𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐭

𝐭 𝐰 𝐨

My mouth dropped open, but nothing came out. I had never been held at such a vulnerable position before. The look in his eyes and the steadiness of the way he held the gun told me that it was not the first time he pointed a gun at someone's forehead. Zari's eyes shot wide open as she stared at him, trying to process what was happening. Seconds ago, I had thought he was a drunk man wandering in the dark alley at midnight, but right then, I knew it was certainly not the case.

Who is he? What does he want with me? Why does he think I'm a threat to him?

"How are you alive?" he finally spoke after what seemed like an eternity.

"What... What are you talking about? I don't even know who you are and why would you think that I was dead," I tried to answer as calmly as I could with a gun pointed to my forehead.

But in all seriousness, why would he think I was dead? Something must have led him to assume that.

Dead.

My parents are dead. He knows about my parents.

"You... know about my parents," I stated.

He lowered the gun a little. "I knew about what happened to them, I did not know them personally. How did you survive the explosion?"

My parents died in an explosion and I survived. But how?

"Explosion?" That's all I was able to say. This man who was pointing a gun to my head knew more about my past than I ever did.

His eyebrows formed a little crease. "You know nothing about what happened, do you?"

He lowered the gun to his side, and I started to think he was coming to realise that I had no clue about my past whatsoever. I looked at Zari, her light brown green eyes were still wide open, and gave me the 'what the hell just happened' look.

Well, I was still trying to figure that out myself.

I realised he had been staring at me, to give him an answer I suppose. I shook my head, which made him turn away from me, probably because me being alive and knowing nothing about what happened to my parents changed his entire perspective about what had actually happened in the explosion.

The first thing that I knew about my parents was how they had died.

"So tell her what explosion you're talking about," Zari finally spoke and I was thankful as I was still trying to grasp onto the fact that my parents were dead. Deep in my heart, I had hoped that we were separated and that I would find my way back to them somehow. Isn't that what every orphan dreams about?

He finally snapped out from his thoughts and said, "Right, right follow-"

Boom.

I knew that sound all too well. It was a gunshot.

Everything happened in slow motion. The man took the gun out from his pocket and fired a shot back.

Boom.

He grabbed my arm and started running.

Boom.

We went to hide behind the dumpster in the corner.

Boom.

And that's when I realised Zari was not beside me. My heartbeat quickened and cold sweat rolled down my forehead. I was so shaken up that I had left my best friend to die. I peered out from a small hole from where I was kneeling to see if she was still alive and to get a good look at the shooter. The alley was dark―the only lights around us were from streetlights a few meters away so I could not even tell if the shooter was a male or female.