The explosion took the back third of his head off, the meat, bone, and blood slapping up against the window glass directly behind him, while scarlet arterial blood gushed out both nostrils, pulsating with the final beats of his taken-entirely-by-surprise heart. His dark eyes went wide, as if he were thinking, How stupid can any one man be? His stocky body relaxed after only a few seconds while his cancerous soul exited his body, and no doubt, made a beeline straight for hell. Coming from the opposite end of the house, a scream. Lana. “For the love of Christ!” she shrieked. “Was that a gunshot?!” I released my hold on the pistol and his hair, gathered up my crutches, shoving them under my armpits, my entire body trembling but also feeling as though it were levitating. For a brief second I considered wiping my prints from the gun barrel but it was now covered in John’s blood. What good would my wiping anything away do? “Lana!” I barked, pressing my fingers against the soreness in my neck.
