-1-

The priest finishes the prayer and turns his back.

Zacharias’ lifts his arm.

The crisp white fabric of his dress shirt is stiff against the muscles in his arm.

He pulls the trigger.

The bullet releases in absolute silence and within a second the steel tip passes through Rayne Washington’s skull. Blood seeps from Rayne’s lips and nose. The blood dribbles down to his bare chest, pooling on the cashmere sheets.

Zacharias drops the gun.

The sound echoes in the reverent silence.

No one moves.

Mother nudges for Zacharias to pick up the dropped revolver. He looks unsteady as he kneels to pick up the gun.

Startled by the dropped gun, Alan Gray misses his cue by a few seconds but then his steady hand pushes a needle quickly into the corpse’s heart. The bleeding is staunched almost immediately by the anti-coagulate.

And it is done.

Luce's eyes dart across those in audience, he looks keyed up and anxious.

My eyes keep straying to the corpse my brother has just made of what was left of his father.

Rayne’s guards have wiped away the blood with silk cloth, replaced Rayne’s dress shirt and lifted his body from the luxurious cot and into the plush coffin. The coffin actually looks quite comfortable.

Which, I suppose is the point.

The black and silver casket is closed and Aunt Minnow pushes her way forward to act as the lead pallbearer. She can barely lift the casket and is quickly joined by four other men; El, Uncle Jean, Haley and Hotako. The carry the casket the 5 feet  to Rayne Washington’s designated space in the mausoleum. The polished copper door opens and the casket slides in like a utensil being placed in drawer.

Mother walks with Zacharias  to stand in front of his father’s final resting place to pay respects. They both rest a palm against the small copper door before walking out, hand in hand.

I fall into line with the rest of the attendees in the audience to tap Rayne's final resting place before filing out of the mausoleum and into the Mojave heat.

The liquor comes seemingly out of nowhere. 

It’s done now. The mourning. The reverence. The melancholy.

“Dibs on the Maybach, motherfuckers!” Uncle Jean shouts holding up a bottle of overflowing champagne and a small crowd erupts in laughter.

They were barely a foot away from the mausoleum.

Luce goes into guard mode.

“Twyla,” he snaps at me before wordlessly guiding me through the crowd and into the back row of the white Escalade.

From the car window I watch Haley approach the car, he and Luce briefly  exchange quiet words and then Haley leaves. When Mother and Rias approach the car Luce ushers them into the middle row before getting in the driver’s seat himself. We navigate back to Rayne’s loft, where the live feed of the final rest had been playing to a large crowd.

I want to protest being made to sit in the back row by myself but I don’t.

I can hear Zacharias sniffling quietly as we drive. It’s uncharacteristic of him to cry in front of us but no one says anything.

For the first time I can ever recall everyone in my family is silent in the car.

+++

-2-

The party at Rayne’s loft is in full swing when we arrive. A line quickly forms to talk to my Mother and Zacharias as they enter the space, separating Luce and I from them.

El is sliding glasses of bright green margaritas down the kitchen bar, Hotako is sitting awkwardly in a corner with his arms folded, Uncle Jean is leading Haley gingerly by the hand through the party, fliting from group to group. 

Some people do look like they're at a wake; people keep coming over to Aunt Ivy in groups and giving her group hugs that make her laugh. I notice even Sage has tears in her eyes, but I think they must be fake. She was a personal project of Alan Gray’s and while she was once human she is mostly AI and cybernetics. Death didn’t mean anything to her. She died a few times a week and Alan could bring her back. Almost like a game.

Aunt Minnie approaches where I am standing awkwardly beside Luce. Luce could spend the entire party silent, staring at the wall and never feel awkward about it.

Aunt Minnie’s the only one who has had a wardrobe change—she’d traded her black suit for purple and lace dress and silk black heels. She has a tray of sparkling shots in her hand, but her eyes look haunted. She’d been Rayne’s assistant for 17 years. She’d been by his side until they very end.

Aunt Minnie makes a really crude joke about Rayne as she approached us; Luce laughs and take a shot. I take one too.

“Rayne Washington would want everyone to be wasted off their fucking asses by now,” Aunt Minnie says throwing back her shot.

“Hell, he’d be standing on the table beating his chest if he was here,” Luce adds taking another shot from her tray.

“This is our time,” Aunt Minnie says in a mimic of Rayne’s roar. “THIS IS OUR TIME!”

Luce laughs.

It was odd watching them get along, normally they were snipping back and forth like little kids.

“How was he in the car ?,” Aunt Minnie asks, suddenly serious. She nods her head to where Zacharias, Mother and now Aunt Ivy were talking to a Federation official who was here because she was either dirty or been bailed out by Rayne in the past.

“Quiet,” Luce grunts. “Too quiet. He should have made a speech or something at the funeral--”

“He’s still young--”

“He’s 17-years-old,” Luce cuts in. “ I swear, as soon as all this sad shit--”

“How eloquent,” Aunt Minnie says shaking her head at me in conciliatory annoyance.

“Whatever,” Luce scowls. “As soon as his mourning is over he’s going to have to lead the cartel.”

Aunt Minnie shrugs like she isn’t sure.

“Ornamentally,” she says. “I still need to run point on the McLaren issue and I want you and Haley to work together on infiltrating Colfax Limited--”

“I don’t need Alex for the Colfax job. His info is unreliable, I can handle it on my own.” Luce shrugs. “I told you, they're system is basic. I just need a good retro hacker and it could be done in days.”

“You also told me you needed a half fucking million--”

“It’s a risky job. I’d have to go International to find someone.”

As they start talking business I excuse myself and step out to the balcony and send a quick message on my Syndicate.

Funeral is over. I’m leaving Mojave. Meet me at the station ?

Then I escape down the fire escape.

----

A/N

Um, wow did I post this ? I have no idea how this novella got so hyped up but now I can say that this is about Twyla,  Sara's youngest daughter. This  serial takes place 18 years after Vice, 17 Years after Alan's story in Compulsion, 14 years after Haley's story in Compulsion and about 5 years after the end of Bright Lines.

This serial is the Grand Unifying Vision I had for these Vice Novellas. They were all background for Twyla's story . I'll post about this in the blog but Twyla is referenced to in both Arkham Academy and Bright Lines. I didn't exactly write these in order but I'll get more into how they came to be later.

In a lot of ways this serial is going to be like One Last Thing because it starts with a funeral, which is how One Last Thing ends.