In The Bleak Midwinter | T Shelby

THIRTY ONE - A NOTE

Aberama knew it wasn't safe to take his children back to Small Heath, but after the slaying of the horse while they slept and the disappearance of the youngest Shelby, he didn't have much choice.

John had returned to speak to his brothers about the situation before travelling back out to where the Gold family were staying later on that evening.

Night had fallen when he left and the sky was black. It was a cloudless night with stars hanging against the ebony glow, dark shadows from trees startling him when the wind blew.

Thomas hadn't been easy to convince when John proposed the return of Aberama and his children. He thought the safest place for them was our in the countryside where, as far as he knew, nobody knew where to find them.

John argued that he hadn't seen the sickness that was clinging to their faces when Kaia recalled the fate of his horse, knowing that the family couldn't take much more isolation before completely losing themselves.

Tommy didn't want that for Kaia, he didn't want that for any of them, knowing first hand what it felt like to slowly lose parts of yourself without even realising that any time was passing by at all.

And so, he agreed. With his skin thick with guilt and his stomach drenched in anxiety, Tommy told John to bring the family home that evening. Nobody had seen or heard anything of Finn as another sun rose and set, pushing the family to the edge of their options. None of the Shelby's wanted to admit what they were thinking in the back of their minds, the thought alone being far too horrific to be said out loud, but they all knew that it had crossed each of their minds at least once.

He hadn't seen Lizzie since John told her to leave his home the other evening, but he was ashamed to say she had been in his thoughts. Not seeing Kaia had taken him to a dark place, the place he was all too used to being in. His life before meeting Kaia Gold and his life after could only be equated to living life in black and white one moment and seeing everything in colour the next. She changed the way his mind worked, the way he viewed himself and the way he viewed others. He was a better person because of Kaia Gold, and without her, he felt lost.

"Tom!"

His head snapped up from reading the same page of a newspaper over and over again at his desk when Arthur barged through the door to his office, blood on his face and sweat dripping down from his hair.

"What's happened?" He replied, preparing himself to hear the news the family had been dreading.

Arthur swallowed, "A boy no older than Finn, his body was against the door of the pub when I went to lock up. I tried to save him but, I just..."

Tommy rose to his feet and walked over to his brother's side, placing a hand on his shoulder to calm him when he noticed him losing his breath, his eyes growing watery as he recalled the story.

"It's not your fault, Arthur."

He just shook his head, his lips parted and his eyes wide with disbelief as he looked at his younger brother.

"There was a note inside the pocket of his coat, it had an address and a time and..."

"And what?" Tommy raised an eyebrow, his face flat with no emotion.

"And your name, Tom. They want you."

**

When John arrived back at the site he'd left the Gold family at earlier that day, he was met with silence. It wasn't the silence of a family sleeping or the silence of them sat around a fire not speaking, no, it was a silence that made John's heart rise into his throat as the leaves crunched beneath his horse's hooves and the wind whistled through the bare branches of the trees that surrounded him.

He cleared his throat, seeing a fire that had not long been put out and the glow of a candle coming from inside one of the caravans. Jumping down from the horse, John drew in a shaky breath, holding onto the reigns with a tight fist.

"Aberama? Bonnie?" He called out, his eyes squinting through the dense shield of black.

His eyes widened suddenly as he heard a faint groan. It hadn't come from an animal and his imagination was far too frozen for it to be playing tricks on him. Still, he paused with caution, holding his breath and steadying the horse as he continued to listen, hearing the sound again a few moments later.

He dashed towards the caravan with the candle glow seeping through the cracks in the wood, pulling open the door without sparing another second.

Aberama lay still on the ground, his eyes barely open enough to see John's face. His skin looked like it had been burned, slashes across his torso and his neck, his lips were split and bruised and his body was surrounded by a pool of dark blood that continued to seep out from a wound John couldn't see.

"Fucking Hell," John gasped, dropping to his knees beside Aberama and lifting his head gently off the ground, "It's gonna be alright, don't worry."

John was lying, but he didn't know what else to say. The man was clinging onto life by his fingertips, a few breaths away from death if John had to guess, but he'd been good to the family for as long as he could remember, and there wasn't any doubt in John's mind that he'd do everything he could to try and save his life.

He pulled off his coat and pressed his jumper against the wound when he eventually found where the bleeding was coming from, trying to stay composed as Aberama's eyes drifted open and closed every few seconds, quiet moans escaping from his lips as he struggled to breathe.

"It's alright, save your breath." John nodded reassuringly, giving him a weak smile.

Aberama coughed, spitting up blood down his face as his did so, "They, they took,"

"Who? Who took what?"

John's chest tightened with panic as Aberama began to speak, his voice quiet and hoarse but the will to get his words out was stronger than the pain he was in.

"Bonnie and Kaia, please help them."

It was almost a breathless whisper but it sent a shiver down John's spine, his bottom lip quivering as he watched Aberama's eyes drop closed.

"Come on, let's get you home, alright?"

Despite the little faith he had in Aberama surviving the journey back to Small Heath, let alone surviving the surgery he'd need when they did get back, John hauled the man out of the caravan and lay him down along the horse's back. His hands were shaking as he secured Aberama, speaking to him about useless things about his childhood, to which he would let out the occasional moan or even weak laughter.

Taking the reigns that hung around the horse's back, John began to pull the animal along behind him, clearing their way back through the woods as he tried to keep Aberama's mind alive with empty conversation. When they eventually reached the tow path on the edge of Small Heath, the dull glow of street lamps and candles from inside windows gave John the spur of hope that he needed.

He took a deep breath, still gripping the reigns as he looked up at Aberama, then into the eyes of the horse that he'd had since he was a child.

"You're going to be just fine, Mr Gold, just fine."

He walked them safely into the middle of the village and tied the horse up outside the first house he knew was safe, taking one last look at Aberama before sprinting faster than he ever had before in the direction of help.