Hunter

Chapter 47

        I had put my hand on my neck and had turned to note the obvious. Henri was dead, he had taken a bullet in the head. I turned my eyes towards Gaspard who had dropped his smoking rifle to the ground. His hands held out before him, he was shaking like a leaf about to fall from a tree. His eyes gleaming with tears and his mouth opened, he painfully stared at our colleague's corpse lying on the forest ground with wide opened and empty eyes.

"Gustave!"

I turned my head.

"I think it's a sliver bullet!" Sophie warned me, panicked.

A panic she transferred to me. I should have seen it coming. I rushed to her. Kneeling, she held Arthur in her arms to repress his tremors as much as she could. She had taken my jacket off his left shoulder and examined the crater the bullet had formed, a slight steam came out of it. It was sliver, indeed.

"Get it out!" Arthur articulated between his teeth not to give in his need to scream.

I scanned the surroundings, lost. There was nothing for this kind of situation in a forest. Our knives were dirty and get the bullet out with my fingers was not an option. Arthur somehow followed my eyes and gave me the answer in a whisper.

"Use magic!"

He was right. It was the solution to get the bullet out with the less risk of infection. I exchanged a knowing look with Sophie and she strengthened her grip on Arthur's shoulders. I looked at my son in the eye. He was suffering agony, his breathing short.

"Ready?"

He nodded. I laid the tip of my fingers around the wound, palm above it. I closed my eyes.

"Capiendos!"

Arthur let out the worst of cries and struggled in Sophie's arms who held him firmly. The bullet came out and I caught it. Little by little, Arthur's scream turned into sobs before he finally fell silent. I opened my hand and sadly watched at the bloody sliver bullet, then, I looked up and threw it far away. A few feet from us, Gaspard had fallen to his knees and repeated: "I killed him! I killed him!" in a loop, shocked.

        We all had gone back to the house. While I had helped Arthur on our way back, Sophie had taken care of Gaspard. He had stopped repeating relentlessly the same words, but his eyes stayed locked on the horizon as if he were blind, completly lost. You could think his spirit had vanished somewhere in the forest.

I had taken care of Arthur's wound and had bandaged it while Sophie tried to help Gaspard pull himself together. When Arthur and I had reappeared in the living-room, Sophie was crouching in front of him and held his hands, trying to make him speak, but he was still looking at her with that same empty look.

"Gaspard! Do you hear me? If you hadn't shot, Gustave would be dead. You're not a murderer, Gaspard."

She got back up before sitting next to him, looking imploringly at me, but I was as powerless as she was. Then, against all odds, he looked at her.

"I'm sorry." he said, as his eyes filled with tears.

Sophie gave him a sad smile and embraced him. He hid his face her arm and held on to her, letting the pressure out, he started to cry.

        Gaspard and Sophie had eventually gone home. I was certain Sophie would move in with Gaspard permanently after what had happened. I had thanked her around twenty times, as much for her intervention as for Gaspard's, since he was not ready to hear it. It was however, far from enough.

Soon after they left, I was about to go through the front door when Arthur called me out.

"Where are you going?"

I turned to see him, one hand on the door panel.

"I'm going to bury Henri."

        I had found my way back to my colleague's body. I had almost expected him to have moved, but it had not. He was still there, motionless. It was an empty shell now. I crouched near him. I was sad. Although I did not forgive him for what he had done, he did not deserve to die.

"I am sorry..." I whispered.

I stretched out my hand and closed his eyes.