Ineffable - S.REID

50

・゜゜・．TWO WEEKS LATER .・゜゜・

Clara had woken early for her day off and hurried to get to the bookstore the second that it opened. As she had suspected, there were people already queuing outside for the new release but it didn't take her long to get her hands on a copy of the book that Spencer had been talking about for weeks. He hated that he had to teach on release day as it meant he would have to wait even longer to read it. So naturally, she picked it up for him and whilst getting a coffee sent him a picture of the book in hand. They had plans to meet each other at the university he taught at (so he could show her his office and the general area) and he would get the book then. She imagined him glancing down at his phone, checking if the message wasn't anything important enough to stop his lesson, then smiling to himself. The image in her head was enough alone to counteract the annoyance she had for waking up so early.

As Clara walked alone down a street that she didn't really recognise, following the directions he had given her that morning. She had driven to the university but apparently parking close was too expensive, typical land owners wanting to extort students, so she parked far away and let herself enjoy the walk even though she hadn't the slightest idea where she was going. Normally an unwalked path and complete lack of knowledge for her location would have frightened Clara but she hadn't felt that fear for so long now. She didn't even think twice about it. She sipped her coffee and listened to the birds overhead, chittering and bathing in the sunlight as she disappeared down a shaded alleyway that was a supposed shortcut.

She stilled, her shoes scraping against the gravel underfoot as the echoing and all too familiar sound of a gun cocking sounded softly behind her. The hairs on her neck stood up as the bag continuing the book rocked back and forth in hand, shaken by her sudden pause in movement too. "Turn around slowly Antonia."

She did so slowly, as instructed and felt her eyes widen to the size of saucers as the child stood in front of her. "Enzo?" she whispered in astonishment, recognising the general features of the boy. He looked so incredibly different that it was relatively hard to place him but she saw the dead look in his eyes and the tell tale similarities that would follow him forever. He looked just like his father.

"My dad's dead," he announced loudly, attempting to keep his voice still but she could evidently her the shake within it. Even from where he was standing, a good few metres away, she could see the tears crowding the corners of his eyes.

"Oh honey I'm sorry," Clara responded softly, making sure her voice sounded as caring as possible. She placed the bag and her near empty coffee cup on the floor carefully, needing both hands just in case things went south. Not that she would ever even think of making an attempt to hurt him without cause.

"Wanna know the one thing he said to one of the brothers before he died? Even when I'm dead, no harm to Antonia...Why? You put him in prison, he died in prison. It's your fault!" he yelled, the gun shaking in his hand. Despite that though, he still managed to keep it trained on her or just enough in her general vicinity that a flying bullet would do some damage.

She hesitated for a moment, thirty seconds of silence. Clara desperately sought her mind to try and find a route or a way to deal with this situation. There were various ideas of course but none really jumped out at her as the only way to deal with it. She didn't know what she was doing, she just wanted to comfort him. She hated seeing a boy, whom she had considered her son for so long, so incredibly hurt. And even if she could see the hatred for his father within his eyes, just as if often reflected in hers, she didn't want to say anything to cause a bullet to fly. An emotionally unstable preteen in the midst of grief and a gun was not ideal. Clara calculated that she had a sixty percent chance of being shot and left for dead. So she chose the emotions route, she chose to play into his emotions and attempt to make him feel safe enough to lower the gun. "How did he die?" she asked quietly, giving him her full attention. She knew he wouldn't get that often with the family.