Chapter 6 - The Broken Engineer
Leonard looked nothing like the polished professional his mother remembered.
His suit was torn to shreds, his face was bruised, and his hands were covered in dried blood.
But his eyes burned with a fierce, unstoppable rage as he stood between his mother and Lawrence.
“Get away from her,” Leonard roared, swinging the heavy steel wrench at Lawrence’s head.
Lawrence ducked just in time, stumbling backward into the damp shadows.
Veronica shrieked and scrambled toward the basement stairs, desperate to escape the chaos.
Leonard did not chase his wife.
He immediately dropped to his knees behind Clara and used the sharp edge of the wrench to snap her zip ties.
“Are you hurt, Mom?” he asked, his voice shaking with raw emotion.
Clara hugged his neck tightly, sobbing into his dirty, ruined shirt.
“I knew you were still here,” she cried.
A loud gunshot suddenly shattered the emotional reunion.
A bullet ricocheted off the concrete floor, sending sparks flying right past Leonard's face.
Lawrence had recovered his weapon and was aiming it at them from behind a concrete pillar.
“You always were a stubborn idiot, Leonard,” Lawrence yelled over the ringing echo.
“You can’t kill us both and cover it up, Lawrence,” Leonard shouted back, shielding Clara with his body.
Lawrence let out a cold, dark laugh that chilled Clara to the bone.
“I don’t have to cover it up if this entire condemned building burns to the absolute ground,” Lawrence said.
He pulled a small silver lighter from his pocket and flicked it open.
Clara suddenly realized the pungent smell in the air was not just sewage.
Lawrence had poured gallons of highly flammable industrial solvent all over the basement floor.
May you like
He tossed the open lighter directly into a puddle of the clear liquid.
A massive wall of bright orange flames instantly erupted between them and the only exit.
