Chapter9

"I don't get it, she's so stupid, so unbelievably stupid. She doesn't even think!"

Scipio had to resist the urge to cover his ears with his hands. What he found so unbelievably stupid was the fact that Jaymie still thought low of her sister, even when it was obvious something bad could happen to her. After Scipio had poured out what had been going on with Gabriella, Jaymie insisted that they look for her. For a couple minutes she even looked worried, but that was soon covered irritation.

"Look," Scipio tried again to calm Jaymie down, "she made a mistake, and she really felt guilty about it. If only you had heard her –"

"But I didn't hear her," Jaymie stopped walking and snapped her head around to face Scipio, her thick red hair slapping her in the face. It was only now that Scipio realized Jaymie was actually taller than him, making it seem as if all the other times he had seen her she had been slouching. The only light was from he moon, but as he looked slightly up at her, Scipio could tell she was angry.

"I didn't hear a word she said," Jaymie scowled, "because she doesn't tell me anything! The only reason she wanted to come out on the streets is because she heard stories of the oh, so amazing Thief Lord, and then you suddenly showed up making the whole situation worse."

"So again, it's my fault that we're out here looking for you sister?" Scipio asked flatly, hating that he was being accused.

Jaymie sucked in her breath and dropped her eyes to the cobblestone street, and Scipio wondered if she had finally realized her mistake. After a moment of silent, Jaymie lifted her head back up and yelled, "GABRI---"

That was all she got out. The last two syllables of Gabriella's name were cut off by a loud, earsplitting CRACK. Jaymie had grabbed onto Scipio's arm while Scipio bent his knees, getting ready to run. Neither of them moved though, and there they stood, frozen.

Off in the distance, someone let out a desperate gasp and Scipio and Jaymie looked to where the sound had come from. Suddenly a silhouette appeared in the moonlight, stumbling backwards. From the outline of chopped hair and the flow of a long coat, they both knew it was Gabriella.

Nose flaring with anger, Jaymie took a step closer. "Gabriella," she shouted, "what the hell is wrong…" But Jaymie's voice quickly dropped as the silhouette suddenly collapsed on the street.

Scipio was the first to react. While Jaymie was still too shocked to move, he sprinted to the spot where Gabriella had collapsed. Dropping down onto his knees, he gently lifted Gabriella up onto him. Something wet covered his hands.

Blood.

Eyes widening in horror, Scipio suddenly realized that Gabriella was bleeding uncontrollably. Letting out a cry, he took off her jacket to find a bullet wound in her chest.

He was suddenly shoved to the side by Jaymie with unbelievable strength. "Get away from her," she hissed, her whole body shaking as she pulled Gabriella onto her lap. "Gabriella? Gabriella, wake up. It's okay, you're going to be fine, wake up. Gabriella?!"

For a brief moment, Gabriella's thick eyelashes fluttered and her eyes opened. "Jaymie…" she wheezed, her breathing slow and heavy.

"Jaymie…" a raspy voice echoed out of the alleyway, "so that's your name. I tried to get it out of Gabriella, but she would tell me." Chuckling, Marco walked into the blue-ish light, making his face look a sickly green. In his hands was a smoking gun. He was accompanied by two other members of his Bloodhound Gang, just as tall and muscular as he was.

Scipio got up to his feet. "Get out of here," he snapped, sounding more confident that he felt, "You've done enough haven't you?" He pointed to Gabriella on the ground as if he were afraid that Marco would have forgotten the girl he had just shot.

Marco let out his low, wicked laughed again and shivers ran up Scipio's back. "Have I really done enough though?" he asked as his lips curled into a smirk, "After all, one can never do enough, especially after what happened to me when I chased you through that apartment."

"Well I guess you know not to chase me," Scipio let the words slip out before he could stop. Marco's smirk was gone like that and one of his pale eyes twitched.

"You asked for it," he hissed as he raised the gun – not at Scipio, but at Jaymie. She was covered in her sister's blood, face wet with tears. She looked at Marco, not even caring that a gun was being pointed at her head. The only emotion she was showing was hatred.

"I'll kill the girl," Marco continued, "and you can watch her die just so you know how much you screwed everything up for them."

He loaded the gun and a loud sound erupted. Jaymie winced and Scipio let out a cry. The sound continued, sounding different then when he had shot Gabriella. It took everyone a moment to realize that Marco had never shot the gun. The sound wasn't one from a gun, but of a…

"Shit!" Marco yelled, "That's a siren." Without another word, he and his gang members bolted for it, vanishing in the dark.

Scipio continued to stand there for a second, still confused on what had happened. He was shaking uncontrollably and wasn't sure if it was from the cold or the fact that he was terrified.

He turned back to the sisters. Gabriella hadn't moved, her breathing slowing down. Her long hair should have been spilling out on the street, but it wasn't.

"She didn't need me to cut her hair…" Scipio mumbled to no one in particular. "Come one Jaymie, we have to get her help. We have to take her to a hospital or something… find someone –"

"Scipio…" Gabriella suddenly whispered, her mouth redder then it should have been, "Jay… so sorry…" Her words came out even lower than a whisper and Scipio realized he had dropped down to hear her. Then, just like that, her heavy breathing stopped and her body went limp, the only sound now was the approaching sirens.

Jaymie gasped. "No," she said, her voice getting louder, "no, n-n-no, Gabriella. Gabriella wake up, wake up!" She began shaking her sister as if she thought it would suddenly make her come back, "Stop Gabriella, Gabriella. No, no, no…"

"Jaymie?" Scipio lightly touched her shoulder but Jaymie reacted as if she had been slapped.

"Get away from me!" she shrieked, tears falling even harder, "Get away from me and my sister. This is all your fault and now she's… now she's…."

Scipio felt his throat tighten. "No, Jaymie I didn't do this. Don't blame this one me, it was Marco-"

"Get away!" Jaymie's voice suddenly dropped down to a hiss as a wicked idea struck her. "The cops are coming," she warned him, "if you don't get out of here I'll tell them you shot her. I'll tell them you killed her."

"Jaymie…" Scipio shook his head in disbelief, but as Jaymie's cold eyes stared at him, he knew she was serious. His throat tightened so that it made it hard to breathe, and Scipio knew he had to get out of there. Whole body shaking, he began to run.

The streets were empty and his footsteps echoed loudly off the brick walls, drowning out the sound of the sirens. He ran across bridges and through narrow streets, going to the only place he could think of. It was early in the morning, but he didn't know where else… couldn't think….

He pounded on the door loudly, squeezing his eyes shut to stop himself and trying to swallow the rising lump away. Scipio continued to pound on the door because he didn't have any other energy to call out. He knocked and banged and pounded on the thick wooden door until he thought he would collapse.

It wasn't opening, no one was coming. Breathing hard, he leaned against the door. The moment he did though, the door flew open and he crashed on the carpeted floor at someone's feet.

"Scipio!" Ida let out a cry. He could hear more people approaching him, but he wasn't able to move.

"Scipio's back?" was that Hornet or Bo…

"But he's… he's a kid!" cried out someone who sounded like it might be Prosper.

So confused, Scipio rubbed his face with his hands, still lying on the ground.

"I'm sorry," he whispered as the tears began to fall, "I'm sorry…. So sorry…. So sorry…. So sorry…."