Miss Justice

We didn't know how we were going to tell his parents. Hell, I was barely seventeen! The bump had been growing more and more by the day, and it was no longer deniable. 1

I was pregnant. 2

So, we decided I would tell his mother first, and then we would both tell his father. 3

--*--4

I approached his mother delicately. Knowing her for the three years we had been together, I had grown to calling her Mom.5

'Mom.... there's something I need to talk to you about.'6

She gave me a small, wry smile. 7

'Forget about it. I already know what it is.' She nodded down at my tummy. 'Especially if it's about that growing bump you've been trying to hide.'8

I blushed. 'I... I didn't know it was so obvious....'9

'It's not. But, since I've had so many, I know the signs when I see them. I just hope his father doesn't overreact....'10

'Mom....' She looked at me kindly. 'Thank you.'11

--*--12

His father was quick to try and drag him away, as usual. 13

'We're going hunting.' He grunted, nodding at me. 'Can she keep up?'14

I nodded. Little did he know, I was a better shot that has son was! But I decided to keep that to myself. 15

My stave and 22 were in the truck's back, along with my love's pepper shot and his father's silenced rifle. 16

And, we drove.17

--*--18

At the end of the night, we packed away all the guns. I faintly heard his father grumbling something about my love being a 'lousy shot'.19

'Um, dad.... There's something we need to talk to you about.' 20

He whipped around, looking back on me with stave in hand, and my love with his arm wrapped protectively around my waist. 21

'Dad.... Catt is pregnant.'22

His father's face exploded in a crazed red tone, looking almost black in the darkness. 23

'How.... How DARE you, you little.... you little slut!'24

He waved his gun around. 25

'How dare you take my son's life away from him!'26

My boyfriend took a small step toward his father. 'Dad, be reasonable!'27

His father swung the gun around, pointed it at me.... The crazed, demonic look in his eyes told me all I needed to know. 28

I was going to die tonight. 29

The semi automatic with the hairpin trigger didn't even shake in his arms as he pointed it down, just below my heart and just above the obvious bump under my shirt. 30

He planned on killing me and our baby in one shot. 31

He grinned psychotically....32

I heard a very faint click, the slight sould of silenced report....33

And the heavy thud of my boyfriend, hitting the ground in front of me. 34

He was limp, as blood oozed from an extreme hole in his chest. 35

He was dead. 36

My lover. My best friend. The father of my child. 37

Dead.38

My body, my conscious blacked out. My subconscious watched, somewhere far above, as I screamed out in agony the name of my fallen love. 39

Then....40

The stave I had been training with felt heavy and lethal in my hands. 41

One crack was all it took to have his father on the ground. 42

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. 43

His body twitched as I beat it with every ounce of strength I had, beat him to the point of where a simple bullet like my love had died from would have been kinder. 44

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.45

The scream of my love's mother echoing in my ears. 46

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. 47

Someone pulling me away now. 48

Thunk. Ta-thunk. 49

My stave on the ground as I'm being dragged away.50

Tears blind me. 51

Then, Darkness. 52

--*-- 53

Today, I live without my love. I'm at home with his mother. Together, her and I take care of the baby. 54

Never knowing the story of her father, I named her the only right thing I knew, naming her after the death of her grandfather. 55

Justice Leigh.