Read Requiem for a Mouse for Free Online Page B

balance. “Dragon,” He said with a raspy voice. “Do you think you can hurt me?” His eyes were so bloodshot they looked red.
    “I do,” Lao responded.
    The man shook his head against the rope.
    “Is that your defense?” Lao asked.
    “I have no defense. I wish you had killed me sooner.” His voice cracked. “Maybe then, she’d still be alive.”
    “So, are you ready to confess?”
    “You wouldn’t understand.” The man trembled and his voice followed suit. “I loved her, she was the reason I was able to go on for as long as I did, just to see her one last time.” His body convulsed, hit by another coughing fit.
    It didn’t take him long to regain his breath, and when he did, his voice wilted. “She was so beautiful, more beautiful than I could’ve ever imagined. Dragon, I didn’t know that it was her. I didn’t…” His words were replaced by his sobs. Suddenly, he shrieked and lunged toward Lao only to be stopped by the noose. “I didn’t know!” he screamed, again and again.
    Lao watched from a careful distance. “I thought I recognized you.” He placed a gentle hand on the man’s cheek. His thumb caressed the crescent shaped birthmark under the man’s eye. “There’s not very many people in the world with a birthmark like yours. There was probably only two, well… now just you.”
    Thick tears dropped from the man’s eyes. “I killed her. But why was she a Hawk?”
    Lao grinned, the grin of a cat with his claws on the mouse’s tail. “Because of me.”
    “You’ll get what you deserve, Dragon. The Lions are coming back.”
    “I don’t take well to empty threats.” Lao walked behind the man and kicked him forward. He fell until the noose yanked up, choking the sobs out of his body. “Tell me, did you ever ask her name? I remember you gave her a rather strange one. Tiaren, was it?”
    The man tried to push words through his collapsed throat. His mouth moved and his tongue flailed but no sound came out.
    Reaching into his jacket, Lao procured a large silver flask. Tiny engravings shimmered in the light as the smell of gasoline dissipated into the air. “Did you even exchange words? You know, before you killed her.”
    Lao put the flask to his lips and threw his head back. His stomach lurched forward, rejecting its revolting contents. Some of it spluttered out of his mouth but he managed to choke it down. It was unbelievably bitter and sour, tasting worse than it smelled, and it smelled like poison.
    “If the Lions are truly coming back, so be it. I killed them once, I can do it again.”
    Lao poured the rest over the man’s head. The man shuddered and thrashed. The iron around his limbs rang like bells as his body twisted in what looked like a ritualistic dance. Despite the man’s claim to have accepted death, he now fought harder than ever.
    “Everyone ends the same.” Lao said above the terrified gurgling of the man. “In the most pathetic way possible.”
    Lao retrieved a cigarette from his jacket pocket. He lit it and took a massive drag, trying to smother his taste buds in its disgusting smoke.
    “Repulsive,” Lao said. “But you have your punishment and I have mine.”
    He flicked the cigarette onto the man. Blue flames swallowed the man whole. Like all deaths in here, it came in near silence. The crackling of the flames, the soft clang of iron, and the man’s breathless screams.
    Lao stared into the flames. “You will either burn to death or choke to death. Too bad you can’t do both.”
    He spat into the fire and walked away.

SASHA
     
    Sasha had the clouds to keep her company. Maverick wasn’t one to talk much and Prince was still cooling down from her scolding. For the past few minutes, Sasha had been beating herself up over what happened. Her scar was still too touchy of a subject.
    “I’m home!” Flower’s voice echoed around the corner.
    Sasha nearly jumped up in relief. “How’d it go?”
    “Don’t send me on some pointless errand just so you have