Days crawled by. Minnie locked herself away in her room most
days, reading crime stories. Roman remained distant and cold. Police found a
dead homeless man washed ashore.
That night, Minnie and Roman lye on the couch together,
malice thick in the air, an uneasy tension pressing down. Minnie switched
through channels with the remote. The news flickered in flashes—Police reported
one male, washed up on the beach that day. Autopsy reports would be released
tomorrow; investigations were underway.
The TV flickered as Minnie hissed, a faint remorse hidden
beneath prideful rebellion: "Those pigs..."
Roman said, reassuring in hollow humility, "Don't
worry, Minnie. We'll die before they catch us." He rubbed his hands
together, uneasy—not wanting to be caught
"We're strangers now," Roman said. "Bound
by shared horror, unable to comfort each other. The Covenant took our
innocence—and our ability to love."
"The crime stories help," Minnie said. "Other
people's darkness makes mine feel smaller. At least I'm not alone in
corruption."
Roman thought, the ocean always gives up its secrets.
"We knew they'd find a body eventually," Minnie
said quietly.
"Doesn't make it easier," Roman replied.
"Seeing his face on the news, knowing everyone will know what we
are."
"Monsters, Minnie thought. Always have been. Always
will be."
She switched channels. The news flashed again—the
body.
"What have we done? Roman thought, knives in his
chest."
"That poor homeless guy we drowned alive, Roman said."
Minnie whispered. "Poor
people are the scum of the earth."
"But we're the shame, Roman thought, his chest
tightening."
The murder we committed together. The last innocent thing we
destroyed.
"Those damn corrupted police," Minnie hissed,
pride cloaked in faint remorse. "I'm not going back to jail—not after last
time."
Roman forced a hollow, reassuring smile. "Don't worry,
Minnie." "Maybe that's mercy, he thought. Death might be the only
escape from what we are bound to." He rubbed his hands together,
uneasy, resentful. Why did I go through with it? Am I as monstrous as she
is—or just a coward?
Morning sirens shredded the quiet.
"This is it, Minnie thought. The reckoning."
"Oh fuck!" The knocking turned into pounding.
Windows rattled. Bullhorns: "Minnie and Roman—come out with your hands up!
This is your only chance!"
"Our only chance, Roman thought grimly."
"They found us," Minnie said aloud.
"Did you think they wouldn't?" Roman asked
mechanically, pulling on clothes like a man preparing for execution.
"I hoped, Minnie thought. More time. Time to live
with what we've done."
Roman's gaze caught the pistol on the table. "They'll
cage us, Minnie. Lock us away like animals."
"Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?"
Minnie asked.
"I'd rather die free than live in chains," Roman
replied.
"Free, Minnie thought. As if we'd ever been free
after The Crowned-Deep bound us."
Minnie held the Penance Engine, humming in her palm.
"It's been whispering since the moment we took it. Lies, promises, the
poison that made killing that man noble."
"No cages. Not for us. Were children of the depths. If
the cops want a war, they'll drown in blood."
"Shit we are broken people convincing ourselves our
brokenness was holy after all," Roman said.
The pounding intensified. Roman grabbed the pistol, chest
heaving, a broken grin on his face.
"Ready?" he asked.
"I've been ready since the night we killed,"
Minnie said. "Just the final act."
"The final act of a tragedy we were born into, Roman
thought."
"Guess this is it, sweetheart. Our curtain
call."
"Sweetheart, Minnie thought. Even now, after
everything."
The door burst inward. Splinters flew. "Down on the
ground—" an officer shouted, cut off by a gunshot.
"No surrender, Roman thought. No cages."
Bullets shredded walls and lamps as Minnie crouched,
shrieking with laughter. Chaos made flesh.
The Engine thrummed in her hand; walls seemed to breathe.
Officers screamed, visions flickering.
Roman fired wildly, hitting one cop. "One down. How
many more?"
"They'll bury us in headlines, Roman. But first, we
bury them," Minnie hissed. Smoke grenades filled the house.
"Plan B!" she shouted.
"The plan where we die fighting instead of electric
chairs?" Roman asked.
"Exactly, at least this way, we choose the end."
Shattered glass. Gunfire. Blood streaked Roman's arm.
Pain—real, immediate.
"We ain't going quietly!" he yelled.
Minnie grabbed a Glock. "It's time. Time to show them
what the Covenant taught us."
"At least the one shooting lives, Roman thought.
Lives to kill, corrupt, spread darkness."
Minnie burst from the bathroom, taking down a SWAT officer.
"Killing is easier than living."
Roman fired blindly, bumped into two officers, and was
pinned to the floor. "This is how it ends, he thought."
Minnie, after slipping underground, took a clear shot.
"A shot in the dark."
"Roman, the Penance Engine—use it!" she
shouted.
"Trust it," she said. "Trust the corruption
that made us killers."
They reunited, grazed and battered. "You got it? We
can't leave it behind."
"Maybe it's time to let go," Roman said.
"Without it, we're nothing. Just broken people who
murdered for nothing."
Roman retrieved the Engine. Its power seeped into his hand. "It
knows. Desperation feeds it."
Officers swarmed. The Engine twisted broken glass; The
Crowned-Deep manifested.
"The infernal master, Roman thought. Air was
pressurized, like sawdust in lungs. Officers fainted."
"I can't believe we traded our old lives for this," Minnie
and Roman thought.
The house crumbled. They fled underground, alive but bound
to the Covenant inside.