The Bodyguard

Open Fire

(I'm back! Sorry guys!)

When your life flashes before your eyes, you realize not how full it is but how empty it is of people. And that really there are only three people who truly matter. Your friend, your family, and your love. The only people that Emilia saw in that brief moment of dazzling sunlight that blinds her as the door swings open and she loses all hope, is her mother, Jasmine, and most surprisingly Alexander. She supposed it made sense, her only chance of survival flashing through her mind when she is certain the only thing left to her is death, she couldn't actually care for him that much, but if she did what did it actually matter now, she would be gone soon anyway, and he would never know or care.

Before she can blink, before Emilia can move an inch more, a gun shot rings through the store, the glass windows shaking in their frames, and the hand holding her bindings only clenches tighter, the gun at her back digging tightly between her shoulder blades as she thinks for the briefest of moments that he is about to pull the trigger, that she is about to end up like Rosie, just a name in a paper about a kidnapping or rape gone wrong, another pour young girl who ended up dead on the street with a bullet through her chest.

But then, she is falling towards the ground, dragged awkwardly by her wrists as her legs fold and her body hits the ground with a heavy thud, back arched painfully and head thudding against something much softer than concrete as she tries her hardest not to scream from fear and pain of the awkward position. She can feel the burning of her hands, the gun still stuck beneath her, and something sticky that begins to coat the side of her face as she gags from the smell of blood coating her hair and cheek, making its way to her tightly closed mouth.

And behind her she hears a scuffle, but she can't bear to open her eyes, to look at what is happening on the street before her, to see the concrete below, the car in front, or the blood she can feel seeping below her. All she can feel in that moment is the stinging of scraped arms and knees, smell the rancid copper scent of blood and other fluids that is making her gag, and all she can hear is struggling breath, not from the man behind her but from somewhere far away, miles away from where her mind is.

"Tell him, that if he wants to come after Mr. Delmont, go after him, not her, understood? Or next time, he won't get a warning." Comes a snarl, it is soft and distant, but she can still hear it, then are the pounding feet of someone stumbling, running past her as she struggles to control the panic and tears flooding from her body. In her ears is still ringing the gun shot loud and clear, and below her she feels the body, the body that she knows is dead.

Suddenly, a rough yank on her arm bindings and suddenly she is struggling, fighting to be free, sobbing freely as she tries to break their rough hold on her. "No, please! Let me go! Please! I beg you, he won't give anything for me, I mean nothing!" She screamed, eyes still screwed shut as she can taste the copper of what she knows is not her own blood in her mouth.

"Hey! Hey! It's me, it's Alex, calm down, you're safe." The arm restraining her shoulders, holding her tightly to  a solid chest tightens, keeping her from thrashing as the voice breaks through her mindless struggles, and grounds her to the moment as she leans her head back against his chest, eyes slowly opening through the blur of tears to see the body before her, the van waiting for her trembling body.

"I'm going to untie you now, ok, just relax." He whispers in her ear, still supporting her with the arm across her chest, supporting her against him. She didn't understand how his breathing was so steady, how he was unphased by what just took place, and yet, it was comforting as she didn't dare to move. She didn't trust her own legs to support her at the moment they shook so badly beneath her.

Suddenly, the pressure on her wrists is released and even though her hands are free she doesn't move an inch, stuck against his torso as she simply stares at the gorilla man lying across the door way. Blood pooling down the slanted sidewalk, collecting in unseen cracks and spread over where her body used to be, an imprint of her face still there as she tries not to tremble, to be able to stand on her own two feet again.