Life and Times of a Keyboard Warrior

Backfire

38
13th of April
Markus

I level my Eagle at the girl's head.

"Holy shit..." Marissa Tzar-Khema gasps, falling backwards, landing on her ass. The gun tracks her down, still steaming from the warning shot. I assume she must've been scared witless just now, having a random guy with a huge pistol suddenly appear around the corner, firing skywards.

"Indeed. I'm gonna need that bracelet now, if you don't mind." I demand, racking the slide menacingly. Marissa gulps loudly, terrified.

"Look, I'm sorry for scaring you." I say soothingly, holstering the Eagle. I sit down on my haunches, my body aching from the fight against Darkmhel, so I end up more or less at the same level as her. "But you see, that bracelet of yours is actually stolen property, and I need to have it back."

I watch a flicker of resolve appear in her eyes, and she grips the bracelet with her opposite hand. A small act of defiance, only possible because my gun isn't aimed at her anymore. "My brother gave it to me, and I like it. You can always try to buy it back from me." She says defiantly, growing ever more confident.

I nonchalantly flick the bottom of my shirt out, exposing the handle of my pistol. Immediately, Marissa's defiance dissipates, and she reluctantly clicks the bracelet off her wrist and hands it to me. As I put it in my pocket, I must admit that coercing her with my pistol wasn't the way I wanted to do this.

"I hope you don't feel the need to retell this story to any authority figure." I groan, standing up. She looks chagrinned, and she scrambles to her feet.

"You nearly shot me, for god's sake. Why the hell wouldn't I tell anyone?" She growls at me, poking me in the chest in a self-righteous, incredibly aggravating way.

"Because," I reply, swatting her hand away, "you, your brother and your friend stole two pieces of unique machinery, not to mention fought tooth and claw to keep them after the cat was let out of the bag."

"But you nearly shot me!" She screams at me, and then she slaps me hard in the face. The sound of the slap seemed louder and harsher than even my Eagle's barking boom, and I stagger back, dazed. There's pressure on my hip, some clicking, and when my vision stops swimming, my Eagle is pointed at me.

I tense up, my entire body going cold. She snatched my gun while I was dazed. I watch her intently, making note of everything. She's probably more scared now that she has the weapon than she was when I had it. she's quaking with terror, the gun twitching non-stop.

A brief period of silence passes between us, then suddenly there's a cracking sound and someone shouts, "Drop it!" Marissa screams, cringes and there's a horrible bang, and my world twists and goes cold.