I
The Silvers, where do I even begin…
Let’s start with the patriarch, Sterling Silver. He was stern yet playful somehow, and a little too flirty for my tastes. Also witty, and very, very British. The first time I met him, get this, he wondered if I fancy a spot of tea with him. I did in fact fancy some tea, and it was some exquisite tea if I say so myself.
Mr. Silver introduced me to the rest of his wonderful family over that superb cup. We all had ourselves a little tea party in their backyard garden under the summer sun, minus his daughter, Sunny. It was short for Sunada Silver – that emo little brat – sorry, I meant, misunderstood and a little shy, as her mother, Kamara, kindly put it.
Kamara Silver was such a sweet lady, painfully sweet even. So, imagine my surprise when I found out she was a top-level police officer, highly decorated, and in charge of some ‘’major crimes taskforce.’’ It shocked me, and an image of a cute little corgi hunting down pitbulls was what came to mind. While Sunny sulked in her room, I met her siblings, the brothers; Renny and Silas Silver.
Renny was the oldest – short for Reinaldo, and you could tell instantly as he shadowed his father, reigning over Silas, the youngest of the family. It was nice getting to know them all; despite their big fancy house with a white picket fence, the Silvers struck me as a very down to earth, and confidently humble family.
The boys were really sweet. Silas took after his mother, and Renny was clearly a daddy’s boy, desperate to seem strong and assertive, at least to me. I’d later find out that the Silvers were a recent family themselves, having just come together after the ends of both Kamara and Sterling’s first marriages.
Kamara came in with Renny, and Sterling entered with Sunny, Silas becoming the first fruit of the new united house. He was a teenager now, in his senior year, and Sunny was also in her last years of university. Renny was a dropout, preferring to get to the dollar billed point already, yet he stayed in the home still, always referring to himself as a ‘’family man’’, family was everything to him, it was everything to them all.
So now we get to me, Sabriyah Riaz, recent addition to the Silver family. They welcomed me with open arms, accepting my olive branch, yet in my other hand, I held a gun.
You see, unbeknownst to them, I did not merely come to the Silvers as their humble new servant and maid – no, quite the contrary. I came… to kill them all!
II
So, I know what you’re thinking: why? Why would anyone want to harm such a picturesque family, so sweet, so tender, so friendly and welcoming.
Well, I wondered the same myself, especially in the early days. They were so kind, so perfect… Ish, kind of – okay they seemed pretty good to me alright.
I never had a family, not like theirs at least. All my life I’d been alone, a bastard child, orphaned, unwanted and uncared for. For the longest time, I didn’t believe in family, seeing it as a television sitcom fantasy from the 50s where the husband would come home and comically yell; Honey I’m home!
It wasn’t real, at least not to me. The only people I ever had in my life always wanted something from me, taking and taking and taking until I finally had enough, and they could never take anything away from me ever again. At that moment, I was the one who now took, becoming an assassin.
The market for assassins is surprisingly high if you can believe it, so I fared pretty well for myself, never having ever had a bad review from a client, it was full stars for me all the time. The stars added up, landing me in the purview of some secretive clients who offered me a job. It wasn’t just the egregiously large compensation they offered that won me, rather, it was the challenge.
The way they sold it, my target was one not to be trifled with, they were supposedly a powerful entity so deadly, even government kill squads would shudder at the task. Their reach was grand, international, and very diversified, from underworld crime alleys to overworld palaces and state halls. It would be the mission of a lifetime, one with no guarantees of survival, even for a highly skilled operative like myself. It was exactly what I was looking for!
I’d reached a dull season both in my personal and professional life, for as the old saying goes, money can’t buy everything, especially love and happiness – the real thing that is, not just the distractions, I’d grown bored of them.
A chance to play house, while hunting down a supposedly deadly target that would test the limits of my skills seemed fulfilling enough. Thus, I took on the cover of a maid and reached the Silvers residence expecting death’s nightmare, yet, I was greeted with pearly white smiles, housewarming gifts, and the chance to – finally, for the first time in my life, be a part of a family, and what a family it was.
III
The Silvers blew away all my expectations, welcoming me and embracing me closely, maybe, a little too close. For as much as the family kept up a picture-perfect image, they too, like me, had deep dark secrets to keep.
The truth slowly trickled out once Sterling’s ‘’playful flirts’’ suddenly became a little too real. It was such a cliché, the husband falling for the maid, I can’t say I didn’t expect better from dear old Sterling, but I can’t say I wasn’t surprised either. I now found myself in between a rock and a hard place. I didn’t want to betray Kamara, not poor sweet Kamara, yet I needed to maintain my cover, and Sterling and I had reached the point of no return, so against my better judgement – hell, all judgment, I entertained the old fool’s trysts.
Within his bed, we’d exchange love and tales, and I’d find out why he was called the silver fox – I know, I know, I hate myself too, but I must say, the old dog really did have some tricks up his sleeves alright. He had this classical charm, like a discount James Bond, and I wasn’t complaining about such a deal. As I dug deeper, I soon found myself falling a little harder than I’d expected, almost as if I was losing control, getting lost in possibilities, starting to fall in – no, I had a job to do, I had to kill this man… why did I have to kill him again?
Well, turns out our rip-off bond shared a lot more than charm with her majesty’s favorite spy. He’d led me (and everyone else) to believe that he was a security expert specializing in corporate espionage, yet instead of trying to stop the white-collar spies, he himself was the spy, and he’d just completed his biggest job yet.
He’d been hired by some secret hacker collective to steal some advanced AI program drive, old fashioned style, with guns, crew, and masks. He got away, but he’d left traces, and I shit you not, guess who was handpicked to lead the investigation… None other than his deary sweet wife, special detective Kamara Silver.
I’d come to take him out, but at this development, I could let Kamara do the job for me. Sterling had so many secrets, keeping all of this away from his wife (and yes, I’m liable too, having an affair with him and all blah blah blah, but he was like lying to her way before I got here, so, yeah).
If anything, the Silvers were a family of lies, for Sterling wasn’t the only one with secrets to keep, because boy was everyone bullshitting in that house, like everyone! Let’s start with dear sweet Kamara, all of it was bull! I knew it, no freaking way anybody could be so nice. Turns out Kamara was the worst kind of cop, she was dirty, and a rat too. She’d been approached by some criminal cartel proxies – old associates by the looks of it, and they’d paid her a heavy sum to make sure old silver fox’s heist remained unsolved. Kamara took the money (but if we’re being fair, if some cartel told me to do something, knowing full well who and where my family was, I’d say I was pretty lucky indeed to also be getting paid and not having my entire family be threatened to be killed or anything) besides, that’s my job.
How did I procure such tea you ask, well, so, turns out it wasn’t just Sterling giving me the googly eyes. I know, I know, Sabriyah, you – listen, I felt bad okay, I was cheating with her husband, like… that’s a pretty bad place to start pleading my case from but listen I was guilty, and hey, if I’m cheating on him with her, then I’m kind of helping her get revenge as well or something, oh god, its messy I know, but that’s where we are. So, I started a second affair with Kamara, talk about two timing am I right – sorry, sorry, sorry, this is very weird, at least I’m self-aware, #relatable.
IV
I was truly becoming a Silver, for there’s nothing more Silver than having a ton of secrets, and everyone’s guilty! Remember that cartel that told Kamara to keep quiet, turns out, old Renny over here was the 2nd in command of the organization. Hence his weird alpha posturing and head of the table wannabe act, he was trying (desperately might I add) to make a good impression for his jefe, and keeping his mom quiet was a big job he couldn’t mess up!
So I know, and you know who these Silvers really are, but I know its burning inside you, how did they not know, because yes, they did not know who each other really were. I know – they used aliases and fake names, it’s so convoluted, impossible, like what is this Mr. and Mrs. Smith, why yes indeed, that’s the only way I could describe it honestly.
That leaves Sunny and Silas, yes even little sweet Silas who would come home bruised up by school bullies, turns out that was a freaking lie. He was bruised alright, but it was entirely by choice because if he wanted, he could have done a lot more damage to those bullies. See, Silas was what they call a vigilante, or one of those DC or MARVEL universe guys – what are they, yes superheroes, just without the powers. He had the whole brooding act and everything, stalking the streets in a cape (such a liability, and honestly looks more stupid than cool, in my opinion, there’s my hot take).
Silas had heard about the silver fox’s heist, and he wanted to get to the bottom of things. He went to the only cop he could trust, the most honest cop in the city (I’m trying my best not to laugh) for this virtuous guardian was none other than… his mother. Bless his heart, poor Silas, he thought he had her fooled for she didn’t know who was behind the mask of the city’s protector, yet she was the very mole he was searching for. That mole was desperately trying to suppress evidence by all means too (Kamara was dirty and she didn’t mind getting her hands dirty either, even with the blood of her own comrades, dark turn indeed).
While Silas couldn’t even trust his own mother, unbeknownst to him, he however could rely on his sister, unbeknownst to him as well. Sunny Silver had been a member of that super-secret hacker collective her father had been hired by for the heist (she’d even sent him the specs for the building, guiding him through the mission via comms unbeknownst to him), and she now wanted to help Silas expose the truth of it all. Once she found out just how powerful that AI was, she had herself some clarity on who her associates were and how she couldn’t trust them with such power.
You know, she isn’t really all that bad I guess. She was always distant and cold with me from the very beginning, but that was because she (at my deep detest) likely knew who I was, who I really was. Well, sort of anyway, she had to be suspicious of me or something unless she was just a brat, which isn’t so farfetched.
Sunny, like me, and you, was in on the big secret of who her family was, (maybe) including their new guest, this is because my clients were none other than Sunny’s hacker associates.
Dun, dun, duuuuuuuh!
They’d orchestrated all these shenanigans using Sunny’s whole family to cover up their crimes, but now, it was time to cut loose ends, including their own associate whose sudden lack of faith in them marked her days. They couldn’t risk Sunny’s (comically) overpowered family standing in their way, and I was to be the trigger woman.
V
I gathered the entire family together (including suspicious Sunny) for a last supper of sorts. The occasion was my gratitude and thanks to them for having been so kind and accepting of me. Now I know, after having revealed them all to be liars, killers, and cheats, how could I honestly still think of them as kind and welcoming, loving and caring. How could such monsters, crazies and certified pains in the ass for literally the whole world, be so, I don’t know, amazing, so caring, and so much like the family I never had, yet so desperately wished for.
I hate to say it, I’m embarrassed to say it, I mean god, these people are batshit crazy. But they were, they are, my family, and I loved them, and they seemed to love me too (some a little more than others). Despite all the chaos of that house, inside and outside, once we all came together, television running as the boys watched some (dumb) sports game with their dad (who didn’t even like sports by the way but just wanted to connect with them), and Kamara and I burst in glee having convinced Sunny to join us downstairs in making dinner (I know, a bit too gender conformist for my taste too, but I am NOT eating anything those boys make willingly), everything just felt right!
I’d finally found my place, I’d finally found my people, ones just as crazy and messed up as I was, my family! Now, with them all seated at the table before me, I had to kill them.
So… I pulled the trigger.
I spilled the beans and set the house on fire as all the secrets were let out into the open, cindering the house of cards into pure and utter madness, shit got crazy! It got so bad that I found my finger on an actual trigger as we all pulled out guns and knives pointing them at one another. There was no hiding anymore, and I was certain people would start putting bullets where their mouths were. Yet, at the same time, we were all experiencing nothing we’d ever experienced before; real, and honest vulnerability, this was some shrink shit. Soon, screams and shouts broke into cries and whimpers as we all just had a moment together, finding true, genuine comfort in one another. Instead of tearing us apart, love and truth brought us together closer than ever, and in that moment, a new family was born, as we built a new house on truth!
***
So, that brings us to today. Well, we’re all currently on the run. After our little bonding session, we decided it was time we all turn a new chapter in our lives, and that meant shedding away with the old. Bridges were burnt and we dropped everything and everyone (but each other, naturally), exposing the truth to the world as the AI and the secretive hacker collective’s schemes were released into the bright light of day. Of course in so doing that, we also exposed our true identities to the world (hey, got to commit), hence us being on the run. On top of that, we also decided to hand out our own justice against Sunny’s ex associates, making sure they wouldn’t be working with anyone else in a very long time (as in they are dead, we killed them, together, like a family!)
For the first time in my life, I finally feel like I belong, and I know that there’s nothing that can stand in our way. As long as we stick together, not even the whole world could stop us.
I’ve finally been welcomed into the family.
Image by: Thando Bhebhe | WLUSP President
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