Sky Red by Kestral Volta (the best books to read .TXT) 📕

hard...
But he couldn’t keep it! Absolutely not! No, he would hide it somewhere- somewhere where no one would find it! Somewhere where no one went, somewhere lonely and isolated. Yes! The graveyard!
Crewe made for the graveyard, which was across town. He paid no one any attention on the way, just kept his head down and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible.
Crewe soon found himself staring up at the wrought-iron gates that marked the entrance to the graveyard. They were hard to open and heavy, but Crewe handled it. He made for the back of the graveyard, where it was over-grown with weeds and bushes. It was where most of the older graves were. On his way, he passed a man who was sat, cross-legged in front of a small, black grave. He was crying and was surrounded by beer cans. The man turned his head towards Crewe.
Where had he seen this guy before? He looked so familiar! A look of recognition passed over the man’s face too, but did not linger.
Crewe carried on towards his hiding place.

David recognised the man who had passed him. Oh yes, he knew him all too well, but he didn’t wish to remember what he had done. He didn’t want anything to do with that bastard! Not even to fight him.
But he’d get his revenge. Soon. But not now. That guy was the cause of all his troubles, yet he had escaped his fate! He had run. And that was the one thing David could never do.
And he found a strange curiosity for what was in the black bag Crewe seemed attached to. He was obviously hiding it and seemed as though he had good reason to. Maybe it was something David could use against him!
Yes, he had no choice-he would have to look in that bag!

Uric held the gun in his hand. It felt...right! As though his hand was always meant for a gun. He didn’t know whether this scared him or excited him. The cool metal against his flesh sent electricity through his veins.
He knew who his target was. He wasn’t just going to waste bullets on some average family. Oh no! He was aiming high!
Uric went to the window and gazed up at the cliff top, where the 5 mansions stood, majestically above the rest of Veronica.

“W-what do you mean?” Annie’s voice quivered with fear at Alley’s accusation.
“I mean, you know you’ve done bad stuff! You should make amends before the world dies! Do you actually want the world to die? No! Then, tell someone what you saw, or the world will die a slow and horrible death!” Alley yelled at Annie.
“Saw what?” sobbed Annie, cowering beneath Alley’s iron glare.
“I know you saw the man kill his girlfriend! And then you saw him cause an explosion! And you told no one! That guy is free, thanks to you! Do you know how many people you hurt?” bellowed Alley, grabbing Annie’s arm.
“Th-that hurts!” cried Annie.
“Good! Now you know how it feels!”
Annie’s eyes gazed beyond Alley, who wasn’t letting go, and fell upon a boy. He was about Annie’s height and about the same age as her and Alley. He was very strangely dressed; he wore shorts and a T-shirt, but they were all dirty and burnt-looking. He was bear-foot. “Who’s that?” whispered Annie.
Alley let go of Annie’s arm and turned to the boy. She turned back to Annie with a smile on her face. “Annie, I’d like you to meet Jimmy.”

David watched Crewe leave the cemetery. Once the heavy gates closed behind him, David stood, dropping a half-empty beer can to the floor. He looked up and let the red rain soak his face for a minute before setting off in the direction Crewe had been headed. It didn’t take him long to find the bag- Crewe was unbelievably bad at hiding things. He pulled it out from under a bush and grasped the zip. David hesitated and then opened the bag.
Absolute shock isn’t extreme enough to describe his reaction.
He knew now. All the pieces fit: the explosion, the girl, Jimmy.
David slung the bag over his shoulder and headed off to Crewe’s house.

Eventually, the rain stopped and the pink clouds gradually turned to scarlet as the sun set behind them. Uric stood in the shadows, outside one of the 5 mansions. He set the alarm on his watch and settled himself beneath a tree. There he sat, waiting.
While he waited, he remembered. He remembered the days when he used to have a proper family. When his real Dad was still with them and so was Alley. He had loved his sister more than anything. They had played together, gone to school together; they had been almost inseparable! But then there was the explosion. The terrible explosion that had killed his Dad and his sister. And now his life was like this! Living in a shack, making a living from stealing, not being able to do anything because they had nothing! No money, no friends! Nothing!
Except for Jimmy, but he was dead. Apparently. He was just a thing, an image in his mind of someone he had known.
But the things that Jimmy says seem to make sense! He had told Uric that he knew who could help him. He knew who knows who caused the explosion and he would lead Uric there!
But Uric wasn’t here for answers. Uric was here for blood.

David stood outside 13 B, irritated. He had been knocking, vigorously, for the past 10 minutes and Crewe hadn’t answered! David pummelled at the door one last time before he finally answered.
As soon as the door was open, David burst in, greeting Crewe with a punch in the jaw. Crewe yelled in pain and threw his hands up in front of his face, backing away. David closed the door and dragged Crewe into the lounge, throwing the bag down into Crewe’s lap.
“You son-of-a-bitch! You sick, twisted bastard!” David yelled. “Not only have you killed a person, but kept a keepsake! Why? Why, haven’t you killed enough people already! First with the bomb in the pub and now this!”
“It...it’s not recent.” mumbled Crewe, spitting blood from his mouth.
“Well, when, then, who was she?” demanded David.
Crewe paused “Just before the bomb...you don’t understand! She was cheating on me, she was lying to me!” cried Crewe.
David was silent for a minute, just staring in disbelief. “Is this what all this is about? The bomb, your girlfriend? All because she cheated on you!” he whispered.
“It wasn’t just any old affair. Ever since we’d started going out, she’d been a lesbian. She’d just lied to me, lead me on. She’d been having this affair ever since we’d been going out! Do you know how much that hurts? I got angry! She was in the pub with Cassandra, her girlfriend and I called her. I’d put a bomb in the pub and once she was outside, I set it off. Then I killed her.”
Silence.
“Do you know my son was in there? Do you know how much it hurts when someone you love is dead?” David’s voice quivered and broke.
“Why do you think I’ve been running all these years!” yelled Crewe, tears streaming down his face. “I couldn’t forgive myself for the misery I’d caused, not to mention Lucy! Oh, beautiful Lucy! I loved her so much! I just couldn’t let her go. That’s why I kept it.” he gestured to the bag.
David looked at the bag and then at Crewe.
“I...I have nightmares. Every night, I wake up and hear her screams.” whispered Crewe. “I see dead birds, everywhere...and severed heads.”
David bent down to the bag, grimacing and took another look at its contents. The head sat there, the girls eyes still open, her flesh shrunken and rotted. She was nothing but a grey ball of rot and flies. It was hard to believe she’d once been a girl at all!

Percy listened to the thunder at his front door. There were voices too. How dare they? Teenagers these days! They think they can play practical jokes on the unsuspecting! They think they can pick on the elderly! Well, they would be wrong! He wasn’t going to play along!
He sat in his chair, trying to drown out the racket with the Discovery Chanel. Filthy little brats!
And then there was an almighty crash! Percy jumped and, for a moment, he thought he’d had a heart attack. Before he could even yell out, he was surrounded. There were people, dressed in bright colours-fluorescent jackets and green uniforms! They had his arms, he couldn’t fight back! He tried to call out, but he was being jerked about too much. Percy struggled, trying to keep these scary creatures off him.
“Dorothy! Run, Dorothy! Go! Don’t let them get you!” he screamed to the empty arm chair.
No matter how hard Percy struggled, the paramedics managed to hold him down. They somehow managed to get him on the stretcher before he hurt himself or anyone else.
The last thing Percy saw outside the world of dreams was the small, silver object that had haunted him for so long! Before he passed out, in his last moments of consciousness, the memory flew back at his. Within a few seconds, he had experienced the memory, the fears, the regrets, and the anger. Everything.
His beautiful wife was dead. And it was Percy that had killed her! Such an unjust death! Such a horrible, inhuman thing to do to someone in the heat of the moment!
Percy’s life wouldn’t be the same.
But it was this same thing he had told himself straight after he had committed the murder! He had just forgotten. Old-age had gotten the better of him!
How could he forget a thing like that? Percy didn’t deserve even the deepest of apologies!

Uric climbed up the drain pipe and slipped through the open window. He cocked the gun and pointed it at the sleeping girl.
Annie awoke and stared at Uric. “Who are you? What do you want?”
“What do you know about Alley and the explosion?” Uric asked, flatly. He might as well get answers. After all, he would kill her anyway.
Annie gasped and got out of bed. She stood, facing Uric and looked him in the eyes. “Do you know Alley, too?” she hadn’t seemed to have noticed the gun in Uric’s hand.
“She was my sister! She died in an explosion. Jimmy says you know who did it. Tell me!” Uric’s voice rose slightly. He brandished the gun at Annie, who had taken a step towards him.
Annie’s eyes fell on the gun. Fear crept up her spine and her voice became shaky. “I...I know who did it...I saw him...” Annie suddenly became overcome with uncontrollable sobs, the memory too much to bare.
“Tell me!” yelled Uric.
“I...I don’t know his name!”sobbed Annie.
Jimmy and Alley appeared behind Uric and watched Annie with determined expressions.
“Well, what did he look like?” demanded Uric. He was vaguely aware of a slight ache in his arms. But he was too angry, too occupied to notice it. He was sweating slightly, a thick trickle running down his cheek.
“I...black hair...please! Please don’t hurt me!” begged Annie.
“I won’t, if you tell me what he looked like!” shouted Uric. He was about to yell abuse, when he heard voices beyond Annie’s room. There was a deep muffled