Heart of Demise.

29

Between me and Rivver, it was obvious who was going to do the heavy lifting. Still, that didn't mean I wouldn't complain, nor that I would be happy with this situation.

It was an awkward thing to not only carry the body of an unconscious person out of their home, but of a person rendered that way thanks to you. When I finally got Teddy's wife out of the cabin, my hands felt tainted, and I rubbed them all over my shirt just to erase that feeling.

Afterward, Rivver initiated her great idea. She asked Kyrelle if she could use her mold as a rope to tie the wife up, to which Kyrelle responded–

"I... I can try!"

And, though she tried, she didn't exactly succeed. She did keep Teddy's wife in one place, but it wasn't by making the mold act as a rope; it was by making the mold act as a shackle.

Well, whatever works, right?

Right now, we were all loitering about, waiting for the imprisoned woman to wake up. Teddy asked me several times what I did, if I hit her too hard, all of that stuff. I understood that he was concerned, but for Christ's sake, the woman was breathing just fine, wasn't bleeding, and it had only been forty or so minutes since I hit her head. It made me realize how easy it was to knock these Skellites out. Maybe that's how they all turned crazy, heh.

"..."

Alright, bad joke. I sighed and stood up to stretch, then went over to my bag and rummaged through it. I wasn't looking for my cleaver, since that was by the place I was sitting. Instead, I was searching. Not for anything in particular, but anything at all aside from the obvious wood and knives.

I almost felt like I was committing some crime feeling this bored in the situation I was in. It just didn't sit right with me.

"Hmm... more wood, another knife... what's this?"

I found a little object inside the bag; a broken capsule. Well, it wasn't actually a capsule, it was a bullet; a shattered bullet, one that I assumed was meant to be fired by a rifle. The pointy tip flapped outward in all directions like a tiny ball had been shot right through the thing.

It reminded me of something I had in my possession; my own gun, of course. It was empty, dirty, and useless, but it was still a gun. And hey, if nothing else, it's a good novelty item.

I took the thing out of my pocket, swung it around, playfully spun, and pointed it at different things, pretending to shoot them. First, it was the well, then a cabin, then another cabin, then some wind chimes on a porch, then my bag, then Kyrelle, then–

"GAH! Lewis!"

"Huh?"

Kyrelle suddenly jumped with a hand over her chest.

"What do you mean huh!? Don't just point a damn gun at me! Do you have any idea how scary that is?"

"But it's empty–"

"So what!? It's still a gun!"

Kyrelle took a little breather after blurting that out, then she just looked somewhere else.

"S-Sorry..."

I gazed at the gun again. My brain suddenly didn't connect the word "useless" to it as badly now.

"Hey, Teddy!"

"Hm?"

The Skellite turned to me as I quickly drew my pistol, aiming it at his head.

"Huh? What's that device you have there?"

"I see. Nevermind, Teddy. Nevermind."

He shrugged then returned to watching over his daughter and wife. I put the gun back in my pocket.

The residents of the Complex; of course they wouldn't be scared of guns. Rivver is probably the only creature who's ever touched one. But the mentals here? Well, that's a different story. Even if it's just a pistol, it's still a gun.

And a gun is scary.