A Vigilante

028

I ran through the halls of the warehouse, blood soaking my clothes from the stab wound on my shoulder and the opened stitches on my thigh. With each stomp of my foot on the concrete flaws my body groans in response but I ignore it.I didn't bother limping, I ran.

The halls were bloodied. Bodies lying with discarded guns. We had massacred Epiafno's men and in the moment of it all, I couldn't feel even a drop of remorse for the human traffickers that lay on the floor, tattered with bullet wounds.

"Sarvani, What is happening?" Aaleyah asks through the ear piece.

I couldn't stop to hear her out. I couldn't stop to talk. I didn't dare ask her about Ace. I had no clue whether he was alive and I didn't want to find out.

"Sarvani, where are you? Genevieve said-"Her voice cuts off as I pull out the earpiece. Discarding it as I picked up speed. My feet pounding harder and harder against the floor.

Two minutes.

I have two minutes before Epifano puts a hole in my aunt.

I run faster.

I skate to a stop when the room comes into view. He's there. The door is closed. This could be a trap. We have Epifano cornered but when you corner an animal they tend to lash out. What if he already killed her. What if he just wanted the satisfaction of killing me too.

I'm walking into a trap.

But the image of my aunt played in my head. Her hand around mine as she walked me to her room at the middle of the night during a thunderstorm. Her face when she carried me off to school every morning. The nights we'd spend watching movies together. My aunt.

I pull out a bloodied knife from my thigh holster and I push the door open. With slow steps I enter the room.

"Sarv-" My aunt's voice is muffled and I freeze.

Then I catch sight of her. She's in front of Epifano, his arm wrapped around her and his gun pressed into her head. She's in work clothes, but they're bloodied and torn, a cloth hanging limp around her neck like they just pulled out her gag. Her eyes are wide and wild, with more fear than I'd ever seen from her. She was fearless all my life.

I realise too late that that fear was aimed at me when someone grabs me from behind. My legs fly up in the air and I swing my arms, trying to stab.

"Hold her down!" Epifano orders.

"Aunty-" I call out, desperate to hear her voice again.

My knife falls as the man behind me presses on my shoulder. I let out a cry of pain and I can see my aunt struggle against Epifano's grip, her eyes still on me.

"If you keep struggling she's dead," He calls out to me, pulling my aunt. "I suggest you play nice."

I stop my struggles abruptly, looking at him with blazing eyes.

"We're going to have a little talk, you and I. Okay? Can you do that?" He looks at me with wild eyes. His voice was as if he were speaking to a child.

I clench my jaw. "Yes."

He nods to the man and I'm free from his grip. I watch as my attacker disappears into another room, the door remains open and a second later a dozen girls are ushered out with yells.

My eyes widen at the girls, all merely children. They're dressed the same way as the women back in the room, and like them they're bloodied and bruised. I choke back a sob as I watch the man follow them out with a machine gun. They looked around the room wide eyed and scared.

"Aw, don't look so bummed, little girl. You're not the one who lost everything tonight," Epifano says, his voice powerful enough to make the kids jump. They let out their own cries but are aggressively hushed by the armed man.