“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.