Unleashed

When I’d run away, I’d run with the intention of staying away forever. I had not planned on coming back, on retreating to my old ways and subjecting my son to them. I’d hoped to make my own life, disconnected from everything that I had once known, free from the haunting memories of my past.

I had thought that I’d sealed off any chance of being permitted back as well. I’d been marked as a traitor by running away. They should never have accepted me back. I should have never gone back; it was much too dangerous. But people make dangerous decisions when protecting the ones they love.

I’m still not sure what brought it on. I’d lived in peace for over four years. I’d had a normal, typical life. I was able to raise my son in peace and I kept a low profile. Sure, some traits carried over, such as my lack of trust in people, but other than that I was a new person. No high dollar parties, no violence, no death, no betrayal. I’d almost forgotten about my past life.

I say nearly, because I couldn’t truly forget about it. I still snuck phone calls to my father, and my brother would always manage to visit every few months. They didn’t care about what I had been labeled, or what I had chosen, they loved me, and they loved Tristan.

Brian adored my son, he truly did. And Brian was the only father figure that Tristan had. I didn’t want to bring a man into his life that would only leave soon after. Even if I had, I wasn’t really much of a dater. I was content with just my son and I, and Lyndsey of course.

I’d met her shortly after starting out on my own, when I was still pregnant with Tristan. I was around five months at that point if I recall correctly. I’d started bleeding at work, not a lot, but enough to notice. By that night, however, it was more than noticeable. I’d gone to the ER, terrified that I was about to lose the only thing keeping me going at that point. That was where I met her, she was my nurse. She kept asking me who she should call to come comfort me, and after evading the question a few too many times, I finally forced myself to admit to her that I had no one. No family, no friends, no boyfriend. I had no one in this life.

At that moment, Lyndsey promptly decided to be my someone. She asked for the rest of the night off just so she could sit in the room with me and tell me that everything would be okay. She distracted me by asking about the baby. Did I know the gender? What names I thinking about? Have I started buying things for it? But she never asked about my family or the father, however, and I was grateful for that. She’s been my best friend since that day, and she still hasn’t asked.

I had no idea what I would have done without her, I really don’t. She stayed with me the days following Tristan’s birth to make sure that I was healing okay and to help out. She never really left after that, I think she fell in love with my son as much as I did. She moved into my house, under the excuse that it was too large for just my son and I and we could split the bills. I knew it was just to keep an eye on Tristan and I. Not that I minded, or Tristan for that matter. To him, Lyndsey was his closest family, excluding me of course. Sure, he saw Uncle Brian occasionally, and he’d spoken to his grandfather on the phone, but Lyndsey was there, all the time. She watched him while I was at work, threw him birthday parties, picked him up from preschool.

I’m pretty sure most of our neighbors think we’re a couple, which is quite laughable really. Neither of us had found a man worthy of us yet… other than my three year old.

I’d created a safe little life for myself. Odd and dull, but safe. I was content with it.

I should have known it wouldn’t last.

The day it all fell apart started normal enough. I’d gotten up and made Tristan and Lyndsey breakfast. When Lyndsey got home from work, she woke up Tristan and got herself a plate while I finished getting ready for work. I got Tristan ready for preschool while Lyndsey went to bed for the morning, and left. Traffic was clear and I got Tristan to preschool ten minutes before it began, just like I always did. Work was normal, I worked on boring cases and then went to file them. Lyndsey called around lunchtime when I was eating my typical turkey sandwich to tell me that she’d picked Tristan up and fed him and he was now laying down for a nap. The rest of the afternoon was boring as well.

It was when I left the office that things started becoming strange. Like the man that trying so hard to look like he wasn’t following me by staying half a block behind me as I walked to the parking lot my car was in down the street. Or the non-descript black four door sedan that followed me as I drove away.

It was then that old instincts began to kick in. I sent Lyndsey a text telling her to make sure all the doors were locked and Tristan was with her. She sent me back a text message asking me what was going on and why I would talk like that, but I ignored it. I had to focus on losing this car first. I went well over the speed limit and drove in circles, hoping they would turn off somewhere and I was just paranoid. When that didn’t happen, I went into full on paranoia and took small streets and alleys that only locals would know about. The car kept up for a while by making dangerous turns that were much sharper than normal.

It was following me.

I wasn’t a stranger to being followed, but it hadn’t happened to me in a while. Not that it mattered, when you grow up with shit like this, your reactions become second nature.

As soon as I managed to lose the car, I sped off toward home. Before in these incidents, I’d only had to worry about keeping myself safe. Now I had a child waiting at home like a sitting duck. I had to get to him.

My neighbor lady nearly jumped out of her skin when I came screeching down our quiet drive in my small hybrid SUV. It wasn’t exactly normal protocol in our quiet suburb. The car was hardly off and I was jumping out of the car and running to the door. I hadn’t even bothered to put it in the garage.

He had to be okay, he just had to.

“Mommy, why is your face all red?”

Those were the first words spoken to me when I threw the door open. Tristan didn’t look any different than he had this morning. His hair was a bit messy, as always. He had a toy truck in one hand, and his favorite stuffed bear in the other and sleep in his eyes. I laughed out loud. How could I have possibly thought that my old life would actually infect this perfection?

“Because Mommy was being silly, baby.”

But Mommy wasn’t being silly, not really.

“Hey, you’re home,” Lyndsey smiled brightly, shutting her book and hopping off the couch. “I ordered pizza for us, I didn’t feel like cooking, even if it is my night.”

“No problem,” I shrugged, slipping off my black heels and setting my purse down. I let out the breath that I’d been holding since I’d first noticed I was being followed. Maybe it was a coincidence, or they mistook me for someone else. I’d taken so many precautions, there was no way that they-

“Do you know anyone that drives a black car?” Lyndsey asked suddenly, cutting through my thoughts and bringing me back to stark reality.

“Why do you ask?” The words came out slowly, with a bit of my old lethality creeping into them. Lyndsey was staring out the window, pointing slightly down the block. I didn’t need to look, even before she answered, I knew what she was going to say. Instead I took those few extra seconds to mentally prepare myself for what was about to occur.

“There’s a car sitting out there, the people in it are just staring-“

“Take Tristan, go out the back door, and run into the woods.”

“What?” She sounded like she wanted to laugh. Hell, she probably did. That had to be the last thing she expected me to say. After all, who the hell runs from there house just because there’s a car lurking outside?

Someone with a past.

“Grab Tristan, go out the back, and run right into the woods,” I said slowly, grabbing her jacket off of the coat rack and then handing Tristan his. “I will be right behind you, I just have to grab some things first.”

“Mommy?” My son sounded scared, and it broke my heart, but I’d rather him be scared than dead.

“Taylor, you’re not making sense. What-“

“Lyndsey, go. Stay there until I come get you. If something happens to me, call Brian, tell him what happened, he’ll take care of you,” I continued, pulling on a decrepit pair of All Stars. They could have been mine or Lyndsey’s, I didn’t know, nor did I really care, who they belonged to.

“What is going to happen to you? Why would Brian-“

“Lyndsey, GO!”

I wasn’t just yelling at that point, my voice and posture had brought back the authoritative presence that I’d left behind all those years ago. This time, she listened.

“Come on baby,” she said calmly to my son, grabbing his hand and his backpack that he carried with him everywhere and ushering him to the back of the house. “We’re going to play hide and seek with Mommy.”

I smiled in thanks at her, watching her lead him through the house, and not missing the command she yelled back at me.

Hurry your ass up.

As soon as they were out of site, I jumped to get what I needed together. I’d worked hard to keep my past behind me, but I could never totally abandon it, just in case something like this happened. In the linen closet by the stairs, there was a hidden cupboard; it kept what I would need.

I threw all of the sheets and blankets to the floor in a rush to get to it. Who knew how long I had? Even as I winced at the harsh treatment of the soft Egyptian cotton, I kept throwing things out until I reached the small lever that kept my past hidden from my best friend and my child. The hidden door popped open, giving me access to the emergency backpack that I always kept stashed there, as well as a few extra weapons and a prepaid phone programmed with essential numbers.

I’d gathered nearly everything I would need when I heard the first beep. It was low, and I wouldn’t have noticed it had I not been alone in the house. Many people would have overlooked it, but not someone that knew that sound.

“Fuck,” I mumbled, dropping the gun that I had been attempting to load and running out the way I had just sent Lyndsey. I hadn’t run this hard with such purpose in a very long time, but the second beep I heard only pushed me to run faster, right out the back door and straight into the woods behind my house. I caught up with Lyndsey and Tristan just inside the wooded area and scooped up my son before grabbing onto my friend and dragging her along behind me. We had to be farther away than this.

Lyndsey was yelling at me as she stumbled over the thick undergrowth of the woods. I refused to take a trail, too easy for us to be spotted. I can’t remember the last time she’d let loose a string of profanities of this magnitude. But when the ground and the air shook and we were sent sprawling to the ground, she quickly quieted down.

I had always hated explosives. They were too sloppy, too dangerous. They often took out innocents, or even comrades. To me, they should only be used as a last resort, or by someone that didn’t have the balls to do a kill themselves. But right then, it didn’t matter why they had been used.

In that moment, as fire and debris lit up the early evening sky, I vowed to myself that whoever it was that had come in to my life, my home and put my measly, odd little family at risk would pay. This would not go by without consequence. Whoever had just lit up my cute little house like the fourth of July had made a grave, grave mistake. Because the moment that fuse went off, the moment that my home went up in flames, they hadn’t just declared war with my family. No.

They had blown up my home, my new life, my sanctuary, and my restraint. They’d given me release from my reasons that kept me normal and kept me hidden. They’d unleashed me, and I was a monster.

Notes

I have this story posted on mibba, but I figured I would also post it here to make it a little bit easier to find for Avenged fans. If people actually read it, I'll post to catch up to what I have written pretty quickly, and post some of my other stories on here.

Comments and ratings would be fantastic. :)