The Fourth Eaton

Chapter 8 🔪 Bang Bang

A/N: I'm so sorry! I've been gone for about a week, thanks to some... developments, in my family life. But you guys better get used to it, because Band Camp starts in a week for me. That's going to go on all day, Monday to Friday, until school starts. And I haven't been the most diligent in preparing for Band Camp, so that's what I'm going to be doing this week. I'm going to try to update once a week once Band Camp starts, but it might become two weeks once the work becomes overwhelming. High school... ugh.

Enough chit-chat. Here's chapter 8!

"The first thing you will learn today is how to shoot a gun." My brother stands at the front of the room, giving a speech. "The second thing you will learn is how to win a fight." Tobias places a gun on my palm, giving me the quickest of glances before he moves on. "Since you are here, I know I won't have to teach you how to get on and off a moving train, thank goodness for that."

I stifle a yawn. I don't think many of the initiates got a lot of sleep, seeing as we were awoken by a wooden spoon hitting a metal cooking pot at 7 o'clock in the morning, but I got even less, due to my little night meet-up with Tobias. Add in my nightmares, which come almost daily, and the amount of quality sleep I get drops to zero. I don't know how Tobias manages to look so fresh and alert right now.

"Initiation is divided into three stages. We will measure your progress and rank you according to your performance in each stage. The stages are not weighed equally in determining your final rank, so it is possible, though difficult, to drastically improve your rank over time."

Translation, even if I come in dead last out of the people who remain, just ahead of the transfers who will be cut at the end of stage 1, I can still get a decent spot in the final ranks. That thought is reassuring, but only slightly.

"We believe that preparation eradicates cowardice, which we define as the failure to act in the midst of fear. Therefore each stage of initiation is intended to prepare you in a different way." Tobias continues. "The first stage is primarily physical; the second, primarily emotional; the third, primarily mental."

Tobias walks over to the target. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Zayden grinning in anticipation. "The purpose of this exercise is to make sure you're prepared to defend yourself and your city against enemies. You may need this information later in stage one. So, watch me."

He turns to the target, and lifts the gun up in front of him. The target is just a plank of plywood with three red and white circles painted on it, one for each of us. I watch his stance carefully. His feet are about shoulder width apart, and he holds the gun with both hands. And then, he fires. The noise is deafening. The bullet goes through the perfect center.

I face my own target, and lift my gun. It's heavier than I thought, and the feeling of the cold metal against my skin makes me shiver slightly. Once I've fixed my stance, I take a second to watch Lavender, who's beside me, shoot. She pulls the trigger, and the gun flies upward, nearly smacking her in the nose. She stumbles backwards, nearly falling down. I bite down a laugh.

If firing a gun made Lavender, who has at least ten pounds on me, almost fall, then there's more recoil than I thought. I'll have to anticipate it better than she did.

I look back towards my own target, my gun still up in front of me. I steady myself, breathe out, and squeeze the trigger.

Bang. The sound of the gun firing rings in my ears for a second. I look at my target eagerly, and notice a small semi-circle cut out of the target at the top. I smirk. I hit it on the first shot.

I glance at the other initiates. Nobody seems to have noticed my small victory, except for Tobias, Lavender and Dante. Tobias gives me a small thumbs-up before heading off to work with the shorter Erudite girl. Dante pokes Zayden in the shoulder and points. Zayden looks at my target, frowns, and sends me a short glare. In return, I smile sweetly.