La Mort et ses Merveilles ✔

26. Bloodletting

La Mort et ses Merveilles

Chapter 26: Bloodletting

I could only stand there frozen in place, my fingers loosening its grip on the trigger. The man lay dead on the ground, thick, viscous blood pouring from the bullet wound to his head. The walls behind him were sprayed with blood, ejected out of the exit wound when the bullet tore a second hole through his skull.

The trembling girl picked herself up, her legs shaking, her tear-filled eyes staring at the body of the large, burly man that lay in front of her. Her black hair was in a mess, and her brown eyes were opened wide in terror.

I tried to speak, but no words left my lips. My voice seemed to be caught in my throat. What could I say? I'd just killed a man. My heart thumped in my chest, pumping blood and adrenaline into my system.

It was different. It wasn't like putting down the dead. This was a living, breathing person and I just burst his head open. There are many things that should never be seen by anyone's eyes, and the insides of a blown-up head, the mess of red and black, flesh and bone, was one of them. There was an oppressive weight on my shoulders as I realised that I bore the responsibility of snatching away someone's life.

Slowly, I lowered my gun. The girl's brown eyes locked on mine, terrified. But truth be told, I was equally afraid. I could hear her hyperventilate, her chest rapidly moving up and down as she gasped for air.

And as if something jolted her to action, she leapt for the body, pulling the pistol from the dead man's hip.

She aimed the gun straight at me, but her hands were shaking.

"Drop the gun," a frantic voice sounded, full of desperation. "Now."

Raising my other hand up, I did as I was told, slowly putting the gun to the ground. My heart was thumping in my chest, more than it did when Leslie and I fought in the forest. More than the time I met face to face with a zombie for the first time. This girl had no reason to not press the trigger.

"Are you with them?" the girl asked, raising her voice, staring at me with her large brown eyes, reddened eyes filled with tears.

I had only seconds to think. I couldn't make a mistake. Any wrong move, any slip of the tongue and I would end up with a bullet to the chest.

"It's alright," I said, trying to calm her down. "I'm not going to hurt you."

The girl seemed to have calmed down a little, but the gun was still aimed straight at me.

"Look," I said, my hands still raised in front of me. "I saved you, r-remember? I shot him before he could do anything. Everything's okay now, we just gotta get you out of here."

Sniffling, the girl kept silent, no words leaving her lips. But at the same time, I could see the gun lowering just a bit. Clutching her collar with her free hand, she tried to button up the buttons of her flannel shirt that had been violently undone.

The girl looked at me as if she was about to say something, her lips parting slightly.

But it was then when the door slammed open. The young man stood there in his khaki hunting jacket, sweat running down his face. His widened blue eyes looked at the body of his former friend, the burly bald man with tattoos he was just talking to early. Then he set his eyes on the gun that was aimed directly at me, and the girl behind it.