Sheltered

Chapter 11

"You passed."

"What the heck, Shawn?!?!" Stephanie pounced at him, but Sav held her back.

"Steph, stop! At least just let him explain... what do you mean 'you passed'?" Sav asked.

Shawn sighed.

"I'm sorry we had to do this, but I'm glad we did. We had to see whether you could defend yourselves."

"But why?" Savanna asked, still holding onto Steph.

Shawn sighed once again.

"It's hard to explain..."

Olivia cut in.

"We need your help. We've been put in charge of scouting out and recruiting... people..."

"Recruiting? What are you trying to say, Oli?" Steph asked cautiously. "Is this some kind of joke?"

Olivia continued.

"Griffin's brother, Ian, is our leader. It's... Griffin, help me explain." She sighed.

"Alright." Griffin spoke up.

"Ian is a leader of- well, a gang of sorts, you could say. Now that we know you girls can fight, we'll recruit you. We'll take you to our 'base', and have a trainer teach you to fight better. Our last fighter passed away in a shooting, so we need new recruits."

Savanna and Stephanie we're frozen where they stood.

Stephanie swallowed before speaking. 

"Shooting? Gang? Fighters? What on earth? I'm not sure we want to do this..." Steph said, afraid, but she couldn't help the curiosity bubbling up in her thoughts.

"It's too late to back out now, sorry girls." Drew said, sincere apology streaked his face.  "We can't let you go unless you agree."

Just then, Sav's phone vibrated.

Buzz buzz!

She looked down at her screen, and turned paper white. Sadness, anger, and determination crossed her now distorted face.

"We'll do it." She said flatly.

"What?! Sav, you can't be-"

"My parents are dead, Stephanie!" Savanna shouted, tears in her eyes.

Everything went quiet. It seemed as the world had stopped, every living thing had stopped breathing in that very moment.

"What?" Stephanie squeaked.

Savanna handed her the phone, showing a text from Mrs. Garcia.

"Please come home with Stephanie. Your parents passed away. Just got a call from the hospital. Wanted to tell you right away."

Griffin stepped up.

"I'll give you more time to think about it, if you need." He said in a low, calming voice.

"No. I want to do this. I don't want to think about my parents. This is the perfect opportunity to forget everything, start over. I want to do this."
Savanna was now standing close to Griffin, speaking directly to him.

He saw the pain in her eyes.

Understanding filled his expression, and the two of them went to embrace each other at the same second.

There was silence once again, as the hugged each other tightly.

"Savanna."
He whispered, so that only she could hear.
"I know how it feels. My parents are gone, too. My brother had to put together a group of young assassins just to support the two of us. He was on the run from the law, so he couldn't just get a job somewhere. They died in a terrorist attack while they were in Mexico."

He now raised his voice to where everyone could hear, letting go of Savanna.

"As some of us know," he glanced at Oli, Drew, and Shawn,
"my brother, who's now eighteen, works for the Mexican government. Criminals who cross the border into the US are in our hands. It's our job to kill runaway criminals. The Mexican government is in direct contact with my brother, and they expect us to try our hardest. Savanna, Stephanie, welcome to the Asesinós."