I don't know how it happened. One moment he was there. Then the next he wasn’t.
There was something about the air around the base I lived at that seemed so tense, so unreal, and even at a young age I knew for a fact that something was wrong.
I was in my room at the time. Minding my own business as much as an 11 year old, bored child could. I looked out the window and could see my brother, Hadrian, talking to someone, his hands waving around in the air in emphases – something he only did in anger.
He was 22 years old. A very well mannered, highly respected man in the army. And to me – he was my brother. My one and only loving brother who took care of me as best he can when my father wasn’t there.
Being curious this perked up my interests and I shut the blinds ever so slightly so only I could see them before squinting my eyes and trying to make out what they were saying. The other man’s back was facing me so I couldn’t see him but I was sure that he was equally mad as his hands balled into fists beside him.
No one else was awake except the set of guards doing the checks and rounds at the back and the group training down at the back field, apart from that everything was dead silent in my room and grounds all together as everyone was asleep.
I saw my brother look into the window I was looking through with a pained expression as if he knew I was awake and watching, as if he felt it, our sibling bond pulling him to check my way. I couldn’t help but duck under the window, my breathing shallow. What are they talking about? And why would he need to look this way?
I got up slowly to peek up but my heart lurched into my throat as I see a knife pulled out of the man’s pocket and a second later was thrust into my Hadrian’s abdomen where I was sure it had hit an organ. He falls into the man’s arms straight away.
Why hadn’t he stopped him? He’s encountered many knife and gun fights, how could he have not seen this coming?!
Hadrian looks back up and into my window where the blinds were still practically closed his face taught with pain and anguish, ‘I'm sorry Ana,’ he mouthed before finally shutting his eyes and falling down. The man looks down at him shaking his head and looking around for a moment to see if anyone saw, before finally turning to look me dead in the eyes.
His face something I will never. Ever. Forget.
Sheeran. How could he?
He gives me an evil smile and a second later all hell broke loose as the siren for my base went off, helicopters and jets and planes and scary people coming in from all places, guns shooting, people yelling. My head thumped but through all the noise all I heard was a terrified high-pitched scream that wouldn’t stop. When Lynda, one of the female soldiers I’ve grown close to, runs in and yanks me away from my window I finally realise it was me that screamed like crazy back there and right now freaking out wouldn’t help the situation.
That didn’t stop me.
‘Ana! Ana come on! We have to get out of here! Stop screaming!’ Lynda screams over all the noise her voice an order and her hold tightening, bruising my skin in the process as I thrashed around.
‘Hadrian! He… he – I need to go to him!’
‘Ana, no! You’ll get killed! Don't be stupid! We have to get out of here. NOW!’ she orders and I knew if I didn’t follow she’d throw me over her shoulder anyway seeing I was only small at the time, though as much as I was strong and smart for my age she was still much more stronger than me.
I felt the tears in my eyes and stopped fighting her letting her drag me into the familiar bodies of my “family” as they were instructed to do everything in their power to get me the hell out of this crazy place and I felt someone lift me over their shoulder like I weighed nothing. When I see Lynda’s figure getting smaller and her guns firing at the shooting jets flying past I finally start to scream through the noise though I knew she heard me.
‘Lynda! Lynda, please! Don't leave me!’ I cried kicking whoever was holding me. As if they knew I was about to go crazy they held on tighter as I started thrashing and screaming like a crazy person.
The last look I saw on her face was sympathy and sadness before someone had put something in my system to knock me out cold.
I didn’t even feel the needle. And I didn’t even know where my own father was.
But one thing for sure was: I was going to hunt that man down whether it’s the last thing I’d do.
YOU ARE READING
The Firm (on hold & getting put through some serious changes)
ActionLiving on an army base since she could remember, Adriana Coldwell encounters her first death. At the age of 11. Her brothers’. It wasn’t until she realised who had killed him that she finally decided what to do with her life. Avenge. But there's...
