"It's her or me!" Childish aggression filled Jonathan's voice as reality crashed onto Hunter's shoulders. Bending forward as another wave of pain bit him, Jonathan hugged his stomach. "I'm falling to pieces Hunter. I'm made of scrap pieces and stolen goods. If she doesn't die, I'll be nothing!"

"But this isn't rig.."

"Do you think I care?!" Just as before, Hunter was frozen in the wake of his brother's anger, fading to nothing as the sickness took over Johnny's brain. "I'm doing the world a favor! Kiana was useless! She was more of a zombie than I ever was!"

"That doesn't justify murder!" Hunter tensed up. His feet began to drive him closer to the monster that traumatized him. Jonathan owed him a childhood, a family, a bit of sanity, but the only thing running through his mind was Kiana. Hunter had his chance to change Jonathan, but Kiana never deserved any of this. Hardly knowing the beast she befriended, she was roped into a world with no escape.

"I'm not going to disappear, Hunter! Nothing you say is gonna stop me from finding someone to tear her apart!"

Hunter and Jonathan were separated by a singular table, a singular body. All fear had fallen away to pure aggression and hate, but Hunter refused to back down. He hardly knew the girl, yet her face was burned in his memory. Innocent. Young. Curious. She never stood a chance against the sickness that poisoned Jonathan's mind, or the disease that tore his body apart.

"And why is your life more valuable than hers?!" He gripped the table as Jonathan screamed for what was left of his life.

"Because I was here first!"

Hunter hardly felt the movement through his brittle bones or the gasping air as he sprinted around the table. He couldn't understand his feelings as his hand grabbed the fragile, greyed skin of Jonathan's arm, or the war raging in his mind as every emotion bled to the surface.

Yet he pushed past his screaming and looked past every violent tug and punch. Fists pounded against Hunter's already frail chest; arms wrapped tighter around the zombie boy. Heat bled from every contact of skin, pouring like rivers as panic spewed from Jonathan's lips.

"Let me go! Let me go! You don't know what you're doing!"

Another round of fists pounding against Hunter, only making him draw the monster in closer. Ice began to coat his toes, his arms, and his feet. Heart beating a million miles, he shook his head as a tear threatened to fall.

"I'm so sorry Johnny." Caught amongst a blubbering sob, Hunter bit his lip as every hateful, mad thought fell away with the warmth.

"Stop! You can't..." Jonathan burned hot against Hunter's skin, each pounding fist growing weaker with each desperate attempt.

"I...I hated you...but I love you too much to let you do this." Voice cracking as he pulled Jonathan so tight, he could feel fragile bones give way beneath his strength. It was hardly a sickening crack -hardly even a break- but a disappearance of the monster beneath his fingers. With bones shattering, Jonathan's voice grew weaker and weaker.

"I'm not ready! I don't want to move on!"

"I..." The words caught as Hunter bundled Johnny's breaking body into his arms, squeezing him tight as his entire body grew cold as ice. Through frozen lips, he forced his eyes shut and trembled the phrase. "I forgive you, Johnny."

"Please! I'm not ready!"

"You never knew what you did." Tears splashed against frozen cheeks, falling onto a burning, zombie boy. "But I forgive you. I forgive...everything."

The cries had gone quiet.

Movements subsiding to a limp bundle in Hunter's arms.

Hunter didn't want to open his eyes or feel the cool stream of tears on his cheeks. He didn't want to know what rested in his arms because as soon as he saw what he had done, he knew that madness would set in again. It would tear through him, eat him alive at the very image of what had happened, but something else tugged his eyes open.

Collapsing to his knees, Hunter lowered the broken body to the ground and gently rested the head in his arms.

Filled with peace, Johnny looked human again. Eyes shut; mouth turned into the slightest, peaceful smile. His arms rested loosely over the gaping wounds in his stomach while his head fell perfectly into the crook of Hunter's arm...

Hunter swallowed a cry as he waited for the madness to whisk him away. It would end the grief and make him feel as if nothing had happened, but it never came. Tuned to the pain like a fine needle, he stared helplessly at the corpse. The brother whom he hated -whom he loved- was gone.

And all Hunter could do was hold Johnny and sob.