Into You

Chapter 40

Lauren was still contemplating her misery when she felt a pat on her back and she looked up to see Sinu regarding her sadly.

"It's ok, Lauren, it was very well done," Sinu said as she looked at the screen to see Dinah making her weapon safe and walking out of the chamber, kicking the doorway as she went past. Lauren stared fascinated at the screen, ignoring the consoling comments that were being passed to her from her companions, wondering why Dinah looked so pissed off.

The woman's whole body language said that she was annoyed at herself for something, but for the life of her, Lauren couldn't understand why. She could only assume it was because she thought that her time was longer than she needed, because from what she had seen, Dinah had the perfect round.

"What's up with her?" Camila asked and she looked around to see that she too was staring at the screen with a frown on her face. She was about to answer when she saw her brown eyes light up, a broad smile appearing to follow. Camila looked across at her, excitement written all over her face, and she looked back at the screen to see what the girl had spotted that she hadn't.

There it was, right in front of her eyes. Dinah's time in the corner was framed in red with a large 'P' next to it. The camera was focused on one of those last targets, the important one, the man with the hostage. There were bullet holes in the bad guy as you would expect, three neat holes perforating the head, but inconceivably, the camera panned across and there in the center mass of the little girl with her pink-coloured pigtails, was another group, just as neat, just as expertly shot, just in exactly the wrong place.

Dinah had hit a 'friendly'...
 She had hit a fucking friendly and got a penalty for it... 
Lauren had only gone and fucking won!... She'd only gone and won the whole fucking competition!

o+o+o


There was a weird feeling of numbness as she heard a whoop of joy from Camila, a celebratory cry that signaled her happiness at her victory. She vaguely felt another, harder pat on the back and dimly heard Sinu congratulating her.

She could feel her pulse pounding in her head, every part of her wanted nothing more than to jump to her feet and shout 'YES!' as loudly as she could. Unfortunately, there were two things that were preventing her from doing so.

Firstly, she's sure it's not the done thing in a VIP section of a tent when she's surrounded by her employers, and secondly, she couldn't actually feel her legs right at that moment.

"Ladies and gentlemen, with a time of one minute and forty-four seconds and one penalty, Ms. Dinah Jane Hansen. A round of applause for Ms. Hansen, please, for a fine defense of her title."

The speakers blared out the result, confirming what the screens had displayed. The camera changed to the results table, Lauren's name still in first place, Dinah slipping into the table immediately below her.

"Well done, Lauren," she heard Alejandro say from his seat next to Sinu, "I knew you could do it," He leaned across his wife and cuffed the raven-haired on the arm with one of his ham-sized fists in congratulations. "Looks like I'd better get my checkbook ready."

"There are still other competitors, Mr. Cabello, I haven't won yet,"

"Well, I don't know about that," Dinah cut through her mental fog "I'd say it's just a matter of time, Lauser. I'd start preparing your speech if you haven't already. I sure hope I get a mention, at least."

She turned to look at her; she looked as cocky as ever but she could see the pain of disappointment in her eyes. She really did want this and once again, Lauren felt like a fraud.