Rita Loud, mother of eleven, part time house wife, part time writer and part time dental assistant. One might think that, with that much responsibility on her shoulders she'd barely have any emotions or something exciting in her life. Well, while it was partially true, that day was the exception.

Right now she was sitting on the floor, her hands tied behind her back, her legs tied as well and a rag hanging from her neck that was used to keep her mouth shut a little while ago. In front of her was a man not especially well dressed with a hand gun and a radio near his face.

How did she end up like this? Well, that evening she had an appointment with a gentleman to fix his teeth, or at least that's what he said on the phone. The very moment she opened the door, a man wearing dirty clothes with a trench coat to cover them pointed a pistol towards her while entering the office. There was little to nothing she could do but obey; she wanted to murder him, she wanted to dig her nails into his eyes and rip them off his ugly face, she wanted to use the scalpel and the drills to slash his balls and extract his teeth from the root and all. But her life wasn't the only thing that was in the line; what would her family do if something happens to her? How would her family react if they know that she died playing hero?

Rita let the guy tie her up, it was the best she could do. At least for now.

The criminal turned his sight and glanced direct towards the hostage, she was glaring at him with menacing eyes, trying her best to shoot daggers at him. He grinned, knowing that she would do whatever, anything just to give him a piece of her mind. The impotence she was feeling was so delicious...

"Don't you fear death?" he asked.

At this question Rita just laughed, mocking the guy. "Death? All I see is a homeless scumbag."

The man glared at her with anger, showing yellowish teeth in his unshaven face. If it was up to him he'd kill her with his own hands, of course, not before having fun with her. But the plan required her to be alive.

In all the years she had been working as a dental assistant there was never a need for guards to custody the building, for one they were on a very good zone with very low to no crime activity; the amount of people working there was enough for criminals to think twice before doing anything. Besides, her pay was not as good as people thought, it barely was enough for her to live with some of her daughters; if it wasn't for her dear husband she wouldn't make it till the end of the month.

But still there was a question, why? Why they wanted Lynn to come here?

The sound of a radio was heard and the man reached under his coat for it. She couldn't quite understand, but there were a few words that came clean.

"whole building is secured...is fine...body can get close..."

"Good." The guy replied. "And just in time, the bait is ready."

"...work, sir?"

"Of course it worked!" He joyfully replied. "Told ya, kid, you gotta set a good bite to get the biggest fish. Why you think I sent you to spy that bald asshole? He's owns the business with the biggest earnings in the whole town! Besides, with the amount of people under his care he's an easy target. Everything went as planed."

"What...the next phase?"

"Do I need to explain the plan again?" the man asked angrily. "I'm gonna do it just once more, so you better listen. Phase one: tell Lynn we got his wife so he leaves the restauran; our associates must be looting it by now, taking money, documents or whatever might be useful for us.

Rita heard carefully while wishing she wasn't tied.

And phase two: once he's here we're gonna take everything from him: passwords, security numbers, bank accounts, everything.

"What about his house?"

"It's too risky, there's people there and it's in such a good neighbourhood we might run into troubles. Besides all their good must be saved in the bank or the restaurant, not his house."

"And the woman..."

"Don't worry about her, she was the easiest to ambush, she's gonna be fine..." The man glanced at her from his shoulder, observing how the woman tried to set him on fire with her glare. "...as long as she doesn't do something stupid. Now, you have all the hostages secured?"

"Yes sir, well...a kid escaped but it's nothing serious..."

"NOTHING SERIOUS? I TOLD YOU THAT ALL THE PEOPLE IN THE BUILDING HAD TO BE SECURED! WHY CAN'T YOU TAKE A SINGLE FUCKING ORDER?!"

"I'm sorry, sir..."

"Go get him! And he better have not talked to anyone or I'm gonna set this fucking building on fire with you in it!"

"Y-Yeah sir, understood!" the cowardly goon responded before cutting the transmission.

The man took the radio back to his coat as he let out a sigh. "Jesus, I swear it's hard to get capable people these days..."

Rita watched as the guy rubbed the bridge of her nose with his thumb and index fingers, she didn't feel sorry for him at all. "So that's what you need me for? Take my husband's money?"

The man let out a chuckle. "I guess there's no point in denying it anymore.

Rita couldn't help but feel as the rage slowly built up inside her, those assholes wanted to take all she and her family had worked so hard for, everything they owned. What hurt the most was to imagine how little would they leave their children if those assholes succeed.

She wanted to do something, but again, the ropes holding her hands and legs prevented her from doing anything. It scared her that Lynn was on his way only to fall in a trap, and all because she couldn't defend herself; they even warned him that if the police was involved they'd execute her in the spot. Her only use was to attract Lynn here.

She had thought about her friends, their situation they were now in and how much they were probably suffering because of her. They had nothing to do with all this and yet those bastards probably had them at gunpoint.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a voice coming from his radio. "We...him, boss...got him."

"Proceed," he replied. "Bring him here."

Soon steps were heard outside the office, they were coming from the stairs. With each step, Rita's heart sank to her stomach; she could only imagine the things they'd do to her husband just to get the info.

The door opened, revealing the patriarch of the Louds with a concerned look in his eyes.

"RITA!"

"LYNN!"

He ran towards her and embraced in his arms; the feeling of safety he provided made her forget about her predicament; she was still tied, her life was still in danger, but nothing of that mattered now that she was with the love of her life.

"Glad you're here, Lynn," the man said. "We have some things to discuss."

Lynn knew how dangerous this guy was, he knew that at any moment his life would be over, but still he refused to speak. When the man asked about the bank accounts, the documents, the cards and stuff he didn't say anything; he still had that info with him, which was why they needed him alive. The guy was starting to get angry at Lynn's evasive answers, he wasn't getting anywhere and honestly wanted to kill him right there; while he couldn't do that, he did let out some steam by punching him in the face a few times. Rita could only watch as her husband received the fists, hearing his grunts and watching as the blood poured from his nose.

Unfortunately for the patriarch of the Louds, in the middle of the fight the man accidentally shoot the gun, landing the bullet on his leg.

"LYNN!" Rita yelled with fear as her husband backed up grabbing his leg. Still with the shot, with the punches he received, he didn't give in.

"I'm not telling anything..." he said with some effort.

Watching Lynn's reluctant attitude did nothing but infuriate the guy even more. Why was this guy so stubborn? Why wasn't he giving in? Didn't he fear for his life or his wife's?

The man aimed the gun right at Lynn's chest, the next shot wasn't gonna be an accident, this was gonna be fully intended and right at his fucking heart. He didn't care about the documents, the bank accounts or anything, he was more than tired of dealing with this asshole. With the finger on the trigger and locking eyes with his victim, the radio interrupted him.

"Boss!...police everywhere!...the hell out of here!"

"I TOLD YOU TO FUCKING GET THAT DAMN KID!" the man yelled at his goon with anger. "GET THE DAMN..."

In a matter of seconds, Lynn Sr. charged against the guy, snatching the gun and falling on the ground right on top of him. The man took a couple of seconds to recover, he spotted Lynn pointing the gun at him, his arms shaking as he still held eye contact with him. There was a pool of blood forming under his feet, apparently that bullet hit an artery.

Soon Mr. Loud began to feel dizzy, his head began spinning as his functioning leg felt weak. The man didn't take long before realizing what was happening. With a smile in his ugly face he took the radio out.

"Execute plan B." it was all he said. He turned to Rita, who was struggling against the ropes; he wanted to mock her a little more before leaving, but right before he could even say a word, something tackled him to the ground. The impact left him confused, and Lynn used this at his advantage to get up undo the ropes.

"Lynn, I was so worried..."

"Don't worry, dear," Lynn comforted her. "I'm here, don't worry."

They shared a hug, calming each other and finding solace in each other's arms. Right now there was no criminal, no pain, no danger, it was just them and them alone.

But a noise took them out of their little world, it was the man who was recovering after hitting the floor. Soon they noticed something else; the roof was dark, the temperature was raising and the smell, the unmistakable smell of smoke caught up with them. Realization fell upon them like a ton of bricks: if they couldn't get what they wanted, they'd burn the building to ashes.

"You son of a bitch..." Lynn tried to say, it was getting harder to remain awake now that the adrenaline was wearing out.

The man tried to talk through his radio, but soon realized it broke with the fall. Throwing it against he wall with frustration he stumbled on his way to escape, abandoning the room and heading out of the building.

The boss barely made it intact, a portion of his hair was burnt but he knew it could've been worse. Lynn, fucking Lynn Loud, he was the only one who stood between the prize and him. Rage filled his head as he made his way towards the van he and his goons came in. Once inside he took a glance back at the building; he knew some of his men were still there, he knew the workers were still there, but right now he couldn't think on something else but Lynn Loud. He wanted to make him pay, he wanted to do something, he...

The man started the engine, took some distance and aligned the van right at the building. With no time to lose he hit the gas, sending the vehicle right at the building at full speed. Right at the last moment he bailed out of the van, rolling on the ground before recovering just to see the vehicle crash against the wall; he knew the fire was devouring the building, and now with the foundations badly damaged by the truck it was just a matter of minutes before it collapsed on itself. With a grin on his face he tried to get up, but soon felt a sharp pain on his knee that forced him to lay on the ground. "Fuck!" he growled.

With no time to lose Rita helped Lynn to get on his feet, he was heavier than she thought but manage to make it out of the office. The hallway was already filled with smoke, it made her lungs ache, but this was not enough to stop her. She spotted the stairs, her only way out just a few meters away, all she had to do was...

The building trembled, making her stumble a little. Once she recovered, the mother of eleven continued her way to the stairs, helping her husband to walk, trying to keep him awake until they reach a way out.

But fate had other plans for the poor woman.

Her heart skipped a bit as she saw her only way out being engulfed by the flames; there were no other stairs, no fire escape, there were no windows. They were trapped.

Rita wanted to keep going, she forced her body past her limits, she demanded her body to carry on and find a way out. But, to be honest, raising eleven children is not an easy task; it had taken a toll on her body, both physical and mentally.

This, plus the weight of her husband and the CO2 filling her lungs made her head dizzy; as much as her will forced her to carry on, her body had given up. She sat on the floor with her back against the wall, knowing this was the end, she began to cry on her husband's chest; to her mind came eleven faces, eleven people she so much loved and cherished along with the thought that she wouldn't see them again.

"What will happen to the kids, Lynn?" she asked.

Using the little energy remaining in his body, he put his arm around her. "Don't worry...they knew how to take care of themselves..." he coughed a little. "You know how strong they are...they'll watch for each other, specially..."

"Lincoln..." she completed.

The building trembled again, a few pieces of the roof fell not so far from them. "I don't know who they think they're fooling," Lynn coughed. "We always knew what was going on..."

"They love each other..." Rita commented

"Yeah, more that we initially thought, but they do." Lynn responded.

Rita saw as the fire ascended from the stairs, slowly making its way to the floor they were in.

"W-What do you think will happen to them?"

"That love is a-all they need to carry on...no matter what. I-I think we raised them well..."

Rita let out a chuckle, followed by a cough attack. "You sound really confident."

"Of c-course I do, they're Louds after all." Lynn assured.

The smoke filled the hallway, making it even harder to breathe. The heat was increasing with each passing second and they were aware that the building would succumb with them still inside. Knowing it was the end, Lynn drew his wife closer to him.

"You know what's the...only thing that gives me c-comfort in this situation?"

"What?" Rita asked.

"The last thing I'm gonna see before dying...will be the face of the most...beautiful woman in the world..." he coughed a little before continuing. "I'll die with the love of m-my life, I'll die with the woman I loved...till the end of my days..."

Rita smiled, gazing with her blue eyes at the brownish eyes of the man who she have always loved. The distance between their lips soon disappeared when they shared a kiss, a kiss that expressed their feelings and emotions. They both were happy, at least they were sharing their last moments with the one they loved the most.

"It's not quite as I imagined, but...I'm happy to be with you..." Lynn said, feeling his body even weaker than before.

"Me too, honey, me too..."

With his sight going dark, Lynn let out a sigh, muttering his last words. "I love you, Rita..."

Feeling sleepy, Rita too said what she knew were her final words. "I love you too, Lynn..."

With a smile on their faces and not feeling any pain at all, the flames soon caught up with them.