try begging
As the days went by without a phone call, an ominous silence began to form. The major had not spoken a word for the past week.
Campbell thought as he watched the man who looked more corpse-like than a corpse.
He died quietly, as if his life was fleeting. It was the woman's silence that killed the man, whom even a hail of bullets could not kill.
Campbell approached the major after the hospital director and the doctor left.
"Major."
The major's eyes staring at him were emotionless.
"I am truly sorry."
His eyes asked the reason for the apology.
"It was because of my shortcomings that the Major and his family ended up entering the remnants' stronghold...."
The investigation revealed that the remnants had been infiltrating the circus as workers and had been wandering around, avoiding detection. If the purpose and source of the hook had been discovered earlier, the major would not have walked into the trap with the child.
Whether or not he supported the major's private life, the guilt of having played a part in a man's tragedy weighed heavily on his shoulders.
"it's okay."
"I don't deserve an apology," the major said curtly, then took the cigar case out of his pocket and held it up.
Only then did Campbell remember the reason he came here today, so he opened his briefcase that he had left on the table and took out a paper envelope. The Major, who had shown no emotion even after receiving the envelope, changed his gaze the moment he revealed what was inside.
"This is the picture he took that day."
He spoke indirectly because there were employees, but the major understood. However, the emotion in his eyes was completely different from what Campbell had expected. Campbell hid his embarrassment and took out his camera from his bag and held it out.
"It looks like you dropped it. A security guard remembered it and picked it up, but as you know, Pierce was missing, so he gave it to me."
Leon stared blankly at the camera and envelope, which were all scratched and bruised here and there, and then called the attendant to clean them up. He didn't even open the envelope.
"Thank you for your hard work. Go ahead."
After he sent Campbell away, he took out his cigar as was his custom and bit into it. It was stupid.
Now, when I smoked a cigar, I could taste nothing or smell anything. It wasn't just the cigar. The barbiturates weren't bitter anymore either. So, I guess that was a good thing.
The doctor said that since there was nothing wrong with my body, it must be a psychological problem.
Am I going crazy?
I wish I was crazy.
Leon thought as he drove towards Hailwood.
Perhaps sight is dead, along with taste and smell.
The world in his eyes was completely gray.
As soon as Leon arrived at the mansion, he called his butler.
"To give Pierce's family double the salary he earned during his seven years of service as a condolence payment."
As I was giving instructions, I naturally recalled the moment when I heard the news about Pierce. It was right after I opened my eyes and was once again confirmed by Campbell that Grace and the child had left him.
"Call Pierce."
He also called Campbell to collect the remains of the woman and child, as if he were a thief, but for some reason Campbell was unable to answer right away and then confessed.
"Pierce can't get out of the scene...."
The moment he heard the news that so many people, including his entourage, had died on the spot, he was disheartened.
Thinking back on how happy he had been to see Grace get out safely, and how sad it had been to see what happened next, he found himself asking himself:
Why am I still alive?
There was only one person who should have died that day: Leon Winston.
Leon's eyes became even more gloomy as he opened the bedroom door.
As usual, the maid and the butler took all his things to the annex, just as he always did when he was heading to the annex.
He had changed, but nothing had changed. He returned to being a life sentenced prisoner in solitary confinement. Whenever he sat in this prison, the auditory hallucinations he heard had been supplemented by another voice.
"dad...."
I even had a vision of a child coming towards me with his arms outstretched.
Hi, Ellie.
At least this time I knew the name. Now I could call the child's name in my nightmares. That was the only thing that had changed.
I believed that everything would change, but in that one moment when the flames rose, all my promises and pledges became blank.
"Dad, I'm bleeding."
The child's welcome came to him and hugged him, and he whispered while shaking his body pitifully, just like that night when he shot and killed the remnants who were chasing him.
"Ellie, where are you? Where are you hurt?"
The child's white stockings were soaked in blood. Leon checked the child urgently and realized that it was not his daughter who had been shot, but himself.
"it hurts?"
"no."
The fear that I might regret for the rest of my life not being able to escape with Grace was more painful than the gunshot wound at that moment.
"Where is Mom?"
"I'll be back soon."
I'll come back alive. I've never seen anyone cling to their life as strongly as that woman, so I'll come back alive.
Until then, I had to protect Ellie, so I pulled myself together. I held the pistol with my weak hands and looked around cautiously. That painful time felt like an eternity.
Grace appeared.
It was only at the moment of relief that he saw her safe that he felt a sharp pain in his left thigh. However, the moment Grace calmly turned around with Aiman, the pain moved to his heart.
Yeah, you don't love me.
Even though I knew it, I foolishly kept expecting it.
I wanted you to look back on that one happy day, the one that caused you so much pain that will never go away. I wanted you to believe, like I do, that we could live our whole lives like that one day in Abington Beach.
I hope you, a smart person, get fooled like an idiot.
Beyond being shameless, it was foolish.
He realized his blindness only after he became truly blind. Left alone, he tried to laugh at himself, trying to gauge whether it was the world or his own vision that was turning black, but even that was difficult.
And even now, I can't help but laugh at myself.
I was abandoned by that woman again.
That makes sense.
He was only now beginning to feel that this life was no different from a hamster wheel, and that no matter how hard he ran, he would only repeat the same tragedy.
There was only one way out of this hamster wheel. Grace had to come back on her own.
But that smart woman would never return to a rascal.
Not only did they realize it was a trap only too late, but they also lost three of the remaining troops. Even if they were told to come back because the remaining troops were still on the run, it would be hard to believe them.
He tried to enjoy peace in the midst of the gunfire, knowing that the place he lived was a battlefield. He hoped that he could make up for the tragedy of Christmas three years ago, but it was the enemy who actually made up for that tragedy.
It was a natural ending for Margery to wake up alone in a cold hospital bed, unable to spend Christmas or New Year's together like three years ago.
I wasn't happy to hear that Grace called every day, and never came back.
I wonder if you were curious about whether I was alive or dead. If you knew, you would do whatever you wanted.
I asked Grace in the photo that I took out, even though I knew it was self-harm. In the only family photo, she had the same complicated expression as in Ellie's first photo, which was hard to describe as smiling. I naturally remembered the photo Ellie had given me, telling me not to leave her again.
"...Sorry."
He apologized to Ellie's welcome. He no longer had the right to have the photos, which were somewhere among the numerous items scattered throughout the bedroom.
Leon's face twisted as he sat on the edge of the bed and stared at a corner of the bedroom. The Christmas presents Grace had prepared were neatly wrapped and placed in a corner of the room until the end of January.
"Ellie, go and open it."
It was something you wanted so badly. I pushed it open, telling you to open it, but the illusion just disappeared.
Ellie opening her mother's gift was not something he remembered. It was something that had never happened.
At that moment, Winston, who had no conscience, shamelessly shed tears that he did not deserve. Leon was crushed by the fact that his child had never opened the gift that his mother had tried to give him, rather than the one he had tried to give him.
If he hadn't shown up, Grace and Ellie would have had a happy Christmas. It would have been a happier ending for the mother and daughter if he had died in that theater.
Grace Riddle is Leon Winston's final happiness and the beginning of his unhappiness. It has always been that way.
That's why she was believed to be a harbinger of misfortune. However, the person who brings misfortune to the end of happiness may not be Grace Riddle, but Leon Winston.
He is a person who cannot be happy. Misfortune will inevitably come to him.
May I be miserable forever.
In the midst of the misfortune that had begun again, Leon wished endless misfortune upon himself.