Mafia Parade

1| Good luck?

"Ann, RUN, NOW!!" I yelled at the poor girl, hoping she would do as I say.

"No, Lia... I won't go..Come with me, I can't go alone.. Please" the words barely made their way out of her mouth for that she was crying like a baby fetching her mom's breast.

"No, no, no. Anna you gotta go, 'cuz if we both went together, we will get murdered, do you get it?! MURDERED!"

I felt bad for putting it that way, really bad, but it was the truth.

Sadly...

"No ...no! I won't go" she held my left arm as tight as possible. I looked at her with my please-don't-do-this-to-me look, but she was just as stubborn as I am, I suppose.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps, someone was only a few meters behind us. Is he shouting? I thought to myself. I didn't get what he said at first, but then it became as clear as the sun in a summer day.

"Puta !!! Muéstrate perra ! You're dead, do ya listen? Of course you do, you better show yourself." He kept swearing after that, I barely kept my breath steady.

One of Fernando's men. Darn it

I grabbed Anna and whispered softly "honey, we're gonna run towards the cliff and then jump..., but don't worry I got you, I won't let you get hurt, then..then.. There will be a highway just stop any car and ask for help, ok?" Then I added glibly "I promise everything will be fine"

She nodded meekly at me, to be honest, I didn't know why I said that to her, I knew there was like 20% chance of us surviving this, or even less, I just didn't want to believe in that.

I want to live.

Yes. I want to live.

We were near the American-Mexican borders, so there would be, definitely, someone who would help us.

Or so I thought.

I mouthed to Anna, One,

Two,

Three,

Run.

Then we ran, we kept running for about seven minutes, we couldn't keep it up, we stopped to take our breaths. I felt hazy, I didn't eat a decent shit since last week.

I looked at Anna, she was tired I could see it in her face, but since I did my best not to let her get hungry or thirsty, she was doing better than me.

I changed my gaze and fixed it on the moon. It was a moonlit night, I couldn't feel my legs, my eyes went shut whenever I wasn't concentrating.. Then, I just let my eyes roam the shadows on the far side of the forest...

"I-I hear voices" as Anna spoke, I snapped back to reality.

I heard voices too. I just felt relieved, so relieved. I crawled across the ground toward the cliff ahead of us, and peered so hard to check how high it was.

Umm, about eight feet.

"Anna, hun, can you jump from here ?" I asked without looking at her. She joined me to check the cliff's height as well, and then replied "Yes of course I can" then she added anxiously " B-but can you?"

"Haha, honey, hell ya" I gave her the warmest smile I could .

No ATP Left, Dammit.

"I will jump first" Anna declared, and before I could even object, she was already standing down the cliff waiting for me. I gathered all the strength I had and jumped.

OUUUCH.

I twisted my ankle, I forced my weight on it unconsciously, I groaned with pain as I lied on the ground. Anna gave me a sympathetic look, and before she could say a word,we heard noises from up the hill.

"Ann, they are probably getting close to us, we better move our butts, let's head towards the voices right there." Pointing at the end of the long, curvy road. I swallowed hard before I got on my legs, I started walking with a bad limp. Anna gave me her shoulder to lean on, I tried to refuse, but she cut my words off by saying "You are not in a position to say no, and you were just talking about getting hurt."

This thirteen years old girl can be more stubborn than you, Lia.

I sighed with agreement and leaned against her.

After few minutes the voices became clearer, the people were American, with pretty luxurious cars, huuh. And before we could even reach them and call for their help, Fernando's men were behind us, just a little past the hill Anna and I had jumped.

"Run" I said as I pushed Anna towards the men, "no 'no', GO", she hesitated for a second, then ran towards them and yelled "I will get help!".

I pulled my M9 gun, and checked how many bullets left.

Darn it, only three bullets left.

I held up my both hands to shoot, but my vision was blurry.

You can do it girl.

Missed.

Left leg. One down.

Missed.

I threw the gun on the road, and started limping towards "help". I barely reached my destination unhurt, but, without any warning, someone knocked me out, and all I could hear was someone swearing and Anna calling out to me with a voice that sounded muffled as if I was underwater.

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Yours sincerely,
Iman 🙌🏻✨