“I’m so confused, what is this?” My eyes were wide open. What the Hell? It wasn’t my birthday, so why were my foster parents throwing me a birthday party?
“Happy birthday to yoouuu,” they sang the moment I walked through the door. I blinked. I’d been living with them for like five months now, and they didn’t even have the decency to know it wasn’t my birthday? Did Jonah tell them? I wouldn’t put it past him. I have the worst foster brother ever.
“What’s going on? Today isn’t my birthday.”
“Of course it is, sweetie!” chipper Mrs. Lawrence smiled.
“Um, no it’s not.” Who was she to tell me if it was my birthday or not.
“No need to be modest, honey, it’s your big 16th!”
Okay, now she was really pissing me off. “Mrs. Lawrence, I’m not even 15 yet.”
“Jane,” she chuckled, “I’ve told you a million times to call me Mom. This is your family now. Not those good for nothing gangsters that walked out on you years ago.”
My blood boiled. How dare she talk about my family that way.
“Why don’t we play some party games?” Mrs. Lawrence continued, excitement creeping into her voice. “Let’s start with the piñata!”
Why not? I might as well humor her. As she placed the blindfold over my eyes, her hand brushed my face and I got an uneasy feeling. Proper Mrs. Lawrence had sweaty and shaky hands.
“Now let’s play a little game,” I heard a male voice from the other side of the room. Oh my god, wasn’t that from some horror movie? I wasn’t really into those, but I knew it wasn’t good. As I reached up to take the blindfold off my face, strong hands grabbed my wrists.
“Doll, you ain’t goin’ anywhere.”
I knew that voice. I recognized the flat tone, the gravelly timbre. This was Merciless Marley. My parents had left when I was seven, had given me up to the foster home just to get me away from this man. He was a member of the gang warring with the one my parents had belonged to. He had always thought that I, as the only child of gang members at that point, was the weakest link and started tracking me down. I thought I was done with this, done with him. But I guess I was wrong.
“Marley, shoot her already. We need leverage.” No, it couldn’t be. Mrs. Lawrence was a member of Merciless Marley’s gang.
“No. Linda, leave her alone.” The voice was distinctly that of Mr. Lawrence. So he was here to help me? Good, because at this point I really needed it.
“Get out of here, Frank,” Mrs. Lawrence’s usually chipper voice was now threatening, and it scared me.
“I have a gun. Both of you, leave.” My heart beat in my chest. If it weren’t for Mr. Lawrence, I’d be dead by now. Not to say that I wouldn’t end up that way after all.
Suddenly, Marley’s hands left my wrists. I quickly took the blindfold off, just in time to see Mr. Lawrence’s bullet go off and hit Merciless Marley right in the chest. I heard him shriek and saw him try to dive to the side as if in slow motion. And then the blood splattered everywhere.
