USER: Does this avoid melodrama? Ryan hauled his torso through the splinters of glass, blood saturating his shirt as he crawled on his elbows, his bound legs dragging behind. Finally , as his ankle was freed by the sharp jag of a split window pane beneath him , he kicked away the rope from his feet. As he scanned the horizon, his eyes raw and throbbing with his pulse , the distinct sound haunted him. It rained through the air from a thousand directions , its distress weaving through his clenching jaw. Willing the noise to anchor itself , he grabbed at his searing temple , its faint persistence causing his head to ache. An unrelenting glare marred his vision, striking his eyes with scintillating hues of green and white as he rested his gaze behind his hand. "Liam, I can't see , I don't know how long we've been out here or why I can't pinpoint the crying-" . .Then , as the deep magenta particles cleared, his heartbeat screamed to a halt. As his eyes froze on the distant figure, her outline framed with the fading daylight, his disgust burned across his tongue as cursed into his forearm . "Liam ... I thought I'd seen my share of hell but ...those bastards don't-the things I'm guessing' she's seen-" Liam , catching up to Ryan in the haze of desolation, ran a hand over his eyes , his weathered stare haunted as she stood crying into blackened hands. "God , I don't know what I expected , but she can't be older than say, five? Assuming she had parents , the father , A, Dead, or B, pleading ...

USER: So what should be toned down?

USER: DoesIs this avoid melodrama?melodramatic or gritty and realistic Ryan hauled his torso through the splinters of glass, blood saturating his shirt as he crawled on his elbows, his bound legs dragging behind. Finally , as his ankle was freed by the sharp jag of a split window pane beneath him , he kicked away the rope from his feet. As he scanned the horizon, his eyes raw and throbbing with his pulse , the distinct sound haunted him. It rained through the air from a thousand directions , its distress weaving through his clenching jaw. Willing the noise to anchor itself , he grabbed at his searing temple , its faint persistence causing his head to ache. An unrelenting glare marred his vision, striking his eyes with scintillating hues of green and white as he rested his gaze behind his hand. "Liam, I can't see , I don't know how long we've been out here or why I can't pinpoint the crying-" . .Then , as the deep magenta particles cleared, his heartbeat screamed to a halt. As his eyes froze on the distant figure, her outline framed with the fading daylight, his disgust burned across his tongue as cursed into his forearm . "Liam ... I thought I'd seen my share of hell but ...those bastards don't-the things I'm guessing' she's seen-" Liam , catching up to Ryan in the haze of desolation, ran a hand over his eyes , his weathered stare haunted as she stood crying into blackened hands. "God , I don't know what I expected , but she can't be older than say, five? Assuming she had parents , the father , A, Dead, or B, pleading for the status through his teeth. And the mother-I can't even visit that twisted scenario-And in front of her- is there nothing those bastards won't pervert- " he said, the anger seeping through his teeth as his curse trailed into the heat of the arid air. "We need to move fast, if she moves-" Liam said, his hand finding its way to his nape as he balanced his stiffened neck, unable to find a space uncovered by shattered windows to rest his chin. Ryan braced a hand over Liam's chest, as he said "It's ok Li' ... I've got this." As her face emerged from the heavy clouds of dust, Ryan pulled himself to feet and approached her , his bloodied elbows behind his back as he winced in the dusk, as her crying ceased and she lifted her eyes. " Hey, where's your mom and dad , huh? " Ryan asked, the girl's tiny amber irises , with her large pupils -loaded with trauma , gazed into his... "I -I don't know. I miss them. But why did they-why-why they m-make Daddy take off his shoes . He-says you-get-cut without your shoes. And then they told him to s-say Good-by-goodbye? " Ryan dropped to his knees , her face peering up into his unwavering gaze as he said evenly . "We're gonna find him , ok, but you'll be safe with me and uncle Liam for now. What's your name ? You can call me Ry'" Clutching the remains of a stuffed bear, albeit its left eye handing by a thread , she offered a stammered reply "I-m I'm Lily" . She then brandished four fingers in Ryan's smiling face as she announced , " I'm four years old...how old are you?" . Liam's laugh came from somewhere behind Ryan's head as he answered her. "He's a big number , hold up both hands Ry, " Ryan's smile broadened for the first time in days as he laughed , offering his hand to the child as she entrusted her hand to his grasp. "Uncle Ry' is -ah it doesn't matter. You're gorgeous ain't ya?" She blushed with a crystalline laugh, as her eyes darted and she wound her shoe into the dust. "That's what Daddy always says-but he told not to move no matter what-" she said, her eyes glistening with tears. "But I don't know why Daddy is gone , to the -um -other heaven?" The magenta skies bled behind her fragile silhouette , as Liam bent down beside her. "We think we know-about this other heaven , and we are gonna find mommy too huh?" Her face lit up , the pink hues melting into her glassy stare as she said "Yeah, I wanna see mommy , too ." Liam , smiling despite the uncertain twist of agony in his chest, gestured towards the dilapidated toy in her hand. "Who's this , huh, I bet he's pretty special? We have to make sure that no matter what, we don't lose him. " As he winked , she held up the dust infested bear as it were an earned prize . "He's Sam, he's smaller now... but I still love him ." Liam leaned behind Ryan's head as he said, in a low tone. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" . As Liam's eyes landed on a pair of boots , placed eerily close together , perfect and stripped of their laces , Ryan's gaze followed. "Yeah Li' , I'm guessin' those are the father's . It's a calling card if I ever saw it. I don't know what she means by this other heaven but, yeah I'm not liking anything about this picture..." The sky echoed the sentiment of despair infused with a faint hope as Lily's hand fluted Ryan's thumb and forefinger with a shaking inquisition. "Uncle Ry-I-I-I don't know where I am....i got left behind ... it's cause I let go of mommy's hand . I'm -I'm sorry-" Liam , deftly grasping her wrist , pulled her into the crux of his elbow. "No , Lily, it's not you fault. You keep Sam safe , so he's lucky you were hanging on tight to him huh?" The light flew back to her eyes as she nodded. "Yeah-but Uncle...um" she said , already disoriented by the encounter., and the dust streaked faces of two men kneeling in the remains of suburbia. "You can call me Uncle Li'- you've made two new friends today huh? How about that?"Her eyes faltered a moment, then she gazed directly into Liam's blue stare, as she lowered her voice to a whisper . "Uncle Li" , don't tell anybody , but I have a secret. I -it's -um-" She leaned closer, whispering into Liam's ear as she said "I found this and I wanted to give it to Daddy but-it's the same color as your eyes". As she produced a wilted morning glory from her pocket , she perched it on Liam's grease laden hair, behind his earlobe. "Oh , you're too -" he said , the gesture unbalancing his compose as he encircled his arm around her waist . "I bet you're tired huh, if you can't walk , do you think you can fit up here?" Liam, patting his shoulders , watched as she nodded , dust falling in her light hair. Hoisting her up , her knees falling either side of his jaw , he guided her hands to his hair. "Hold on tight , I got you. And up we go". Liam rose to his feet , with the aid of Ryan's firm grip hauling him off the ground. Lily was quick to reach out Ryan's hand, grabbing his pinky and swaying it back and forth as he walked alongside Liam. "You're so high up there , is the sky pretty? "He asked, as their footsteps fell in line with the jagged lashings of debris. Through a yawn she said, "yeah, it's red, I like it...but I'm so tired...I can't sleep till mommy and daddy-umm -I'm scared now ..." Her fingers twisted against Liam's scalp and her chest shook with oncoming tears. He quickly halted , assuring her she could sleep. "You can take a nap up there , we will keep walking so even while you sleep we'll be getting closer to your parents, it's gonna be ok-" . Ryan , reaching up to stroke her hair said quietly "when you wake up we'll still be here , because that's what uncles are for right? And you are stuck with two of us so you're double safe ...but you'd better hug Sam tight so he doesn't fall huh?" . Lily stuffed the bear down her oversized shirt, and rested her chin in Liam's unkept bed of hair. "He's safe now..." she said , her voice travelling over Liam's head as her eyes slid closed. Ryan glanced out at the horizon, the sun slipping lower, and he nudged Liam. "I'm guessin' that it's been about two miles , and we still don't have an iota of a clue where to start lookin' , and you know the pattern up to this point has been , traffic with the men...torture and kill the women for pure sadistic pleasure. Maybe he even trafficked a few of them two... but I don't know how we tell this kid she might not see either of her folks again-" . As his expression flickered with worry and a foreboding guilt, Liam sighed , pulling the small of Lily's back closer to his neck, her stomach flush against his skin. "I don't think we do- I think she's gonna put two and two together -kids just know this shit right? And we might have to ask ourselves something worse, for instance, how do we deal with her total sense of abandonment, the survivors guilt, she's us in a smaller , vulnerable body-" . Ryan slowed his gait, the wear in his voice as he said "Well, not in the sense that she can understand it. We might find them alive yet, and I suspect that the boots mean they want us to find these people. Lily herself is a calling card. I know better than to assume they were disposed of so fast." Liam's eyes were dark with the notion , as the concrete pavement wound its way into an unpromising nowhere. As the night carried a soothing breeze , taking the searing edge from the heat out of the arid air, Lily began to stir. "Daddy-it's cold-I don't wanna sleep yet, I wanna play with Kai-no, I -" . Her shoes kicked against Liam's collarbones as her fists coiled in his strands of textured hair. "Daddy? " Her voice was met by the silence of Ryan's downcast stare as he placed a palm against the back of Lily's head. "You remember me? Uncle Ry' . We found you and Sam, because you got lost , yeah? But you're safe now-" he said, her hair gritty against his skin. Liam , adjusting his neck as she twisted around in his hands yawning , loosened his protective grip. As Lily registered the flower behind his ear, she plucked it out with sleep in her voice. "Oh , I gave this to you, Uncle Li' , I'm gonna pick another one for Daddy coz his eyes are ...orange -like mine-" Ryan , as he smiled at her profile muttered to himself , noting the detail of her fathers appearance. "Hazel eyes...y'know, this doesn't sit right with me because, that mechanism I had when I was seven or eight, where my bladder would drop and-The worst fear I had wasn't crying , it was having to sit in my own urine while it went cold . That was degradation. " Ryan said, as Liam manoeuvred himself over a crack in the pavement, missing the point in his concentration on the labyrinth of annihilation. "Where you going with this Ry'? " As Ryan wrapped his index finger around Lily's neck as she leaned in his hand, her eyes sliding closed again , he gazed out into the horizon. "What Im saying is , the things we can control, that we don't even consider, like pissin' ourselves, when you're her age , they are your worst enemy, they give you away. And when we figure out what she's afraid to do in front of us and does it anyway, that's when all hell will -" Liam's jaw, its bite realigning, bore the realisation as he removed the flower from behind his ear . As he twisted it in his fingers he said , "Yeah, but that's not what scares me, somehow it's giving me this, thinking she'll see another flower out here , kids got some immense disappointment coming and I'm still processing my own -" . Ryan muttered a few words out of ear shot, his faded voice lost in the impending nightfall. "Well , I hate to say Liam , but we're still no closer to finding this guy. I'm sure he would've been around our age-and in reasonable psychical condition, and I can't sleep thinking about how close he is likely to be, but we gotta give Lily a proper eight hours sleep. If she's tired , that will exacerbate our problem real quick . " With a groan , Liam came to a stop and eased Lily down from his shoulders , and collapsed onto the concrete footpath beside her as she awoke from a micro -slumber. "I -I -Uncle Liam? I remembered you. And Uncle Ry' . She said , , pride in her eyes and recognition in her smile. "You didn't leave me? I fell asleep... I'm sorry..." As Liam seated her on his thigh , and Ryan clamoured down beside them, he slid the morning glory into her hair . "We told you that's what Uncles are for right ? And you have to let Sam get some rest huh? We've been walking so long it's dark now-" Ryan was already coercing some flattened jerky from his pocket as he said "are you hungry , Lily , it's salty but it will help your body keep the water in so you don't get thirsty. But I need you to drink some water for me okay? " . Liam slid his duffel bag off his shoulder and uncapped a metal flask , "well not zero hydration, I forgot about this - here ya go , drink up now and you'll feel better. All that crying you did earlier means you must be thirsty huh?" . bewildered , she grasped the only water she'd consumed that day, drinking without question. "Thanks , Uncle Liam. Daddy always made me and mommy dinner-" as she stared into the sleeve of his jacket, her eyes were haunted and confused. "There's no dinner anymore , and no bedtime -and no more stories -" As Ryan handed her the jerky , he said , a calmness in his voice. "Ah, I'm sure your Dad... and your Mom... are missing you too right now. I bet they'd wish they could have made you dinner , so you better eat all of this huh? So they don't have to worry about you being hungry -" . As she reached for the strip of low grade nutrition, Ryan's stomach protested as it bound with his own starvation. "Aren't you hungry Uncle Rt' you sound hungry..." she said, her laugh returning with its octave of youth contrasting in the night. "Adults can be hungry longer than kids , it's like when you scrape your knee , it heals up fast right, and the more times it happens the less it hurts , so me and uncle Liam are better at being hungry." While she finished the jerky, she nodded , seeming to understand as she placed a hand on Ryan's bloodstained elbow. "It doesn't hurt anymore?" She asked , her pupils widening as the dried blood flaked into Ryan's lap and he grinned . "Nah , but I'm a big number, you're only four so don't worry, we won't let you get any scrapes. We're gonna keep you super protected , yeah? " As Lily leaned her head against Liam's abdomen, his jacket enveloping sides of her head, he smirked. "But does Uncle Ryan ever get tired of talking in the third person, or does he always do that when he's driving and the poor guy in front ain't indicating..." . Ryan's snort punctured the air as he answered, "Uncke Liam need to find his cork, and cram it back -" They both laughed as Lily watched them both , a lack of comprehension bringing a smile to her face. "You are both so silly. But don't worry, I won't tell anybody-" she said, before tears welled in her eyes. "I -I -didn't say goodbye to Kai ... he ... was my best-maybe he's lost too -and and" No this is the continuation I had in mind : As she voice broke away to her tears , Liam rearranged a stray strand of her hair as he said "And Kai will always be your best friend , no matter what, we don't know where he is but we know he's alive. It's gonna be ok, there's a lot of kids out there who got left behind but they have people looking for them , just like we were looking for you-" Liam said, his voice rough with his own dehydration, as he balanced his fatigue on the runs of his eyes . Ryan lowered his voice as he said "it seems they just leave the children, all part of the calling card bull-I mean , I'd be betting a winning horse that Kai is stranded but deliberately unharmed , I'd feel sick if my stomach lining wasn't tearing itself out-" Liam placed his index finger over Lily's chest as he said , "You can sleep, it's alright, Uncle Ry used to have a friend like Kai , his name was-well let's call him Jack, he used to play guitar and well-he wrote a song. You wanna hear it? now I can't sing very well but ah you'll just have to go easy on uncle Liam tonight huh? . Lily's laughter peppered the clarity in the air as she said "Daddy always says he can't sing but-that means he knows all the words" she clung to the opening of Liam's jacket, the rigid denim sitting heavy around the frame of her face, offering her a semblance of structure as she said "I'm listening, Uncle Li'" . As thoughts of his long deceased friend Mason flooded through his mind , he hummed the melody in the back of his throat, the words caught with no articulation. "She laughed as she said "it doesn't matter if you forgot the words , its just like mommy's songs-she forgets the words too but it doesn't matter. I just hope her and daddy wait for me - do you think they will ?" Liam's eyes flickered with the discolouration of imploring deception as he said "They will, I just know it" . Ryan's voice, a lulled whisper from behind , pulled him out of forging promises . "Don't go there , Li-" . There was an impregnated silence as she answered , her eyes hollow with an imperceptible emotion. "But , the...man that made Daddy say-goodbye-he-" as the words departed her tiny body , she shivered, and pulled Liam's jacket against her ears "No -I don't remember anymore-" she said, and was consumed in a silence that inhabited Liam's concave lap. As he started down at her, the moonlight caught in her shining eyes , as he sighed into the encroaching midnight. "When you do remember Lily, you can tell us, no matter how tweeting what you saw might have been, we have seen worse things. We won't be afraid. But for now sleep huh? No more scary thoughts till the morning." The next moment , just as Ryan shook his head, she said the words already edging in his brain. "The other heaven....Daddy said it wasn't hell, cause that's a bad place and it was the other heaven . But -where is the other heaven? Have you been there?" Grappling with the question , Liam gazed at Ryan's lament as he answered without hesitation . "I'm pretty sure I have, and if that's where your father is , I'm as sure as I've been he's coming back , soon , kiddo. Now you get some rest huh? Tomorrow will be a long day" His eyes burnt with the heat radiating through his vision , as he was forced into the crotch of his jeans , his screams escaping his clenched teeth. Next, his shirt was yanked over his shoulders and he screams pierced his skull . "Sienna , no , don't follow me , please" he yelled, his voice entwined with flames of pleading as his captors dragged him across the glass, his skin slashed and erupting with his warm blood . A hand held his jaw close as an arm formed a noose as his body dragged across shards of debris , and the screams of his wife ran down his spine, No Carter , we have to stay together . Lily , hold on to my hand , don't move , sweetheart -I love you baby girl" , she said through tears as her own fate was executed with brutal force. "We have ... intentions for you Sienna , but say goodbye to Carter , he's never coming back from hell" . Sienna, still holding her daughter's hand , broke down , her palms splaying in the shattered windows , their house now blown to smithereens and her husband being removed from the remains of their life. "She's a witness , and she keeps on watching, if she doesn't serve as a vessel she has some pretty eyes . Landon can deal with her..fate." Lily's hand was dropped into the air as Carter screamed at his child , the terror insurmountable. "Don't move Lily , stay by my boots, just don't you leave them , alright? " In an instant, faster than any fire could spread , Siena was gagged and a hessian sack enveloped her screaming body as Carter cursed into the air . "Don't touch her,-Sienna , it'll be alright-" he whispered , his voice strained with agony. The voice was calm, devoid of emotion as it promised . "We won't -touch her-oh you'd only wish that we had the time , or the care , for such pleasures -but, Landon is a busy man. Business is-business." Lily's silence haunted the skies as their magenta hues fell in rays around her stance, shaking by her father's boots and clutching the only possession she had left. "Why are you taking Daddy to hell? " her voice hit the open air, and Carter choked out in response to her pleading question , "it's not hell , Lily , it's the other heaven , and I'll be alright, you hear me?" Another voice pierced into his skull as he felt Siena's unmoving body fall atop his back as he was flipped over, as his face slammed the unforgiving pane of a door. "Say goodbye Carter, you're going to die after all , you'll be in heaven , or perhaps hell , rotting forever, now won't you? Because men like you don't belong in heaven now do they , Carter.." a twisted smile crept across Carters face as he said , coldly, "I'm not dying anytime soon". As he wrestled his head upwards , leaning in his forearms, he established eye contact with Lily one final time. "I'll be in the other heaven , Lily and it's not Goodbye alright? I love you, you never forget that" he said, a feigned calmness in his voice as her amber irises held the matching flames of hazel and gold of his own as he stared at his four year old daughter . Sliding down by his boots , she buried her face in her hands , and cried, as his screams rang out into the noon sunlight, and he was gone .