0 | Lacuna

Prompt 1: The Sloppy Assassin

> 2010 < [Columbus, Ohio]

Dacie ran through the crowd at the annual 4th of July parade. The camera around her neck swung around and threatened to hit strangers around her. "Come on mom! Ben is already there!"

Ceceila trailed close behind the teenaged girl. "Honey, wait up!"

Dacie stopped momentarily to scan the crowd for her oldest friend. She wanted to use his new lens to photograph the new senator. Dacie smiled when she saw him standing with his brother and mom. She grabbed her mom's hand and pulled them through the excited crowd.

"Ben!" Dacie ran over and hugged him. Ben laughed and hugged her back.

"Hey! Glad you could make it!" Ben exclaimed.

"Did you bring the new lens?" Dacie readjusted her camera. Since, the senator was new he was scheduled to give a speech. Which, Dacie thought was boring but knew Ben enjoyed it.

"Yup." Ben set down his bag then handed her the lens.

"Nice." Dacie smiled and put it into her camera.

When the senator walked onto the stage, Ben nudged her arm to get her attention. Dacie lowered her camera and saw that he was a tall middle aged man with graying hair. He was accompanied by another middle aged man and a young woman. The middle aged man wore a business suit, but the young woman wore a tight catsuit.

"In recent years, we've had quite an increase in powered individuals. We should be protecting these individuals-" Dacie started tuning out the senator, and started taking pictures again. Even the young agent smiled for a picture. At the end of his speech a confetti canon went off.

Suddenly, a woman screamed out. Everyone began running towards the senator. Dacie wanted to see what happened, but dropped her camera. "Dacie! Don't look! We need to leave." Cecelia hugged her close, and tried not to cry from the pain of the bullet. Cecelia covered Dacie with her own body and pulled her through the crowd.

"Mom!" Dacie yelled out. Cecelia glanced back, but only caught a glance of the young agent flying into the air with her daughter's camera.

~

Carlos Briggs drank beer on a roof, while setting up his gun. Have to pay the bills somehow. He thought bitterly and remembered how his life went to hell after getting disavowed. He shook his head and went back to work. It wasn't too far into parade, until he saw it. The flash of a camera. He squinted at the crowd and saw a young girl taking pictures.

"Shouldn't be too hard..." Briggs grumbled. After a confetti cannon went off, he shot at the girl and senator but a woman shifted in front of the girl, taking the bullet.

Briggs grabbed his beer bottle but when he looked back, the woman and her child were gone. Suddenly, he was kicked to the ground by a young woman, and held there by her foot while she looked through a camera.

"Hm, they didn't quite get your good side."