The Gun
1123 Words
In a small, old warehouse, a group of men were gathered, each dressed in black and brown suits, and subtly cowering in the face of their leader's wrath.
"I'll gut him and toss his body into the ocean," the scarred man snarled as he paced up and down the dusty floor, a gun clutched in his trembling hand.
"I'll make him regret ever embarrassing me, if it is the last thing I do!" He pointed the gun at one of the empty bottles, that had been lined up for him to take his anger out on, and pulled the trigger.
It exploded into a million glass shards, the sound echoing in the cavernous room but it was not enough to satisfy his hunger for revenge.
"There's not much we can do to retaliate, boss. Not after we tried and failed to take over one of his territories..."
A shot rang out and the man who had been speaking crumbled to the floor, blood pouring out of his head and forming a pool beneath his body.
"Are there any more Captain obviouses who wish to advise me about the consequences of my reckless action?" He questioned with an innocent tilt of his head, his fingers tapping a rhythm into the side of his gun.
Wisely, they shook their heads denial.
Anyone in the McCarthy clan who wanted to see old age knew better than to test their leader's patience when he was in a foul mood because of his archenemy.
You just had to be useful, quiet and not place a target on yourself. Easier said than done with a leader as sporadic and crazy as Leonard McCarthy.
"Good. Then we can finally focus on getting s**t done!" He cheered with an excited grin and turned to the man in the middle. "Have you found him yet?"
"Yes, sir. He is with Jessi and Daniel down at the harbou.."
"Then what are we doing here, standing around and twiddling our thumbs?" He flung the gun behind him and they flinched as it landed with a loud clatter. "Let's go welcome my dear old friend."
Some minutes into their quiet walk, they branched into a familiar looking hallway and Pearl noticed that they were heading in the direction of her room.
Everest led her past her bedroom door and further down than she had ever gone, then stopped in front of an unassuming door placed at the very end of the hallway.
"You gave me a room in your wing of the house," she pointed out, a small smile creeping onto her lips.
"It was the best way I could think to protect you." He explained, simply as he fished a key out of his pocket, slotted it into the lock and with a turn of his wrist, opened the door, revealing inside.
Large and dark were the first words that came to mind as they stepped into a world of black, grey and calming dark blues.
She spotted a mini bar located on the far side of the wall, across from the bed and stared in wonder at the drinks whose names were in languages that hurt her head when she tried to read them.
The room was messy in a way all lived-in bedrooms were, in the morning. The duvet resting on top of is his unnecessarily large bed was in the position he had pushed it to when he had first gotten out of bed.
"Excuse the mess, I usually clean up when I have time but work has kept me too busy for any free time." He explained as he tugged off his hoodie and flung it aside, to make up for the warmth of the room, giving Pearl a perfect view of his naked torso.
"It's fit...fine!" She corected with nervous laughter, playing anxiously with her hair and he thankfully made no comment about her blunder.
"Take a seat," he gestured at the unmade bed, distractedly, "while I sort through this mess and try to find where i put that blasted thing."
He began searching the many drawers and compartments in the room, some of which were located in secrets corners until finally he paused and slowly turned to stare at the bedside table.
The dark-eyed man cursed under his breath with a soft shake of his head then made his way over to the small bedside table.
A single pull revealed the brown box laying inside and he retrieved it with a triumphant smile.
Pearl stared curiously at the small box as he took a seat beside her, her mind racing through the many possibilities of what could be inside.
"Did you ever take self-defence classes as a child?" He questioned while fiddling with the box.
"Yeah." Not like it had been of any help when the people she had learned to protect herself from had burst into her apartment, armed to the teeth and kidnapped her.
"As you now know, the real world is very different from the sanitised scenarios they create in those padded rooms. Which is why I got you this." He passed the box over to her.
Pearl gingerly collected it and tried to guess what it was by its weight. It was light and when she moved the box side to side, it knocked against the walls, showing how small it was.
"Aren' you going to open it and see what's inside?" Came his teasing questions which alerted Pearl to how much time she was wasting.
"Yeah. Right, let me just..." she cleared her throat, awkwardly and lifted the lid, revealing...
Pearl froze, her throat growing tight as she stared at the baby blue object lying not so innocently in the box.
"I had it painted your favourite colour to solidify your sense of ownership." He eyed her frozen features with a worried gaze, almost like he could read and somehow understand the thousands of jumbled thoughts floating around in her head.
"Do you like it?" He asked and she had to stop herself from bursting into crazed laughter, which could come off as rude to him.
Pearl could not understand why but his gift, his thoughtful and brilliant gift made her new reality so much more real and raw.
The baby blue gun resting innocently in the box made the fact that there was no going back for her and the part of her that had spent years struggling to get away from the life her dad's carelessness had forced her to grow up in, curled up in a corner of her mind and wept.
She was back to square one and this time, there was no scholarship or helpful set of friends to help get her out.
Just a baby blue gun.
- Writer
