The Regulator (Complete First Draft)

Chapter 52: Brandon - Can the Circle Be Unbroken

It was silent. No one spoke. No one moved. No one made a sound. They all just watched as Brad’s limp body fell backwards onto the cold ground, a slight spurt of blood shooting out of his chest. The Drifter stood there, arm outstretched, gun in hand. Everything felt like it was in slow motion. Brandon watched as the drifter twitched, and began to slowly turn, arm still outstretched, as if he was about to fire again. Brandon couldn’t move, the shock of what just happened was too great. He saw Gavin come running up past Brad’s body, pushing Monica to the ground to get her out of harms way. Gavin was darting towards the Drifter, and the Drifter was aiming his gun at Gavin.

Brandon jumped into action, running forward and knocking the Drifter to the ground. Time suddenly began to speed up again as the Drifter punched Brandon in the face. Brandon ignored the punch as best he could and wrestled with the Drifter for the gun. Gavin ran up and kicked the Drifter in the head, giving Brandon enough of a distraction to wrestle the gun out of his hands. He grabbed it, stood up, and pointed it at the Drifter’s curled up body.

“What the f*** is wrong with you!” Gavin shouted, angrily, his face turning red. Brandon looked around the area, a large crowd had already gathered too watch the Drifters strange enough antics, but now the crowd was mostly made up of people in shock. Various people, both Adults and Children, were throwing up on the ground. Some of the Counselors were trying to move the kids away from the scene, others couldn’t. Brandon could see Gabi trying to lead Andrew’s group away, but they all seemed to be frozen in shock. They couldn’t look away from the scene unfolding in front of them. Brandon’s own group was the same way. They were all just standing, dead pan staring at Brad’s body. Brandon finally looked over at Brad, and all he saw was a sobbing Monica sitting over him, trying to tend a wound that would never heal.

“f***… off…” The Drifter managed to sputter out. Gavin yelled and kicked him hard in the stomach.

“Look what you’ve done! Look at what you’ve done!” Gavin shouted, kicking him again. Brandon was still too stunned to talk.

“I…I…”

“Shut the f*** up!” Gavin screamed at the top of his lungs, he kicked the Drifter in the side of the head again.

“What do we do?” Brandon managed to weakly mutter. Gavin took a deep breathe, got down on one knee, picked the Drifter up by the hair, looked him in the eyes and said “We kill him.”

“No. No that’s not what we do.” Monica said, standing up, tears streaming down her face.

“What do you mean.” Gavin snarled at her.

“Killing him is just sinking to his level, Brad wouldn’t want that.” Monica managed to say. Brandon could hear a surprising amount of strength in her voice.

“Yes he would have. If it were you lying dead right there he would want revenge. And he would take it too.” Gavin said, furiously.

“No, he wouldn’t.” Monica said, defiantly. The tears in her eyes were fading away as she seemed to be getting more frustrated with Gavin, “You didn’t know Brad like I did. He would have kept him alive, figured out a different punishment for him. Brad wasn’t a monster. Not like him.”

Gavin dropped the Drifter to the ground and walked up to Monica, getting right in her face. “You honestly expect me to let this man live any longer.”

“Yes. I do.” Monica said. Brandon couldn’t hear even a hint of mourning in her voice anymore. Whatever was going on with her, she wasn’t going to be weak. “I’m in charge. Brad is dead, and that man will be punished. But we won’t…” Monica paused as Brandon heard a slightly click, like the safety being turned off a gun. He, Monica, and Gavin all turned to see that Jaxon had managed to get away from Gabi and was now standing above the Drifter, gun poised to fire. Tears streamed down his face as his hands trembled.

“Jaxon…!” Gavin began to shout at him, but Monica gave him a light punch, indicating he should stop. She began to walk towards Jaxon, opening her mouth, but Brandon raised his hand and told her to stop, all without taking his eyes of Jaxon.

“Jaxon.” Brandon said calmly, Jaxon’s face darted off the Drifter and looked into Brandon’s eyes. Tears continued to stream down his face as he looked into Brandon’s eyes. Brandon was overcome with sadness at the sight of this, but held it together. “Jaxon, it’s okay. Stop what you’re doing. Put the gun back in your holster.”

“He killed Brad.” Jaxon muttered.

“I know. But we aren’t like him. You can’t be like him. I don’t want you to do that, Andrew doesn’t want you too, and Brad wouldn’t want you too.”

“He’s a monster…”

“Yes, and you aren’t.” Brandon said, inching closer to Jaxon slowly.

“Monsters are dangerous, Andrew told us to kill them.”

“This man… this is a different type of monster.”

“What kind?” Jaxon asked, a hint of curiosity in his voice. Brandon was getting him back.
“A worse kind, and a more dangerous kind, but killing him just makes us the same.” Brandon said. He was now within arms length of Jaxon. He reached out and put his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Andrew wants you to have that gun, so I won’t take it, but you need to put it away. Right now.”

Jaxon hesitated, and didn’t move for about a minute. But he eventually relaxed his hands and put the gun away. Brandon smiled, wiped a tear from his eye, and turned him around. “Go back to Gabi now. Go wherever she’s going.”

Jaxon ran off, and Brandon turned around, feeling successful, to face Monica and Gavin. As he did so, he saw the gates open, and in drove a car. Brandon swallowed hard, because Andrew, Nick, and Ivan were home, and they had to hear the news.