Strawberry Lips and Metal Bullets

Raven

  Click.

  Rain dances down the window, moving down on a uneven path. Raven tries to focus on the rain droplets. Rain has a calm effect on her. The feeling of rain washing off her sins makes her feel refreshed. She sins, but it's something she has to do. This whole life is fake, her name, her personality, her family, and her friends. She has to be constantly on guard. She can never relax.

  Click.

  Raven bites her lip. She tires to focus harder on the rain outside the classroom.

  Click.

  Raven reaches her breaking point and goes to grab her assault rifle to only find the strap over her shoulder is empty. Oh yeah.

  "Raven, are you okay?" The clicking of the pen stops as the girl behind her grabs her shoulder. Raven can already imagine grabbing the girls wrist and flipping her on the ground. She could easily break her bone, but Raven only smiles sweetly.

  "Yeah!" Her eyes turn into a crescent moon as she smiles at the girl. The fake girl she's playing would never flip a girl over for just grabbing her. She has to be normal.

  Raven turns back around once she thinks she has tricked the girl into thinking she's normal. Then she feels eyes on her. Dark empty eyes stare back at her from the cross the room. Raven could feel the question in his eyes. The boy has been doing this since Raven joined the class a few weeks ago. Could he see her lies? His dark curly sweeps across his eyes. His viney hands twist a pencil through his fingers.

  Raven is already feeling uncomfortable. She smiles sweetly at him and nods before turning back to the teacher. The smile she gave him didn't stop from continuing to stare at her. Did he see her true face?

  Raven's began to race. She can feel her hands shaking, she wants to feel the comfort of the metal between her hands. The cold metal didn't betray her anxiety, it delivered every time. Taking away her enemies.

  Thick hands grab her throat in the dim light so she can barely see his face. The smell of whiskey fills Raven's nose. "Remember who owns you, before you open your mouth."

  He throws her against the wall. Pain shoots through Ravens whole body, She winces as she digs her nails in the wall trying to get up before he decides to hit her in the stomach again.

  "Do it, V5." A voice through a speakers speaks to Raven. She refuses to do what they want her to do. She can't kill somebody. She can't.

  "Do it." The low voice mocks Raven. "Do it." A pistol falls the ground from the little open door in the ceiling.

  No matter how many times he hit her, she can't kill him. She can't. Raven looks at the pistol laying on the floor. A bright light appears shining brightly at the pistol on the ground.

  "V5, It's either kill or get killed." His lips are kissing the microphone as he speaks. "Do you want to die?" He whispers. Why does it feel like he's whispering in her ear? "Do you want to die?" The man in the room begins to walk to Raven with a chainsaw dragging on  the ground. "Do you want to die?" Raven screams putting her hands to her ears shaking her head no. Do you want to die?

  Raven grabs the pistol and shoots it anywhere in front of her as she closes her eyes shut. The only sound in the room now is the aftermath ringing from the shot.

  Raven slowly opens her eyes to see the man gone, with no body left behind. The wall to the right disappears to uncover a two-way mirror with scientists in white lab coats. The room they are in blinding white making Raven cover her eyes.

  A man sits at a desk with his hand cupping his chin. He pouts. "You should open your eyes next time." He slams a red button causing the room to suddenly change to a room with a metal bed, metal sink and a metal bathroom. "Fail!" He yells before the wall turns into a metal wall again.

  Raven shakes as the pistol dissolved into sand between her fingers. She shot a gun at somebody. She killed somebody. Raven grabs her legs to her chest as she rocks back and forth.

  "Raven?"

  "Raven!"

  Raven jumps out of her trance to see her friends peering into her face concerned. She didn't realize that she was jamming her pencil in her notebook back and forth. The angry lines of lead make Raven gasp in shock. She let another side of her true self show. Raven searches the classroom to find exactly what's she's looking for. Those dark eyes looking at her with a smirk on his face. He stares at Raven before his friend puts an arm around his shoulder dragging him out.

  Shit.