Awake

Chapter Two - A Marked Man

   No, the problem was his pursuers. They would take out those closest to him first, neatly and calmly, systematically, like pruning a tree. They would cut him back until there was nothing left to grow. He had to stop them. And that meant...

"Lucia," he whispered.

Jonathan tucked a bundle of clothes into a bag, wrapping a shirt around the precious cloth. He kissed his mother's forehead and ran, not bothering to lock the door. He sprinted past a weeping child and took the stairs three at a time. They trembled precariously beneath his pounding feet, as if they might fall in at any second.

  Jonathan hammered on the flaking door, his urgency knocking chips of paint to the ground. His heart stuttered for the seconds he waited. Supposing they had already got her?

  The door opened a girl stood framed the entrance. Two small children were fighting on the kitchen floor behind her. Another sat scribbling at a table laden down with unwashed dishes. In another room, a baby was wailing pitifully. The noise was unbearable.

 "Jonathan?"

The girl had a baby under one rm. There was ink on her hands and a stain on her unironed blouse. Her hair was rumpled and her eyes ringed with exhaustion. Her smile, however, was seraphic, radiant. Jonathan wished he could bottle it, keep it safe to take out at his lowest moments.

"Lucia."

He stepped inside, pulling the door closed behind him.

"Hello, Jonny," the girl at the table looked up.

"Hello, Hyacinth."

She had a choppy boy's haircut and eyes too big for her face and too old for a girl of ten. She looked as though she hadn't slept in weeks. She was easily Jonathan's favourite of the Carter children, being the eldest and quietest.

"Jonny!" one of the fighting boys yelled.

"Jonny!" the other echoed.

"Daniel, Martin," he nodded.

The door burst open behind him and two more children stood panting in the doorway.

"Anna! Jackie!" Lucia cried. "Curfew was half an hour ago!"

"Sorry, Luci," Jackie put on his best lisp. "We didn't notice."

"Keep your voices down then and your parents don't need to know," Lucia sighed. "And Anna, take your sister."

The little twin took the baby in her arms and cradled it, sitting cross-legged on the floor with her back up against a cupboard. Lucia pulled her hair back with a rubber tie and rolled her eyes at Jonathan. He couldn't explain why, but he had always found there something magical in the way she tied her hair.