It would be kind of funny if it went off by accident.
I take the gun and my phone—it’s still fucking buzzing—and make my way back to the living room. There are still blankets and pillows here from when Ares and Kratos crashed on the couch.
That was yesterday. Wow, time slows to a crawl sometimes.
I lift the gun up again and aim at the ceiling.
Shooting my heart here would be an even bigger mess than in my car.
I hear a key in the lock, then the door opens to River and Asch rushing into the house.
“Pandora? Why haven’t you—” River begins to ask, but he cuts himself off when he gets a good look at me. “What are you doing?”
“Wondering if I should shoot the worst person in the room,” I answer. “But it would be a bitch to clean up.”
“Pandora, put the gun down,” Asch orders. He looks exhausted, but his eyes are fixed on me. Like River, he stays by the door. “On the coffee table.”
I sigh and sit up, but I keep the gun on my thigh. “Are you worried I’m going to shoot either of you? I wasn’t.”
River’s jaw clenches. “That’s not comforting,” he mutters. “Where did you get the gun?”
“Not important,” Asch says. “Why have you been ignoring our calls? We’ve all been worried sick about you.” He edges into the room, each motion cautious.
“Shouldn’t you be worrying about Blaze?” I stroke my thigh with the gun. “He’s the one who’s seriously hurt. I’m just the crazy bitch that caused all of this.”
“You aren’t a crazy bitch,” River retorts. He takes a few steps forward, only to hesitate when he looks down at the gun again. “Everyone’s worried. Your family is frantic. We didn’t know where you were, and now…” He swallows hard as he trails off, his eyes not leaving the gun.
I roll my eyes and finally put the gun on the coffee table.
They really think I’m going to kill somebody with it.
“I already told you, it’d be too much of a mess, and you’d be left cleaning it up. I wouldn’t do that to you,” I say. “And I’ve never been suicidal.”
Psychotic, sure, but not suicidal.
I would have needed a heart to hurt.
Although I guess I have one of those now.
River rushes forward, with Asch on his heels. River snatches me up in his arms, while Asch takes the gun, checks the safety, then retreats from the room into the kitchen.
Putting as much distance between me and the gun as possible.
“What the hell is going on?” River asks, burying his face in my hair.
The two of us smell like smoke, but he doesn’t seem bothered.
I take his hand, the one missing a finger, and rub my finger along the stump. “I lost your finger. I’m sorry. I was trying to treasure it. But now it’s somewhere under all that concrete.”
“I don’t care about the finger,” River says, kissing the top of my head. “Why are you naked? You have to be cold.”
“I’ll get her some clothes,” Asch says from the doorway to the kitchen. He disappears down into the laundry room.
Maybe he doesn’t want to be around me, and he’s using any excuse he can to stay away. I wouldn’t want to be around me either. I got Blaze’s eye poked out.
“She probably needs a shower,” River says when Asch returns with a pile of clothes in his arms.
“You need one too,” I point out. “Do you have a three person shower in this dump? Papa has a huge one in his primary en-suite. It’s big enough for an orgy.” It’s a stupid joke, and since River isn’t Blaze, he doesn’t laugh about it.
