✔ Aspen | Sherman Yang

[4.06]

"Mom, where are we going?" Sherman's tiny feet were quaking with energy, the long drive was ahead of them and he didn't know why she'd make him and the rest of the gang go to where they were going. At four years old, he didn't understand anything, but he understood that wherever he was going, there was no way it wasn't important.

"You'll see my little sapling." She smiled, keeping her eyes on the road. Sherman and Hunter's huge dog Papillon sat in the back seats of her sleek black car, driving down the streets of New York. Sebastian was riding shotgun, biting his lip nervously while looking at his phone. They were tracking down another gang who they weren't in good terms with. Despite Caroline's protests, they insisted on covering their tracks and getting revenge on the opposing gang.

She was their best driver. With sharp instincts and good innocent looks, police never suspected a thing. Driving around in the most modest clothes possible and a pair of wide glasses, they looked perfectly normal. It was extremely easy to assume Sebastian was the bad boy gone good father, Sherman was their angel, and their borrowed husky dog was their family joy.

It worked.

Sherman knew that whatever his mom and her friends were doing, it was top secret stuff. He knew that his father left him, but he was ok with that. He had over eleven fatherly figures who all spoiled him. So when the police inspected them whenever there was security, they easily let them go, petting the dog on the way out.

Pulling up along a rocky road, Sherman saw his mother smile and he took her hand. "Where are we mama?"

"A forest. Sherman these trees, you were named after them."

A blanket of yellow was sketched onto the canvas of the sky and Sherman had never seen so much trees, or so much yellow. "Sherman means yellow trees mom?"

"No, Yang means aspen, little sapling."

"Is that why you call me sapling?"

"Yes darling." She smiled. Sherman smiled as well at his mother. Sherman thought his mother was really pretty and hoped he would be attractive when he was older. She appeared to be happy and he wondered why anyone would leave a lady so pretty and so kind.

Obviously he was oblivious to why his father left.

"Are we here just to see trees?"

"No, the guys are on a special mission, and we have to be their guards." She bent down and lightly pinched his cheek. He laughed, and his almond shaped black eyes sparkled with curiousity.

They played in the crumbling leaves for hours, talking, playing, and laughing. Sherman loved his time with her mother. He loved Papillon, how she barked and leaped on him.

Everything was suddenly interrupted when gunshots rang out and Papillon's sharp ears perked up in alarm. She started barking and quivering. It didn't take much for the four-year-old to realize that something was extremely wrong.

The sound of pattering footsteps were coming towards them and Papillon wasn't running towards the sound like she usually would. That person wasn't any member of the gang that's for sure. Quickly considering her options. Caroline knew it was better to run. With her car, she would be in sight, on a road that was undoubtedly being covered for by the other group, and would be a larger target.

She easily picked up Sherman who was very confused, and sprinted, her legs carrying her faster and further and further away from her car as she could. The dog followed her just as quickly, twisting and turning in the forest Caroline knew by heart from coming there to go on runs when she was bored. Every trail was a memory, and she knew the fastest and hardest trail to follow that would lead to where the gang tracked them to.

It was no difficulty running, she was an Olympic runner, but she didn't want to know what she was going to see. As her breathing heavier and Sherman's quivering breaths where slowing her down, she finally reached the meeting place, a log cabin surrounded in electric fences.

It looked out of place in the beautiful forest of aspen trees. Five years ago she never suspected that house would be where a mafia hid as a hideout. Her hands trembled as her pants suddenly weighed down on her. Her belt felt extremely heavy and she could barely hear over Papillon's barks and the footsteps that slowly came towards her. They barely gave her any time when a muscular hand clasped over her mouth.

She screamed realizing another man ran out and grabbed her child. With raw anger at the sight of the man in hold of Sherman, she thrust her elbow into his chest, whipped around, kneed him in the groin, and threw a deadly side punch at his face. Her heart thudded against her chest at such a rate she felt like she was going to pass out from the adrenaline and the fear she felt for Sherman. As the man staggered backwards, she knocked him over and pinned his shoulders down.

Sherman screamed as the second man strangled him. He thrust sharp baby teeth into the hand and the man screamed out, going Sherman a little time to run to his mom who was busy fighting the man strangling her. The man strangled him again, this time pressing a cold blade to his throat, and his feet dangled in the air. Sherman knew well enough that this was a blade, and his breathing completely stopped.

His mother knocked over the man and pinned him down, then thrust him up, her arm locked around his neck and a gun pointed at his head. Her makeup was smudged, and she looked like she was a female demon death who had walked into the autumn forest for a nice stroll.

"Put him down." She growled, snarling her teeth at him. Papillon followed her fierce position, baring her teeth and slowly walking towards the man. Sherman was a statue, refusing to move, and watched the dog inch towards him.

"Can't make me. If you hurt him, your kid dies. We both know what is more at stake."

Caroline gritted her teeth and glanced at her son, who's face was turning pale. Looking at the dog, she bit her lip. "You're right."

The dog lunged at the hand holding the sliver knife, sinking her sharp fangs into his teeth, making him loosen his grip on Sherman. From clear sight, his mother raised her gun, and it seemed as it was slow motion as she mercilessly pulled the trigger. A deafening gunshot filled the air and the grip on Sherman was suddenly released, and he landed on his feet only to feel extremely sick.

Turning around as the man staggered backwards, Sherman ran to his mother, embracing her with tears seeping down his face. His mother took him in her arms, barely acknowledging him as Papillon dragged the body towards her, a trail of blood leaking on the pelt of the yellow leaves. Approximately seven men ran out toward the two and scanned seven pairs of nervous eyes around the forest, either landing on Caroline's shaking hand with a gun at her feet, or the dead body the intelligent dog had dragged to her.

No one needed an explanation, but one thing was for sure. Caroline or Sherman were definitely not getting out of this gang.