Guns

Chapter one

Date: October 19th 2005

(October 19th 1989)

My sixteenth birthday,

And the day I was found, to be honest it doesn’t faze me in the least. Just another day entirely, why should I treat it like its any different? Just a way to another day to remind me my parents abandoned me when I was just a baby and how alone I am in this god forsaken world.

Will I ever find a place I call home…?

This family, if I can call it that. Living, in this family, this life, full of danger and blood. What will happen to me if this world sucks me in deeper? I don’t know if one day this life would end up killing me.

What If the gun’s turns on me?

“Alice?” A voice calls from behind the bedroom door as a child-teen-like female wrote within a black leather bound journal. Her writing neat with a curl to each of her letters, as she wrote each word with care. She runs her fingers gingerly through her scarlet-blood red locks as she wrote the last sentence.

“Yeah?” she replied, in a gruff response to the voice as she closes the book and placed the pen inside.

“Time for school, Ren’s waiting.” The voice of a deeper toned male instructs her.

“Okay Tony!” she calls answering as she grabs her backpack, catching one final glimpse of herself in the mirror.

Looking back at herself, in the mirror two silver eyes stares back at her. she sighs before leaving the room. Closing the door she comes face to face with a rather tall man.

“Finally, come on get going i’ve been hollering for ten minutes.” Tony grumbles running a hand through his dark hair with his free hand on his hip. His tired aged brown eyes look down at her.

“Sorry, I was finding my books for english.” She shrugged lazily.

Tony shook his head as he closed his eyes and he placed his hands in his trouser pockets of his grey suit as he sighed. “Come on lets just go.” He states opening his eyes again as he turns his body to start heading down the hallway, before looking over his shoulder. “Oh and Happy birthday Ali.”

Alice smiled at the older male in thanks and jogged to catch up as she heads to meet Ren for school.

***

“Tsk.” The sound of the red-haired female kissing her teeth no older then sixteen, escapes as she wipes the dripping blood off her bottom lip. She glares at the gang full of a seventeen and two sixteen year old boys in front of her, one goes to approach her raising his right fist to land a hit to her left eye. Swiftly in one quick movement, she brings up her left arm, shielding her face and with her right hand. she balls it into a fist, aiming for a gut punch.

“You’re a psycho Tomato head.” One of the gang members shouts as her punch connects its target.

The boy grunts as he doubles over in pain from the force of Alice’s punch.

She watches with her silver eyes as the gang begin to run away and the boy she just punched soon follows his mates.

“Psycho huh?” she chuckles under her breath as she looked down at her bruised and bloodied knuckles.

Dropping her arm to her side with a sigh, she slides, leaning against the wall wincing from a sudden jolt of pain coming from her side where her ribs should be.

“Dammit.” She curses, hissing as she sucked in a deep breath. “I hope its not broken.” she mutters as she brought up her shaking hand to hold her side. Her body still full of adrenaline. She thinks back to the fight and how it began. She left school as usual heading down her usual route when……..

“Alice!” A voice calls out which causes her to groan with a roll to her eyes. Josh, the owner of that voice and seventeen years of age, was a tall boy of five foot ten. He comes into Alice’s view of eyesight as she turns to face him.

He was rather a plain looking teen with a babyish face, which was slowly fading into a more adult looking shape. His dirty brown eyes stare at her with something on his mind and automatically she knew it wasn’t something good.

“I want a word with you Tomato.” he states approaching her.

“Josh? the most popular boy at school has decided to honour me with his presence. What do I owe this to? Is it my birthday!” Alice placed a finger to her bottom lip in a sarcastic gesture of thinking before lowering it, giving him deadpan look. “oh wait, it is. What do you want?” she asks in a bored tone while placing her hands in her jean pockets.

One of the two boys behind him snickers as Josh turns to face whoever it was and they shut up just by the look he gave them. By Alice’s guess it was James.

“I’m gonna pretend to not notice that sarcastic tone you just gave me.” he began. “Now then lets cut to the chase, everyone at school knows you’re a social freak and an outcast. I wanna offer you something you can’t refuse. Seeing as its your birthday i…..”

“I decline.” she says bluntly not wanting to engage any further with this and she turns on the balls of her feet to walk off down the street.

“I’m not done talking with you.” Josh calls as he grabs her shoulder forcing her to turn around.

“You don’t get this sort of opportunity every day and it won’t happen again.”

Alice sighed tiredly rolling her eyes to the left. “Look, I can look after myself ok? I don’t need... whatever it is you’re offering.” she replies through her teeth, annoyance masking her tone.

Josh’s eyes narrowed as he looked down at her five foot three inch hight.

“I don’t think she gets it boys.” Josh’s lips turn into a sly smirk.

“Let’s teach her a lesson.” he reaches out and grabs a fist full of her hoodie. Almost lifting her off the ground. He pulls her closer to him, their noses almost touching. Her cheeks heated as a blush formed on her pale-ish skin. She cursed her girly-ness and how easy it was for her to blush. However she kept a blank expression as she looked at Josh dead in the eyes.

“Erm, Josh maybe we shouldn’t.” Liam a gangly skinny boy says nervously as he looked around them at the bustling streets. People walking past were watching them closely.

“You’re right Liam.” Josh’s smirk grew more dark.

Alice’s heart went cold and it began to beat fast, yet her facial expression remained empty. She wasn’t going to show him she was scared. She wasn’t an i***t, getting into fights was dangerous and she could get hurt really badly. But hey she just couldn’t learn to keep her mouth shut when its needed.

She watched Josh closely as his eyes scanned around for something and his lips pull up back into a smirk. Having found what he was looking for.

“You’re coming with us.” Josh whispered in a dark tone close to her ear. He pulled, tugging on her hoodie as he half dragged her down a small alley. She of course struggled at first.

“I’m coming, I’m coming no need to shove.” she muttered with a hiss and a grumble.

The alley was small, damp and smelly from the waste that was left in the bins. Alice wrinkled her nose at the smell as it hit. It was made from two buildings standing side by side and judging by the looks of the trash. Both buildings where some run down apartment complex.

She looked down seeing it wasn’t that big of an alley, the end of it coming to a dead end. She quickly gazed around to find any means of escape finding none so far. Roughly Josh tugs her forcing her around when he felt safe enough and she stumbles turning around, facing them and glaring at them.

Josh stood with folded arms with his two lackeys, Liam and James standing either side of him. James wasn’t much of a talker, slightly smaller then the other two not by much just a few inches and Liam a tall gangly boy who had a brown nose. He was forever kissing up to josh. Always hanging onto his every word and willingly do anything for him. It was rather sad and the whole school knew about it.

“Now I am giving you a second chance, i’m feeling rather charitable today. Consider this a birthday gift and I think you should reconsider my offer.” Josh says the last part sternly.

“A second chance?” Alice exaggerated a gasp. “how kind of you.” she says in a mocking tone.

“Listen Tomato head, i’m not kidding here and you better not piss me off.’ He warned, making a grab for her hoodie again.

Alice scoffed. “Or what? Cry to mommy? Beat me up? Not like you’ve tried that one before.” she says sarcastically.

This angered him and his hold tightened on the fist full of hoodie. “Don’t test me Alice.” He growled rather dangerously as he spat out her name.

She made a disgust face as his spit hit her. “Didn’t your mom ever teach you to say it not spray it?” she smirked while wiping her face.

That did it, Josh brought back his free hand that wasn’t holding onto her hoodie and aimed a punch towards her face.

Alice winces being brought back to reality as she reached for her side again. “oh yeah, some birthday this turned out to be.” she sighed carefully, each breath was like a jab of knives to her side.

While she was sitting there in her day dream, the clouds over head had begun to band together and cover the once clear sky. The sudden sound of thunder erupts in the air as rain began to pour down and snaps Alice out of her thoughts. The downpour of rain soaks her through and Alice sighs heavily.

“Just great.” She groans annoyed.

Annoyed and in pain, she uses her hand to push herself against the wall and hoists herself up off the wet floor. Once she stabled herself, she began to walk to the mouth of the alley and peeks out. Peeking out, she looks out onto the street to make sure no one would notice her and ask unneeded questions. She didn’t need their unnecessary pity and their worried looks over a stranger.

Once she felt the coast was clear, she leaves the alley and calmly walks down the wet street. She kept her head low, tugging her hood over her head, not that it did much good considering her hair was already soaking wet. Each breath felt like a thousand hot knives being jabbed into her side. It also didn’t help that it was raining, it didn’t make the pain any easier and she clutched her side as she walked to the more well kept part of new york, in hopes it eased the pain. As she walked she kept darting her eyes about, paranoid someone was going to stop her and ask her questions.

***

“Home sweet home.” she mutters twenty minutes later, approaching and stopping in front of a rather massive, tall, expensive mansion on the street. It was the only one that seemed to be a little far from the other mansions. ‘Probably how he likes it.’ she thought.

The building was taller than the other mansions near by and the walls seemed to go on forever around the land. Alice punches in the passcode for the gate and the large iron gates groan, as they open when the last number was pressed. She slips through the small gap not wanting to wait for the gates to fully open and she walks, heading up the gravel pathway towards the side of the house. She makes her way to the back of the houses entrance, passing the garden and its many designs of flowers, and other plant life.

They ranged from many different colours, red, pink, yellow and violet. Even green from the rose bushes and trees. It looked like a half done rainbow to her. Statues also stood with cold expression’s on their stone face’s. She shudders slightly, she hated statues. She opens the back door leading to the kitchen and slips inside. She closes the door when she gets inside the kitchen and takes a quick glance around the room. The kitchen was large, with well polished marble counters and expensive cooking equipment which Ren’s eyes light up whenever he comes in here. It is a dream of his to work in a kitchen like this. It made Alice crack a small smile at the thought.

A large island stood just a few meters from the oven and stove. She moves towards the fridge which stood near the stove and she opens the large silver metal door. Reaching in she grabs a milk carton and takes a swig from it, as she closed the fridge door.

“Shouldn’t you use a glass Ali?” A young males voice suddenly speaks through the silence.

She gasps, wincing from the sudden movement as she drops the now empty carton on the floor. She turns around as her best friend comes into view.

“Jesus! Ren? Don’t scare me like that.” She glares, throwing a weak punch to his forearm. Ren chuckles, smirking taking the punch.

“Call that a punch? That was weak, did ya get beat up again?” He asked raising an eyebrow.

“No-...” she began. “Yes, maybe but it doesn’t matter.” she sighed wincing again slightly from the pain in her ribs.

“They must of gotten you good if you’re flinching like that every time you breath and your face looks like its seen better days.” Ren says, folding his arms across his chest.

“It’s nothing i’m fine, can we drop it?” Alice grumbles through her teeth from the pain.

Ren sighs dropping his arms. “Stop acting tough and lets get you cleaned up, you’re soaked through.” He comments nodding his head, gesturing to her wet clothes. “At least change, have a hot shower and let me patch you up.”

“okay, okay.” She sighed gently, clenching her jaw. Each breath and movement hurt.

Ren ruffled her red hair a little. “See that wasn’t so hard was it?” He chuckled. Alice gives him a sharp glare of annoyance.

“Yeah, yeah.” She muttered sarcastically.

Ren smiled softly at her, dropping his hand from her head. “Come on, lets get you patched up okay?”

She sighed gently again. “Okay.”

They head out of the kitchen, Alice following Ren as he leads them to the bathroom upstairs. They stopped outside the door as Ren leans against the wall. “I’ll wait out here for you.” He says giving her a smile. She rolled her eyes, did he not trust her?

“I won’t be long.” She returns the smile with a small smile of her own before slipping inside the bathroom.

After half an hour. Alice showers and changes into some dry clothes before following Ren to the ‘medical.’ room as he liked to call it.

“I still don’t see why we have this room.” Alice comments entering the room with a bored tone. She lazily looks around the room as Ren shrugged.

“He deems it necessary, who knows with Mikey.” He replies as she takes a seat on the only bed in the room.

“Right.’ she says as she watched Ren head to the medicine cabinet and takes out the first aid kit, grabbing a bottle of antiseptic liquid. He picks up some cotton buds as he walks over placing the items on the bedside table, before kneeling down to her level. “Here we are.”

She groans hating the feeling of being taken care of, it made her feel weak and she never wants to show weakness EVER. That was just her way.

“I’m fine Ren, honestly.” She protested weakly.

Ren chuckled as he poured the antiseptic solution into a bowl. “I’ve known you since we were kids Ali, I know you better then anyone and I know when you’re putting on a brave face.” He says getting up to go to the sink. Letting the hot water run for a few moments he add some hot water to the solution. Not hot enough to burn but enough to treat infection.

She goes to say something but stops as he kneels back down to her level and dabs the cotton bud into the solution. Ren thinks back, to when she came back from her first physical fight, she was just fourteen…...

“What the hell happened to you?” Ren shoots out as Alice walks into the kitchen, bruised and badly beaten. The fourteen year old shrugged her shoulders lazily and painfully, the flinch in her facial muscles proved that enough.

“Nothing, just got into my first fight that’s all.” She explained like it was no big deal.

“yeah, and i’m a world famous chef.” he bites out in sarcasm.

“Ali that looks bad and it doesn’t look like its no big deal either.” Ren replies to her ridiculous and not to mention, bullshit excuse. His brown eyes bore into her with concern and worry.

Ren and Alice had been friends now for six years and both teens had grown closer over those years. She learnt to slightly trust him, he always had her back with everything against Mikhael and always helped her out of trouble with Tony.

“Some classmates of mine were being jerks, so I responded how I know best. I punched them in the face.” She defended herself. Ren was not happy, he wanted to find out who they were and make them pay.

He balled his hands into fists and his jaw clenched. He was beyond angry.

“Who are they?” He states in a tone that he shouldn’t be messed with. He watched as Alice went quiet for a moment, thinking, he could instantly tell she was debating on telling him or not.

She heaves a sigh giving in, there wasn’t really an option in keeping things from Ren. “Josh, he’s a boy in my class.” She says not looking him in the eyes.

The sixteen year old frowns more with this new knowledge. He was only a grade above Alice in school, he was held back a year because of the time he spent on the streets, missing a year or two of school just so he could provide for himself.

“Josh? Josh hardy? The prick who is always lording it over at school?” He asks making sure it was the right person.

Alice nods once. “Yeah...wait where are you going?” She calls out as she watched his retreating back.

“To pay them back.” He replies darkly walking out slamming the door behind him.

He blinks coming back to reality, remembering the hatred he felt seeing her injured like that for the first time. He saw she had turned her gaze to look at him in the eyes, sometimes he noticed it was very hard for her to do. He smiles gently and dabs at her face.

“Yeah what-...” She says lowering her gaze as he gently wipes at the cut on her lip and she curses, hissing in pain. “Ow! That s**t hurts.” She complains with a grumble.

Ren laughed, his dark brown eyes filled with humour at her as he dabbed the cotton bud on her lip again. “It’s suppose to.” He remarks.

Alice looked up and glares at him. “No shit.” she grumbles in a mood.

“Language Ali, you have a potty mouth worse then a sailor.” Ren jokes, chuckling as she continued to glare at him and began to grumble. He finishes off treating the wounds on her face when he places the dirty, bloodied cotton bud down and stood up.

“Right, lets see those ribs.” He says, while motioning for her permission to allow him to lift her hoodie and top.

She hesitates at first but gives in, what if it were broken? Then what? She lifts up her own hoodie and top, to the edge of her bra. Her skin showed already blue and purple bruises forming which painted her side. Ren kneels again, inspecting her ribs, he gently pressed his fingers to her skin. His hands cold, she flinches and winces as pressure was added to her side. He pulls his hand away as he stood up again and she lowers her clothes. She meets his eyes seeing hatred fill his brown orbs, no hint of humour which were present moments ago. His brow frowned in anger and his hands balled into fists. He was full of rage and Alice felt a shiver run up her spine. She didn’t like this side of Ren, it was scary and dark.

“What?” she asked, her eyebrow raised. Ren’s nostrils flare in anger each time he breathed.

“I’m going to murder them.” He growled through gritted teeth. His eyes dark and full of hate.

“Why bother? Pfft, I’m fine. They got it worse anyway.” She shrugged trying to play it off.

“No Ali, they hurt you pretty bad. Jesus christ you got bruises for f**k sake.” Ren angrily spits out.

“I will and going to kill them Alice.”

“Going to kill who cyka?” A deeper toned male suddenly spoke interrupting the two, just before Alice could even speak.

Both teenagers turn to look at the doorway where a tall, dark haired figure stood.

 “I repeat, kill who cyka?”