“Run! Run, Trina, come on!” Kittie shouted in Trina’s ear as she grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her into motion. “Come on!”

 

Trina stumbled after Kittie, following her down the hallway until they crashed into Lucas’s bedroom. Trina could hear the intruder running after them, but she felt frozen to the spot, her whole body completely limp and useless as she watched Kittie throw herself against the door. “Fucking—not—fucking—today!” Kittie grunted out as she locked and latched the door closed right as the intruder turned the last corner and dashed toward them.

 

Thud. The intruder knocked his body against the door, which creaked a little under his weight but held firm. “Come on, help me with this,” Kittie said. She struggled to move the dresser out from its place against the wall opposite the door, but Trina moved to help her and together they managed to shove the dresser against the door.

 

“Do you think that will keep them out?” Trina whispered. Her heart was pounding at the base of her throat and in both of her temples, but she felt weirdly numb, like her body had run out of adrenaline and had no other alternative to keep her alert even in the most frightening moment of her life thus far.

 

“Not for long,” Kittie said, and as if on cue, someone slammed against the door again, grunting in frustration as it held up. Trina felt like she could feel the vibrations of the intruder’s body rocking through the whole room. She felt like she was going to be sick, but she couldn’t afford to throw up right now. Not when Kittie was tearing the room apart, clearly freaking out.

 

“What are you doing?” Trina asked, watching helplessly as Kittie ripped the sheets off the bed.

 

“Looking for a weapon,” Kittie said. “That door isn’t going to hold up for very much longer, and we’ve got to have something to defend ourselves with.”

 

Trina’s stomach turned over. She placed a hand over her abdomen, wishing she could feel the weight of her child inside of her. But it was too soon for that. Too soon, and too late. They were going to die here, together, before they even got a chance to meet. Trina should have known better than to hope for anything different. She was always going to end up here, on the wrong side of a weapon, someone bigger and stronger than her standing over her useless body. This was what she was meant to do, how she was meant to die. Like helpless prey, stuck in a corner with nowhere left to run.

 

But even though Trina felt like she couldn’t even move, Kittie kept looking, tearing the room up from top to bottom. “Come on, I know Lucas has to keep a weapon in this room somewhere,” she muttered to herself as she tore his closet apart, throwing various items of clothing across the room as she searched every inch of the closet frantically.

 

“Kittie…” Trina sighed out.

 

Kittie didn’t turn around, still sifting through clothes to try to find something she could use to defend them against the intruder. “Yeah? What is it?”

 

“I just want to say…” Trina trailed off, unsure of how to articulate herself clearly. After a few seconds of struggling, she gave up, walking over to Kittie instead and wrapping her arms around her shoulders. “I love you, Kittie. Thank you for… for being my only friend. For being my sister. Thank you. I love you.”

 

“I love you, too,” Kittie whispered. Her hand came up to touch Trina’s, giving it a reassuring squeeze before she shrugged out of Trina’s grasp. “We are not fucking dying today, honey, okay? You hear me? So save your good-byes for another day. I’m not going to let you die.”

 

Trina smiled sadly, jumping a little as she heard another set of footsteps head down the hallway. “There’s more than one of them now,” she whispered, straining her ears to try to hear what the intruders were mumbling about on the other side of the door.

 

“Fuck this,” Kittie said, turning to the nightstand and knocking over all of Lucas’s belongings to the floor. “There’s—got—to—be—something… yes! Yes, I found it!”

 

Kittie turned around with a small black gun in her hands. She pressed one finger to her lips and arched her head toward the door, wordlessly telling Trina not to announce the presence of the gun to the intruders, who could definitely hear them. Trina nodded as Kittie walked past her, going up to the door, which was rocking back and forth in its hinges with the doubled efforts of the intruders trying to break in with the force of their bodies.

 

“Fucking—bitches—gonna die!” one of the intruders yelled from the other side of the door. The next second, Trina heard a loud crunching sound, right before the dresser wobbled on its legs and then tipped over to the ground, revealing a foot wedged in the middle of the door. Somebody had kicked their way in.

 

“Kittie…” Trina said. She didn’t know what to say that hadn’t already been said, but she needed to say something, to hear her friend speak at least one last time. She needed just one last sentence to give her the strength she needed to die bravely rather than on her knees.

 

“I love you, Trina,” Kittie said softly, reaching behind her back to give Trina her hand. “I love you. Now get down!”

 

All at once, the intruder kicked the door again, sending it tumbling to the ground, while Kittie’s hand shoved Trina to the bed, right before a gunshot went off. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

 

“Shit,” Trina cried into the pillow. The whole world was dark around her, her vision suppressed by the pillow around her eyes, and she couldn’t hear anything other than the ragged sound of her own breath. What had happened? Had they killed Kittie? Had Trina died already, too? Was that why everything felt weirdly calm and peaceful, because she wasn’t located in her body anymore but sandwiched somewhere between Heaven and the void?

 

Trina finally realized there was an ache in her back, like a cramp that just wouldn’t go away. She had felt it earlier that morning, too, but with all the activity she’d forgotten about it until now. I guess that means I’m not dead, Trina thought, feeling her lungs burn a little with the effort of breathing so hard into the pillow.

 

But somebody had been shot. Maybe all of them, Kittie and the intruders alike, all were dead or dying now. Trina inhaled deeply and steeled herself as much as she could, given the circumstances. She had to be strong. She had to be brave and get up and look, even if it meant seeing her dead friend sprawled bleeding across the floor. She had to do this.

 

Trina forced herself up off the bed, only flicking her eyes open after she was on her feet again, ready to fight if necessary. But there was nobody to fight. The leg sticking through the door was stiff and motionless. Kittie must have shot the first intruder before he could finish kicking the door down.

 

It took Trina a few moments before she spotted Kittie next to the closet, lying down on the ground with her hands wrapped around her ears. Trina’s heart froze in her chest, her blood turning to ice water as she slowly leaned down to check if Kittie was dead.

 

For a few excruciating, hopeless seconds, Trina didn’t hear anything, nor see any movement anywhere on Kittie’s body. She can’t be gone. She can’t be. She can’t be, she can’t be, she can’t be dead! Trina thought about screaming, but she still wasn’t sure if there were other gangsters somewhere in the condo waiting for her to make her presence known.

 

Finally, mercifully, Kittie inhaled deeply, several times in a row, like she was just shaking herself awake after passing out. “Oh, Kittie, thank God,” Trina whispered, leaning down to wrap her body around her friend’s. “Kittie, you saved me. You saved us.”

 

Kittie laughed lowly and reached behind her head to tangle her fingers together with Trina. “Don’t count your chickens yet, sweetheart. We still don’t know if we’re alone here.”

 

“You’re not,” a male voice said from somewhere out in the hallway.

 

“Oh, fuck, oh, fuck, no, fuck! Shit!” Kittie whispered, slapping her head roughly.

 

“Give me the gun,” Trina said in a rush. “It’s my turn. I can do it this time.”

 

“No, you don’t understand,” Kittie said. Her eyes were full of tears now, making Trina feel like something in her heart was breaking apart. “There’s no bullets left in the gun! I used them all, and I don’t see any spares around here that we could use! We’re stuck! We’re stuck, Trina! We’re going to die!”

 

Trina felt a thousand emotions at once. Terror stopped up her throat, making her feel like she was going to suffocate before the last gangster could come in and shoot them both. Despair clutched at her heart, wrapping it in dark shadows so thick that no light could ever pierce them. Resignation set in, finally, making her whole body go numb and fuzzy-feeling, like she was a little drunk. So this is how it ends, she thought to herself as she wrapped herself around Kittie more tightly than before. With two bangs and my best friend’s whisper. I can live with it.

 

Still, tears flooded her eyes, hot and insistent, as she kissed the side of Kittie’s head, wanting her to feel as close to safe and loved as she possibly could. Trina blinked the tears away, focusing all her energy on treasuring this last moment that she had with her best friend on this Earth.

 

The door creaked open. Footsteps, slow and heavy, crept up behind them.

 

The man was there. Right there behind them. There was nowhere to go. There was no way to hide.

 

This was it.

 

I’m not scared. I’m not scared. I’m not scared. I’m alive. I’m alive and in love and I’m a mother and a friend and a warrior, and I am not scared, Trina thought, her breath coming out hard and quick as she dug her hands harder into Kittie’s sides, holding her as close as possible. I am not scared.

 

“You can get up now,” a familiar voice said.

 

What?

 

“You can get up. It’s over, baby. It’s over,” the voice said, right as a warm strong hand landed on Trina’s back, rubbing over her spine soothingly.

 

Looking back on it, Trina couldn’t figure out why it took her so long to realize it was Lucas. Her brain must have just been overloaded with stimuli, too distracted to be able to piece even the most basic signals together.

 

But eventually, her body relaxed into his touch, and she knew it was him, instinctively, immediately, without any doubt. And she knew they were saved.

 

Trina slowly let go of Kittie, turning to see Lucas squatting on the ground next to her. “Are you hurt?” she whispered as she reached out to grab his face, forcing him to look her in the eyes and tell her the truth.

 

“No,” Lucas said, smiling a little at her. His fingers found the tears that had fallen on her cheeks seconds earlier, wiping them away gently.

 

Trina reached down to try to find his other hand, so she could grip his fingers and wrap them under hers, but there was something cold and hard in his hands. Lucas pulled away, then, lifting his hand to show her what it was. A gun.

 

“So they’re all dead?” Trina asked in a hushed voice.

 

Lucas nodded. “There was one of them stationed outside, and two of them in here. But I guess you guys took care of one of the guys before I got here.”

 

Trina shook her head. “Not me. It was Kittie. All Kittie.” Trina reached over to press a hand on Kittie’s back, just to reassure her that she still there. “She saved me. She saved… both of us,” Trina said, gesturing to her stomach.

 

Lucas put his hand on top of Trina’s, his fingers rubbing over her skin lightly a few times, but his eyes became unfocused and glassy, like his mind was a thousand miles away. “Is everything okay?” Trina asked hesitantly. She’d never seen Lucas look like this, like he’d just seen a massacre happen, like he was genuinely shaken up.

 

“No,” Lucas said, shaking his head. “It’s not okay. But it will be soon.”

 

“What do you mean?” Trina asked.

 

“The Caliperi. I’ll make them pay for this.”

 

“Please, don’t,” Trina said, feeling panic surge within her chest, her body slowly waking itself back up as fear returned to her. “I just want it to be over. I just want us to be safe.”

 

“We will be,” Lucas said. “I promise. And I’ll bring you in when we are. It’ll just take me a few hours. I swear.”

 

“Swear on what?” Trina asked.

 

“On us,” Lucas said, rubbing her stomach a little before pulling away. “I’ll be back. Take my gun. It’s full of bullets.”

 

“What about you?” Trina asked.

 

“I’ve got plenty more,” Lucas replied as he got to his feet. “Just wait here. And take this burner phone, too. I’ll call you on it as soon as everything’s taken care of.”

 

Trina nodded as Lucas exited the room, leaving Kittie and Trina alone with the two bodies. Trina knew she should have been freaking out still, consumed with worry about what Lucas was up to. But at this point she was too exhausted to be afraid. She’d faced death and walked away tougher, harder, and less frightened.

 

For now, at least, she just wanted to hug Kittie. So that’s exactly what she did, remaining cuddled up with her best friend even as some of Lucas’s friends came by to dispose of the intruders’ bodies. She held her close, hoping that in some way she could take the pain and fear and exhaustion away from her best friend, even though she knew there was no way she could really comfort her at the moment.

 

But it was okay. Somehow, Trina just knew that it was over. It was all over, and they were alive. They were safe. They were together.

 

Some six hours after he left, the phone Lucas left with her rang. Trina answered it right away. “Hello?” she said.

 

“It’s done. You can come home now.”

 

“What?” Trina asked, confused. “I am home.”

 

“Home to the brothel. You know, Dana’s old palace. It’s ours now. Come claim your throne.”