$trings

11

WAS ZACHARY JONES DEAD, or was he faking this one too? Well, this one looked real. This one had blood leaking out from unseen holes in his chest, and this one had him slumped, lifeless in the driver's seat. I ripped my eyes from the sight while navigating Simon's eyes away too. Oh yeah, the little boy did not have to see, whether it was a fake death or a real death. I had promised myself to keep him well away from seeing what was in that Audi after our crew had erupted from the cars to help.

The little boy asked me what was going on. I was obliged to lie once more. "Nothing," I told him.

"Is dada dead?" the little boy quizzed again.

"No," I lied one more time, staring down at him; he who was looking up at me through wide, innocent eyes. "He's playing a game," I told the kid.

"I wove games!" The kid's eyes widened even more, mouth gaping with awe.

"Really?" That could work. "Let me teach you one..." I crouched down and spun with him, so that only I could see a bloodied Zac and others fretting tenaciously. "It's called Amina," I told Simon.

"Amina," he repeated, grinning, flushing.

I nodded, and I taught him the game; the game that had words I could never actually pronounce or understand entirely.

It took him a while to get, so I kept peeping around him. The others were now moving. Steps towards positivity happened gradually there, but still, Yasmin was stunned; frozen in shock. And Miranda had herself crying livid tears and pacing around the Audi. "I'm next," I heard her say. "I'm next... Ruth, I'm bloody next! I'm so next... Fuck, I'm next... We have to get the fuck away from here..." She became more persistent with time, bumping into the others. While the little boy was happily clapping his tiny palms against mine for practice, I watched Mimi slithering up behind Ruth and wrenching her to face her. "CAN YOU NOT FUCKING HEAR ME, BITCH!" Miranda roared in the woman's face, "WE HAVE TO GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HERE!"

Certainly, her voice carried deep into the forest. I pulled the little boy into an embrace to cover those untainted ears of his.

"MIRANDA, CALM THE HELL DOWN, FOR GOODNESS SAKES!" Ruth roared back, wiping away her own red, wet face. Simon hugged me tight while giggling away in my shoulder. That naïve thing was not allowed see his mother converting to darkness. "ALL THIS," Ruth continued indignantly, "IS YOUR FAULT, IS IT NOT?"

"RUTH, I'M NOT FUCKING WITH--"

Ruth spoke over with, "YOU, ONLY YOU, MIRANDA, SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS, GODDAMMIT!"

"RUTH!"

"CAN IT, MIRANDA."

Miranda began to squint hostilely at that. At once, Ruth wheeled away with a loud deep breath. And off she stormed, towards Sam and Carlos, who had Zac slumped in between them both. Their support did not hide his limpness.

Ruth went back to ignoring Mimi right then and there; she went into directing Sam and Carlos in putting Zac in the side. I let the little boy go and grinned weirdly at his red face. Oops. He might have almost suffocated in my shoulder. "Can you do it now?" I inquired. All my focus, I placed on him again.

Simon nodded his head eagerly. I longed to have that zeal. "I can, I can, I can, I can..." he chimed.

Lifting my hands, he chimed a little more, then started singing the Amina song while slapping my palms with his tiny ones. Oh, they were so tiny I thought I'd burst out laughing, chuckling at their miniaturisation, and at his adorability. To think I was once rather like that; to think we were all like that in a way at a certain point in time. And now we were murderers, cheaters, liars, hypocrites. The remarkable thing was, we never really identified where it all went left.

The little boy dove into yet another round of Amina while my eyes were shifting to the Audi away from his face again. Now, Zac was in the side. Slumped like a bag of potatoes. Bloodied down the whole front of his close-fitting cream shirt. And the others were congregated in discussion at the boot of the Audi. Yasmin still frozen.

Dragging Mimi aside after a moment was Ruth. There was still bad blood between them, but neither glared as Ruth began instructing the rich girl to dump us at her house, take whatever was necessary, then follow to the hospital straight afterwards. Mimi gave a few determined nods. Then, Ruth jumped into the Audi, the Audi cradling a bloody Zac, and she sped away like the bike had done, down the west highway.

Mimi rushed us into the cars without further ado. We hadn't any need to oppose, so, we were hustled by our cars to Mimi's mansion and brought to her glorious yard. Things were done with much haste there. We offloaded the cars at a fast pace. And we were done in no time at all. Gathered around near the fountain. "Lock up," she told us then. "And don't tell anyone about this."

It was going to be forgotten either way, so there was bored shrugging and nodding at her order.

After watching the rich girl buckle in the little boy in the front of her Range Rover Evoque, we spun away and began to disperse. Behind, Monique was directed to dismiss the Help and take the keys with her. I glanced back to behold Mimi hurdling into the driver's seat. She waved at me whilst starting the car; I waved back and inspected where I was going to load my suitcase into the mansion. When I looked back once more, the rumble had died down.

So, just like that, Miranda was gone.

24/10/2021