Kaylan was screaming and Mrs Hood was screaming and I had no idea if I was and - 

"Stop!" Kaylan's father roared. "Stop! I'll tell you! I'll tell you! Just stop hurting my son!"

Jasper lifted the blade, one inch. Kaylan's screams died out into a strangled sound as he gritted his teeth, the veins rising in his neck as his whole body railed against the agony. His thumb was still very much attached - thank the Lord - but there was a deep and ugly gash in it. Anymore from Jasper and you would have been able to see the white of the bone.

Jasper dropped the bloodied scalpel on the table. "Thank you, Mr Hood. Thank you so so much. That is the answer I'm looking for. Well done, you!"

Mr Hood swallowed. "Yes. Yes, I do work for Black and Tan. I'm their criminal lawyer - I get paid well to make sure they don't get prosecuted. Anything they get caught in, I make sure they get off."

"See? That wasn't so hard, was it? If you'd done this earlier we wouldn't have to spill so much blood." Jasper snapped his fingers and a man came forward with a towel, which he used to wipe his fingers. "So, next question. Where is the will?"

This time Mr Hood did look utterly lost. "Will? What will? They didn't make any will."

"Not them, Mr Hood. The Blackcroft will. Where is it?"

"What? I don't know what you're talking about."

I closed my eyes, my heart sinking in desperation. Liar.

"Liar," Jasper said. He exhaled heavily, turning back to Kaylan. "Well. I guess I have to, once again, administer onto young Mr Hood here - "

"Okay!" Keegan yelled. "Yes! Yes, there was a will! Black and Tan gave it to me to keep! They told me to hold it for awhile. But then one night a thief came in and stole it. That's the last I saw of that bloody thing, I swear! I don't know where it went!"

Jasper paused, as if in deep thought. "Hmm. Well then - "

Several things happened at once. Onscreen, the three stony-faced men guarding Mr and Mrs Hood fell like Jenga towers whose bricks had been extracted incorrectly. There was a small scream from Mrs Hood, while Mr Hood looked offscreen and grunted angrily, "Thank God you're here, it's about damn time - "

The second after that happened, the man holding my left arm received a bullet in the head and Jasper swerved simultaneously to the right. The bullet aimed for him thudded into the wall on my left.

All around me men pulled out guns, even as more shots came whizzing in. Jasper was hollering commands and the wallpaper was being torn up and the room was thundering with the sound of countless rounds being emptied. Men ducked and fired. I was dropped like a sack of potatoes and left to my own devices.

With hands over my head, my head whipped from side to side, my eyes searching, wild. I need a gun. I saw the dead men who seconds ago had been gripping me by the elbow and crawled toward him. His eyes were open and staring, unseeing and blank in death. With trembling fingers I closed them and fumbled around his clothing, before finally pulling out a nice, stable Smith & Wesson.

Exactly what every girl needs.

With the reassuring weight of a usable weapon in my hand I was able to concentrate properly. That was when I saw Kaylan. He was still bound and blinded, and in the midst of the sudden chaos his chair had toppled over sideways. He was still struggling against the rope, but this time instead of trying to get free he was nudging himself slowly and painstakingly to where he thought safety might be - but which was actually a group of Jasper's men.

I inhaled, deep. You can do this. Wait for it. 

I waited. And when the man in front of me popped his head up to fire at the unknown enemy, I used his body as a cover to dart forward and reached Kaylan. A bullet struck the floor just inches away from my big toe and I jumped. Grabbing the back of the chair I pulled, and finally managed to drag Kaylan to safety behind a wall.

The knot was insane. It was a tangled mess. Left with no choice and little time, I pulled out the gun, aimed and fired twice. It blasted off chips from the legs of the chair and went a little bit too to the left, but it worked. I scrabbled the fibre remains away and the moment Kaylan felt his bonds loosing he lashed out. 

I was caught perfectly at the edge of my jaw, and the blow sent me falling backwards to the corner of the wall. Kaylan ripped off his blindfold and rolled up from his sideways position to a low crouch. He looked around and saw me, the shock making his eyes dilate into dinner plates.

"Go!" I shouted over the din. "They're here to save your family, so go!"

Conflict played out over his features. In the end he shouted back, "Come with me!"

I shook my head. Go with Black and Tan? They wouldn't like it one bit. I wouldn't like it one bit.

"You don't have to stay here!" Kaylan took a hesitant step near. "We can leave, now - "

A stray bullet cut in between us and he stumbled backwards.

"Go, Kaylan! Leave!"

The door to the room was open, and beyond I could see Mrs and Mr Hood. Cloaked in blankets, surrounded by masked men. Shouting for their son.

Kaylan saw them too, and he looked between both me and them. I kept shaking my head.

"There is no time for this! Go!" I screamed.

A bullet hit the wall five inches above my head and I shrank, curling up tighter. Whipping out my gun I fired in the general direction of where the bullet had came from and was satisfied to see a figure fall.

When I looked back, the expression on Kaylan's face was one of shock and disbelief. His eyes were fixated on my gun, and the look on his face . . .He looked back up at me.

I held his gaze. Unflinching. Unmoving. Unfeeling.

You need to leave, Kaylan! Leave!

There was a brief, minute break in the firing and his expression changed. It hardened. It resolved. 

And in that one second, that one moment, he jumped up and whirled around, turning his back to me, before fleeing the scene of destruction. I watched as he disappeared out the door and was immediately taken into protection by some men.

Okay. So that's it.

Now it's my turn.

But why should I run? Why would I? I was among Blackcrofts. My family. I should be safe here. There was no cause for me to flee.

Right?

My fingers tightened around the metal body of the gun and I jumped up, body low as I scurried away. There was another exit in this room, the door which the two men had been dragging me to earlier. Miraculously, I made it without getting shot, and after a panicky moment of struggling with the handle I managed to get it open.

It opened out to a corridor. I felt an overwhelming sense of relief as I closed the door behind, muting the sounds of fighting immediately.

Now to get out of here - 

"Well well well. Lookie here boys. A runaway!" A loud heckle, followed by an ungainly sound of someone hacking up phlegm and spitting it out.

"Really?" I said, eyeing the lot of them. "Four against one? Four guys against one girl?" 

"That trick ain't gonna work on us, missy," the man in the middle said. Ack. That is some seriously rotten teeth. "Ya see, we dun discriminate against gender. So you're gonna have to face us all."

I ran a criticizing eye over them. Dirty shoes, mercenary clothing, clumpy boots. Black and Tan were known for their intelligence and innovation, but not so much for their hands-on, so most of the time their physical work was done with the cooperation of outsiders. Black and Tan would lead, but the manual labour all went to the hired hands. 

I raised both my arms up in a placating gesture. "For all you know, I could be a good guy. Another hostage of theirs, now taking the opportunity to escape."

One man with a bandaged nose snorted. "Seeing as how you're waving that gun around and havin' them masks over your face, I don't think that's the case missy."

"What, this?" I said, tugging down my mask. "I'm having a cold. And this?" I gestured aimlessly with the gun. "I just randomly picked it up. Better one than none, huh? I don't even know how to fire it - "

The gun discharged, the shot loud and clear as the bullet flew upwards to embed itself in the ceiling.

Well.

"That," I began, "was an accident - "

The man with the bandaged nose roared and suddenly all of them came running. One pulled out a gun and fired. I ducked instinctively. Getting onto one knee I ignored the figures looming up ahead fast and instead closed one eye, concentrating on the man that was at the back of the pack. Before he could take his shot I took mine, and the bullet slammed into his shoulder. He went down with a howl.

Bullseye.

The three men were now right upon me and the first man whipped out his right leg, catching my weapon and sending it skittering across the floor. I dodged the stomp of his foot and rolled away, up into a standing position. 

They attacked me all together. Front, left and right. Rotten Teeth took the lead and Bandaged Nose came swinging in from behind. I dodged both and lashed out with a roundhouse kick. Both of them swerved aside to avoid it, leaving the third man to catch it straight in the face. He stumbled backwards, arms flailing. When he looked up, I noticed that I'd knocked his tooth out.

"Sorry! Sorry! I wasn't aiming for you!" I yelled, even as Rotten Teeth came back in with two nasty punches. I managed to steer clear of the one to my face but had to take the one to my solar plexus. I gasped, wheezing, before kicking out behind, feeling my foot come into contact with Bandaged Nose's stomach. He had been trying to get my fallen gun.

"Now that's not very nice!" I admonished, and to further emphasized the last word I slammed my fist into his face. Immediately - 

 - and Bandaged Nose had now become Broken Nose.

I was just catching my breath when The Man I Had Accidentally Punched Before(TMIHAPB) - damn, even that acronym is too long - decided that he wasn't about to forgive and forget, and that the best way for him to take me down was to run up from behind and jump onto my back, clinging to me like an oversized koala bear. What he hadn't count on was the fact that I was way not ready to become his newfound bear-mother, and so instead of bear-ing - hehehe you see what I did there - his weight, I simply relaxed. Gravity pulled him down, which pulled me down, and I ended up squashing him with my back. He let out a muffled groan. I elbowed him hard for good measure before leaping back to my feet.

I turned to look down at him. "Seriously. What were you trying to do?"

His only response was a strange, choked wheeze.

There was a bang, and I realized it came from the man I had shot. He was alive, conscious and had just fired his gun. Too late, I swerved, but the bullet had streaked across my cheek, leaving a long wound that cut to just beneath my earlobe.

Yee-ow yow yow that hurts!

In that moment of distraction, the guy on the ground grabbed me by the leg, and Rotten Teeth came charging in with a yell. The punch connected and I could feel the pain rocketing around my insides. With my free leg I stomped on TMIHAPB's temple and he went limp, finally unconscious. Turning back to Rotten Teeth I feinted a left before coming in from the right, vicious and fast. A side kick to his face, and another side kick from my other leg to his face. Wham wham double slam! He too, fell. 

Broken Nose came in from another pass and I ducked. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that the other man was preparing to fire again. I looked around, saw my gun, and made a dash for it. The man fired and I dropped low, my jeans allowing me to slide across the floor with the momentum. Picking up my gun I didn't pause and aimed, finger on the trigger. 

Three down and one more to go.

I got up, and Broken Nose took a threatening step forward. I shifted my gun his way.

"Are you letting me go?" I asked, my grip steady, my breaths coming out fast and short. 

He looked furious, and for a moment I thought he wasn't going to let up. And then tersely, he nodded. Once.

 "Thank you." Not letting my eye off of him I backed up, down the corridor. He looked absolutely incensed and I made sure my gun was prepped to fire at any second.

Faintly, I could still hear the sound of firing from the room I had left. Something caught my attention and I glanced to my left. It was a brief glimpse, because I didn't dare let Broken Nose out of my sight, but I had seen what I needed to see. 

It was a room, with a television screen and two chairs, the ropes pooled around them on the floor. So this is where Kaylan's parents had been kept. Where they had been made to witness their son's torture - 

I was walking past the fallen man with the gun, and I swear, this guy was like a zombie from a horror movie. Because as my feet brushed lightly against his frame he moved, the gun already in his grasp. I thought he was going to fire, but he must have ran out of ammo earlier on, or maybe the two bullets he took had made him slightly batty in the head. Whatever the reason, instead of pressing the trigger he threw the damn thing, and the metal clocked me in the side of the head. 

It was a sharp, searing blow and I lost my balance, floundering. Damn he throws hard! Dizziness drew swirly circles in my vision and for three seconds I could not do anything but blink, trying to comprehend why the world was suddenly spinning. Some conscious part of my brain registered the loud war cry from a distance ahead, as well as the rapidly closing angry man with the broken nose.

With tremendous effort of will I managed to turn myself around - and I ran.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Aaaaannnddd the gifs are back! Woohoo ~~~~

Speaking of which, I just realized we haven't seen Damian in awhile. Hands up all those who wish to see his glorious return!

*counting hands*

Hmm. We-ell. Maybe we can arrange a little something . . . this chapter's for Gypsy_Love ! Thank you for that amazing advertisement you did!

Till next time folks!