Page 190 of Sin Like the Devil

Lennox’s mangled, still-bleeding hand finds mine. Xander watches Lennox hold me with a cocked brow. The pair exchange some silent words, their eyes locked for several seconds until Raine interrupts.

“Guys? Plan?”

Lennox hacks up a mouthful of blood. “Ripley wants to run.”

“Run where?” Xander replies.

“I... I don’t know,” I admit.

“The place is surrounded.”

We watch the hysteria growing all around us. Rick is gesturing towards the lit-up perimeter fence, directing patients who have stripped the captured guards of all their worldly possessions. Anarchy is spreading like wildfire. But in the pandemonium, I’m not alone.

I have my enemies.

Now… my only allies.

EPILOGUE

EVERYBODY’S DEAD INSIDE – ALISSIC

RIPLEY

Present Day

In the interview room, horrified silence reigns over my audience. I take a sip of my water, some slopping over the edge due to the incessant shaking of my hand. It does little to relieve my throat, raw from hour after hour of talking.

Staring down at his notebook, Elliot is speechless. It’s an amusing sight. He brought me here, expecting a story. Boy, has he got one. Perhaps not the tale he thought he’d tell, though. The truth is never simple.

Relaxed against the wall, Hudson stares into space. He hasn’t made eye contact once throughout the entire afternoon or evening. I’m sure his own bleak memories of that time are rising to the surface. We all lost something inside the institutes.

Elliot clears his throat. “Well. That was quite the tale.”

“I warned you.”

“Details of Incendia’s experimental program are few and far between. Hearing a firsthand account… It is harrowing.”

“The world ought to know. They still see us as monsters. Freaks. Criminals.” I curl my lip in distaste. “The ones to blame.”

“No one blames you, Rip,” Hudson croaks.

Looking into his crystalline stare, I ignore Elliot observing us in my periphery. Hudson isn’t one for emotions, but so much is simmering behind his blue eyes. All manner of rage and bloodlust.

“I blame me. It took experiencing the true extent of their evil for me to wake up to the truth. To choose the right side.”

“You were trying to survive.”

“So was everyone else,” I refute.

Head hitting the wall once more, Hudson blows out a breath. “The world will never understand what we sacrificed to still be here today, able to tell this tale.”

“And that’s why we’re here.” Elliot caps his fountain pen. “So the world will know.”

I’m not sure what good it will do, a whole decade down the line. Evil and atrocity continue to this day. Society has a short-term memory when it comes to injustice. What happened back then taught them nothing.

I don’t care if anyone watches this interview. I don’t even care if it’s ever broadcast to the nation. Old Ripley resolved not to run, and this Ripley can’t do it for a moment longer either. The ghosts I carry need to be excavated.

Only then can we find peace.

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