Mother Knows Best
Chapter Nineteen
"How poetic this will be."
Lorenzo knelt down, bringing a cold hand to her cheek, softly grazing his bruised knuckles against her soft, warm cheek. "I like her like this. Unmoving with her mouth shut. It's time to go back to the den with you." He rose up with his other hand on his knee and looked over at the boy.
Tails met his dark unnerving eyes, they seemed to just pierce through him like daggers lined with ice. "All her lives have ran out. Kill the boy and burn the house, make it quick and meet me back at the car." His own bright blue eyes widened with fear as Alistair strides towards him but he certainly wasn't paralyzed by his henchman.
Live today, fight tomorrow for her. Tails thought as he took one last glance at Kiera's unconscious, hurt body before running out the room with Alistair's big feet on his tails. Lorenzo rolled his eyes as he curled his built arms under her knees and neck. He lifted her up into his arms and headed out of the bungalow with her head swung across his shoulder.
Alistair got annoyed very quickly with chasing Tails around the house, he didn't have time for games so he pulled out his handgun and shot at him. Tails fell to the ground, his legs and arm poking around the corner as he slid down the beige wall. Alistair smirked to himself as he was quite content as he paused his movements as blood poured out around the corner, staining the carpet. He pushed his gun into the back of his stained jeans. Picking up the oil canisters he brought in. He tore the lid off, pouring the flammable oil all around the surfaces and floors of the house leading out to the front door.
Throwing the canister into the house, he pulled his mangled lighter out of his pocket. Alistair flicked his thumb, trying to light the old thing, he grew angry fast but his frustrations were lifted as a small flame was lit and he tossed it into the bungalow.
It started off slow but it picked up fairly quickly. The once peaceful and beautiful home of Tails and Kiera, now engulfed in spitting embers. Lorenzo nodded his approval to Alistair before driving off as soon as he stepped foot in the passenger seat of the car with Kiera's body lying limp and bruised in the back-seat.
Warmth radiated his skin, jolting him out of his unconscious state. He felt dazed and confused, he blinked multiple times and looked around the room. It was hot and burning. Tails tried to get up by putting his hands against the floor to push himself up but instantly crumbled. Wincing, he gripped his arm as blood oozed through his shirt.
"Shit." He breathed out and soon caught on to what happened to him and his own, and most importantly, his mother.
Tails used his good arm to push himself up into a crouching position and tried to find the nearest exist, which happened to be the side door. He took a glance through the window and saw a car drive off. He used what strength his had and forced his body to hit the door.
The door swung open and he tumbled out, right onto his bullet wound. "Mother..." He groaned out his pain, gripping the wound and applying pressure.
"Alistair is piss poor at his damned job. Hold on, mama..." He stared up at the stars, wishing she could hear him as he closed his eyes but quickly opened them when he was pulled up to his feet by firemen.
Silver gripped his nimble fingers to the safety straps of the car as the needle hit 180 miles per hour down the highway, heading straight for Yukon River. "Are you even sure its Kiera they are after?" He raised his voice over the roaring of the overworking engine.
Shadow's teeth rubbed against each other as his jaw hardened. "Yes." He said with her face and story still picture perfect in his might and heart, his hands tightened around the leather bound stirring wheel. As he remembers, she didn't go into much detail but she has suffered enough by their hands and he was only given the highlights which he was more than content with.
He took the next exist off of the highway, heading toward the heart of the Yukon River. The home of where his heart and love lies, it seemed to happen overnight for him. He saw her in the kitchen speaking with Rouge and he wasn't completely what was happening in his mind or in his chest. When he looked at her, in her eyes, he just wanted to know more and look deeper. She was the mysterious and missing element in his life. Before her, he was just working case after case and he wasn't living. With her, he was experiencing life but now expierencing utter and total fear takeover if her life wasn't at stake then he would – he didn't know what he would do but knew it wouldn't be pretty.
That's for sure.
He pulled down the road she and Tails live on and both their hearts dropped at the sight of the charred, and still burning, remains of the bungalow. Blaring sirens and lights spun around the neighbourhood. A fire truck, an ambulance and a couple police cars littered the front.
"Holy shit." Silver stated as the car slowed down by the curb. Shadow jumps out the car as soon as its parked.
His adrenaline was high, his mind and heart were all over the place. His eyes caught a glance of Tails sat on the ambulance being tended to by an EMT and Kiera was nowhere to be seen. She needs me, Tails needs me. He needs his mother. Shadow reminded himself. "Silver, come on."
He pointed to the ambulance and Silver caught on, he nodded and they both ran over to the Tails and the EMT. As Shadow got closer to the boy, he felt his bravado wanting to flail and shatter. Tails' eyes found his, and the relieved smile on his face realigned his senses.
"We're family." Shadow informed the EMT, the person nodded and headed into the van.
Tails' eyes looked up at the two of them. Silver ended the short silence. "Are you alright, Tails?"
He nodded. "I'm fine, just a flesh wound. You have to find Kiera. They have her, he has her." He practically begged and pleaded to the two but it wasn't needed. He would fight until he lost his life so he could have her back home safe.
"He said he was taking her back to his den and all her lives have ran out." He seemed to remember every little detail – they weren't complaining.
Shadow's eye twitched and fists closed in on themselves. "Is she alive? Where is she?" His voice wasn't kind or calm.
His azure eyes never left his. "He hit her with a bat. She's alive – I know it! I'm sorry, Shadow, I don't know where he's taken her." He felt completely useless and angry at himself most of all for fleeing but he wouldn't have survived if he hadn't.
Shadow got angry too fast, even for Silver's liking. "For fuck's sake, the love of my life, your mother, is going to die horrifically, painfully and it was last so long for her, do you remember anything else at all?" Tails has never seen him like this, even when they first met he wasn't this angry as he was in this moment and he had a feeling that this was just the beginning of his rage against Lorenzo and Alistair.
Tails' own eyes glazed over in his own dose of anger. "He mentioned something about poetry or how poetic its going to be. For her." He tried to think through his emotions, he tried to compartmentalize them all.
"Come on, bud, you got it." Silver praised him, edging him on.
Tails took a deep breath. "Poetic justice. End it where it all began? Her childhood home?" He was drawing at straws.
"Where is that, did she ever tell you?" Shadow asked, his patience wearing thin.
He shook his head. "No, but when we first met, when I saved her, she was coming from the north – from the woods but that's insanely massive." Shadow immediately left and headed straight for his car, gripping the gun in his holster. He was ready to wreak havoc on those sons of bitches.
Tails gripped Silver's wrist, warning him, for his own good. "Be careful, I mean it, you don't know what they're capable of doing, especially him."
Shadow was waiting. "Silver, hurry up!" He yelled out to his partner, his foot aching to touch the gas pedal.
Tails pulled him back once more. "There's something about him, Lorenzo, Kiera said one day that he wanted power and only that and her family and herself were the only things in the way."
"What are you saying, Tails?" Silver never left his unwavering eyes.
"Just...don't underestimate him, Silver." He nodded.
He begged. "Save her."
"We are going to do everything we can to bring your mother home." He promised.
Tails let go of his wrist. "Do better."
Alistair pulled and tightened the ropes around Kiera's limp wrists and ankles to the wooden chair, she was still very much unconscious. Lorenzo was leant against a door frame to the room. He pushed himself away from it and walked slowly to her.
Lorenzo slowly crouched down to her current height. "I want her awake. I want the very last thing that she sees to be me before lights out. She will know that she failed that stupid kid and got him killed because of it." He smirked and then laughed at all the possibilities.
Alistair stood up after he was finished with the ropes. "What about the other one?"
Lorenzo's face dropped and his eyes became dark as his stilled, he lifted his head to meet his eyes. "The other one?" The tone of his voice dramatically changed.
"A man left the bungalow the night before – they looked particularly cosy together." Alistair held his stance.
He slowly rose to his feet, and Alistair almost felt like he was towering over him – cementing where his place was. "And you let him live?" He hissed.
His eyes went to limp, bruised and unmoving Kiera. "She wouldn't have told him anything, she's just a stupid little girl." Alistair made tried to reason with him but not even his own mother could do that.
"You have failed to kill the bitch twice. The kid knew who we bloody were, and I'm sure as hell she told the guy who is fucking her." He snarled down at him, his voice louder and more demeaning.
Alistair flinched as Lorenzo took a step closer towards him. "Find him and kill him – and make sure he is bloody dead this time before I decide to end you where you stand." He smirked and then dismissed him.
Alistair nodded and left the room in a hurry. Kiera's chest elevated up and down slowly, her fingers twitched against the arms of the chair as she woke up minutes into their heated conversation. You can do this, you've made it this far. If you can survive him two times before – I can sure as hell do it again. She actually wasn't sure she would make it out alive this time as she wanted to believe.
A/N: It's been so long, I know. I have actually have had plans of the remaining chapters in my notebook for the past couple of months now but my microsoft office subscription ran out in March and I haven't got the money to replace it. Apparently, today of all days, I decided to get off my arse and I write it up in Google Docs. Hopefully, you're still interested in this as you once were but I'll continue to update until its finished to ease my mind and soul. Much love.