Leave Me Behind

by K.M. Moronova

the darkness of night.

“Their corresponding code names are: Jobs, Badger, Colt, Wasp, and Bones. My code name is just Sergeant.” Bones.

Please, God, tell me I didn’t fuck the Bones, the dark ops guy who is rumored to be a death god.

“And your code name is Bunny

“I’m sorry, sir. That’s unacceptable.”

Bunny was primarily the sniper on Riøt Squad, but we’ll need to see how her long distance and close combat skills work with us.”

“The only good Riøt soldier is a dead one,” Bradshaw says smoothly.

General Nolan assigned me to Malum for a reason and the concern on his face while telling me I was being reassigned tells me it has a connection to what happened in Patagonia. I have to stay no matter what.

Jenkins’s first rule: No emotions. No weakness. Not when you’re on duty.

“You know you’re dead, right? If you don’t quit willingly, I think Bones just might kill you.”

“He can try.”

“Because I’m a Riøt?”

“No shit. Your team is the reason we lost Achilles. You guys fucked us when you didn’t show up at the checkpoint.”

“Bunnies will consume their own under stress,” I say nonchalantly, and the five of them stop walking and look back at me, shocked. Even Bradshaw this time, his eyes filled with fury. “What the fuck did you just say?” Harrison barks,

“Oh, I’m sorry. Are you hard of hearing? I said bunnies will eat their own under stress,”

They know as well as I do that Riøt specialized in tracking and killing traitors in the armed forces.

A black bullet always indicated it was from a Riøt’s weapon. If you were shot with a black bullet, you were dead.

My whole world ends with that smile. I know I’ll never endure one quite like it again.

“Report you? No, Gallows, I want to take you under my wing.”

“I’m going to help you bloom into the monster you truly are.”

“Because you’re just like me. I also happen to like

you, Gallows.”

I shouldn’t want to be held by a murderous thing like him. But I do. I crave it like a shot of morphine.

The world ceases to exist as the man I fear most adorns me with kisses and his dark dreams for us. I knew it then. Jenkins would ruin what good was left of me.

“Bones showers separately. None of us are allowed to know what he looks like, so if you’re going to fuck any of us, it can’t be him. Unless you’re into mask shit,”

I am indeed into that.

Two years is not enough to forget him. No amount of time can erase his face from my mind. I was his second. It should’ve been me who died, not him.

“I love you, Gallows. Leave me behind.”

I loved him too and I let him down in the end. I want to be ...

“I look forward to working with you, sir,”

“I want you to quit, Bun.”

“That’s not happening.”

“I don’t want you as my second. None of us want you on the squad, Bunny. You couldn’t even keep your prior first alive. What was his name? Jenkins?

“You don’t want me on your squad because I won’t die as easily as your last second. What was his name? Oh, I guess it wasn’t worth remembering because I sure as fuck don’t know it. At least you’ve heard of Jenkins.”

“You’re as good as dead,” he finally says darkly—a sinister promise.

“Not if I let the enemy kill you first,”

“I’ll bet that’s how your last second died, saving your ungrateful

ass. If I die, it’s because I’ll be taking a bullet for you too and...

Stick to your partners… and Bunny⁠—”

“Good job today. If this were real, you’d have saved our asses. It’s clear to me why you are so revered,”

“He helped me become a reaper because he liked that part of me. The part that killed against the rules.” “You don’t think he was just trying to fuck you?”

“Oh shit, you two did fuck, didn’t you? Did you trick him like you tricked me?”

“I killed a few bad people.” Horrifically. Borderline animalistically. “I’m useless in the real world.”

“Useless in every other sense besides killing.”

“I was recruited because there’s darkness in me and this is the only place I belong until I’m eventually killed too.”

“When you let go of your thoughts, you can do anything, Gallows.”

There is nothing I wouldn’t give to have Jenkins back. To have him behind me, tracing the lines of my face with his gaze. Cherishing every piece of my soul like no one ever has before. He saw darkness in me and held out a hand to lead me further into the shadows.

He loved Abrahm as much as I did Jenkins. The pain reflected in his eyes is a mirror of my own misery.

“I can’t help how I am, Bradshaw. As you said, I didn’t know him. The similarities you see are only in your head.”

“I just want to ge...