Trigger warning: disturbing images, violence.
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I wasn't sure if the first shot missed because Joe's aim was off, or because he was warning me my final moments were now, but he was absolutely trying to shoot me with the bullets that he fired afterward.
In instant, the quiet room erupted into madness as me, Eleanor, Mateo, and Alice rolled off the bed and pressed ourselves into the corner between the wall and dresser. Immediately, as he moved into the room, Alice and Mateo started crying as they clung to us, and I desperately looked for a way out but there was none without getting shot. Eleanor must've realized this as well because, for the first time since this mess started, I saw tears glistening on her face.
"Stop it! Stop Joe! Let us explain! Please!" She screamed over the gunfire as the four of us huddled together.
I was in full panic mode now. I had no idea what to do. Every time gunshots had rung out the past couple of weeks, someone had died no matter the scenario. Not to mention the last time I heard a gun go off in a close vicinity I held my mother's bloody corpse in my arms.
I couldn't breathe.
My chest was so tight, I was surprised my heart didn't come up my throat.
Briefly, the gunfire ceased as Joe made his way into the center of the room and pointed his gun at us as he walked around the foot of the bed. I could tell by the way his chest rose and fell and how his eyes burned at the sight of me that I was a dead man. "Move away from the kids Rocco! Your siblings can go, but you die tonight!" he barked.
Sobbing, Mateo and Alice both gripped onto me as they begged him to stop. Wrapping my arms around them, I held my youngest siblings tight as I released a shaky breath. "Please let me explain, please," I begged, my voice scarcely above a whisper as images of my mom flashed through my head. I felt like I was relieving that night. Hell, I was about to, only this time I'd be the one with a bullet in my chest.
"You fucked my wife and knowingly put my family in danger! There's nothing to explain! If you don't step away from them, I'll shoot all of you. It's you, or all of them, make your choice!" He screamed at the top of his lungs as he cocked the gun and fired two shots at the ceiling. "Now!"
Inhaling sharply, Eleanor looked at me with the darkest glare I had ever seen. I had seen her glare at me in anger before, but this time the look was different. She wasn't going to forgive me for this. Turning to Joe then, she took a sharp breath as her bottom lip trembled. "Please don't do this in front of Mateo and Alice. They don't need to see it."
"El..." I gasped.
She was going to let me die?
Rotating his jaw, Joe reached out his arm and gripped the sleeve of my shirt. "I'll do it out back so the clean-up is easy." With a harsh tug, he jerked me forward and away from the little ones gripping me.
"No! Don't hurt him!" Mateo screeched, lurching forward, but when Joe pointed the barrel of his gun at him, he fell back against the wall and instead hugged Alice tight as the two of them sobbed.
Joe then pointed the barrel of the gun at the three of them before pressing it against my temple as he gripped my arm. "If any of you try anything stupid, I'll blow his brains out right now!" He yelled, as he then pushed me towards the door. He was really going to do it, he was really going to kill me.
"We won't! Just take him, Joe!" Eleanor snapped as she stepped in front of the little ones protectively.
Looking back at her with desperation, our eyes met.
Wait.
There was something there.
I could see that familiar little glint.
She was planning something.
"With pleasure," He said as he finally turned his back to them and began pushing me towards the doorway.
Exhaling slowly, I held up my hands and let him guide me out of the bedroom and into the hallway. Around us, some candles we left lit flickered in the chilly night air, giving the moment a ceremonial feel.
"Not going to let me say goodbye?" I asked snarkily.
"You should've thought of that before—"
I then saw the looming shadow of a guitar swing in the candlelight and before he could say another word, Eleanor let out a battle cry and swung him upside the head with the guitar she was using earlier. Impulsively, Joe fired off the gun in response, but his aim was thrown off, and instead, the bullet fired past my ear, making it ring. When he fell back to attack my sister, I spun around with a stumble to launch myself at him as Evie and Lorenzo finally made their way out of the other guest bedroom.
Grabbing her violently, he began to choke her out as they fell to the ground but Joe only managed to wrap his hands around Eleanor's throat for a second before Evie pounced on him like an animal and gripped his hair so she could pull his head back. "Get the fuck off of her!"
Quickly, I jumped on Joe as well and pulled him back with Evie as Lorenzo dove for Eleanor and pulled her out from underneath him. As we stumbled backward, Joe threw all his weight against us and the three of us slammed against the table of candles, causing them to fall on the floor. In an instant, the tiny flames caught on the carpet fibers and curtains.
"I'll kill all of you Italian bastards! None of you are leaving here alive!" Joe roared as he thrashed in our grip, but Evie and I held him tight.
Moving away from Lorenzo, Eleanor stormed over to him with clenched fists. Stopping short in front of him, she punched him so hard across the nose I could hear the bone snap. "Try pointing a gun at us again! I fucking dare you!" swinging the other fist, she hit him again before grabbing his chin. "If you ever, ever threaten my family again I'll shoot you myself." She spat, with the most rage I had ever heard her produce. She raised her fist to hit him again but stopped herself with a sharp exhale and pushed his face away.
Laughing, he spat a wad of blood and spit on the ground. "These are the end times little girl, it's me or you and it damn well ain't going to be me." He hissed through his teeth as blood from his nose stained the front of his shirt and teeth. "Leave my fucking house."
Sharing a look with Evie, the two of us then threw Joe down on the ground as Eleanor picked up his gun and swung it over her shoulder. In realizing he was no match for all of us, he instead started beating the flames in hopes of stopping the spread. The air in the hallway was quickly becoming choked with smoke and I felt sweat trickling down my cold skin.
Eleanor then turned to us as Mateo and Alice dared to creep out of the guest bedroom. "We need to go! Now!" she ordered, pointing us in the direction of the front door.
Not wasting a second, Lorenzo dove back into the guest bedroom to get the keys as Evie and I grabbed Mateo and Alice. Within a minute of beating down Joe, Eleanor had his gun pointed and aimed as she quickly led us out of the house. Behind us, we could hear Joe screaming for Nicole to help him put out the fire as we stumbled out into the dark front yard.
"This way! I parked the truck over here!" Lorenzo yelled, waving us to the side of the house so the six of us could load up into the truck, with Lorenzo and Eleanor in the front seats and me and the younger ones in the back. Once we had all climbed inside, he started the engine with a roar and tore his way across the yard towards the recently mended fence. He was in such a panic, he forgot to turn on his headlights and only the faint glow of moonlight guided us.
As he drove, I stood up in the bed of the dump truck and looked back at the house as an orange glow began to illuminate from inside it. I didn't give a fuck if Joe lived or died, but I couldn't help the stab of guilt in my gut at the thought of Nicole and Olivia. I almost banged on the roof of the truck to tell Lorenzo to stop so I could go back and help them, but by the time we reached the fence the three of them had stumbled out onto the front lawn coughing. With little water coming from the sink, they likely hadn't been able to stop the fire quick enough.
When the truck stopped at the fence, I gripped the top of the wall to stop myself from falling over as I looked out into the road. Below, Eleanor climbed out of the passenger side to open the gate. "Turn on the damn headlights, Lorenzo!" She called out upon approaching the gate.
"Sorry! I'm trying to figure it—"
It happened fast.
So fast, I almost didn't realize what was happening until it did.
Jokers in the surrounding area must've heard the gunshots going off and heard us screaming.
Halfway through his sentence, Eleanor had unlatched the gate and Lorenzo had found the right button for the headlights, filling the driveway on the other side of the gate with the light. Just in time for her to realize there was a horde of Jokers, at least fifty of them, waiting on the other side. Fortunately, she was able to fall back to the truck in time to dodge them, but she couldn't close the gate and the horde poured into the yard with loud roars of excitement as they charged towards Nicole, Joe, and Olivia.
In realizing they were trapped between the burning house and the hungry jaws of the undead, my ears started to ring as I mindlessly climbed out of the truck to help them. Joe was a terrible person, but him and his family didn't deserve to die like that.
Behind me, I could hear my siblings screaming at me to stop but by the time they realized what was happening, I had jumped out of the truck and hit the ground running. As the Jokers circled around them, Joe began to mow them down with another gun he had grabbed as Nicole held Olivia and searched for an escape. In her arms, the little girl sobbed.
Since I had the advantage of being on the outskirts of the dead, I managed to slip around the bulk of them, only having to beat down and throw off a few as I limped towards them. My ankle hurt like a bitch, but adrenaline gave me the strength I needed to move with urgency. Upon my approach, some of the dead noticed me and started to turn on me as well, but they only brushed their fingers over me before they fell back with a jerk.
Looking back, I saw Eleanor was running behind me, firing off shots from the gun as best she could and occasionally using the butt of it to bust the brains of Jokers who thought it'd be cute to get smart. Then behind her, Lorenzo had started to back up the truck towards Joe and his family with the intention of giving us a quick escape. He didn't get very far though before he had to stop, but he was close enough to give us a fair chance.
Relieved they had my back, I continued to barrel my way through the stench of dead men until I got close to Nicole and Oliva. "Run! You need to run!" I yelled, waving frantically at them to approach us.
Turning towards me, Nicole started to run towards us, but Joe grabbed her elbow harshly and started to yell at her over the roars of the dead and the fire. His words were quickly lost though because two of the dead men in front fell on him and by the time he had managed to react they were already ripping chunks out of him, spilling pools of red on the green grass as a group of them overwhelmed him. I had no doubt he was dead by the time he hit the ground.
In realizing that we were about to get overwhelmed, Nicole locked eyes with me before she put down Olivia and pointed in my direction. Screaming and sobbing then, the little girl started stumbling the last few feet towards me. Shoving one of the dead men, Nicole let out a blood-curdling scream. "Come and get me, you bastards!" She shrieked over the chaos, shortly before she ran back towards the house. Eagerly, another group of them followed her towards the flames, giving Olivia an opening to make it over to me.
"Come here, I got you, I got you, it's going to be okay, I swear to God it'll be okay," I said in a rush as I scooped her up and tossed her over my shoulder so I could turn around and start running back towards the truck.
Upon seeing that I had managed to grab the kid and that Joe and Nicole were a lost cause, Eleanor started stumbling back towards the truck as well as she continued firing at the Jokers that were now chasing me and Olivia. At that same time, the rest of the horde realized the three of us were easier prey and they descended upon us as we desperately ran for the truck.
Eleanor reached it first and as Evie helped her up she continued firing the last of the clip into the crowd of Jokers around me. In my ear, I could hear Olivia screaming for her parents as she gripped my neck so hard I could hardly breathe. The pain in my ankle was blinding, but I gritted my teeth and did my best to push past it.
"Come on Rocco!" Evie screeched as she leaned over the side of the truck, reaching out for me.
As Evie urged me on, Eleanor had run out of bullets, and leaned over the edge as well, reaching out. Finally closing the distance, I grabbed onto the truck's wall and started to hoist myself up, when a couple of Jokers that had been lingering near the side of the truck threw themselves at me.
Reacting fast, Eleanor leaned over the wall of the dump truck and beat them off with the back of the gun, but it was too late. By the time I realized one of them had viciously gripped onto Olivia, he was already falling back, and the sudden extra weight ripped her right out of my arms, and helplessly I watched her fall into the mouths of hungry Jokers.
Words could not describe how horrible the next few seconds were.
Opening my mouth in a silent scream, I tried to jump off the truck in a useless attempt to save her, but my sisters gripped my arms and forcibly dragged me into the bed of the truck with them. By the time my body hit the mountain of blankets, Lorenzo had floored it and the truck tore out of the yard as Evie and Eleanor threw their body weight on me to pin me down. They were saying something to me, but I couldn't hear it.
All I could hear was Olivia screaming.
Only, as I relived it in my mind, I saw Alice in her place.
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Hey guys!
How was everyone's weekend? Mine was pretty frantic, I worked a lot and had a lot of errands to run so I was all over the place.
Now that I'm done updating though, I'm definitely going to watch Supernatural. I'm finally almost halfway done with it and I'm excited to finish.
Have a good night.
River.