Six Shot

Lauren

Lauren's eyes fluttered open as the morning sun met her eyes. She looked around at her surroundings, confused. None of this looked familiar. Where the hell was she? She saw a blanket lying on a recliner by the window. Her clothes lay in a bag by the door. She panicked and looked under the blanket at herself. She was clad in blue plaid pajama pants and a solid red t-shirt. She breathed a sigh of relief and laid back, wincing as she felt the bruises.

The door opened and she screamed, pulling the blanket up to defend herself.

"It's ok. You're safe here, I promise," Elizabeth said as she placed a glass of water on the nightstand. "Can you tell me your name?"

Lauren lowered the blanket. "Who are you?"

Elizabeth sat next to her. "My name is Elizabeth Bombarez. My husband and I found you last night on the fire escape outside our window."

Lauren shivered and pulled the blanket around her shoulders. "Thank you. I owe you two so much."

Elizabeth smiled and handed her the glass of water. She drank it quickly and handed it back. Elizabeth put it back on the nightstand. "You still haven't told me your name."

Lauren winced as she rubbed her bruised eye. "Lauren. Lauren Frost. Say, you're not much older than I am, are you?"

Elizabeth smiled as she felt that she was getting through to her. "That depends. How old are you?"

"Eleven. I'll be twelve in a few days though."

"Really? That's awesome."

Lauren blushed. Elizabeth studied the bruises on her arm. "Can you tell me how you got here, Lauren? Who hurt you?"

Lauren hid her bruised arms under the blanket. Elizabeth's eyes widened as she noticed another wound. A small slash mark on her thigh.

"Lauren, I'm trying to help you. But I can't do that if you don't open up a little bit."

Lauren shuddered. "I can't. If I say, then they'll hurt you too."

Elizabeth pulled the blanket down and took Lauren's hands in hers.

"If I show you something, can you promise me that you won't scream?"

"What is it? Is it something scary?"

"Sort of. I promise you that I won't hurt you. Do you believe me?"

Lauren nodded. "If you wanted to kill me, you would have done it already."

Elizabeth took her shirt off and brandished her tendrils. Lauren's eyes widened and she backed away. "What are you?"

Elizabeth shrugged and retracted the tendrils. "There's not a name for my kind. Currently, I'm the only one left."

Lauren shivered and pulled the blanket even tighter around her shoulders. "Pardon my language, but that is the coolest shit ever!"

Elizabeth shook her head. "You have no idea how much trouble these things have caused me. I've hurt people I cared about with them. People that loved me. Believe me, there's no one that can really hurt me."

A knock at the door caught Elizabeth's attention. She motioned for Lauren to be quiet and grabbed the glass off the nightstand.

She opened the door and breathed a sigh of relief. "What took you so long?"

Allison pushed the door open and stepped past her daughter-in-law.

"I had to sneak past Charlotte this morning. She's a bit restless."

Elizabeth nodded. "She's in the bedroom."

Allison politely pushed her aside and walked into the bedroom, where Lauren was trying to open her swollen eye all the way.

"Hi. My name is Allison. I'm here to take a look at your wounds. Is that alright with you?"

Lauren looked to Elizabeth, who nodded. She pulled the back of her shirt up so Allison could see the extent of the damage.

"You're lucky. Bruises like this typically coincide with fractures. Whoever did this was merciless. Can you tell us who did this to you?"

Lauren pulled the shirt down. "They'll hurt you. I don't want anyone else to go through that."

Elizabeth brandished a tendril and brushed Lauren's hair out of her face. "It's alright, Lauren. You can trust us. You're safe here. No one can hurt you as long as you're under this roof."

Lauren shied away. "As long as he has that ring, nothing will stand in his way."

Allison went rigid. "Ring? A silver ring with a red jewel? A clenched fist engraved in it?"

Lauren nodded. "Yeah, that's it. How'd you know?"

Allison's eyes dipped. "It was stolen about a month ago. It used to belong to a friend of mine. He's dead now, but the ring was locked in a safe. Until about a month ago. We were transporting a bunch of artifacts. That ring was in there. Strangely, the only thing that was stolen was that ring. Nothing else was touched. We thought it was just a jewelry thief."

Lauren shook her head and clenched her fist. "No. He stole it for much more. He beat down an entire mafia organization on his own and took over a portion of the city. He's dead set on a takeover. I was looking for a man named Colt. I heard someone say that he took down a criminal syndicate single-handedly. I thought that maybe he could do it again."

Elizabeth's face lost all expression as she listened to Lauren's words. This girl came to them searching for a man she had killed nearly a year ago. In the back of her mind, she was tempted to help the girl herself, but on the other hand, she knew that she couldn't. Her child's scheduled due date was in a week. She couldn't risk their life.

"Is there something wrong, Elizabeth?" Lauren asked nervously.

Elizabeth nodded. "The man you're looking for is dead. Do you remember when I told you that I hurt a lot of people? He was one of them."

Lauren bowed her head. "You're saying that you killed him?"

Elizabeth nodded. "There is such a thing as brainwashing. I never would have hurt him if I was in my right mind. Unfortunately, that wasn't the circumstance. I was fighting for the wrong cause. I'll never forgive myself for that night of terror."

Lauren threw the blanket off and ran into the kitchen. Neither Elizabeth nor Allison attempted to stop her.

"Not to put too fine a point on it, Liz, but I think you just scarred that girl for life."

Elizabeth sat on the end of the bed and watched through the doorway as Lauren sat at the dining room table. "If she's running from the mafia, then she's probably heard worse."

Allison looked over at the pair of revolvers that sat on the end table. Her dead husband's weapons, now their son's inheritance. Weapons that were passed down through tragedy. First from Colt's commander in the military. Now from Colt to Alex. The bloodshed caused by those guns was immeasurable.