Vain (The Seven Deadly 1)

Karina patted the length of the first boy’s legs and lifted the back of his shirt to reveal any weapons. She made him turn over on his back and did the same thing to his front side.

“Nothing,” she said, relaxing a bit. “You,” she told the other one, “Move onto...”

But she didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence because the second boy lunged for the assault rifle around her shoulder, yanking it over her head. I raised my own to shoot him but the first boy pitched forward for me. I didn’t hesitate, shooting him in the head once and dropping him where he stood.

I turned to defend Karina, my friend, practically a surrogate mother to me, a surrogate mother to all the children there and someone I had grown to love so dearly...but it was too late.

The second boy had already shoved her to the ground, his rifle pointed at her chest and fired a single shot.

It was the only shot he would get because I raised my weapon and shot him twice in the head. I fell at her side, screaming but noticed she was still conscious. Absently, I heard stifled screaming voices come from the east.

“Karina?” I asked, more afraid than I’d ever been. “Hold on for me, okay?” I removed my button up and pressed it into her chest to slow the bleeding but within seconds it was soaked.

My shaking hands fluttered over her. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Karina’s bloodied hands stopped mine as she cradled them in her own. She looked at me and smiled softly, shaking her head for me to stop and closing her eyes.

“No, no, no, no,” I kept muttering under my breath, tears streaming down my face, waiting for Charles to find us. “Charles will find us. Charles will fix this.”

I cradled her beautiful head in my lap, held onto her tightly, as if I could tether her to my earthly world. The heat from her burning baobab tree warmed our bodies with such heat that the tears felt cool against my cheeks and chest. “Oh, my lovely, lovely, Karina,” I cooed, running my hands over her silky hair. “Oh, Karina.” A sob burst from my chest at her name.

Her eyes drifted open lazily and her face reflected her age for the first time since I’d known her. “Don’t cry for me, my love,” she whispered, raising her tender hand and wiping my face. She smiled softly, and it relaxed me instantly, even at that obvious hour of her death. “I’ve lived the most extraordinary life and I can genuinely say that I would wish this life on anyone. Even now. Even as I lay here staining the ground beneath us...” she coughed, and I held her tighter “...because it wasn’t what I had decided for myself.

“It was better. Better than anything I could have conjured on my own. So I’m telling you, my beautiful Sophie Price, don’t cry for me.” She coughed again and this time blood accompanied it.

“Karina, don’t leave,” I begged her.

“Promise me one thing,” she requested. “Promise me you’ll give it all to God and let Him decide it for you. He’ll gift you no regrets.”

“Shhh,” I told her, brushing her hair back when she inhaled and choked on air. “Save your breath, Karina.”

“You may have misery,” she continued, ignoring my plea, “you may lose hope in the sorrow of an unplanned life but as long as you have faith and trust in adoration, in affection, in love, that sorrow will turn to happiness. And that is a constant, dear.” She breathed deeply and steadily for a moment, seemingly catching her breath.

“No one can know sincere happiness, Sophie, without first having known sorrow. One can never appreciate the enormity and rareness of such a fiery bliss without seeing misery, however unfair that may be.

“And you will know honest happiness. Of that I am certain. Certain because it’s why you are here and also because here is your inevitability.”

I hugged her, crying into her shoulder and silently begging God to save her, silently screaming out for Charles to be there. I worried for him.

Her breaths sounded wet and labored and I stole a moment away from the embrace to look at her. I shook my head at how pale she’d become.

“Tell him he was my greatest adventure. Tell him I love him,” she rasped.

I nodded. She sputtered her last breath and died in my arms.

“No!” I screamed at her. “No!”

A noise approached and I raised a trembling gun at it, bawling openly. It was Ian. The gun forgotten.

He stopped short at the sight, shaking his head back and forth in disbelief. His eyes reflected glassy in the light of the fire. He ran to us, sliding before us. He raised his hands before me, words escaping him. I couldn’t explain. I’d lost my voice as well. I could only offer him tears in explanation. I watched his unsteady hand smooth Karina’s hair from her face and a sob broke from between his lips.

“Karina?” we heard come near us. “Karina?” Charles desperately inquired and my heart already ached severely for him. “Karina!” he exclaimed, finding her bloodied in both Ian’s and my arms. “Karina!” he bellowed, hysterically grabbing for his wife. Ian and I gave her to him and he held her closely. “Oh my God! My God!” He clutched her to him fiercely. “Karina, my love. Karina. Karina. Karina.” He could only repeat her name over and over.

We could hear children’s voices approaching and I ran over to stop them from getting any closer. I kept them at the fence, preventing them from seeing anything. I looked upon each of their unsure faces and was close to bursting. How are we going to tell them?

I checked on Ian and Charles and noticed Charles had begun to carry his wife to his cabin, struggling in his older age to take all her weight. When Ian attempted to help, Charles refused, lifting her up the porch steps and closing the door behind them.

Ian watched the door for a moment before turning my direction. The sun was beginning to rise, the buildings were but smoldering, charred remains and the gray morning cast a murky pall over Masego.

I studied the hopeless state within its walls, my eyes falling upon the still burning tree, no longer the imposing, comforting soldier I’d come to rely so heavily on.