Chapter 4

Two years have passed since my brother and I had been attacked by the Viper gang. It has been mostly peaceful since then besides the occasional scream or gunshot, and whenever that happened Killian and I would hide in our house to the quickest of our ability. My training has progressed, and I'm now at the point where I'm building strength and muscle more than anything else. Father has taught me as best he could and tells me that I have improved tremendously, going on to say that I possess a natural talent. I didn't believe he was serious until he went out and bought me a rice punching bag and leather gloves and gave me the dagger he kept stashed in our living room floor. Mother was against my hard training at first, but after hearing of what happened with the gang, she reluctantly accepted it. The punching bag is set in the room I share with Killian and I use it twice a day, in the morning and the afternoon. Everytime I do use it, I can see Killian from the corner of my eye watching in amazement, making me smile and punch harder. After I'm done with my session, he occasionally goes up to it himself and tries punching, only to retract his hand in pain. He also watches me train with my dagger and asks constantly if he could hold it, to which I always answer a definite no. Seeing Killian with a broom is one thing, but giving him a knife is just asking for a whole lot of trouble.

It was on a faithful evening when I was at my punching bag, pulling on my gloves and rotating my head from side to side to get rid of any knots. I could already hear Killian running to watch me and by then I was hitting the bag as hard as I could. Father stopped by the room where Killian was and I could tell he was smiling proudly. Thirty minutes later, I refrained from punching and hung my head, exhausted from the workout. After removing my gloves and placing them on top of my dresser, I grabbed a cloth on my bed and wiped my sweaty forehead. I looked at the clock and knew my mother would be coming home soon, so I decided that I would be nice and prepare her a meal. Killian was already running past me to get to the rice bag and I chuckled, patting his head when our path's crossed. After taking a quick bath I walked into the kitchen to see Father already starting on tomato soup. I could see him dropping pieces of vegetable onto the floor when he was chopping them.

"Need some help?" He looked over his shoulder and smiled.

"You know I do."

Together we finished making four servings of the soup and I prepared the table for dinner. By this time Killian was done with the punching bag and came running into the kitchen, complaining that his knuckles hurt. After inspecting his hands and reassuring him, the three of us sat at the dining table and waited for Mother to come home so we could start to eat. The minutes passed by and she still wasn't home like expected.

"She's probably just running a bit late." Father told us. "You should start to eat your soup before it gets cold."

We slowly ate our soup while awaiting Mother's arrival, but to our dismay at the end of our meal she still wasn't home. I was starting to get worried and asked my dad why she would be this late.

"Maybe she's finishing up cleaning rooms."

"Are you sure? Mother's never been gone this late."

"Father, where is she?" Killian interrupted.

"Don't worry you two. She'll be home soon."

I looked at the untouched bowl of soup across the table and couldn't help imagining the worst. I breathed deeply, internalizing my dark thoughts and got up to start on washing the dishes. My worries were confirmed when we were done cleaning the kitchen and it was midnight with no sign of my mother. I looked to my father who now also shared a troubled expression.

"You two should get to bed." He said gently to my brother and I.

"What about Mother?" Killian anxiously asked.

"I'm going to go to her work and make sure everything's okay." He walked to the closet and grabbed a dark, worn out coat.

"Are you sure? It gets dangerous outside this late at night."

"Then your mother is going to need an escort through said danger." He pulled on the hood of his jacket, coughing from the dust. Killian and I looked at each other nervously and kept still.

Before he was out the door, he looked back us seriously.

"Didn't I tell you guys to go to bed?"

"Father…" my voice trembled through my fear. "I don't know if you should go. Maybe we should wait a bit more, I don't feel good about this."

He only smiled reassuringly and walked over to the two of us, placing each of his hands on one of our shoulders.

"I can take care of myself, don't worry about me. I'll be back with your mother soon, okay? You need to get some rest."

I realized that we couldn't convince him and that he was set on going out to find Mother. I offered to give him the dagger, but he refused saying that it was mine now. Instead, he brought a normal kitchen knife, insistent that he wouldn't come face to face with any danger.

"I'll be back by time you wake up." He assured at the frame of the door.

"Be safe."

"I know, I know. Goodnight."

"Goodnight." We said simultaneously. He closed the door behind him and Killian and I were left in silence, only the flickering of candles around the room making any sound. Killian's anxious expression suddenly brightened with hope, contrasting my own.

"Don't worry Karlyn, they'll be fine! Even if they do get into trouble, Father will beat them up just like that time when he saved us."

I could only nod at what he said, knowing the true circumstances of the situation he was referring to. Together we went to our bedroom and laid in our beds like our father instructed. I found myself tossing and turning on my mattress, having a difficult time falling asleep. The last thing I remembered was enduring through Killian's incessant snoring when all of a sudden my eyes swung wide open, awakening from a short slumber. Realizing I must have fallen asleep, I immediately got up and ran out the room to check if our parents returned home last night. My head was pounding when I looked into the room and saw no one there.

"Crap." I thought and hurried to the living room and kitchen. It was exactly as it was when Killian and I went to sleep, and at this moment it felt like my heart was trying to violently beat itself out of my chest. I knew sometime went wrong. After running back to my room, I awoke Killian and explained how neither of our parents made it home.

"What? What happened? Where's father?" His drowsiness disappeared and was completely replaced with anxiety.

"I don't know, but we need to go look for them now."

"You're bringing me with you?"

"Like hell I'm going to leave you here by yourself. But I'm going to need you to do exactly as I say." I ordered sternly.

He gave me a look of understanding and got up to change his clothes and put on boots. I grabbed a small, leather sack used to carry my dagger and put on my own shoes, telling Killian to move faster. Within five minutes we were out of the house, following a trail we knew led to the house of my mother's boss. We moved quickly through the dimly lit streets, our feet splashing through puddles of musty water on the brick floor.

"Karlyn! Wait!" Killian was getting short- breathed as we entered an ally. I slowed down my pace allowing him to catch up.

"A-Are they going to be okay?" His voices cracked with hopelessness dripping from his words.

"I don't know Killian, I really don't know." I answered frantically, catching my own breath. "Just follow me until we get to-"

I stopped dead in my tracks, hoping I imagined what I just saw from the corner of my eye in that dark ally. My brother made an abrupt stop right after, asking what happened.

"Killian. Don't move." I demanded, my voice having no tone or emotion. He did as I said and stood still, trembling in the darkness. I shifted my body to one side, turning my head around to see two black silhouettes leaning on the wall behind us.

'It could be anything.' I thought. 'I'm only imagining the worst.'

I slowly stepped closer to the ill-lit figures and grabbed a small match box from my pocket, dragging the head of one across the side of the box. Once I exposed what I saw to the fire, I felt the blood drain from my face and was too shocked to move anything but let out a quiet whimper. I stood there, mouth gaped and eyes wide looking at the cadavers of my mother and father. They were leaning on each other, mouths wide and throats sliced by a knife. My father's face looked bloodier than my mother's which suggested that he was putting up a fight against whoever did this to them. Flies began swarming their corpses, and upon looking at my father's hand I could see the kitchen knife he had brought, lying next to him. Looking into their open eyes I could only see grey orbs that were looking at nothing.

I couldn't take my eyes of them, too horrified to move a single muscle in my body. I felt something drip on my cheek and realized my face was getting flooded by my silent tears. I pried my gaze from my parent's bodies and examined the wall when my brother called out, asking what was going on in a panicked voice.

"Stay exactly where you are and don't move!" I accidentally bawled, trying to keep my composure. My breath skipped for a moment, but I continually tried to keep it down. I drifted my attention back to the wall and shined it with my match, revealing the word "traitor" written in thick blood as well as the snake insignia of the Viper gang. I realized that this must have had to do with my father's previous membership with the gang, and knowing that the people who did this were the same group who attacked Killian and I filled me with rage. I got stronger to protect my family, but here I was staring down at the bodies of my parents who were killed by the same people.

"M-mother?" I quickly turned around to see Killian now standing behind me, eyes wide and tears already dripping down his face.

"Killian! Don't look!" He turned to me.

"What happened?!" he screamed into my face, eliciting a shiver throughout my entire body. I got up and shielded him from the disturbing scene in front of us.

"Please just… we need to get out of here now. Whoever killed them may still be nearby."

"Why would anyone kill them? They didn't do anything wrong." he cried into my shoulder. I felt his knees getting weak and had to keep him up with my own strength.

"I'll… I'll explain to you later, but please Killian we have to keep moving now!" He looked up at me with red, suspicious eyes.

"You know?"

I mentally cursed myself, not realizing I accidentally revealed my knowledge. I didn't want to respond to him at the moment and only turned my head, too ashamed to look at his face. He must have noticed because he quit looking at me with longing eyes, awaiting an answer.

"We can't just leave them here." he said sharply.

"I don't want to leave them here either, but we might have to-" I was interrupted by the sound of footsteps coming from the side of the ally we came from. Alarmed, I grabbed Killian tightly and started running the other direction.

"What are you doing? Stop!"

"Shush! Those might be the people who killed them. And it it's not, they'll blame us for the murder."

"What, so we'll just go back home and pretend everything is normal?"

I ran silently for a moment and thought about it, quickly coming up with a reply.

"We can't go back home. That gang probably went there and raided it themselves after hearing of Father's death." I was expecting Killian to retort somehow, but instead I heard no response from him. We continued running out of the alley, now officially orphans and without a home. I felt completely numb when I was shoving through people on the streets, thinking the only thing that mattered now was preserving my life and Killian's. We stopped at an abandoned shack far out from where we found the corpses of our parents. I violently breathed in long gasps, desperate for air after working myself to the bone. Looking at Killian and his sullen expression, it hit me that everything has changed. We had nothing.