Run-Away Little Sister: Hurting

Chapter Nine: Grief

ANASTASIA'S POV:

Grief.

A feeling of deep sorrow, often caused by the death of a loved one.

Fifteen months Alexandria and Miles were on this planet after she had given birth to my baby siblings, Dylan and Courtney. Those were some of the best fifteen months of my life. I had nineteen normal, happy, care-free months.

I turned fifteen years old, and then I turned sixteen.

I watched Miles, Javier, and Jake all teach the group and I how to lead this gang after they were gone. But none of us thought they'd be gone this soon.

In this life style people don't always make it from one day to the next. You consider yourself lucky to live for another day. That was one of the first things I learned.

But it doesn't make the grief that follows any easier.

The lump in my throat, the tears I can't let out, the emotions I force myself not to feel, the anxiety I fight through everyday, the anger and sadness I feel at not being able to protect everyone I cared about that night.

I lost so much in one night, in less than twelve hours, and I did next to nothing to stop it, I just watched it happen. 

It was around eleven-thirty at night, and after a long day of school, homework, paperwork for Dad, and then training, I was absolutely exhausted. I had my pajama's on and I was laying in bed, moments away from being asleep.

I had closed my eyes, not even beginning to dream when a loud gun shot sliced through the silence, I stayed laying down in my bed, peeking my eye open just slightly in case there was more than the one gunman who shot the bullet off.

Scanning my surroundings, I came to the quick conclusion that it was safe to move. I quickly got changed into my bullet proof vest that I had sitting in my room, before pushing the gun, a Glock, that was in my closet into my waistband. Then I walked back out into the main part of my bedroom, grabbing the gun off of my desk.

I had two fully loaded guns on my person.

But now, I had to get to Courtney and Dylan.

I opened my door, hiding behind the wall next to the doorframe. Slowly peaking out, with my gun in front of my body, I checked my surroundings. Nobody was there, nothing was out of place.

Then another gun shot rang out.

Adrenaline pumping through my veins, I began making my way towards the twins bedroom, I constantly turned around even ten to fifteen seconds, checking my backside, as I held the gun in front of me, praying that whoever it was who broke in was already done. That they were already dead, and none of my family would get hurt. 

I knew that wasn't the case though, bullets were flying downstairs, I could hear all the gunshots shake me from the ground below. My body was shaking, my anxiety was spiking, but my adrenaline cured most of self-doubt in this situation. 

I ignored the fight that was clearly going on below me, I had to get to Courtney and Dylan first.

They were my top priority.

Getting to Courtney and Dylan's shared baby bedroom seemed like such an easy task, even with the constant hammering of heart inside my chest and the anxiety spiking inside of me, I took a deep breath before opening the bedroom door slowly and scanning the room in front of me.

It was exactly how it was any other time, semi-clean: toys thrown carelessly on the floor, the twins cribs lined up next to each other, and the bedroom window was closed with the blinds closed. As I walked farther into the bedroom, I kept my guard up, going towards the cribs first, luckily both cribs had a baby in them.

After checking to make sure the babies were in their cribs, I made my way to their closet, standing to the left side of the doorframe, I carefully opened the door before hiding behind the frame. I peaked my head out and my eyes scanned from left to right, right to left, bottom to top, top to bottom. The closet was clear.

I sighed in relief.

I could get them into their secret panic room that the closet had access to. 

I turned my back towards the closet, tucked my gun away in my waistband, and grabbed the babies, placing one in each arm, wishing they'd stay asleep. With them in my arms, I quickly moved back to the closet, going towards where the hidden compartment was.

I easily opened it with the passcode, and entered the dimly lit hidden hallway, listening to the heavy door close behind me.

I walked down the long, empty, dim hallway, going past the first three doors, before entering the fourth. It was a small nursery. I placed the twins down in their portable cribs we had placed here in case of emergency.

I stayed for a moment longer, watching them sleep.

This could be the last moment I ever spend with my baby siblings...

Sighing heavily, I turned around leaving the room, hoping nothing else would go wrong from here, then I walked out of the room, locking the heavy door behind me.

I walked down the silent hallway I had entered only minutes ago. Something inside of me is telling me that something terrible is going to happen, and I really don't want to know what that something is.

I had easily made my way off the bedroom floor of the house, I was now on the floor below where I had heard the fighting earlier. Entering the rooms, not making a single sound, I walked around all the dead, lifeless bodies of people that didn't look familiar.

These people were the enemies.

These people invaded my home and could have killed my family. 

These people were monsters. 

I stayed in the shadows, not making a sound, as I could only wonder if everyone I cared about was alright.

After five minutes of going through each room on the first floor of the mansion, I had counted five men and two woman we had lost, the other side having fifteen men and eight woman.

In the next room I was going to check, I heard familiar groaning. With my gun raised I entered the room.

On the floor, there laid four dead men and three dead woman, Uncle Javier who was bleeding out, as Jamie applied pressure to the wound.

"Jamie... baby..." he groaned, "I'm dying, hon. There's no use."

"No. I already lost mommy. I can't lose you." she cried out.

"Baby. I'll be alright." he assured.

"But I won't be. Kayla won't be. Max won't be. Daddy, please, you can't leave us. You just need to hang on a little while longer. Everything is going to be fine, Daddy." she told him as tears dripped down her face.

"You three will be fine." Uncle Javier smiled painfully, before finally taking notice of my figure by the doorway, "Hey Ana."

"Uncle Javier."

I walked towards the man who was on the ground, bleeding out. There was no way we could save him. He had a fatal gunshot wound to the stomach. We would never get him to the hospital fast enough, and we all knew it. 

"Jam." he tried again, grabbing at her hands with one hand, while his other grabbed mine.

"Both of you, listen to me." he demanded before sighing heavily, "Death separates people, it hurts people, but remember if you feel the pain you're still living and you can fight like f**k to escape."

He paused again, his words coming out more forced this time, "Never give in, never give up. We taught you all to be warriors. Be warriors."

"Daddy." Jamie cried out.

"It's alright, Jam. I'll be by your mom, I'll be pain free. We'll be watching down on you all. I love you, Jam. Tell..." he coughed up blood, "Tell you brother and sister I love them... you know where the letters are..."

He continued to cough up blood as we watched on.

"We won't leave you, Uncle Javier. Not until you're gone." I assured him.

"She's right, Daddy." Jamie spoke, "You're not dying alone."

Jamie grabbed his hand, holding on tight. I grabbed the other.

"T-thank you, girls."

"Daddy, it's okay." Jamie chocked out, "You can go. I'll tell Kayla and Max you love them. I'll get the letters and we'll read them. Daddy go ahead." 

And as his chest heaved up and down, it didn't come back up.

"Daddy?" Jamie asked.

"Oh my God, Ana he's..."

I checked where his pulse should have been. I checked under his nose for any indication of small breaths.

"I'm sorry, Jamie...." I told her sadly, shaking my head, as sobs racked her body.

I grabbed her and pulled her body into mine as the sobs continued. 

Even though I knew it would be safer to move, Jamie could only continue to cry, and there was no way I was leaving her alone, defenseless. 

That was the hardest day of my life.

I got Courtney and Dylan to safety, but Uncle Javier and Uncle Jake died. Uncle Javier dying in mine and Jamie's arms, Uncle Jake dying in Kayla and Layla's arms.

Then minutes later, we had all met up accidently where it was revealed that both Uncle Jake and Uncle Javier had died. We continued on together, not wanting to separate again.

Ten minutes later and we had found Max, Luke, and Wyatt with Alexandria and Miles, my second set of parents, my second chance at happiness, laying in their arms, pools of blood surrounding the three boys. We had lost every parent we had ever had, we lost every high ranking member in less than twelve hours, less than half of a day.

Nothing would ever be the same again.

That was the only thing we all knew. 

Author's Note:

Hello Everybody!

Here's chapter nine, I hope you guys enjoyed it. Chapter ten will be out soon. Let me know your thoughts about this chapter in either the comments or by sharing this story with someone you think might like it. I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks for reading!

-Michaela {The Author} 

Original Version Published: March 2nd. 2019

Edited Version Published: July 30th. 2021