Sophie – Twenty-five years ago

“Soph, I’m scared.”

A loud gunshot reverberated through the house. At the sound of my mother’s scream, Kat launched herself into bed next to me.

Kat had tears streaming down her face at the sound of our mother’s blood-curdling scream. She cried harder, not understanding that we needed to be quiet. Someone was in the house, and I needed to protect Kat.

“Maaamaaa!”

I put my finger to my lips, motioning that we needed to be silent. Her little headed bobbed, showing me she understood. I tiptoed over to the door and listened for voices or footsteps. I reached for the doorknob and flipped the lock, hoping to keep out whoever had come into our house in the middle of the night.

It had to be robbers. I could hear shouting downstairs, and it wasn’t voices I recognized. When a gun fired and I heard the scream from my mom, I knew these were evil people.

After getting the door locked, I tiptoed back to the bed and motioned for Kat to follow me. She was still sniffling from crying. I reached for her hand and pulled her over to the closet. Shoes and stuffed animals lined the floor. Kat sat on the floor next to me, and we gradually closed the two slatted closet doors. We worked to arrange the stuffed animals on top of us, trying to hide in plain sight.

“Soph, I want Mommy.”

“I know, Kat, but we need to stay here until we hear Mom’s voice. There are bad people out there.”

“Why are bad people in our house?” She had her thumb stuck in her mouth, which caused the words to come out muffled.

When I heard loud footsteps coming down the hall, I reached over and pulled Kat to my side. It was my job to protect her. The doorknob jiggled a couple of times, and muffled sounds came from the other side of the door. When the grumbling stopped, I held my breath, hoping the footsteps would continue down the hall. Instead, I heard a loud thud followed by the sound of the wood door cracking.

It was so dark in the closet that I couldn’t see Kat’s face. I hoped she could tell I had my finger up to my lips, warning her not to make a sound, lest she let the men know where we were.

“Where’re the damn kids? He’ll kill us both if we don't find them. That guy is a crazy mother fucker. I can’t believe he took Tommy out for asking a simple question.” The voice outside the door sounded wheezy.

“Yeah. I didn’t wanna take this job, but once it’s done, our slate’s clean. The sooner we find these little brats, the sooner we can get gone.”

From between the slats in the closet door, I could see two figures moving around in our room. The larger of the two men reached down and flipped my twin bed over. The loud crashing of the furniture made Kat and I jump, causing the closet floor to creak. I held my breath and pulled Kat closer, hoping we hadn’t given away our location. It was hard to make out their faces or anything about them, but based on their conversation, they were the evil men.

We heard the thud of the men's footsteps as they approached the closet. Kat shook in my arms. She was merely five and had no understanding what these thugs were capable of. Being six years older than Kat, I had better understanding.

The door to the closet swung open with so much force that it dislodged from its tracks. Two men holding guns stood in front of us. Kat screamed in fear. The guy closest to her had bloodshed in his eyes. A large hand reached into the closet and grabbed Kat. He was able to pull her with so much force that I couldn’t hang on. A smaller man reached down to grab me. I kicked my legs out, hoping to send the man off-balance. It only caused him to get angry. I didn’t see his hand coming until it was too late. He hit me across the side of the face with enough force to send my head flying back to crash into the wall.

Before I had a chance to reevaluate the situation, the bigger man grabbed me. When he pressed me against his body, the smell of him made me gag. It was a mixture of body odor and alcohol.

“Let’s take them downstairs,” the smaller, nasally-voiced fellow hollered at the big man. Both men had long, greasy hair and wore motorcycle vests with matching symbols—a skull with angel wings and the words “The Reapers” underneath the symbol.

Needing to get free, I shifted in the man’s grasp and bit his tattooed arm as hard as I could. He had the same symbol from his vest tattooed on his arm. I vowed I would find this man one day and end him and his gang. He grunted at the pain of the bite. Then I was flying through the air, and my head knocked against the door jamb.

“Dumb bitch! Why’dya you do that? I’ll teach you what happens when you bite someone.”

Each word he screamed at me was followed by a kick. I could feel my ribs crack.

“Dude, stop! That guy downstairs will end you if you kill her. That fucker is scary as shit, and he wants these kids for some damn reason.”

The overgrown thug gave me one last kick that knocked the breath out of me. The world had gone blurry from the tears running down my face. He grabbed me by the hand and dragged me to the living room, not caring if I hit things along the way. The closer we got to the living room, the louder my mom's sobs became. She was pleading with someone to leave. Mom said she would do everything they asked if they would just let her children go.

“What took you so long? I’ve had to keep this whiney bitch alive to make sure you found the kids.”

Two more men stood in the living room. My father was on the couch, body leaning forward. I could see blood seeping from his chest. One of the men stood in the shadows next to my father, his gun pointed at my mom. The second man was keeping watch out the window. The living room lights were off. The sole light in the room came from the street lamps shining in through the window, so I couldn’t see their faces.

“Please. I will sign everything over to you. You don’t have to do this,” my mom pleaded. She was on the couch next to Dad with her arms tied together in front of her. Tears streamed down her checks, and a bruise bloomed on her face where someone must have hit her.

The ogre who had dragged me into the living room dropped me on the floor near my mom. He must have assumed I wouldn’t try anything else after my beating. He was wrong. No matter what, I would always try to save my family.

The man in the shadows glanced in my direction then pointed at me. “Is there a reason she looks like you beat the crap out of her?” He sounded angry. It was hard to tell, though, because he was talking through something that made it hard to hear.

“She gave me problems.”

The man pointed his gun at the thug who had dragged me from my room and pulled the trigger. The sound of the gun echoed through the living room. Then he pointed to the other thug.

“Hurry up and kill the bitch. Grab the children, and let’s move.”

The man in the shadows had done me a favor. That was one less person I would need to find and kill. From his calm demeanor and the way the men looked nervous around him, I knew he was the leader and one of the men I would come after. If I made it out of this situation alive, my life’s mission would be to identify this man and kill him.

The nasally man, who had dragged Kat from the bedroom and shoved her onto the couch, pointed his gun at my mom. His hand was shaking, as though he was scared for his life. His friend lay on the floor, not moving.

My mom was the sweetest woman in the world and would never hurt a fly. How could these men want her dead? Kat was on the couch next to my mom. I was on the floor, only a few feet away. They thought I had passed out.

“Nooo!”

I launched myself in front of the gun at the same time it went off. The bullet hit me in the stomach. Pain radiated through me so strongly that the world went black. The last thing I remember is two more guns shots.

* * *

I could hear the muttering of people around me and a faint beeping in the background. My limbs felt heavy. I reflected on the last thing I could recall—the memory of the men who had invaded my house. The last thing I remembered was jumping in front of the bullet. I wondered if my mom and Kat were okay. If I had made it, maybe they had, too, and were in the room with me. I listened hard to the voices.

“Did they find the men responsible for hurting this child? I want to take them to a dark alley and teach them a lesson.”

“No. I hate when we see cases like this come in. They’re always the hardest.”

Then silence again. I couldn’t open my eyes, and I was so tired that I fell back to sleep, hoping the next time I came awake, my mom’s voice would be the one I heard.

“Oh, the poor girl. Did you find who did this?”

“No. I don’t think the police will find the people responsible. This girl is special. I want to do this outside of child protective services. I will send you money every month until she graduates, and when I want to see her, I will.” The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn’t open my eyes to see who it was. They were still so heavy.

“Oh, we have always wanted children, but don’t have enough money for an adoption. Of course we’ll take her, Juan. You can see her whenever you want for giving us this gift. Did the authorities find her sister?”

I don’t want to live with this woman. I want my mom. Why is my mom not in the room? Kat’s missing? Why won’t my lips move so I can ask questions?

“I will pay for the therapy she’ll need to deal with losing her parents and her sister. The doctor told me she had to have a salpingectomy. While the doctor was able to save one of her Fallopian tubes, Sophie has a very slim chance of ever having children.”

I had lost my mom and my dad. Having kids was the furthest thing from my mind. From this point forward, my sole objective in life would be to find my sister and eliminate the men who had destroyed my family. I remembered what the tattoo looked like, so I would start with him. No matter what happened in the future, my only goal would be to get Kat back. Kat was the only family I had left.