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IMANI
Bullets started blazing from every which direction, whizzing by me. As the gun fell from my hand, I collapsed onto the ground and covered my head, hoping that none would pierce through me or kill me.
In the midst of the gunfire and smoke, Akio stood over his father and slammed his fist into his father’s face over and over and over again until he sent him to the ground and his father’s head bounced against it.
When he stood back up, he glanced over at me. “Get out of here, Imani,” he shouted, raising his gun to the air, shooting it once. The bullet went right through the ceiling and silenced the rest of his parents’ guards. “I’ll take care of this.”
My eyes widened as he commanded the attention of the men like he had done it before, though I knew that he never had. This wasn’t the Akio that I knew from school. This was the Akio who had been broken one too many times and refused to let anyone hurt him again.
“Now, Imani,” Akio growled.
I picked up a gun, held it tightly to my chest, then dragged Mom’s beaten body across our hardwood floor and toward the front door. Dad crawled out behind us, a bullet hole through his shoulder and blood everywhere.
After glancing into the room one last time and watching Akio finally stand up to his parents’ men, I slammed the door closed and collapsed outside it in the frigid air. My chest rose and fell. There was blood all over me from Akio’s mother.
When I glanced down at the blood on my trembling hands, reality finally set in. I had killed someone. I had just fucking killed someone. I had taken the life out of someone’s body and removed them from this world with the click of a fucking gun.
Loud, shouting voices came from within the house, then another few clicks of guns. I stared at my parents who lay helplessly on our front lawn and clutched the gun tightly in my hands. I didn’t know if I was stupid for wanting to go back inside to help Akio, but part of me told me that he was in trouble.
I needed to do something. I couldn’t sit around and wait as he died in there.
Someone slammed into the front door, making it shake.
I gripped the gun tighter and gritted my teeth, tears wavering in my eyes as I stared at my parents. “Please, don’t hate me for this. I love you guys so fucking much.”
“Imani,” Mom said, clutching on to Dad, “what are you—”
Standing from my spot, I grabbed the doorknob and cursed to myself. I was being stupid and irrational, but these guys had done so much worse to my friends and my family these past few weeks. I didn’t want to let them kill Akio, too.
I wasn’t a killer, but I did protect the people I cared about.
So, I shoved the door open and knocked one of the guards back onto his ass. He didn’t have a gun in his hand, but I didn’t care. I shot him in the knee and set him back, clutching his wound.
Mom screamed at me to come back, but Akio’s mother was right. I couldn’t let Mom hold me back anymore from anything. I was stronger than even I realized and was loyal to the people who cared and protected me.
Now, it was my turn to protect them.
And the only way to do that was to kill every last member of the Redwood Mafia here.
Pushing my way through the others, I kicked and fought and killed every one of them that got in my way. When I made it inside, I caught Akio holding a gun in a shaky hand and pinned against a wall by a huge dude who must’ve been seven feet tall and three times his size. His forearm was pressed against Akio’s neck, cutting off his only way of breathing.
Akio positioned the gun at the man’s gut and shot it twice, but all the gun did was click. No bullets came out. No wounds were open. No blood was splattered. Akio was out of ammo and out of time.
After he dropped the gun, Akio grasped on to the man’s forearm and desperately tried to peel himself away. But the guy was too strong, and Akio got nowhere. As Akio made eye contact with me, his eyes widened, and he shook his head.
He didn’t want me here. He wanted to do this himself.
But friends didn’t leave friends behind.
I had one bullet left inside my gun. One.
Akio’s face turned a shade of blue, his fingers slipping off the man’s forearm, as if he didn’t have enough energy to keep pushing forward and to kill him.
I aimed it at the guard’s head and pulled the trigger.
Blood splattered everywhere. Flesh flew in every which direction. The man stumbled back, and then his body smacked against the ground, a puddle of blood forming underneath him. Akio doubled over, spitting and choking on the air.
My chest rose and fell, adrenaline pumping through my system. I glanced around the living room to see eight members of the Redwood Mafia lying on the floor, their blood coating the floorboards and staining the couches.
