Infiltration // T.S

eighteen

6:40am

February 4th 1920

London, England.

The street was eerily quiet as dawn began to break on the horizon, even the birds flew from the grim site. The only noise which dared break the silence was the roar of the flames which engulfed the entirety of the townhouse, which within a few hours had become the grave of many.

Embers swirled in the air like grey snow and littered the ground, some getting caught in the eyelashes of bodies which were turning cold and now powerless to stop them.

Smoke protruded the atmosphere as it curled and fanned out across the sky. If one had been close enough it would have clogged their lungs, which was the harsh fate that met those still trapped within the walls of the house.

It was a bleak morning that would surely reach the papers by noon, it would read: Gas-leak in the Abandoned Wright Manor - No Survivors. But for now the image was seen only by the pair sitting on the curb opposite. Faces dirtied by blood and ash as they sat in silence staring blankly at the fall of an empire.

— 4 hours earlier —

The glass of the bedroom windows shattered as a succession of shots were fired. Pearl instantly ducked and lay with her chest on the floor, pulling Lillian down with her. She covered her shaking sister's head with her hands and tried to avoid the shrapnel that was flying every which way. Pearl briefly glanced up to see the Shelby brothers in the same position as herself, with John trying to wake up Arthur. Across the room Grenfeld had been knocked back onto his rear and was clutching his head from an unknown injury.

Bullets continued to be shot for about thirty seconds but to Pearl it seemed to last hours. When they finally ceased she pulled the dagger from its holster and cut the ties around Lillian's wrists, then scrambled up from the ground with her sister in tow. She ran across the room to where John was hauling Arthur off of the ground.

"Hey! Hey." Pearl whisper-shouted at the boys who all turned to look at her, frantically reaching for their guns as they were still on high alert, but at the sight of Pearl they faltered, "Are you okay? Is anyone hurt?"

"Arthur's only just coming to but he'll be fine. Lughead there gave him a right battering" John breathed, motioning to one of Grenfeld's men on the floor. Pearl wasn't sure if he was dead but she didn't waste any time trying to find out.

Pearl turned to speak to Tommy but when she noticed a cut just above his eyebrow her hands flew up to the sides of his face, "Shit. You alright?"

"I'm fine" Tommy grabbed her wrists in an attempt to calm her down, "Look, I'm fine. We need to go-"

"Wait- no, wait" She interrupted, "I'm sorry. I promise I wasn't going to- I'd never shoot-"

Tommy silenced her by resting his hand against her neck and pulling her into his chest, "I know, I know. It's okay. I wouldn't have blamed you if you had"

Pearl felt the drum of Tommy's heart against her ear and noticed its pace rapidly increasing.

"No time for this right now, can we get the fuck out of here?" John panted, struggling to support Arthur's body weight by himself, "Is this her?"

Pearl nodded, stepping away from Tommy's embrace and pulling Lillian closer as she was still in a mild state of shock, "Lili this is Tommy, John and the sleeping one's Arthur. Boys, this is Lili"

They gave her coy smiles but considering the situation they found themselves in they didn't bother with formal introductions. The group were quickly brought back to the present by a groaning behind them, they turned to see Grenfeld pulling himself off the floor and quickly spotting the group with wide, crazed eyes that Lili was sure were going to haunt her dreams.