A Daughter's Duty

Chapter 9

A tall, burly man wearing a black shirt and pants marched down towards them, carrying a rifle - an Accuracy International AWM. He pulled the trigger, and the bullets rained down on the men. Most of them were so shocked, they could not react at the right time, and were prey to the dangerous missiles. A few made the sensible choice and ran away. A few stupid ones tried to fire back, and payed a very heavy price. The man was through the entire platoon in a matter of minutes. The guards seemed like little plastic army men, being blown away in a gust of wind. When he was done, he rushed towards us, and my eyesight wasn't improving. But I could tell he wasn't anyone I knew.

He looked at Michael and said something in... was that French?

Michael nodded, and looked at me. "He's alright." He said in a heavy whisper.

I nodded back, and looked at my wound.

Nausea, not pain, made me lose consciousness.

"Eyes of diamonds, heart of gold..."

My beautiful dream was ending.

"Let her praise in towns be told..."

My mother was fading right before my eyes.

"Lips so lovely, laughs of bliss..."

Wait... that wasn't her voice. Then whose was it?

"...There's no child as pure as this." the last line came out of my mouth as I woke up. I rubbed the gunk out of my eyes and I sat up, looking around, wondering why I was all alone in this white-colored room of the hospital. Suddenly, my heart rate increased, and I put a  hand on my neck, and breathed a sigh of relief. The key-necklace was still there. I checked my wound. My shoulder had been wrapped in clean white cotton, but it had been tainted with my blood. I lightly pressed my fingers to it, which was quite possibly the stupidest mistake I had ever made.

After my eyes cleared from the pain, through the glass doors of the room, I saw Mr. I talking to - oh, God - talking to a police inspector. The discussion wasn't heated, but I saw Mr. I give him two sheets of paper. The inspector examined it, nodded, gave it back to him, and left. I breathed a sigh of relief.

The man then came into my room and smiled a grandfatherly smile.

"Hello, child," he said. "You have been exceptionally brave today, did you know that?"

My throat felt dry, so I didn't reply, but nodded. He gave me a glass of water and went on.

"Mr. E is still under sedation." he said. "The doctors say that his leg will be fine. We were worried that he would lose it."

"Why did the inspector come?" I asked in a throaty voice.

"He wanted to see whether we had a warrant issued to examine Arthur Dunaway's grounds. And we did. Before Michael was given anesthesia, he gave his statement in which he said that you two had only shot those people in self-defense."

"They didn't ask me for a statement."

"They did, but that was when you had already been give a little bit of anesthesia, just to make sure you weren't lying. You said the same things he said."

I nodded. "Did you read the notes Michael had written?"

"Yes, we did. We compared it to all the others and, without a doubt, Dunaway is the person. He had been on bail for the last six months, and the police brought him back in for questioning. But he refuses to answer, and has sued the two of you for breaking and entering and shooting his guards. He also refuses to believe that we had a warrant."