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Chapter Four: Kids with Guns
He saw me approach. His eyes wandered warmly over my body and his left eyebrow tweaked, a tale-tell sign that he was pleased with what he saw. My outfit had been selected for that very purpose and I felt all the warmth of a verbalized compliment. Murdock wasn’t a man of many words, but his face said it all.
“And how’s my Queen this morning?” he murmured as I sat next to him on the hood of an old, abandoned blue Cadillac. It hadn’t run in years, but for some reason, Murdock kept it sitting there, forever derelict, where it had always been. I smiled, shivering slightly, as his arm snaked possessively around my back. He tucked his cold hand beneath my shirt and rested it on my hip. His hand caressed the back of the gun I had snapped into the holster just minutes ago and every once in a while, he would miss and his fingers would lightly stroke my skin. I giggled.
Looking up at him, I couldn’t resist planting a small kiss on his neck right beneath his jaw. “Your Queen is just fine,” I replied.
“Sorry I left you so early,” he said, taking a long drag of his cigarette. His eyes were suddenly sad—heavy—filled with thoughts I had no idea about. “I had some business to attend to…”
“That’s what I figured,” I said quietly, allowing my head to rest on his shoulder. I felt his need to be consoled, so I tried the only way I knew how. It seemed to be enough.
With a squeak of protest, I felt as he removed his hand from my hip, but it was soon wrapped around my shoulders. His fingers ran slowly and carefully through my shoulder length hair.
“You’re so smart,” he whispered, tossing the fully smoked cigarette to the ground. He reached into his pocket and pulled a half-empty carton from his pocket and I stopped him with a gentle, but firm hand.
“Slow down cowboy,” I said and he looked down at me, a curious expression on his face. I took the carton from his hand and put it in my back pocket. His mouth twitched and I knew he was about to argue. I shook my head. “We had a deal. At least fifteen minutes between each one… these are going to kill you.”
“You sound like Sherman,” he snarled half-heartedly.
“I don’t mind that so much,” I said playfully. “Whatever keeps you alive.”
“Is life really that great?” he suddenly asked, looking away from me. He always did that—looked away when he said something he knew I wouldn’t like.
I felt my heart falter as his words forced the thought of what life without Murdock would be like. “If it’s got you and me, life is good enough,” I replied carefully. “What is this about?” I asked and he shrugged.
There was a scream from the court and both Murdock and I looked up to see a younger black boy, easily the smallest of the group, holding a gun to an adversary’s head. The black boy stepped behind the older one, the one who had the basketball, and kicked him forward onto his knees. He pressed the barrel against the kid’s skull.
“Hey!” Murdock shouted, standing. He straightened his jacket as he stepped forward. “No guns in basketball!” The young boy glanced at Murdock, a challenge in his dark eyes, and the aim of his gun shifted.
My breath caught in my throat as Murdock kept moving forward. My hand moved automatically to my holster. My gun was gone.
“Shit,” I muttered under my breath as I searched for the nearest member. It was a girl. She was young. I jumped off the hood of the car as quickly as I could. A gasp stopped me where I stood.
“Don’t you move, Riker,” I heard Murdock breathe. I could feel the gun pointed at my back.
“If he’s going to shoot me, he could at least have the decency to shoot me in the face,” I snarled, turning to face them. Murdock’s eyes fluttered closed. I knew I was going to hear it later and the thought brought a smile to my face.
A shot rang out, then two others, and then suddenly, the entire court erupted into chaos.
But my world had frozen the second I saw Murdock’s body jolt from the force of a bullet slamming into his chest. I frantically pushed through the crowd of running, screaming kids.
Ten feet… five feet… two feet… I felt a sharp, hot pain moved through my left leg and I dropped. Another bullet hit my shoulder. I had to reach Murdock…
I could feel the blood leaking from the wounds, running down my leg into my boots. My brand new goddamn boots. I must have been in shock. The yard was coming in and out of focus, the sky lightening and darkening. Murdock was no longer in my line of sight and I could now only hear the muffled sound of gunshots as I folded my head over my knees. I felt so weak.
My arm went numb. A gun flew in my direction and skidded to a stop by me. I sat up and reached out, tried to grab it. My fingers weren’t moving.
A wall of black suddenly hit me, knocking me onto my back. It took me seconds to realize and register that it was a body resting on top of me. A dead body of a kid. I shoved it off me and tried to sit up, hoping to stand, but my vision was fading. “Oh no…” I whispered. “Not now… no…”
I lay back down and reached my hand out. Murdock’s was just inches away. I let out a whimper as my eyes focused and saw something I would never forget. Those beautiful blue eyes open in shock… glassed over in death. The eyes that had scrutinized me so long ago… the eyes that had offered me everything I could have ever wanted. Blue eyes that promised an unrealistic forever…
A cloud of black enveloped my mind and as I slipped into that deep dark abyss, I thought I was dying. I wouldn’t discover it until much later, but it would have been better to have died right then.
A/N: finally finished this chapter. It was very difficult to complete as you can probably guess why. So... yeah... tell me what you think :)