Chapter 58: Painful victory

Valentine was the first to engage. Three seconds only passing when they had stood to a halt as if by prior agreement.

Nate, Rochelle and Wilfred could only watch from their hiding place behind the computers as Valentine struck out with a palm only for Buke to knock it away with his arm and throw a kick to the former's hip. Valentine reacted lifting up his knee to block with his shin. A dozen fists were exchanged in twenty seconds. A blow landed just then on the side of Buke's head knocking him off balance slightly. Valentine then grabbed him from the back of his head, pulled him forward and simultaneously kicked him in the shin. Buke could feel his body fall forward and land belly first on the floor. Valentine had already seen this coming. His foot was already stomping down. Its trajectory heading directly for the back of Buke's neck.

Buke could feel death looming over him. He tried to roll to the side but he knew it wouldn't change much of his fate. Still he tried. When Valentine's foot was an inch away from his neck a yell resounded in the room. It seemed Duke had regained his bearings. And just in time too. He launched himself forward and tackled Valentine to the ground. They wrestled and grunted for a couple of seconds with Duke punching out and Valentine reaching his hands out to try and block but the punches but some of them still went through and connected with the latter's nose snapping and making it point to the side while blood dripped from his nostrils.

With a grunt, Valentine managed to kick and push Duke off of him and into the hallway adjacent. Valentine was in the process of getting to his feet when Buke's fist was already before him. Valentine stumbled and staggered backwards into the corridor where Duke was already waiting for him. He got behind Valentine and was about to choke him with his arm.

Valentine saw through this in an instant and grabbed Buke's arm. With a torque of his hip, Valentine pulled forward while his right leg stood in Buke's path. Just like that Buke was tripped and slammed forward, at that point Duke was already in his path. Like bowling balls, the two bumped into each other and both fell to the floor in a heap.

Valentine heaved a breath as he whipped a pistol from his hip. A Glock 17. He held it in a professional two handed gripped and aimed for Buke who was on top of Duke. He prepared to fire. Duke's eyes were filled with dread when he saw this. His little brother's life was in unprecedented danger. He couldn't let his brother go before him otherwise what kind of brother would he be. He hurried to get up, unfortunately this only made getting up much more harder.

Buke felt the shiver of death for the second time and he knew that his older brother Duke would try to flip them over so that he could live for more years but would he even let that happen? With a smile Buke looked down at his brother.

"Fuck are you doing you punk!" Duke shouted. His eyes glistening with tears, he could tell that Buke was pinning him down.

Bang! Bang!

Valentine shoot out two rounds. Two bullets penetrated Bukes lower back. One shredded his kidney while the other one found a home in his liver. Two holes appeared on Buke's back, a trail of blood smoothly oozing out of both of them. Buke felt his body shutting down slowly. Blood leaked from the corners of his mouth. Duke screamed in grief as his brother's eyes slowly dimmed.

"Hey…bro…ja..cket…gun" Buke whispered weakly. Duke's eyes widened. They had been caught off guard and suddenly thrown into a heated hand-to-hand brawl that the thought of using their guns was subconsciously shoved to the back of their heads. With grief, anguish and fury, he reached into Buke's jacket and quickly drew out the gun and aimed. Pulling the trigger without any care in the world, Duke unloaded the entire clip into Valentine's chest.

Valentine was shocked. The darkness had concealed Duke's aim so he was never able to see the gun and even during that time he had been preparing to kill Duke next but who could have thought? Valentine fell backwards multiple holes in his chest where the bullets had shredded his heart, lungs, stomach and even his entrails. His entire front was a portrait of crimson red. The blood even pooled around the floor where he had fallen.

Duke gently pushed his brother off and laid him softly of the floor. His eyes were red as tears streamed down his cheeks. His brother had long since closed his eyes. His body losing temperature at a visible speed.

"Idiot…what am I supposed to say to mom" Duke said softly as he thought of how devastated his mother would be when he broke the news off to her. He didn't fill victorious about his kill at all.

…

Vinny's eyes were the size of saucers when she looked down at the wounds in her abdomen. She was in pain but she had no strength to voice out her pain. She looked at Tyler who just walked towards her calmly. He hadn't wasted anytime in dealing with her. The moment he saw Vinny kill the bodyguards in cold blood, something inside him snapped and he fired his weapon without pause. A bullet for each of her legs, then arms, and two in either side of her abdomen. Tyler had purposely executed his shots in this way so that she should feel each and every moment of pain. When he arrived directly infront of her. Vinny weakly looked up at him while he stared down at her. It felt like he was looking into her soul.

"You invade someone's home, you kill innocent people who have nothing to do with this and the worst part of it is that you don't even seem to regret it" when Tyler spoke it seemed as though the world responded in kind by lowering the temperatures. Even Vinny herself couldn't help but be affected.

Who was this kid? Where was he from? The cold eyes, the icy voice the indistinguishable aura that made him seem like an insurmountable mountain.

"W-Who are you?" she asked with a weak and shaky voice

"You don't deserve to know my name but I'll tell you now that I'm just a guy who's standing up for a friend" Tyler replied. It was then that Vinny realized that taking this job was a mistake. If this was the same kid who went after Drake then there was no doubt that Drake had already been dealt with. Vinny watched helplessly as Tyler pointed his gun to her head.

He pulled the trigger and the bullet split her skull, painting the floor in her blood and scattering her brain matter. Tyler took a breath before looking to the side and asked casually:

"How long are you gonna keep on hiding?"

Several seconds of silence ticked by before the sound of feet shuffling echoed. A burly man appeared in Tyler's side view. This was none other than Mr. Bright who wore a face filled with complex emotions. He had seen every one of Tyler's moves from start to finish. This young boy had practically made the poor…vicious woman suffer a painful death. Though Mr. Bright would have killed her on the spot to avenge his men, he wouldn't have done it in such a brutal manner. And he didn't even seem to be affected by killing despite his age. It made Mr. Bright wonder just what kind of life Tyler had lived but he'd just have to stand in line just like the others who all wondered about his past.

Not giving him time to think thoroughly Tyler spoke

"I heard gun fire upstairs"

Though he never said it out loud how could Mr. Bright not get the message that was hidden.

'Now's not the time to think but act'

Tyler didn't even wait for him for he was already heading in that direction. He was worried for his friends and was also inwardly beating himself for leaving them and heading for the forest, now he could only hope that they were safe and unhurt…well he wouldn't mind if Wilfred got a bruise or two but otherwise he hoped everyone was safe.

Upon reaching the top of the flight of stairs, he saw the scene in the corridor. A dark silhouette knelt next to what Tyler could only deduce to be a dead body sprawled on the floor. The moment Tyler appeared the figure immediately stretched out its arm.

Tyler's eyes widened as he twisted and pinned his back to the wall just as a 'Bang!' echoed. An instinctive action that automatically triggered.

A bullet punched through the space he had recently. Unfortunately Mr. Bright had replaced him. Fortunately, the bullet only hit him in the arm.

"Argh! Shit!" Mr. Bright cursed it was then that the dark figure spoke.

"Boss?"

Mr. Bright immediately recognized the voice. "Duke? You alright?"

"Buke's dead" the pain in his voice was as clear as day.Tyler felt it and he couldn't help but put himself in his shoes.

If it Laura or Aunt Carol were to die, how would he even handle that train wrecking news? Tyler didn't even want to think about all that but this man had just lost his brother and Tyler felt like it was his fault. Had he stayed behind would this have happened? The answer was most definitely no but at the same time it would have been an ultimately even more dangerous situation with the death count exceeding what it currently was.

Tyler knew this but the guilt still ate at him.

"I'm sorry about your brother" Tyler finally said while he stepped away from the wall and approached him. Duke also recognized him but he was shocked for a moment that Tyler was able to react even before he had even fired the gun but when he thought about how the young man had gotten out through the window the shock dropped drastically.

Duke didn't speak. He simply nodded.

Tyler walked over to the second dead body before taking deep breaths and heading inside the game room.

"Guys you can come out now!" Tyler voiced.