To Love Victoria

5: The Light

Private Smith stood in front of me with a large rifle, balancing it upright against the floor. It towered over him, standing about a foot and a half taller than him. He wasn't very tall himself, only about five feet and maybe five or six inches. He honestly looked more like a scrawny teenager rather than an actual soldier. "Right, today, you will be learning to use one of these, an Anti-Demon Rifle, or AD Rifle for short.

My eyes widened. "A what?"

"An AD Rifle, the bullets are coated in a special substance. It explodes on contact and is specifically designed to kill demons."

"Interesting." I said blankly, trying to hide how impressed I was by the behemoth before me. He showed me how to use it. It was bolt action with a five-round magazine of 16.5x120mm ammo, along with a 4x scope.

"Now these bullets are just training bullets, they're made of rubber and are safe to use. He unloaded the magazine and removed the bullet from the chamber. I'll teach you how to load it." His attention was caught by Victoria walking towards us.

She held out her hand. "I'd like to borrow this for a second."

"We're kind of in the middle of training, do you need it badly?" He said, reluctantly handing it over to her. She placed the rifle down and began taking it apart. "Are you seriously inspecting the rifle again? We've already gone over this, it's all safe."

She looked up at him with a pleading expression. "I'm just checking because I want to keep you safe. What if there was something wrong with the firing mechanism and the gun explodes in your hands."

"You're overreacting again." He said annoyed.

"I promised your mother that I'd protect you and that is what I am doing."

"Yeah, I just wish you wouldn't be on my case about it 24/7." His tone was slightly raised. I could see the immediate look of regret on his face. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

Victoria stood upright. "No, it's fine, I am a little too overprotective sometimes. I need to trust you more and stop getting in your way." She held out her arms. The two of them hugged each other. "There, everything's okay now." She squeezed him tighter. "My little baby boy, I can't believe that you're almost all grown up." Her words were sweet but something didn't quite add up.

He pulled away with a mildly red face. "You're just doing that to annoy me now?"

She grinned. "Maybe." She reassembled the rifle and handed it back to him.

"Little baby boy?" I asked him.

His face was a little red with embarrassment. "Yeah, I ask her not to call me that."

"I need to ask, what did she mean by 'almost all grown up?'" My voice was somewhat concerned.

"Well, I'm not quite an adult yet. Just give me a second, I'm trying to work it out in my head." He took a short pause. "My human age is around fifteen, I think?"

My heart sank a little. I knew he was young but he was a literal child forced onto death row. The thought alone was truly horrifying. No matter what he had done, he didn't deserve to die, he had his whole life ahead of him to change.

The words had been caught up in my throat, his response had taken me by surprise. "If you don't mind me asking, what did you do to get here? Like why were you sent to this regiment."

His eyes met mine with a deep sadness. "I fell in love with a girl, but there was ugh... there was a problem." I could tell that he was struggling, I somewhat regretted asking him, I could see how much it was hurting him. "You see, she was a human and um... well, they don't take too kindly to race mixers. So they shot her." I could see it in his eyes, how much pain he felt. He wasn't a violent criminal or someone worthy of the death penalty, he was a kid who fell in love with the wrong girl. "And that's why I ended up here, like all race mixers do."