by J. J. McAvoy
“You don’t. You know what I did—”
“My life doesn’t mean that much to me. I mean, I do not wish to die. But I’ve lived my whole life knowing I could die at any second, so it doesn’t really hit me that hard. Being attacked. Getting hurt. I always expect that. My daughter’s life is worth more. So, I owe you. Please keep watch over her until I get back.”
She nodded, taking Gigi from my arms.
The sun was up.
But the day felt darker than ever before.
It was a day of death.
Ethan, when you get back here, I wonder if you will still think your stupid plan has worked. He didn’t spare me from any fucking danger. So, he betrayed me for fucking nothing. I wanted to tell him to his face; his betrayal was fucking stupid!
ETHAN
Fire.
It spread faster than a ripple in water.
Like the wallpaper in the house was meant solely for it to burn faster along with the flames, broken beams, and falling stones. The house was a mansion by the sea, one we’d all fought through the night to enter and through the day to conquer. Now it was crumbling all around us, and I could barely see the hall in the fog of smoke. Nevertheless, arm in arm with my father, we rushed back to the front foyer, to the same staircase I’d gone up.
“Liam! Ethan!” My mother yelled as she all but stepped on the dead woman at the bottom to reach back to us, which was stupid on her part. She should have left! She’d had time to leave! But she hadn’t, and I saw the chandelier as well as the roof start to come down before she did.
“Mom—”
“Mel!” He pushed me back and still had the energy to thrust himself forward. How? I didn’t know. He was just as hurt as I was. Yet he did. And my mother’s body fell out of the way; only he wasn’t as lucky. The chandelier, the roof, the wood, bits of marble all crashed on top of him.
“Liam. Liam. Liam!” My mother crawled over to where…to where…where he was. With her bare hands, not caring about the glass or the fire, she moved whatever she could out of the way. “Ethan, don’t just fucking stand there. Help me! Liam!”
I glanced at the surrounding fire.
There isn’t time.
Fuck.
20
“Vengeance has no foresight.”
~Napoleon Bonaparte
CALLIOPE
I enjoyed movies, books, and anything that told stories because they all followed the same pattern—introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, the end. Someone’s life in a few hours. Everything of importance was laid out right in front of me. I enjoyed that. Being able to see the whole puzzle of a person’s life. Able to see everything wrap nicely in a bow. Whether the main character lived or died, I enjoyed it because we didn’t get that in real life. In real life, you could spend years thinking you understood someone only for them to surprise you and be someone completely different. In real life, you could feel like you were at the climax of a moment, only to realize you are the beginning or, worse, you were at the end.
There was no order.
Was I at this rising action?
Was this the resolution—the end or the beginning?
For myself, I didn’t know.
For Neal Callahan, the bomb was the climax. His goodbye to his family and his deal with me were his falling action or resolution, and then his end was death.
I stood out in the back yard in the cold December air, under the winter’s sun, staring at what was left of his body, the blood that scorched the ground. The force of the blast had left him in pieces. Though that was sad, I was grateful. I was thankful that his remains were now being cleaned. The blood was being washed from the patio and the side of the house was his, and not my daughter’s. However, the thought that it could have been stirred the anger, and need for vengeance. And I knew it was nothing compared to the rest of this family.
There was no plan.
There was only anger, pain, and hate. Feelings that could only come from a loss so deep it burned to think about.
It was my job now to focus that rage.
But it seemed like the world was laughing at me.
“Ma’am?” Monk spoke, standing beside me, patiently, or at least he had been patient ten minutes ago when I had first ordered him to come.
Since I had destroyed most of the other cars, we needed new ones, or at least I thought we did. I thought being the key words—my thoughts were irrelevant. If this were a Greek play, someone would see the gods were messing with me.
“Say it again,” I asked, watching the blood mix with the water over the patio stone.
“We got a tip from the Chicago police about a murder-suicide in Winnetka,” he repeated and waited again.
“You’re telling me he killed my mother and sisters before killing himself?” I coughed, shaking my head. “Why in God’s name would I believe that?”
“He left you a voice message. There is a 9-1-1 call from your sister, Bellarose. They want to know what you would like them to do with this. The press will find out if you don’t act—”
“Do you have this 9-1-1 call?”
He brought out his phone, pressing play, allowing me to hear what first started as gunshots.
“9-1-1: What is your emergency?”
“Send help! My father’s lost it! He just killed my mom—Ah…no…” She cried as more shots were fired in the background.
“Where are you now? Can you escape, or are you hiding?” the dispatcher asked.
“I’m under the bed… I think he’s coming?”
“Bellarose? Come out, sweetheart. It’s okay. We aren’t going to suffer anymore.”
Silence. Then…
“No! Daddy! Please no! Stop!”
BANG. BANG. BANG.
“Hello? Hello, is anyone there? Sending units to 1447 Blackthrone—”
“Why do people hide under beds?” I asked, suddenly turning to look at the lanky person beside me.
He blinked slowly, confused. “Ma’am?”
“It’s always under the bed or the closet? Even in movies? Why? Her room is on the second floor. It has a fucking window. Isn’t it more logical to jump out of the window than to hide under the bed and cry?”
“Umm…I guess she was scared, ma’am.”
I shook my head. Ethan was right; they were fucking idiots. I sighed, trying to…trying to think of what to do with this clusterfuck!
“Where are their bodies?”
“Still in the house. The cops who were dispatched work for the family, and that house has a notice on it. Nothing has gotten leaked—”
“What about the dispatcher?”
“She’s being held in the boss’s office for now.”
My fist clenched. I wanted to scream! Are you fucking kidding me? Really are you fucking kidding me? This shit happened to me twice? Had I lost my kills fucking twice? What in the actual fuck?
“Now, what the fuck was I going to tell them? Sedric and Killian? Huh?” I snapped, glaring at him. “I geared them up for revenge, and now that was stolen from us.”
“Ma’am—”
“It was a rhetorical question. I don’t want an answer,” I muttered, rubbing the side of my head.
I knew it. Roman was weak; he’d always been weak. That was why his own parents couldn’t count on him. Fiorello must have broken him after what he had done with my mother. They brought him to heel, making him still work. Over the years, he must have been the one feeding us information on the Callahans. Fiorello, the paranoid son of bitch, made sure to send out messages or orders at least once a week. It was a reminder that he was still alive and we were still under his control. When he had died—when I’d killed him—the message had stopped. Roman must have realized Fiorello was dead. Then I was shot. But, Ethan assured the public I was doing well and recovering from his made-up Chicago Sniper. That pushed Roman into action—all the moments, pieces of the puzzle that fell from the sky like a surprise.
They pissed me the fuck off.
What kind of ending was this? The Orsini family didn’t die by my hands; they died under the pressure of their own vengeance.
How poetic.
How utterly useless to me.
“The police are probably all over the home, which means the neighbors have already seen them. Since it’s so early in the morning, the gossip has spread,” I muttered, thinking through a whole new plan. “The house is large and spaced out enough that I doubt anyone heard the gunshots. Were there any other 9-1-1 calls?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Good, then we’ll say it was carbon monoxide poisoning, and the Neal Callahan was also in the house.”
“We’re doing what?”
I turned to find both Sedric and Killian, now dressed and waiting. Sedric was keenly aware of where we stood, whose blood stained this ground. Monk stepped forward, how cute, but I held up my hand to stop him.
“You stand on my father’s blood and plan on using him? Making up a story about him?” he hollered at me.
“Would you rather me tell the people of this city the truth? How does that help anyone?” I asked calmly.
“My father died as a hero to this family, you bitch!”
“So, did Coraline,” I replied, doing my best to keep from socking him in the face. I was not in the mood, and yet, I had to give him space to vent. Because that was all he would get, apparently. “Coraline died as a hero to this family. Your father and his father. Don’t you get it? There is no glory here. No one gets any medals or honors for dying in this family. They didn’t want any, either. They all died for the same thing—this family. So that this family could go on and survive.”
“Are we family, or are we all just pawns?” Killian asked, coming up beside me. “Why do we all die, so you and Ethan get to live? You don’t ever lose?”
“You don’t think we lost?” I asked him. “In the end, we all lost something. It may not have been mine and Ethan’s blood, but we lost.”
“Oh, please spare us how you are doing so much for the family in secret,” Sedric sneered at me. “We don’t know shit about that. All we know is that you and Ethan seem to get off while the rest of us suffer. Once again, under him, we lost family in this house because—”
“Because you all betrayed him!” I snapped, done playing the nice Mrs. Callahan. They were mourning, but there was a line.
“No one betrayed you all. Your stupid plans didn’t work—”
“Killian.” I held my hand up to him, warning him before turning to Sedric. “Sedric, I was going to keep it quiet. I wasn’t even going to tell Ethan. Because I would have to stop him from killing her himself. I made a deal with your father; that is the only reason why your sister is still alive.”
His eyes widened. “What?”
I lifted my phone to him to see the secret feed. “Why did she let Roman into this house? I have a feeling she also wanted to take a shot at killing me.”
Sedric took the phone from my hands, watching slowly as Nari, his sister, let the man with the bomb that killed her own father walk happily into the house through the back entrance. I knew it. Someone had betrayed this family. The moment I left Gigi, I had gone to find out who, why, how…only to see this.
“For you all, when Ethan and I take a breath, we are in the wrong. We are somehow supposed to know everything, plan for everything, keep those plans secret, but clue you in, and make you all feel important at the same time. And if one thing goes out of place, it is our fault. Fine. We can handle your anger. In fact, if it makes you feel better, I’ll let you both rule for the day. So, what are your orders? What do I do? What do I do to the woman who betrayed us? Better yet, reflect on everything you all have done in the last year, and tell me, what would you do to a family who kept yelling in your face and stabbing you in the back? Isn’t there some time code? Isn’t betrayal met with blood? Teach me since I’m doing it wrong.”
In silence, Sedric watched the video over and over again, breathing faster and faster, his nose flaring and nose clenched. He dropped my phone without another word to me, marching back into the house with all his rage. Killian quickly followed after.
“Everyone wants to be the leader until they are faced with hard choices,” I muttered to myself. “Have the cops do as I say. This was an accident. Have them release none of the names yet, though. Later, we will say that members of the Callahan family went to spend time with my parents and sisters; they felt bad after I was shot.”
“Members?” Monk stressed the S on that as he picked my phone back up.
Slowly, I turned to him and nodded. “Yes. The day’s not over, and the grim reaper seems to be working overtime. Go get me a car. I want to see the bodies for myself.”
Rubbing the ring on my finger, I looked back at the blood on the ground. It was mostly water now, though there was most likely going to be a stain.
Introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, the end. No matter how well we planned, or how we tried or even dreamed, life did not happen in that order. The only thing we could ever know for certain was that life required us to fight a fight that, in the end, we would all lose.
Just some of us lost faster than others.
“Is it my job to stop your kids from killing each other?” I asked the ground.
Sedric was looking for anyone to murder right now, and since Roman fucked me over a second time, I’d prefer his rage to be directed elsewhere.
“This is why I say to be careful about making deals.” Ethan’s voice entered my mind.
“Shut up! I’m still pissed at you.”
Rubbing my temple, I turned back, entering the house.
SEDRIC
The doors flew open because I had kicked them open, she was sitting beside our mother’s bed, jumping, staring at me with teary red eyes.
“Sedric—”
“What did you do?” I was shaking.
“Sedric, sweetheart—” Our mother called, coming to me.
“What did you do, Nari! What did you fucking do?”
“I—”
“Tell me you are not an idiot! Tell me! You did not let a stranger in this house! Tell me now!”
Stood there, not answering me. Just crying useless tears!
“I—”
“You idiot!” I lunged at her.
“Sedric!”
“Sedric, no!” Killian grabbed me, pulling me back. Holding me as Nari kept crying like tears would undo this. As if tears would fix this!
“Nari, what is happening? What is wrong?” my mother asked, standing beside her.
“What is wrong? Yes, Nari! Tell Mom what is wrong! Tell her why she is a widow! Tell her why the fuck we won’t even have a body to bury! Tell her, Nari! Tell her!” I screamed, fighting against Killian’s body.
“Nari?” my mother questioned. “What does he mean?”
Again, with the tears.
Now sobs as she hung her head.
“Don’t hang your head! What happened to your balls, Nari? Huh? You always have to get the word in? Prove you are smart! Go ahead! Explain why you let that man in here!”
“It was a mistake!” she cried, running her hands through her hair. “Mommy, it was a mistake. He said…he said he just wanted to get Calliope back for what she did to their family. I thought—”
Slap!
The sound of my mother’s hand as it smacked Nari’s face was the only thing that slowed me down.
“You didn’t think?” she whispered, tears falling from her eyes.
“Mommy—”
“You didn’t think at all!” my mother hollered, smacking her over and over again. She grabbed her hair as she beat her as hard as she could.
Killian let go of me as we both ran to her, now holding her back. “Why would you believe him? Why would you believe he would only stop at her! Why! Nari, why?”
“Someone needed to stop her!” Nari, her face cut up now by our mother’s nails, cleaned her nose with her hands. “I thought someone needed to stop her. None of us could do
anything. Ethan kept protecting her. If her own family—”
“Ah! Ahh!” my mother just screamed.
Wrapping my arms around her, I hugged her tightly, muffling her cries into my chest, biting back my tears as she shook in rage.
We were all like that… I don’t know how long the crying and screaming went on until she finally gave in to her exhaustion in my arms. Slowly, I helped her from the floor and onto the bed. And just sat beside her.
Killian had left.
Nari sat on the floor. “Hated her. Calliope, I hate her. I tried not to. I thought I could deal with it, but she kept pushing me out over the last year. Making me feel like an outsider, telling me to go back to Korea and—”
“That’s your excuse?” I whispered back numbly. “She told you to go back and live with your husband, that’s why you forgot all the training, everything Dad thought us? And made such a stupid mistake?”
“I just wanted her gone—”
“Look how that worked out!” I bit my mouth shut, looking up to the ceiling. My chest felt like it was on fire. “Dad died because of your mistake, Nari. He died because of you!”
Did he even know it was her?
Was that why he had asked Calliope for that deal?
I thought back over the last twenty-four hours and remembered Calliope in the garage. She was the second to last to show up. Nana came last. Nari had come late because she was letting a killer into our house. Did he figure it out? Was it just a coincidence? I didn’t know. I’d never know because I couldn’t ask him. After all, he was dead.
My father was dead.
“I didn’t mean—”
“What you meant means nothing, Nari. No shit. Ethan’s daughter could have died. What do you think would have happened? Calliope found the video of you in less than fifteen minutes. Ethan could have found out, too! If their daughter had died, they would have killed you. If we stopped her, Ethan would have killed us all. Whatever you meant was going to kill this family.”