"I'd let you shoot me a thousand times before I'd even think about pulling the trigger."     Cyrus's body trembled violently, his breath coming in ragged, uneven gasps as the static in his head finally broke. The chains that had bound him, the insidious whispers controlling his every movement, snapped under the weight of an external force.


The gun was still on the ground beside him, a cruel reminder. The same gun that had fired his bullet. The same bullet that had torn through her.