Chapter 1
Snow fazed to the cobblestones, filling the town with blankets of white. I tighten my leather over my tight skinny jeans. I never liked this kind of weather. Especially with my lack of clothing. Pulling my scarf over my mouth again, I round 2nd St, I'm almost there. The beanie on my head helps some, by at least keeping my freakishly fiery red, yellow hair hidden.
No one had to know, grandfather had told her with a sense of urgency and fear, she remembered. On 10th St, now, I was coming close to my mother's hat shop that had just recently been turned into a bakery. I shouldn't have come this way, I should have taken 5th all the way to Sheary Lane. I hate coming this way, it was far more crowded. And seeing my mothers shop only gave me pain.
I could smell the bakery from miles away, and it gets worse as I pass the threshold, my stomach groans from not eating anything earlier.
Ugh! It's ridiculous how expensive, food is nowadays. It's difficult as it is to catch a few foxes, in exchange for beef. But the nobility have no problem buying the delicacies from the shops on this street.
I round the corner and take a left, finally outside my grandmother's store. Her sign hangs lopsided in the dull light of a lantern, reading 'Miss Tilly's Shop of Healing'.
I look through the window, seeing each differently stuffed and the multiple color of jars. I open the door, ringing the customer bell.
"Grandmama I'm back!" I shout but receive no reply. Then a clatter of dishes as then a vase breaks onto the wood floor, exploding green ooze into every crack.
I grumble to myself as I find an old rag. Then with more jars, grandmother tumbles out covered in towels. Wearing grandfather's spectacles on the end of her nose. Her gray hair in a tousle looking more like a birds nest than hair.
"Oh my!! I'm so sorry." Grandmama replies hastily grabbing another rag, and soaking up the rest of the green ooze, I had missed.
"Sorry dear! I had it balancing, forgot to move it." I shake my head disconcertedly.
"Grandmama how many times have I told you to not balance your jars, because of their content." Tilly scratches her bundle of hair before straightening her XXL hamidown dress.
"I know sugar-pie!! Without you I am lost... And it's true!" Then she goes past where the hardwood is already almost dry and takes a seat behind the cashier in the front of the store. She collapses in her chair and is asleep within seconds.
I sigh and find a wool blanket to cover her. I had always been the one to take care of her, ever since mom died and Grandpapa was killed. I choke back rising bile, recalling my grandfather's body, mangled and butchered.
It was raining, cold and hard that day, I remember like it was yesterday. Grandpapa forgot to pick me up from school, not a fantastic start to my 17th birthday, but I thought it could always get better. My red converse already soaked, and the fact that I also forgot my rain jacket. Why was London like this? Sunny one day and muggy the next. Grumbling to myself won't help me though, I retort. The streets at this time in the morning were more crowded more than I thought, as I took the back roads home. And that's when I saw the body, dislocated, bloody and gruesome. I threw up immediately after I identified it was my grandfather.
Shit! How had this happened?? He was loved everyone. Who could ever wish to kill him? My grandmother, I soon saw slumped against a nearby bystander who just happened to see her in distress and was trying to comfort her. She was crying, her hair soaked, shoulders slumped, I had never seen her look so sad and weak. I ran to her, already covered in a mix of my own tears and the rain that wasn't stopping.
"What Happened??" I shout as I hold her in a hug. She took a long time to respond, until she finally cried; " THEY MURDERED HIM!! I GUESS HE FORGOT TO PAY UP!!! I THOUGHT HE WAS DONE DEALING WITH THEM!" She blurts, crying uncontrollably already. I hug her close to me, and looking at my grandpapa one last time on the ground. Death changes a person. Dead, pale, soaked with his own blood and rain. Even though I told myself I shouldn't, but I looked closer at his wounds he had, but they looked like they were caused by an animal. He was cut along his right jaw down to his chest to where the wound stopped, cause of death, bleeding out. His hair was in a wet clump, his face pale. This time, I can't stop. I let go of my grandmother, to the nearest trash can, but missing it by a good few feet. I puke over a section of the concrete, not able to hold back any more tears. My puke turns my insides as more and more of my food from that day's lunch is emptied onto the pavement.
People jumped out of my line of never-ending vomit, and I couldn't stop until I was sobbing, my stomach already emptied. I wipe my chin to where a few kernels of food were stuck. Someone had hunted him, that sweet little old man of 87, he might have been close to death already but this was anything but how I imagined he would die.
Wet and removed of blood, I wipe my mouth with the wet sleeve of my jacket and get up. Everything slows like I might be drunk or hallucinating, then I hear the sirens. This was definitely not the 'Happy Birthday' I was looking forward to all day.
