The Slave and Her Owner

Ruined Christmas

I stood there frozen to the hard wood floor. I wasn't sure if I was breathing or not because I paid no attention to the gun aimed directly at my face. I was focused on Van's breathing behind me trying to memorize it even if it was for a few more minutes of my life.

I never fully trusted Grace and I wished I had stuck to my original plan. It was to gain her trust and leave this place during the night to sneak away. I, obviously, had failed my own plan and the outcome was standing right in front of me.

I wasn't scared to die because at one point that was all I wanted to do and what anyone I had ever met wanted for me. The only thing I feared in this moment was for Van to watch me die in front of her just like she had seen her family. I think it kills me more to be another heart break of Van's than a bullet to my head. The only thing I ever tried to do in life is to make her happy and now we both die.

"Hannah, these few months were enjoyable. I got to get close enough to you to see you fall. I gained your trust just to break it in the end. This must really suck for the both of you, doesn't it?" Grace looked between Van and I as we briefly locked eyes and turned back to our soon-to-be murderer.

"What are you doing, Grace?" Van asked shakily. The worrisome tone in her voice was making me even more nervous with the gun aimed at my head. The silver weapon's shine was blinding and it startled me at how steady it was held. The gun I had aimed at my head years ago after Van's supposed death was black and it looked lighter than the one Grace was holding.

"What do you think, Vanity? I am going to kill you for the crimes you committed and for the lives you took. I am here to avenge my parent's death!" She screamed and the word death rang throughout the walls. It repeatedly bounced back to me so many times that made my ears want to bleed.

"Grace." I said silently that she didn't hear me as she continued yelling at us.

"You killed my parents and I have waited so many years for this moment when I faced their murderers again. I watched you kill them with your bare hands and you've killed so many that you can't even keep up with whose lives you took. You're a couple of sick, twisted monsters who deserve to die for what you've done."

"I remember." I mumbled. I looked her in the eye. I honestly couldn't recall who she was before I met her and what her parents looked like or what I did to them and why I killed them. I only did what I had to do for Van and I to stay alive and be together. The only reason I've killed is because the victim was annoying Van and I or they were in my way of something. So her parents must've done something to piss me off,  but I just can't think of which ones they could be.

Did I kill them at the same time and place?

Were they going to hurt me first?

Where did I kill them?

Why and how does Grace know we killed them?

"You remember, huh? What year was it?" I scrambled in my thoughts for a good enough answer or at least a good estimate of when they were killed.

"I-I don't remember that." I said stupidly and a click echoed as she took the safety off the weapon. She stared at me with a threatening frown that said I only have a limited amount of time.

"Um, three years ago?" I tried. My first murder was when I was thirteen with my first owner that I really hated. Grace nodded her head which meant I guessed correctly. I mentally sighed in relief at my great guess.

"How did you kill them?" Shit. Well, when I was fourteen most of them were done by knife or hand. I was never really into guns growing up. I have a 50/50 chance of getting this damn question right.

"Knife." I waited to hear the gun go off but I praised myself for my damn good guessing. Grace stood in front of me with a frown that was only deepening.

"Where?" Now that question I couldn't answer. I only had a little to go off of. I was fourteen and I killed them with a knife so that narrows it down to about five people. I tried to think hard enough to that far back, but it was only giving me a head ache. "What are you waiting on? Christmas?"

Then it hit me. I murdered her parents on Christmas day.

************

It was snowing down to the ground in white flurries. Van and I were walking down a street hand in hand. Our fingers were laced together trying to fight the cold and lights were placed on many buildings. Every store had decorations and happy people walking in and out.

Due to our lack of age or a house, I couldn't give Van a good holiday. We had been staying at an abandoned warehouse with stolen lights, a tree we put up, and a bed to share. It wasn't much, but it was all we had for now. Food was running low in our little home so that's what we were out for that night.

Van and I had made a plan to rob a convenience store we had been keeping track of for about a week. We stepped on the side walk outside of the store and put our black masks on. We nodded at each other and I pulled the knife out of my pocket and kept it up my sleeve. Van walked in first and approached the counter.

There was no cashier at the counter so I kept a look out as Van broke the register and pulled out everything. I kept my eye on the door where an employee might come out of. After a few minutes, a man came into sight and jumped at us behind the counter.

"Hey, what are you two kids doing?!" He ran towards me and tackled me to the ground. The knife had slipped from my sleeve and skidded across the floor. From the corner of my eye, I could see Van take a woman by the back of her head and smash it against the hard counter. I was struggling to get the large man's heavy weight off me but I was struck in the nose and my head hit the floor. I reached for the next and as he was about to strike me again, I plunged my only weapon into his side and he gasped clutching his wound. He rolled off me and I stood up and ran with Van outside after pulling my knife and getting him again in the shoulder to bleed him out quicker.

"Let's go, babe!" Van yelled as we got out quickly. I turned back for a brief second and saw a girl a little older than us come out from a back room and stood in shock at the scene we left behind.

That was why Grace looked so familiar. She was the girl we ruined the holidays for.

A/N:

Greetings. I know it's short and I apologize but it's more of a filler chapter. The rest should be explained in the next one so bare with me. Thank you for the wonderful comments, votes, reads and adding my story to your libraries. I follow anyone who does so.

-M