Astarelle almost couldn't comprehend it as the girl rolled away from her. There was a sudden vacuum of force, a space she had pushed so hard against now filling with the soft, enfeebled patter of rain. From what seemed a great distance, a bullet clicked into the chamber. She realized that it was her own hand that had done it.
With long, heavy breaths, she rolled onto her back and arched to point the gun at the dark haired girl. Little Bee was ready; face resolute, a tear falling from her eye. She acted as if her death was a foregone conclusion, as if she would suffer not just the selflessness of a bee, but the unenviable fate of one. Somehow, through a train of logic not concerned with fairness or karma, that hurt. Astarelle held all the power under one twitching, swelling finger. But, it was her chest that felt the hot stab of that question – a question the girl had already accepted an answer to.
I'm not a monster, she thought weakly into the storm. Certain frenzied muscles felt all too ready to prove her wrong. She shifted to her feet, gun still trained as her nerves pinged and popped like steel fresh from the forge's flame.
The rain softened further as if it knew there would soon be nothing to see here. Astarelle exhaled sharply. The girl looked up at her, confusion arcing through her sincerity. “I wouldn't tell anyone,” she offered, toying with one last strand of hope.
“For how long?” Astarelle asked, forming the words but lacking the requisite venom, “Secrets always come out. They can't know I have this, not until...”
... until I'm done using them.
Lightning flashed once; the storm's farewell. “Bury me,” she breathed. The tension seized her. She stepped forward, almost falling. In the final beat of thunder -a note her heart thrummed with new apprehension- she rolled the gun and pressed it into the girl's hand. The barrel was pointed squarely at her own heart, her eyes at the girl's as they welled with moisture. “Could you do it?” she breathed, daring to trust where, by all rights, she should expect none.
“It would not be the first time I've been shot today.”
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