Killer
"I killed her!"
The words cut through the thick air like a knife, stabbing everyone's ears as the intensity had yet to settle. No one dared nor cared to do or say anything.
"Anemone, what did you say?" Edward asked his eldest daughter, looking at her with a stunned expression.
"You idiot." Anemone was laughing and sobbing at once, holding her hand over mouth to hide her sick smile. "After more than thirty years you realize I killed the woman you convinced yourself you loved!"
"How could you have killed her?!" Stella shouted angrily.
"I was only sixteen when he met your mother, Selene. Our mother had died years before but he didn't care. He was too preoccupied with your already pregnant mother and thinking he was your father!"
"But how would-"
"I went to New York to find her. I wanted to talk to her, ask her to convince him he wasn't her baby's father, but when I saw her all I wanted to do was get rid of her! I saw her, cradling that baby to her chest to protect it from the rain. I saw her, running to find shelter for that precious daughter of hers."
" Coming up behind her I could see the cape she had over them was clearly a Greek robe, and I knew it was the same Selene Bonasera that had stayed with Eleni and Lambros Maridakis with her new born. They had taken her in like their own daughter, despite them still trying to have a child of their own, thus Selene named her daughter Stella Eleni Bonasera."
"My parents told me about our distant relatives. My would be Aunt Selene and sister, Stella. Their little Asteri." Talia breathed, still trying to absorb the information.
"I took out a knife and I stabbed her. I stabbed her in the back and felt the blood on my face." Anemone was laughing and sobbing at the same time still, her hands held like the talons of a bird ready to strike its prey. Her eyes were wild and her laughs choppy and breathless, coming only through her twisted amusement and/or misery. "I stuck that knife in her back but she just kept running, trying to protect that goddam baby! I stabbed her again and again and AGAIN but she wouldn't die!"
"Anemone, please-" Edward began, but he was stopped when she turned her hating gaze on him.
"You! You, my father, didn't give a damn about me! You didn't give a damn about me or my mother or my sister! All you cared about was her-so I killed her!"
"No-"
"I was going to kill you too!" She shouted at Stella, pointing to her. "But I let you live because your mother had crawled all the way to the stoop of St. Basil's, to make sure you were out of the rain. Now I wish I had killed you. That way his obsession wouldn't have turned on you and I wouldn't have to kill all of you now!"
"Anemone, you don't have to kill anyone!" Nami shouted, trying to keep the bloodshed to a minimum, though she didn't see how it was going to be at all possible. All that mattered to her was keeping her mother and Talia safe for as long as possible. "This isn't the way to do this!"
"I beg to differ! As a matter of fact, killing you is the only way to deal with you once and for all!" She pointed the gun at Stella, who had no way of avoiding the shot so long as she was chained to her damn place. Her main concern wasn't even that, though; Nami was chained in place as well, and as far as she could see, there was no hope for anyone.
"Anemone please!" Amaryllis sobbed. "Stop it! Stop it-STOP KILLING THEM!"
"Shut up Amaryllis!"
"Stop killing innocent people!"
"I said shut up!" Anemone whipped back around to Stella. "She's going to die one way or another, and I want her to die at my hands!"
"No!" Nami screamed.
Bang!!
The shot echoed through the cliffs and rang all through the small shoreline. The sound had startled them, but only in the back of their minds. It was all mostly background noise as what was really pounding in their eardrums was their heartbeats.
"After thirty years, you finally see. You, my father... I hate you."
Blood seeped out of Edward's mouth, first just the corners, but then a huge glob of it rolled out and from then it never stopped. Beads of cold sweat rolled down his forehead as the wound in his stomach began to show as well. A puddle of blood formed where the bullet went through his diaphragm and lodged itself in his spinal chord. "Ane... "
"Go to hell." She murmured, watching him die with pleasure. As he slumped to the ground she turned to the stunned crowd behind her. "Change of plans! We're going to St. Basil's and killing you all there."
"Anemone, you've fulfilled the purpose of all this. Selene and Edward are both dead, you're free." Nami said evenly, her voice not as strong as normal, and letting the wind carry it.
"No, I won't be satisfied until all of you are dead." She retorted with little to no emotion. She turned to the petrified Talia. "Tell Denver and Long to bring him up to the church."
"Denver... ?"
Mac, Danny and Flack were beat up bad.
Denver and Long had ambushed them with automatic weapons, taking the three men down easily. They'd beaten them to a pulp, for their own pleasure, too.
Flack was pretty bad, though he'd still been through worse. His wounds would heal quickly; just some bruises and cuts, maybe a cracked rib or two, but those would heal with time and calcium.
Danny was much worse. His glasses were long forgotten, shattered and lying a distance away from their bodies. His muscles were sore and bruised, refusing to move in any way. They protested loudly when he tried to pick himself off the dirt, buckling under him like cheap beams of wood. A cut above his left eye was bleeding profusely.
Mac was either the best or the worst, depending; he was fairly beat up but they'd held back. His spirit was in the most pain, as he now had no idea how Stella and/or Nami were doing. The fact that they'd known about their surveillance and their flawless assault left him with pessimistic thoughts.
The trudge up the crag was torturous. Not only on their fatigued and sore bodies, but on their spirits as well. The cliff was rugged, with only the faintest trace of a path up the rocks to the abandoned cathedral.
The building stood high and proud and against the impending storm, it's cracked rock walls and musty old wooden doors strangely calm. The stone stoop was large, large enough to hold them all.
Anemone hauled one huge oak door open, Mac the other, and proceeded in. She dragged Nami behind her by the collar.
Nami let her head droop, her eyes barely lively enough to scan the inside. The inner sanctum was warm, yet very cold. Their footsteps were hallow on the red carpet, leading down a long corridor and to the chapel. She looked up slightly, only to see Anemone's back. Walking behind her was like walking behind a two-by-four piece of wood; stiff, not all that good to be behind, and beige and brown, with a few dark spots. She could also break a two-by-four easily in multiple ways. She was in no such a position to do so, though.
Stella and Mac were chained to each other's wrists and prodded behind them. Their heads hung down, concentrating on their measured steps rather than their impending doom.
Her curls obstructed her view, and more importantly, obstructed other's views of her. Her face was set in stone, grim and mournful. Tears wouldn't fall, but she felt them there, wanting to. Her limp hands brushed Mac's every once in a while, but they were too numb with fear and adrenaline to feel the spark of fire that was usually there. Her hands were cold and trembling, his, rough and clenched.
He looked at their feet as they scuffled along, careful not to trip either of them other up. He'd taken a step just a little too large for her on the cliff and had barely caught her before she fell onto the rock. He'd grabbed her and pulled her up, and for a moment he was reminded of a happy time. It ended abruptly, however, as Anemone told them to break it up. Now, he felt like he'd failed to protect the woman (and girl) in his life again.
"Here." The place had been abandoned for quite some time, but the main chapel, at least, was kept nicely. The benches and altars were nicely furnished and even the piano seemed well cared for.
"What now?" Nami asked tiredly.
"I'm going to blow your brains out." Anemone said quickly, spinning on her heel and clicking the safety off so fast Nami thought she'd actually pulled the trigger. She didn't even get the chance to close her eyes completely, just squint. "Ha! Already have you jumping."
"No! No-please! She's just a little girl!" Stella pleated desperately. "Anemone you've killed your father, my mother... please."
"I've killed hundreds of people by now, you think I care about a few more?" She scoffed.
"I'm begging you. Begging you. Let my daughter go."
"You got a daughter! You got a family!" Anemone snarled.
"Let them go!" Mac shouted.
"Shut up!"
"Anemone, I'm the hybrid you need! You don't have to kill them!"
"You have to let her go! She's only ten!"
"I said shut up!"
"Listen to me! What about Amaryllis?!"
"Shut the hell up!"
"Killing cops will get you no where!"
"Dammit to hell!" Anemone ran one hand through her straw-like curls, beginning to laugh and sob again, just as she had on the cliff. She raised the gun to the ceiling and shot three times, startling the other three people. "Denver and Long are going to kill the Maridakis sisters and Amaryllis! Your little friends are being disposed of as we speak! You're all going to die so just shut up and stop yelling!"
"It hurts, doesn't it?" Nami asked her, lowering her voice but keeping her tongue sharp if needed.
"You shut up!" Anemone flew close to Nami, pointing her manicured nail and cocking the gun in her other hand. Stella and Mac tried to move but were still chained together, not to mention Anemone had their daughter's life in her cold-sweaty hands. "You-you don't-"
"I don't what, Anemone? I don't know you? I don't know what it's like?" Nami began to smirk, enraging her captor further. "You're very ill, Anemone, but we can help you. We can still help you, but you have to let us go."
"No! No! I'm not stupid!"
"Who told you that? Did your father call you stupid? He did, didn't he? He called you a stupid little girl, I bet."
"Shut up-dammit!"
"He called me one, and I wasn't even his daughter. He hurt you, time, after time, after time, didn't he?"
"No!"
"He hurt you and your sister, and your mother, but you couldn't do anything because then he would just hurt you more. You had to hurt him. You had to make him pay for hurting you."
"Shut up or I'll kill you!"
"Killing me... that's how you try to make the pain stop? You need to stop the hurting so you break other people's hearts."
"That's it!" Anemone grabbed Nami by her shirt collar and pressed the cold barrel to her forehead. Her black bangs rustled around the metal, though her face remained stoic.
"If you kill me... " Nami lifted her sad rouge eyes to Anemone. As they hung down they were lifeless, but raising them up to Anemone's sharp green ones, they overtook them like a dead forest by wildfire.
A blade with blood cutting through a falling leaf.
The dangerous gleam that was usually there had changed; it was tenfold as she glared at her with a fire blazing in them.
"You can not harm them."
Anemone glared down at the girl, not knowing what to say or do. She could barely think a coherent thought without being dragged back into the depths of those smoldering embers of eyes. "What?"
"If you shoot me right here right now we both know I'll probably live for a few minutes more, and if I find that you've hurt them after killing me, by god-I'll drag you down to hell myself."
"Fine." Anemone let her eyelids drift over her eyes, closing halfway to keep the blood in them to a minimum. She pressed the barrel into Nami's forehead, who simply closed her eyes in resignation.
"Don't hurt them."
"Talia... I'm sorry." Amaryllis shook her head, biting her lip to stifle her childish sobs. Her salty tears ran over her cheeks and lips thickly. "I'm so sorry."
"I don't blame you for this Amaryllis." Talia said with a surprised and comforting tone. "If anything, you've helped."
"Really?" She asked quietly.
"Really. You've managed to convince Anemone to keep my sisters alive this long. For that, I can never thank you enough." She smiled sadly. "I wish I could've seen them one more time."
"How old are they?"
"Amanda is twenty, and making the most of her college party days, if you know what I mean. Elena is named after our mother Eleni, and 16. Daniella, the youngest, is only 12." Talia smiled wistfully, remembering her sisters fondly but sadly. "The last time I saw them... Amanda was on her way to class, Elena was off to a cooking class and Daniella was at home."
"I see." Amaryllis nodded numbly. "I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry too." Talia said, earning a questioning look. "I'm sorry your sister is such a bitch. No offense."
"None taken."
Danny and Flack were beat up bad.
Flack had a few bruises and scrapes, but aside from that, he wasn't really that bad. His bruises and scrapes hurt like hell, and he could've had a cracked rib, but that he could live with. Death; harder to live with.
Danny was worse. He was beaten to a pulp, kicked and punched until he couldn't even stand on his own. His glasses lay a few feet away from them, splattered with his blood and cracked. He could barely breathe.
"Ready to die, boys?" Denver chuckled deeply, aiming his gun.
"Get away from them!"