Red Lady

-4-

The plane ride, short as it was, was very relaxing. It was a small jet that had flown in the night before from Dublin, refueling in the private Airport that we had been waiting at. The pilot turned out to be one of the family’s old friends and the three of us chatted a while before taking off. Seeing as Avian and I were the only passengers on the plane, we openly discussed our game plan and what we would do once we landed in D.C.

When we landed, the weather outside was dark and rainy, just like it had been the day I had shot Blue. Taking some clothes out of the bags I had packed, I threw on a dark sweatshirt with a hood covering my head and half my face. Not only did it protect me from the rain, but it hid my identity, just in case I was being looked for here too.

“You know,” I stated, talking to Avian, “I’m sure you’re pretty well known here as the Irish Mob Boss, what happens if someone like, I don’t know, the C.I.A sees you? Wouldn’t they take you into custody?”

“They don’t have any evidence placing me at any crimes I, or one of my men, may have done. They can’t touch me.”

“Too bad you don’t have diplomatic immunity,” I said, “That would be the answer to all our problems. I get the kills over with and they can just send me back Ireland!”

“You have a dark sense of humor,” Avian replied with a head shake.

The rest of our walk out of the Airport was silent. Although it was a private airport, there were many people walking around, either staff or rich men and women who had just gotten off their own planes.

Once we had made it out on the streets, I looked around in disgust. Everywhere you looked, there were people in tattered, dirty clothes laying on the ground or begging for money. Don’t get me wrong, I had seen many homeless people in my life time, but never had I witnessed so many congregating in one place before.

Avian shook his head, just as sick to his stomach as I was. “America boasts about invading other countries to help them become one with their home… but they haven’t even done that with themselves.”

“It makes me miss home more by the second…”

We continued walking quickly; looking around for the hotel we had booked back in New York. It was hard to see the buildings as they came closer because of the heavy downpour that was soaking Avian and I to the bone. Ten minutes after we had gotten off the plane, we found our hotel and Avian got the keys. I didn’t take off my sopping wet jacket until we were both safely in our room.

The strands of hair that had escaped my braid were glued to my face and I glared at them in the mirror. As I undid my braid and brushed my hair, Avian toweled his hair dry. When he was done, I burst out into laughter.

“What?”

“You’re hair looks like some kind of hairy meatball,” I choked out through my laughter.

Pushing me away from the mirror, he looked at his hair, eyes wide. He tried to tame his locks but just ended up giving up and sitting on one of the two beds, causing a wet spot.

Once my giggles had subsided, I dragged a chair over from the hotel room desk and sat in front of my cousin. “Okay, let’s talk about game plans.”

“What’s on your mind, cousin?”

“First, where are my guns and the others you bought? I feel naked without my babies…”

“I thought you didn’t want them,” he replied with a smirk while I glared.

“I don’t, but it couldn’t hurt to keep a few around me in case I need more than just my Maria and Beretta.”

“What the hell do you plan to do here where you would need that kind of gun power?!”

I shrugged my shoulders like the thought of emptying a couple of guns didn’t sound insane. “Like I said before Avian, this is getting more dangerous by the second.”

He nodded his head slowly before answering my pervious question. “They’re coming on another jet in about a week. After September 11th, flying guns around America got a lot harder than it used to.”

I cursed but shook it off. I’d have to wait a week for those guns? God damn it. “Okay, where do you plan on keeping them, because I think the maid would find a box full of weapons a little suspicious?”

“There’s this warehouse a couple blocks away that my friend told me about, that’s where they’ll be delivered and stay until needed.”

“Does that friend of yours know where Thomas is?”

Avian shook his head in a negative and I sighed. “Okay, time to get down to the dirty details.”

----------

Dominic

When I got home later that night, I was completely exhausted and stumbled through the door like a zombie. Susanna was on the couch watching TV when I came in. She looked at me with sympathy and patted the spot next to her on the couch. My shoulders sagged and my feet dragged across the floor as I walked over. Instantly, the compassion left her eyes as she rolled them and folded her arms.

“You are such a drama queen.”

“But I’m tired,” I whined, dropping my full weight down on the sofa. Ignoring me, Su went on.

“I call a call from Kris today,” she said, her voice full of love. Oh yes, Kris, her boyfriend of two years who has been in the Military for nine months. I liked Kris, I just didn’t like the fact that he couldn’t be here for my sister when she needed him.

“What did you guys talk about?”

“He said he was coming home for a week or two, but he’s stuck in D.C doing paperwork for his boss. I told him that I was going to fly up there to see him.”

“Why don’t you just drive? It’s less expensive,” I suggested, yawning in the middle of my sentence.

“You know my car wouldn’t make it that far. It’s a piece of shit.”

“Yeah, yeah, we need to get you a new car… why don’t we both drive up there? I could ask my boss for a little vacation and we can both visit Kris.”

“Aren’t you busy with a case though? I mean, will Myers really let you just… go?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Most likely, I haven’t really been doing anything there anyway, just paperwork. We don’t really have any leads to our killer yet.”

“I hope you find them soon. The thought of a killer out there… It’s scary,” Su said with a shiver.

“We’re trying our hardest…”

--------

Eden

“Hey, I’m going out to get some food. Do you want anything?”

“I’d like to get out of this god damn hotel room,” I said in monotone, looking out of the room window, watching the cars in the street zoom by.

“You’re not allowed out, unless you want to wear a ski mask over your head, which isn’t an option.”

“Then why give it to me?” I asked, throwing Avian a look. He just smiled back at me.

“It’s just so fun to torture you.”

I turned my glare back to the window. “You better hope those guns don’t come in soon, or I’ll show you the meaning of torture.” I heard the door open and close quickly and smirked. It was soon wiped off my face when I realized I no longer had anyone to entertain me.

I sighed and got up, walking over to my bed before throwing myself onto it, face first into the pillow. I had been stuck in this hotel room for three days straight now and I was starting to miss the cool, fresh breeze. No air conditioner could replace a real wind. I wasn’t allowed outside because Avian said he wanted to make sure that no one noticed me until we got our hands on the guns. Wouldn’t it just suck to be busted before business was taken care of?

As I was thinking about all of this, I began to doze off and was soon deeply asleep, unaware of anything around me as I felt my body relax and dreams starting to invade my mind. I didn’t even hear Avian come back in looking for some money to actually buy food.

Today when I woke up to the white stone walls of my room, I looked outside towards the sun with what some could call a little smile. Today was my birthday, the day that I finally turned eight years old and was able to join the older kids in something the teachers here liked to call ‘gym’.

For the past two years that I had been locked up in this school, I was privately tutored by a nice woman named Mrs. Crick. The things she taught me were not something a normal child would learn. I learned about the body, its strong and weak points, and the easiest way to break a neck with your bare hands, and other gory things like that. When I first started learning that, though, Mrs. Crick didn’t think it was appropriate for this kind of knowledge to be taught to me. I soon surprised her when I didn’t run out of the room crying when she talked about death.

Because of these two extra years of bookwork, I was more proficient in answering the questions that the drill sergeant asked. I earned a lot of glares, but we were soon too busy with field work. They didn’t need to initiate their own payback though, they got their joys out of seeing me struggle in ‘gym’ glass.

Because I was the youngest in the class, let alone one of the few girls, that was reason for my poor performance with all the obstacles in our work out, but another thing was that I was more fragile than everyone else. Before I lived here, I lived my life as a little princess, never having to do any work. I didn’t get that same treatment.

“I can’t do it, don’t you understand? I’m just a girl!” I yelled at the instructor, Benjamin Blue.

“The reason that you can’t do it is because you refuse to! Look at Sally, she has one of the best times. It’s not because you’re a girl.”

“Then what about me being younger than everyone else?” I growled, trying to find something that would make him say he was sorry and be nicer to me.

“You’re young and you have a healthy body, you should be able to go under more pain and trouble than this!”

“I’m sick and tired of this, I don’t want to-“

Blue didn’t let me finish my complaint filled sentence, but found it better to slap me across the face, throwing my small body to the ground, to keep me quiet. The defiance ran out of my body and my eyes turned dull. My blue orbs met the teacher above me.

“I don’t want to hear any more excuses from you Hayes! You will do what I ask or I can easily just kill you. One less troublesome brat I have to take care of.”

My pale hand felt the hot spot on my cheek and I could taste a little blood in my mouth from biting my tongue. My eyes met Benjamin Blue’s and I nodded my head slowly.

“I read you loud and clear sir.”

I spent the next week working my ass off, staying later in the field, doing everything over again even if it was raining or snowing, pulling through sickness. With all my hard work, I had the quickest time out of everyone. And only at eight years old.

When I woke up, I heard the TV onto a comedy channel and Avian laughing every now and then. I turned over to see him sitting there eating a nice hot soup. When he saw me, he smiled and handed me another bowl.

“Chicken noodle soup for the soul?”