Red's Redemption ✔

Chapter 4 - Terror

I immediately grabbed on of the butter knives from the table and started walking towards the living room, the direction where I had heard the sound come from. I could hear my heart beating, and could see the sweat that was being released from my palms as I crept up to the room.

Peering in, a dark silhouette of a human moved. Just then, the alarm let out its shrill sound and I slammed the lights on. I decided to ignore the blaring alarm which would eventually turn itself off and focused on the person who was in the living room. 

"Claire?" I gasped as I saw her huddled on the floor. She seemed to be in a lot of pain.

My first assumption was that someone from Diego's clan had decided to come back now. Nine months after the incident. Nine months after everything had gone down. Honestly, the thought of them hurting Claire because of me sent a bunch of shivers down my spine as I approached her.

Her hair was a rough, tangled mess. She had lots of dry leaves and mud in it. Her face was marred with dirt whilst her clothes were ripped and some even had blood on them. This made me feel serious concern for what happened with her. 

"It's not mine." She croaked as she moved closer to the fireplace that was not lit.

"What happened?" I gasped, as I took her appearance in. It looked as though she had been attacked by a wild bear.

She shook her head. She didn't want to speak.

"You have to tell me so we can make sure it never happens again."

I really wanted to respect her and not force her to speak if she didn't want to, but the thought of Diego and groupies coming back really scared me and made me feel on edge. 

"It was stupid." She sobbed, "We were drunk. We made a dumb decision whilst we were drunk."

"You are scaring me."

"We decided to find the gang that killed Ethan." She said as she swiped the tears that had fallen down her face with the back of her hand.

"Why?" I asked in despair, "You know how awful they are."

Claire quietened before she looked at me with dark eyes, "To avenge him."

"Claire..." I whispered, "Why would you after a gang when you have seen what they are capable of?"

Claire started crying heavily now, "They're dead."

Just then the door opened and we both screamed as Vinchenzo walked through the door and looked at us very confused.

"Can I ask why we have two dead woman in our yard?"

"What?" I gasped, "The alarm just went off a few seconds ago. I thought it was false."

"Did you see who did this?" Vinchenzo asked before his eyes focused on Claire and he looked at me with an expression of confusion mixed with shock, "What happened here?"

"Claire tried to avenge my father." I muttered as I grabbed a few logs and threw them into the fireplace. I then started a fire.

"It's too hot for that, Red. We are literally in Arizona." 

I had a strong feeling that he was very angry with Claire's actions but I was grateful that he didn't voice them.

"Claire is cold."

"I think she is getting tremors because of terror, not because she is cold." He shrugged as he checked his phone and then pushed it back into his pocket.

I shrugged but handed her a blanket which she took.

"Claire... tell me, did you kill those woman?"

Claire remained silent, ignoring Vinchenzo's question.

"We have to get rid of them." I sighed, "We can't have anyone see the two bodies outside."

"I will call someone to do it."

"Claire?" I nudged her.

"Huh?" She said, shaking her head.

"Tell me what happened," I said as I sat next to her.

"We were walking and we passed a dark alleyway where we heard a loud noise. Cynthia and Serena ran towards the noise."

I looked at Vinchenzo and could see him mentally facepalming.

"So those people in our garden are Cynthia and Serena?"

Claire looked disturbed, "No... they took them."

"Where you with them?" I asked.

She shook her head, "I was too... scared. I hid. I didn't follow them." 

"Did you hear anything they said?" Vinchenzo asked.

Claire nodded, "A word was said on repeat. Something like om-"

"Omérta." Vinchenzo and I whispered together.

"Did the girls refuse?"

"They were screaming no. I am so stupid, I should have called law enforcement. But before I could think, I heard another two gunshots and they were on the floor. When they left, my friends were... gone."

"Did they see you?" I asked.

Claire shook her head, "No. I never made a noise at that point."

"Why are your clothes like this?"

"I moved out of my spot to go see where they were shot but a man had stayed behind. I never noticed him but he noticed me. He saw me and followed me, so I started running towards the bushes where you got engaged and took a cab to get here."  

Vinchenzo clenched his fists before he directed a smile at me and stood up.

"I am going to look for some clues on the body." He stated. 

I nodded my head as I helped Claire stand up and led her to the bathroom so that she could shower. I turned on the hot water for her and made sure she got in safely before I left and followed Vinchenzo outside. 

"What is that?" I called.

Vinchenzo was holding onto a silver ring that was shining in the moonlight. He seemed to be intensly studying when he turned to me with a furious face.

"Father." He whispered.

Hey Reddies!

Sorry not sorry for that cliff hanger! What do you think is happening? 

If you guys enjoyed this chapter, please leave a vote and a comment with your thoughts letting me know all of your predictions for their future!

XOXO

Perla