Sunday

OK, I thought about my addition to Grace's writing and wanted to try it another way, this one sorta gets her redemption. I don't know, it is different from the other one. First paragraph is Graces...



The bride in the wedding was yelling at some woman. Then she pulled out a gun and shot the woman. She looked over, we made eye contact, and she started to shoot at me. Apparently everybody else at the wedding was okay with what she'd done and I was the only one not in on the plan that had seen it. I almost scrambled around a corner in time but she got off a shot that went through my arm. I yelled out for somebody to help and the friends I was there with came over.

Dang, the bride had made our informant, but just a little too late. Our trap had been set for some time and those scum had fell right in it. I had been given unlimited resources on this job; “Just get em” is how Xandros had put it. Xandros, (that’s my boss’s code name) had a personal interest in this one.

He’d seen Granny Smith die on satellite feed; he’d seen her give me the golden apple. Once I made it back to safe house, He’d just shown up, which was out of protocol, and strongly interrogated me. Finally there was a phone call from The Brass (headquarters), they called him off me and I was sent straight to them for debriefing.

I told them how she had placed the golden apple in my hands; it was something she had always done but only at home. How she went into the alley and then was dead, how it was all I could do to get back on the bus and not just freak out. Xandros came out of a side door; he verified my story and actually complimented me on not blowing my cover. The Brass sent me home.

Going home was harder than the debriefing. Granny’s stuff was everywhere and now I had to degrief. Granny had rescued me in an InterPol operation busting a kiddy porn ring. I was only 7, had been collateral in a drug deal and my mom had been killed. Never knew who my father was.

But Granny had fixed all that and good. She adopted me and gave me things I had never had. Ha, I remember my first apple. I had never had an apple, 7 years old and never ate an apple. Had plenty of Apple Jacks and Apple Fritters, but never just an apple. That night we bought a big bag of apples and I loved them. The next day Granny said she had to go out of town on business and then placed the golden apple in my hands. Lovingly she explained that as long as I had the golden apple I had her.

It wasn’t long before I realized our life was different. We had plenty of money but most of my schooling was tutors and we changed cities all the time. We played games like “who could leave the least evidence in a room” and “silent man” where we would take turns sneaking up on each other in the dark. About 12 I realized that she was something special, one night I was scheduled to be at a slumber party. But I got sick and stayed home; Granny came home with “Uncle Fred”. Uncle Fred came over once or twice a week and always spent the night. I knew he wasn’t my uncle as Granny always kissed him. I was watching from up stairs as he layed out street maps and building drawings on the table. Granny made marks on them and then he opened a bag and gave her some guns. They then started kissing and went to Granny’s room.

I went downstairs and scoured the maps and such. Taking notes and getting details, the next morning after Uncle Fred left, I asked her about everything. I expected her to just blow me off as I was just an over inquisitive 12 yo. But she didn’t, instead she told me everything. How she was an InterPol operative and so was Uncle Fred, how she had rescued me from the Porn Lords; and that was why we always moved around so much.

“I want to be one too!” I had immediately blurted out and to my chagrin she said okay. From then on she had taught me everything she knew, everything. By 18 I was quite proficient at all my newfound skills, particularly the “yang fu” martial arts move. This is where you face a victim, and deftly plunge your hand into the body right below the rib cage, turn your hand over and reach up past the 6th rib, grab the heart and swiftly pull it out. Then you hold it in front of the victim while it is still beating, the last thing the victim sees is their beating heart. I practiced this move a lot, on dogs and cats and such…till one day Granny said to stop. That I was ready and to reserve that move for the truly evil.

At 19, I was in. The youngest undercover operative in InterPol history. As I was introduced to the bosses, known as The Brass. I saw Uncle Fred, here everyone called him Xandros; he totally ignored me and Granny as if he’d never seen us before. The subject never came up, or at least not until the night Granny was killed.

That night was a big operation, I didn’t know the full extent of it and never will, but there was static in the air. The Porn Lords had been gaining noritiy for their Kiddy porn movies and there was a concentrated effort to shut them down. Granny had requested me be posted on the bus stop bench but never said why. I remembered her handing me the golden apple; it was just out of place. Then when I went to check on her she was dead. Gone, just like that.

I got promoted and was ordered to find the Porn Lords and destroy them. Apparently Granny was beloved in the intelligence community and many factions were helping to bring those murderous fiends to justice. It was my idea to have a sex party in Vegas, for various reasons the Vegas police looked the other way during InterPol operations. I had found a casino with a suite on the roof top. We sent out invitations to our various contacts and actually found an informant who was in with the Porn Lords.

The party got set up and dozens of people had arrived, one “subject of interest” had the audacity so show up dressed as a bride. She was also the one who made our informant and had shot me. I was the only one of my team who hadn’t worn long sleeves. All our clothes were Kevlar, but I had settled on a short sleeve top. The bullet had punctured my tattoo of twisted barb wire. Well, shit happens.

I refocus; my team has just about purged the room. “Save the bride for me” I order, “Yes maam” comes back a uniformed discipline reply. I hear death gurgles all across the room, the smell of blood and body fluids wafts in the air. I use part of a table cloth to bandage my arm, it’s swelling a bit but I don’t feel it that much. I’m high on adrenaline now, fixing to bring closure to this operation.
The gun shots have stopped, I hear struggling in the room, I enter. Two of my agents are tying the bride to a table for my interrogation. My other agent is on the radio to Xandros, “five minutes to extraction” she shouts across the room. As I approach the bride, she is a mix of curse words, satanic spells and pleadings for her life. When our eyes meet again, she blatantly states “I have my rights!” “Yes you do,” I reply “but before you get to exercise yours, I get to exercise mine.” She laughs shallowly, I ask “did you kill Granny?” she just spits at me and blurts “EAT ME BITCH”. “Okay” I reply, and then I take my stiletto, split her dress open and cut off her right nipple. I toss in my mouth like a breath mint.

A look of terror dawns across the brides face, things are different from what she had anticipated. My operative with the radio shouts across the room, “3 minutes to extraction” the other two are gathering info on the dead. I spit her nipple into her face, “now, I was asking you, do you know who killed Granny?” Now she is more cooperative, “Yes, yes I do” she leaks out. “I did it, she was about to take us down so I killed her myself.” I listen in disbelief; this very same person is the one who took my mother figure from me, my mentor. “Why do you care?” she ask, “Were you her lover?” then she sorta cackles.

I’ve had it; stupid bitch shots me than mocks the only woman who ever loved me. I slice her other nipple off and pop it into my mouth. “Ow” she screams “I told you what you wanted”, “yep, you did” slides out my mouth, “but maybe I just find you tasty’. (told ya granny taught me everything) Her eyes bulge with horror; she knows it’s just a matter of time now.

“1 minute to extraction” echoes across the room. I can hear the helicopter coming to pick us up. “We’re done boss, waiting on you” my team states to me, (“she scares me” I hear one mutter to the other.) Still chewing on her left nipple, I announce to her “This ones for Granny” she sarcastically looks me in the eye and states “FUCK YOU”. “Fuck this” I reply as I perform the yang fu maneuver. She stares blankly as I place her beating heart across the bridge of her nose. Taking her veil, I tie it off over her eyes; the last thing she’ll see, fell, and smell will be her very own heart.

“Time to GO” the team shouts in unison, ropes drop down from the copter and we are extracted. My team stares at me; oh I forgot I’m still chewing on the nipple. I spit it out the cockpit door. Xandros is in the copiolet seat. “How did it go?” he ask. “Nutin to it but to do it” I blurt out, he laughs.

I feel led to do something, so I do. Making sure no one else is watching, I hand Xandros the golden apple. “This is yours” he states, his eyes start to mist up. “Go ahead keep it” I demand and then add to the end “Uncle Fred”. “Hush” he says with a smile, “All in a days work” I reply.