A Harpoon welcome
1349 Words
Lola woke up still feeling guilty. It was worse when she did not find Shane in their chambers. Quickly getting dressed, she had just left to go and find him when she heard a multiple sounds of gunshots followed by terrified screams.
“The Duke has been shot!” someone shouted as she descended the stairs.
“What a pity. For the first time in years he looked very happy,” another responded.
Her heart started racing before she rebuked herself.
“It can’t be him. There must be other Dukes in the kingdom,” she told herself as more shots were fired outside. To her, Shane was invincible. There was just no way that it was him they were referring to.
“Poor Madam Melisa. She will be all alone. She did not deal well with her husband’s assassination. How will she survive this?” a maid in her late forties told another. They both looked startled and ran off when they saw her.
Lola suddenly felt hot, adrenaline surge pumping through her veins. She wanted to find out more but the two women had ran out of sight. She flew down the stairs instead, only to find a distraught Melisa who was being held back by the Queen and another woman she did not recognise.
The king was pacing up and down, utterly devastated. The hall was packed with Foster members, who would not dare speak.
All eyes were on Melisa, who was trying to free herself.
“Let me go. I have to go to my son!” Melisa snapped at the two women holding her back.
“It is not safe, Mel,” the queen responded tenderly, while her friend used all her strength to free herself.
“Shane is hurt. I can’t just watch him bleed to death!” Melisa yelled at the queen, hierarchy completely forgotten.
Lola took one glance at her mother-in-law and knew that the Duke who was shot was her husband.
More shots were fired outside as many scenarios ran through her mind. She took in the scene before her. The guards were all near the door, unable to come out. A flood of bullets hailed at them every time they tried to open the door.
In all that chaos, she could see so many flaws in the castle design. Her own apartment was safer than the seemingly perfect design.
Her eyes scanned through the window everyone was staying away from. At least it was bulletproof. A few feet away, lying on his face with a pool of blood around him was her husband.
Her hands became sweaty, a shiver descended her spine.
“You can’t just die on me, Shane Foster,” she murmured.
“It is more than one sniper. I can’t tell where they are…” she heard one legend report.
Somehow, her brain had already done the math and coordinates. It was three not two and she knew exactly where they were.
Her heart raced as all her eyes saw were matrices of all elements she could take advantage of. She needed three shots. Gifted with heightened senses, and very confident in her abilities, she has never missed. She will not miss.
She always wondered how she was able to do that, until yesterday. Until her roots came back to her. Until she was back to her rightful place. She was a Mokay. She was a descendant of great men and women, whose skill was unmatched.
Shane was the reason she was free and alive. If no one else could save him, she will.
“We need shields to get to the duke…” one guard told another. That alone was weakness to Lola. She could not imagine how these men protected the king.
“The Duke will die if the bleeding is not stopped…”
That was enough for Lola to make up her mind.
She made eye contact with Melisa, who nodded at her.
She extended her hand towards her, prompting the queen and the other woman to let Melisa go. They expected Lola and Melisa to comfort each other, but the two had no intentions of waiting and watching Shane bleed out.
No words spoken, yet they knew exactly what they each would do. Lola had grabbed two guns from the guards before it dawned to everyone what was happening. The two women were already running outside, with Lola shooting at the hidden figures and Melisa grabbing her barely living son inside.
“I have Shane, let’s go!” Melisa shouted at her daughter-in-law, who was sprinting towards the castle gates.
“Get a physician. I have snipers to find!”
“Lola!” Melisa shouted. She knew that she would not take it if she also got hurt. Lola did not know it, but she and Shane were her life.
“No one shoots my husband and lives, Mel. Never!”
Melisa could only nod as guards met her halfway and taking Shane from her.
It was only then that she noticed that the shooting had stopped. Her heart galloped at the hope that Lola could have shot the snipers. Her daughter-in-law was a Mokay after all.
“What are you waiting for? Follow the Mokay!” she yelled at the guards and the legends, who seemed too shocked.
There were over twenty of them, yet they could not do what the two women had just done.
Fifteen minutes later, Mel picked up her ringing phone.
“Mel. How is he?” Lola asked the moment she answered. She only had a few glances at Shane and he did not look good.
“He is still breathing. The physician is still working on him.”
There was silence on the line.
“Are you okay?” Melisa eventually asked her daughter m-in-law, who hesitated.
“Yes….Eh…Is there some Foster law or protocol for this stuff?”
Lola had only been a Foster for a few days, but that was enough for her to know that they had a thousand rules they religiously followed.
“What stuff, Dear?” Melisa asked.
“Like… what I should do with these bodies and the evidence here?”
Melisa stood up, her eyes sparkling at the implications.
“You found them?” she asked. “Of course, you did. You are the Mokay,” she added, unable to mask her excitement.
“I killed them,” Lola told Melisa who was so proud. She and her son were truly no longer alone. She was now praying that her son makes it.
A few minutes later, the legends, several guards and investigators reached Lola’s location. They all exchanged looks at the site of three dead snipers.
“You know them,” she pointed out after studying their expressions.
“They are all first class castle guards, Duchess,” one legend informed her, taking her aback.
“Excuse me?”
The same legend let out a sigh before explaining.
“They are part of the king’s guards, most trusted after us. This…”
Lola did not wait to hear more. She had disappeared around the corner and sprinting back to the castle.
Shane told her that she trusted the king with his life. She did not think the king ordered his guards to kill Shane. That meant that the king’s guards went rogue. She did not know much about any of them. It was safe for her to assume that they all did. That also meant that Shane, Melisa and perhaps the king and queen were not safe.
She reached the castle faster than she herself had expected.
“Where is Shane and Mel?” she asked as everyone made a way for her. She hardly noticed the admiration many flashed her. Nor the deadly stares several eyes were shooting her. She had already messed up so many people’s plans by being there.
“They are in the hospital, Duchess.”
“And the king and queen?”
“There are there too, Your Grace.”
“Take me there, now!” she demanded while everyone exchanged looks.
- Writer
