A New Brand of Redemption.

Marcus couldn’t breathe. All the air in his lungs was gone and his heart might have actually stopped.
It was Brett. Not a faceless stranger. Not a random act of violence. And Trevor was going to kill him. He was holding a knife to Brett’s throat because he had murdered Megan. She was right there on the floor and there was blood everywhere.
Marcus felt like he was falling. The room became meaningless images. Just color and movement. So he shut his eyes.
Dark. Numb. Nothing hurt. No one bled.
“I’m not sorry,” Brett’s voice whispered in the emptiness.
“Neither am I.”
Trevor would be a murderer too. He would be stained by the same ugliness as Brett and he would feel it for the rest off his life.
Marcus opened his eyes. He raised the gun, took aim, and pulled the trigger. This time he would be the monster.

When Trevor rolled off him, Brett saw Marcus and the gun he was holding. Then he looked at himself and saw the blood. It was gushing out of his side, but the wound couldn’t be very serious. It didn’t even hurt anymore. The first few seconds Brett had felt like his insides were being shredded. But then a numb sensation stole over him and he didn’t feel that bad. Marcus really was a moron. He couldn’t he shoot someone right.
At least he’ll be easy to kill, Brett thought when he went to reach for the knife Trevor had dropped beside him. But his fingers wouldn’t seem to work and-
Wait. Is it suppose to be so dark? Brett wondered as he heard the wail of sirens from the street below.

Marcus had shot Brett. But, had he meant to? When Trevor got up off the ground, he half expected to hear another loud crack. Fortunately he didn’t. The room stayed silent except for the blare of the sirens outside.
Is it the police? Trevor wondered.
Had someone in the building called them? He looked at Marcus, but the other boy wasn’t reacting to the noise. He was staring at Megan with vacant silver eyes. There was so much blood…
Trevor dropped to his knees beside Megan and took her hand in his. Then he pressed two fingers against the inside of her wrist. Trevor felt a pulse, but it was weak. He had to find something to hold against her hip that would slow the blood flow a little . The first thing he thought of was his T- shirt, so Trevor pulled it off.
“She’s…She’s not dead?” Marcus asked brokenly from across the room.
“No!” Trevor snapped as Megan’s blood soaked through the fabric. “She’s going to be fine. Everything will be alright.”

Stop staring and leave, Marcus told himself.
What about Megan?
She’s going to be fine. Everything will be alright.
Do you really believe that?
I have to. And I have to go.
It was really the only way. Unless he wanted to end up in jail or a mental institution, Marcus had to run. He would never regret what he’d done though. Not for a second.
As he walked to the door, Trevor surprised him by asking, “Why Marcus? Why would you kill your best friend and not me?”
There was nothing Marcus could say that would make his actions make sense. So, he answered the only way he could, “Because I had to.”
Then Marcus left.

Darkness weighed down on Megan. It crushed her deeper and deeper and deeper into the void. Then even time lost its meaning.
There was nothing until she heard someone say, “Megan. Can you hear me? Try to open your eyes.” She tried, but it was like she was just to far down to break the surface. “Megan,” They said more urgently. “Open your eyes.”
I can’t, she thought as she drifted back to nothing. I can’t wake up!

The next thing Megan heard was another voice. But this time, it wasn’t a stranger.
“Meg,” Trevor whispered; his breath warm in her ear. “Please…please stay with me love…”
Then his voice broke and she felt lips touch her. Trevor’s lips. And when she opened her eyes, he was there.

“Meg,” Trevor said breathlessly.
Shock slammed into him and he thought he might throw up or pass out. Maybe both. Trevor had spent the last eleven hours being questioned by the police and staring at the hospital floor. Every second he’d been thinking of Megan on an operating table dying alone.
I won’t let her go, he’d thought as if thinking it could make it true. I WON”T. I WON”T. I WON”T.
Now , as he stared at her disbelievingly, Trevor felt Megan’s hand curve around his cheek. And while her soft brown eyes burned into him, she said hoarsely, “I won’t leave you. Not ever.”

The next day…

Trevor glanced at the leaden sky through his rain streaked windshield. As his ice blue eyes tracked the cloud movement, memories of the day before echoed in his head. In the grey hours before the darkness, he had told Megan everything.
Then he’d chokingly said, “I… I think I would have really done it. If Marcus hadn’t, I would have killed Brett for what he did.”
While he spoke ,Trevor had stared at the floor; knowing he was somehow less in her eyes. He’d only looked back up when he felt her fingertips brush along his jaw.
“Thank you Trevor,” she’d whispered.
“For what?”
“Saving me.”
Tears had blurred his vision as he looked at Megan and said, “I love you.”
Later he had wrapped his arms around her and asked, “Why are we still here Meg? Why can’t we just leave this all behind us?”

Megan had just finished dressing when she heard a light knock on her door. She opened it and Trevor was standing there; his cloths and hair both slightly damp.
“Are you ready to go?” he asked.
Megan glanced back at the room she hoped she would never see again. As she did her, eyes darkened with a sadness she couldn’t hide. Then Megan felt Trevor’s hand take hers and she knew.
EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT.
“Yes,” she said softly. “I’m ready.”

So what happens to everyone in the end? Brett dies. Megan and Trevor leave the city together. Danny Wyler wakes up with a lump on his head and decides the police force really isn’t right for him. And in a small mid-west town a plain looking boy nobody knows finds some measure of peace.