Chapter 119
Ella and Jane spent the entire day in the hospital, Ella had seen the police and eventually, Jane saw them as well but only after she had calmed down.
Kyle was still unconscious so there wasn’t anything the police could do but this attack looked like he was targeted.
It wasn’t just a random robbery but an assassination attempt, the fact that Kyle would have ended in a worse state if he hadn’t fought back.
He couldn’t imagine living the rest of his life as a vegetable and instead, chose to fight.
If he was going to have his life ruined, he wanted to do so by fighting.
Kyle made a decision that saved his life because there was no way he would have seen this coming. But he was alive so that was enough for him.
He thought that Mike was simply a man taken by love but didn’t know he was willing to go this far just because his ego was hurt.
Kyle was trapped in a nightmare, reliving the memories he had forced himself to forget, a never-ending loop of abuse and torment.
Kyle’s father never laid a hand on him, all the physical abuse was from his mother because the older he got, the more he looked like his dad.
His mother saw him as a constant reminder of the man she had grown to hate and to cope with their hatred, she used Kyle as the placeholder of the abuse she wished she wished she could inflict on him.
It was a never-ending cycle of abuse and this ultimately warped Kyle’s perception of what love should be like.
But in the end, his mother couldn’t take it anymore and decided to imprint an image that triggered him to repress every memory leading up to that point.
Kyle came home from one of his daily hustles, he assisted his mother with the bills as best as he could but he was just 7, and what he could do was severely limited.
He earned way below the minimum wage but as a kid, he shouldn’t even be working at all.
“Mama! I’m back!” Kyle exclaimed, excited by his haul today but he got no response from her.
Kyle assumed she was out and decided to pour himself some cereal and milk but they had run out of milk.
Kyle didn’t know what else to do, so he took the plastic jug of milk and walked over to the sink, pouring some water inside and shaking it.
He returned to his chair and poured it into his cereal– it was more water than milk but it had to do.
Kyle ate and slept for a few hours but when he woke up, his mother was nowhere to be seen.
Kyle wasn’t in a hurry to find her because she disappeared for days at a time forcing him to take care of himself.
This was no way for a 7-year-old to live but after a week, there was a disgusting smell coming from his mother’s room.
Kyle never went there, she forbade him from entering but the smell was so bad that he had no choice.
Kyle broke his mother’s rule and entered her room only to see her lifeless body hanging from the ceiling.
She was already decomposing and at that moment, Kyle’s memory fractured.
This was the moment that Kyle forced himself to forget every traumatic event he had gone through reshaping his childhood with false memories.
–
Night had fallen and Antonio was leaving the area with his daughter.
Their shift was over and another set of people would take over for the rest of the night.
People personally approved of him because it was his kitchen so they followed his rules.
He was glad that Kyle came into his life because there was no telling what kind of future awaited him if Kyle didn’t show up when he did.
Antonio needed to get some sleep and knew that his daughter would be a nuisance without him around.
Antonio didn’t have a car, he couldn’t afford one but didn’t need to because he lived just around the corner.
He thought about these moments as an opportunity to bond with his daughter who would soon be off to college, this was why he preferred walking home rather than hailing a cab even if it took a little longer.
However, this might be a different night because someone was lurking in the darkness.
Antonio would come to regret this decision because the same man who put Kyle in the hospital was ultimately after his life.
This was clearly not Mike’s first time taking a life, he was too calm and composed.
He must have done this numerous times but if he was about this life, what was he doing working in an Apple store?
The man and his daughter took multiple turns and they ultimately ran into Mike standing right in front of them.
Mike barged into him and the man quickly apologized, looking Mike right in the eye but the way he looked at him, Antonio had no idea how this was.
Mike could tell by the way he reacted and he had a choice to make.
Mike let him walk past him because any other thing he did, he risked leaving an impression but who remembers the random stranger you bumped into in the road? No one but if that stranger attempted to interact with you, he leaves an impression that allows you to recall that event with greater detail.
Mike realized that going on a killing spree would no doubt attract attention and if this man didn’t know who he was, there was no need to harm.
Mike heaved a sigh of relief with a broad smile on his face.
“Get it together Mike, we have gotten rid of that fucker,” Mike thought to himself but only if he knew that he failed in his assassination attempt on Kyle.
He would have been far more cautious with how he walked around on the street.