Chapter Five

Rebirth The Monster

Two white hand puppets shaped like bunnies danced around in front of Cap’s empty eyes. Dorothy entertained her friend with his favorite toy. A secret from long ago that she kept close. Jack from the other side of the room couldn’t help himself as he chuckled at the display of affection he found stupid.

“That’s so childish,” He said.

Dorothy seemed to ignore it, dancing the hand puppets a bit more before finally standing up from her chair and placing down the puppets. She walked up next to Jack and leaned in close.

“Say one more thing, I dare you.”

A threat she wished she could’ve given to the one she buried. Jack was taken aback by this. While he knew Cap and Dorothy were friends, this was the first time Dorothy had ever confronted him. Still, he was a man now and wasn’t gonna let a kid scare him, let alone a little girl.

“I’m not afraid of some kid,” Jack chuckled.

Dorothy twisted her body, and smashed her right fist into Jack’s jaw, knocking out the already sickly teenager. She proceeds to take his pillow, and place it firmly over his face, climbing on top of his chest to quicken the process of smothering him. After he had finally stopped breathing, she replaced the pillow back under his head before slipping back to the floor. Making her way back over to Cap, she proceeded with the bunny puppet show. After a while she noticed Cap giving off an innocent smile, clearly enjoying the puppet show. Dorothy found the look to be the most adorable thing in the world, though she wished it wasn’t coming from him. She checked her new pocket watch with a small sigh.

“I’ll be back in a few hours, Capo. You’re the leader of the bunnies, okay? Make sure they don’t do anything stupid,” She chuckled as she placed the hand puppets on his chest. As she left the orphanage, she could hear a scream coming from one of the nuns, more than likely she found Jack not breathing. She wasn’t counting the minutes but hopefully, it had been long enough to kill the last few brain cells that bastard had left, she thought. Dorothy made her way toward the bridge and positioned herself on the big rock, this time with a book in hand. The orphanage had a library but sadly nothing that had to do with guns. Lucky for her she was an avid studier so had a library card to a library down the street. Sister Mary helped her get one but warned her not to return anything late or damaged. Dorothy stopped by and found herself struggling to pick just one. An older man, perhaps in his eighties, noticed the girl was trying to decide between three thick books. One about gun safety, one about gun use, and another about gun maintenance & repair.

“Oh lord, I’ve done seen it all now. What’s got you so interested in the devil’s tool young lady?”

“Hello, sir,” She said, giving him a small curtsy. “Well you see, I want to learn every gun inside and out. And someday be the best at using them.”

“Is that right?” He gave a small frown, pondering his next words. “What’s your name?”

“… Dot,” She said.

“Well Dot, I’m Mr. Ricci. It’s not easy to take a life. It can be very traumatic. You might be able to pull the trigger, but could you live with their ghost for the rest of your life?” 

This sent a chill down Dorothy’s spine, but her resolve stayed firmly in place as she locked eyes with the old man.

“It depends on who I’m doing it for, Mr. Ricci.”

“… I see,” Gazing into her eyes a bit longer, he finally held out a finger towards the book on gun safety. “That one, first. So you at least don’t accidentally hurt yourself.”

“Thank you,” Placing the others back, Dorothy made a mental note to read those two books later. “How does one get over trauma?”

“… You don’t, you simply learn to live with it. You keep moving forward, one step at a time.”

Back at the bridge, Dorothy sat cross-legged on the rock, wishing that she brought a blanket so she could sit on the grass instead of sitting on an uncomfortable rock. She got through a quarter of the book before the rumble of a fancy dark green car disturbed her peace. Coming to a stop, two well-dressed men in black trench coats and fedoras got out of the car. The driver seemed to have a pretty easygoing smile on his face. A smile Dorothy immediately saw as suspicious, and perhaps easy on the eyes.

“Hey, Kid? What ya readin?” Smiley asked, seeming genuinely interested.

“A book about gun safety, sir!” Dorothy said casually with a warm smile.

“Ha, one of them uh,” He snapped his fingers a few times before pointing at her. “Lady comedians huh? That’s adorable. Listen, you hadn’t seen a kid almost my height, blonde hair with a black eye?”

“Sorry, sir. I ain’t seen nothin, ain’t heard nothin.”

“Startin’ to like you, kid. I wish some of us kept our mouth’s shut,” Smiley said, glancing over at the other guy who had pissed off written all over his face.

“Don’t fuck with me, I’m not in the mood,” Angry said to Smiley as he walked closer to the bridge. “You sure you ain’t seen some dumb kid around?” He asked Dorothy as he made his way to the bridge.

“Sorry, sir. I didn’t know you were hard of hearing. I met an old guy named Mr. Ricci at the library. I think he heard me just fine. In fact, he helped me pick out my book. Though I’m sure you don’t know how to read if you don’t know how to listen.”

Smiley’s eyes almost popped out of his head while Angry froze in his step and said;

“Get lost kid, you bother me.”

“You get lost, I was here first. Besides, I bet your stupid son got himself killed,” Dorothy let slip too much info but was desperate to make sure he stayed away from the bridge.

Angry somehow grew more pissed as he rushed over to where she was sitting and backhanded her off the rock she sat on.

“Damn it! So we’re fighting little girls now?” Smiley asked.

“Where’s my son you little bitch?!” Angry yelled.

“I’ll show you,” Was all she said before pulling out the pistol kept from the teenager. Pulling the trigger, she realized the safety was on, and so did Angry as he quickly lunged for it. Frantically flicking the safety, she pulled the trigger once again, and with a bang, put one straight into the side of his head. Angry’s lifeless body fell on top of her, causing her to struggle with trying to get up before Smiley could do anything. Frantically pushing, and kicking to get the corpse off her, she accidentally pulled the trigger, sending another flying into Angry’s body.

“Wooo, kid, relax. Number one rule of gun safety? Trigger discipline or something like that. I’m more of a left hook, right jab kind of guy. Beat em til they can’t move no-more, that kind of thing.”

As she finally got to her feet, she went to aim in the other guy’s direction but hesitated when she saw him casually smoking a cigarette. Hesitating either because he reminded her of Cap or because he seemed far too relaxed.

“What’d you want?” She asked, now full of adrenaline. 

“What do I want? Nothing now, you already did my job for me,” He said while pointing his cigarette at the body. “I’m just gonna clean up, and let you get back to your reading, how’s that sound, little lady?”

“Don’t call me lady.”

“Sure sure, not a problem.”

She lowered the gun further, pointing it down at the ground as Smiley slowly made his way over toward the corpse. He took hold of Angry’s coat and began dragging him to the back of the car.

“If you’re looking for his son, you don’t need to.”

“Really?” He said, sounding slightly amused as he loaded Angry into the trunk. “He stole his dad’s gun, the same one in your hand. You killed him too?”

“My friend did it… and now he won’t speak,” She said, feeling as if a small valve was about to break in her chest.

“Shit… Look, I’m sorry kid. This idiot leaves his piece laying around for his asshole son to pick up, for what, a pack of smokes? Hey…” He closed the trunk and stepped from behind the car. “Are you the girl that beat him, and his friends up?”

“With my friend.”

“Same friend that uhh….”

“Yeah,” She said softly, the adrenaline finally gone from her body.

“Tell you what, you give me the gun and tell me where the other body is, and you can try going back to a somewhat normal life. Flowers and holding hands er-whatever.”

“No,” She said bluntly. “I tried that originally, and it almost got my best friend killed. Instead, I’ll pay you to give more bullets for this.”

He stood there staring at her before slowly starting to smile.

“Mmm… Nah. But you finish reading that book on gun safety, I’ll take you to a shooting range tomorrow if you got the cash. Bullets ain’t cheap… and neither is my time.”

“Deal, I’ll be here at three. He’s buried in the woods, the third tree that way.”

Smiley reached into the back of his car and pulled out a shovel. Dorothy felt as if she was gonna vomit, while he simply whistled his way into the woods as if digging up bodies was something he did every day. She wasn’t gonna say it out loud but she desperately wanted what he had, and she wanted to give it to Cap.