Poison- H.S

seven

Songs of the chapter:

Monsters- Ruelle

Animal - Neon Trees

Steadily, I let out my breath and pull the trigger back slowly until I hear a small click, followed by a loud explosion.

The impact from the gun sends me back a little bit and I bump into Four. The bullet slices through the air and hits a tree trunk. A couple of bats fly away from the area that the bullet hit.

"Not the target I was going for, but not too bad right?" I ask, lowering the gun and setting it down on the table behind me.

I turn to Four for his acknowledgement, but he's already in a steady position. There is a good distance between his feet, he holds his arms straight out in front of him and his hands grip the gun so intricately. "You see that small orange lens on top of that tree?" He asks, pointing to the top of a thick conifer, littered in tiny needlelike leaves.

"Yes," I say slowly.

I watch as he leisurely inhales and then exhales. He pulls the safety trigger and then fires at the tiny orange target in the tree. It happens so fast that by the time I blink, Four's arms stagger slightly and the orange target is rocking back and forth. When the target stabilizes, I squint my eyes to see the tiny hole in the center of it.

"Wow, okay well I see you've had quite a bit of practice." He sets his gun down on the table and comes back over to my stall.

"It's a practical skill, when you live like me that is." He hands me a slender, metal pouch and takes my gun. "This is called a magazine; it has bullets in it. To reload, you're going to slide it into your gun with your non-dominate hand."

I stare at him but all I can hear him saying is "when you live like me". What kind of life is he living?

"You listening?" He asks. When I look up at his face, the green in his eyes is barely visible and is being completely out shined by his dilated pupils.

"Yeah," I nod my head. I watch him as he shows me how to reload the gun with bullets safely, and then we even practice a few times. "You think you got it, or do you want to practice again?"

"No, I think I got it," I say. I slide the magazine into the barrel and "rack" my gun, as said by Four's terminology. After my gun is loaded, I distance my feet from each other and position myself in front of the field before my eyes.

I lock my vision on a blue target not too far away from me. Trying not to think too hard about it, I hover my finger over the trigger for a couple of seconds before pulling the trigger.

When I open my eyes, I notice the blue target has not moved at all and there aren't any signs of a bullet wound. I sigh and aim the gun at the blue target again. When I fire, the bullet still does not hit the target and I try my best not to let out a frustrated sigh again, and point my gun towards a different target.

We shoot around for about half an hour before I'm finally able to hit a target. It isn't in the center like Four's, but it isn't too far off either.

"Impressive shot," I hear an unknown voice say from behind me. I turn around and see the face of an unfamiliar man watching me from behind.

I lower the gun and give him a short smile. "Thank you," I say. He stares at me and I start to feel uncomfortable. Not in the way that I get when Four stares, I am not curious about the mystery behind this man's eyes, I am more afraid of the suspicion that is spilling from his smile.