Tainted

Earlier in the year I had to enter an antihero piece into a contest. I don't know if I did a very good job at portraying what an antihero is, but this was my attempt.

The sky hanging above the city of New York resembled a television, tuned into a dead channel. Saskia walked down the slippery pavement, the rain washing away the blood form her worn leather boots. She knew if she continued this she would end up getting herself killed or caught, but how could she stop when she knew what those monsters were doing. Walking to a nearby building she pressed one of the apartment buzzers, sounding off its wheezing hum.

“Who is it?” A female voice rang through the speaker, it sounded as though the owner of the voice had just awoken.

“It’s me Jules, let me in.” Saskia nearly whispered.

Once again the buzzer went off and she was let into the building, her boots squeaked against the marble tile as she walked down the hall and up the stairs. She knew for a fact once she walked through that door she was going to get an earful from Jules; the other woman hated when she’d disappear through the night and come back in the morning, blooded and bruised.

She had not even gotten through the door when she heard Jules yell, “Where were you?!”

Stripping away the soaking wet sweater Saskia made her way to the fridge, “Out,” She answered vaguely.

Jules scoffed, “I can’t with you. You are going to get yourself killed.”

“At least I’ll be doing it for a valid reason.”

“This isn’t how you handle things like this Saskia, it won’t make anything better.”

Saskia rolled her eyes and closed the fridge, “Not doing anything won’t make it better either, Jules. At least I’m getting those pigs off the street and stopping them from doing what they did to Johnny to another kid.”

Those memories came at her like a bullet, catching her right in the heart. It was like it was just yesterday when her parents received the call that Johnny had been arrested for the rape of a little girl. It did not make sense to them, Johnny would never hurt a fly, but still the police urged that it had been him who committed the crime. Her parents spent hours trying to pull together enough money to afford a decent lawyer, but they could not muster up enough.

“It took not even an hour after they called my parents for him to be dead. They beat the living crap out of him and tried to pull it off as a fight with other inmates.” Saskia ran a hand through her damp mess of hair, sitting at the kitchen table.

Jules pulled up a seat in front of her, “Saskia, look at me,” Saskia did as she was told and the other woman took her hand in hers. “You can’t keep doing this; Johnny wouldn’t want you to keep doing this. You can get seriously hurt or worst killed, think about what difference it’ll make if you end up dead.”

Saski wiggled her hand from Jules grip and stood up, “I just can’t let it happen again.” Was all she said before she grabbed her jacket, leaving the house again.

Saskia leaned against the wall outside the bar where all the blue bloods, veterans or not, seemed to gather almost every night. Tonight her target was Louis Marshall, the officer who had arrested her brother and beaten him to death. According to her previous victim he had also been the one that framed Johnny, attempting to keep himself from getting caught.

It was right around 12:30 PM when Marshall came stumbling from the bar, he was completely wasted, probably how he ended up raping that girl. Saskia shook the other thoughts from her head, solely focusing on the plan. Walking past Marshall she bumped into him, falling to the ground.

“I..I-I’m sorry doll.” He slurred, putting his hand out to help her. She smiled, taking it, letting him help her up.

She opened her mouth to thank him, but was pulled closer to his chest. Marshall leaned down to her ear and whispered, “Don’t you dare cause a scene. You brought this on yourself Saskia.”

Her heart dropped when he spoke her name. How could this be, she was careful with everything from capturing her target to where she got rid of them.

“You’re not as sneaky as you thought. Follow me and your little Jules won’t get hurt.”

She couldn’t do much but comply with his orders now that Jules’ life was on the line. “What did you do with her?” She growled as he pulled her to a truck not too far down the street.

“You’ll just have to find out, now won’t you?” He snickered, putting her in the passenger seat.

Saskia did not remember getting knocked out, but she was sure she had been because of the dreadful headache she had and her now new surroundings. Trying to move her arms they were jerked back to place by a pair of handcuffs.

“Perfect, our guest is awake.” A masculine voice spoke from the shadows. One by one three police officers emerged from the darkness, along with two of their mafia comrades.

Marshall came closer to Saskia, taking her face between his thumb and other fingers. “You my dear have caused us a lot of trouble, not only that, but you have killed a few of our friends.” The smell of Jack Daniels seeped from his mouth and into Saskia’s nostrils, causing her to clench her jaw.

Nothing else really mattered to Saskia at this moment except making sure Jules was okay. God, if only she had listened to her when she told her to stop, they wouldn’t be in this situation right now. Then again, if these scumbags had not killed her brother they wouldn’t be in this situation either.

“You are nothing but filthy scum on this earth.” She bit back, spitting in Marshall’s face.

Marshall chuckled and wiped the spit from his eye. With a simple gesture from him one of the mafia men disappeared, returning with a tied up Jules who was struggling against the restraints once she caught sight of Saskia.

“JULES!” Saskia yelled, tugging at the handcuffs, trying her hardest to get loose. “Let me go!!”

A fat finger waved in front of her face, “Nu uh uh, things don’t happen that easily.” Marshall walked around her, watching her as if she was his prey and he was ready to pounce.

Saskia thought quickly, she had gotten out of handcuffs plenty of times before, but she had to play this off good.

“What do you want Marshall?” She was going to play into his little game, so it would give her enough time to get out of the cuff and get her and Jules out of there.

“Nothing more than to see your head on a silver platter, love.”

Saskia fidgeted a bit as the handcuffs cut into her skin, but she was so close to being free. “Well that would be a bit messy, don’t you think?”

Almost there.

Marshall chuckled, turning his back to her at the perfect time. When Saskia’s hands were free she grabbed the sides of the chair and swung it Marshall’s head, knocking him to the ground.

At this moment everything went into full-fledged chaos, bullets were flying, people were yelling, it was a battle field.

Saskia was too occupied with one of the cops to notice Marshall grab Jules, pressing a gun to her head.

“You honestly think this is a game Saskia.” He sounded completely mad as he spoke, his eyes confirming it.

“Just let her go Marshall.” Saskia pointed a gun straight at him.

He let out a maniacal laugh, “It’s not that easy, you see if I don’t kill you than I might as well just kill her.” He pressed the gun against her skull again, making more tears run down Jules’ face.

“No, no, I’ll put down my gun, see.” Reluctantly she put down her gun, kicking it over to Marshall.

He smiled, and just from that simply gesture she knew this wouldn’t end well. It only took a blink of an eye for him to pull that trigger and for her to lose the only other person she had left.

They were tainted by the bitter blood of the mafia, their once blue blood now running cold and black. How money could so easily corrupt those who were supposed to be our protectors.