So much screaming. He couldn’t tell who was more hysterical. The mothers, of course, but there were a few of them. All terrified.
“You have to decide, Ivan. Which one will it be?”
If only he could kill the man and get away with it.
“Sir, please, with all due respect, I can take them all.” His voice had a quiver in it when he spoke. He had to avoid looking weak, desperate.
Tale shook his head and laughed. “You already have one recent dependent. I can’t let you take them all. There are consequences for the actions of your friend. What kind of precedent does that set for the others? I won’t spare them just for you. I was already lenient with one of the abandoned families. I’ll let you choose one of these. That’s it. One of the boys or the wife? Which one will it be? Tell me now, Ivan. Now, Ivan!”
“I can’t,” he said, looking at them all. “I can’t choose.”
“Then they all die,” Tale said with a slide of his chin.
Ivan ran forward as the rifles raised. He grabbed one of them, jerked the boy from his mother’s side, just as the rifles began to fire.
It was a moment he’d never forget. The boy’s mother looked at him in that last surreal moment. Both hatred and humanity at once. She’d died in the next second but her slow motion end told him everything. He’d grabbed the boy as the kid tried to run back to his mother despite the gun blasts. Held him forcibly against his chest, keeping him from turning to look at the horror unfolding.
Later that day, Linda looked the boy over. He wasn’t talking. He was in shock. There was no doubt he’d seen and heard too much, despite Ivan’s efforts. Like a limp doll, Ivan slung the boy over his arm and carried him home. Inside the door, the girl had already prepared dinner. She was only seven or eight and already doing a grown woman’s work. He landed the boy on the floor as if saying to himself, Here’s another to add to my collection.
Everyone else thought Ivan’s motives were insurance. A way to stay alive. That wasn’t it at all. Before the girl came to him, his only thought was to get rid of Tale. Now, these two children were his weakness. Ivan the Adopter. That’s what they called him now.