Blood of Innocents

Amber padded barefoot into the kitchen, where her mother was washing clothes in the sink and tugged on her sleeve. Her mother looked down and the tired, weary expression changed to an adoring smile as she lifted her daughter up onto the unit.

"New ribbons in my baby's hair. They're lovely, sweetheart. What colours do you have?" she asked, letting a small, blue jumpsuit slide back into the soapy water.

Amber squinted awkwardly as she, one by one, pulled the ribbons into view. "I got red and white and yellow and pink and.. I wanted some blue but I couldn't find none in the basket."

"Any, Amber; you couldn't find any in the basket."

"Any," repeated Amber, nodding slowly. Her mother believed that education didn't stop when you left school for the day, and a good education would get her out of the Downtown slums.

"Well," said her mother as she turned back to the sink, "I have to go out for some things later, so I'll pick up some blue from Mrs. Ottermann, ok?"

Amber beamed a smile and leant forward to kiss her mother's forehead. "Thanks, mum!"

"Now, go get your brother and get him cleaned up for breakfast. And don't disturb your father. He's talking to Mr. McCabe in the living room."

Amber obediently hopped down onto the kitchen floor and padded through the narrow passageway. She stopped momentarily at the living room and pressed an ear to the door, straining to hear what the two were discussing. Dad was always having meetings in the apartment. She knew other men had meetings at offices, but her dad had them here. Mr. McCabe was always leaving stuff with dad, too. Dad would look after it for a while and then Mr. McCabe would come back for it later.

She walked into the bedroom she shared with her brother and found him peeking mischievously out of his large cardboard box. "C'mon, Sean, lets go to the bathroom. I'll even let you brush your teeth with my Halloween Jack toothbrush!"

She squatted in front of the box and tweaked Sean's nose. He giggled happily and flopped back into his box, chanting "Haween Jack, Haween Jack."

Suddenly, she heard the heavy front door slam against the inside wall and a gruff, male voice shout "McCabe! Where the fuck are you?"

She rolled under the bunk-bed and watched as three men walked past her bedroom door. From her narrow hiding place, she could only see the men from the knee down. They were all heavily booted and one had a knife poking from the top of his.

Her mother came out of the kitchen, drying her hands with a towel. Before she had a chance to make a sound, two of the henchmen turned on her and emptied their guns. Amber closed her eyes tightly and put her hands over her ears at the noise, too scared to scream. Her heart was beating fast and the blood in her ears was as loud as thunder. Her mother's body slammed against the door brace and pirouetted before falling lifelessly into the kitchen.

"Shit!" cursed one of the men.

"Hey, they're all fucking fair game. Get the stuff and get the fuck out." It was the gruff voice again.

She opened her eyes and saw the living room door open. Her father and Mr. McCabe were in the doorway.

"Drop the fucking guns and I won't blow this prick's head off." It was McCabe's voice. She saw a gun drop to the floor and her father move slowly towards the kitchen.

"Corinne? Cori... oh fuck!" Her father knelt by her mother's body and started sobbing.

"Dave? Shit. Dave, we don't have time for that now. Get up and give me a hand with these cocksuckers." but her father just knelt by his wife, stroking her face. She could see tears streaming from his eyes as he repeated her name, over and over.

"Three on one, McCabe. Give it up. Nice and easy. Give us the Juize and we'll be on our way." The gruff voice of the other man.

"Can't do that, Mikey. Tell your boss I'm just taking what I should have been paid."

Her father, face full of rage and tears, lifted his gun from beside the corpse. "Mother fuckers. Mother fuckers!" he emphasized each violent curse with a squeeze of the trigger.

Amber saw the knife-man's knee explode and watched as his leg collapsed from under him. He fell, blood pouring out of his leg, covering the carpetless floor. The man was screaming in agony. She watched, mesmerised as the dark liquid seeped into her room, collecting around the smoking cartridges that had killed her mother. The cardboard box moved slightly and she heard Sean crying... she had to get him out!

There was a crack of something hard breaking bone and she saw McCabe fall backwards into the living room. He had a different gun from the others because when he pulled the trigger, it sounded like a hundred guns going off, one after the other. Plaster and wood exploded in the air as the bullets tore up the wall and door of her room.

Again, she shut her eyes and covered her ears from the noise.

---

"Eve here. Multiple gunshots, Ibanez. Three Southside gang heavies entered the apartment. I-R shows the Lenhart woman is down."

"Sounds like it's all gone to fuck, Kerrigan. We're going in."

Ibanez thumbed his comm switch. "Eve, De'Chui, Hopper; go. Shoot to kill, but watch for friendlies... there's kids in there."

---

Amber opened her eyes to see that her father was now slumped over her mother's body. He wasn't sobbing any more.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, she looked over to the box to see Sean standing up, crying. Glancing quickly to the door, she motioned him with a finger over pursed lips to be quiet, but he didn't understand.

"Sean," she whispered hoarsely through clenched teeth, "you've got to be quiet. Please be quiet!"

She partially crawled out from under the bed to see McCabe on his back in the living room, whimpering as he struggled with his gun, with one of the men standing over him. He convulsed as the man shot him in the throat and then was still.

Sean screamed even louder as the shot rang out. Amber motioned again to him, but the man with the gruff voice whipped round, fear and hatred in his eyes, and squeezed the trigger of his semi-automatic. Bullets peppered the cardboard box and Sean flew into the wall beneath the window as if an invisible string had yanked him back.

"Nooooooo!" she screamed, arm outstretched to her brother. Bullets traced a line on the floor as the man continued firing, bringing the gun round to bear on her. She scrambled furiously back under the bed as a loud explosion rocked through the tiny apartment. She was deafened momentarily from the concussion and saw smoke billow from the passageway into the bedroom.

The man outside was coughing and she could make out he had one arm covering his eyes. His gun was pointed towards the front door and the orange light from the barrel diffused through the smoke as he continued to fire.

Suddenly, his body started jerking where he stood, arms and chest shuddering as bullet after bullet slammed into him.

Amber scrambled towards the end of the bed where she could reach Sean. He lay unmoving under the window, a large dark patch spreading across his tiny chest. She grabbed him by the foot and dragged him awkwardly under the bed, not noticing the dark trail of blood that was left behind.

Laying on her side, she cradled him with one hand behind him. His back felt hollow; she couldn't feel his spine. Her hand felt warm and sticky... she knew what it was without looking. She was sobbing uncontrollably and the tears soaked his hair as she brushed it aside with her free hand, caressing his little face. There were more gunshots outside, but the world ebbed away, leaving her and Sean alone under the bed.

"Sean, please no, please no. Don't die. Please please PLEASE!"

Her last word stretched out for an eternity as she almost screamed it at him, until it became a hoarse rasp. He looked up at her with lifeless eyes as blood poured out of his mouth, mingling with the tears that fell from Amber's face.

"Shit. Hopper! Get a medi-kit now! I've got an injured kid here."

The world rushed back into her mind and Amber looked up, eyes stinging, to see a woman stretched out on the floor looking at her. "Come here, sweetheart. Give me your brother. We'll try to fix him." Her hand was outstretched, but Amber didn't understand.

"Eve, here." The woman called Eve looked up and took the metallic grey box from her companion.

"Come on, sweetheart. Let's get you out from under there so we can look at your brother."

Amber gently crawled out from under the bed with Sean still in her arms. She heard Eve's companion mutter something under his breath on seeing Sean. Eve touched her hand to his neck, checking for a pulse.

"His name's Sean," said Amber. She cradled him tightly against her chest, rocking backwards and forwards, planting little kisses on his cheek. "He's only two."

"Ibanez, this is Hopper. Southsiders eliminated. McCabe, the Lenharts and their son, Sean, all dead. Only survivor was the girl. Case containing 41lbs of Juize extract recovered. This one's a wrap."

---

I feel Riell place his hand on my shoulder, bringing me back from my reverie. The Ebon was characteristically empathic, which I was uncomfortable with. Most of the time. Now it felt good.

"You ok, boss?"

I watch ripples form in a puddle as the rain comes down. This is how funerals are supposed to be, you know? Dark and wet. I hope where Eve's going is better than this shit-hole. She gave me a life after that day in our apartment. Away from Downtown and the Gangs. Where she took me was my idea of heaven. For a while at least. SLA Industries showed me there was no heaven.

"Yeah," I finally answer him. "Any word from Huber?"

"He's got us a White. We've got an hour or so if you need more time..."

I hesitate as I watch the casket gently lowered into the grave and say a silent farewell. She died the way I want to die; in my sleep. Quietly. Peacefully. She was one of the rare, lucky ones.

I think back to holding Sean in our room. My brother's life cut short because my prick of a father brought drugs into our house instead of getting a real job. He'd get angry because we 'didn't respect' him. The truth is, he never respected us or our mother. A father who respects his family doesn't do that shit.

I remember Sean's beautiful face looking up at me, blond hair matted with my tears and the feeling of his warm blood on my hand, seeping through my fingers as I tried to stop the flow; god, the awful, sickly feeling as my hand sunk into his back. I remember he tried to say something before he died... my name, maybe, I don't know. He opened his mouth to form the word, but blood poured out instead and streaked down the side of his face.

"I miss Sean," I blurt out. "He was only two."

Riell gently squeezes my shoulder and I'm grateful he doesn't ask me to elaborate.

I hear Huber from his earpiece "... tell Ribbons we're up to bat now."

"Change of plans?" The rain washes away my tears.

"'Fraid so. You need a few minutes?"

I tighten the single blue ribbon in hair. "No... no, let's go."

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