wonder music and an ear-piercing scream. Fear was an emotion I’d never felt, but I felt it now. It felt like an ice bath had been dumped over my head as rage boiled in my gut.

“Cain,” she screamed. “Cain, help,” Sunshine yelled for me even though she didn’t know I was there. “No, get away from me.”

The part of me that I’d locked up tight when I was a child, the part that was a wild and savage creature wanting to rip the hearts from its prey, stormed to the surface as I shoved the heavy door, slamming it open, shaking the thick wall.

Gone was the methodical man with control. He’d been pushed aside and replaced with the raging bull that ran across the floor as my brother lifted a knife over Kirby’s face. All I could see was that knife piercing her skin. A roar that could have rivaled any beast ripped from my chest as I leaped over the table at my brother. Abel had been so focused that he didn’t see or hear me coming, and his eyes went wide as I tackled him to the ground. He hit hard as I rode him to the ground, and the knife skidded away from his hand.

“I asked you….” My fist found his face, the blow so hard that I heard his nose break over the sound of the music.

“I ordered you….” My other fist found his face. Blood flew, and a tooth flew out of his mouth, but I still didn’t care.

“And I warned you to stay away from her. You never listen. You never fucking listen.”

I hit him three more times before standing, my hands shaking and covered in blood. Abel groaned, his eyes rolling back in his head. I stood and walked over to the knife he’d dropped. Bending over, I grabbed the knife, a knife from my set, something else he was never supposed to touch, and waited for him to stumble to his feet.

He was a mess. Blood coated his face, smeared his hair, and ran down his chin in a steady line. Abel’s nose was broken and off-center, so I waited for the old protective sensation to surface, that thing that would stop me from killing him like all the other times. But it didn’t rise. There was simply nothing as I stared at my brother’s battered face.

His hand slowly reached for the table I didn’t dare look at because Kirby had been quiet since I came storming in, and I wasn’t ready to confirm if she was indeed dead. She was a glimmer and spark of life inside of me. Sunshine had become the one thing that made me feel like more than just a killer. I’d always have that, I would be a legend, but I’d been looking for her and didn’t know it. I couldn’t picture my life without her and if Abel took that….

“I was doing this for us,” Abel said as he pulled himself to his knees and slowly stood.

“No, you did this for yourself. If you really wanted to do something for me, you’d have done what I asked to begin with.”

“You don’t see it, but I do….” Abel coughed out blood and spat it on the floor. I snarled at him as my body shook with the fury that narrowed in the world, so only he existed. “She’s changed you. She made you a weak pussy. You’re pussy whipped, and it’s going to get you caught.”

I laughed, the sound bitter as I took a step closer, and Abel stumbled back.

“Is that a joke? Have you ever looked in the mirror to see the fuck up you are? The thing I have to control so that you don’t get us caught every time you walk out the door?”

I took another step, and he rounded the table to stand at Sunshine’s head. Even though I didn’t want to, I looked at her face. Her eyes were swollen, black bruises already forming from where she’d been hit. A red handprint was around her throat, but her chest was rising and falling, and other than her feet, which seemed to have taken a lot of damage and dyed her socks red with blood, she seemed unharmed. A tightness in my chest released as I realized she was alive and going to be okay.

“For years, I’ve looked after you, made excuses for you, cleaned up one disaster after another, and ensured that we remained safe while you did everything you could to fuck with that. Do you want to know what Kirby has done to me, brother? She has given me the gift of not having to fucking worry every second about what I’ll come home to. I’m tired of you and your shit and your out-of-control killing.”

I took another step, and he moved around the table, his eyes watching my every move, but it didn’t matter. Abel loved to kill, but I was the beast in the darkness, and I wanted his blood.

“But it’s always been us, the two amigos, the unshakable bond, Frick and Frack. I am the Ren to your Stimpy.”

“Stop it, stop quoting that bullshit to me.” My muscles coiled, and with a single jump, I landed on the table like I was doing a box jump and straddled Kirby’s body protectively as my brother stumbled away and fell on his ass. This was the primal side of me, the part of me that was wilder than man. This part of me that longed for death, I could taste it on my tongue. “She is mine, not yours, mine. The only thing that had been holding us together was my tolerance of your crap, but not anymore.”

I spun the blade I knew so well in my hand and prepared to jump off the table. I could picture the feel of the blade piercing my brother’s heart and what it would look like to watch him die.

“Don’t do it,” Sunshine said softly, the only voice that could cut through the visions of murder dancing before my eyes. “Don’t kill him. Kick him out, stop speaking to him, lock him up, but don’t kill him.”

“What?” we both said at the same time.

Her lips were swollen, and she licked them before continuing. “He’s your brother.”

“I don’t care. He knew that you were special to me, and he was going to take that from me. Does that sound like a real brother to you?”

My hand flexed and relaxed on the blade as my mind screamed to kill him. But Kirby lifted her hand and laid it on my knee, and it was just enough to calm my mind to listen to her.

“No, he’s a fucking prick, but you can’t kill him because of me. Maybe not today or a month from now, but at some point, you’ll miss him and resent that you killed him for me.” My hands worked at the bindings that held her hands as she spoke while my eyes stayed trained on Abel. I shook my head. “Cain, don’t let him become the thing that comes between us.”

I stared down at her beaten face with her eye swollen closed. My Sunshine’s beautiful face that my brother tried to destroy. I screamed bloody murder as I pushed the killer down, that was begging to be set free. It felt wrong to let Abel go. I knew he’d continue to be a threat, but Sunshine was right about one thing—I’d miss him at some point. I stared into his eyes as he continued to hold perfectly still. It was the only smart thing he’d ever done. If he’d run, I would’ve gone after him.

“Well, you heard her. You’re going to get a free pass against my better judgment. Now get out of my home,” I ordered, my voice rough with the anger still burning throughout my body.