Chasing Sienna

Prologue

 Chasing Sienna

Part I

Prologue

I woke suddenly, and heard glass breaking, and shouts coming from down the hall. I forced my mouth closed around the scream bubbling up from my throat. Not a nightmare, I thought, a "wake-mare", again. I much preferred the nightmares. Give me the cold, dark, scary ghouls and goblins over this any day I mused, pulling the pillow tight over my head. The noises from the other room must have crept into my sleep.

I had been having a nightmare, the same one I always had, and my head was still fuzzy. I drew up my knees and tried to make myself as small as I could in my twin bed while trying to catch my breath. In the dream, that was always the same, I was trapped in a room, not my room, a strange room, though oddly familiar. I heard heavy footsteps outside the door that was opened just a bit. A bare light bulb swung from an old, dingy, and water stained ceiling in the hallway. The footsteps seemed to get louder as if someone were coming.  In the dream, I was so frightened, with no clue of what or of who, but I always woke up scared and breathing like I had just run 100 miles. No one ever made it to the door, I just heard the steps and they sounded angry, and I knew somehow they were coming for me...

My small, dark room was stuffy and only illuminated by the light filtering in under the door from the hallway. It cast the eeriest shadows on the wall that undulated and twisted to add to the menace. The shouts were getting louder, or perhaps, I thought; just amplified because I was fully awake now. Sweating, I scrubbed a trembling hand over my face and cursed into my pillow. I knew that was bad, but from the racket in the other room, it didn't really matter, besides nobody heard me. I could hear light snoring coming from Tyshaun's bed across the room. I hated waking up like this; I guessed I should be used to it by now. How could my brother sleep through the noise? We shared the only bedroom of our small apartment, our mother slept on a pull out couch in the living room. The loud thud of a fist hitting flesh, sounded down the hall, a deep meaty sound. I sat up then and shot a worried look at the door.

"Ty... wake up. He's hitting her again! Ty wake up! I'm scared!"

There was a rustle of clothing, and movement from across the room, A low grumble, and in the next instant I felt my bed shift as my brother crawled in beside me. His long wiry arms went around me as he settled in.

"Shhhh, shhh, quiet Shawny, don't cry. It's okay just keep quiet."

How long have they been at it?"

"I don't know, I was asleep, and I thought I was having a nightmare."

By this time, I couldn't stop the tears trailing down my face, but I knew to keep my voice low. Tyshawn would get mad at if I started crying loud. So I buried my face in the pillow to muffle any sound that might sneak out.

Ty was saying "Damn, Wake-Mares are way worse huh peanut?"

"Yes, way worse" I sniffled weakly, feeling better for his presence.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, listening as the curses and insults were followed by more glass, and other things breaking. Fists hitting flesh a few more times, and our mother's high-pitched shrieks, as she gave as good as she got. He had been drinking, I could always tell by the way he slurred his words as he called my mother a "worthless bitch". My heart was pounding and I could feel the start of one of my headaches coming on.

Tyshawn, was my older my brother who at thirteen was two years and three months older than me, turned onto his back and reached for my hand, I grabbed it and held tight. We didn't speak, just lay there, our breathing sounding overly loud to my ear. I just sat as still as I could and listened to the noises in the other room, praying that it would be over soon.

We suddenly heard a sharp knock coming from the door down the hall, it was the front door, Tyshawn crawled from the bed and leaped to the bedroom door. He quickly locked it and pulled a chair over and pushed it up under the knob. He looked over towards the bed where I had moved and was crouched on my knees, and even though it was dark in the room I knew he wore his "I'm the boss" face. At that moment I really didn't care, he was the boss and I was glad of it, he was there and I knew he would protect me. I knew why he locked and barred the door, our mothers on again off again boyfriend was creepy enough to run to our room to avoid another run-in with the cops.

Ty spoke in a loud whisper "it's almost over you hear me Lashawn, so just stay quiet it's the cops they'll take that ass hole away for a while and mama will settle down and go to sleep."

I started to relax, Tyshaun knew a lot more than me, if he said it would be okay, then it would. I let out a shaky breath, surprised that I had been holding it, when we heard more, angry voices coming from down the hall. These voices were mean, loud, and they didn't sound like the normal authoritative voices of the police that often came in the middle of the night. One voice sounding gruff leveled above the rest, he was shouting that it was the last time Vince, my mother's boyfriend would steal from him. I was trying to make sense out of his next words, "When you double cut my product I don't care, but when you come back empty handed"...

Crashing through my thoughts came a flash of light and the loudest crack, the deafening sound filled the small room. Tyshaun had run back to the bed eyes wide, and we both grabbed our ears as we heard two more cracks or rather gun shots...