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A tall figure dressed in all black filled the doorway. I pulled the sheet up, gripping it tight against my chest. Trevor stood smoothly and moved in front of me. He hadn’t managed to fully undress yet. His pants were still on.
He pulled the small handgun out of his pocket. The other man reacted immediately, drawing his own gun so fast it nearly gave me whiplash to watch it unfold. It was a smooth, practiced move. This guy had training. And I wasn’t convinced Trevor did.
“Please, just leave us alone,” I pleaded.
The stranger didn’t even look at me. His eyes were trained on Trevor’s as if he could see inside his head to know his next move. Maybe his next several moves.
Trevor wasn’t backing down. He racked the slide, but before he could get a shot off, the other man fired several into his stomach.
“No!” I dragged the sheet and scrambled to Trevor’s side as he dropped, clutching at him as if to keep his guts from spilling out. I pressed the linen against his wounds, but there was too much blood coming out of him far too quickly. He stared up at me a moment in disbelief, and then his eyes went blank and dead while my tears dripped onto his face.
“Trevor! No! Stay with me, don’t go.” My hand trembled as I felt for a pulse. There was nothing. Still, I pressed the sheet against his stomach, as if he might come back to life somehow if I could only stop the bleeding.
“He’s gone,” the man said.
I tried not to think about the fact that I was alone in this castle with the terrifying stranger who’d just shot and killed my husband. My tears fell harder as I wrapped myself in the firm denial that any of this was happening. Maybe he still had a pulse... I just hadn’t found the vein. Maybe... maybe...
In a fairy tale, this would be the part where magic and light would swirl around him and he’d get up, revived by the true love and magic that somehow inexplicably existed in my tears. And we’d live happily ever after as the castle sprang to life again. All the kudzu would recede, the graffiti would vanish, and life as I was sure I’d once known it would come rushing back in beautiful full bloom.
But this was a fake fairy tale castle, and my tears weren’t magic.
I grabbed Trevor’s gun with shaking hands and pointed it up at the stranger from my position on the ground. It felt so foreign to me that even without my memories I was sure this was the first time I’d ever held a gun.
“Do you want to die with your lover?” the stranger asked.
Maybe I did. I couldn’t see a reason to go on now after another thing had been taken from me. The world. My memory. My husband and only protector. I’d thought perhaps the stranger might be reluctant to shoot me, but staring into ice blue eyes, I knew he’d pull the trigger without hesitation. And I knew if Trevor hadn’t been able to shoot first, my odds were even slimmer.
“Put the gun on the ground and slide it over to me,” he said.
“Please don’t hurt me.” My hands shook so hard, even thinking about aiming properly was pointless.
“Put the gun on the ground and slide it over to me,” he repeated. His voice remained steady and calm.
I was sure he would shoot me if I didn’t, and I was equally sure I didn’t have the resolve to shoot him. And if I shot him, I had no hope of survival. That was it. I was done. I didn’t know if I had any hope anyway, but I knew I couldn’t survive in the world as it now was withoutsomeoneto help me—ideally a strong male someone. This man and whoever might be traveling with him were my only chance.
I couldn’t believe I might have to try to beg and bargain with a complete stranger who’d just killed the only person I could count on. I was struck with the notion that not only did I have to find a way to keep this man from outright killing me, I had to find a way to get him to let me come with him, even if it was the last thing I wanted. I was sure he was strong enough to protect me and help me survive out here. If he wouldn’t take me with him, it would be more merciful for him to just go ahead and shoot me, considering the impossibility of the challenges that lay before me without Trevor.
I couldn’t even grieve. I had to figure out how to keep going. And I wasn’t even sure I wanted to.
I laid the gun down and slid it over. The man stopped it with his boot.
A walkie talkie crackled on. “Shannon. Are you all right? We thought we heard gunfire.”
He took the gun from the ground, dropped the magazine and ejected a bullet from the top of Trevor’s gun, and put the weapon in his pocket. Then he holstered his own gun. His hands were far too steady after killing a man for my comfort. He raised a finger slowly to his lips to indicate that I must remain quiet. I didn’t know what else to do but stifle my crying because I wasn’t sure what the others with him were capable of or what he might do to me before they got here if I didn’t comply.
Shannon pressed a button on a black plastic device on his shoulder. “Yeah. I’m okay. It was just a wolf. Don’t come into the castle unless I call for backup; there could be others. I’m going to check it out.”
“Roger that. We’ll stay clear. Check in every ten minutes so we know you’re safe.”
“Will do.”
I wrapped the blood-drenched blankets around myself more tightly, struggled to my feet, and got as far back from him as I could. His body still blocked the only easily reachable exit in the room. The fire exits were even farther away, and I didn’t think I had much of a chance of getting to them—definitely not while I felt like I was dropping into shock. And he had a gun he’d already shown he was comfortable using on living flesh.
“W-why didn’t you tell them I was here?”
“I need to assess the situation first,” he said, as if this were some kind of normal response. He eased closer to me, slowly, as if approaching a wounded animal in the forest. “Are you okay?” he asked.
Not the question I’d expected, particularly after our brief standoff. But then, I was a stranger who’d pointed a gun at him—just like Trevor had.
