Latibule (Pedro Pascal)

21. Limerence

Song of this Chapter: Belki (Akustik) by Dedublüman

Translated Lyrics:
On my shoulder,
there are sins that I have not committed.
There is hypocrisy in my words, there is love in my sorrow.
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It's as if the Earth's rotation reached a halting stop and gravity ripped her insides to shreds, because Alanna felt her heart implode. A scorching pain engulfs her chest while the terror immobilizes her, spreading through her body like wildfire and filling her lungs with its smoke. Shattered glass disperses in the air from the bullets that fly past her, coating the ground where Sanchez lays on his side.

He doesn't move or even twitch.

The dim light reflects onto the shards of glass, flashing over her dilated pupils. It draws her out of the pathetic state of paralysis while the world around her progresses to real time.

Before she knew it, her mind pulled her heart out of the battlefield like a wounded solider, leaving her body as an independent state. Its actions ungoverned, liberated, and free from the fear of consequences.

Sanchez's gun flew from his hand when he crashed, and now lays at her feet. She doesn't think- doesn't even blink- before reaching for the glock. The deafening chaos is drowned out while adrenaline fuels her actions. She pops out from the other side of pole with her finger glued to the trigger, allowing the metal to recoil against her palm repeatedly.

Even when the bullet penetrates Dobert's shoulder, causing him to drop his gun while his muscles explode with pain, she continues to fire.

Even when the second bullet cuts through the space between his brows, she continues to fire.

Even when his lifeless body collides with the floor, she continues to fire.

Finally, when one bullet from the swarm shoots through Fillmore's hip, preventing his escape as he face plants to the ground, she stops.

With wild eyes and a heaving chest, she slowly approaches the suspects while her footsteps echo in doom. She doesn't register Fillmore's thundering screams when she kicks the gun away from his partner's limp body, sending it across the room.

The glock remains steady in her hand, looking back at the suspect who places his hand up in a pitiful plea for his life.

The noise bounces off her eardrums, she can't hear him as he begs to be spared from her wrath. Her eyes hold a soulless expression- the same as the night she avenged her parents by killing Richard Brighton.

She could do it again, pull the trigger and end this man's life as she watches him take his final breath. The urge to resort to violence as a way to release her pent up emotions grows stronger. She's already killed his partner for shooting Sanchez, what's the harm in ridding the world of another scumbag?

Sanchez...

Just like that, her mind switches on, snapping her out of the dark trance as pain courses through her again. She snaps her head back to look at him. He still hasn't moved. Her emotions run wild, as do her feet as they carry her to him.

"Santi," Alanna breathes while falling to her knees at his side, turning him on his back with shaky hands.

Her stare immediately falls to his chest, looking at the bullets that mushroom into his vest. She inspects the rest of his body, finding no entry wounds or blood. He took two bullets to the chest that were caught by the bulletproof vest.

Alanna sighs in relief while her eyes fill with uncontrollable tears. In a hopeless attempt to run away from her demons, she invited new ones in to tear her apart. She looks back at the man she's grown to care for as he lays unconscious because of her.