It's a Good Year for a ***

I press my ear to the door, trying to figure out what’s going on downstairs. Heavy footsteps start walking down the hall slowly. I can hear the person opening and closing doors as they get closer to my room.

“Come out, come out where ever you are.” I hear loudly as the footsteps stop in front my door. I hold my breath as I hear my sister’s door being opened, and then closed again. At that I run to the bathroom, locking the door behind me I jump into the tub, pulling my knees to my chest. I listen as someone unlocks my door and steps into my room. My heart is pounding in my chest and my breathing is becoming raspy from the short breaths I am taking. The bathroom door knob turns a little then stops.

“I know you’re in there little girl, open the door.” I hear from the other side of the door.
A loud thud shakes the door, causing me to let out a scream. Another, harder thud and the door busts open, I scream again at the sound. I scramble back, trying to get as far from the door as possible. A man walks in with a big smirk on his face, holding a gun in his right hand. I’m going to die….I’m really going to die. Tears fall from my already wet eyes as I duck my head into my legs. If he was going to shoot me, I didn’t want to see it coming. I count to ten, trying to calm myself down as he walks up to me. I feel strong arms wrap around my thin body as he picks me up, and carries me out of my room effortlessly. I tilt my head up to look at my captor as he takes us down the stairs. His gaze is focused on the ahead of him, but I know he sees me looking at him. When we reach the dining room he sets me on my feet, but keeps his hands resting on my shoulders. I look around the table at all of their frightened faces, and then to the other two gunman. The one standing closest to us was the tallest and had on a pair of aviators. The guy on the other side of the table was short, only a couple of inches taller than me. Through it wasn’t his height that got my attention, it was his mohawk. My mother lets out an audible gasp when she sees my face.

“Damn V.” mohawk guys says when he sees my face.
“Don’t look at me. I didn’t hit her.” The guy behind me answers.
He turns my face so he can get a better look at the bruise forming where my father had hit me. He snuggles his face into my neck, his hot breath sending shivers down my spine.
“Who hit you?” he whispers softly in my ear.
I say nothing, then turn stare at my father who glares daggers at me, but does not speak. A loud crashing sound comes from the living room, causing me to step back into him more. I can feel him smirking into my neck and suddenly his left arm is wrapped around me and his right is pointing a gun at the person in front of us.
“I’m ready to get this job done.” He says louder, so the others can hear him.
The tall guy with the aviators’ smiles and points his gun at my father’s head, mohawk guy points his gun at my mother’s head and then looks to aviator guy, who in turn looks to me and then to the man. He releases me from his grip and then whispers into my ear.
“Cover your eyes.”

I close them tight and cover my ears, but tears still slip through. Even with my ears covered I can still hear the screams and the thud of the dead hitting the table as they walk around it putting bullets in everyone’s head. A moment later the guns stop and all I can hear is my heart pounding in my chest. Strong arms pick me up and carry me out of the room; I dare not open my eyes yet. I count twelve steps towards the living room. I open my eyes as he dumps me onto the couch and walks over to the other gunman. Another guy is in my living room looking at our DVDs. His black hair is mostly covered up by a fedora and stands about 6ft. Mohawk guy walks around the couch and takes a seat next to me as V, I think he was called, walks up to the fedora and aviator guy. What am I doing? These people were most likely going to kill me. Why don’t they just put a bullet in my head? I’m so tired; I just want to go to sleep. Pulling my knees up to my chest, I watch as V talks in low whispers to the other two men. They all look over at me, identical smirks on their faces. V walks up and kneels in front of me. I look into his intense green eyes as he reaches over and tucks a piece of fallen hair behind my ear.

“Ana. I want you to take Shadows upstairs and show him where your mom keeps her jewelry. Can you do that for me?” he asks.
I nod my head yes. How does he know my name? I’m so confused. He extends his arm and helps me up off the couch. I look over to the tall guy with aviators, Shadows, he points the way to the stairs. We walk in silence down the hall. I start to climb the first steps when he reaches out and grabs my arm roughly.

“Gates, Christ. Start taking the bags out to the car and tell The Rev to get the engine started. I want to leave as soon as I’m done with this.” He calls down the hall, at Fedora and Mohawk guy.
He doesn’t release his tight grip on my arm even as we climb up the stairs. Instead of going left at the top of the stairs I turn right and take him to a set of wooden double doors. My parent’s room. I stand at the door for a minute, not really wanting to go in now that they’re dead bodies are downstairs. He was standing behind me, his tall figure making a shadow on the door. He reaches in front of me and opens the door, giving me a hard push into the room.
“Where are they?” he asks from behind me.

I point to a box sitting on the dresser, but stay where I’m standing. They’re surely going to kill me now. They have the jewels and all the other valuable stuff we own, what do they need me for now. Shadows’ shoveling my mother’s stuff in a black bag and not paying attention to me; I turn and walk out of the room. V was behind us coming up the stairs, I’m not sure where he is now but I really don’t care. Shadows doesn’t notice me leaving so I keep walking down the hall towards my room. My door’s open and I can now hear V moving around in there, I don’t walk in. I turn and face my sister’s door, placing my shaking hand on the door knob. Turning it slowly I reach in and turn on her light. I’m met with pink walls and faces of various princesses staring at me. A tear slips down my face as I walk in and shut the door behind me, leaning heavily on it. I walk the floor to her bed, sitting down on the soft mattress I pull my legs up to my chest and fall backwards, landing on pillows and her favorite stuffed animal. Pulling the green alligator to my chest and closing my eyes, I sit and wait for them to come and kill me. There’s a commotion from down the hall and suddenly V comes busting through the door with his gun out. The angry look on his face turns to relief when he spots me on the bed.

“I found her!” he yells out of the door, presumably to Shadows.
I’m carried outside and into a black SUV, still holding my sisters alligator. Shadows gets into the front with the driver and V pulls me into the middle seats, with the backseats already occupied with Mohawk guy and Fedora guy. Or Christ and Gates, I think Shadows said their names were. We speed off down the hill to the highway, away from my home, and away from the bloodshed left there. My eyes feel heavy with defeat and sleep as V pulls me into his lap. I’m scared of him and what he will do, so my body stiffens at his touch. Why didn’t they kill me? I’m of no use to them, why are they keeping me? The driver turns down the music pumping through the car speakers and looks at me through the near view mirror.

“That Jameson’s daughter?” he asks giving Shadows a sideways glance.
“Yeah, that’s Annabelle.“ He answers.
“Ana,” V says, causing me to look up at him “That is Shadows. The Rev is driving, the two dumb-asses in the back are Synyster Gates and Johnny Christ. And I’m Zacky Vengeance. ”
I look to every person as he says their names, until my eyes land back on Shadows. He isn’t looking at me, instead he’s staring at Vengeance with an odd look that makes my skin crawl. I turn my head away from him and look up to see Vengeance staring down at me. He has the most intense green eyes I’ve ever seen and he’s starring at me with a look on his face I don’t understand. It’s almost a look of longing. We stay like that for only a moment before I get nervous and have to avert my eyes somewhere else. The car’s cold air was blowing on me from all angles, sending shivers up my body. V grabs my chin, tilting it up so he can see my face. He brings his face down close to mine and I panic, thinking he was going to kiss me.
“Go to sleep, little girl.” He whispers softly into my ear, as he hugs me closer to his warm body.
I’m too tired to push him off, so I just lean into his warmth and close my drowsy eyes. I don’t feel like trying anymore, I really don’t. My sister’s dead and it’s my fault, my parents are dead and I didn’t try to save them, and their killers are currently driving me far away from everything I know. Sleep is calling me, so I just let myself drift off in his arms.