Shield And Protection

18 September, 2003.

Later, in moments of despair, Autumn Blake would close her eyes and remember the way her older sister Stella shoved her protectively behind her slightly taller body as they faced the gunman.

The move startled the masked man standing several feet away. Over Stella's shoulder, Autumn watched as he paused and then lowered the weapon.

For a millisecond, she thought that he would spare their lives, thought that there was a conscience somewhere inside the man who had just extinguished four lives with single bullets to the head with frightening speed and accuracy, thought that perhaps the memory of the happy times he had shared with her and her sister would stay his hand.

She was wrong.

His finger tightened on the trigger, and once again, she heard the frightening sound as the bullet left the silencer of his gun, a sound barely louder than a puff of air.

Her sister gave a soft sigh and tumbled back onto Autumn, taking her to the floor.

And though she'd had no experience of death until minutes ago when she'd seen her father, her mother, her grandmother, and step-grandfather executed, Autumn recognized it in the crushing weight of her sister's body and in the harsh coppery smell that filled her nostrils as Stella's life-force seeped hotly between them.

She closed her eyes tightly as she heard the man's heavy thread on the polished wooden floorboard and prayed that he was making a quick getaway.

Instead, there was a creak as the front door opened, and his voice hissed, "Get in here, Caleb! Shit hit the fan."

A moment later, she heard a strangled gasp and a shaky voice say, "You said no one was going to get hurt, Uncle Finn. You said you were only going to rob the safe."

"Someone changed the stupid combination. Plus, I don't know why they weren't in their fucking beds fast asleep!" The man retorted, sounding furious that the occupants had changed the security code of the safe and stayed up later in their own home than he'd expected and inconvenienced him. "Grab her chain and get their phones!" he commanded in a distinctive voice that Autumn would have recognized even if his nephew hadn't just called him by name.

She closed her eyes more tightly and held her breath as she waited for the man's sixteen-year-old nephew to comply.

"I can't, Uncle Finn," the young man made a retching sound.

It was immediately followed by the sharp retort of flesh on flesh.

"Pull yourself together, boy!"

Whimpering as he did so, the young man grabbed the 24-karat necklace with its diamond-encrusted locket that Stella had been given only the day before as a sweet sixteenth birthday present. The chain held valiantly for a few seconds, and Stella's head lifted off the floor and Autumn's shoulder where it had come to rest. As the clasp gave way and it fell back with a muffled thud, the young man gave another whimpering moan.

Autumn listened as they moved around the living room, identifying the young man's lighter sneakered thread as he collected her and Stella's iPhones and his uncle's firm step as he quickly divested the other bodies of valuables.

Her mind revolted as she imagined him pulling off the diamond choker and matching tennis bracelet her mother had worn for the party earlier, as well as her wedding band and engagement ring with its obscenely large diamond.

Perhaps he'd first gone for her father's Rolex and the only jewelry he wore, a heavy signet ring with the Latin: Fideles Ubique Utiles. Faithful and Useful Everywhere is the motto of Gotham's College, the secondary school he'd attended as a young man. The school Stella had also attended and the one which Autumn was due to start in less than a month.

Autumn's grandmother and her husband, on a visit from the UK to celebrate Stella's sixteenth birthday, only wore their wedding bands.

Autumn lay holding her breath until, seeming satisfied that he had taken everything of value, the man ordered, "Let's get out of here!"

She turned her head and watched them leave, her eyes daggers of rage that would have pierced them both through the heart if it depended on her will.

The older man's stocking mask disguise hadn't fooled her.

Or anyone else present in the house before the madness had begun.

Finn Maxwell, the burly, almost six-and-a-half-foot security guard her father had recently hired. His dead sister's son, Caleb Grayson, had been posted outside as a lookout before he had been called indoors to help loot the bodies.

Shy Caleb, who had earlier danced with Stella at her birthday party and, appeared a hopeless fool in love. As he was about to leave the room, he turned his head at the very last minute to cast one last sorrowful glance at his dead classmate.

Through the fine mesh of his stocking mask, his eyes connected with Autumn's.

She saw his slim body jerk in shock.

He froze, the look in her eyes seeming to hold him spellbound.

Then he broke the connection and pulled the door shut behind him.

18 September, 2010.

7 years later.

Just when Caleb Grayson had finally forgotten those rage-filled, accusing eyes, he was shaken out of his sleep to find them staring out at him from the holes of a black balaclava.

He shook his head, thinking that the young girl had once again come to him in a dream as she'd done countless times before.

But this was no nightmare.

This time, she was as real as she had been the night his uncle had massacred everyone else in the house.

And this time, she was older and stronger.

Strong enough to pin him effortlessly to the bed.

"Never spare someone's life when you've taken everything that mattered away from them." The words were softly, calmly spoken with a faint British accent. Other than the tip of the knife at his throat, it could have been a lover whispering into his ear. "It's crueler than killing them."

"Please don't kill me," he begged.