No One

Chapter Three

Bullseye

Bella stepped out of the back door of the house that next morning, a small key grasped tightly in one hand while the thumb drive from the night before rested in the other.

The shed door creaked lowly as it slid open, the wooden floor groaning under Bella's tennis shoes as she stepped inside. Her father's workbench stood in the middle of the shed, Bella's black wooden longbow resting on its surface. She pulled open a drawer in the workbench and removed a small, old wooden box, placing the thumb drive inside before returning the box to its storage place.

She sighed, glancing around at her father's handiwork displayed on the walls. An assortment of swords, daggers, knives, guns and bows hung neatly from their displays, each item glistening in the sun as the light poured in from the open door. Her eyes traced the signature etched into the metal pieces of every weapon or tool lining the walls.

I get that this was his hobby, but what the hell does an attorney need with so many weapons?

Bella pulled her bow off the workbench in the middle of the room and hung it off her shoulder before making her way outside again. The quiver she had grabbed on her way out hung loosely in her fingers as she approached her practice range, the wooden arrows clanking against each other in rhythm with her steps.

This latest video left no further instructions on how to proceed with her archery training. Her father was sure she would have mastered everything she needed by then. He did, however, leave a lesson for close combat to be practiced later. If Preston were still around, he would be there already training her on the next steps. Instead, Bella was left to wait until her new mentor and training partner had time to stop by.

Which is fine. Waiting for him just gives me an excuse to be alone with my bow for a few hours.

Her feet came to a stop behind an orange sheet of metal embedded in the grass, the quiver thudding softly against her back as she slung it over her shoulder. Bella grasped an arrow and pulled it from her back, snapping it onto the bowstring as she eyed down the target standing about sixty feet from her.

She closed her eyes momentarily, taking a deep breath in as she turned her face into the light breeze blowing through the yard. As she exhaled slowly through her nostrils, all of the tension in her neck and shoulders faded away. Moments like this were rare since Preston's passing. With finishing her undergrad, volunteering at the hospital, and the occasional bad day, Bella hardly left much room for quiet, lonely moments such as this one.

The bowstring groaned in protest under her fingertips as she drew it taut, taking aim at the black dot in the center of the target. She took in another slow, deep breath and held it in her lungs as she accounted for the soft breeze. The perfect moment to release struck quickly and Bella let the string slide free, the arrow slicing through the air at a high speed.

The arrow sank into the middle of the target with a resounding 'thunk'.

Bullseye.

Bella couldn't help the faint grin that crept onto her lips as she admired her accomplishment, her hand already reaching for another arrow. She drew the string back once again, inhaling deeply. "Relax," Preston's voice murmured softly in her ears, his chest pressed against her back as his hands covered her's. "Take a deep breath, and as you release it, let the arrow go with it."

She took aim, eyeing her target once more. Release. As she released the breath she had been holding, her fingers loosened their grip on the bowstring, letting the arrow begin its great journey across the yard.