Hannah's Story! :D

By Hannah


Chapter 1:
The cold October air bit into my cheeks as I raced through the streets. I had
gotten a call about ten minutes ago when Jake encountered a burglar trying to
break into a house. I had sent Willie and John over there to help him out, but I
was going to check myself. Always check, I reminded myself. You never know
when something bad might happen.
Flashes of a boy laying in a hospital bed sprung into my head. No. I can’t think
about that. Not now. They’ll be fine. They can take care of themselves.
I cursed myself for spreading out everyone’s stations this far, for the night and
made a mental note to change that.
I arrived five minutes later, after stopping a couple of times for a break and
making sure no one was following me. I didn’t think anyone was, but it’s always
important to check.
“New or old, boys?” I said.
“Old,” Jake replied. I looked at his face. He was cute, with shaggy blond hair and
a lean build, but he had a boyish face. He was only sixteen, but he could pass as
eighteen. “Recognize him?” he asked and picked up a mound of black clothing –
Carl Richards. He was a frequent visitor to us. We’ve caught him almost every
time he tried to steal something, except once –the only time that truly ruined my
life. I pushed the image of that boy sitting in the hospital out of my head again.
“Carl, Carl, Carl..” I said shaking my head at him and sitting down in front of him.
I saw him tremble and I smiled to myself. That was usually the reaction people,
who got caught, gave me, but I never got tired of it; it was a thing of beauty to me.
“Where did he break into?” I asked, looking up at Jake. We never used our names in front of criminals and we didn’t show all of our face either; it could
put us at risk with the cops. They don’t know who we are individually, and we’d
like to keep it that way.
“The Nelson’s home.”
“Is it secure?”
“Yes,” answered Willie for Jake. I looked over to him and noticed the blood
on his face. Weird; Carl didn’t have a speck of blood
anywhere. Willie continued. “Richards tried getting in through a window but all
windows were locked, as were the doors. He was about to break the window when
we”—he motioned to John—“got here to help,” he finished.
I nodded my approval at Willie without looking up. “So, what would you like us
to do to you? Are you going to be a good little boy and turn yourself in? Or do we
have to do it the hard way?” I asked Carl, ripping off the duct tape on his mouth.
He opened his mouth wide and I punched him in the stomach. He rolled over,
clutching his stomach and moaning. “Now, listen here, Carl.”, I waited to see if
he’d interrupt. He didn’t. “It would be in your best interest not to try to scream
for help. Do you know why?” He looked up at me, grimaced, shaking his head no.
“Because, Carl, all the people within hearing range are not exactly on your friends
list. So, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do: you’re going to stay here until the cops
come, and when they get here, you are to tell them that you are the burglar who
tried breaking into that house,” I say pointing to the Nelson’s house. “And then,
you are going to go to jail overnight and never try to rob someone again. Okay?”
He looked up at me and I smiled sweetly. I saw horror flash through his eyes
and watched while he slowly nodded his head. I stood up and nodded to Willie,
walking away.
***
Everyone met up at Oakland Park where we’d parked our vehicles. No one checked it at night, so we just left them there and went off to do our business. I drove the gang’s van back to headquarter which was really just a warehouse full of our equipment, food supply, change of clothing and some beds where whoever didn’t fit in my house, slept.
I thought about my life on the way back. It was about an hour to get from the park to our headquarters and most of the group slept on the way back, so it tended to get quiet in the vehicle every night at this time.
My parents died when I was little. They died because of criminals. It was the only reason why I kept pushing myself to keep going with Dragonfire. With recruiting new members, training them and them helping me stop people like the ones who killed my parents.
They say my parents went missing and then later discovered, both dead. The cops never had told me much about what had happened, just that they had found my parents in this park, Oakland Park. All of this, is just to get revenge on the killer of my parents.
I was named Holly Gunther back then, at least, that's what my parents had named me. When I was put into the orphan home, I demanded that my name should be changed. I re-named myself Melissa Woodbury. Melissa because I thought it was a very pretty name back then. I chose my last name as Woodbury because I grew up in Woodbury, Minnesota. The only thing I didn't change, was my middle name. My mother and father had used my grandmother's name for my middle name. She was named Elizabeth.
It's been nearly two decades that I've been Melissa Elizabeth Woodbury. No one knew about my past except for me. I tried to keep it that way.
Everyone looked alert and ready for anything, but I knew that they were about ready to fall asleep when their head hit the pillow. It was five thirty in the morning, I was tired, but wasn’t
afraid to show it.
I called the meeting to order.
“I assume that everyone besides Jake ran didn’t run into any problems tonight.” I
looked around the room, and when I was just about to talk again, Daniel spoke.
“We ran into someone tonight.”
“Who is ‘we’, Daniel? And who did you run into? Why didn’t you call me?”
He looked irritated, “Me, Dominick
and Will.” I looked over at Dominick and Will, but both of them averted their
eyes. “We ran into a cop.” I think the whole room got silent at that point.
A cop? They ran into a cop and didn’t call me? What
were they thinking? But, on the outside, I tried to look calm.
“We didn’t call you because he just told us to go home since it was getting late. He
didn’t suspect a thing.”
“And you’re the one to judge that?” I know I sounded harsh and cold when saying that, but I couldn’t think about any of these things right now. I had to look away; they didn’t understand how
much of a déjà vu this was. They were my family. I had to protect them
I’d already lost one member, I wasn’t about to lose another.
I tried to calm down, and shut my eyes again. I reopened them a minute later and
looked over to Daniel. “What do you mean he didn’t suspect a thing?”
“He just sent us home.”
“But he saw our tattoos,” Dominick added after a minute.
“What?” I said through gritted teeth. This night could not get any worse.
“I said, b-”
“I heard you.” I turned around so they couldn’t see my face. This cannot be
happening. They know they’re supposed to cover their tattoos
in public. Even when they were patrolling. They’re smarter than this, and yet,
they insist on acting like idiots. I turned back around and tried to look composed.
“This meeting is adjourned.” I gathered up my paperwork and walked back to
my office, making sure that I walked not too fast, not too slow. Just fast enough to
make it look like I was fine and safe. All I could do was hope that I was safe anyway.
_____________________________________________________________________
I was at the police station and on my fifth cup of coffee. I had been here for hours trying to figure out what happened last night. I scanned over the piece of paper where I’d written down everything that happened.
An anonymous caller told me that there was a break in on West and Sixteenth
Ran into three teenagers - all had identical tattoos, but didn’t look older than sixteen.
Found burglar bruised, frightened and mumbling nonsense
Something in all of that just didn’t add up. Could the anonymous caller be one of the teenagers? Could they have beat the man up?
I checked the man’s file. Carl Richards was his name. Recently got out of prison for a break in and a third degree murder.
“I can see why someone would want to kill him.” I looked up and saw Adrian Wash standing there. He was one of the fifty men on the same team as me. I looked back down at the file in my hand. I set it down on my desk and looked back at Adrian.
“Yes, but they didn’t.”
“The question is; why not?”
“I’m still working on that. It just doesn’t make sense. Any of it.”
“Maybe you should go home. Get some rest, it might help. Especially since some of the guys want to kill you for drinking all the coffee.” I smiled at that.
“I’m going to stay for a little bit longer. See what I can find out.”
“Alright, but Captain isn’t going to like it.” I looked over to Captain Nyegard’s office, the door was closed. I looked back at Adrian, but he was gone.
* * *
I felt something burning me, like I was on fire. I looked around and saw a dragon. It was green, not the good grass green, but like a lime color. It was curled around itself, looking ready to pounce. I thought that it was just sensing some danger, but I was the only one there, besides the dragon. Before I could start running, the dragon opened it’s mouth, it’s nose flaring, eyes wide, and it let fire come streaming out of it’s mouth, right at me.
I bolted awake from my dream, soaked with my own sweat, I swear that dragon looked exactly like the one on the teenagers. The tattoos on their arms have a dragon, lime green, with fire coming out of it’s mouth, just like the one in my dream.