Strong Body, Fragile Hearts

Her Gardener, To the rescue

As Beast, Dagger and I made our way around the side of the house we paused a moment when we heard a voice. A spear of ice shot through my heart. Finni. He was talking to Jumbo, he was the one going through the gate. I began to struggle and Beast and Dagger stopped to try to quell me. I let out a muffled scream when I heard Jumbo's roar and a harsh striking noise. No, no, NO! I dropped to the ground my heart filled with grief. They couldn't have. they couldn't have killed him... 

Beast dropped to the ground and began to murmur in my ear, begging me to get up, that she didn't want to hurt me by dragging me. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered if Finni was dead. I was in love with him, and without him my chance for escape was lost. A single thing broke through my paralyzing grief. It was Finni. That was his voice. My head shot up and I suddenly felt as though I could breathe again. A loud crash echoed through the night. There was only one person with that kind of strength. What had happened? Who was alive and who was dead? Beast and Dagger heard the noises as well and sped up, determined to not be discovered. 

As we made our way around the manor again noises echoed through the night. Crashing and shouting. Finni must be fighting someone else now. I stopped for a moment only to be yanked forward by Beast again. I began to work on getting my gag off again. If I could just call out to Finni, he could come help me. Suddenly a gunshot pierced the night and Peter's agonized cream followed. Wendy was dead. But who? Finni had no clue how to shoot a gun. So which servant was it? Bard or Mey-Rin? 

Tears began to flow out of my eyes. A lot may have happened to me in the past few days, i may not understand why my family was doing this to me. But we were still family. I turned my head and squeezed my eyes shut attempting to stem the tears. Wendy, who was always the calm to her brother's storm. Wendy who pinned me to bed when I had a fractured collar bone. Wendy, who was now dead. 

Dagger and Beast broke into a run forcing me to run as well. More gunshots pierced the air. There was the shattering of glass, then silence. I was terrified , what was happening , we were the bad guys, Someone had to defend against us , it's only logical. But this was my family and I couldn't stand to know that my friends here were killing them. The tears I had stopped now flowed without ceasing as Dagger, Beast and I stopped in front of a door and Dagger turned to Beast and said quietly, "It sounds like he has body guards." Beast mumbled a yes and Dagger continued saying, 'I suppose we should expect that from a noble. Let let our elders handle them and we will find the target." He spoke calmly though i heard the tremble in his voice. He knew as well as I did that our elders were with us no more. I had to get that gag off, persuade everyone to stand to down, to explain, to stop hurting one another. Dagger listened at the door then continued in with Beast following, bringing me with them. As they turned at went up a staircase they stopped at the sight of Bard in front of them. "Hi I've been waiting for you." Bard drawled as he lit his ever present cigarette. Beast kept me behind her... shielding me? "Finni took the back door, Mey-Rin took the sides, which means you could only get in from- Hey, that's dangerous, i was still talking!" Bard's calm attitude faded as Dagger began taking shot after shot. Bard deflected them all using a candle lighter. Beast undid my rope and tossed it to Dagger, then took a flying leap at Bard. She missed and he responded with a quip, only antagonizing her further. Beast retreated back to where Dagger and I stood.

"Damn, everyone's a Solomon Grundy, trying to live fast and die young-" Bard's statement ended  as he noticed my presence. "Bells?" He sounded shocked and I nodded and motioned to the gag. His narrowed eyes turned to Dagger and Beast. "What a waste. Don't you agree Bells? Hey Finni, Mey-Rin, give them what for and don't hurt Bells." From up in the shadows we saw Finni standing next to a tall statue and Mey-Rin shifted and we heard the tell tale sound of guns being cocked. "Who gives their maids guns?!" Dagger exclaimed. Finni heaved a statue up then back down at us. We all dove forward and felt the rumble of the statue landing behind us. Dagger sent three knives spinning in Finni's direction and I screamed again. Mey-Rin shot them all out of the sky before they could come near Finni and I nearly collapsed with relief. Mey-Rin turned her aim towards us and I flinched as the bullets fired around us. But she didn't aim for any of us in particular, what was she trying to do?