“My family is my life, and everything else comes second as far as what’s important to me” -

Pierre Corneille

This is a story that traced back tens of decades ago, when even the great families of today were just infants, barely able to walk.

No one alive today remembered how or why it started, only that by the time it reached its nadir, enough bloods were spilled to dye the ocean red, bodies stacked high enough to construct a great wall, and many families, large and small alike, were forced into extinction.

Some speculated that it began as an attempt to centralize power by a great family of that time while others claimed that hidden alliances inadvertently dragged everyone into open conflict, but whatever the truth may be, by this point, it was already lost to the vestiges of time.

In an attempt to bury the grudges of the past, the remaining survivors of that conflict destroyed all records related to it and took its history with them to their death. All that remain today of that specific era was an official body count as well as legends about how the Silverlake and Toiracsi family rallied their forces and put an end to it all.

Lily thought about those legends that Jacob told her long ago as a warning as she sat in her chair, located inside the headquarter of the Silverlake family, eyes closed, listening to various reports as they came in.

“We’re still working on locating the heir of the Toiracsi family. His location has been hidden from all our existing sources,” one man reported.

“We’ve confirmed all the collaborators of this incident. Cleaners has been sent into the field to oversee situation.”

“Public banking assets of the Toiracsi's are now frozen. Working on locating their hidden assets.”

“All possible logistic routes for the transportation of goods and people have been identified. We’re working on instituting checkpoints to ensure that no one escapes the encirclement.”

“The Ria, Perisaub, as well as the Tiaariav family declared that they would provide us their support as requested.”

“The Caedia declared their neutrality in this matter. They asked that we do not trespass on their territories, or they will respond accordingly.”

“We received objection from the Lagu, Avidini, and the Alxurui family as well as a consortium of smaller families asking for an end to this persecution of the Toiracsi on the ground of preventing a 2nd Red Tide event.”

“Preventing a 2nd Red Tide event?” Lily scoffed.

“Yes miss. They advised that they do not want this conflict to expand further than necessary. They will negotiate with the Toiracsi family to compensate the Silverlake accordingly for the incident.”

“It’s a bit too late for that,” Lily told him.

She pulled out a letter from her desk, jotted down three simple words, “I DON’T CARE”, before handing it to her subordinate and ordered him to deliver the message to those opposing her.

With her letter in hand, the man excused himself and left to relay her message.

“Continue with the report,” she told the people that remained.

“We’re continuing our search for the former head and his wife. Location is unknown as of right now. Current assumption is that the plan of Marcus Toiracsi also included the former head as well.”

“Channels for weapons and munitions has been secured.”

“Financing has been secured.”

“Defensive perimeter has been set up and 24/7 security has been arranged.”

The reports continued for some time and by the end of it, Lily simply nodded, and dismissed all her subordinates. Subsequently, she got up from her desk and took the elevator down to a hidden floor beneath the Silverlake headquarter, where two prisoners were being kept.

Notifying the guard of her arrival, she made her way through the prison’s entrance, bringing along with her a small handgun.

Walking down the long hallway, through a series of empty cells, Lily arrived at a cell where two men were being kept. Despite still being dressed in army camouflage, their hands and feet were chained to the wall, as they glared dagger at her from behind the bars.

Ordering the guard to unlock the door the cell’s door, she walked inside and sat herself on a chair before them.

“Tell me everything you know,” she asked calmly.

“Never you bitch! If you’re going to kill us, then do it.” One of the men shouted, trying to lunge at her. His hands, restrained by the chains, stopped a few inches from her face as he stared directly into her eyes.

“Why did Marcus Toiracsi ordered you to kill my brother?” she asked again.

“Not your business. End it already.” The same man replied.

“Do you really think I won’t kill you?”

“Do you have the guts? You’re a bit too young for that don’t you think?” the other man, sitting on the floor with one knee folded against his chest, calmly pointed out to her.

“I see…it seems I look like a child to you,” Lily said as her voice grew noticeably colder than before. Slowly, she got up from her chair and aimed her gun at the temple of the man that cursed at her.

Turning to the seated man, she asked him, “Do you think I will pull the trigger?”

The man with the gun pointed at his temple smirked, “Go ahead. You think I’m scare?”, he dared her.

“You shouldn’t make empty threats. No one will take you seriously.” The other man cautioned.

Without any other word, Lily returned her gaze to the first man, her gun still pointed at his temple. Before the man could utter another word, she angled her gun downward and quickly pulled the trigger as the man let you a blood-curling scream; blood began to stream from between his legs and onto the floor.

Watching her pulled the trigger, the seated man’s face paled as he gritted his teeth, looked away from his comrade that was now rolling on the floor in pain, and refused to utter another word.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” she said as she turned around and walked out of the cell.

“Fix up his injury. I don’t want him dying on me yet,” she instructed a guard before taking the elevator back-up to her private quarter in the building and put on a clean outfit.

Making her way back down, she walked through the front door of the building into a limousine waiting for her at the front. The driver opened the backseat door and closed it as she entered the car.

“Brother will be mad at me…” she muttered to herself as she looked at the digital readout in front of her now reading 4:00 P.M. “I’ll just have to apologize for being a bit late.”

Just then, a bullet shot toward her car’s window, penetrating through the outer protective layer, and wedging itself into the interior bulletproof glass. Unfazed, Lily simply asked the driver to ignore it and began driving. A few minutes later, a notification appeared on her phone along with the message, “Assailant identified. Live capture not possible.” After glancing at the message, she closed her phone and went back to watching the scenery rolled by as the car made its way to her brother’s hospital.

When they arrived at the hospital’s entrance, Lily rushed to her brother’s room and stood quietly outside its door. She took a minute to gather her thoughts and straighten out her outfit before putting on a smile and turning the door handle, locking it behind her as she entered the room.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said as she walked to the bed where her brother lay.

Looking at his sleeping face, she smiled and took a seat at Janus’ bedside like she had done many times before.

“How are you doing big brother?” she asked to no response but the beeping of the machines inside the room.

She took his hands in her and started telling him about her day.

“I'm honestly so tired right now. The work just never ends. Honestly, I don’t know what those old men expect out of a twelve-year-old girl. They just keep giving me more and more things to do.” She complained.

“They kept telling me to approve this, approve that, they need funding for this, funding for that.” She pouted. “All day, everyone just kept asking for something. It’s honestly so tiring. I just want to sleep. You’re lucky, you get to sleep in every day, not having to deal with any of this.”

“Oh! listen big brother,” she said excitedly. “This morning, Ana told me she was pregnant. I told her she can go on leave to rest up and take care of her baby, but she said she’ll keep working for a bit longer. I can’t wait, you know. Ana is super pretty, so I think the baby is going to be cute too. Do you think she’ll let me hold him?”

“Sara said that she found a new boyfriend. I honestly don’t think it’s going to last. She keeps jumping from boyfriend to boyfriend, but she said she’s enthusiastic about this one so hopefully it’ll work out. I just hope they don’t break up and Sara ends up crying in my room again.”

“Jorge told me that summer this year is going to be hot. He’s already buying as much meat as he can so we can have a summer barbeque. He said we can do it by the lake like we do every year. We’re going to set up some lights to keep the bugs away and just have fun. You’ll be free to join me, right?”

Gripping Janus’ hand tighter, she continued.

“When you’re able to, we can go the water park… no, actually, we can just build us a water park in our backyard and have fun, just the two of us.”

“Chris and Susan are already preparing those new outfits that you asked them to make. I think it should be done soon. We can try them on whenever you want.”

“Don’t worry. I’m still taking care of your secret book collection. It’s still being delivered but you should wake up soon to help me out you know…Those shelves are too tall for me.”

“When you wake up, I promise I’ll help you organize them all.”

“So, please wake up soon big brother…please,” she begged, trying to choke back her tears.

“I want you to read me bedtime stories again. It’s lonely at night. Dad and mom are gone. I don’t know where they went so, please.”

“Don’t leave me alone,” she pleaded. “I don’t want to be alone anymore.”

As small droplets fell on her hand, she muttered, “Why?”

“It’s not fair.”

“Why is everyone abandoning me? Why does this keep happening? Is it because I was a bad girl? Is it because I hid things from you?”

Inside the silent room, gripping Janu’s hand in her, Lily continued to cry until, exhausted, she rested her head on Janus’ chest as he lay motionless, the light from the outside beginning to dim.

“I’ll make them pay for what they did to you,” Lily muttered.

“All the family members told me not to go too far, it’s not worth it, that everything will be okay.”

“Big brother,” Lily said as sleep slowly overtake her. “I don’t really care about any of that you know. The world never treated me well. My life was nothing until you and dad appeared. To me, you both are my world. If you’re not around, I don’t really care what happen to the world.”

“There’s no point living in a world where neither of you are there. There’s no one to read me stories. There’s no one to pet my head when I do something right or scold me gently when I’m wrong.”

“I promise you; I’ll find dad and I’ll make them pay for everything they did to us.”

“Then, when you wake up…we can dress up in the outfits that Chris and Susan made for us and have Jorge set up the barbeque by the lake. We can…have…fun together once again.”

“When dad comes back...”, Lily’s voice dropped to a whisper, “we can be one big happy family again, just like before.”

Tired, Lily closed her eyes and fell asleep.