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Song For This Chapter: New Divide~Linkin' Park
This chapter is mostly written through Lucentio's eyes.
All was dark and still, shades of midnight coating the sky and spreading its darkness upon the large manor in an isolated corner of England.
At least, all was still until the gunshots went off.
Meanwhile, inside the mansion, a teenage boy was climbing the stairs, his heart beating fast and loud. He was the head of the house that night; the parents were in London, attending some business party.
I should have known that this would happen. The boy thought frantically. Mother and father were too arrogant in their victory. They have pleased too many fools and angered too many wise men for their acts to go unnoticed anymore. They have goaded and mocked the wrong people. And now, because of their foolishness, Titania and I will suffer.
He heard another gunshot downstairs and an anguished scream as the guards wrestled with the intruders. Futile, all in vain.
They have hired the elite. Trained professionals. Trained not to hesitate, not to doubt, not to wait for their victims to plead and beg for their lives while they raise the knife. The sound of fighting downstairs… that is the sound of humans that have had their hearts ripped out and replaced with steel. Frozen hearts are more dangerous than no heart. They know how to hurt. How to cause pain.
He burst into his six year old sister's room, where the girl was sitting upright in bed, face pale with terror and confusion.
"Lucentio, what's going on?" She whispered, blue eyes wide.
The fourteen year old boy gave no answer; he merely snatched his sister from the bed and carried her right out of the room.
"Lucentio!"
"Sh, Titania. Everything will be alright." Of course, they both knew that it wouldn't be alright. Titania was too smart for that. But her only option was to stay quiet and trust in her older brother. Which she did.
Lucentio ran to his parents' linen closet and started pulling sheets and pillowcases from their places. Then he ducked his head and crawled in, still clutching Titania to his chest. After closing the door behind them with a snap, he curled himself around her, wrapping her in his arms, holding her as close to him as he could.
"...Lucentio…?"
"Keep silent, no matter what happens."
So silence fell as well as darkness. The only sound was the distant fighting and the beating of their hearts.
It didn't last. About an hour later- although it felt like days- a shaft of light fell upon the two crouching figures.
"Here they are! Hiding in the linen closet!"
Titania expected Lucentio to release her and put up a fight. But he didn't. He just stood completely still, acting as if the kidnappers weren't there at all.
The thugs dragged him out, and still the boy didn't relinquish his grip on his younger sister.
Titania was about to scream at him to let her go, but she remembered her promise to him in the closet, and so she made no sound.
"What? Who knew that the Rosewood's were cowards?" Taunted one of them as Lucentio didn't respond. "After all, they might as well have thrown out a challenge by mocking us like that. And now, when they rest at our mercy, they cower? How disappointing."
Lucentio did not rise to take the bait. Unlike his parents, he was no fool; to rise now meant a fight; a fight with four other men armed with guns meant the death of him; death for him meant for his little sister.
And he could not let Titania die.
He tightened his grip around her, pulling her even closer to him.
When they kill me, he hoped feverishly. If I'm lucky, then rigamortis will set in before they take her. And then they won't be able to take her. They don't call it "Dead Man's Grip" for nothing, after all.
Soon, he felt the blows against his back. Sharp, calculated kicks and punches, aimed strategically at the places that would hurt the most.
"Come now, boy. No use protecting the girl. If you don't let go of her, we'll just kill you and then take her. Our employers said to leave only one alive. That one survivor does not have to be you."
Don't worry. It won't be.
They began to grow impatient. "Will you just give it up already? We don't have all night."
"I say just kill him."
"He doesn't like the ones that don't comply anyway."
"Fine." The apparent leader loaded another bullet into the revolver. He aimed it carefully at the back of Lucentio's bowed head. "It's a shame. At least your determination is admired."
And- in that crucial moment right before he pulled the trigger- Lucentio pressed his lips against his sister's ear. Titania could feel his hot fingers on her face. " I love you, Titania. Goodbye."
The single gunshot resonated throughout the mansion, coupled with the anguished scream of a little girl.
But, even though he was dead, luck stuck with him. The kidnappers- although they were trained killers- were not geniuses. They could stealthily murder someone a hundred different ways with their bare hands. And could cause mass homicide a thousand other ways. But they weren't human anatomy scholars.
Because they used up the next few minutes taunting the dead body. Giving it light kicks to express their mockery.
"Brave, but useless in the end."
"Didn't have the guts to save himself."
"Too righteous for his own good."
The leader then went forward pulled on the corpse's arms to get the little girl. But the body resisted, as if it were still alive. Again, he tugged. Again, he couldn't get it to come away.
"Something wrong, boss?"
"I… can't… seem… to… get it free!" He grunted, pulling harder now.
Each of his thugs tried, but none of them could pry them away.
"Damnit, what are we going to do now?"
"Shoot the corpse?"
"What good will that do?"
"What if we hacked away the arms and legs?"
"Idiot! If we harm the girl, we're dead!"
"It's getting closer to dawn. I saw we book it now and try again later. At least now we don't kill the heir."
"Yeah, and next time Mr. Hero won't be here to protect her."
All of the thugs left, slightly disgruntled at being outwitted by a dead body.
All was dark and still, smears of pink and red staining the navy blue and chasing away the black, spreading its light upon the large mansion in an isolated corner of England.
At least, all was dark and still except for the crying.