They were walking with their daughter through the city, heading to the beach where they had their first date. They had just gotten lunch and their little girl was skipping around ahead of them. Jenny was carrying a To-Go bag of ramen noodles and dumplings. She was remembering how, before they graduated, she and Alexios were so excited they could hardly wait to grow their family together and live out their days, growing old and loving life. They would never lay an unloving hand on their babies and would teach them how to deal with real-world problems. Show them only love and support, and teach them how to be good people when they grow up...

“Don’t go too far, sweety!” Alexios called out, wrenching her out of her thoughts. She felt his hand grab ahold of hers. She looked up at him and smiled. She couldn’t be happier. The palm trees were casting long dark shadows along the sidewalk, rippling over the people. Jenny couldn’t go all that fast because she was pregnant with their second child, so he was walking next to her. Little Lexie didn’t seem to hear her dad call to her and kept skipping and spinning around, not paying attention to where she was going. She passed a dark alley between two tall buildings and then, there was a man, dressed in all black. He came out of the alleyway just as she spun passed and he reached out, grabbing her. Alexios reacted right away, ripping his hand out of Jenny’s grip and ran after them, with following close behind, any thoughts of the baby growing in her stomach currently blocked out. All that she could think about was her baby girl being in danger. 

Alexios made it to the man first and grabbed the little girl away from him, pushing her behind his back. Her daughter was shaking and nearly in a ball behind her dad. The man stood there for a second as if debating what he was about to do then in a split second before Jenny could think about what was happening he pulled a knife from his boot and threw it at Alexios. It hit him square in the stomach and he fell to his knees. Jenny lurched forward just as the man grabbed her daughter and ran. She caught Alexios just as he was about to hit the ground. Even without having to feel his heartbeat, listen to his breathing, or look in his eyes to see the light go out of them, she knew he was gone. And her little girl, her daughter was taken. Alexios was dead. Lexie was gone.

She didn’t know how long she sat there, it felt like forever and nothing at the same time. She couldn’t hear anything past the roar of blood in her ears. Her love, her husband, her child’s father, her soulmate was dead. And her little ladybug. She was gone too. Maybe dead, maybe worse. And she just stood there. She stood there and did nothing, just watched it all unfold. And now she was sitting in a red pool of the consequences of her actions. What good was she if she couldn’t do anything to help her loved ones? 

All she could remember from the past two days was walking with the love of her life and their child through downtown Jacksonville, and her little girl being taken from her, then the interrogations. Everything else was a haze of grief and blood. The dress that prince charming had gotten her was balled in the corner of the floor, the once baby blue, now a deep reddish purple. Once she was allowed to go home this morning, she barely had the strength to rip the dress off and change into the oversized T-Shirt that was once his. Then, with all her strength spent, she slid down the wall and cried into her knees.

She cried until she heard a knock on the door, she tried to wipe her tears on her shirt so she could see, but it was no use. There were too many. They just kept coming with no end in sight, she must be running out, right? She had been crying so much for the past several days that she couldn’t believe that there were still so many coming out of her eyes. They were blinding, blurring her vision so that she couldn’t tell where the difference between the couch and the counter. The knocking came back, or maybe it never stopped. She wasn’t really sure. She tried wiping her eyes again, attempting to keep the tears back so she could see. But she stubbed her toe on the corner of her daughter's costume trunk. This brought on a new wave of tears and grief that she just couldn’t deal with. She collapsed and wrapped her arms around the box. She needed her daughter back, but the police were already looking, what else could she do? She wasn’t going to be able to find her just by wanting to! She had no idea where to even start looking!

She heard the knocking again before the door shook. The door shook once more and swung open as if kicked. She looked up in time to see the police officer that took her home put her foot down to stand there and watch Jenny try, and fail, to make herself look presentable. Realizing it wasn’t working, she stopped trying. 

“Have you eaten?” The police officer said, what was her name? Althea? Yeah…maybe? Whatever, it’s not like it matters. Jenny knew that she was asked something, but she didn’t hear what. She was probably going to leave soon anyway. Jenny looked up and saw that the woman had crossed the threshold and walked with thudding steps into the kitchen. 

“Are you going to get off the floor, Jenny?” She asked.

“Oh, um, yeah, I guess” Jenny replied as she tried to stand up using the trunk to keep her stable. As soon as she took a step, her head spun, and she felt hands wrapping around her biceps, keeping her stable. She couldn’t tell who it was holding her, the room spinning, blinding her. She felt something slide under her knees and around her back, then she went weightless. After only a couple moments, there was the scratchy material of her pillows on her neck and the plush softness of her blankets under her bare legs. 

She wished, more than anything, that her love was next to her, on his pillow, turned over on his side like he always was, he claimed that he wasn’t comfortable unless he was looking at her, making sure she was safe. How she wished for his warmth, he always was like a furnace, warming her, even through the coldest nights. His body curved to wrap around hers. He always put her comfort before his own, she wished she could talk to him before falling asleep, just like they used to, when she would tell him about her day, then he would share his stories. After which she would drift off to sleep with him whispering sweet nothing to her, about how she was the love of his life, how she couldn’t imagine his world without her, how he would love her to the moon and back until he turned into ash and dust. She could almost hear her soulmate’s voice, feel his breath caress the side of her face, his hand on the space between her ribs and hip bone, pulling her to him. She reached her arm out to touch him, to hug him but instead landed on sheets. Her eyes shot open and she could see the alley again, blinking the image away, she heard sounds coming from the kitchen. But, try as she might, she couldn’t bring herself to care enough to go check. After all, no one she cared about was in the house. She closed her eyes and tried to let herself believe that her little ladybug was in the next room, and her husband was sleeping peacefully next to her.