FIFTY-SEVEN

Lucille was hyperventilating and crying, then Ruby felt her forehead, she was burning.

She called out to the driver to give her Lucille's drugs, but he said it would be a trap.

Rose said they were serious, but he didn't mind, till a coarse voice said,"Here, but if you get any ideas, you'd live to regret it."

Rose muttered a thank you to their father and gave Lucille the prescribed amount then sat down and asked,"Where are we going?"

"You'll know when we get there."Their dad said.

She then fell silent, wondering what destination awaited them...

***

Lucy placed her phone down then started walking paces in her room till a maid came to alert her of a visitor.

She ran to me and Luis in my arms and he was much lighter than I anticipated.

She asked what happened and I made a slight fib,"We were involved in a car accident."

She frowned then said,"Don't lie to me Thomas, what happened to you?"

Oh no, she called me Thomas...gulp.

I was about to blurt the entire truth of our irresponsible and stupid action of actually listening to Mack for once when Luis spoke,"It was my fault..."

I didn't know he was conscious as Lucy asked what he meant, then he said,"I wanted revenge on the person who kidnapped Lucille so much, I challenged him to a duel, not anticipating the dangers."

"He cheated?"

"...he won, fair and square, he was actually more skilled than we thought."He said.

"And who was he?"She asked.

"... Jonathan Welshes."

***

Luis was still in a cast when Lucy walked into the room, holding a bouquet of flowers and his favourite chocolates.

He couldn't look her in the face as she came in and she asked,"What's wrong?"

"I failed you."He said.

"You didn't fail me Luis."

"But I did, I have been trained for decades on end to be able to subdue any opponent I faced and yet I was just beat by the one person I couldn't afford to fail against."

"Luis, Tommy and Mack also weren't able to beat him, but you didn't fail."

"How?"

"Now you know some of his strengths and possibly weaknesses and that Lucille is safe, it's going to be alright."

He smirked and held her hand tightly as she sat down beside him.

A few rooms to the left, I sat down with bandages allover my body, sticking it together and preventing it from tearing apart.

I ached all over as the nurse attended to me, slowly wrapping up one of my arms.

I lay down when all was done and closed my eyes, with flashes playing before me, the time I had a crush on Ruby, the times I spent with Lucille and when Rose was my girlfriend, which was now, and then I saw...

"Mark?"

He smiled then said,"Hey, big bro."

I ran into his arms and he did that his charming chuckle as I cried my twelve year old tears on him, then he asked,"What's wrong?"

"I ruined everything, I ruined your grave, I ruined my relationship with Rose, I ruined my chance at getting her back, I'm just a failure."

He placed me gently on his lap then said,"The only thing you did ruin, was your chance to give up, over and over again, you've never stopped making mistakes and you haven't stopped learning either, I'm jealous of you Tommy.

"Why?"I asked.

"Because when I was your age...three, I spent six hours crying, five binge eating and three crying myself to sleep and that was after my parents left to get a divorce, not when they kicked the bucket for twenty years, but you stayed strong and I couldn't think of anyone more suitable than you to take care of everything and everyone I left behind."

"But I couldn't have done any of it without you."

"Of course not, I'm the best at that kind of stuff, you were a wreck without me."

I punched his shoulder and almost snapped my own wrist as he chuckled again, then turned sullen and said,"I'm sorry for everything."

I just hugged him tightly, wishing he wouldn't go again as he ruffled my hair, I frowned then knocked him down and he chuckled as I tickled him...

I woke up and saw the nurse serving my food, she said I had a visitor and I wondered who it could be.

Just then, dad walked in, holding white roses and colourful balloons, I was a sucker for balloons.

I smiled as he placed them besides me and asked how I was feeling.

"Much better now you're here."I said.

"...I...I brought some sugar free dark chocolates, not to say you're not sweet, excessively dark or anything, just that..."

"Dad, I'll love them, thank you."

He sat down beside me then asked who did this to me, and I told him.

He widened his eyes and frowned, but I told him to stay away from Mr Welshes, he was dangerous enough as it is and that was only when he was playing.

My dad slammed his fist on the table when I told him the late Chief of Police had also been involved, and possibly others in the police force and other high places, I sighed thinking about Rose, Lucille and Ruby, my girlfriend, niece and best friend, why would their father or any father at all do something like this?

***

"Where are we?"Rose asked.

Their father grinned as he walked forward.

They were in a greenhouse filled to the brim with rare orchids, water lilies and Middlemist red camelias.

The air was filled with the aroma of the exotic flowers as their father took a deep breath of a violet water lily then said,"It's so intoxicating..."

"Okay, you better tell us what we're doing here, or we aren't taking another step forward!"Lucille yelled.

Everyone, including Ruby and Rose gasped as their father stopped moving then turned back to face them, before bursting into hearty laughter.

One of the guards offered to ' discipline ' the child, but he said they should leave her, then walked closer to Lucille then said,"I like that fire, it would be perfect for the next stage...take them to their chambers."

They were taken to three different rooms, with Ruby in a room filled with miltonia orchids, Lucille in one filled with Sunfire water lilies and Rose in one filled with Middlemist reds.

The doorway was left open for all of them but they knew it could be a trap.

A few minutes later, they were called to dinner.

Rose and Ruby timidly obeyed, but Lucille didn't want to go, till one of the guards started dragging her out by the hair.

She screamed and cried till their father caught the guard by the head and snapped his neck on his knee and dropped the lifeless body on the floor before Lucille, then glared at her for a second, before leaving.

She looked at the body before her feet and hurried to the dinner table, where the food was a mix between Mediterranean and Asian cuisine.

Lucille wasn't as used to this type of food as Rose and Ruby but their father didn't criticize or yell at her for filtering the food, he ate in complete silence, a deafening, maddening silence.

After he was done, he wiped his lips and glared at Lucille, then stood up.

His steps made deep thumps as he walked on the floor towards her, then he grabbed her violently by the jaw and tilted his head slowly as she struggled and for a second there, she saw a glimmer of red within the green of his eyes.

He then said,"It's either eat or be eaten in this world, choose which you want."

Then he left her and walked away, leaving the three alone.

Lucille forced the food down her throat, but even its powerful flavour was overwhelmed by the taste of blood in her own mouth, Ruby and Rose went to attend to her, wondering why she was dragged into all of this...