He drew her close and indulged her in a deep, unhurried kiss. Shortly after, her eyes grew heavy and she drifted into sleep. Ravi laid her gently into bed, smoothing the covers over her before slipping out of the room.
He moved through the quiet house and into the garage, pulled a motorbike forward and fastened his helmet.
Hayland appeared behind him. "Where are you going?"
"To give a warning," Ravi said, his voice stripped of all warmth. "Start preparing the execution plan."
"I thought you planned to forsake it."
"Everyone who contributed to her trauma will die." He said it simply, the way one states a fact. "And I mean it."
"Ravi…"
"She's familiar with me killing."
He moved through the dark with his motor bike
The chainsaw felt heavy and alive in Ravi's hands as he approached the last target one of Jokull's closest men, the one who had helped drag Aine into that room. The man was tied to a chair in the middle of an abandoned warehouse, his eyes wide with raw terror the moment Ravi stepped out of the shadows.
"No, Ravi! Listen to me! Please!" the man begged.
Ravi's face remained completely blank, almost serene, like a man who had already left humanity behind.
"The intensity of your screams won't save you," Ravi said quietly. "Shut up."
The man thrashed wildly against the ropes, tears and snot streaming down his face.
"Wait! Wait! Please"
Ravi pulled the starter cord. The chainsaw roared to life, its jagged teeth screaming hungrily. He brought the spinning blade inches from the man's eyes, letting him feel the rush of air and smell the sharp scent of oil and metal.
"Ravi please! Ravi! I'm begging you!"
For a brief second, Ravi tilted his head, as if considering mercy. Then his eyes went completely dead.
He pressed the chainsaw forward.
The blade bit into flesh with a wet, grinding roar. Blood sprayed across Ravi's face and chest in hot, pulsing arcs. The man's screams twisted into a grotesque, gurgling howl as the chainsaw tore through bone and cartilage. Ravi watched without blinking as the upper part of the man's head skull, scalp, and brain separated cleanly and fell to the concrete floor with a sickening, wet splat.
The body slumped forward, still twitching violently. The chainsaw sputtered in the open air for a moment before Ravi killed the engine.
Silence returned.
Ravi stood there for a long time, breathing slow and steady, covered in blood and pieces of what used to be a man. A cold, deep satisfaction settled in his chest like ice. One more name crossed off the list.
He wiped the chainsaw casually on the dead shirt.
Aine's tear-streaked face flashed in his mind her fear, her broken voice, the way she trembled when she remembered. The rage flared up again, hotter than before.
There were still others left to hunt before sunrise.
Ravi stepped into the room and turned to face the ninety nine corpses sprawled across the floor. Some were slumped against the walls. Some had fallen where they stood. The room smelled of iron and finality.
From his balcony above, Jokull saw the motorbike before he heard it. A single black shape cutting through the dark with the kind of deliberate speed that tells you whoever is riding it already knows exactly where they are going. Jokull was on his feet before the engine died.
Ravi stepped off the bike and looked up.
Their eyes met.
"Cosmina." Ravi's voice was almost gentle.
The young child appeared from behind Jokull, her face breaking open with a warmth that had no business being in a moment like this. "Brother Ravi, I have missed you so much."
She moved toward him.
Jokull moved faster. He stepped in front of her, arms out, a wall between his sister and the man he knew better than anyone alive.
"Cosmina. Get inside."
"But I want to speak to Brother Ravi—"
"I said get inside." The command came out low and absolute. "Now."
She faltered. Then she went.
Ravi watched her disappear without blinking. Then he brought his eyes back to Jokull, and there was nothing in them. Not rage. Not hatred. Something far quieter and far worse than either.
"I promise you," he said, "that you will not see daylight once twenty four hours have passed." He tilted his head slightly. "You are shuddering. I can see it from here. And you have not even seen any of my actions yet, brother. I will make sure you suffer the way I suffered. I will make sure you feel everything I felt, every single thing, before the end."
Jokull threw his head back and laughed. It was a loud laugh, a performative laugh, the laugh of a man using sound as armour. "You think I will simply stand here and let you kill me?"
"Enough." Osmina stepped into the space between them, her voice cracking like a whip. "Both of you, enough. You came from the same womb. You drank from the same breast. You were raised by the same hands. How did you arrive here? How did two brothers end up standing across from each other like this?"
Ravi waited. He let her finish. He gave her the full courtesy of his silence, and then he looked at her with eyes that held nothing soft.
"Are you done?"
Osmina lifted her chin. "Yes."
"You should have been the first person I came for tonight." He said it without heat, which made it worse. "But I realised something. I do not waste bullets on bastards and bitches. You are the sorriest excuse for a human being I have ever had the misfortune of sharing air with." He let that settle. Then he turned back to Jokull. "Twenty four hours. That is all the daylight you have left. Count them carefully."
The silence that followed was total.
And then it was broken.
"Ravi."
The voice was soft. Almost impossibly soft against everything that had just filled the air. They all turned toward it, every single one of them, drawn by something they could not have named.
Aine stood at the edge of the scene, still and certain, her eyes finding Ravi's across the space between them with the ease of someone who has always known exactly where to look.
"Please," she said. "Do not do this. If not for anyone else, then for me."
"Aine." His voice had an edge to it. "Stay out of this."
"At least let this be proof of your doted love for me."
"Aine—"
"Please, Ravi." She did not raise her voice. She did not have to. "Just this once. This one thing."