The Protected

gaze.

”she came that way, ” he hastily added once his gaze met his companions. Then he said, ”she won talk to me or let me get close to her ” he heaved, the memories flooded in, ”she delivered though, but I never saw the child; she came in that day- ”

”-do you know what happened to the child ” the masked man whispered. This complicates things, he thought.

”Its just like I said, she went out one day and came back childless, she said nothing that day, b-but, ” the tipped hat mans mouth hung ajar, the memory fresh in his mind.

The masked man stared at him, he wondered what happened, but he wasn sure if he wanted his curiosity to be quenched.

”But, after she got back, ” the tipped hat man gulped before he said, ”she was-she was…killed ” in a low whisper.

”They said it was too risky ”he smiled sorrowfully, then said, ”I can still remember her blue eyes, as the colour drained out and-and her dark golden curls laid there on her bloody face. ”

I must remain calm; the masked man chimed within himself, then he asked the only reasonable question he could think of

”Who gave her to you. ”

The topped hat man stared at his companion like he had been asked to drink poison. His whole body started vibrating; as his shacky lips opened, his eyes darted to the alley they came from. His eyes bulged out in horror.

As he started to speak, his eyes darted to the alley, and he began screaming. But a sweat didn even leave his mouth before a bullet tore through it. Then another tore through his brain; a tear escaped his eye before he stopped moving.

The masked man stared at the alley, trying to locate their attacker. Before the masked man found the attacker, the attacker emerged with his hand on the trigger. The masked man leapt behind the bench. He quickly put on his mask and felt his blazer for a gun. The attacker fired more shots at the bar. The bullets tore through the lifeless body of his companion and missed the masked man by inches.

On one knee, the masked man emerged from the bench and fired some shots. He heard a picture make contact with skin, so he peeped to see the attacker, who staggered and fell on his knees into a pool of its blood; using his good leg, the attacker started shooting haphazardly at the bench while shaking in the direction despite a shot in the knee, the figure still fired shots at the masked man, and it came from.

The masked man tried to avoid all the bullets and shoot some of his own. But the attacker wasn visible to him anymore. Once the shots stopped, he breathed heavily, drenched with his and his companions blood.

Nathaniel staggered away through the bushes.

Lights in the surrounding buildings came on, some went off, and some stayed on, but no one dared to come outside. Eventually, the night became silent again.