#44 Hiding - I Bhfolach

Less than a minute later as I stood over an unconscious two hundred pound just shy of six foot man and silently thanked whatever part of me that took over. I remember spying the nearest item, the thick ceramic bowl I used earlier to store shucked peas. What I don't recall is picking it up or smashing it over Smith's bald head. I tried to picture it and feel the shattering of the bowl as it broke over the crown of our assailants skull.

As I stared at the man who lay on the tiled floor surrounded by shards of coral colored clay and bright green peas Lyle rose from the floor. I followed a tiny trickle of blood from Monroe's head find a crack in the tile.

"He's not dead." Lyle remarked quietly taking the knife that lay a few feet from his outstretched hand before lifting his ruined jacket and pulling the gun from his waistband.

I didn't know if I should breathe a sigh of relief or of fear, maybe better to do both. Good news - I narrowly avoided killing a man. Bad news, he was still alive and with a few hours rest would be well enough to make another attempt at my life.

"May," Lyle snapped her fingers in my face. "I need you to grab that rope and tie him to the stove door." She pointed at a bundle of drying herbs that hung from the bay window.

I walked numbly to the plants, the light shone through the thinning fragile leaves giving a warm glow around their fading green. I untied the rope that held the stems together and didn't bother to pick them up as they fell to the floor. The sweet smell of sage filled the air and I helped Lyle lug Smith to the stove and tie his arms tightly behind his back looping the thick material around the handle of the oven.

Once we finished I followed her silently to the hallway. She held the gun at her side every few steps checking to make sure I was safety behind her. As we neared the door way a tangle of shadowed forms came into view. The sun was cut off from all windows except for a single square situated in the doorway. A cube of dim yellow light fell onto two of the three bodies.

Both breathing, their chests rising and falling in unison. Ivy sat up against the wooden molding clutching her shoulder, Beth rested in her lap her long black hair cascading over Ivy's thighs making it look as if she were only a torso. Ivy turned to us and feigned a painful smile.

"May go upstairs. Under the mattress in the bedroom is a knapsack." Lyle touched my shoulder lightly before pulling away and kneeling down to the two women.

"He's out." Ivy managed pointing weakly with her elbow at the uniformed man.

The man lay sprawled on his back and as I rounded the stairs a glint of light reflected off something at his side. A badge? I squinted at his uniform, my snap judgement after observing him with Smith was that he was a security agent Monroe had sent. Upon studying his navy blue button down and organized utility belt my heart did another flip.

He was a cop.

"And Beth?" Lyle pressed running her hand over Beth's forehead where blood had dried at her temple.

"She'll come around." Ivy gave another tight smile, this time she turned her gaze to me as I stood watching from the landing.

I returned downstairs with the knapsack and handed it to Lyle. The police man was gone and when I turned to Lyle she motioned into the kitchen where I assumed she tied him as well. We stood in the living room where Beth lay with her eyes closed, her head rested on the pillow below which I hid Mo Soileireacht. I resisted the urge to go to it instead focusing on Lyle and what she needed next. Lyle sat next to Ivy and just as I'd done days before she ripped the sleeve of the woman's shirt. Then taking a piece of an already ripped blanket she tied a makeshift tourniquet around her arm.

"It's just a flesh wound. I was lucky." Ivy waved her uninjured arm at me as if her wound were equivalent to a broken heel.

"May can you go grab that picture." Lyle jutted her chin toward the mantel. "I don't want them to have any help remembering what we look like." She doubled the knot at Ivy's shoulder before she seemed confident it was secure. "Can you drive?"

Ivy nodded.

"I need you to go to a friend's house, one of Beth's old co-workers from the hospital. Have them help you."

Ivy opened her mouth to say something but Lyle stopped her.

"That man is with the police, we can't trust them right now." Lyle's gaze flickered from the kitchen to me.

"Call them and tell them you're coming. Then call me when you get there." Lyle took the bag I'd left at her side and pulled out a wad of cash. She placed it in Ivy's hands and without another word she lifted Beth into her arms.

The roar of a car's engine pulsed through the early morning air and I watched from the window as the two women drove away. Should I have apologized more? Did I even apologize once?

"I'm so sorry." I spoke as I watched the green hatchback carry on down the brick road. I sensed Lyle behind me but couldn't bear to turn around and meet her eyes.

She said nothing and we stood in silence for a moment until I couldn't take it anymore. I turned slowly to meet what I thought was Lyle's gaze burning a hole in my back from anger, but instead her head was tilted down.

In her hand was the framed photograph of her and her adopted mothers. The frame was cracked and glass protruded in pointed shards but beneath it their smile shone.

"I am so sorry." I repeated though I knew it solved nothing.

There was a pause before Lyle spoke, her words were void of the anger I expected, replaced with awe. "May what the fuck did you get yourself into."

It was hardly a question and I sensed that she was not truly ready for me to break down the details of my story.

"They came to the door looking for you. They tried to convince Beth you were a criminal." She ran her hand through her hair.

"I'm not."

Lyle laughed humorlessly. "I know you're not. But what the hell are you then?"

I didn't answer - I couldn't answer.

"We need to go to the police." As soon as I said it I knew it was stupid.

"The police?" Lyle spat. "May he sent the fucking police, they are on his side."

She didn't need to identify the infamous 'he'. We both knew it was Monroe that sent Smith and a uniformed proxy to do his dirty work.

Lyle stepped away from me undoing the back of the frame she retrieved the photo and folded it before stowing it in her back pocket. "We need to go."

Just as she spoke a phone rang – my phone I recognized the default ring setting.

We exchanged a confused look but Lyle waved me on to take it. Timidly I swiped the screen on a number I did not recognize.

"You surprise me yet again May."

The ridged words seeped into my ear leaving scratches as I digested them. My hands shook as I lowered the phone from my face and put Monroe on speaker.

"You know you really shouldn't keep your phone on, especially nowadays with all this tracking software." I could almost hear the sinister smile that painted his lips as he spoke.

My hands began shaking uncontrollably and Lyle cupped hers over mine to keep the phone steady.

"I am supposing that the friends I sent are indisposed at the moment?" He made a 'tsking' sound. "But I am sure not without causing a fair bit of disruption."

My body wavered and I took the smallest step to the side until my shoulder connected with Lyle's. I didn't lean against her, I knew she was having just as difficult of a time standing upright. We rested equally against each other, fighting against our visceral reactions to fall to the floor.

"Why are you doing this?" My voice felt flat.

"May, I thought I made it clear to you."

Unconsciously my feet carried me to Mo Soileireacht beneath the embroidered pillow. I clutched the cloth bound journal incased in a simple wooden frame, it was idiotic to think that we were attacked for such mundane items. But to Monroe and I they were everything for polarizing reasons.

"I am tired of playing this game, it's gotten too messy. So here is what I suggest to you May Ellis," Monroe's slippery voice oozed its way through the phones speakers. "You observe my friends paying you a visit as a learning experience and you go back to that sleepy little town of yours. Hell, I'll even let you take Mo Soileireacht as a little souvenir, but don't you tell a single soul about this. Not your little friend or even a grocery clerk." He paused. "We wouldn't want to press your luck, you know what they say third times the charm."

The receiver clicked and he was gone.

We stared at the black screen. Lyle swore under her breath while I struggled for the words.

"We need to leave," Lyle slung the knapsack over her shoulder and glanced around the room. Then taking my phone from my hand she dropped it on the ground giving it a swift stomp she smashed it. I didn't object, neither did I move. "Now."

Up until this moment I'd been static, docile in the shock. However as I received more and more scares and shocks over the week my refractory period seemed to diminish. My mind cleared more easily and from the fog I felt anger rise with in me. Not selfish anger but anger with myself for catalyzing the destruction that befell the sleepy home and the women in it. Then followed the anger over my mother, one that I don't ever think could be fed enough to quiet.

But didn't I have to try?

Lyle edged her way toward the kitchen, I assumed to leave through the back door. I didn't follow, instead I brought Mo Soileireacht away from my chest by a fraction and spoke clearly.

Sure I was terrified of Monroe, his power and resources, but if there was one thing I learned it was that I could not sit dormant. Especially not now with all that I knew of his connection to my mother. The unfettered humor that laced his voice flowed back to me and I squirmed, he needed to know that he was not above what he'd done. He was not above hurting innocent people. He was not so divorced from morals that he could wipe his hands clean of murder.

"We can't let him get away with this. I won't hide, he has to pay for what he did-" I spoke with conviction nothing less than stamping my foot to the ground.

Lyle cut me off, her steadiness overriding my passion.

"May what the hell do you think we were doing here? We were hiding," She spoke softly as she turned swiftly to look me in the eye. "And now we are going."

"I can't go back to my life like nothing happened. I know who he is now, Lyle I am so close." What began as confidence in my mission waned taking a turn toward desperation as my voice quieted to soften the pleading tone I adopted.

"So close to what May?"

"I-" I fumbled with the words to explain what so easily flowed from my mouth the night before while she slept in my lap.

She took a step toward me until we were a foot away reaching out her hand to rest on my shoulder. "Did you see what just happened?" She pointed to the doorway where just minutes ago her family lay in a helpless heap. "Monroe, he sent a police officer after us. There is no reconciling with this man. This isn't some fun adventure to find your inner self or the answers to life's questions. If we keep digging he chooses the ending. And we both know what that is."

She was right, what had begun as something exciting: a quest to find my mother, it had turned into a downward spiral. As the hours went on I was lead deeper into a windowless tunnel, blindly following the dim red light emanating from Mo Soileireacht. I'd gone down so far that I was beginning to lose control - of the situation and of myself. No longer could I honestly sense how much danger I was in.

This time I couldn't bear to meet her eyes, but I didn't have to as Lyle enveloped me in a tight hug. Her head rested naturally on my shoulder as we took a few deep breaths in unison.

"I am so sorry, I tried to tell you but-"

Lyle quieted me rubbing circles on my back for a few more moments until she silently pulled away and took my hand leading me out the back door.

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