Chapter 33 - Frank Castle

"Wake up Frank."

A familiar voice whispered in the back of Frank's mind as his eyes snapped open. He sat up in his bed and looked around the room. His wife Maria slept quietly next to him, his bags sat against the wall across the room, one of them still locked with a padlock. He felt something in his chest tugging him towards the window. Frank got up from his bed quietly as he walked over and peeked through the closed blinds.

His breathing quickened as he saw a group of four black SUVs stop in the street and masked men stepped out. He watched a group split off and headed towards his friend's house as the rest slowly made their way to his. Even in the dim light he could recognize they were armed and trained. When one of the men strayed too close to a streetlight he clearly spotted that he was holding a suppressed handgun. Frank closed the blinds and ducked down just as he saw a man look up to his bedroom window.

"They're going to kill you and your family Frank." The familiar voice appeared again in the back of his mind. The adrenaline building in his veins made it sound clearer this time and it clicked. He heard that voice before in the park, it was Mikael's. An image flashed into his head and he saw the group of men approach his front door as though he was watching from a camera from down the street.

"Get ready." Mikael's voice returned again as Frank blinked and rushed to wake up his wife.

"Mmh. Frank? What is it?" Maria asked as he shook her awake. She rolled over to look at him as she rubbed her eyes.

"Maria, I need you to get the kids and hide in our bathroom. Lock the doors and lay down in the tub." Frank told her as he went over and rummaged through his bags.

"Frank, what's going on? You're scaring me." Maria got out of the bed and walked over to him. She watched as he pulled out a large knife and drew it from the sheath. He quickly cut open the locked bag and grabbed a box from the bottom of the bag. He opened it and picked up the handgun that was resting inside.

"Maria, please just do as I ask. Get the kids into the bathroom and do not open the door no matter what you hear." Frank told her as he loaded a magazine into his weapon and racked the slide to put a round into the chamber. He stood up and turned around to see Maria still standing there in shock.

"What are you doing? Go quick!" Frank told her again as he left the bedroom. Maria quickly followed after him as he walked to the other side of the central stairway. She heard the sound of someone rattling the front door handle as she saw vague shadows standing outside. She looked back to see Frank waving at her to go as he stepped into a closet. Maria quickly rushed into Lisa's bedroom and shook her awake.

"Mom? What time is it?" Lisa asked as she looked around.

"Honey, you need to go into the bathroom and lay down in the tub okay?" Maria pulled Lisa into the hall and pushed her toward the master bedroom. She watched as Lisa entered the room and ran into the bathroom connected to it before she rushed into her son's room and woke him up as well.

"Come on honey. Come with me. Hurry." Maria started to pull Frankie along as they rushed into her bedroom.

"Mom, what's going on?" Frankie asked as Maria pushed him into the metal bathtub. Maria quickly shut and locked the door before she climbed into the tub with them.

"I don't know honey. Just stay quiet okay?" Maria said as she held her children close.

The front door opened slowly as several men filed into the room. Frank could hear a series of footsteps coming up the stairs as peeked through the crack of the closet door. The streetlight casted a shadows on the wall as Frank tensed and waited. Another image appeared in his mind showing him a view from the bottom of the stairs as three men split in different directions. One man turned to watch the stairs as the other two opened the doors to his children's rooms.

Frank burst out of the closet as he stabbed his knife in the neck of the man watching the stairs and fired a shot at the man stepping into Frankie's room, striking him directly in the temple as he started to turn around. The other man ran out of Lisa's room and aimed his gun at Frank. Frank twisted the knife in the man's neck, pulling his body in front of him as bullets pierced into the masked man's body. Frank picked up the body and charged forward, pinning the other man to the side of his bedroom doorway. He pressed his gun into the corpse's neck before firing three rounds through it and into the other man's throat.

Wood splintered over Frank's head as a fourth man came out of his living room and fired up at him. Frank grunted in pain as a round tore into his side before he threw both bodies through the railing. The man below pressed himself against the wall as the bodies slammed into the floor where he once stood. The man looked back up just in time to see Frank dropping from the second floor towards him. Frank kicked the gun as he fell, causing it to fire into the floor before he jammed his knife through the man's throat, pinning him to the wall.

"From the kitchen." Mikael's voice echoed through his mind once more as Frank looked over his shoulder to see a man step out of his kitchen. Frank quickly rolled out of the way as the man leveled a shotgun in his direction and fired, tearing into the wall and the body pinned against it. Frank dived into the living room just as another shotgun blast ripped apart the floor where he was previously. Frank crouched and slowly moved behind the couch as the man stepped into the room.

Frank watched the man through the reflection in the tv as he slowly walked closer to Frank's hiding spot. He tensed his legs and ignored the burning pain building in his shoulder as the top of the shotgun barrel entered his view. Frank roared out as he grabbed the barrel deflecting it to the side as the weapon went off, destroying a small desk in the corner. Frank wrestled with the man over control of the gun before he fired a shot into the man's foot. The man dropped to a knee as Frank forced the shotgun under the man's jaw and pumped the gun, ejecting the spent casing as a fresh one entered the chamber. Frank watched as the man's eyes widened before he forced the man to pull the trigger. A loud bang filled the air alongside chunks of bone and gray matter as the man's head exploded and painted the ceiling.

Frank tore the shotgun free and held it at the ready as he looked around. Silence fell upon his home as he waited for any signs of another threat. A moment passed before Frank started to walk to the front door and looked outside. Bodies littered the front yard of Thomas's house as he could barely make out the silhouette of a group of four standing amidst the chaos. For a brief instant Frank thought he could see a pair of glowing blue eyes looking in his direction from one of the four figures. He shook his head and when he looked again it was gone.

The sounds of muffled crying and talking pulled his attention upstairs as Frank started to run back to his bedroom. He could hear his wife's voice softly speaking through the bathroom door as he knocked. The voices abruptly stopped as silence filled the space around him.

"Maria, it's me. Everything's alright now. It's safe, you can come out." Frank said softly as he leaned against the door clutching his side. He heard the door being unlocked as his wife slowly opened it and looked at him. She gasped as she saw the excessive amounts of blood that covered him and the wound in his side. She threw her arms around him and sobbed quietly as Frank patted her on the back.

"Frank? Are you guys okay?" Frank heard the familiar voice of Thomas calling out from downstairs.

"We're upstairs!" Frank called out as he gently pushed Maria off of him. They heard a series of footsteps growing closer before Thomas and Mikael stepped into the bedroom.

"You're hurt!" Thomas cried out as he rushed forward a wrapped Frank's arm around his neck and shoulders. Mikael stepped forward and sighed as he saw the sight of Frank's shaken and crying children.

"We should leave before more come." Mikael said as he stepped into the bathroom. He knelt down in front of the children as they looked up at him with tears in their eyes.

"Just close your eyes and go to sleep. When you wake up this will all be just a bad dream." Mikael said as the two young children started to slowly close their eyes and leaned against each other before falling unconscious.

"48, 49. Help carry the kids." Mikael said out loud as two individuals in black suits stepped in from the hallway. They watched as the two figures stepped past Frank and picked up his children before standing behind him and his wife.

"Alright let's go. It's not safe here." Mikael said as he stepped out of the bathroom. He glanced down at Frank's injury before he walked over and placed a hand over the wound. Frank noticed Mikael's eyes glowed blue for a brief instant as a warm sensation washed over his injury. Mikael took his hand away and revealed a single deformed bullet as Frank touched his wound. Frank and Thomas looked at his injury in shock, the bleeding had stopped and the pain was now fading away.

"It was you. I thought I was imagining things. How? How did you do it?" Frank looked at Mikael as he was starting to walk out of the room.

"We can talk when everyone is safe." Mikael told them as he started to walk down the stairs. Frank watched as the two disguised droids carried his children out after Mikael and quickly started to chase after them with his wife and Thomas. The group stepped outside to see Jean and Sarah standing in the middle of the street with the disguised form of 47 next to them.

"I managed to put everyone in the neighborhood to sleep." Jean told Mikael as he approached. He nodded his head before turning to look at three unmasked men kneeling on the ground with their hands cuffed behind their backs.

"We have some questions that you're going to answer for us." Mikael told them.

"We're not telling you shit." One of the men spat on the street next to Mikael's shoe. A loud crack followed as 47 struck the man in the back of his head with the butt of his rifle, rendering him unconscious.

"Observation: That wasn't a choice Meatbags." 47 said as he pointed his rifle at the other two captives.

"Load them into one of their cars and bring them back. We'll deal with them when we're back at the office." Mikael ordered as he turned to the group.

"No doubt you have a lot of questions. I will answer them but first we need to get somewhere safer." Mikael said as he climbed into the driver's seat of one of the SUVs. 48 and 49 laid Frank's children into the back seat before joining 47 in another vehicle with the captives. Maria climbed into the backseat with her children and looked back at Frank as Sarah and Jean joined her.

"Come on Frank. He's right, it's not safe to stay here." Thomas patted Frank on the shoulder as he climbed into the front of the SUV. Frank looked back at his house for a moment before he climbed into the vehicle. He looked at his children sleeping with their heads on Maria's lap, their cheeks stained with dried tears. He tried to reach out to brush the hair from his daughter's face but when he saw his own bloodied hands, he froze. Frank lowered his head as his hands dropped to his side before he climbed into the back of the vehicle as Mikael started to drive away.

{Mikael in a suit with glowing eyes}