22 June 2012
I stood there in shock. The echoing blast of the gun on repeat in my ears. The image of his already dead brown eyes rolling back in their sockets as the shot was fired, the blood exploding from the other side of his head and coating the wall and the floor. How his body instantly lost all rigidity and sinking to the floor was flashing in my eyes on a loop. The leaders aged form slumped even further on the floor, eyes closed, his old, wrinkled skin fading of colour quickly turning grey. I curled my hand in a fist and put it against my lips my eyes closed tightly. I was angry more than anything, he knew I didn't know, he knew I wanted to know and he took his knowledge and life away to still keep it a secret. Why wasn't I meant to know, why was there such a problem with me knowing.
"Who are you?" asked Lewis stupidly and I just snapped.
"I HAVEN'T GOT A FUCKING CLUE! I DON'T KNOW WHO I AM, I DON'T KNOW WHO THEY ARE AND I DON'T KNOW WHY THEY WANT ME!" I yelled at him my eyes filling quickly with as near as makes no difference seventeen years worth of unshed tears. "I don't know" I added my voice cracking and shaking as much as I was myself. I put my face in my hands and let the tears loose. Strong arms circled me, pulling me into a hard, hot body.
"Oh my god what the hell happened?" Eddies familiar voice traveled leisurely to my ears.
"Well you're both alive that's good" Garry commented
"They were looking for Delilah" Lewis informed and I pushed myself further into him.
"Yeah we thought they were close... Not this close though" Eddie sighed
"The old guy, on the floor next to the bathroom door" I pointed in the vague area "He said they needed me, that the world needed me..." I repeated squirming out of Lewis' grip he was just as confused as me. "What did he mean?" I asked desperation almost leaking into my voice. Garry and Eddie looked to each other sighing, their eyes slowly and tiredly making their way back to mine.
"You'll find out soon, but not here, it's not safe" Eddie answered calmly and gently. I closed my eyes and turned away from them abruptly and angrily. Garry patted me on my shoulder as he walked past me grabbing my bags.
"Get your bags soldier we're moving" Garry growled making Lewis move away from me to the other side to collect his things. As he moved across the room the heat his body had been supplying to me vanished and I shivered as the cold dead air tangled itself around me. I was paralysed, half through cold and half through realisation I was standing within inches of a dead man and within feet of the other six, staring at the ground. Garry handed me one of my bags, a black hard case one with two wheels. I held it above the ground, even though they had opened fire at us I felt obliged to pay some respect and not wheel my suitcase between the dead. Garry passed me my other bag, a suitcase just the same as the one I was holding already, and set about helping Eddie disguise the dead. Lewis had his bags on his back and came back to me, he put his hand on the small of my back and steered me out of the room.
"I'll take her to the car" Lewis informed Eddie as he walked towards the dead man in the doorway.
"Good idea here's the keys, it's not good to have her here now anyway especially with these guys" Eddie agreed I'm sure with a nod, I couldn't bear look at the room full of the dead and their blood splattered across the walls. "You're a good shot" he complimented
"Only doing my job" Lewis replied and with his hand still on my back he towed me out of the hotel. I dropped a bag and pulled up my hood, Lewis stopped beside me as I did, I looked up to him and he half smiled back at me. "Are you ok?" he asked stunning me slightly, Garry and Eddie never asked until maybe a day later this is only the third time it's happened when I was in the room.
"I... " I opened and closed my mouth looking a bit like a fish as I searched the sea of emotions in my head trying to find how I felt. Disappointed. Scared. Angry. "No..." I decided would be a good answer.
"I know it's tough witnessing... That... And trust me it doesn't exactly get any easier quickly, over time and experience it does though, but when it's what you have to do, easy or not, you have to do it" he said pulling me into the lift. We were silent all the way back to the car the only noise being the wheels on my suitcases dragging along the floor. The car clicked open greeting us somewhat happily flashing the indicators a couple of times. Lewis opened the boot of the car and threw in his bags then mine, arranging the bags so Garry's and Eddie's would fit. I climbed in my usual side - back right, behind the driver and Lewis climbed in beside me.
"I doubt they'll be long" Lewis said breaking the silence looking out of my window to the reception area encased in glass. A few minutes passed but it felt like an hour before Garry and Eddie emerged from the hotel. They settled themselves in the car, Lewis tossed the keys to Garry so he could start the engine. It roared into life and we drove away the silence deafening us all.
"Where are we going now?" I asked my voice betraying me still holding some of its shakiness.
"Just another hotel" Eddie answered
"I asked where" I added getting rid of the shakiness somewhat and replacing it with a bored tone.
"Far enough away" Garry answered sounding a little pissed off.
"I. Asked. Where!" I said louder this time becoming more than a little pissed off.
"Sheffield" was the unisoned reply
"Thank you" I huffed "Wasn't so hard was it?" I mumbled turning to stare out of the window at the passing country. The radio was turned on just as my favourite song started to play - Iris by Goo Goo Dolls. The only song I liked by them and I couldn't help it but sing along quietly.
"And I don't want the world to see me, 'Cause I don't think that they'd understand, When everything's made to be broken, I just want you to know who I am" I sang my favourite bit and in the reflection of the window I could see Lewis watching me. I turned to face him but he had turned away to look out of his window although I could see him watching the reflections not the world outside.
***
I had most likely fallen asleep during that trip, it had been longer than I thought it would have been. I had woken up as we pulled up in front of not an hotel but a little house at the bottom of a valley between two hills. There was nothing else around beside some woods. I knew Sheffield was hilly, I'd been here before but this looked nothing like what I remembered.
"Where are we?" I asked wiping my eyes it was 9 o'clock and getting darker by the minute.
"We are at a house" Eddie answered sarcastically
"No shit, I thought you said we were going to Sheffield?" I looked out of my window refusing to move as everyone else exited the car.
"Change of plan - Welcome to a little house just in between Ingleton and Deepdale" Garry introduced me to the area as I eventually stepped out of the car finding my legs had gone to sleep.
"So basically in the middle of nowhere" I said looking around properly "No one for miles around..." I turned to stare at the little house. It looked like it could barely fit two people in never mind four! It's bricks were all old and weather beaten, the slates on the roof almost black with possibly a century of dirt not being bothered to be cleaned off I could only speculate that the slates were once a red or brown. The windows had iron crossed in them splitting the glass into four sections. The door had a wooden roof covering it and next to that was a covered box with 'WoOd' painted in thick black on the front, the letters different sizes.
"Well yeah safe as houses this place" Eddie looked extremely pleased with himself. The bags were carried in and I followed. Inside the floors were stone with rugs of different colours and intricate designs covering most of the middle. The stones were different sizes, mostly grey and how they were positioned on the floor some corners were jutting out ready and waiting for someone to stub their toes on. The furniture thankfully looked new and not from the medieval era, two brown leather sofa's faced each other at an angle tilted towards a flatscreen TV and there was a single brown leather chair in the middle acting almost as a referee. There was an old fire place with half charred pieces of wood inside. The kitchen was connected to the living room by a big archway. In the kitchen there was all old style cookers but they looked brand new they were that shiny, and there was a fridge in the corner. There were two hall ways branching off from either side of the living room, both with two doors opposite each other. These were the bedrooms it seems and I was drawn to the one on the very right hand side of the house for some reason. I lifted the old, black sticking latch and opened the heavy wooden door revealing my chosen room. It was simple and pretty small only just two strides wide, with just a wooden bed piled with blankets, a pale wooden wardrobe. There was another intricately designed rug covering most of the floor. I turned to Garry who had put my bags in my doorway and smiled at him.
"Nice room" he commented as I pulled my bags into the centre of the room.
"Yeah why couldn't we have come here before?" I asked
"Because the boss didn't own it then" he answered
"The boss? Seriously you sound like a crap version of the Mafia" I cringed
"Sorry, your father didn't own it then" he changed his answer. Great this was my fathers house then or at least he owns it.
"Does that mean he'll come?" I asked tentatively suddenly feeling like a little kid again. Garry strode over to me put his arm around my shoulder and made me sit down next to him.
"I don't know whether he will or not but whatever he does it's because he wants to protect you ok?" he said it more as a question than a statement, I was silent and he patted me on my back leaving the room. If my father did come I don't what I'd do first; scream, shout, cry or hit
Who Am I? Part 7 • Opuss № I