Tired Eyes - My Entry for #finishthestory Original Fiction

Tired Eyes

The mercedes pulled up beside the bar and the couple stepped out, laughing. The man wore a gold chain and a jersey. The girl was done up fly with a full body and lips. He held her in his arms and she kissed him. Not the kind that anyone, if they lived long enough, would know as fake. Not that contrived giggle or forced smile. It was the way she touched him. The hands. That takes a whole other level to manipulate, and the kind of person it takes to do that is either crazy or manipulative or both.

Gabrielle knew it. She’d seen it, been there, and lord the world would know one day. When her friends or family came through. When her brother stopped caring about anyone but himself and decided to finally come and help his little sister, alone, an old woman, living on the streets of Chicago.

The club was a good spot to panhandle. Thursdays were the hot nights for it. Other street folk come out in droves, sure. But Gabrielle, or L as they called her, defended her territory. They didn’t expect a woman to fight the way she did. But she could stand her ground. They didn’t grow up like her and her brother. And sometimes things broke you or made your stronger and well.

“Made me stronger. I lived,” she said outloud. A couple passed by and L stared them in the eyes, holding her tin mug. They ignored her.

“I’ve seen it, the star in the sky black as night and burning flames. Carcarocalee. Carcarocaloo. Carca.”

A quarter fell into her cup and she thanked them, keeping her eyes on the new car that pulled up to the club. The men stepped out, faces covered in masks, pistols at the ready. They stepped inside and the gunfire began. Through the screaming and running, L had the strangest notion.

“I should go in there.”

Gabrielle stood in front of the ornate doorway jammed half open by a fallen broken body. She registered the sounds of gunfire; the barks of automatic fire spewing dozens of bullets every second- they were Uzis, she guessed- three. The other were of the booming 9mm guns- Probably Chinese models. Interspersed were a few glocks firing which were quickly silenced, these would be the security.

Even after all these years Gabrielle was not scared of gunfire, though except for her there was no one nearby- no one alive at least. Her attention was drawn by a sharp whistle. It was a man on the first floor window, he had climbed out on to the ledge holding on to the five or six year old girl wrapped around his leg. The problem would be the iron fence wrapped around small palm trees planted every three feet. The man could not hope to jump over them holding the girl.

She ran over and after carefully positioning herself below the ledge took a deep breath and anchored her feet in a defensive stance, legs wide and knees bent a little. She pointed to the girl.

"Let her jump to me."

The man somehow coaxed the girl to let go and he made her stand on his feet in front of him and pushed. With a shriek the girl fell; tumbling down into Gabrielle, she held her and went down in a sideways roll so that most of the trauma would be distributed along her shoulders and back. Gabrielle started to get up when the man fell. Three bullet holes blooming in his chest.

Gabrielle gathered up the girl who was sobbing on the pavement and started to walk fast towards the corner. Her instincts now on full alert, a few steps from the corner Gabrielle slipped between the palm trees. And was rewarded with a rifle shot from the first floor window. She would have to run for it before more gunmen could hem her in. But it was too late, she could here steps pounding down the pavement- three people and she had no weapon. Cursing her own dithering she squatted and bunching her muscles dived out from her cover, angling herself so she could crash into the lead man. He was holding an Uzi, but the three round burst went over her head as he bounced back on impact and onto the ground. Gabrielle caught hold of his hair and banged his head onto the pavement and pivoted low into the next man, who shot at her and nicked her thigh.

The second man went down hapless, as the one behind him opened fire on full automatic. Gabrielle caught the pistol as it fell from the dead man's grip and shot. A double tap to the chest and then turned with trained fluidity to fire again at the woman in the window. She got up threw the gun away and looked at the girl with tired eyes. They hurried away, shouting for help as the police cars reached the scene.

THE CONTEST: https://steemit.com/finishthestory/@bananafish/finish-the-story-week-62

PICTURE CREDIT: Pixabay.com