The Border Part Eight by Amy Cross

a break and come back in a day or two.”
    She turned to him, and after a moment she realized he was right. She couldn’t go on, she needed to go and find her sons and grieve with them.
    “In your current state,” Ben added, “you’re more of a liability than a help. Please, Jane, take some friendly advice from your brother-in-law. The stag-headed man’s gone. That’s the most important thing, isn’t it?”
    A little under an hour later, once they’d headed back up and grabbed some supplies from the vending machine at the bus stop, Jane walked with Ben back to her car. He had both guns slung over his shoulder, and the sun was rising as he stopped and looked toward the office building. After a moment, he turned back to her and allowed himself a faint smile.
    “Tell those kids their Uncle Ben is gonna come back some day and make sure they’re on the straight and narrow,” he said. “Tell them they can’t go using their father’s death as an excuse to be assholes.”
    “I’ll be back down with you in a day or two,” she replied. “If you’re not done by then, anyway.”
    Stepping over to her, he gave her a brief hug before turning and making his way toward the steps.
    “Good luck,” she whispered, watching as he entered the building. She waited for a few more minutes, debating whether or not she should just go after him anyway and get the job done, but deep down she knew that she’d seen and done enough for one night. The Border was finished, and that was the most important part. Climbing into her car, she replayed the moment when she’d shot Tom Lanegan, and she realized she didn’t feel bad at all. She felt good. She’d killed the man who’d killed her husband, and along with Ben she’d managed to rid Bowley of a terrible blight. Starting the engine, she turned the car around and headed home, while trying to work out what she was going to do now that Jack was gone.
    ***
    “He’s going to need a lot of physiotherapy,” the doctor explained, keeping his voice low as he talked to Ruth in the doorway, “but you mustn’t lose hope. I’m sure your husband will be able to walk and talk again at the end of it.”
    “He can’t go back to work, though, can he?” she replied.
    He shook his head.
    “The stroke…” She paused. “He’s always been such a proud man. I don’t know how we’re going to manage.”
    Turning, Ruth looked toward the bed, where Alex lay with his head to one side, staring into space as if his mind was filled with a million other things. Even as his wife and the doctor stood discussing his rehab options, Alex’s thoughts were lost in an aching sense of regret. For him, just as the horrors of the Border had been shut down, they had also become shockingly apparent. Now, finally, he understood the nature of the evil that until that night had only existed at the edge of his perception.
    ***
    “What are you doing up?” Bob asked, stopping in the doorway as soon as he saw Beth sitting on the sofa with her arm around Lucy. The little girl was asleep now, having spent the past few hours listening to her mother telling her that everything was going to be okay.
    “It’s complicated,” Beth replied, keeping her voice low.
    “Why’s there blood on the kitchen able?” he asked.
    “Complicated.”
    “Why’s there blood in the hallway?”
    “Complicated.”
    He paused. “I have nowhere else to go.”
    “No kidding.”
    He looked over at the Christmas tree, which was slowly rotting in the corner by the window. The angel was up there, its head still impaled through on the tree’s top. After a moment, he turned back to Beth. “You know how you said you inched across the line toward doing bad things?”
    “That’s something of an over-simplification,” she replied, “but yeah, sure. I know.”
    “Well, I was wondering…” He paused again. “I was wondering if you thought maybe you could inch back? If maybe we could inch back?”
    “How would that work, exactly?” she