SARAH Silence follows first, like the bullet that escapes the gun seizes time, space, and sound. Everything is frozen for a moment. Either that, or moving too fast my vision fails to capture any movement at all. But after that short, deafening silence, comes a scream. Shriek? Cry? I’m not very certain, but it sends me into the right amount of shock necessary to correct my vision. And the first thing I see is Duncan’s tall and lanky body dropping to the ground, blood pouring from his neck. The bullet turned a damn faucet on. Caroline’s scream is incredibly loud in my ears. Louder than the sound of the gun. I’m not even certain the gun made any sound at all. Maybe it did. Maybe it didn’t. Everything feels muffled and sharp at the same time. I watch Duncan in silence, cold shivers rushing down my spine. His hands go to his neck. Blood. So much blood. Pouring between his fingers, spreading across his black hoodie. The only light in the room is from the bloodied flashlight and the streetlight across the road, bright enough to illuminate their faces. I…I can’t believe it. I shot him. I…shot…someone. My hands start shaking. The gun feels impossibly heavy. It doesn’t belong in my hands because I’ve never held one before. Never been this close to one. And now I’ve used it to— “YOU KILLED HIM!” Caroline’s scream cuts through my thoughts. She’s fallen beside her son, pressing his bloodied neck with both hands, hoping it’ll stop the bleeding. “Duncan! Duncan, baby, stay with me!” But he’s not moving. The fear is still in his eyes as he chokes. She tries to tilt his face towards her, but he wouldn’t turn. He keeps his eyes glued on me, as if asking why. I quickly sit up right and pull myself away from them. Caroline’s head snaps toward me. Her face is twisted with grief and rage. “You killed my son!” I…I did. My gaze darts to him. Duncan’s eyes are now closed, blood all over the floor. The metallic scent makes me want to puke. However, the situation at hand affords me no such luxury. “I’m going to fucking kill you!” I can tell she means every word by the force with which she lunges at me. I raise the gun on instinct and point it at her, but it’s not enough to stop her. She’s not threatened by it. She’s seen the worst it can do. It appears as though she would risk anything to get her hands on me. And she does. Caroline grabs my hands, both of them, tries to wrestle the gun away. I refuse to let her have it so easily. I fight back, squeezing it as hard as I can. She attacks my fingers, clawing at them with her sharp ones. Panic claws through my chest when I feel my finger slip out of the trigger. I push it back with all the strength I can muster. The gun goes off again. There’s still no sound. Is this a silent gun? The cracking sound on the ceiling sends both our gazes up. The chandelier above us shudders. As the crack lengthens, its weight is being pulled. There’s no stopping it. Less than one inch until it… It comes crashing down. Without thinking, I duck and roll to the side just in time to miss it shattering into a million tiny glassy pieces on the ground. Caroline’s scream causes me to whip my head towards her. She’s on the ground, but most of the light decor caught both her legs. I look at her. At the chandelier pinning her legs. At Duncan’s body a few feet away from her. Christ! This is a disaster. Caroline is crying. Not from the pain, I don’t think. Or not just from the pain. “You killed him,” she sobs. “You killed my baby.” I can’t speak. All I can do is scramble up to my feet with shaky knees even worse than my hands—which are still wrapped around the gun like it’s my lifeline. It’s saved me twice, so it might just be. When Caroline looks up at me, the tears in her eyes are mixed with hatred. The feeling is rather mutual, but it doesn’t stop it from sending icy spikes down my veins. “Sarah Wellspring! Shoot me.” She cries out. What? “Shoot me!” Her voice rises to a scream. “Kill me! Because if you don’t, I will come back for you. I will make your life a living hell. I will destroy everything you love. Every single thing. So shoot me. DO IT!” I take a look at the gun in my hands. Killing Caroline would be easy to get away with. They both broke into my house. I was defending myself. Self-defense. But right now, Caroline isn’t a threat. She’s trapped under a chandelier. But she would have killed me. Her and Duncan. They were willing to take my life like I was nothing. Like I was a sheep. A chicken. Something to be slaughtered without a second thought. It didn’t mean anything to them. The thought makes something hot and fierce bloom in my chest. Rage. Pure, undiluted rage. My teeth grind together. Slowly and steadily—not so much with my wobbling knees— I start moving toward her. She watches me approach, and for the first time, I see fear flicker across her face. I point the gun at her head. Caroline looks up at me. “Do it,” she says again. “End this. It was always going to come to this anyway. One of us had to go.” She’s almost taunting me now. “What are you waiting for? Do it!” My finger tightens on the trigger. I want to. God, I want to. She tried to kill me. Her son tried to kill me. They would have succeeded if I hadn’t fought back. One pull. That’s all it would take. But something stops me. I lower the gun slightly. “No,” I say. My voice sounds strange, hoarse from being choked. The rawness is almost primal. For a split second, I doubt the voice belongs to me.“What?” Caroline stares at me. “No. I won’t.” “Why the hell not?” “Because you would have shot me without thinking if you had a gun of your own,” I tell her. “But you don’t. And you’re no threat to me now. So there’s no use.” It’s the truth. Caroline’s face twists with rage. “You coward! You weak, pathetic—” She starts screaming all sorts of profanities at me. Honestly, even if I wanted a sharp comeback, I am far too tired to humor her right now. “There’s blood flowing through your relationship!” she screams. “You and those monsters! You’ll never be happy! Never know true love! Not with all that blood on your hands!” I look at her, and all I can do is sigh. “I don’t know what the brothers did before me,” I say quietly. “But since they’ve been with me, there’s no life they’ve taken that wasn’t worth taking.” Caroline’s eyes widen. “And now that mine was in danger?” I continue. “I understand now more than ever.” I step over her. My legs are shaking so badly I can barely walk. But I keep going. Out the door. Into the night air. I’m still holding the gun. Every time I blink, I see Duncan’s lifeless body. But I keep walking…down my driveway…into the street. To where? I don’t know. I just know I need to move. Bright headlights suddenly spark in my vision. I stop walking, and stand in the middle of the street, with my right hand covering my face, and my left fingers still clutched around the gun. Red and blue lights are flashing all over the place. All I see are the red lights. But my knees can’t hold me up anymore. They fought a good fight, but they’re tired. Honestly, so am I. The ground rushes up to meet me.And everything goes dark.