Chapter 51

Alexi doesn’t even flinch, even when it was facing him. Although he knew it was empty, it would still make me nervous if he pointed an empty gun at me. He doesn’t seem to care. He drops back into that tender way of talking as though he realises my barrier is more mental scarring than anything else.

“It’s new to you; you’re not used to how it feels. You have a fear that will fade. Understandably… People assume handling a gun is easy—it’s not. It comes with so many feelings and thoughts and a huge responsibility. I promise you; there is nothing to be afraid of with this gun, in this room, with me. I would never let anything happen to you… Pick it up and point over there.”

What he says triggers a memory, and as I try to pick out what it was in his sentence that stirred a weird pain in my chest, he starts pushing me towards the wall again and tries to position me beside him. Head being pulled back from conversation to actions.

He’s persistent anyway, and I obey, tensin