Mathers forced me to take off before him. I had absolutely no means of seeing whether he was following or not, but I continued; clearly I hadn't noticed him outside my own house. His voice shot through my head like bullets, tearing apart my sanity, as my blood-stained hands carried out his work. When I found myself in descent, I had no choice but to accept the reality.
It was another school. I don't know what I had expected. There was a nursery too. That meant kids who were only about three or four years old. I told him this. Part of me screamed to not enrage him further for fear he'd hurt Maya, but the majority of my pathetic entity was bursting with anger, and I neglected to refrain from telling him exactly what I thought. He laughed. His snake-like voice sent goose-bumps down my spine. He laughed, and continued with his imperatives, specifying a precise location for the device. It was an odd place to choose, not in a secluded cranny, central to the school, but rather, the playground. He then instructed me to walk to the top of the field next to it, wherein I found the detonator.
'Press it.' I picked it up, barely able to keep it contained within my shaking palm. 'Press it,' Mathers ordered, more fiercely this time. Closing my eyes, I moved my other hand over the button. I lowered it, slowly, slowly, slowly again... then I felt the cold, metal surface. There was a bang.
It was done. I could see flames raging and rampaging through the bricks and bodies. Cries echoed and screams of terror. I saw faint silhouettes struggling to move, most of them dropping to the ground almost instantaneously. But then I heard a sobbing, coming from behind me. A voice that needed no facial identification. Maya.
Mathers was walking towards me, dragging Maya along by her arm. Tears streamed down her face. Her eyes widened in shock, followed by complete and utter horror when she saw my face.
'You did this?' she whispered, confused, devastated.
'No, no, I- I...'
'You did, I saw you do it!'
'No, no, Maya, I-'
'Why would you do it?! Why?! You said killing was bad!' Snot now dripped from her scarlet nose as I tried to reach out and comfort her. She hit my hand away, before there was a harsh pause in her sobs. 'You did it la-st time? Did you do this to- to me?' Maya held up her tiny, bandaged hands, while a solitary tear rolled down her cheek. I couldn't lie to her.
'Y-es.' Then she broke my heart. She burst into a fresh flood of tears, and turned to hug Mathers' leg. He smiled. And put his hand in his pocket. He pulled it out, smoothly, slowly, agonizingly slowly... Then he shot her.
She fell to the ground instantly. There was a hole through her skull. Blood poured out, pooling on the grass. Her eyes were vacant; dead. I was dead.
'Why, why did you...? You didn't need to... I did what you wanted, for Christ's sake!' I shrieked at him through my sobs.
'I just wanted her to know exactly what a hero you were, Jones. That's all. I just wanted to make sure she knew everything that you'd done for her. That's not a crime, is it?' I was on my knees clutching at the blood-soaked blades of grass, and cradling Maya's head. Her shattered head.
'Yes Jones. That's right. She died, hating you. She died. And she hated you. The last thing she thought was how much she hated y-'
'SHUT UP, SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!' I lunged at him, knocking him over and spat vehemently in his face, again and again until he overpowered me. I lay, under his grasp, sobbing, a mere boy. Not a man. Not like I'd tried so hard to prove. A boy.
'Get up Jones. We're going back. And I don't see any reason for you to not return to work tomorrow, do you? Well. That is, unless you want the authorities to find out, and I don't think they'll take too kindly to-'
'ALRIGHT! I'm up, I'm up. I coming.' I clambered to my feet, staring down at them, thinking the blood-spattered shoes couldn't possibly belong to me. Mathers began walking away. I followed, not once looking behind.
I was tasked with taking off first. Again. I vaguely heard Mathers saying he'd direct my back, before shutting my aircraft door. Once I'd gained altitude, I moved my dirty fingers to ear, fiddling till I dug out the earpiece. It rolled onto the floor with a metallic twang, and I could just detect the whining of Mathers' voice. My eyes swivelled. I saw a mountain, not too far beneath my craft. Swallowing painfully, I wrapped my hands around the controls so tightly, that my bones could have breached my skin, and with one swift movement, I wrenched them down.
The green looked beautiful.
Like Maya's eyes.
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