"I am not ready to raise a kid."
"No one's signing you up for a Father of the Year award."
The universe is made of stories. And Maeve Fluer-Reyes had her own.
With pictured misfits in her life, the twelve-year-old was up for anything as long as she...
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MAEVE FLUER-REYES
"Stay the hell down!"
I barely had time to blink before Emmett grabbed my wrist and shoved me down so hard that my knees scraped against the rough pavement. My head nearly smacked into the car door, but his hand was there, pressing me down, holding me in place.
Another shot. Glass rained down from the side mirror. I flinched and Caleb hit the ground beside me with a grunt, yanked down just as roughly. He barely had time to sit up before Emmett's arm shot out again, forcing him lower. "Don't move!" He yelled.
I could hear my own breathing—too fast, too loud.
"Caleb?" I rasped, my voice barely there.
"I'm fine! I'm fine!" His voice was small, shaking. He wasn't fine, though. Neither was I. "I am okay, M..."
My heartbeat was a roar in my ears, drowning everything out. Caleb's grip on my arm hurt, but I couldn't move. Couldn't speak. I watched as Emmett drew his gun and glanced over the hood, like he'd done this a thousand times before.
He leaned back in, jaw tight. "Ten," He muttered under his breath. "Maybe twenty. Bloody hell."
More gunfire.
I used to think guns were just loud. That was all they were to me—noise, distant, climatic things in movies. But here, even through the blood pounding in my ears, I could feel the bullets splitting the air just inches from us.
I gasped, shrinking closer to the car, but something made me look—just past the edge of the bumper, past the flickering streetlights.
A shadow moved.
I had to do a double take.
And then he was falling.
The man collapsed onto the pavement, his gun slipping from his fingers, his body still.
My lungs burned.
I didn't see Emmett fire.
My stomach lurched.
I only saw the aftermath.
My body shrank into Caleb's.
I should have looked away.
More footsteps.
More shadows.
Emmett straightened, gun raised again.
Another shot rang out. Another body hit the ground.
My vision blurred for a second, the edges going hazy, and it wasn't until tears slipped down my cheek. I didn't even feel them forming. Didn't even notice I was shaking.
I had never seen someone die before.
The thought sank into my chest like a weight, pressing down, down, down.
