*This is a boy band I'm lowkey obsessed with MiC LOWRY😍
———
Omnipresent
It was a bright, summer evening and the Nelson-Thirlwall kids were in the backyard of their building, playing with some neighborhood kids. They were playing a game similar to Man Hunt, but their version was a little different.
They borrowed a fake knife from Karl's Halloween costume and would "stab" instead of catch. Surprisingly, the one that came up with the rules was young Jesy herself.
She was "it" and was searching for her last victim; little Jade.
The giggling three year old was watching her from in a tree. Her tan long sleeved turtleneck under her dark green corduroys made it harder to spot her in the thick, lush leaves.
But before Jesy could call the game quits because she's been looking for Jade for nearly 10 minutes, a familiar deep voice calls for her.
"Jeed! Time to go!" She peeks through the leaves to see her father.
The man was dressed in a spiffy, gray suit, carrying a black, leather briefcase. "Dada!" She says excitedly, getting down safely.
"Hey, that's not fair! You can't hide in the trees!" Jesy crosses her arms over her chest with a scowl. Mr. Thirlwall scoops his youngest child in his arms, looking down at the little girl. "Hey, Jessica," he greets, smiling at her and moving some of her dark, curly hair back.
Jesy looks up at him with a toothy smile, "Hi, Uncle George," she says in her high pitched voice. "Say bye to your cousins, Jade," he says, now averting his gaze to his daughter.
"Bye," she waves to the children as her dad carries her back over to the lavish car.
In the passenger seat was a man Jade's never seen before. He was also dressed up with slicked back blonde hair and dark colored eyes. He was rather young looking, no older than 25.
The man opens the door and places the child in her booster seat. After she's buckled in, he pokes her tummy and she giggles.
The man smiles at her then closes the door.
When he got in the car, the strange man up front turns to look at her. "Hey, there," he greets in a light Scottish accent and Jade stares at him, sizing him up. The way the child looked at him annoyed him. He looks over at his friend, "What's the lassie's problem?"
George glances at the girl in the rearview mirror to find her eyes shifted in the stranger's direction. "Jeed," she breaks from her glare, now looking at her father. "Are you okay?" She nods and puts her head on the window.
"She's shy around new people," her father says and his companion gives her another look. She squints her eyes at him and he looks away, deciding the girl is just weird.
———
Jade doesn't know how long she's been asleep, but when she woke up, she found herself to still be in the car. It was dark out now, the sun had set maybe half an hour ago.
Groggily, she lifts her head, rubbing her eyes with her tiny fists.
She looks around, eyebrows furrowed when she realizes she's alone in a dimly lit alley. There was a sketchy building to her left with a red door and blacked out windows.
A single lamp illuminated the door, showing the words 'The Candy Man' written in black, daunting cursive. The little girl perks up and unbuckles her seatbelt in excitement. Like any child, she loves candy and was pretty sure her father was on the other side of that door.
She carefully lowers herself to the floor of the vehicle then opened the door. The way down was pretty high, but her need for sweets was too great to back down.
She counts to four then hops down. She falls on her knees, but bounces up excitedly.
Giggles emit from her as her little feet move fast towards the building. When she got to the door, the knob was low enough for her to open it. The door was a bit hard to open due to its heaviness, but she managed to get it open.
She steps inside and immediately knew that it wasn't a candy shop like she expected.
She didn't see a colorful assortment of chocolates and taffy. No, she walked in on something completely different.
She found herself in a small, dimly lit room where a table sat in the middle. The walls were covered in soundproof foam, explaining the blacked out windows.
On top of the table were different weapons and what seemed to be drugs. Jade gets slightly closer, standing on her tiptoes for a better look.
She frowns when she still couldn't see. She looks around and climbs up on the nearest chair to marvel at what she's seeing.
For a small child, her love for action and horror films had her educated enough to know exactly what she's looking at.
Right in front of her was a golden handgun gutted out with bullets scattered about. To her left was a photo of a young man with red scribbles over his eyes; on top of it was a sharp knife with dried blood on it. And beside that was an empty revolver.
She picks up one of the bullets and examines it a bit. Then she stares down at the gun. She daringly picks it up, admiring the cool, heavy metal in her small hands.
She's only ever seen them on TV. She was in awe at how they look up close and personal.
Her eyes take in every detail, her tiny fingers running over it slowly. She sets it down after another second then picks up a black cartridge full of new bullets and noticed they don't match the ones on the table.
She studies everything in front of her then began playing with the gun, pretending she's in an action movie.
"I'm only gonna ask one time," she says while messing around with the revolver. "Where's me money?" She looks around the empty table at her posse.
"So no one knows who took it? Me £10,000 just disappeared?" She hums and nods, eyes locked on the gun. She picks up the equally cold bullets and began putting them in the chamber.
She internally giggled because she felt so grown up. This is better than candy.
"If I don't get a name in five seconds, I'm gonna blow one of yous bloody head off," she says in as scary of a voice as she could muster, snapping the cylinder back in place.
"One," she starts, spinning the cylinder until it slows then spins it again. "Two," she picks up the knife then digs it into the picture of the man. "Three," she glares at the silence, cocking the hammer back as if she's familiar with it.
"Four," she points the gun ahead of her, aiming at nothing.
"Hey! How'd you get-," a sudden voice startles the child and she accidentally fires the gun, hitting him right in his throat. His hands grip his neck, eyes bulging as blood spurted everywhere and ruined his stark white shirt.
She cries as the force shatter her wrist and she cradles her hand. Multiple footsteps approach the room and two more men plus her father come in, drawing their weapons.
George sees his bawling child then down at Dexter, also known as the guy that rode with them. Jade sat in the chair, nearly screaming her head off at the intense pain vibrating her entire arm.
"Dada! It hurts! Waaaa! Waaaa!" She cries, tears streaming down her face as she looks at her father through blurry vision. George drops his gun and rushes over to his daughter.
"D-Did she kill 'em?"
"No, shit, you dumbass."
They see the hole in his throat. Blood was pooling rapidly at the men's feet.
"Which one of you left it loaded?!" George demands angrily, examining the girl's broken wrist. "It wasn't loaded. I took the bullets out," the first one, Dell said.
"Are you sayin' she loaded it herself?" The father glares at them, face turning crimson. "She's three! How can she load a gun on her own? She can barely spell her name!"
The girl was still bawling, choking on her cries. He picks her up, careful of her arm. He starts to leave, but Dell stops him. "Where are you going?"
"To the hospital, whaddya think?!" He snaps. "G, you can't go. They're gonna ask how she broke it and what're you gonna say?"
"Not a thing, because you aren't going," the other one, Kaine, says adamantly. "My daughter is hurt!" He argues.
"G, you're new to this. Trust us when we say you don't wanna go to the hospital." The little girl's cries turn into hiccups and sniffles. Her father looks at her teary, light brown eyes and wipes her face.
"Don't play with those anymore. They aren't toys," he scolds and she nods in understanding. "Bring her back downstairs. We got something for her arm."
———
A few days after the shooting, the man went into his daughter's room to check on her. His wife thinks she fell out of the tree she hid in, so he was in the clear.
Norma knew of her husband's ways and didn't support it in the slightest. Though, at the time, that was their only income so she had to accept it.
Jade was up in her bed, holding a small bag of ice on her wrist. "Hey, Petal. What're you doin' up?" He asks in a whisper, entering her room. "Me hand hurts so 'm pu'in' ice on it," she answers, hugging her stuffed bear, Mr. Biscuit under her arm.
He smiles a bit, then frowns almost instantly.
He had yet to talk to her about what happened. She hadn't said anything about it since they came back from giving her a proper plaster cast. She got it in purple and the children in her family signed it.
"Jade, why didn't you stay in the car? Were you lookin' for me?" She shakes her head, her two pigtail braids moving with her. "I wanted candy," she says. George looks at her questioningly, "Where'd you see candy?"
"On the door."
"Wait, you can read?" She furrows her eyebrows at him then shrugs. Wanting to see something, the middle aged man looked for some kind of book or something before returning to the child.
He holds it out to her, "Can you tell me what this says?" Jade tilts her head to the side, taking the pamphlet for Karl's school from him.
"Westbriar Academy: Keepin' the children safe," she says slowly. Her father looks at her in amazement, "You can read." The girl just stares at him curiously. "Jade, how did you know how to load and shoot?" He asks boldly.
He figured he could just ask her. She's rather intelligent for a tot.
"Filims and tele shows," she answers easily, playing with the purple bow tie around Mr. Biscuit's neck. George then gets an idea.
"Wanna come to work with me tonight?"
———
A Year Later
"You remember what to do?" The man asks his daughter as she places one bullet in the revolver. The two were downstairs at 'The Candy Man' along with a few more guys in their posse.
"Mhm," she hums, spinning the cylinder. "Put it to his head and wait for the signal," she answers in her high pitched voice.
"G, are you really letting your daughter in on this? She's a baby," a new guy, skinny lad named Ben comments. Kaine nudges him and shakes his head; telling him not to continue.
George looks over at him with hard eyes, "She shot a guy in the throat when she was three. She loaded the gun herself," he glances at the little girl.
In the year she's been her father's protege, she's seen as the most ruthless. The men are rightfully concerned, but most have seen the almost 5 year old in action.
Kaine and Dell witnessed her stab a guy without hesitation. When her hand healed, her father taught her how to shoot properly, unbeknownst to his wife.
She's a natural, which is admittedly scary.
"If anything, she has a dead eye. If I ask her to shoot you in your head...," he looks over at the girl and she instantly points the gun at him. Kaine and Dell moved to the side while Ben was shaking in his shoes.
The older man does the subtlest nod and the girl pulls the trigger, hearing the click. "AH!!" He cries out. Both her and her father began laughing at the young man's reaction.
"He look abou' ready to wet himself," she giggles. He scoops her up in his arms, "Can I see, Jadey?" She nods and gives him the gun. "Now, Benny, I hope you don't have anything else to say, do you?"
"N-No, sir," George lets out a light, amused chuckle. He opens the cylinder and hisses. "Oi, if I were to tell her to pull again, you would've been dead, mate."
Ben gulps as both Thirlwalls eye him, making him fairly uneasy.
"Moral of the story, mind yours. Got it?" Ben nods, swallowing his spit. "Y-Yes, sir."
He grabs their supplies needed for their trip. They were paying someone a visit.
Jade didn't know who, just that he stole money that could've gone towards Christmas and her upcoming birthday, which is the day after. She wanted to go to Build-A-Bear Workshop to make Mr. Biscuit a friend then, she wanted to go to Disneyland in Paris like she's always wanted.
She wasn't gonna let a thief ruin her fun.
———