A Fleeting Eternity, Chapter One

The librarian glared daggers at me as my phone went off. I quickly silenced it, slinking behind a shelf, out of the line of her murderous gaze, before I checked the number. I frowned, slightly, when I saw my sister’s number on the screen. She rarely called me.

“Leah?” I answered the phone quietly.

“Ariya?” She was out of breath.

“Yeah. What’s wrong?”

“They’re here.”

“Who is?” My heart started beating faster, as I started moving toward the door of the library.

“The…what’s their faces? The guys who killed Mama, they’re here.”

I jogged through the door, and starting across the parking lot. “You’re sure it’s them?”

“Completely.”

“Lock the doors.”

“I have.”

“Hide.”

“I am.”

“Okay… well… stay quiet. I’m on my way.”

“Please hurry, Ri. I’m scared.”

“I know. I’ll be there in a minute.” I hung up the phone, breaking into a sprint, leaping over a fire hydrant and dodging a tricycle that a little kid had left partially on the sidewalk.

I cut through the lawn of a grumpy old man, barely avoiding his vicious little dog as it tried to bite me, and dove through the hedges, fighting with the sharp twigs and leaves that scratched my face and pulled on my hair and jacket. As soon as I was free of the hedge, and running across a vacant lot, I dialed our Uncle Diehl’s number.

By the time he answered the phone, I’d bailed over the chain link fence on the far end of the lot, and was panting.

“Ariya! How are you, my dear?”

“We need your help.”

“What’s wrong?” his voice was instantly concerned.

“Joey. Leah just called me, she said his thugs are at our house.” I cut around a couple walking down the street, holding hands and making eyes at each other.

“Where are you two? Are you safe?”

“I’m on my way to the house.” I ducked under a low hanging branch, as I cut through the corner yard.

“You’re going to the house?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not. Stay away from there.”

“Leah is there.” I grunted as I struggled over a particularly tall privacy fence, and fell on my face on the other side. I fought off the overeager dog that slobbered all over me, as it came running over to play, and struggled to my feet.

He cursed. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I’m not leaving Leah.” I let myself out through the gate.

“Fine. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Where are you now?”

“Across the street.”

He cursed again. “Watch yourself.”

“Yeah.” I hung up on him, right as multiple gunshots went off in my house. I couldn’t breathe. My chest was too tight, my heart beating too hard, for me to be able to catch my breath. I sprinted across the street, only to find the door to the house slightly ajar.

I threw my shoulder it, making the door slam into the wall as it flew open. I slid to a stop at the edge of the living room, looking into the kitchen, then down the hall, wondering which way I should go. I heard someone whimpering in the master bedroom, and the banging of someone looking through drawers.

“This way, Uncle Diehl.” I said loudly, pausing to listen. Everyone was scared of my Uncle Diehl. I figured the threat of him being there would be enough to scare nearly anyone away. The banging instantly stopped. “I’ll check the kitchen, you get the bedroom.”

I barely heard a muttered curse, followed by, “Come on.”

I quickly moved down the hallway, my hands tightly gripping my pistol, heart beating in my throat so hard I could barely breathe. I kicked the door to the master bedroom open roughly, my eyes quickly scanning the room. Leah was lying on the ground moaning; a figure was disappearing out the window. I lifted my gun and let off a round toward the window. It shattered the window.

I ran to the window, paying no attention to the broken glass that was scattered on the rug, and leaned outside the house. There were two of them, a tall, lanky white boy named Tyler and a short, stocky black man named Kadrick, the same two that killed my mother. I cursed at them and emptied my clip shooting at them.

With my last shot, I saw Tyler stumble forward. He grabbed his left shoulder, and I saw a bloody splotch appear on his shirt, a moment before he leapt over our privacy fence and I lost sight of him. I kept squeezing the trigger long after my pistol did nothing but click, staring at the spot that they disappeared from view.

Leah whimpering yanked me back to reality. I dropped the gun, my arms shaking, and fell to my knees beside my sister. She was lying in a puddle of her own blood, her chest covered in holes, blood dribbling from her mouth. “Ri.”

“Leah, I’m here.” I felt tears welling in my eyes as I pulled her into my arms. “Stay with me.”

“Ri, it hurts… it hurts so much.”

“I know.” Tears began dribbling down my cheeks, as I looked at her wounds. She wouldn’t make it. There was no way I could stop the bleeding. It seemed like she had a dozen wounds leaking blood, and the rug seemed to have already soaked up as much blood as I figured she had in her small body.

She was crying too. “Am I going to die?”

“You’ll be alright.” I lied, choking on my tears. I couldn't bring myself to tell her the truth.

Suddenly I remembered the morphine I’d traded for earlier that morning. I felt for my purse, still hanging on my shoulder, and groped around inside until my hand found the syringe. I pulled it out, taking the cover off with my teeth.

“What’s that?” She asked weakly, her voice garbled.

“It’ll make you feel better.” I sank the needle in her arm and pushed the plunger down, until all of the drug was in her body. I massaged her arm a moment, to take away the sting of the needle. “Trust me.”

“I do…I trust…trust you.”

I willed myself to stop sobbing, but I couldn’t. I clenched my teeth, breathing heavily, wiping my tears on the shoulder of my shirt, because my hands were covered in my sister’s blood. I’ve got to try. I shrugged off my jacket and rolled it into a ball, zipper on the inside, and pressed it against my sister’s chest, trying to stop the bleeding.

With my other hand I found my cellphone and clumsily dialed the digits. I sniffed and held the phone to my head. “Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?”

“My sister.” I cried. “There’s blood everywhere. Help. Help us, please.”

“What happened to your sister?”

“She was shot… in the chest.” I wasn’t sure whether my arms or my voice was shaking worse.

“What is your location?”

“Four-four-one-three Mobilaire Drive.” I took a deep breath, trying to make my voice stop breaking. “It’s off route fifty-seven, south. It’s the last house on a dead end street. Please hurry.”

After answering a few more questions, I hung up on the operator.

“Ri?”

“Yeah, hon?”

“I don’t hurt anymore.”

“Good.” I smiled at her through the tears. “That’s good, sweetie.”

“…Ri?”

“Yeah?”

“…I can’t see anything… it’s been getting darker, and now I can’t even see you.”

I was silent a long moment, trying to make my voice strong, for her. “Don’t be scared.”

“I’m not anymore.” She moved her head slightly, rubbing her cheek against my jeans. “You’re here.”

“That’s right.” I stroked her hair. “I’m here for you.”

“Ri?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you going to stay with me?”

I nodded, tears dripping off my chin. “I’ll stay with you.”

“Promise?”

“I swear it.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

I held her tightly for several long minutes. Suddenly, she gasped, her fingers grabbing a fistful of my shirt tightly. A moment later she fell back, limp, gone. “No... No! Leah?”

She looked so peaceful. So young. I pulled her even closer to my chest and sobbed. A lifetime later, our Uncle Diehl appeared in the bedroom. He squatted beside us and checked Leah for any sign of life. When he didn’t find any, he frowned and stood up. “Have you called the ambulance yet?”

I nodded, numb.

“I suppose they’re sending cops?”

“I figure.” My voice sounded strange, like it wasn’t my own. I felt like I was hovering above the room, looking down at the scene below me, in some horrible dream. This wasn’t real. I wasn’t covered in my sister’s blood. I wasn’t holding her cold, dead body.

“Alright.” Uncle Diehl moved around the room, quickly seizing all of the drugs and firearms he saw, shoving them in a trash bag. As he finished, we heard a siren in the distance. He listened for a moment before looking back down at me. “Ri?”

“Mm?”

“I’m going to go now.” I nodded. I figured he would. He usually disappeared any time the police came. He bent and kissed my forehead. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”

“Alright.”

-

I couldn’t quite remember what happened in the next few minutes, between Diehl leaving and me being interrogated. I knew that the local police showed up, and came in pointing their guns and shouting orders. They told me to move away from Leah, and when I didn’t, they tried to pull her away from me. I kept clinging to her, until an emergency responder calmly explained that he couldn’t help her until I let go.

A second emergency responder convinced me to walk out to an ambulance with him, where he looked over me and cleaned Leah’s blood from my face and arms. As soon as he finished, I remembered someone that they introduced as a Marshal handing me a clean long sleeved shirt and telling me to change. I did as I was told. As soon as I was finished, I stepped out of the back of the ambulance, where they told me to change.

As soon as I stepped onto the sidewalk, a large, harsh hand clamped down on my shoulder. I timidly looked way up, into the face of a police officer who was glowering at me. His hand grasped my shoulder so tightly it hurt. “I’ve got some questions to ask you, young lady.”