Dignity's Worth

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

My jacket and trousers had been cleaned thoroughly by the rain that night, and since it was fresh blood, it wiped off easily. But my mind wasn't thinking about that. My mind was thinking about how good it felt to have a bullet pinned in someone's head. And the son of a bitch deserved it.

I knew the gun was too risky to keep now. I had to get rid of the goddamn thing. So I dropped it in one of the drains by the street. It was overflowing with rain anyways, and so the gun was gone with the water current in about half a minute.

When I came back home, I noticed Mary wasn't there. My parents weren't there either, and from this I knew they were asleep at Mrs. Rosenthal's. Mary had probably cried a little and gone off to sleep too. I removed my jacket and threw it in the fireplace. It was Giovanni's jacket anyways, so not like I cared or anything.

The wet jacket put out the fire that had been burning for so long, and I had to start it again and wait until the jacket was nothing but smoke and ash. Then I rested by the fireplace with my feet outstretched, thinking about the next day and the situation I was currently in.

It was very dangerous, this job. I knew sooner or later I was gonna have to face retaliation, but what bothered me more was the direction this affair was taking me in. I hadn't signed up for this when I was thinking of beating Martin Giovanni to a pulp. After all I was still a teenager in high school. But I knew I was more than that. I was a criminal by law. I'd committed murder in the first degree, but I hardly cared about that. I was worried for my family and Mary. They could be attacked anytime, retaliation could come in any way, and so I knew I had to be careful.

All I wanted to do at that own moment was worry about myself and not anybody else. I wanted to move out to an apartment of my own so that I'd manage all these things without worrying much. Freisdal's murder alone was gonna bring a lot of trouble home.

And I was thinking of killing Ian Teller. That would disrupt everything in my life. But every single time I thought of reconsidering something like that, my mind would go to thousands of young girls in the South Spot, all begging to be rescued, to be freed of the inhuman harassment they were facing.

Every girl I knew was a lioness. A fierce lioness. Mary, Lucy, Lily, you name one. But not in the South Spot. There all the lionesses were caged and bound and sold to the highest bidder to be taken to a circus to work as slaves for the rest of their lives. I couldn't stand the thought of it. And so I knew I had to do something.

Killing Teller was only going to be a start.

I don't even know when I fell asleep that night. But I did fall asleep, and I woke up just in time for school. Mary left the same time as me, and that day was the first time we weren't walking to school together.

"Alex?" my mom came into the house as I was tying my shoelaces, "You ready?"

"Almost." I replied, "What were you doing at Mrs. Rosenthal's last night? Why'd you stay over?"

"Yesterday was their anniversary." was mom's reply, "And poor Amanda just broke down thinking about her husband. Mary couldn't stand her crying so she was in here for a while. Your dad didn't come home last night, he's been working the night shift. I stayed over to make sure Amanda was okay."

"When is dad gonna be home?"

"He'll be here soon."

I got up and started for college.

"Have fun Alex." said she.

"I'll try," I replied, kissing her on the cheek, "I love you mom."