Born to Fight

Chapter 16

Celeste

I was surprised at how much I was enjoying my evening with Lilly. I mean especially when you consider that I hadn't wanted to have her here for a sleepover, to begin with. Lilly and I had talked a little throughout the evening and gotten to know each other a little better. But as much as I was enjoying my movie night, I had been diligent in ensuring I didn't give up to much personal information about myself or my family.

Regardless of how much fun we had been having throughout the evening, I still did not trust Lilly or her family. Lilly didn’t pry or bombard me with questions like I had been expecting her too. I had to admit I was surprised by that. But maybe she was just playing for time, like me. Lulling me into a position of comfort before the claws came out? I mean it was possible, right? During the night I had found myself wondering if maybe her father had put her up to having the sleepover with me. Maybe he had thought Lilly could do some digging for him. 

Partway through the night, Lilly had made it clear that she had fallen in love with Loki. And it soon became pretty clear to me that Loki was loving all the attention, and all the belly rubs that Lilly was giving him, and he was not to shy to show it.

Even though I wasn't offering up to much in the way of personal details, I was surprised at how easily the conversation just seemed to flow between the two of us. Maybe Lilly wasn't so bad after all. Time would tell. We ordered pizza online and paid for it with Jamie's PayPal account. Seeing he had landed himself in it by dumping the sleepover on me, Jamie had given me his PayPal account details. We ate our pizza and dessert items we had ordered, and drank lots of soda, and watched some scary movies, even though scary movies terrified us both!

I had to admit that a horror movie marathon hadn't been one of my better ideas.

Lilly and I ended up staying up until well after midnight, and after having had the life scared out of me countless times throughout the night, I had to admit, I was nervous that Jamie and Josh still weren't home. But, all in all, it was an extremely enjoyable night for me. It was strange, but for the first time in a long time, I felt almost normal. That thought alone surprised me, considering that it was Lilly that was here with me. Given how I felt about Billy, I would never have thought me having fun with one of his kids would be possible. But it seems that I had been proven wrong.

It was around three am when I was awoken by Loki whimpering and l*****g my face. I sat up, looking around the room. I was looking around the room, trying to find what had gotten Loki's attention. I saw that Lilly was still fast asleep, snoring softly on her side of the queen size mattress that we had dragged out of one of the spare bedrooms earlier in the night.

As I was looking around the room, I heard a noise outside the lounge room window. At first, I thought that it was just the boys coming home from their training exercise. But when Loki growled softly, I knew that that wasn’t the case. Whenever Freeze came home, Loki would run to the front door and wait for the opportunity to play with his new doggie friend, regardless of what time of the day or night the boys got home.

I leaned over and gently shook Lilly awake. As she was roused from her deep sleep, I quickly placed my hand over Lilly’s mouth to keep her quiet. Lilly woke up and seemed to be startled by what was happening. Seeing the panic in her eyes, I quickly put a finger to my lips and shushed her. I motioned outside, pointing to the window. Lilly quietly sat up and listened, and it wasn't long before we heard a noise that sounded like muffled footsteps and whispering coming from outside. Loki stood up and softly growled, his hackles raised at the noise.

I could tell by Loki’s reaction that whoever was outside, they weren’t good people. Loki moved closer to the window, it was almost as though he was drawn to the threat that whoever was outside presented to us. Watching Loki's reaction I knew we only had a matter of time to make our move before we lost our home ground advantage. Leaning over towards Lilly who looked like she was about thirty seconds away from freaking out, I quietly whispered, “Stay here, don’t move. I will be right back. I promise.”

I went to get up and Lilly grabbed me by the arm, “What the? No! Don’t leave me, you can't leave me,” she whispered, her panic making an appearance.

“I’m not leaving you, I will be right back. Loki will stay here with you," I replied, whispering so as not to attract any attention from whoever was outside.

Before Lilly could say another word and delay me further, I quickly jumped up from the mattress and ran upstairs to my bedroom. Hurriedly changing out of my pajama pants, I pulled on a pair of cargo pants that were hanging on the end of my bed. Once I was done, I went into the bottom of my closet and grabbed one of the handguns along with a box of ammo out of my backpack. Once I had what I needed from the backpack, I quickly hid the backpack containing the other g*n and spare ammo back in the closet and quickly closed the closet door.

Grabbing my g*n and box of ammo, I went to leave my bedroom. Stopping, I grabbed a hoodie that was laying on my study desk that Jamie had brought for me, which was situated near the door. I quickly loaded the magazine, slipping the loaded clip into my g*n, and hurriedly pulled my hoodie on as I was making my way back downstairs to where I had left a terrified Lilly. I hid the box of ammo in the zip-up pocket of my hoodie in case I needed to reload. When I got back into the lounge room, Lilly was still sitting on the mattress right where I had left her, holding Loki close to her. She honestly looked terrified, and truth be told, I felt bad for her.

I hadn't been in the lounge room for a minute when the sound of a window breaking at the back of the house had me quietly moving towards the kitchen. Lilly jumped up and ran after me, clearly not wanting to be left alone a moment longer, and Loki was hot on her heels. From the doorway of the kitchen, I could see the silhouettes of two men moving throughout the house. I quietly motioned for Lilly to be silent and motioned with my hand for her to follow me. I led her over to the walk-in pantry and pushed her and Loki inside. I placed my finger to my lips, motioning for Lilly to stay quiet. "You need to stay here with Loki. Do not make a sound. If you do, all three of us are dead. Just stay quiet. I will be right back," I told her before closing the pantry door. I really needed her to understand how serious this was. If these were the people that had killed my mom, they would have no problem killing us as well. Once I was sure that Lilly would be safe, and that she wasn't going to make a noise to alert the intruders to her whereabouts, I began to play this war game I had just been drawn into. 

I silently moved through the house, knowing I had to get the intruders out of the house in order for Lilly to be safe. I silently moved towards the front door. Once I was at the door, I made a noise to get the attention of the intruders. As soon as I knew that I had their undivided attention, I ran out into the night like a bat out of hell. I was heading for the timbered section of Jamie and Josh's property, needing to ensure I wasn't exposed to any potential shooters that might be set up around the property. I was using the cover of the night to my advantage. Although I didn't really go outside, I knew the layout of Jamie’s yard better then these men did. It wasn't long before I was within the cover of the trees, and once among them, I took up a good hiding position and waited for the enemy to come after me.

Lilly

Once Celeste had locked me and Loki in the pantry, I hid in the corner that was furthermost from the door, keeping Loki nice and quiet beside me, so no one would find us. I was trying to figure out what to do. I was terrified and I wished my brother Josh was here to protect me. Thinking like that made me suddenly feel guilty as my thoughts drifted back to Celeste. I was worried about her, she was only seventeen years old, and she was out there all alone with the people that had broken into my brothers house. Who were they? What did they want? I had no answers to my questions, and I felt bad the Celeste had felt that she had needed to try to protect me in this situation. The way I saw it, I should have been protecting her. I was older than her. She was my little sister after all. What kind of big sister was I? Hiding in a closet while my baby sister was out in the dark trying to escape from bad men. I was definitely the worst big sister in the world. I had to be. It was official, as a big sister, I sucked!

I was trying to decide what to do when I heard a sound at the door of the pantry. I was terrified that the people that had broken into my brother's house had found us. But my fear turned to confusion when Loki ran over to the door of the pantry and began wagging his tail and whimpering. 'Celeste must be back,' I thought. Getting up from my spot on the floor, I quietly moved towards the pantry door. When the door opened, I had expected to see Celeste standing before me. Instead, I saw Jamie and Josh standing there with Freeze. I had to say, taking in the worried looks on the boys faces, I couldn't remember the last time I had seen them both looking so worried.

Jamie

“What happened here? Where’s Celeste?” I asked Lilly, who was looking at us with an unmistakable look of fear upon her face.

“There were these men, and they got into the house. Celeste hid me in here with Loki. I thought you guys were her coming back for me,” she explained, clearly on the brink of tears. I could tell that Lilly was starting to go into shock from what had occurred he during our absence.

“How long have you been in here?” Josh asked her.

“I’m not sure, a while, I really don't know,” she replied, sounding like she was about to start crying.

“Okay, Josh, you stay here with your sister, I am going to go look for Celeste,” I said, knowing that right now Lilly wasn't in any condition to be left alone. Just looking at her, I knew that putting her back into the pantry to hide on her own, would be about as easy and as fun as trying to shove a feral cat into a hessian sack.

Not giving either of them time to answer, I turned and ran up to Celeste’s bedroom and grabbed a sweater that was laying on her bed. Taking the sweater, I held it in front of Freeze to let him get her scent. I gave Freeze the order to track, and the moment he got the scent and ran out of the bedroom, I ran after him. Loki followed us as we ran out the front door. Freeze quietly ran across the yard and made his way into the trees. His slow quiet movements told me what I had already suspected, that the men that had broken into the house were still around. I followed my dog as we moved quietly through the night, weaving a silent path between the trees.

We continued making our way through the trees in the darkness, sticking to the larger trees and shadows. Suddenly Freeze dropped to the ground, laying on his belly. Loki laid down beside Freeze and I crouched just behind them both and took a good look around. I saw some movement over to my left. Looking to where I had seen the movement, I saw two men moving through the trees quite quickly. Their frantic movements made it clear that they were looking for something or someone. For me, it was a case of momentary relief, they obviously hadn’t gotten Celeste yet. But that didn't mean they weren't close to finding her. 

I slowly made my way towards the two men, becoming a ghost, just like I had been trained to do. I got closer to the two men without them even realizing that I was there. Creeping up to them, I crouched into position waiting for my opportunity to strike. The men split up, and that was the moment I had been waiting for. I picked up a rock and threw it to the left of where I was hiding. The man closest to where the rock had landed, upon hearing the sound, moved closer to where the noise had come from. As he passed my hiding spot, I quietly jumped up and grabbed him from behind. Once I had gotten a good grip on the man, it wasn't long before I broke the his neck, just like I had done in combat situations countless times before.

Lowering the body of the dead man to the ground, I quietly ordered Freeze to keep tracking Celeste’s scent. Once again we began to move quietly through the trees, and soon I heard muffled voices in the distance.

Crouching in the shadows once more, I watched the men who were moving about in the darkness. There were three of them that I could see. For all I knew there could possibly be more of them that I couldn't see. I knew I had to split the men up. If I was going to win this fight, I would have to pick them off one by one. I heard a noise behind me and quickly turned around ready to eliminate any threat. I was surprised when I saw Josh and Lilly crouched down in the trees. Staying in my crouched position, I quickly made my way towards them.

“What are you doing out here? And why the hell would you bring her out here?” I whispered to Josh, my tone letting him know I thought he was six kinds of crazy for bringing Lilly out here into the middle of this mess.

“I couldn’t risk you coming out here alone, I had no idea what you were walking in too. And Lilly made it clear that she wasn't waiting on her own again,” Josh replied, his voice barely a whisper.

“You are putting Lilly at risk, having her out here, you understand that right? If this goes bad, you will end up losing both of your sisters tonight,” I whispered, making him aware of just how bad this was.

“She wouldn’t stay at the house by herself. What was I supposed to do? She's scared, and she is worried about Celeste. Celeste is her sister too, so of course she is going to be worried about her. Plus, I can't sit by and do nothing while Celeste is out here, and she needs help, and I am going to help her,” Josh replied, keeping his voice low.

“Obviously she was too scared to stay in the house. I understand that. People with guns are running around here like they own the place. God only knows where Celeste is, so yeah, I am not surprised she was too afraid to stay at the house by herself,” I whispered in exasperation.

“Can you guys stop bickering and get on with finding Celeste?” whispered Lilly. “Remember, Celeste is only seventeen, she is just a kid, she must be terrified. God knows I am.” Lilly’s eyes glistened with the sheen of tears as her mind no doubt ran the gamut of worst-case scenarios that Celeste could be facing right at this moment.

“Lilly, honey, we will find her. We will get her back. It is going to be okay,” Josh told her, as he placed his hand on her shoulder. He gave her shoulder a gentle, reassuring squeeze of comfort. I knew it must be hard for him being in this position. But he needed to figure out a solution to the problem, and fast. Because the way I saw it, whether it was safe in the house or out here in the open, one way or another, Lilly was going to be left alone. Lilly looked at Josh, taking comfort in what he had just said to her, then she nodded, clearly accepting what Josh had just said.

“Lilly, honey. Josh and I are going to do what we do best. We are going to use our training, and we will get Celeste back. Our training will make us a total nightmare for these mother fuckers who think they can just come here and wreak havoc on our home. Now, what I need you to do is stay here. I want you to hold on to Loki's collar, he will take care of you. I am sure that Celeste won’t mind you borrowing Loki as a bodyguard, given the circumstances,” I assured her quietly.

Lilly reached over and took Loki by the collar, holding on to him. She placed her other hand on his back and ran her fingers through his thick fur. Loki nuzzled her in the face, obviously trying to offer Lilly some comfort. She looked at Josh and me and nodded, letting us know that she would be fine. We nodded to her in a gesture of reassurance, then quietly moved off into the darkness towards our enemies, to do what we did best.