Suddenly I hear the child shout, "Brother!" I didn't know what came over me. For a moment I longer care about my redemption. I just know that I am not going to let those men hurt that girl. I am about to run out, my sword raised but the man's voice stops me.
"Alright," he shouted, "alright. I'll do it. Just don't hurt her."
There was a silence that filled the night air, broken only by the tiny sobs of the little girl. I stand dead still, frozen in my tracks. I wait. Wait to see what will happen.
"You just saved her life, Christian. Next time you won't be so lucky," said a new voice. My eyes widen as I register the voice. Jerking up in a spastic reaction, the memories come flooding back from a life long ago.
"Deuce, let her go! I screwed up, not her. She has nothing to do with us. She's just a little girl."
"But she is a beautiful little girl," he said running a massive hand down her small, tear streaked cheek.
"What are you going to do to her?" I asked him. Chills ran down my spine at the sight of him pawing at her.
"I'm going to teach her how to have a little fun and I'm going to teach you to obey," he growled looking at me out of the corner of his eye with an evil sneer.
Suddenly my world dropped out from beneath me and my eyes widened in shock.
'No,' I thought, 'he couldn't do that. He wouldn't do that. Not to a twelve year old girl.'
But I realized how wrong I was as I was lurched from my thoughts by the sound of ripping cloth. I looked over at Deuce who had ripped my sister's shirt apart and was now savagely biting at her small breasts.
"No, damn it, Duce!" I shouted, struggling to free myself from the grip of the goons that were holding me.
One of them stepped forward and punched me, hard, in the stomach, stilling me instantly. My knees buckled and I dropped to the wet ground, tears rolling down my cheeks. I refused to look at Duce while he rapped my sister. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to drown out the sounds of his grunts and her screams, muffled by the duck tape on her mouth. When I heard Duce hiss as he came in my sister, I dared a small glance up. Tears were welling out of my sisters shut eyes as she laid there, her small body being pressed into the ground by Duce's weight. Then I noticed the blood. Oh God, so much blood. It was pooling around her lower body and I knew that her small body had been ripped apart from the inside, unaccustomed to Duce's sudden and massive entry.
A blinding rage like I never knew before swelled up within me with a speed and an intensity that scared me. With a strangled cry, I jumped up, scaring the guys holding me. Using their fear I easily tossed them off me and I lunged toward Duce, murder in my eyes, mind, and heart.
It takes all my strength to suppress the same strangled scream from that night as the memories tear at my heart. It is my fault that they killed her. It is my fault that she had been dragged into that mess in the first place. My muscles tense up, trying to restrain myself from running out there and killing him now, but Crow must have sensed it and his talons dig into my shoulder reminding me to stay put. I look up at him and sigh, my tension slowly ebbs away. I will get my chance he tells me. Hearing their retreating footsteps I sigh once more and sheath my sword in the scabbard that is slung over my back. Taking one last glance at Crow, I turn and silently walk back through the fog.