Gunpowder

Chapter 4

     It had been a year since I'd gotten out of the hospital. And honestly, one of the best years of my life at the time. I got a promotion at the cafe, so I was the manager! It was pretty freaking awesome. And Nurse Catell (Allison) was one of my best friends! Turns out she was only 3 years older than me. Shelly, Allison, and I all went out on weekly "girl's nights", and they were super fun. I didn't tell anyone about the events with the strange man out of fear that he might hurt someone. Other than the disturbing memories of that day in the hospital, things were amazing! I didn't think that it could get any better than that.

     And it didn't.

     My life seemed like a fairytale. Perfect. But the thing about fairy tales is- they're all built on lies.

     I was riding my bike to the hospital to meet Allison to go on our girls' night. Shelly was going to meet us at the bar we were going to because she didn't trust anyone else driving a car for her. She was pregnant and super protective of her child. I mean, super duper protective. Super. Duper.

     It's funny, I thought, that at this time one year ago I was being run over by a limo. The thought had made me chuckle a bit in nervousness as I rode the elevator to the 3rd floor. When the elevator arrived, I made my way to Allison's office and saw Allison waiting for me, still in her work outfit. I laughed and closed the door behind me. "Hurry up and get dressed, Als!"

     But once I took a few steps into the room, I noticed something was off. There were papers scattered across her desk and all along the floor, her computer was unplugged, and there was currently a stack of papers being burned. Allison's hair was a mess and her eyes were panicked as they met mine.

     "Omigod, Natalia!" She ran up and hugged me tightly. "Natalia, why didn't you tell me?"

     "Allison? What's going on? What did I not tell you?" Crap! She didn't find out about Nick, did she? Ugh, this girl is gonna ruin my relationship with every man I meet! "Stop burning those papers, you're gonna set the fire alarm off!"

     "Setting the fucking fire alarm off is the least of my worries right now, Nats," She said as she released me. "Listen, I know what happened that day in the hospital. The reason why you were screaming and acting strangely."

     These words made my heart skip a beat. Suddenly, I could feel goosebumps running up my arm and a chill dashed up my spine.

     "I already told you," I objected. "The reason I was acting strangely was that of the medication I was taking! Stop being so paranoid."

    "Natalia Sporrow," she said, grabbing onto my arm. "Don't lie to me, girl. I know about the man. How he wasn't really your husband and how he's a part of the American Mafia. Natalia, he's out to get you. But not only him, there are-"

     Allison was cut off by the sound of shrill screams coming from outside of the office. Her eyes grew from panicked to frantic. "What was that?!"

     I noticed a strange appearance on her face that read slight confusion, fury, and despair. It was as if the roots of flames were buried deep in her eyes, only now starting to give birth to sparks that flew up against her brown irises. I ignored it.

     "I- I don't know!" I yelped and threw open the door. "What's going on?"

     I dashed outside and my achromatic eyes scanned the hallways for the source of screaming. Frowning when I didn't see anything, I speed-walked down a long hallway. Another scream erupted throughout the halls and I started sprinting. I didn't know where I was going anymore, I just needed to find the screaming person and help whomever it was. The sight of blood stains on the floor in front of me is what made me stop and jump back. My eyes darted around, searching for the source of the blood... or the cause of it. Deciding it was way too dangerous to be wherever the heck I was, I turned and darted back to Allison's office.

     "Allison! There are blood stains on the flo-" I stopped as a horrific scene displayed before me. There was a beautiful woman laying on the ground, her body splayed out. Her chestnut hair fell over her face and blood was dripping from her mouth. My gaze flickered down to a large gunshot wound on her chest. There was dark blood all over the place and I immediately recognized the cause of the wound- a Dum Dum bullet, one of the most dangerous bullets in the world. On impact, the bullet would grow into a mushroom-shape inside of the victim. The tips of the mushroom-shaped bullet had small, sharp blades of which would cause serious damage to the wound.

     I noticed the woman was dead.

     I noticed the woman was dead at the first shot.

     I noticed the dead woman was Allison.

     The last thing I saw before I blacked out was the faint presence of gunpowder sprinkled over the gunshot wound on Allison's chest.