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The sound goes off as I flush the toilet. I’m confused at first on what it could be. There isn’t much around here besides the massive compound. We’re far enough into the desert. But weird noises do happen from time to time.
Bang. Bang.
When a siren starts going off that I’ve never heard before, my stomach drops.
“Lilah!” I scream, running to the door, my pain all but forgotten.
Boom.
An explosion goes off outside, and the walls shake. Debris from the ceiling falls around me like snow. I cough through the smoke. I can hear people screaming outside, and continuous popping which as they grow closer, I realize what it is.
Gun shots.
My body trembles in fear.
Where is Lilah?
I open the door right when another blast happens, and I fly backwards, falling onto my back. The wind gets knocked out of me and I open my mouth, only to have a silent scream come out. My lungs are crushed from the impact and the pain is excruciating.
When the air is allowed to fill my lungs, I gasp out a sobbing breath and scream. “Lilah!” The pain throughout my body is agonizing, but I still roll onto my front and crawl towards the door. “Lilah…” I sob.
The guns still go off around me in every direction, and every so often I can hear apingway too close to me as a bullet ricochets off a piece of metal. The smell of gunfire and burning buildings fills my nostrils, and I cough and sneeze when it becomes too much.
So much screaming.
My skin is gray and blackened at this point from the soot of ruined buildings and sand. I can barely see through the dense air and breathing is even worse. I cough and gag again as my throat gets covered in a thick residue.
Feeling around in front of me, my palms dig into the pebbles and rocks on the ground. I crawl forward, pushing aside pieces of building and whatever else has landed in front of me. It’s only when my hair touches silky hair that terror clutches my throat in a painful grip.
“Lilah?” I scream out, crawling on top of the body. Once I realize the body is too big to be Lilah’s, I gasp out in relief, but then let out a scream when I realize who it is.
“Elena!” I cry, brushing the hair out of her face. Her eyes stay open, even as her gaze remains out in the distance. The light has left from her eyes, and the large piece of debris protruding from her neck gives away her cause of death. “Elena!” I cry again, clutching her to me. “Please, no!”
I clam up once I hear the rumble of motorcycles. I’m seriously in trouble. Not Santiago nor any of his associate ride a motorcycle. But after living with him for years, I’ve come to realize people who he doesn’t respect—and people who don’t respect him—do.
I bend over and kiss Elena on the forehead. “I love you.” I whisper, and then begin crawling away from my house as the bikes come near me. “Lilah!” I cry out, moving as quickly as I can even on my stomach. My forearms scrape against rocks, and I can feel my too fresh wounds from the night before beginning to reopen.
I find the little bit of weeds that have sprouted the desert sand and use them as leverage, pulling them to help me get forward. Some are strong enough to take the stress of my pull, others give underneath my fingers, the dead twigs shattering underneath by palms.
The pressure of a boot on top of my back halts me in place. It feels heavy, thick. The expanse of the boot covers most of my back. It feels huge, like I’ll stare up and see a giant standing above me.
I cry out, Lilah’s name whispering from my lips.
The boot slides off my back and the tip nudges underneath my shoulder, flipping me over with little effort. “What the fuck?” A tall man with a hat flipped backwards stares down at me with a scowl on his face. My eyes trail down, in complete shock of the man standing before me. He’s tall, well over six feet and his arm that has a pistol pointed at me is covered in black and gray tattoos. Darkness swirls up his muscular forearm and for a moment I’m curious on how far it travels.
I feel like this man could take over the world. He seemsthatpowerful. More powerful than Santiago, and that terrifies me.
“The fuck happened to you?” He barks at me, bending towards me and showing off his dark, dark blue eyes. It’s like the coldest, deepest part of the ocean painted its way to his irises. His icy blue eyes are even more blue than mine. People say my eyes resemble the clearest skies. This man’s eyes what I imagine the ocean would look like. They’re a bit cold, though, and his sharp jaw line only adds to that fact. The dark stubble on his face gives him a five o’ clock shadow. He looks like a mean, cold man who does positively terrible things to people.
And he’s standing right above me.
He makes a motion to grab me, and I flinch away from his touch, crab-walking away from him. “Please don’t hurt me.” I cry.
His eyes flash in shock before turning angry. Furious. He reaches down, and this time doesn’t care about my flinching or scared body. He hauls me to my feet by my bicep, ignoring my wounds and bruises with a flick of his eyes.
“You’re coming with me.” He says gruffly.
“Wait! Wait, wait, wait.” I dig my heels into the dirt. “Please, Lilah!” I scream, looking over my shoulder. “Lilah!” I turn to the man who has me in his grip, slapping his arm. When that does nothing, I try to dig my fingers underneath his that are locked around my arm. They don’t budge. It’s like they are cemented to me. He continues to walk into the cloud of dust, away from the tire swing where Lilah last was.
