by J. J. McAvoy
“You poisoned us,” one of them said.
“No, I paralyzed you so that we can all have this conversation. Who the fuck do you think I am?” Taking a gun from the table, I shot the fucker in the gut. I watched as the blood pooled into his shirt and bled onto his tie before he rolled to the ground.
“I don’t fucking understand,” I said. “The point of my and Melody’s marriage was to stop the bloodshed between my people and yours. Yet, here I am.”
The oldest man with his hair slicked back grimaced as much as the drug would allow.
“Stop acting,” he said. “We know you killed her. You fucking Irish can’t ever be trusted.”
Something in me snapped, and before he took a breath, I stood. Taking the chair I had just been sitting in, I broke it against his face. It collapsed as I hammered the broken pieces into his body as he lay helplessly on the floor, screaming but incapable of doing anything else.
“You don’t fucking know shit!” I roared down at him, as my blood boiled over. My hands were shaking with so much rage that what was left of the chair slipped out of my grasp. But I didn’t stop; I lifted my foot and slammed it into his head.
“You aren’t shit,” I said. “You are the scum on the bottom of my feet. Not fucking worthy to wipe my ass. How fucking dare you accuse me!”
CRACK.
His face tore open and I could see bits of his brain pouring out. Wiping the blood off my face, I turned to the two sitting at the table. The man I shot was still taking deep breaths while the other stared wide-eyed at the old man, trying his best take in what just happened.
“You all disgust me. You came to my wedding, promised loyalty to my wife, and by relation to me as well. Yet, here you are, like roaches in a dark room plotting against me. You all hurt me, and when I hurt, so does everyone else.”
“Callahan, what were we supposed to think?” one of them asked.
“You aren’t supposed to think!” Grabbing him by his neck, I glared into his eyes. “I fucking think. Melody fucking thinks, you don’t.”
“I—”
“You’re lucky I’ve already shot this one.” I pointed to the bleeding man in his chair. “Which means you get to live. You are going to be my little messenger. After the drugs wear off, you’re going to tell every last fucking man, woman and child what happened here. Until I am dead—and only when I’m dead—am I out of this game. Until then, I fucking own you. Are we clear?”
His face was void of all emotion, but he nodded. Taking the gun, I held it at his kneecap before pulling the trigger. He wouldn’t feel it that much, but it would hurt like a bitch in a few hours.
“I said, am I clear?”
“Yes!” he hissed.
“Good.” Patting his head, I walked over to the bleeding man and I thought about ending him quickly but decided against it. Pushing his chair back, I stared at him as he lay on his back gasping for air but the holes in his lungs kept them from inflating.
“New shoes,” I said to him before putting a hole in both of them and dropping the gun by his face. “Never mind.”
Fixing my tie and suit, I walked out the back door where Declan was leaning in the alleyway smoking while the snow fell around him. He looked me up and down slowly before shaking his head.
“Clean up crew?” he asked.
Nodding, I pulled out my phone. “Is the camera up in Ethan’s room?”
“Yea. Just put in the code.”
Seeing him made me relax. Not much, but enough that I felt as though I could breathe. All I wanted was to be with him now. Seeing Olivia rock him back and forth didn’t sit right with me. Mel would be pissed if she saw any other woman—especially Olivia—holding Ethan for so long.
Mel, where the fuck are you?
“Liam, it’s 11:30 p.m.”
Which meant thirty-one minutes until Aviela called, and that was the last fucking time I was doing anything on that bitch’s time.
Staring as Olivia kissed Ethan’s head, I pushed hard against my temples and sat back into the seat.
“Take me home.”
MELODY
Holding my breath, I waited until I heard the wooden floors creek louder and louder as he came towards the bed. All I could see were his feet. I cradled the gun to my chest knowing that I had to move fast. The second he looked out the barred window, I slid out slowly, shooting him in right through the heart. He buckled and I didn’t waste any time. I grabbed his neck and twisted.
Stripping him of his guns, two grenades, and knife, I placed them into my jeans before rushing towards the phone.
“That bitch,” I whispered. She had cut all the lines.
I couldn’t wait. Running into the hallway, I didn’t bother hiding. I knew she had cameras everywhere. She already knew where I was, and the only chance I had was to keep moving, the only problem was I had no clue where the fuck I was going.
“There! Ecco! Eccola,” was all I heard before bullets came flying towards me, shattering a flower vase, art and furniture.
Damn it.
“I give up!” I yelled as I dropping my gun. “Mi arrendo!”
“Vieni fuori. Come out!”
Doing as they asked, I came out and showed them my hands. Their eyes widened at the grenades in my left.
“Arrivederci, motherfuckers!” I yelled as I threw them both as far as I could. One of them got stuck in the chandelier and I dove for cover. As my body hit the ground and rolled, I managed to grab my gun and hide behind the wall.
Smoke flooded the halls as though a volcano had erupted. Flickers of flames ignited throughout the house as I picked myself up off the ground. I coughed as my nose and lungs burned. Spitting out the blood in my mouth, I walked towards the moans.
“Ahh…” a cry came from my left. I walked over to him. If he was coherent enough to moan in pain, he was cognizant enough to answer me.
“Tell me where is she and I end your pain now.” I held the gun directly over his only good eye.
“Si cazzo cagna.”
“Wrong answer,” I said before putting him down like the dog he had so beautifully called me.
Walking down the hall, I held my stomach only to feel the heat of my own blood.
Damn it. My stitches were torn.
I knew it was only a matter of time before it happened, but I was at least hoping that I would see Aviela first. Taking a piece of the wood, I held it over the small flickers of flames in the rubble until it lit up like a torch. As I walked, I ran it over the walls, igniting the wallpaper as I moved further down the hall. This place was going to burn.
I soon found myself in the grand entrance, the large oak double doors that led outside the mansion loomed before me. I dropped the torch. The door slammed shut, trapping me inside as the flames continued to spread. I had never been to hell, but as I watched the fire creep over paintings and up the walls, I was sure that this was pretty close.
“Mel bear, where do you think you’re going?” I could hear her voice, but I could barely see her as she walked into the foyer.
With a gun in one hand, and a knife in the other, I stalked down the grand staircase, carefully and slowly, as the broken marble floors rubbed against my bare feet.
“AVIELA!”
I searched, but she was like a ghost moving from one side to another before I could focus in on her. It was like she wasn’t bothered by the fire, or anything at all, she was just toying with me. I didn’t stop walking until I stood in the middle of the foyer.
“AVIELA!”
I wasn’t going to stop screaming. I was going to keep yelling until I woke the fucking dead. I hoped her house burned; I hoped she burned with it. I wouldn’t stop until one of us was in the ground.
“Mother!”
Hearing something behind me, I turned, and there she stood, dressed in a white, but covered in smoke and ash, her hair and eyes just as wild as mine. She held a gun to my face.
“You really know how to piss a mother off,” she said throwing her gun to the ground.
>
Pulling back the safety, I raised the gun and tried to ignore the spotting in my vision. She stared at me emotionlessly, almost as though she was unsure of where she was. It was borderline insane how dead she already looked.
“Really, a gun? That’s how you’re going to do this? Where’s your spine, sweetheart? Did your father make you fear a fight? He was always such a pussy—”
I pulled the trigger. I didn’t want to stop pulling, but one bullet in her arm was more than enough to prove my point. She stumbled back and grabbed on to her arm.
“I was going to shoot you in the head but I still need to figure out who Ivan is,” I told her, walking closer.
She turned, throwing a pieces of broken marble, dust, and glass into my face before sweeping me off my feet.
“You ungrateful little bitch. Io sono tua madre!” she roared kicking, me over and over again. “Tua madre!”
Her fist connected with my face as the gun was ripped from my hands. Grabbing her foot, I twisted and brought her down, fighting until I was on top of her. “How many times do I have to tell you? Just because you carried me in your womb does not mean you are my mother!”
With the little space between us, she pulled her fist back and punched me square in the nose before kicking me off of her. Rolling closer to the flames, I spit out the fresh blood in my mouth before trying to get up. My eyes locked onto the gun as I stood.
“I didn’t want to kill you, Mel. I really didn’t.”
“Cut your bullshit, Aviela. You want to fight me, then do it.”
Circling the gun and each other, she just shook her head. I jumped at her, but she grabbed my arm and flipped me onto the ground.
“Ah…” I held back a scream, trying in vain to push down the pain.
I got back on my feet and kicked the back of her legs, bringing her to her knees. She retaliated by kicking and punching, even with her blood flowing from her arm to stain her once pure white dress. With each hit I felt myself stumbling backwards, trying to block her until my body was pressed up against one of burning walls. Its heat seared into my back.
She raised her fist and brought it to my face, this time I ducked and her hand got stuck into the wall of the green. Using that to my advantage, I punched her in her stomach, knocking the wind out of her and driving her backwards.
“Who is Ivan, Aviela?”
Wiping her lips didn’t stop the blood, it only stained her other sleeve.
“Someone you and I can’t touch! I’m trying to save you! You cannot go back!”
“You thought I couldn’t touch you, and yet, here we are.”
“I never thought that.”
She grabbed my fallen knife, and thrust it towards my head. Dropping down, she came towards me and kicked me once in stomach before taking a fistful of my hair.
“You strong-headed little fool. You can burn down my house, you can kill my men, but you cannot take down my father. No one can take down my father because everyone works for him, sweetheart.”
“Who is everyone?”
“You never give up, do you?” she asked with the knife at my neck. “When will you get it? You are me. We fight the same, we bleed the same. I know Father, and I know you. I’ve been watching you for years. He will destroy everything, and this is your chance to escape. I’m saving you. So run Melody, and never look back.”
“Would you still love me if I did, Mommy?” The moment I said that, her arm dropped and I grabbed her, twisting around and pulling her arm back with me. I kept applying pressure until I heard it pop.
She screamed, and grabbed her dislocated arm while fighting against my grip. But I only took hold of her neck and squeezed.
“Well do it,” she didn’t struggle against my hands. “You don’t love me, right? You think I’m crazy, but killing me won’t save your son or your husband.”
“No, but it’s a start,” I whispered through my own tears as I gripped on tighter and tighter.
Tears poured down the side of her face as I looked down at her.
“Lo...ve…yo...u” Was the last thing she said to me, but I couldn’t let go of her neck.
I strangled my mother.
Finally, when my eyes began to burn, and my lungs cried out for air I let go, to see my own hand marks around her neck. Rising, I limped and hobbled towards the doors almost falling outside of them. I managed to make it only feet away from the house before I fell onto gravel walkway outside. I felt so sick, my body shook. Rolling over on to my back, I pulled out the syringe I had saved, wrapped like a jewel in my pocket. Staring at it for a moment, I wished I didn’t have to take it again. My motor functions were failing badly; I needed to keep going. I needed to slowly ease off it or I could die outright.
Fighting back the tears, I clenched my fist before I injected half of the syringe’s contents into my arm. Then in disgust, I threw the syringe back at the mansion. Finally, when I could move again, I sat up as burnt pieces of papers fluttered outside of the house. But before I could move closer…
BOOM.
An explosion blasted through the mansion and I was thrown back again. With my remaining strength, I grabbed onto one of the papers. The edges were charged, but its contents were still readable enough for me to discern that it was a birth certificate. Aviela’s birth certificate.
I stared at his name. I knew this name. I had seen it or heard it somewhere…
Shit.
It’s just the drugs, I told myself as the tears fell, but I knew that was a lie. Ivan was much higher than I ever thought. We were all just puppets. I needed help. Physically, mentally, I needed fucking help, and I knew that there was only one person I could really trust for that.
Lying there, I wished for Liam.
LIAM
I wanted nothing more than to throw the phone against the wall, but I didn’t want to wake Ethan as he slept in my arms. It was 8:30 a.m., and Aviela had never called. I was at my wit’s end, but I didn’t want him to feel so much anger from me.
“Liam, I can—”
“Olivia, if you come in here one more time, I will bust your face in,” I snapped at the woman peeking in from the door. “I don’t need sleep. Goodnight.” She had been like a hawk ever since I came home.
Her eyes narrowed in on me. “I was trying to help, Liam. I didn’t want you to be too overwhelmed. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Olivia” Standing up, I placed Ethan back in his crib. My phone rang.
Shit.
Looking through my pockets, I grabbed it quickly, trying to silence it. The number was blocked. Who the fuck was calling me so early? If I had to kill one more person this week I was going to lose my shit.
“Callahan,” I whispered, brushing Ethan’s head.
There was no reply, just a deep intake of breath, and for some reason my heart jumped. I fucking dared to hope. I opened my mouth but I couldn’t even form a fucking sentence.
“Wife?”
There was a dry sob on the other end before I heard her voice. “Hello, husband.”
I felt my knees go weak at the sound of her voice. From head to toe my body shook.
“Love, where are you? Are you alright? Aviela—”
“Liam, I’m fine.”
“You’re lying. What is going on?”
“Liam, I can’t come home,” she cried, almost sobbed into the phone.
“Aviela…”
“Is dead. I checked. She’s dead, Liam. Adriana…”
“Killed herself.”
Running my hands through my hair, I backed away from Ethan’s crib and walked over to the window. “Melody, what the fuck is going on? Tell me where you are. I’m coming—”
“I can’t. I’m not right. I need to fix myself. I can’t…I just can’t...”
“I’ll fix you! You’ll fix me. That’s how this works! What have they done to you? Melody, please, just talk to me. Tell me what’s going on. Tell me where to find you.”
“Liam…”
“If you think for a bloody second
that I would ever let you go through any of this alone, you’ve lost your mind. I will find you, I will bring you home, and I will fix you, do you hear me? Because I need you to fix me too.”
She didn’t speak. There was nothing but her breath.
“Fuck, Melody! Answer me. Listen to me.”
“Can I hear him? I need to hear him again.”
“No,” I snapped, pinching the bridge of my nose. “You can hear him when I bring you back home.”
“Liam, I swear to you, I will always come back to you. I love you. I need you. You are home to me. Ethan and you are my only family, the only people I would die for. You are it. You are everything. I need a moment. I can’t come back like this, please don’t make me come back like this. I need to hear him, I’m begging you.”
She sounded like she was in serious in pain…dying almost.
“I will come after you,” I told her, pulled the phone away from my ear in order to breathe. I walked over to Ethan and placed the phone right next to his ear.
If she honestly thought I was just going to let her go, she was fucking crazy. Her mother had truly fucked with her mind. Listening to her coo at Ethan, my heart burned through my chest. What could make her not want to come home? What was going on?
“Mommy will never ever abandon you, I swear. I love you, my sweet baby. I love you so much.”
I pulled the phone from his ear and spoke into the receiver. “If you truly love us, come home. Let me bring you home.”
“If I came home, I would only hurt you and him. I need to fix me,” she whispered. “I love you so much.”
“I love you t—” My voice broke. “Melody, don’t do this.”
“I…” she tried to say. “Liam, Ivan is a code name for someone in the government. I saw his name on the guest list for Senator Colemen. I think it is Avian Doers.”
That was all I heard before silence rang out on the other end.