When The Floodgates Open
Luna Silvereyes
A/N: Gunslinger Girl is a fantastic series. I highly recommend it for all anime lovers. But this is a simple fanfic I've been wanting to write for awhile, now.
"My memories haunt me, plague me by day and torture me by night. The day when I lost her was so painful, it tore me from the core. So why now, when I remember, don't I feel any pain whatsoever? Does this then make me a sinful person?"
-Gaea, Earthen Angel
She is my sister.
We are the fratello, meaning siblings. Our organization, the Social Welfare Agency, has a means of obtaining fatally injured, near-death young girls to serve as cybernetic beings used in assassinations. Through a method called 'conditioning', they are brainwashed and taught to wield guns, rifles and shotguns to take down their various quarry, assigned by our higher-ups.
My name is Giuseppe. She is Henrietta. We are brother and sister, fratello.
//ooo//
"That's enough, Henrietta." I called. Henrietta lowered her SIG and gave me that same blank, empty stare.
"We've been working for two hours." I told her. "Lets' call it a day."
"But Giuseppe," she protested quietly, "I still haven't mastered shooting long range with this one yet."
Ever resilient. I sighed.
"We don't want to overdo it, Henrietta." I mumbled. "Lets' go back in, now. You can visit with Triela for a bit."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Henrietta smile. She was so much more open these days and had quickly befriended the other girls, Rico, Angelica, Claes and Triela.
I looked out to the west. The sun was going down and I could hear an owl some distance away. Several meters ahead of us, we saw Hilshire and Triela returning from a job. I saw Henrietta brighten, but hesitate. She was always like that and was most comfortable around me. But it was important for her to grow a little more independent. I knew she would and could never have any other life outside of this facility.
"Go on," I told her. She gazed up at me.
"Is it all right?" she asked silently.
I nodded. "I'll meet you in the cafeteria later. We can have dinner together."
She smiled and nodded. Then she took off to greet her friend. Triela, upon seeing her, immediately grabbed her up in an enormous hug and I heard Henrietta squeal in laughter. Hilshire made his way over to me, watching, the corners of his mouth twitching. We handlers had to act tough and heartless to save face.
"How'd it go?" I asked him.
"Same as always. Triela performed better than expected as usual. We just wanted to ask the guy a question. Apparently, he'd never heard of the cyborgs before. He started laughing when I sicced Triela on him."
I chuckled. "Guess his mirth didn't last long." I ventured.
"Of course not. Triela only got mad and nearly overdid it. Jean keeps telling me to increase her conditioning, but...."
He trailed off mid-sentence. He felt the same as I did. I believed that more conditioning would only decrease their lifespan.
I sighed and stared at the ground. Hilshire raised an eyebrow and stared at me.
"Hey, you all right , Giuseppe?" he asked me.
"Can you keep a secret?" I muttered, glancing over at Henrietta who was trying to escape from Triela's 'noogie' attack.
"Sure. What is it? Something about Henrietta?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I...I found her attackers in a file on our next assignment."
Hilshire's eyes widened in horror.
"You mean those bastards who...." he said, trailing off again. Henrietta's story was well known amongst the handlers and it was a grim one. Her family had been slaughtered, but the monsters had kept her alive. After hours of abuse and torture amongst the bodies of her loved ones, she'd finally been rescued. But her attackers couldn't be found. Fortunately, conditioning had seemed to erase all memory Henrietta had of her past life. But several weeks ago, following the deaths of Lauro and his cyborg Elsa during an unplanned vacation, Henrietta had admitted to seeing things that she was sure 'had never happened'. When Giuseppe had heard that, his blood had frozen in his veins and he was positive his heart had stopped.
Henrietta did remember. Subconsciously, but she remembered. And at any moment, her subconscious could suddenly flood out into her consciousness, releasing all of the memories, good and bad, that resulting trauma had locked away after conditioning.
Hilshire had gone pale.
"So they were never arrested?"
I shook my head, staring at the ground.
"Not all of them. One guy was caught a few days later. He said that he killed a couple of the people, but he never touched the girl. DNA tests confirmed that, at least."
"The bastard had enough morals not to rape a little girl, but not enough to talk his buddies into sparing her family." Hilshire spat.
I glanced up at Henrietta, but she and Triela had disappeared.
"All we can hope for is that Henrietta doesn't remember anything. We may have to face them in our next mission."
Hilshire sighed and scratched his head.
"I wish you the best of luck, Giuseppe." he grumbled.
//ooo//
Claes lay on her stomach on her bunk reading, ignoring the chatter of the other girls. Most of the chatter was about her.
"She's totally oblivious to everything when she's reading. Watch." Triela said, getting out of her chair. She clapped her hands.
"Claes! There's a spider on your head!"
No response. Triela grinned and jerked her thumb at her. "See? No reply."
"I heard you." Claes mumbled. "I just choose to ignore you."
Triela sighed irritably and sat back down, taking a bite of her slice of cake. Rico giggled and Angelica, still weak but able, laughed as well. Angelica had recently been released from the infirmary after weeks of care. She still suffered immense long-term memory loss and occasionally passed out. But she remembered the girls and her handler well enough, so she was allowed outside provided one of them accompanied her.
"This is delicious, Claes!" Rico exclaimed, her mouth stuffed with cake. Claes smiled.
"Thanks. I was visiting Angelica last week and Marco brought the recipe to me. It's an American cheesecake recipe."
Triela leaned back and closed her eyes.
"Have to say, the taste of it brings back some kind of feeling, but I can't quite place it." she said with a smile.
"I'll bet it's hunger for more cake." Rico teased. Triela stuck her tongue out and grinned. The she glanced over at Henrietta and frowned. Henrietta hadn't touched her tea or her cake. She usually finished her tea by this time and had begun work on her cake. By now, the other girls had noticed it.
"Henrietta, is something wrong?" Claes asked concernedly.
Triela got up and went over, kneeling down beside Henrietta.
"Hey, you okay?"
She gasped suddenly when Henrietta clamped her eyes shut, tears streaming down her face. Triela put her arm around Henrietta's shoulder and pulled her into a hug while the other girls gathered around worriedly. Claes jumped down from her bunk and hurried over with a napkin, gently dabbing at Henrietta's face for her.
"Henrietta, what's wrong?" Rico cried.
But Henrietta was too distraught and the girls fell silent, quietly comforting her until she'd settled down enough to answer them. They set her on the bottom bunk and sat around her. Rico and Triela sat on either side while Claes sat cross-legged on the floor in front of her. Angelica placed herself beside Claes, watching worriedly.
"L-Last night." Henrietta began. Triela smiled softly.
"Oh, was it a nightmare last night?" she asked in an almost motherly voice. Henrietta nodded.
"Yes. I was...was in this dark room. All around me were pitch black walls. I tried to escape, but the walls wouldn't budge. Outside of the room, I could hear voices."
"Voices?" Claes ventured. "Were they calling to you?"
Henrietta shook her head.
"No. They were...they were screaming." Henrietta sobbed as she pulled her arms tight against her body. Triela sighed and pulled Henrietta against her comfortingly. Even though she was a skilled assassin, Henrietta was still only a child.
"Screaming?" Rico said, rubbing Henrietta's back.
"Yes."
"Like they were in pain?" Claes asked. Henrietta nodded.
"Yes. They were screaming...like someone was hurting them. I got so scared. Part of me wanted to help them. But part of me was too scared to move. Their voices began to die, one by one. Then, there was only one voice. She was screaming, no begging somebody to spare someone. Then her voice died too."
"Do you remember who she was begging them to spare?" Triela asked. She was starting to worry that this might be Henrietta's past sneaking up on her through dreams. Henrietta hesitated and then nodded.
"Yes. She was asking them to spare her little girl. She kept screaming and crying to them to spare her. And then she fell quiet like the others."
Triela, listening to this, suddenly felt her blood run cold. She, like many people throughout the SWA, knew of Henrietta's nightmarish past. Her experience as an assassin and her knowledge of the criminal mind was trying to tell her something. A quick glance at Angelica confirmed that, though struggling to figure it out, she was thinking somewhere along the same lines.
Henrietta seemed to be calming down, convincing herself that it was just a dream. Triela frowned and looked at Claes who nodded. Claes turned to Henrietta.
"Henrietta, maybe you should tell Giuseppe about this." she suggested. Henrietta shook her head, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "No," she said. "I don't think it's important. It was just scary, that's all."
Rico started to tell Henrietta some jokes she remembered from her previous life to cheer her up. Triela, Claes and Angelica all moved off to the far side of the room.
"I don't like this." Triela said, speaking aloud all of their instinctual fears.
"Me neither." Angelica whimpered.
"I'm guessing that dream wasn't a simple dream." Claes muttered, folding her arms. "I believe that Henrietta might be remembering what happened to her family. But there's something that bothers me."
"Yeah, same here." Triela replied. "I got the feeling that maybe...the attackers didn't know at first that Henrietta was in the house during the attack. Angelica, you looked concerned during the story. I'm guessing you got the same feeling."
Angelica nodded, pulling on the hem of her sweater. "I did. If Henrietta's dream is really a recollection of her past, then perhaps the attack on her family wasn't planned."
Claes furrowed her brows and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Then that means...that if Henrietta's supposed mother hadn't begged them to spare her little girl, Henrietta-"
"Then Henrietta might really have been spared because they didn't know she was in the house." Triela finished breathlessly. The awesomeness of the ghastly story fell on them like a lead weight. They all looked at Henrietta laughing at Rico's jokes. They all knew that this was A, just the beginning and B, just a theory. But it was probably the most logical theory out there. Triela sighed.
"Claes, you come with me. We're going to speak with Giuseppe. Angelica, you stay with Henrietta and Rico. Keep her laughing and get her to eat some of that cake. Do anything, just keep her happy while we're gone." she instructed. Angelica nodded determinedly.
"Right."
Triela and Claes left the room and hurried to the elevator that would take them to the first floor where they could make their way to the main offices.
They found Giuseppe talking with Jean, Rico's handler. The office was still in a frenzy over the Lauro/Elsa fratello's death.
Giuseppe looked up when Triela and Claes approached him. He could see they meant business.
"Good afternoon, Triela, Claes." he greeted them. "Can I help you?"
"Possibly. We need to speak to you in private." Triela said.
A secluded area in Claes's vegetable garden proved a good spot to tell Giuseppe what had happened. As Triela's story progressed, he grew more and more grim. Finally, he was staring at the ground with the look of a man who had just lost everything dear to him.
"I was afraid of this." he muttered.
"You knew?" Triela asked.
Giuseppe nodded. "I was always worried that Henrietta would start to remember, despite the conditioning. I guess my worries were correct."
"What should we do?" Claes asked. "She seemed pretty upset."
"I don't know. Especially since our next mission is to deal with the same men who attacked and killed her family."
"What!?" Triela and Claes exclaimed together.
"It seems that they've been changing their strategies. They've become political enemies and are planning to assassinate a popular candidate for the next election. Our job is to eliminate them before they eliminate the candidate."
"Who's their target?" Triela questioned.
"He's paranoid. He won't let anyone release his name anywhere." Giuseppe replied. "And in a few days, we have to try to take down the same men who slaughtered Henrietta's family."
"Should we explain it to her beforehand?" Claes asked. Giuseppe hesitated.
"If we do, I should be the one to do it. Seeing those men might trigger a memory gain. If that happens in the middle of a mission, there's no telling what she might do."
Triela and Claes exchanged glances.
"When will you tell her?" Triela asked solemnly.
"Tonight. I was going to show her the stars again." Giuseppe said sadly. "I only wish it never had to come to this."
//ooo//
I'll never forget the night I told her. I had finished setting the telescope up and heard the door open. I saw Henrietta slip, close the door and hurry over, seemingly oblivious to the cold. She smiled at me and studied the telescope.
"Is this one new, Giuseppe?" she asked.
"Yeah. I got it in town last month. It's fresh out of the box."
She raised her eyes to the night sky. It was a perfect night for stargazing. I only wish it wasn't. Then it would probably be easier to tell her what Triela, Claes and I had agreed on. I'd spent hours with the woman from the hospital who'd signed her over to us. I found out almost everything about Henrietta's past life. On hindsight, it had been easy to assume I'd be able to just open up and tell her. But now that I actually had to do it, I wasn't so confidant.
Following tradition, I pointed out the constellations.
"Do you see those three, diagonal stars, right there?" I asked, pointing them out for her to find through the telescope. Henrietta peered through the glass and gasped.
"I see them, Giuseppe."
"Those three stars are the belt of the mighty hunter, Orion. The brighter stars running parallel to them are his shoulders and knees. From there, you can see his great club in his right hand and the lion, sometimes depicted as a shield."
She followed my hand as I pointed out each star.
"The story of Orion is that the goddess Artemis, fell in love with a mighty warrior and hunter called Orion. This made her brother, Apollo, jealous. One day, while Orion was swimming in the ocean, Apollo told his sister to try to shoot at the bobbing turtle in the water. Unbeknownst to Artemis, this turtle was really her beloved. She met her brother's challenge and shot Orion in the head, killing him. When the waves brought him back to the shore, Artemis saw her arrow and realized what she'd done and how her brother had tricked her. In her sorrow, she gathered Orion's body into her shining moon-chariot. She took him up into the darkest spot in the sky where he would shine the brightest of all the stars. She placed him there to preserve his memory. And there he remains to this day."
Henrietta lifted her eye from the telescope.
"That's a sad story." she said quietly. I had to agree and wondered if maybe that had been the wrong story to tell her right then. I sighed.
"Henrietta, listen." I said. She looked up, surprised at the change in my tone.
"What is it?" she asked.
At that moment, looking into her little face, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I took the coward's way out.
"Do you remember your name?" I asked.
"Yes. Henrietta." she said with a smile.
"No, I mean your real name, from before we met." I said.
Henrietta frowned. "My real name? But my real name is Henrietta." she said.
"No." I said quickly. "Listen. I just wanted you to know...your real name is Marietta, meaning 'little beloved'. I devised your name from your original name."
With that, I turned and hurried back downstairs, unable to face her now.
//ooo//
Triela and Claes sat in Rico's room, one she usually shared with Henrietta. But Henrietta had been training at the shooting range almost nonstop since she'd gone stargazing with Giuseppe the night before. They were all worried about her.
"Should I go try to talk with her?" Claes suggested.
"No, I'd better." Triela said, standing up. "Giuseppe told me he only had the courage to tell her her name. He said he isn't sure what small info like that might have done to her."
"I don't think we're supposed to know our original names." Claes said. "But I know mine anyway. It's Fleda, isn't it?"
Triela shrugged. "If you know it. Hilshire was never able to find mine. I'd been given a new one when I became a 'lamb' anyway."
There was a knock at the door and Rico stuck her head inside.
"I was listening in." she said with a smile. "I wish I knew mine. Jean won't tell me. He says it would 'mess with my conditioning'."
"And Angelica's used to be Angelina." Triela said. "So I don't see the problem with knowing what our names used to be. But with Henrietta, who believes her entire existence is to be an assassin with Giuseppe, it might completely screw up her head."
Claes nodded. "I was reading on psychological disorders the other day. Such a tremendous amount of information given to an amnesiac person could result in massive shutdown of the brain functions. Henrietta brushes her dreams off as just that-dreams. Fantastical things that simply never happened because she supposedly knows that they didn't."
"So if Henrietta goes up against the same men who both slaughtered her family and then raped her repeatedly...." Triela mumbled darkly.
"...It could result in a catastrophic release of trapped memory stored in her mind. She might end up in the same state as Angelica." Claes said finally.
Rico stared at the ground forlornly. "I don't want to lose Henrietta." she whispered. Triela smiled.
"You won't. Henrietta's a tough kid. She'll be just fine."
But she wished she could be so sure herself.
//ooo//
The director had ordered that the Triela/Hilshire fratello accompany us on our mission to stop those men turned terrorist from assassinating the political candidate. Hilshire and I rode in front of the bullet-proof car to the anonymously-tipped hideout where the guys were supposedly waiting. Henrietta and Triela rode in back, their weapons at the ready. I was still worried about what I'd told Henrietta a few nights ago, about her real name. I can still remember the look on the director's face when I told her my intentions. She'd warned me that Henrietta's conditioning might not take well with the new information.
Henrietta had brought along her preferred weapon; a Fabrique Nationale P90, a type of sub-machine gun. Triela was fond of H&K hand pistol. Only one knew the magnitude of the mission and that was Triela. The other one, Henrietta, believed it to be an ordinary mission.
"Where is the hideout?" Triela asked, ending an awkward silence in the cab. I hadn't said a thing to Henrietta since I saw her that morning. In truth, I was afraid of what she'd think of me now.
"Just north of Tuscany. You've all been there." Hilshire said. "According to our anonymous tip, it's in the basement of an old warehouse. Our orders are to capture the ringleader alive for questioning. You're free to eliminate all subordinates."
"Right." Triela nodded. Henrietta pulled out her violin case and loaded the weapon into it with the utmost care.
//ooo//
They circled the building, Hilshire and Giuseppe providing backup while Triela and Henrietta searched for a way in. Henrietta would run through her usual strategy, carrying her 'violin' case and pretending to be lost. This would throw the targets off-guard, making them think they could pull off a hostage crisis. Then, Henrietta would unload the weapon in the blink of an eye and take out as many as possible while Triela took care of any stragglers. This would be one of the more simple missions. Unfortunately, these were the same men who had ruined Henrietta's life, placing her in the SWA in the first place. In a way, it was a sick twist of fate and possible revenge on Henrietta's part. Giuseppe just hoped she'd remain unaware of it.
Henrietta breached the perimeter through a small window in the side. It became immediately clear her hostage strategy would possibly fall through. There was no way a little girl on her way to violin class would stumble in here and randomly get lost. Triela noticed this as well and silently traded her handgun for Henrietta's machine gun.
"I'll sneak in through another way," she whispered. " Then we can trade weapons again."
Henrietta nodded. Then, hiding the weapon in her blouse, she silently made her way through the corridors of the underground basement, powerful hearing trained for any movement.
The warehouse was a virtual maze, lined with doorways leading to storage areas and dead-ends with only windows to provide ventilation. But Henrietta's keen eyesight picked up even the tiniest hints of life and movement as she moved through the hallways, waiting for any chance she might get to strike.
Finally, she froze. The sounds of voices from behind the wall opposite her met her ears and her eyes narrowed. The microphone beneath her collar buzzed.
"Henrietta, have you found the location of the terrorists?"
"Yes," she whispered. "I'm going to close in. Send Triela in with left, left, right, left right."
"Understood."
Henrietta gingerly peered around the corner, her hand ready at her blouse to grab the handgun. There was a man leaning against the wall, a pistol hanging limply in his hand as he took a drag from a cigarette. Henrietta scowled and took aim.
She sucked in her breath sharply. Something flashed before her eyes; the darkened face of someone sneering down at her and the sudden feeling of a sharp, searing pain in her body.
Henrietta gasped lightly and shook her head. The man hadn't heard her. He just flicked his cigarette away and sighed in irritation.
Henrietta scowled and then leaned against the wall. She took a deep breath and started her ruse.
"Kitty? Kitty, where are you?" she called softly. She silently fixed the silencer onto the handgun as she called. "Here, kitty, kitty!"
She placed her gun into the lining of her shorts and covered it with her shirt. Then, she crawled out on her hands and knees, clicking her tongue as though calling for a real cat. The man turned sharply, aiming his gun. Henrietta flinched like a child would, knowing that's what he would expect. But to her horror, another vision flashed in front of her eyes, this time of a man standing a few feet away above a fallen body, shooting his gun off aimlessly even though the body was already dead.
Henrietta focused on the now and whimpered.
"Um, excuse me, mister. Have you seen my kitten?" she asked innocently. The man gave her a funny look and lowered his weapon.
"Who is it?" she heard someone in the room yell.
"Just some girl looking for her cat." he replied. "I'll get her out of here."
"No, no, bring her in. We'll help her." the man called back. Henrietta heard him chuckle. Something about that sound sent a chill up her spine, as though she'd heard that laugh before.
"What's your kitten look like?" he called over from his position.
"She's black and white with blue eyes." Henrietta replied. "She fell in an open window and got scared and ran away from me." she babbled like a kid would, hoping to throw him off. "This place is so huge! She could be anywhere!" she cried, throwing her arms out to demonstrate the enormity of the building. The man chuckled as he made his way over.
"Well, I haven't seen any kittens like that around here, kid," he said. But as he got closer, his eyes went wide in shock. "Wait a minute, I know you!"
But the sight of him up close had become a problem. Henrietta was struck with another vision, this time of the black wall in her dream opening to reveal someone standing there, grinning down at her...the man standing before her.
Before she could register, he'd grabbed both of her arms, restricting her use of the handgun as it fell to the ground at her feet.
"You're that little bitch who tried to squeal to the cops on us when we whacked that family!"
Henrietta gasped sharply. This time, the vision was clearer than ever. A dark closet, the sounds of painful screaming, gunshots, and then the door opening as she was yanked out. The sight of the people, blood staining the carpet and their glassy eyes gazing up at her in agony. She remembered the feeling of dislocation in her shoulder as someone dragged her across the floor, yanking a solid object from her hands and then crushing it upon the floor.
"She's got a phone! She was calling the cops!"
"Did she get through?"
"Nah, I crushed the phone. What we've got here is a little rule-breaker. We told her poor unfortunate family, no calling the cops or we'd teach 'em a lesson, didn't we?"
"Well, we can't have any disobedience now can we? Bring her here. We'll see what kind of punishment should fit this little crime."
Henrietta hung limply from the man's grip as she was dragged into the room, reliving that horrible nightmare for the first time in two years, realizing that her dream hadn't been a dream-it had really happened.
"Mommy...Daddy...Antonio...Rosa...." she murmured. A part of her was thinking of these names and wondering where she might have heard them from. But another part, a part she hadn't even known about, was lamenting at hearing these names again, these names, so dear to her and yet gone forever. Taken away by the very men she'd come to kill. Suddenly, everything came flooding back in a torrent of raging, angry passion. Everything conditioning had taken away that first few days. It was all there; her tenth birthday as her father and mother surprised her with her favorite cake and a brand new teddy bear, her first bicycle and her big brother Antonio teaching her to ride it, the birth of her baby sister, Rosa and holding her as she stared up at her with those beautiful new eyes.
She glanced back at her gun lying on the floor where it had fallen.
"Hey, boss! Look who's back!" the man yelled as he flung open the door, heaving her to her feet and grabbing a fistful of her hair. Henrietta was forced to stare into the eyes of almost every single one of the men who'd attacked and killed her family and taken away everything she held close, including who she even was.
"Well, I'll be damned! It's that rule-breaking little whore we found a couple of years ago!" the boss exclaimed in shock. "I see you cut your hair, little miss. Gotta say, we missed you."
He started to get up. Henrietta was paralyzed. She knew that Giuseppe could hear what was going on, but he probably thought she was biding her time until she could safely take them all down. And she didn't want to endanger him and Triela. These men were very different.
But even as she thought this, as they all crept in closer, something snapped.
"Mommy!" She screeched suddenly, making them all freeze. "Daddy! Antonio! Rosa! No! You killed them! You killed them! They're gone! You killed them!"
Then, with a scream like a banshee, she lowered her head and sank her teeth into her captor's arm. He cried out, struggling to free himself as her teeth sank deeper and deeper, the taste of his blood driving her mad until she let go, diving into the hallway and rushing to grab her gun. In one fluid movement, she ran back into the room just as the man was trying to run out and shoot her with his own weapon. She fired two rounds directly into his head, sending him sprawling, dead. The other men were struck with horror at how accurate the shots were. But Henrietta moved fast. She turned and with a single strike, knocked another man flat and unloaded a third round pointblank into his right eye. The boss sputtered and staggered back into his desk, flipping it over for shelter.
"Little bitch! Kill her!" he ordered. The remaining three men surrounded her, firing off two handguns and a rifle. Henrietta took one grazing shot to the shoulder as she rammed into their midst, firing another pointblank into the third man's forehead. Another grabbed her around the neck and attempted to suffocate her but she pulled her knees up and then jammed her feet into his abdomen, whirling and bashing his own rifle into the center of his face. The other man lunged at her with a knife from his back pocket. She ducked aside and grabbed the back of his shirt, whipping him backward into the wall, cracking the plaster and knocking him senseless for a moment. He'd landed next to a large bookshelf. She grabbed the edge of this with both hands and heaved it up, spilling all of its contents at her feet. From behind his shelter desk, the boss watched in horror and awe as she slammed its full weight down on his final subordinate, crushing him.
The boss quickly pulled a grenade out from within his jacket and prepared to pull the key. But he felt the wind knocked out of his as the desk suddenly shoved him forward, crushing the air from his lungs. He then found himself suspended in the air as Henrietta held him by the throat with extremely inhuman strength, the gun to his chest. He stared frightfully down into her steely eyes, nothing at all like the frightened, pained eyes of the girl he and his gang had tortured and raped two years ago. Was this even the same girl? It was, he was sure of it. But something had changed.
"P-Please, don't kill me! Spare me, please!" he begged. He wasn't sure why, but as her face scowled, he knew he'd said the wrong thing.
"'Please, spare my little girl! Don't kill her, please!'" Henrietta replied mockingly. "Do you remember those words? Those words were said to you by my mother the night you killed me."
Before he could question her words, she'd unloaded the final round directly into his lung. He started to choke and gurgle as his lungs filled with blood. Before Giuseppe, Hilshire and Triela could arrive, he'd drown on his own blood. His would be a slow, painful and agonizing death. One Henrietta, Marietta, was only too happy to give.
When backup finally found their way through the maze and stared in horror at the carnage, Giuseppe was speechless. The boss was dead, killed by his own blood. Henrietta was kneeling on the floor, her hair hanging over her face. She was leaning over a puddle of blood. Her fingers were wet with it. To his horror, she'd written four names on the floor with that blood: Mommy. Daddy. Antonio. Rosa.
Hilshire came up behind him and stared in shock.
"She remembers." Giuseppe muttered, bordering a sob. "Oh, God, she remembers."