Chapter: Blood in the Halls
Notice..
This is a work of fiction. It should be noted that event and characters are not real so if some situation and statement feel real then it all purely coincidental .
...
The crack of a gunshot shattered the silence, echoing like thunder through the grand hall in an instant.
Bullets flying from both sides, it was an unforgiving exchange of fire. What had once been a quiet residence now echoed with chaos and war.
The Laurel estate had turned into a war zone, and smoke curled through the air mixing with the sharp metallic stench of blood. Bodies lay scattered across the marble floors lifeless, twisted, and soaked in red, as every step risked crushing another soul who had fallen moments ago.
But atop the grand staircase stood a figure like no other, a woman cloaked in black, tall and slender, framed by the carnage.
Annalisa Laurel.
In both hands, she twirled two blades still dripping with blood. Around her, the corpses of armed intruders bled out, their deaths fresh and silent, but she stood poised, regal and untouched by the panic. Her very presence was ethereal, enchanting and extremely terrifying.
And despite the thick air of violence around her she was graceful, like a queen on a battlefield. Her face was pale and flawless, revealing nothing and her ice-blue eyes swept over the massacre below, expressionless and distant. But behind that cold gaze raged a storm of grief and fury.
They were all dead, her people, her family, her home.The ones she held dear were all gone, all of them slaughtered by an unknown force.
They had come without warning giving them no time to prepare. There was no room to run and now they lay butchered on the floors of her home. Her haven had become a slaughterhouse and it was her fault.
She blamed no one else but herself. She had let her guard down, just once because had trusted safety, trusted the silence but danger had crept in the moment she left, and now… this.
She had gone out alone for the first time. When she returned, she walked into a nightmare. How many were the enemy? Ten? A hundred? She didn't know and now, she didn't care because all she knew was that she would kill every last one of them.
She wouldn't run, she wouldn't beg for mercy. Wouldn't surrender. She was outnumbered, yes! but she was not powerless.
They had invaded her sanctuary like wolves, torn her people apart like prey but what she knew was that, she would be the storm that devoured them.
Adrenaline surged through her veins like lightning, she was no longer thinking because rage had blinded her, guiding her hands with deadly precision.
"Kill… kill… kill them all."
Those words echoed in her mind, louder than the gunfire around her. And so she began.
She moved like a shadow, silent and swift. Her steps were soft as feathers but her swords struck like lightning. Each slash was clean and each kill was deliberate. One after the other they fell. She danced through the battlefield like death itself.
And by the time she reached the main hall, blood soaked her dress, her skin, her blades but not her soul. That was already frozen.
She lifted her sword to end the last intruder in sight...when...
The heavy doors slammed open with a deafening boom.
An intruder stepped in dragging a hostage in his grasp. And immediately she froze because in his grip was her sister, her small eyes were widen in fear, trembling.
The man pressed a gun to the her head" stop right there!" He smirked, when he saw her body obeyed instantly.
Instinctively her sword dropped to the floor.
"That's better," he hissed. "Now step away from her, or I'll put a bullet in her skull."
Annalisa didn't want to endanger her sister so she lifted her hands slowly in surrender and took some steps back .
Her body shook when she saw the man press the gun further to her sister's head"Please… I've done what you asked," she said, her voice trembling. "Just let her go." The man's grip loosened slightly. He nodded.
Then whispered"Go to her." Her twin didn't hesitate. She ran to her sister, her heart thudding in her chest.
She was almost there when, the sound of a bullet fired shot through the silent hall.The despicable man fired his gun . A scream tore from her lips.
Annalisa didn't get it, she had done what he had instructed, didn't she?.
"No… no, no, please no…" She whispered, when her twin collapsed into her arms, with blood rushing from her head like a broken fountain.
She held her sister tight, her voice cracking under the weight of pain. "Why?! I did what you asked! Why did you do it?!"
She screamed out asking but there was no answer. Only silence and the warmth of blood in her arms and thatwas what she got as an answer. Her sister's trembling hand rose weakly.
She barely managed to lift her pinky.
Through the tears, she linked hers to it, just like they did in childhood. "Sis… please…" she whispered. "Live… for me…"
"I promise… I'll make them pay," she whispered to her twin before she gave her final breath then her body went still and her body became cold.
A scream tore from her lips that shook the entire mansion.
" Eliora!!!!"
She laid her sister down gently, and at that moment she knew she was no longer the same woman.They had killed her, they had scarred her body, burnt her soul and now the only one who could hold her humanity intact, they had taken her too, now nothing could hold her back.
She stood turning her head slowly, and stared coldly at the two armed men who had begun to flee.
But before the could go any further, her voice fell like a blade. "And where do you think you're going?"
To Be Continued...