Frankie Xiao

"Let me go!" I struggle against the grip of my fathers bruisers, but the two men simply lift me higher so that my feet don't touch the ground making it impossible for me to fight them off..

I feel the sting of the double-delt betrayal forming a heart shaped bruise in my chest.. River, trading any form of compensation for my existence feels like a stab between my shoulder blades and my father treating me as if I were still sixteen and unable to think for myself fills me with indignant anger..

How dare they..
How fucking dare they!
Men are assholes!
All of them.. Even the ones I love..

Well.. Fuck them!

As we reach my fathers parked car, one of the goons reaches out to open the door to the backseat but as they move to push me inside several deafeningly loud pops of gunfire discharging rings out and suddenly I am on the ground, with the weight of a dead man on top of me..

BANG-BANG-BANG

Thick red blood seeps from the listless Triad to saturate me in it and I struggle to shove him off me, turning to see the vacant dead stare of his wide open, lightless eyes.. "Oh! No! No no no!"

My hands slip on the car door as I pull myself up to look around at the ensuing chaos.. Men run around like manic maniacs, smoke pours seemingly from nowhere to burn my throat and bullets fly.. I can't make sense of anything in the mess as body after body hits the asphalt..

"Father?! River?! Help!" I cry out but there is blood stinging my eyes and an eerie red vapour filling the air..

I take off running towards the crack of light inside the hangar, making it through the vertical doors that are halfway open, peeking back out behind me to witness the carnage and chaos of the scene..
I press myself back against the tin wall, my heart racing as I use the bottom of my dress to wipe the blood from my face while my brain struggles to process anything..

"Hey cutie." A sinister voice growls, taunting and dark it echo's around the hangar and my head snaps around in the direction of the foreboding tone..

"Y-you?! No.." I stutter stupidly at the impossible sight.. "You-You're dead? I saw you die!"

The inexplicable becomes fact as the man I know to be Rivers' friend, the same man I watched die all those weeks ago, now shakes his head at me as if I were an idiot and had imagined the whole nightmare..

He prowls towards me, a mess of dark brown curls covering half of his face.. "I recognised you the second I saw you in that Chinatown alley.. A prize far more valuable than the crappy cargo Beckett hired me to boost.. I figured out he was getting his intel from Li Jun.. When I called him out and tried to get myself a cut of his racket, the bastard shot me! Can ya believe it!?" He snarls a sarcastic scoff in feigned amusement.. "Ah.. Of course you can- You were there.. You saw it all.."

My mouth opens and closes several times as I work to force out the words.. "I'm sorry- Mr Johnny- but that had nothing to do with me.."

"Aw, I know that, Cutie.. You're innocent as a little lamb.." He smiles, unkind and cruelly charming.. "But ya daddy- Ah, well.. He's a bad man, ya see.. A bad man with a lot of money and on the market you're worth a hell of a lot more than some shitty little stolen shipment.. I'll take that fat bank your boyfriend negotiated for himself, and whatever else The Dragon has.."

I shake my head and my bloodsoaked hair sticks to my cheeks.. "You won't get away with this.. River will kill you like he killed Beckett!"

"Pffft.. I already put a slug in O'riley.. He'd have done the same to me given the opportunity.. And if you don't come with me right now.. Well, I'll put one in you too, Sweetie.." He pulls out a pistol and points it at my head before strutting forward and reaching out to grab me roughly by the elbow..

I move with him as he drags me across a blackened patch of concrete on the hangar floor and back outside into the cold, smokey air..

"Please.. No.. You don't have to do this.. Why are you doing this?" He shoves me towards the SUV as I make a useless attempt to pry his fingers from my arm..

"Why?" He grins, lifting the pistol to press it between my eyes in an effort to demonstrate his seriousness.. "Because I can, Cutie-Pie.. Now be a good little lamb, and get in the fucking car.."

"No-No!" Not in control of my brain or my body, I grab onto the door and fight to keep myself from being abducted.. The feeling is too familiar..

I can't believe this is happening again..
Why me?
Why?

Soon a stinky sour cloth that smells of horrible chemicals is stuffed in my face causing everything to swirl and sway as my vision becomes blurred and black..