Ultraviolence

Guns in the summer time

6th February

Rose

I could hardly believe what Nina was telling me, she may have found Amelia.

I had just woken up and was still wearing my light blue nightdress, my feet and legs bare to the breeze coming in through the window.

Silently, I listened to her story, doubt lingering in the forefront of my mind. However, I really wanted to believe her.
A bald girl had walked into the bar, knocking Nina over, and saw the pictures of Amelia as they fell out of her dress. When they were talking, the girl showed her a picture of the man who may have kidnapped or dated Amelia. Then, when Nina was turned away she left the Name and address of the mysterious man.

Questioningly, I stared at her, I knew that she loved Amelia but Amelia had already moved on. From Nina, from me from any of us. From this filthy, glutinous town, the town that entraps anyone who walks into it like a snare. Lulling us in with lacklustre lights and half-baked promises. I'm glad she finally worked up the courage to escape this place, god knows I never did.

"Are you coming?" Nina asks, snapping be back into reality.

I look up at her, not sure of an answer.

"Please Rose. I need her." She pleads, a faint trace of tears in her eyes but she quickly stops them by biting down on her lip. Hard.

"Okay," I sigh tiredly "I will come, but if she is okay you have to promise to let her go." I say, holding out my pinky

Nina waits a bit before answering, her eyes rolling in her skull, as if weighing her options.

"Yes, okay I promise that I will leave her alone if it was her decision to be with him." She promised, taking my pinky in hers.

First, we stepped into her car, a frigid breeze came through the air conditioner that will eventually heat up to a comfortable temperature. She turned on the radio as we took off into the rising moon.

We pulled up at an old broken down ammunition shop, I stared at her in disbelief as she took out a small pistol from her glove compartment.

"You can't be serious." I cried, my hands wrestling with hers for the gun.

"We need to protect her." She screamed, her fingernails digging into my hand.

She forced me into the side of the car with her elbow whilst trying to rip the gun out of my hands. I kick her shins with the heel of my shoes, mud painted across her legs.

"We could just call the police, like we should have done in the first place." I protested, as she snatched the weapon out of my hand.

She fumbled with the handle before opening the car door, anger obvious in her face. Nina stormed into the ammunition shop, leaving me in the car alone. Watching, I notice her scanning the shelfs of bullets under a glass casing before quickly finding it and asking the brown haired man working there for assistance.  The man pulled out a pair of silver keys and quickly unlocked the clear box before going to the till to let Nina pay for the bullets.

Once she got into the car she placed the gun on my lap and looked into my eyes intensely. Her eyes stared into my soul like a thousand stars judging me with their harsh light.

"I need you to use this." She asks desperately, as she held my hands tight in hers.

"I know you are against this," she continued "but I really need to know that if I am right that you will help me, that you will be able to help me."

Carefully, I nodded my head, knowing it was better to agree with her at the moment. I put my hand on her knee to let her know that I will stick with her, her leg is soft in my hands like a warm duvet or pillow.

We turned on the radio again, a slow song glided through the air like swans on a sapphire lake. The stars above me ran across the dark sky like children on a playground. I watch them intently, a concerned mother watching her children play and hoping they never leave her, hoping the stars never go out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~dream~~~~~~~~~~

Scared, I don't know why but I'm terrified, as if I am facing my worst fear. I can't see anything, not even just black, I can't see anything. As if my eyes were plucked out of my skull.

But I can hear, I can hear screaming from all directions, as if I lay in the centre of hell itself. I hear shouting, like a parent berating a child.

I can feel, a cold, heavy object in my hands. It's weight like a thousand murders on the soul. My shoulder gets brushed past like a ghost had walked over me.

I could smell, the country side, the ocean, and blood.

I was awoken from my dream by a soft shaking on my shoulder, my vision was blurry at first but it was quickly regained. Nina was looming over me like tower before I could make out what she was saying.

"It's her!" She whispered lowly into my ears, pointing to the radio.

"Who?" I ask, still not coming to my senses.

"The girl, the bald girl." She says a tiny bit louder. That got my attention.

An acoustic song came to an end, sung by a sweet but nasally voice. The song dies out slowly until being suddenly cut off by a gruff, yet despondent man on the radio.

"Tessa Mitski died last night in the hospital by ending her own life." We both look at each other in shock before looking back at the radio.

"She was a rumoured love interest of a well known music producer Ezequiel, but never got to realise her work. As reported by the hospital she committed  suicide by cutting into a section of skin bellow her rib cage.It was later confirmed that she was attempting to remove a tattoo of the producers name which she had only recently brought a few months into the relationship. She left a note simply saying the words 'Bring him down'. It has been rumoured that he had cheated on her the night before she died but others had theorised a darker scenario where he may have sexually assaulted-"

Nina quickly turns the radio off before continuing to drive the car. Her grip on the steering wheel tightened as the car got faster by the second. Once again, I rest my hand on her knee as a shed a tear for the both of us.

We will bring him down

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