Colour Me Red

Chapter 20: Ellie (The Girl with the Gun)

Chapter 20: Ellie (The Girl with the Gun)

My father's laugh resounded from the four walls that surrounded us, as if the bricks themselves wanted nothing to do with him and his appalling ways.

He turned to face me with a wicked grin, looking only at my eyes; perhaps to prove that he didn't fear the gun I held in my right hand. The anger bubbling underneath my skin was scorching hot as I glared at the man I called my father.

"We both you're not going to shoot me, Ellie. Even you wouldn't be so reckless." My father sounded so sure and I hated that he knew me so well.

Or didn't.

In the spur of the moment, I fired the trigger, anger fuelling my actions. The bullet hit the ground and veered off in an unknown direction, leaving a dent in the concrete floor just before my father's left foot. The look of fear that spread across his face like melted butter was so satisfying that I almost shot at him again, just for the fun of it, but I realised that I was wasting bullets that could later save my life.

"Don't test me, dad," I practically spat, lowering my gun slightly. The shot rang in my ears so loudly that I struggled to hear myself speak.

When I looked over to Dune, he was already watching me with a look of admiration in his brown orbs. Pride swelled from deep within and I felt myself straighten a little, a grin threatening to spill on my face.

"Now, you're going to tell me what the hell you did to me and how you're going to fix it," I said with the utmost determination, looking back at my father.

My father gulped and opened his mouth to speak, but I raised the gun once again to silence him.

"Before you do anything, you're going to untie him," I commanded, gesturing towards Dune with my gun. My father nodded briskly and his hands deftly moved over the ropes and chains that held Dune down. When Dune was freed from his bonds, he moved to stand by my side and gently brushed the small of my back to show that I had his support.

We stood so that we were blocking the exit, trapping my father in like the criminal he was.

"You better start talking," Dune said with icy vehemence, pinning my father to the spot with his stern gaze.

"I-I injected her with a drug that acts against her healing ability, w-which basically means that a war is going on inside her body, between her white blood cells and the drug I injected. Within a few day the damage they will have caused will k-kill her," my father blubbered, talking directly to Dune instead of me, as if he couldn't bear to face the mess he'd made.

My father turned to face me then.

"I'm sorry Ellie, but you have to die. If the authorities find out about you . . . I'll go to prison. Would you really do that to your mother?" He was practically begging for me to understand, but I was seriously struggling to see things from his perspective.

"You think mum would be worse off with you in prison? How about with a dead daughter, huh? At least with you in prison, you'd still be alive!" I practically screamed. How the hell did he think this was okay? What kind of maniac does that?

Suddenly, seven men rushed into the room from behind me and Dune, swarming us like bees with their deadly weapons. I spun with my gun in hand but it was knocked form my grasp before I could even focus on any of the men.

One of them grabbed my arms, twisting them painfully behind me. Dune stayed ever-so-still, watching the men, making eye contact with each of them in turn. Whatever message he communicated stopped them from pouncing on him, nor did he attack them; it was as if they'd come to a mutual agreement not to kill each other.