I do not own the characters Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, all other characters are my own creations. Please do not take for your own this has taken me ages and has literally been my escape from reality when I have needed it most.
Cold-hearted laughter rang through the hallway intertwined with blood curdling screams. It would have been scarring for the child to stay; stay and watch their mother being brutally tortured for protecting them. They were too young to understand anything that was going on around them but it was easy to understand the last thing that their mother ever said to them. No matter how old the child would be they would still always recall the same three haunting words: Run Tom, run.
Curled up tightly against the cold kitchen wall the child shivered repeating those words through their mind. Although their eyes were tightly closed they could tell that one of the men from the other room was now standing over them. There was no need to even open their eyes to see the grin on his face, they could sense their intense joy.
"Ghastly. We're leaving," a husky voice said from in front of the child. They refused to open their eyes still, just hearing only their voices and nothing else was horrific enough.
"Well you can wait, I'm doing as the boss ordered: Leave no-one alive" Ghastly sniggered.
"If you really think that the boss is going to reward you for your sick and twisted mind because you got kicks out of killing a little kid you're sorely mistaken. I think he'd rather kill you where you stand!" shouted the other voice.
"Oh really? You really think that you know what he'd do?" he hollered back aggressively. A gunshot rattled through the little torn up kitchen and silence was all that remained for a few moments.
"Ghastly, I do believe that Mayuri is correct in what I would do. This child is not a threat to us judging by how they are cowering they never will be a problem," explained a third voice. This voice was easily recognisable as the voice of Huck Finn, the main enemy of the child's family.
"Don't forget the tiny advantage that the..." Ghastly began as he was cut short by more gunshots and hollers of pain in the hallway.
"We are leaving now I believe, you never wish to get on the wrong side of a Tom Sawyer," muttered Huck Finn over the sound of the shots.
"Looks like you already have, I'll fix you up later," muttered Mayuri before they finally departed.
There was the minute sound of shuffling feet followed by louder gun shots and smashing glass. Silence fell after and the child remained huddled against the wall, shivering and crying. A hand fell onto the child's shoulder jolting them, getting their attention. They knew who it was immediately even through their tear filled eyes.
"I'm so glad that you're okay Tom, I'm so glad that you're still okay," muttered the child's father as he tightly held them. It was difficult for the child to tell whether what was dripping on their head were tears from their father or whether it was drips of the blood he was drenched in. They didn't care though, they felt safe, happy and as if nothing else would go wrong from here on in. After a few moments of silence the father relinquished his child to look at them, as he wiped away their tears he muttered one final thing before they left the blood drenched and corpse ridden house:
"I'm so glad you're okay Tom. My little girl."