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Sarah Jane lowered her gun until the angle of the bullet would hit Beth between the eyes. A shot of adrenaline careened through his veins, slammed into his heart and shocked him into full alertness.
Gathering every last bit of energy, he launched himself at Beth.
He wrapped his arms around her kneeling form and flattened her to the ground, morphing himself into a protective shield around her.
A millisecond later a gun fired. His muscles tensed in preparation for impact as everything slowed to a near stop.
A slideshow rolled through his mind. Not of his big accomplishments but of the little things that made life special and whole. The first time he went fishing with his father. His mom's baked macaroni served with a side of lovingly administered nagging. Tossing the football around with his brothers in the empty University of Nebraska football stadium. Teaching Claire to ride a bike.
And when it came to Beth, there were so many memories and, at the same time, not enough. Inhaling, he took in one last whiff of her vanilla perfume that he wished he could enjoy forever. Even if they’d had twelve lifetimes together, it wouldn't have been enough.
It wasn't the children he'd never had that he regretted now. No. In his final moments, Hank mourned the time he could have had with Beth.
But instead of the expected burning lead tearing into his flesh, there was a quiet “umph” and the thump of a body hitting the ground.
Hank looked over his shoulder and the world wobbled as he let go of the air trapped in his lungs.
Sarah Jane lay on her back, her chest jerking up and down in a spastic rhythm. Blood bloomed like a morbid flower on her chest, expanding with each wet, gasping gurgle of breath.
He didn't know which deputy had made the shot, but whoever he or she was, they were about to get a promotion.
Rolling off of Beth, he landed with a thunk on his back. The agony in his leg punched through his adrenaline high.
“Oh my God, Hank!” Beth yanked off her fleece jacket, balled it up and pressed it to his wound.
The pressure made him gasp, but he'd be damned before he'd pass out now. Going for an action-hero vibe, he smirked. “I'll live.”
“Is she…” Beth left the word “dead” unsaid, but it hung in the air between them like a sticky spiderweb.
“Not yet.” He paused and listened to Sarah Jane's struggle to breathe. “But it doesn't sound good.”
The scene in front of Sarah Jane wavered, darkness creeping in on the edges as she fought to stay alive.
So close. She'd been so close to rubbing his face in disgrace and forcing him to confront the wrong he'd committed against her, against them. Her baby Phil. He hadn't grown into the man she would have raised. Yet another sin committed by his father.
A cold numbness seeped into her, shielding her from the pain as blood loss overwhelmed her body's ability to function. The stars, brilliant against the cloudless fall sky, twinkled above her. With all she'd done, she wouldn't be going in that direction. Her soul would sink into the ground, heating as she fell deeper and deeper into the hell below.
Salvation was for the living, and in her heart, she'd stopped living that night twenty-eight years ago. The truth crystallized in her mind, shattering her anger. Stunted with hurt and resentment, she'd surrendered to the black void without ever realizing it.
“I did what I had to do.” Pain slurred her quiet words.
In an instant, Beth appeared above her and kicked the gun from her hand, not that there was any need. Sarah Jane barely had the strength to form words, let alone curl her fingers around the trigger.
Beth's heart-shaped face hovered in the center of her ever-darkening field of vision.
Then, the light disappeared.
There were no angels. No sweet face of God.
Eternity spread out in every direction like a heavy quilt smothering her on a hot summer night.
Deputies swarmed around Beth as she tried to process what had just happened.
Her grandparents’ house.
The threats.
The vandalism.
