life happened.

life happened.

Victoria and her younger sister lay in her bed looking at each other smiles on their faces. Victoria reached out to twine her hand with the smaller one lying on the pillow. “There is no reason to be afraid of the dark Tina you know I will always protect you right?” Victoria said smiling. “You can sleep in my bed tonight.”

“Thank you Tory,” Tina said softly closing her eyes. Ever since she had learned to speak her parents had always insisted that she was the one to take care of her younger sister who had always looked fragile since she was born. She was ten two years older than Tina and yet she carried a huge burden as the first born daughter of the Githengi family. Her father wanted Tina to stay out of the family business a business that she had learned about when she was only five years old. Marcus Githengi her father was a high ranking government official. As a minister he dealt with the local affairs and manages to keep the high criminal activities in the Nairobi underworld at a minimum. It wasn’t a pretty job dealing with the worst of the worst so as to keep part of Nairobi safe and collect the part of the money made in the underworld for the government but he did it anyway. She once asked him why he took over such responsibilities and the answer was so simple he wanted to protect his country. Tory still wondered how one could be so dedicated to protecting a government that puts him periodically in danger dealing with criminals who the same government protected so as to get money from them. Since that fateful day when she had turned five years old she had learned why her father had insisted on teaching her self defence and ways to survive. She had lost the innocence that came along with age when she had seen people die at her father’s hand because they were a danger to a government that she had learned to despise with every beat of her heart.

  She didn’t hate it because of what it was doing in the underworld working with the same people they are supposed to put away and protect the innocent and hardworking citizens that brought them to power but because she had watched her loving father change in front of her very own eyes. He had gained cold eyes that she was afraid to look into and all the warmth in his eyes had disappeared with every man he sent someone to kill. He never hid from her what he did because he said it was the family’s duty to do what the higher ups ordered him to do so the government could survive. He has always told her that in the world there must be a balance and in a country that philosophy applies too. For a good government to survive then there must be a necessary evil that counters it. But no matter how hard she thought about it she didn’t understand his reasoning at all because the government he spoke off was not that good if it forces him to do what he does. She understood one thing though that family came first to his mind and to him he was protecting the family just like she was required to do. “The underworld belongs to us,” he said but it wasn’t such a good thing. She sat up when she heard the shouting and things breaking down stairs. Will there be a time when she would be able to sleep for one month without someone trying to break into the house and trying to kill her family, she thought. The gunshots were starting to drive her crazy. She turned to look at her sister and found her cowering under the covers. “It is okay,” Tory whispered hugging Tina tightly. Tonight was different the gun shots were too many the noise too loud and she could actually feel the violence and fear in the air.

  Tory stood quickly and placed Tina inside the closet. “Stay here and don’t make any noise all right? I am going to bring mummy and daddy don’t come out unless it is me or mum and dad okay?” Tory said urgently.
“Don’t leave me Tory,” Tina said shaking. “I am scared.”
“I will come back for you I promise. I won’t let anything happen to you,” she whispered closing the closet. She ran out into the hall way bumping into her fathers right hand man Emmanuel. “Where is father?” she asked.
“Young mistress we have to get out of here now. It is not safe,” he said. He was covered in blood and he was limping. “So many have been killed and the rest of the men are holding them off so you and your sister may escape. So please young mistress we have to go now before they find you.” She ran back into her room and pulled Tina out of the closet and gave her to Emmanuel.
“You know what to do protect her with your life. I will be right behind you,” she said.
“But young mistress….?”
“Remember the rules Emmanuel. If anything like this happens then we must be separated and taken to safety separately just in case….,” she couldn’t finish the sentence. “I would rather you protected her than me. I will distract them and you will escape with her. Promise me you will take care of my little sister.”
“I promise,” he whispered looking at her with affection. “Will you be able to handle everything on your own?”
            She smiled cheekily to hide the fear coursing through her veins. “You are talking to me the heir to this family. You have watched me train since the day I was able to walk by now I must know a thing or two.”
“”Young mistress, please don’t die. We will wait for you back at the country house in Tigoni,” he said holding her squirming crying sister tightly in his arms. Tory watched him run out of the room without looking back. She went to her vanity and took out a gun from the top drawer she breathed in to calm herself and rushed out of the room checking if the gun was loaded. She heard someone rushing up the stairs and she leaned against the wall out of sight trying to remember all that her father had taught her. She stood on the table close by and waited when she confirmed the intruder wasn’t one of her father’s men. Immediately the man appeared at the top of the stairs she jumped him hitting him on the head with the butt of her pistol and he fell over unconscious. She reached her father’s office only to find her parents on the floor covered in blood gun wounds to the head. “Mother, father,” she whispered in shock kneeling next to their cold bodies. “He is escaping with one of the girls stop him,” he heard the shout from the hall. “Don’t harm the girls those are the orders take them alive.”

“Tina,” she whispered picking the gun with her bloody hands and ran outside. She was in time to see them shoot Emmanuel on the leg. He stumbled and fell turning in time to take the full effect of the fall. She reached for her father’s rifle knelt next to the window and started shooting at the intruders. The house blew up so suddenly and the next thing she saw was the ground coming up to meet her. She fell hard struggling between staying awake and succumbing to the darkness. She saw her sister being taken away to a waiting car as she screamed Tory’s name over and over again. She reached out her hand wanting to reach her sister but she couldn’t move the pain paralyzed her completely. She heard shouts and people out of nowhere rushed into the compound guns blazing killing the intruders. She noticed one man run after the car with her sister but was too late. “Christina,” she whispered softly as the same man who had tried to save her sister rushed to her side and picked her up. She closed her eyes and tried to escape the pain not only the physical but the emotional in one night she had lost her whole family.