Halcyon

Part 37

Halcyon's POV.

I take a few more hits and try to focus on that instead of his continues praise. There's just something about his tone of voice and the way he says it.

"You're quite the natural." He drops his hands.

"I am?" I lean into him.

"Yeah," he nods. "A fast learner too."

"I am..." my insides melt. He thinks I'm a fast learner. "You think so?"

He steps forth. "It's starting to sound a little like someone has a hidden praise kink?" I shake my head. "Then why are you looking at me like that?"

I drop my eyes. "Like what?" He laughs.

"Come on," he starts to take off his flat gloves then moves to help me out mine. "You didn't think we'd be in here all night, did you?" To be honest now that he said he's going to be teaching me defence, I have no idea what to expect.

"A second location?" I follow him out this time hand in hand, I don't say anything since he grabbed my hand absentmindedly and I don't want him to realize then pull away.

We turn a short corner and then he opens the door to a room, this time there are no censored lights as I listen to the light click on. I take in how there's a row of stands with glass separating each space almost like cubicles.

"This is a shooting range." He steps in with my hands leaving me no choice but to follow him. "Safe space, just you and I, you won't hurt yourself here."

"This..." I look down at the dismantled gun. "This is a safe space?"

"You've gotta learn how to survive with a gun sweetheart,"

"I don't..." I shake my head. "I don't think I can pick up a weapon."

"Don't think of it like that," he move behind me then start to put the gun intact.

"Tamir I don't-"

"You hold it like this," he picks my hands up wrapping and packing my fingers in place, my heart drums to him putting a gun in my hand and even faster to him in my ear. "Be very careful with it because once you fire it, the impact can smack you right in the face."

My chest rises and falls faster as his larger index finger presses against my own over the trigger. "This is going to be really really loud." BANG! My whole arm vibrates as I flinch hard stepping back into his chest. "It's okay,"

All I can imagine is the poor guy kneeling and begging for his life, Tamir standing over him and then bang! The guy drops. I shake my head wanting out. "That was good." I feel his hand snake around me front pressing me closer to his chest. "One more."

"I can't," I whisper, "I can't stop seeing it."

"Don't think about it too hard then,"

"'Don't think about it too hard?!' I have a gun in my hand!"

"There's a bad man in front of you," I blink at the paper man, "he too has you at gun point but he doesn't believe you'll shoot. He expressed how much he wants to use your body before he kills you, what do you do then?"

"Stall?" I feel his index push my finger down again.

"I'm not coming for you Halcyon, for some reason I'm stuck somewhere, just you and him. What do you do?" I don't answer and he presses my finger down twice, this time I blink hard instead of flinching. "You shoot."

"Is he dead?" He didn't express that so it's reasonable to ask right?

"No," he chuckles in my ear. "He's getting up and is angry with you, but is blinded by the surprise. Shoot him again, take him out for good." He lets my hand go. "Aim for the heart my love." I raise my other hand filling in where he was.

I'm conflicted whether to actually pull the trigger on my own or not. "He's threatening my life," I tighten my grip at his words, "now he's threatening Ka-" I shoot. I shoot again and again before it clicks and stops shooting.

"It's a Glock 43 sweetheart, if only has six bullets plus one in the compact." I wish I understood what he was on about. "You have to reload if you want to shoot again."

"How?" I ask lost in the depth of his world. "How do I reload? Can you teach me?"

"Of course my love," he starts to talk me through it. How to load, reload, check for how many bullets I have left. I go through two more rounds, laughing at the thrill and the praise he says softly in my ear. "Welcome to my mafia sweetheart."

I'm beaming as I turn to him then like a crashing wave Kate's words hit me. If you keep this up, you'll get yourself killed. My smile drops and I hang my head to mask it. "Let's go eat something." He suggests and I nod.

I can't believe I got so carried away for a second, I can only allow myself to use what he taught me today in serious conditions, I know for a fact if it were an actual body I had to shoot I'd be crying my eyes out.

I can't get sucked into his world.

Someone's made us pasta and we sit at a table opposite each other and start to eat, like a real date. "Thank you for the experience," I break the ice, "but I don't think I'll be needing to hold anyone at gun point."

"You never know." He fills his mouth up.

"I do." I'm not going to kill anyone. That much I know. He lets it go and I take more pasta in. He doesn't seem like the one to talk while eating so I wait until we're done to try conversation once more.

I'm told to go get into something comfortable and check to see it's past midnight, we really have been up late then he himself walks back in. "A movie," he holds a CD up, "just like you asked."