Clair de Lune

12. Firing range

I ended up spending the good majority of my day with Lily, playing games of hide-and-go-seek and reading books aloud from the library. She was invariably sweet, even if she was a mass-murderer. I walked her to her room, giving her a hug before she went inside to sleep for the night. After that, things seemed a little more quiet and a little more lonely. I shoved my hands in the pockets of my shorts as I walked back across the building, thinking that maybe I'd be able to get some good sleep myself.

As I was walking, I saw that the last of the subjects in the entertainment area were dawdling about, yawning and deciding it was time for them to go to sleep as well. I saw one figure though, sitting on the couch just as he had been the night before. I walked up to Necro and took a seat beside him, leaning back and listening to the TV while I closed my eyes. It was some discovery network show about natural selection and predatory habits.

"Planning on sleeping tonight?" Necro teased.

"No, probably not." I chuckled. "Plan on staying up all night?"

"Oh, of course." He grinned. "What do you say we get into a little bit of trouble?"

"What kind of trouble?" I raised an eyebrow, and he looked up somewhere. I followed his line of sightlessness and to my surprise saw a small red light blinking in the corner of the room. The moment I'd actually realized it was a security camera it seemed to simultaneously shut off. A ghostly hand appeared from within the wall, giving me a thumbs up before being followed by her head. It was Thamyris, and she pressed her finger to her lips before disappearing again.

"Did she give us the signal?" He asked.

"I think so." I blinked in amazement. "What are we doing?"

"Follow me."

Necro pulled me to my feet, moving swiftly on silent feet through the hallways. We passed by the music room and ran out into the lobby, the tall windows along the front wall revealing a starry, moonless night. I stopped in my tracks, something different about the way I saw them. Sure they were there, but I saw the spiderwebs in the sky playing connect-the-dots with the constellations. It took my breath away and I took a few moments just to count them, picking out every little different colored star and feeling as if my fire might one day burn as brightly as theirs.

"What are you looking at?" Necro asked, having realized I stopped following him.

"The sky...I've never seen it like this before." I breathed. "All the stars and all the lines, it's like a piece of art I'm only just now seeing."

"Does it look...different than before?" He asked quizzically, and I nodded to myself.

"It's so much brighter and so much more beautiful," I laughed before turning to him, "I'm sorry, let's keep going. I got distracted."

"That's okay," Necro smiled, "taking time to appreciate the little things is always good."

He gestured for me to follow him again and we took off, finding our way into the elevator and waiting to go down. I thought we might've been going to the S Class hallway, but he sent us to the floor below theirs, where the agents had their housing. The doors opened and I felt a little antsy knowing we could've been caught at any moment, but it seemed as if the agents had already retired to their beds and left the hall to the training room door wide open.

We skittered down the path and to the door, where Necro used the card he'd gotten ahold of to open the door and usher me inside. I felt in awe as the lights came on, revealing a large square room with low ceilings and padded floors. Along one wall was an array of weapons, some I'd never even seen before now, and across from that was what looked to be a small shooting range. A mirror lined the west wall, and I watched myself in it as I walked over to the weapons. I'd never even seen a gun in person, but here I was, lifting one off of the rack and cradling it close as I examined it.

"I've always wanted to shoot one of these." A mischievous grin split my cheeks, and I turned to find Necro examining one similar to my own.

"The walls are soundproof, and Thamyris jammed the camera so they can't see us." He glanced around as if he were searching the room for her. "Feel free to shoot as many rounds as you want."

The giddiness took over and I reached out, grabbing a pair of earmuffs and safety glasses before running over to one of the lanes. I figured out how to load the handgun fairly easily, and I turned the safety off with a trembling thumb as I lifted the object to aim down the sights. The first shot I fired felt incredibly strange, the kickback unexpected and the smell of gunpowder unknown to me. I found it exhilarating all the same and fired off another shot, watching as it tore through the paper dummy's shoulder. Necro was in the booth beside mine, and to my surprise, he was halfway decent with his aim and even managed to land a shot in the outline of the head. I felt stunned but proud at the same time.

"You're great at shooting, holy crap." I told him when he finally stepped back from the lane, having pulled his earmuffs down.

"Why thank you, I learned from the best of the best." He grinned. "Marshall's an excellent shot, he showed me what he could before I got abducted."

"How did they find you anyway?" I asked curiously.

"I'm not sure, one day they were just sweeping the area I guess and they found me picking a rabbit out of a snare." He sighed as he put the gun back up on the rack. "I'd hoped that maybe Marshall would come and get me, but he doesn't seem to want to even step foot near this place unless he has to."

"That's harsh." I scowled. "You don't need him anyway, you've already got your own plan that he's obviously not going to be around for."

"Yeah, you're right." He perked up slightly, a smile pulling at the edges of his cheeks. "Thank you, Hellfire."

"Of course." I smiled, only to be interrupted by a yawn. He chuckled at me and took the gun from my hands, placing it back on the shelf beside his before walking me back towards the door. Necro knew I was tired and I was glad he didn't push to keep me up any longer.

We wandered back to the elevator and found ourselves back on our own floor, pausing for just a moment to allow me to admire the stars once again. I absolutely adored the way they shone, their light bright among the darkness. Necro and I exchanged small snippets of conversation as we made our way down the hall again, stepping in and out of the light coming through the skylights above our heads and eventually slipping into my room to hide from the rest of the building.

I sat on my bed with him beside me, talking about all the cares we had in the world and all the things we wanted to do. I dreamed of seering the California coastline at least once before I died, and he wanted to see his family again. He had things to do outside this place, no wonder he wanted out. Me on the other hand, I had nothing left for me out there, and I knew I was safe here. At least, as long as his friend wasn't telling the truth about this place. If he was, though, there were some things I had to consider in case I ever became subject to a transfer out and overseas.

For now though, I just leaned my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes. He was cold, something that balanced out my heat and made me feel comfortable. I was like a walking furnace now, with fire in my veins and an inferno in my heart. There was a certain pressure building that I could feel with every beat, something that I knew I needed to let out eventually. Now that I'd had a taste of my power they couldn't just expect me to sit here and stow it away, oh no. I wanted to set things ablaze and watch the whole world burn.