Secret Sister Signs

1928: Without A Trace

Thea stumbled back. She glanced down at herself to see the blood. Only there wasn't any.

The bullet missed.

She could breathe again. Thea dropped the shotgun and stared at Siretta who looked horrified, pale with terror. The bullet had missed both sisters and had hit the sand less than a few inches away from Thea. "Siretta!" Her deformed voice wobbled with fear and relief, she had already lost a sister that day. Siretta grabbed Thea and hugged her. She too started crying, sobbing as the horrors of the day added up, weighing heavily enough to break their hearts all over again.

They suddenly jumped apart when they heard Rubio's shaky laughter. He had managed to get to his knees, blood steadily gushed from his bullet-wound, long claw-marks dripped with blood under his eyes, and the torn flesh over his bicep was ragged and hung limply against his muscles, blood kept streaming down his arm.

"Well..." Even his deep voice sounded weak from the loss of blood that still flowed like a river over his heaving chest. "It looks like you...two little cunts are all out of bullets...and ways to kill me." He held out his arms grandly, the wind blew his hair into his pale eyes, but Thea could imagine the triumphant glint gleaming in their psychotic depths. He still thought he won.

"Wanna bet?" Siretta wildly demanded and started shaking with impulsive rage as she snatched the gun off the sand. She suddenly flew at him with a savage scream.

"No!" Thea snatched Siretta around the waist, the two girls fell to the ground right in front of Rubio. He snatched the empty gun away from Siretta. She quickly rolled out of the way and Thea started to scramble back as he brought the gun down. It broke on impact, pieces went everywhere. Thea climbed to her feet and helped Siretta to hers then tried to run. Siretta stumbled and tried to pull against her though.

"No!" She shouted and wrenched herself away. "I gotta kill him! Think of my Meril!"

"I am! She wouldn't want you to kill him! She wouldn't want you to become like him! Please!" She begged, Siretta staggered back to look at Rubio. He was slowly crawling up the beach, his head bowed as he struggled towards the woods, blood left a thick trail after him.

"He'll escape!" Siretta howled.

"No! He ain't goin' anywhere! The law is all over the fuckin' place! Siretta!" Thea called after her sister who took a few more steps closer towards the woods.

She didn't pursue though. 

Siretta dropped to her knees with her hands pressed to her chest as if to contain her broken heart as she screamed bloody murder. It was the longest, loudest, most heart-shattering scream Thea ever heard in her life. "NO!" Then there weren't any words, just hysterical screaming.

***

It was a week later. Thea still couldn't get the image of Siretta burying Meril on the beach out of her head. She had never seen her sister so crestfallen, so broken, so shattered, as she stood before the makeshift cross. Thea had stood a few paces away, too numb move.

They hadn't bothered to return home after they laid Meril to rest, instead, they stoically boarded a train bound for Ohio. They hadn't uttered a word to each other since they heard the latest news on the radio.

Rubio Max was still alive. The police never caught him.

The cool pre-fall breeze chilled the girls and russet leaves blew down the brick street the sisters were standing on. The wide road had red brick apartments on either side of it, they all had the same gingerbread-colored doors and roofs. The black streetlamps were just flickering on as the sun began dipping in the sky. Perfectly trimmed trees stood ridged outside of every apartment. The only thing that was different, or stood out on the quiet little avenue, was a large white house at the end of the dead-end street. There was a black iron fence that surrounded it. The name on the mailbox outside said Snow.

Siretta knocked on the door. A few seconds later a woman not much older than Siretta opened the door. Her brown eyes looked them over quickly, but her expression remained neutral. "May I help you?"

"Yeah," Siretta cleared throat. She hadn't spoken in such a long time, her voice sounded raspy. Thea couldn't even imagine how horrible she sounded. "My name's Siretta, and this is my little sister, Thea. We were told by a friend of ours," remarkably, her voice didn't crack at the mention of Meril, but Thea's eyes weld up with tears. Her sister's strength was unequivocally powerful. As Meril's was. "That this was a safe house... Can you help us? We ain't got anywhere else to go."

The other girl quickly nodded and stepped aside so they could enter. The inside of the house was warm but dark. "Let me introduce you to my mother, she'll help you." They were led into the nearest parlor. It too was dark, save only for the glow of crackling fire. 

Sitting in a wingchair before the fireplace was Mrs. Snow. She stood and smiled warmly despite the gloomy atmosphere. "Welcome, ladies. Please, have a seat. Nichole, do bring us some hot coffee, will you?" Her daughter nod and quickly disappeared. "My name's Miranda, ladies. How can I help you?"

Siretta did all the talking, telling Miranda how they got mixed up in the Max Mob, and the how leader then killed their best friend, and how it was her that told them about this place. Siretta told her that they both needed to be erased from their old life. They could never go back, ever.

"Well, this should be easy considering you don't have any family," Miranda assured them. "We'll make sure you two will never have to face the mob again," she put a warm hand over each of theirs, her soft skin was soothing. "I promise."

The sisters looked at each other for the longest time, then they each gravely nodded. And with that, Thea and Siretta were completely removed, entirely erased from their former life.