sunshine // joel miller

TWELVE

Chapter Twelve
Schrödinger's Cat

To say Fran was surprised waking up with a gun to her head was an understatement.

A man stood over her, a little boy at his side waiting to be told what to do, and she held her hands up quickly, blinking up at him in confusion as he stared down at her; not completely sure what to do.

"Stand up," the man whispered to her, Fran nodding her head quickly as he stepped to her side, "slowly."

Fran did as told, hands still up, she kept her eyes on him.

"Please don't hurt-"

"Sh," the man cut her off quickly, "wake her up."

She looked between him and the little boy for a second, hesitating her movements.

"Eyes on me," he clicked the gun into place as he spoke quietly, and Fran closed her eyes for a second, nodding her head. "Wake her up."

She did as told, slowly moving to the girl and shaking her. Ellie woke up with a groan, the tight hold Fran had on her shoulder confusing her. At the sight of the man with the gun, she froze.

"On your knees, both of you," he said, his little buddy pointing the gun at Ellie now. Fran stared at the little boy as he did that, getting the response she had earlier. "Eyes on me."

"Then gun off her." Fran spoke back, shocking herself slightly at her calm tone. The man stared at her for a second, before nodding his head, signing something quickly to the boy. The boy nodded, walking to the bottom of where Joel lay, still sound asleep.

The older boy moved to stand to the side of them then, his one hand holding the gun to Fran's temple, the other going to her bad shoulder. At the pressure, she winced, making him hesitate.

Strange for a gunman to hesitate when his hostage seems hurt.

"Wake him up." He said to them then, Fran looking at Ellie to do so.

"Joel?" Ellie asked quietly, at no movement; she decided to just yell it and hope for the best, "Joel!"

Joel's eyes opened quickly at that, instantly seeing the gun to Fran's head. He jumped to sit up; only to see the little boy with his gun pointed directly at him.

"Eyes on me. Eyes on me," The man by Fran demanded, "You don't have to worry about what to say. We don't wanna hurt you. We wanna help you."

At that, Fran shared a small look of confusion with Joel, but Joel's face stayed the same - angry.

"Okay," Joel responded.

"Okay, um..." The boy hesitated, "I don't know what the next step is with something like this, but if I lower my gun... we didn't hurt you... so you don't hurt us... right?"

For someone trying to command a room, he wasn't doing the greatest of jobs. To be as scared as Fran normally is with guns that aren't pointing at her head, she felt weirdly calm in this scenario.

"That's right." Joel said, his tone not changing.

"That's a weird fսcking tone, man," The boy said, clear stress in his voice as his big plan started to not work the way he wanted it to.