'It wasn't supposed to... Be this way...' Ralph spluttered as he breathed his last, his own sword stuck through his chest.
'Then don't fuck with the Blades,' Malcolm sneered, red eyes glowing. He gave the blade a final twist before yanking it out of the pack leader. Malcolm turned to me, staring into my eyes. 'What's happened to your eyes, man?'
'Same to you, Mal. Your eyes look like one of the Wolves' goons.' I wiped off my bloodied daggers on a corpse's coat. 'You heard a voice, right? Blood and paper?' My black-haired friend nodded. 'Feel any different?'
Mal looked at his forearm as he flexed it, holding Ralph's sword in his hand. 'This is as light as a feather. I saw how fast you were moving. Now we're ahead of the game, Zach. The Blades'll be stronger than ever!'
He was so excited about it, but there was no way we could do it. 'The Blades are dead, Mal. Graham's gone, it's just us. We had almost a hundred members before. Let's just call it quits, mate.' This was a hollow victory. It was just death on top of death. Ralph's death's wasn't worth losing Graham.
'What are you talking about? You're pulling my leg, right? What else do you think you'll do? Get a job at Burger King? We've been blessed, Zach.' He walked over to me, sword in one hand and the other held out to me. 'Don't leave me alone now, brother. Don't leave me alone in the dark.' I stared at Malcolm. A brother, huh? I wondered how Josh was doing. He couldn't've gone off the rails as badly as I had. Malcolm had a point, though. What else would I do? 'We've been blessed. Don't let it go to waste.' I'd already screwed up with one brother, I didn't have it in me to do it again.
'Let's do it.' I took his hand and he pulled me up. 'But not tonight, man. I need to sleep.' Malcolm chuckled as he tucked a black book into his back pocket.