Kiss Of Death

Prologue

==> It was just another sunny day, the way I remember it. Our family had gone for a drive along the countryside, just my mother, father and I. It was peaceful, our family happy. Our family whole.

I remember Tony, a friend of my father, had come along with us for the drive. He would make jokes and we would all laugh. It was a good time.

How was I to know the reason Tony came along that day was more than just to crack jokes and laugh with the family? How was I to know that we were in danger?

...

They came in the night, when we were staying at the cabin near the lake. At the sound of their arrival, my father had had my mother come to my room while Tony stayed by my father's side.

Soon, shouting, and the sounds of blunt objects coming into contact with flesh and bone made me tremble in my mother's arms. She comforted me, with her chocolate brown eyes wide and trained on the door. We waited.

...

Footsteps, heels of shoes hitting the tile floor, came closer towards the tiny bedroom. I remember thinking that it was only Tony coming to give us the all-clear. But, the scent of the sea told me I was wrong.

They entered the room, and the salty stench of the ocean wafted through the doorway and attacked our senses, the fumes wafting like a cheap cologne through the air. They spoke, their voice deep and masculine, but with a certain kind of accent I hadn't heard before. My mother screamed at him to leave our family alone, there was a change in the man's stance, and when I chanced to glance around my mother at the man, I caught a glint of metalic purple in the moonlight, before turning away once again.

He starts towards us, but soon is cut off by Tony grabbing him from behind and shoving him out of the way. Looking back up, I see that he is bloody, bruised and limping. He carries one of my father's 38 caliber revolvers.

"Get... Away... from them." He pants, teeth clenched as blue eyes glare up at the man, who laughs dryly. Menacingly.

"Your boss nevver upheld his end of our deal. So, I wwill do the same." He states, Tony growls, running at the man. They fight, struggling to get the upper hand as well as the gun. The man throws Tony to the ground, the 38 in his hand and pointed down at him.

"Kill me... Leave them alone..." Tony breathes. I had never heard the tone he'd used before, especially used by him. It sounded broken, worried and scared. The gun is cocked, armed.

"I think I'll leavve you alivve. So you can tell your boss, you couldn't savve his wife and little girl." The man sneers, turning the gun to face my mother and I. Clutching onto my mother, I hide myself in her dark curtain of hair as she attempts to shield me from the man. The gun goes off and I scream as one of them crumple to the ground. The gun is cocked, fired a second time, and the cycle repeats for yet a third time. Then silence.

...

The intruder leaves, and I open my eyes, feeling the weight of my mother on me. I help roll her off, finding she does nothing to help.

"Mama? Mama?" I squeak, my tiny hands grasping her arm and shaking her, only to find she is not breathing. She doesn't speak, she doesn't move. The only thing that happens is the red color that had stained my coral bedspread growing, and my mother's body growing cold. A slight groan of pain comes from the foot of my bed, and, turning to see what is happening, I see Tony standing. A look of pain and of sorrow on his face.

"You... Okay Annie?" He pants, I nod and climb off of the bed slowly, going over to him and helping him out of the room just as my father began rushing towards my room. He looks at Tony, who can't meet his eyes, with an almost unreadable expression, my father runs into my room, only to stumble back a few paces before entering. Tony turns to me.

"We should give him a few minutes." He says, leading me to the living room and I set him down on the sofa. My father's sobs travel down the hallway as thunder rolls in the distance. I stare down at the carpet, once white and fluffy but now brown with mud and trampled by numerous feet, as he cries out in sorrow.

"-No... No, no, no, NO! MARIA!" He cries out, sobbing. Tony looks down at his shoes soberly, his hand clasped around mine.

After a little while, my father comes out of my room, his eyes puffy from crying, and his shirt front stained red with blood. Tony looks up and stands painfully, facing my father.

"Boss, I'm so sorry... I tried to save her-" he tries to explain, but my father just shakes his head.

"Forget about it, Tony. It happened. She's.... She's gone..." my father chokes out, going over to me and kneeling down in front of the chair I'm in. Slowly, I place my tiny arms around his neck, resting my head on his broad shoulder. Never have I seem my father break down like he did that day. He continues to sob as Tony's expression remains stone - like and somber.

I don't remember much after that. I don't remember crying, nor the funeral. I was just numb, and my father had shed enough tears for the both of us. I figured someone had to be the strong one.

...

My father fell apart after that. Drinking, gambling, anything to dull his pain. Tony was the one to pull him back to reality.

"You have a duty," he'd said, "to your daughter and to your gang. If you can't snap out of this for our sake," he gestured to himself and the others in the room, "do it for Johanna." He says, pointing to the doorway where I stood, peeking through the crack. Turning away from the door, I headed down the darkened hallway towards my room, which had been decorated with assorted blues and greens.

To say I remember my father coming into my room that night, would be lying. But, after that, he seemed to act more like his old self.