Page 90 of Slaughtered Firefly
“What do you mean?” I blurted out, and every head turned towards me. It felt like my head was underwater as I walked to the center of the church. Cole’s hand entangled in mine as soon as I stood beside him. Whether he was lending me strength or a warning, I wasn’t so sure. Shaw’s eyes bore into mine, venomous hate. I blinked slowly, and the sunken feeling subsided.
“You don’t know? That’s disappointing.” Shaw chastised, and I bit my tongue so hard, my knuckles were white from the death grip I had on Cole’s fingers.
“Perhaps you can educate me, your lessons are hard to forget.” I bite out.
Shaw’s hearty laugh boomed through the room. “I see my lessons never took. You still forget to respect your elders,” I tensed, ready to pull the gun stashed in my waistband.
“Enough.” Coles’ authority broke the rising tension. “I want my property, she wants her child, we know you have one.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, I do not have your property. If I did I would return thegarbagewith the rest,” Shaw’s voice was pointed as he looked me in the eye.
I moved faster than any rational thought, so consumed with anger. The barrel was pressed against his dick. The point of his knife poised at my ribcage. Everyone held their breath, the only sound a collective draw of weaponry from both sides as my fingers hovered over the trigger. It all came down — neat and final. My vision narrowed, and all I saw was the black hole of the muzzle. Shaw’s smirk froze against the stained glass of the church. Time stretched as my finger brushed the trigger. Like a movie in reverse, the memories un-spooled — Cole’s laughter at the kitchen sink, Scott’s hand on mine the night everything started to tilt, Dustin’s smile at the range. Melody’s ring flashed under the chandeliers, proof stacked in my mind like bricks. Three heartbeats, two. One.
Pain arrived before the sound, a white-hot flash at my ribs that split the slow motion like glass. Air ripped out of me. My hand spasmed, and the gun pulled sideways. The shot that should have been the end split off into the rafters, a hollow, useless sound. Warmth slicked my hands, and the floor rose as I fell. Cole’s voice shredded through my pain as he jerked me into a pew.
The first shot, a message answered with force. A dozen thunderclaps as pistols, shotguns and the low rat-tat of an automatic. Wood splintered, paper flew as the church descended into chaos. I gritted through the pain as the blood flowed. Cole ripped the bottom of his shirt. A searing pain shot through my body as he tied it around my waist. “Stay down.” He ordered as he dashed through the pew to the other side.
Bullets zinged past me, shaking the old oak. Splinters collected in my hair, but my eyes locked with the sniper — Dustin.
60
EVERYTHING’S RED
Present day
“Return fire,” someone shouted — Clif, Jasper, I couldn’t tell—voices swallowed each other. My hand shook as I aimed my pistol at Dustin. Sheetrock erupted from the side wall, throwing out a dust that choked the air, shielding him as he retreated.Move, stupid girl.I rolled under the neighboring pew, groaning as blood soaked through the bandage.
Melody, who had been all composed and cocky, was coated in white powder as she fired low, her aim ugly but dangerous. She hit a man in the knee, and he cursed, toppling into a pew that collapsed with his weight.
The police presence complicated things. A pair of officers ducked into a pew; their bullets didn’t discriminate. I realized, with a cold, icy twist, that some of those cops weren’t there to shut us down — they were there to hunt.
Bullets kicked plaster dust into the air, and some officer shouted, “Get down now!” It was too late to make a plea. A blue uniform at the doorway fell; blood bloomed across his chest like a grotesque rosary. The man who took the shot wasn’t one of ours, and he wasn’t Shaw’s. He was in plain clothes at the back, crouched, rifle smoking as he fueled the chaos.
Ricochet shattered a candleholder, and wax hissed down like rain. Cole screamed something—my name? An order?—then ducked behind a column as a slug penetrated the wood where he’d been standing a breath before.
The altar was chaos — an altar boy I’d seen earlier lay there, groaning, his cheek split open, eyes wide and wet. A nun screamed and then was silent. The heavy smell of dust and incense and sweat was replaced by the metallic tang of adrenaline. I fired blindly over the pew, dropping and moving — my knees scraping against shattered tile. Another shot vibrated in my ear, too close, and I ducked as plaster exploded above my head; it snowed down, choking me.
A figure lunged out from behind the altar, and I pivoted. I grimaced, pausing to check the boy’s pulse — none. With his eyes now closed, I moved.
“Melody!” Shaw barked, and the redhead slid across the floor to his side. Two shots rang over her shoulder in reply. Shaw fired back like a possessed man — controlled, vicious and when he moved, it was the confidence of someone who had done this before. He was the opposite of the smug smile he’d worn minutes before, a hard animal now.
The world was chaos, screaming steel and flashing muzzles. The spent magazine dropped from my gun as I pulled another from my boot. Shaw and I locked gazes for half a second. He nodded before he shoved Melody out a side door, laying cover fire.
My breath caught in my throat as blue and red sirens broke through the dwindling chaos. Backup arrived.
My legs wobbled, like they weren’t my own. Cole shoved me behind the front pew. “Stay low, be quiet.” His voice low in my ear. He disappeared towards the organ. Jasper’s body replaced his at my side as the last blue uniform retreated out the front doors.
“Your surrounded! Come out with your hands up and we won’t shoot,” the police shouted from outside.
“To hell with that, I am not going to jail again, I don’t care what the fuck strings Midas pulls,” Cliff commented from the other side of Jasper. He was bleeding from the side of his head, which was coated in dust. Another body beside his, a bandage strapped to his leg — it was one of the dimwits I couldn’t remember his name.
“Bro, it’s not that bad the men have holes just as nice as the women.” the Dimwit said.
“Shut up,” Jasper ground out.
“Where the hell is Cole?” Wood creaked and shots rang out as gunfire exchanged again. Pillars crumbled off in pieces with the impact. I was counting bulletsas they whizzed past me. Twelve, eleven, ten…
“I swear to fucking god if that man does not show up in the next twenty seconds I will kill him myself,” I grunted as I ducked behind the pew again. The police officers slowed their firing and stopped, the dust too thick for them to see clearly.
