Sacrifice Gone By

The ring of the gunshot echoed off the stone walls of the basement. then faded into an uncomfortable silence.

Jay's eyes were fixed on his best friend, but his face showed no emotion. Matt was still in the same spot, looking down at Harper's lifeless form.

One of the lights flickered above my head. Dad looked bored as he watched the scene play out, his arms folded across his broad chest.

George looked suspicious, in case Matt tried anything. Jordan looked sympathetic; he hadn't been here as long as the rest of us, he wasn't used to people dying everyday.

The silence dragged out for about ten minutes, all of us just letting the dust settle.

I didn't feel any emotion. Things like this happened all the time around me, I got used to it. My father had always told me the number one rule in this life is to save yourself and watch the rest go.

No one was worth saving, no one was worth my life. That's what Dad told me. I agreed with him; I'd seen enough people die to know that it wasn't worth it.

But that didn't mean that I wouldn't avenge the deaths of the few people I did care about and it didn't mean I wouldn't try to save them, even if it was dumb.

There were only two exceptions to that rule. Dad and Jay.

Matt turned around. There were pools of tears in his eyes, but he didn't let himself cry. Not yet.

That's the second rule, don't let anyone see your weaknesses. In this place, if you had to cry, you did it when no one was around.

"I'm sorry Matthew," My Dad said, sounding more bored than sympathetic. "But it had to be done." He clicked his fingers, signalling George and Jordan to follow, and made his way across the room to the stairs.

Just as I was about to follow them, I saw Jay's eyes widen from the corner of my eye, then he shook his head.

Another gunshot rang out and I snapped my attention back to Matt.

He had his arm raised, gun in hand and it was pointing at my Dad, whose right forearm was now covered in blood. The blood leaked onto the rolled up sleeves of his white shirt as we all stared at his arm in shock.

I snapped back to reality. "Son of a bitch." I muttered under my breath, moving to the corner of the room where I left my bow.

I practiced archery in my spare time, it was kind of a hobby of mine. It also happened to be a great weapon, since no one ever expected to be shot in the head with an arrow, so it was a good distraction.

I'd hoped Matt would just get over this, he wouldn't have had to kill his girlfriend in the first place if she wasn't a backstabbing asshole. I knew he wasn't the brightest, but I didn't think he was stupid enough to try to kill the boss.

I cursed under my breath as I notched a bolt and shook my head at George, who pulled a face but lowered his gun.

I glanced at Jay as I aimed directly at the back of Matt's head, who was now at the bottom of the stairs attempting to make a run for it.

Jay looked sad, disappointed and angry all at the same time. I wasn't surprised, Matt was his best friend. Jay would understand though, he'd been in this since birth too.

I sighed and let loose the arrow, which whistled through the air and landed in the back of Matt's skull, piercing all the way through so that the arrow head was sticking out of his forehead.

His body went limp and he fell on his front on the stairs, his glazed eyes staring up at the door.

"What the hell would you guys do without me?" I asked the room, trying to lighten the mood. No one laughed, Dad's guys were still in shock, Jordan didn't know how to act, George looked tired and perplexed and Dad just looked pissed off.

"Clean this up." Dad said, snapping his fingers again and stepping over Matt's lifeless body. Jordan and George followed and two of the other guys, whose names I couldn't care less about, slung the two bodies over their shoulders and exited, leaving just me and Jay.

"Great fucking start to the morning." I mumbled, stashing my bow and quiver back in the corner.

Jay sighed and stomped up the stairs. Fantastic. Now he was in a bad mood.