👉 Finger Guns 👉

Chapter 1: Freezeframe

"W-what happened? Where am I?" Avery says in a scared tone.
Avery got up from the ice cold ground to find herself in a winter wonderland, surrounded by icy trees and a heavy snowfall. The trees where picking up and blowing off snow as they shivered in the heavy wind.
"WHERE AM I!?" Avery screams out of fear. "WHATS GOING ONNNN!?"
In the distance, there was a small, hut shaped house molded inside of a small hill. The house however, was not getting affected by the snowstorm at all, looking completely fine. The house had no snow on it and stuck out like a sore thumb with it's perfectly cut green grass staying perfectly still.

"Huh, that's weird" Avery thought. "The earth house isn't getting affected at all by the storm."
Upon thinking this, Avery realizes she too wasn't  getting affected by the storm at all. Panickly, Avery looks down to find that all she'd been wearing was her signature oversized hoodie and sweatpants, along with her over worn sneakers and ankle socks. And yet, nothing. Avery's body temperature was completely normal. And if anything, she was quite toasty. Even her necklace, which is a carabiner with bracelets from memorable events wasn't blowing in the wind at all. It was calm, undisturbed, lifeless.

"WHAT IS GOING ON!????" Avery shouts. Her voice echoed from the hill she'd woken up on. But nervously alarmed, Avery decides to make her way to the earth house.

As Avery made her way up the hill to the earth house she realizes the gravity of the situation. Right across from the earth house was a huge tornado, fusing with a snowstorm. It looked both so beautiful and yet, so terrifying. But surprisingly, the frightening snow-hurricane hybrid didn't even cross Avery's mind. What did cross her mind, was what the hybrid was formed on. Water. The vast ocean she was looking upon reminded her of home. The old house. The beach she always used to swim at. Swimming.... Drowning.... Dad.

Oh no. Oh no no no, the thoughts, the memories, they where all flooding back to her. She was having another attack. She needed Banjo. Wait, Banjo? Avery suddenly realized that she forgot all about her service dog, Banjo. Without BanJØ ₴ⱧɆ ₩ØɄⱠĐ—

*GASP* Avery took in a hard, deep breath and swallowed some spit as she woke up, only to find herself in her 6th period class. She immediately snapped her head over at Banjo, who was staring at her, deathly worried by her terrified expression. She pet Banjo behind his left ear to help her calm down. It was all just a bad dream.

^SCHOOL BELL RINGS^

"Alrighty class, and remember!!! Pages 105-107 odds are due tomorrow so get it finished!" Mr.Deloris says boldly. "Oh and Ms.Saturn, where do you think you're going?" Mr.Deloris asks just before Avery successfully'd snuck out of class.
"*Sigh*, yes Mr.Deloris?"
"Don't think I didn't catch you drooling all over your desk during the whole class period."
"I'm so sorry Mr.Deloris, I-it won't happen again, I swear!"
"You can stay here for homegroup young lady."

Mr.Deloris walks uncomfortably close to Avery with a cheeky smirk on his face. Avery had heard rumors of Mr.Deloris'... erotic encounters with other girl students, but Avery never thought they where true, let alone that he would come onto her. But in a burst of fear, Avery started snapping her fingers. Avery always snapped her fingers when she was nervous or having an attack. Her friends always made fun of her when she would do a freaky super-finger-gun-snap whenever she was really anxious, like right before she would present a speech or ask for a table at a restaurant, or get confronted by an... impassioned teacher, that was certainty a first. But this time... this time it was different.

"GET AWAY FROM ME" Avery shouted. But as Avery snapped her fingers wildly, making her signature "finger-gun-snapping" motion she realized that Mr.Deloris wasn't moving. The whole room wasn't moving. The whole room was calm, undisturbed, lifeless. Mr.Deloris was in a walking motion, that was humanly impossible to do while standing still. Banjo, seeing this abrupt situation, started to bite Mr.Deloris' leg violently, but Mr.Deloris wasn't moving, wasn't blinking, wasn't even flinching. He had his hands out in a grabby motion, but not moving them. Avery had froze time. Well, at least for Mr.Deloris. Avery looked out the long rectangular window on the classrooms door, only to see that the hallway was flooding with people, moving people, all trying to get to homegroup... homegroup!!

Despite freaking out over this bizarre freeze frame of time, Avery tugged on Banjo's leash, and sprinted out the door, baffled at what happened, not caring or even thinking if Mr.Deloris will ever 'unfreeze' from his provocative position. After all, Mrs.Kunesh would kill her if she was late to homegroup again.

All homegroup Avery thought about what the heck just happened with Mr.Deloris. She just froze Mr.Deloris in place, that was definitely real!! But how? How did that happen? Avery thought through every little detail in that situation;

"So he called me after class after everybody left.. then talked to me... then got closer.. then I started finger-gun-snapping, that's it!! My finger gun snapping stopped time? Alright Avery did you take your pills this morning? Yes I definitely did, ugh I'm going insane." Avery thought.

Avery went thought the rest of her day (A.K.A one period) and then went home, planning to test her "newfound power" after school

^AFTERSCHOOL^

"Hello Avery!" Avery's mom, Josephine, said with a cheerful tone. "How was your day at school today?" Josephine asks while Avery walks through the door
"Can't talk right now mom, I gotta try something."
"Oh okay hun-"
Before Avery's mom could finish her sentence, Avery walked through the front door and out the door to the backyard, not noticing the plethora of empty alcohol beverages spread across the kitchen table.

"Okay okay okay" Avery said out loud. "You are not crazy! I repeat, you are NOT crazy."
Shaking, Avery grabbed one of her mom's used cigarettes on the ground.
"This is real, you are not going mad" Avery said to herself again.
Avery threw the cigarette up into the air and then quickly snapped her fingers, making a finger gun motion right at the cigarette. And just as she thought, she wasn't crazy. The used cigarette stayed floating in the air.
"I WAS RIGHT!!" Avery screamed out of sheer shock and enjoyment. "I AM IN FACT NOT CRAZY!!"
Banjo started jumping up in an attempt to grab the cigarette but it was too far for him to reach. Suddenly, Avery felt a huge weight on her body, keeping the cigarette in the air was really draining her. She put her arm down and almost immediately, the cigarette dropped back down unto the concrete tiles in the backyard.

"MOM MOM!!" Avery yelled out in excitement. "THE CRAZIEST THING JUS-"
"S-stop yelling hun *hic* you're hurting my earsssss" Avery's mom said drunkenly.
Immediately Avery's mood went from happy to angered.
"I told you to stop drinking mom, and I saw the awful amount of cigarettes you've been smoking out in the back."
"Hunnnnnn *hic* you didn't see anything *hic*." Avery's mom attempted to get up from the couch and walk over to Avery, but she could barely walk, she had to use the arm of the couch as full support, and even then she was wobbling. "Hee hee!"
"Ugh, you do this everyd-"
Before Avery finished her sentence, she saw some government papers on the table.
"What is this?" Avery asks whilst walking over to the coffee table to read them.
"No don't read those hunny bunchess."
Josephine tried to stop Avery from reading the papers but she couldn't walk without falling.

Avery read the papers with fear in her eyes. They where child protective service papers.
"Mom? When where you gonna tell me Child Protective Services where gonna take me away?"
"I-"
"ON SUNDAY!? MOM THATS 3 DAYS AWAY!"
"Hunny I-"
Avery was doing it again. She was having another attack. She couldn't loose her mom too. Avery started snapping her fingers violently, she couldn't control it. Banjo started yelping for her to stop, but she wouldn't, she couldn't.

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕨𝕙𝕠𝕝𝕖 𝕣𝕠𝕠𝕞 𝕗𝕣𝕠𝕫𝕖.
Everything was both moving and staying still at the same time.
"Wha-" Avery freaked out, she'd never stopped a whole room before. "M-MOM!?"
Avery put her hands down, but nothing changed. Everything was still frozen, including Josephine.
"MMOOMM!!" Avery screamed as she shook Josephine. But Josephine just stood there, calm, undisturbed, lifeless.