Red Lady

Donavan

I looked down at my lap to where Eden was laying, clutching her arm and applying pressure to a white t-shirt I had lent her to use. Worry filled my eyes as I noticed that most of the shirt was a deep red, and that the blood from her arm was still flowing. Not as fast as it had been before, but it concerned me that it hadn't started to clot up yet. Usually wounds stopped bleeding after a couple minutes. We had been traveling for an hour now.

The car hit a bump in the road, making the woman in my arms hiss in pain and to press the shirt closer to the bullet wound. I brought her tighter against me, hoping to absorb the shock if another bump came.

"Let me look at it," I said quietly. She lifted the shirt without a fight, which was a surprise. I winced when I saw the wound, looking away for a second before pressing the cloth back on. The bullet didn't go into her arm, which was good because she wouldn't have to go through the pain to take it out, but the high speeding bullet had taken a good chunk of her skin out.

"We need to get her to a hospital, all this blood is worrying me."

"Are you stupid?" I heard her say from below me. I looked down to see her beautiful blue eyes narrowed at me in a glare, "I can't risk going to a hospital. Once the police find out that I've been injured, they'll alert everyone to look out for a shooting victim."

"If we don't sterilize this wound soon, it'll get infected and you might loose some mobility of this arm. Can you really risk that?"

She seemed to think about it for a second before silently cursing. She went to sit up in the seat, and I helped her in an upright position, missing the warmth of her on my lap. When she was sitting, she closed her eyes, and I think if it wasn't for me holding her there, she would have fallen back down.

"Avian, find some store that could possibly sell a first kit."

The red headed man nodded his head and turned off to go into a random town as soon as it came close. Once she saw that that was getting taken care of, Eden's attention went to Irene.

"Hand me the laptop Irene."

She nodded silently and handed it to me, knowing that I could get it better. I placed the computer on the woman's lap and she opened it and turned it on. Once everything was up and running, she did a couple things on the computer and the web cam was on. The screen was only blank for a second until a blond man in an office came up on the screen.

"Eden?" was the only thing he said, looking around him to make sure that he was alone.

"Hey Mika," she said, smiling at him weakly.

"What's wrong? I know you wouldn't risk contacting me unless it was urgent."

"It is," she breathed, moving her arm into the screen and removing me now red shirt. I heard the man let out a low breath.

"What happened Eden?"

Avian pulled into a Wal*Mart parking lot and Irene got out of the car and said she would be back soon. My attention went back to the screen.

"I was in a cross fire. Someone's hired an assassin to try and take me out. This is what I got when I pushed a kid out of the way."

Mika shook his head, a ghost of a smile on his face. "You have to stop doing that, it'll get you killed one day."

Her grin was bigger than I had ever seen it and she actually laughed. "You know me Mika."

"Are you guys on your way to a hospital?"

She shook her head, making some of the strands of hair that came out of her braid frame her face. "No, I can't risk getting caught again. Irene is going to get a first aid kit and we're going to try and patch this up as good as possible. I need your expertise so I don't end up getting an infection."

We only had to wait a couple moments before Irene was back, throwing the medium sized plastic box my way. I opened it up and waited for the man's instructions.

"First, take an alcohol wipe and clean away all the blood surrounding the wound. Once that's done, take another wipe and clean the wound."

As I began wiping at Eden's creamy skin, she frowned. "This is going to sting like a bitch."

"Unfortunately, it will."

When it came time to clean the wound, I gave my friend and apologetic glance before going to work. If it had been me in her position, I would have been whining and complaining about how much it hurts. Eden, on the other hand, just scrunched up her face and looked away, not making a sound.

"Is there any hydrogenproxide in the kit?"

I dug in it, and there was a miniature bottle. I nodded to him. "Put a small amount on the wound."

I did as he said and watched as it hit the blood, bubbling at it got rid of the germs that were already eating at the skin. Eden kept her face.

"Take out the roll of gauze and start to wrap up her arm tightly, but not enough to cut off the blood flow. When you reach her wound, take out the ointment and smear it on the piece of the roll that will touch the wound. That way when it starts to heal, it won't heal around the gauze."

I did what the good doctor told me to do, watching the woman the whole time. Her face was calm now, empty, showing nothing to indicate that she was in pain, but I knew she was. Didn't she know that she didn't have to be brave around us?

I finally finished bandaging her up and she gave me a thankful smile, and then turned back to the computer screen. "Thank you for the help Mika. How is my patient?"

He nodded his head, a good sign, "She's slowly getting better. She woke up not too long ago."

"Good, good," Eden mumbled, "I won't keep you any longer. Stay safe, okay?"

"You're the one who needs to stay safe." His eyes turned to me. "Keep and eye on her."

"Of course."

We both signed off and I handed the laptop back to Irene. "We're all good to go."

Avian nodded, sending his cousin one last look before he started driving again. I looked over at my friend and noticed that she was having a hard time keeping her eyes open. She must have been exhausted after everything that just went down.

I brought her to my chest, and I could tell I had surprised her. "Just rest," I whispered into her ear. She nodded, and relaxed, resting her head on my shoulder. Her warm breath fell on my neck, and I would have been lying if I said I didn't like it. Her arms went to wrap around my waist so she was more comfortable. Sooner than I had expected, she was in a deep sleep.

I stroked her braided hair, a gesture I hoped soothed her mind.

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Dominic

I walked onto the scene, looking around at the forensic team as they brought out the body of Michael Sanchez, formerly known as Major, on a stretcher, covered by the white tarp of course. They had told me that he had been shot through the chest multiple times, so much that you could see the wall through the hole. She was getting more and more brutal.

I had been told by Myers as soon as we arrived that we were too late to catch her, so my job was to interview the boy that had witnessed the death of his teacher and was in the crossfire as someone started shooting through the window.

I saw him sitting on the steps that led into the school, wrapped in a blanket that the EMTs gave people who were in shock. As I looked at the young man, I noticed how calm he was. Taking out the pad from my suit, I walked over to him.

"Hey Eric, I'm Special Agent Ramirez. Do you mind if I ask you to tell me exactly what happened?"

"No, I don't mind..."

I sat down next to him, making it easier for him to talk to me. "What exactly were you doing at the school after it had already had been let out?"

"I had a detention with Mr. Sanchez," he told me simply, "I was doing some work when he got a call saying that some lady came up to pick some stuff up that her sister left behind. Mr. S told me to look in the teacher's lounge to see if there was anything in there. I went to turn around to tell him now, and that's when I saw her. I was surprised because I had seen her lurking around the day before."

"You saw her here yesterday?" I asked him and he nodded. She must have been scoping out the place.

"I saw that she had a gun to him and I went down so she would see me through the window and opened the door so I could hear what they were saying."

"What were they talking about?"

"She was telling him that she came to kill him like she had killed the others for creating her. She called him Major, why?"

I sighed, and just decided to give him the truth. "The man's real name was Major, and he used to teach at a school that created assassins, and that woman was one of his pupils."

Eric nodded, taking everything calmly. I told him to continue. "Well, they continued to just talk about that then she shot into his a couple times. Everything was quiet and then she went to walk away, but the door opened a little and she heard it. She told me to come out slowly and I did. I think I was supposed to be her ticket out, but then there was bullets everywhere, coming in through the window. She told me to get down, shot out a couple times, then told me to run out into the hall. I was kind of frozen standing there, because I was in shock, you know? Then the bullets came again and she pushed me out of the way, and she got shot in the arm. We finally got out of the room and she ran out of the door, with the bullets following her. Not long after, the cops came."

I took all the notes I needed and stood up, about to thank him for his help when he asked me a question. "Why did she just kill me? It would have been easier for her if she would have just killed me instead of protecting me."

"I can't really tell you that, she has a complicated thinking process. Once we catch her, maybe you can call and ask that yourself."

He nodded his head, then huddled himself farther into the blanket. I gave him a sympathetic glance, but walked away without saying anything else to him.

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Jocasta

"Jocasta, the assassin is on the phone for you. He has his report," Ralph said, handing me the phone gently. Just by the look on his face I could tell that the man had failed to kill Eden. I had expected as much.

"Tell me everything that happened," I demanded into the phone.

"I watched as she killed the man, and was about to shoot her when she started talking to someone else in the room. I didn't know who it was, but they were getting farther away from my sight, so I decided to shoot. She started to shoot back, then I shot again and wounded her. She got away unfortunately."

I sighed, running my fingers through my black hair. "At least she is injured, that will mess with her performance. I want you to the next point as soon as possible, you got that?"

"Yes ma'am," he said, then hung up. I handed the phone back to Ralph.

"He hesitated... If he fails me next time, bring him here so I can kill him."

"Yes, of course Jocasta."