Prologue

If I look hard enough into the setting sun
My love will laugh with me before the morning comes

Marie cannot stop her heart from jumping up in fear when she hears John's voice outside, and once again that nagging feeling comes back, as if something is very wrong.

Reinke's gaze crosses hers, and a tight smile comes onto her friend's face, but Marie can see the worry and fear in her friend's grey eyes. Eva sits quietly next to her sister, the now eighteen year old's big eyes falling onto Marie as well.

It strikes her once more how alike the sisters are, both with blonde hair and grey eyes, you would think them twins, if it wasn't clear that Reinke is ten years older.

Marie stands up with a sigh, trying to lighten the mood and ignoring the tension that is as thick as a knife in the room. 'I am going to see what is John is up to. Do you mind checking on the kids, Eva? Just to make sure they are allright?'

Eva nods, standing up and marching through the door, heels clicking steadily on the floor as she goes upstairs. Marie walks into the hallway, Reinke eventually deciding to do the same, standing in the dooropening as John appears with...Michael?

'What's going to happen? It's fucking Christmas!' Marie hears John say, Reinke's eyebrows scrunching together in confusion. 'Michael?' she whispers. Her lighthaired friend holds up her hand to shush Reinke and walks further into the hallway, intend on finding out what is going on. Marie opens the door just as John and Michael appear.

'Just come to the meeting.' Michael sighs, exasperated as John answers, a smile appearing on the Shelby's face at his wife's arrival. 'Come into the house. Have some food...' John begins, but Reinke sees it. Michael is about to snap.

'What is going on, Michael?' Marie decides to intervene, stepping around her husband who shakes his head and mutters something under his breath, shotgun still in hand.

'Tommy says they could come for us today, Marie.' Reinke's heart stutters to a halt as she approaches as well, John letting her through. 'Who?' Reinke asks making Michael quieten, the Gray cousin falling silent as he tries not to remember the situation he and the blonde haired woman before him are in.

He and Reinke are not exactly on speaking terms, him being the reason she and Eva went to stay with John and Marie in the first place. But Reinke can see it, something akin to fear in his eyes. So she ignores the awkward silence and stops before him, her voice snapping him out of his thoughts.

'Who, Michael Gray?! Who is coming for us?!' Reinke bites out, Marie taking a step back at her friend's angry and frustrated tone.

'Who?!' Reinke screams, pushing Michael making him stagger back a step or two. 'The maffia, allright?' Reinke stumbles back into Marie just as Eva appears in the doorway, gasping in fright. 'The maffia?' Marie screeches, the fear clear in her voice.

'Eva, the kids! Go and get the kids now! I will be there in a minute!' Reinke staggers, Michael supporting her. 'Marie, fucking calm down!' John sighs, grabbing his wife by the arm and calling for Eva, who is thundering up the steps towards the rooms of the kids. 'Michael, can you fucking stop for a minute and stop frightening my wife?!' John snaps at his cousin when Marie's big eyes, filled with fear and worry, meet his.

'You should be afraid, John!' His cousin shouts back, Reinke taking a deep breath and turning back to Michael. 'This is the New York Maffia we are talking about!' Marie bites her lip and shakes her head, trying to free herself from John's grip.

'We are going with Michael, John Shelby. It is way too dangerous!' Marie snaps, still wrangling herself from her husband's grip. 'Calm down, Marie!' The drawl in his voice that normally calms her, only making her more nervous this time around. 'We are the peaky fucking blinders!'

'The maffia, John! The maffia!' Marie screams again, her hysteria turning into sobs as she tries to calm her breathing. 'We need to go! Please!'

'Calm down, love. Calm down!' John whispers, his head coming to the same level as hers, eyes boring into Marie's frightened ones. She shudders out a breath, her cheek eventually falling against John's chest. She still lets out an ocassional sob as her husband wraps her into his ams, but the hysteria is at least gone.

'We're not, John.' Michael says, Reinke holding onto his arm as she tries to stay calm. Her friend has already lost it, it would not be good if she allows the fear to take her as well.

'We're not the peaky fucking blinders unless we are together.' A silence falls over them, the only sound heard is Eva upstairs waking up the kids and preparing them to leave.

'John?' Michael says again, Marie nodding at her husband, now remarcably calmer. 'John, come to the meeting allright? Think about the kids. Reinke and Eva. Your wife.' Marie turns around and gives Michael a shaky smile, John looking to the house and than back to Reinke, who also nods in confirmation.

'Come to the meeting and if you want to leave after, than fine.' John sighs but than shrugs. 'Allright. Go and get ready, Reinke. Love, you go and help Eva with the kids, yeah?'

'The kids are ready to leave.' A voice pipes up at that same moment, Eva standing in the doorway with a tight smile. 'Go ahead, Reinke. I will be there in a minute.' Marie smiles in confirmation and than turns around, her ears picking up the sound of hooves.

A horse, this time in the morning on Christmas Day? Weird. John's wife steps forward, seeing a white horse with a carriage filled to the brim with hay coming by their house. 'What?' Marie mutters, as her face turns into one of horror and fear as several men with guns appear from behind the hay.

John curses, loading the shotgun. Michael looks up, his lips calling out Reinke's name as he sees the italians appear. 'Reinke! IN THE HOUSE!'

Reinke turns, hair slapping around as she sees what is happening around her. 'Eva, seek cover!' Eva's older sister screeches as Michael pushes her to the door, the woman stumbling over her own feet.

'Into the house, love!' John snarls, his wife seemingly frozen in fear, eyes still looking wide eyed at the men before her. 'In the house now, Marie!'

Details seem to be fuzzy afterwards. She remembers running to John and coming to a halt before him, his eyes widening when he sees what happens. She blinks dumbly, wondering why John is screaming at her to move. Then there is pain as she hears the snap, snap, snap from gunshots.

Her body convulses, air stuck in her throat as an animallike noise leaves it, body bowing forward, spit running down her mouth. Pain, pain, pain in her arm and her leg and ooh red red red; all red.

She looks down, trying to pinpoint where the pain is coming from and sees red, red, red; red blossoming on her right shoulder, her right arm and right leg, the silk of her stockings now red and disgusting with blood.

Her blood soon falling from her mouth like a waterfall, no stopping it, just flowing and flowing.

'MARIE!' 'REINKE!' is all she hears from John's and Eva's mouths, before everything turns dark.

'Just drive, Eva!' is the next thing she hears John snap, a gurgle coming from her mouth as she opens her eyes and understands she is more lying than sitting in John's lap, both hands pressed against her right shoulder, arm and leg. Or he is attempting at the very least to keep pressure on all three wounds at the same time, but from the wild look in his eyes, she can deduct he is failing.

Her gaze falls on the kids, ones she has grown to love as if they are her own, four pair of frightened eyes looking at her. She wants to tell them everything will be allright, but she cannot seem to get the words out. Her eyes fall on a bloody and shocked Eva, her white dress now soaked red with blood, her white hands gripping the steering wheel.

She hears a scream of pain from besides them, and her heart makes a little jump as she sees a screaming and groaning Reinke in the car next to them, a cursing Michael next to her in the drivers' seat, her friend seemingly holding her leg with her right hand, Michael gripping Reinke's left hand, in support or keeping her from fainting, she does not know.

'Keep pressure on it, Reinke. Keep pressure on it!' Michael snarls, but she can hear the worry in his voice, as another scream comes from her friend's lips, followed by a wrenching sob.

They drive over a hole in the road and that seems to stop the adrenaline that is pumping through her veins, the searing pain coming back. A pained groan leaves Marie's lips, as John's head turns and his eyes fall on hers.

'Hold on, love. We are almost there.' Marie coughs, her cheek falling against John's neck. 'The italians?' she whispers, her breath rattling everytime her chest moves. And she is so very tired.

John's jaw hardens for an instant, before he gives her a smirk, but it does not reach his eyes. 'Dealt with for the moment.' Eva mutters, a blurry smile thrown Marie's way.

'Stay with me, love.' Another curse falls from her husband's lips, as Eva shifts gears and drives even faster.

'Stay with me.' A grin makes it's way to her face, Marie patting her husband on his cheek, leaving bloody fingertips in it's trail. His voice is becoming static, she has no idea what he is saying. The pain has subdued at least for now, she feels numb more than anything, actually. But she still hears it, that drawl she has come to love so much.

So she takes it with her into the blissfull dark, and this time, Marie is not afraid.

No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue
I could not foresee this thing happening to you