“Ma`Ma?” the small girl entered the room where her mother lay, crying. The woman reached out to her 9 year old child, a child who was now Fatherless.
“Mon petit femme. Now, at such a young age, you shall have the truth forced upon you.” She sighed. “I am très sorry my little one.” The young girl squirmed in her mother’s grasp.
“Tell me, Ma`Ma, tell me as much as you can.” Such a small, willing daughter. Serein looked down at her daughter, memorizing her. The wiry frame, hiding, harboring untapped reserves of strength.
“Europe has become a très dangerous place, small one.” She told the amethyst eyes, so innocent-looking. She knew the mind behind those eyes to be cunning. Serein decided to allow her daughter to choose the path they would take from here. “Your Pa`Pa. He has been taken from us.” The amethyst eyes got wide for a moment.
Instead of crying, her daughter amazed her.
“Then we must go, Ma`Ma. We shall travel Europe, staying one step ahead of the ones who took Pa`Pa. I must learn all the languages so that I may fit in and become inconspicuous if necessary. I must also train.” her child paused. “They will try for us, too, Ma`Ma.”
“I know, my jeune femme.” She caressed her daughter’s auburn tresses. “Soon. We shall leave soon.”
“Fallyn?” Serein asked the seeming emptiness. She turned around, knowing what to expect by now. Her 11 year old daughter was walking in, reading a business card. She knew exactly what had happened and knew also it was time to move.
“Ma`Ma?” Fallyn set the card on the table. “Its time, isn’t it.” Her mother nodded and looked at the business card laying on the table. She looked back at her daughter, knowing it was only a matter of time.
The young girl before her wore a tank top, as usual, and a pair of multi-pocketed loose shorts that stopped a few inches below the girl’s knees. “Tell me you…” but before she could finish, the young girl had pressed five pouches of money into her hands. “Ah, my jeune femme.” She smiled at her daughter and mouthed “Let’s go.”
Serein screamed again. The pain was unbearable. She knew Fallyn was watching from the hiding place and became suddenly protective. ‘Fallyn.’ She had to protect her child. ‘Fallyn.’ She bit down on her bottom lip and glared at the men. She counted them in her mind as one of them hit her back again. Seven. Serein laughed. They sent seven guys to kill her! They must think she’s dangerous indeed!
Fallyn watched in horror as they finally cut the ropes binding the limp form of her mother.
‘Ma`Ma only screamed twice. She was brave. They raped her and beat her and she only screamed twice. I love you, Ma`Ma.’
The men slit her mother’s wrists and left her. She didn’t move. Neither did Fallyn. The 14 year old watched in silence as her mother’s blood drained from the limp form. ‘She was dead long ago. Don’t cry, Fallyn. Ma`Ma wouldn’t want you to cry. Never again. Don’t cry.’ Fallyn silently cried herself to sleep in her hiding place.
Fallyn had been blind now for about a year. Ever since the day her mother had been…but she wouldn’t dwell on that. She was blind, had awakened blind that day.
For a few months she had been scared. She never left the house. Rarely ate. She had lost a lot of weight, so much that she probably wouldn’t gain it back. But she finally had overcome her fears and had gone out.
Her senses were highly acute, to her surprise. She could hear, smell, taste, feel things she hadn’t been able to before.
Now, she was out and about. She never used a sight stick, her ability to sense where things were allowed her that privilege. Her eyes always shifted under her bangs, though no one could see them and she couldn’t see in the first place.
Suddenly, out of nowhere and before she could prepare for it, she was struck on the back of the head. She fell and rolled away. She sprang to her feet and looked around, but the sun’s glare kept her from seeing anything.
She stood up straight and blinked. Sun’s glare? She was blind! She shouldn’t be able to see the sun’s glare! She glanced around and darted down an alleyway. She heard the footsteps and ducked behind a dumpster.
The footsteps slowed, but kept coming. Whoever it was, was being careful. She saw a foot, shin, knee, thigh, and the rest of the boy hove into view. She let out a small gasp and the boy looked at her.
“Oh! There you are! I wanted to apologize.” She looked at his green-eyed gaze. And met it with her own amethyst one.
He was an assassin. The gun was hidden in his pants. But there was a seeming reluctance in his stance. “My name is Stacy.”
“You’ve come to kill me.” He blinked, then lowered his head and looked at the ground. He scuffled his feet a little bit. He didn’t say anything, just nodded his blonde head.
They ran. Bullets whizzed by them. Suddenly, Stacy screamed and fell forward. 'Shit!' Fallyn caught him with the grace and ease of a circus performer, flipping him onto her shoulder, never pausing in her mad flight.
Her braid whipping behind her, she ran out of the park, her eyes stinging with unshed tears. She darted down an alleyway and climbed a fire escape with Stacy’s body hanging limply over her shoulder. She hid on the roof just as the followers turned the corner into the alleyway.
She carried Stacy to one of her hiding places, as she heard one of the men on the fire escape, making sure not to leave any trails or tell-tale signs. She was successful. The guy gave one look around, shrugged, and climbed back down the fire escape.
Knowing they were safe, she turned her attention to her fallen friend.
A bullet was lodged in Stacy’s heart. She felt for a pulse and listened for breath, but found neither. Fallyn was starting to think that she was not meant to have friends as, for the second time in her life, the silent tears overtook her.
‘This is the tenth time today! What the hell do I look like, a fuckin’ prossy?’ the 15 year old Fallyn thought to herself as the guy sidled up to her, cash in hand.
“Hey, babe. How much?” She gave the guy an amused grin that widened as his face fell.
“More than you’ve got, buddy. I’m not for ‘sale’, so beat it.” She felt eyes boring into her. As the guy blinked at her and walked away, Fallyn’s eyes scanned the crowd.
