Calloused

28

I sat there. The room was quiet and small. I couldn't bring myself to stand for fear that my legs would give out beneath me.

She's dead. 

The words kept repeating themselves in my head. My father would be heartbroken. They had had their differences, but they loved each other deeply.

There was banging on the door, which kicked me out of my thoughts and back into reality.

I wouldn't cry anymore, not until I survived all of this. I crawled across the floor and leaned against the door. I could hear muffled voices, but I couldn't make out anything they were saying.

I looked around the room, trying to figure out an escape route in case they found a way in. But I came up with nothing. If they somehow managed to get inside, I would be dead.

I grabbed the gun on the floor that had been sitting a few feet from me. I made sure it was loaded.

I prayed silently for forgiveness, for mercy. I wasn't a religious person, not like my mother.

I prayed for my father to come and to see H again. 

A series of shots went off on the other side. My stomach dropped in fear.

I couldn't hear the voices anymore. I held my breath as the door opened slowly.

I pointed my gun at the entrance, ready to pull the trigger.

"Skyler!" My father barked, his eyes wild.

"Papa." I cried in grief. The pain was almost unbearable as I watched the tears fall from my fathers eyes. He looked between my mother and I.

"No. No, no!" He roared in disbelief.

"Sky." I snapped my head in the direction of his voice.

"H." I cried harder. He was covered in blood from head to toe. His skin was splattered with it, too.

"We have to go." He whispered, tears in his eyes as he held my face in his hands.

"Boss! We got more coming!" Niall roared from outside the room. My father crouched over my mother, silent. He held her hands against his face.

"Papa!" I screamed as bullets flew into the room. He looked over his shoulder with fire in his eyes. He kissed my mother's forehead. The pain he felt was clear in his movements.

My father picked up the automatic weapon that had sat beside him. He walked towards the large metal door and turned to H.

"Let's get her out of here." He growled. His clothes were also soaked in blood.

H wasted no time and picked me up, careful not to tear my wound.

"We need the envelope." I whispered to H. He looked down to see it. He squatted down and grabbed it for me to hold. I clutched the envelope tightly as we waited for my father to signal us to run.

The guns were loud as their sounds ricocheted off the cold, concrete walls of the basement.

Flashes of light lit up the dark space, and the feeling that surrounded us was heavy. We felt like cornered animals as we fought for our lives.

"Go! Move!" Niall roared above the noise.

We took our opening and ran up the stairs. Niall and a few other men were in front of us. They used their bodies as shields to try and keep us covered.

"Out the back!" My father ordered. They ran down the hall, careful to check the area as we went. Bodies lined the halls, and blood coated the floors. If there was one thing I had learned early on, it was that war was ugly. It was dangerous and messy, too.