Guarded

Chapter 3

3. Goodbye

A slight pain shot through Celia's chest, immediately making her uncomfortable. Gripping the ledge of her desk and suddenly feeling lightheaded, she began to feel herself losing consciousness. 

"Sir," she uttered weakly, gaining the attention of her teacher who stood before the class, "I don't feel too good."

As the teacher scribbled Celia a leave pass, she couldn't help but feel that something was very wrong. Call it an instinct but she was well aware that her twin sister was in trouble. She reached for her phone, quickly connecting her Bluetooth so she could drive safely out of the gates of her college and towards her home. The sound of sirens could be heard in the distance, allowing the beat of her heart to quicken significantly. 

"Yo, it's either I'm busy or I'm just avoiding you. Leave a message, init." Shane's familiar tone filled her car and she sighed as she was met with his voicemail. 

"Leave a message. If you're important, I'll holla at you but if not, deuces!" Sade laughed, her voice booming through Celia's car speakers and she too was met with Sade's voicemail. 

"What is going on?" Celia mumbled to herself. 

The two shouldn't be busy, they were just going grocery shopping for the house today so surely they were still fully capable of answering their phones. Celia's stomach dipped as she once again felt a rush of nausea overtake her body. 

"Yeah, you all right?" Tristan answered and Celia felt a wave of relief, hearing his calming voice. 

"Oh my gosh, Tristan! Finally some-" Celia began, slightly panicking. 

Tristan's laughter filled her car and she screwed thin air. 

"Nah, I'm just fucking around. I'm busy. Leave a message," he finished and Celia was almost in tears as she was met with Tristan's voicemail also. 

Something is so wrong, she thought to herself.

As she turned on to the street that her house was situated on, her heart hammered inside her chest and her forehead ached but it didn't distract her from the line of police cars that surrounded her home. She parked a few houses down, knowing that she couldn't get her car passed the surrounding crowd of people and ran towards the crime scene. She shoved through her nosy neighbours and dodged an officer who tried to stop her but he couldn't touch her, she wouldn't allow him to. 

"Sade!" she yelled helplessly as she ran towards her twin sister who lay in her brother's arms. 

Her flawless dark skin was marked with a bullet wound to her forehead and a waterfall of blood trickled down the centre of her face, her shirt completely drenched. Celia couldn't help but note that even in this distorted nightmare, she was still so beautiful.

An officer gripped Celia by her arm, stopping her from moving forward. 

"Get the fuck off me!" she screamed, tears streaming down her face. Her heart hurt so, so badly. She just wanted her sister. "That's my sister!" she screamed in his face, shrugging off his sweaty hands. 

He allowed her to run forward and she slid on the concrete, crawling towards her sister, not caring that her pants were now saturated with blood. 

"Sade," she whispered, gripping her cold hand and bringing it to her face, "come on, Sade. Wake up," she smiled through her tears, struggling to breathe properly.

Celia laughed humourlessly and swiped her tears with the back of her hand. She knew that they were playing tricks on her, as usual. This is what they always did. Shane and Sade would use anything to get a reaction out of Celia. Celia knew that her twin would awake from her peaceful slumber and laugh at Celia whilst playfully scolding her for being so weak. Celia laughed again and nudged Shane but Shane did not move. He stared into Sade's open eyes, his face void of emotion. His once light glowing skin was now pale but still, Celia couldn't help but laugh.

"You guys are stupid," she gasped, "give up the act now."

She reached for Sade's chest, touching her wounds and laughing again as her sister's blood stained her fingers. Celia laughed and laughed and laughed until her tears of amusement turned into tears of anguish, pain and hurt. She was so terribly hurt and in so much unbearable pain. Her heart was heavy with sadness and she screamed in the air to no one in particular.

After some time, the officers slowly approached the family that held the now deceased girl in their arms like she was the most precious treasure and they were pirates. Officer Reynolds had never seen such a sight in his fifty-eight years of living. The man and woman guarded her like their lives depended on it. Reynolds gestured for the paramedics to prepare their equipment.

"Okay kids, we have to take Miss West. This is now a crime scene so you're both going to have to stand back." Reynolds reached forward and before he knew it, the man whose name he knew as Shane Stowers had finally spoken. 

"If you touch her, I'll kill you," he whispered in a deadly tone that made Reynolds shiver in fear. Reynolds knew that this operation wouldn't be easy. 

"Okay boys, pull them up," he stated cautiously, signally for his men to hold Shane and Celia back.

The sound of Celia shrieking filled the silence in the air as she was pulled away from her twin but still, Shane didn't move an inch. He stared mercilessly into the air, holding Sade to his chest. As soon as the hands of the officers gripped him, he flipped. He pushed and shoved each and every officer, never letting go of his little Sade.

He wouldn't let them touch her. She was his. They wouldn't know what to do with her. They didn't know her like he did. They hadn't taken her in when she had no where else to go and they weren't the ones that bought her and Celia their very first home. They didn't know how to take care of her. Nobody did ... except for both Shane and Celia. He kicked and punched every single man that tried to take his Sade from his arms and felt himself getting weaker and weaker as Celia's cries of distress filled his ears. After a good fight and twelve officers, Sade was finally out of his arms and Shane had never felt so cold in his life.

Never in Celia's existence would she wish this much pain on even her worst enemy. She wanted to die. She couldn't possibly live without her soulmate. If Sade couldn't live then neither could Celia.

*****

"Hello," the young vixen began confidently, licking her lips slowly and gazing into the eyes of the only boy that she was interested in, "my name is Freedom Cartel."

Dre's eyes ran lustfully over the young girl's body, noting that she was only eighteen with the body of a grown woman. He couldn't believe his luck. He was so sure that this year, he'd have to deal with the old yats that he'd grown up with but this girl before him, she was worth coming to college every day for. She was something new and Dre liked new. He couldn't wait to explore every part of her curvaceous body, running his hands along the smooth contours of her dark skin. She would be his and he was willing to do anything to make that happen.

Freedom smirked boldly, inwardly rolling her eyes at Dre's hungry expression on his face. She had him right where she wanted him and in a few weeks time, she couldn't wait to blow his head off.

If your father is so willing to kill my sister then I won't hesitate to kill his only son, she thought viciously.