Chapter 21 – Shooting Pt two

Harmoni

I remembered what William had said about attackers being so high on adrenaline that they would have tunnel vision—meaning that there was a big chance that they wouldn’t see me coming from the side until I was very close.

The problem I had now was that I needed to open the door without attracting any attention, and I needed to do it fast since the man still had the barrel of the gun pointed at Emily.

I slowly pushed the door handle down, praying that no sound would come out of this movement. Suddenly, I heard a girl cough. She kept coughing, earning herself a few “Shut the fuck up!” from our attackers. I didn’t know if she had done it intentionally, but she was making enough noise to cover me. I slowly opened the door.

The attacker was still facing away from me. I had one chance at this. Upon seeing me, the girl I recognized as Amelia stopped coughing. I guess she did do it intentionally. I’ll thank her later if we make it out alive.

I quietly moved closer to the man. My main priority was to disarm him. This was going to be a really quick fight otherwise, and the odds would not be in my favor.

When I was about a meter and a half from him, he started noticing my presence.

“What the…” I didn’t let him finish that sentence. I lunged at him, immediately taking control of the hand that held the gun. I rose it towards the ceiling in time to hear a shot go off followed by the screams of the student. I could barely hear them with the adrenaline coursing through my veins. The attacker was taller than me, letting me use the moment of surprise to head-butt him in the chin, causing him to bite his tongue.

He grunted and unintentionally slouched his shoulder, lowering his height precisely to where I wanted him. I elbowed him in the face, hearing a cracking sound coming from his nose while blood started to ooze out of it. The pain of it all made him drop his gun. Perfect.

I was about to pick it up when he regained his composure and came at me. Running out of time, I kicked the gun away. If I couldn’t have it, he sure as hell wasn’t going to go near it.

With the gun far away under the teacher’s desk, it was now hand-to-hand combat. I had been training enough with William to hope that he wouldn’t be as strong as him. On second thought, if he was, I would be dead. I had still never beaten William in hand-to-hand, although I did come close. William had admitted I was good, but in this condition and with all the emotions running wild in my brain, I could only hope my muscle memory would help me.

We circled each other like we were in a boxing ring. Well, thinking about it, I guess we were. Except there were no rules and no limits. Survive or die, it was a simple concept to grasp.

He was the first to make a move, lunging for me. I dodged his punches but missed the kick he threw to my left side. I managed to keep my balance, but I felt the throbbing in my ribs. Using my momentary distraction, he punched me in the stomach, making me double over. ~Concentrate, Harmoni!~ I tried my best to remember what William had been teaching me over the past months. If I were to go out, I would go out with one hell of a fight.

Thinking he had won, he walked closer, ready to finish me off.

I waited for him to come a little closer before brutally standing straight and once again headbutting him in the face. While he stumbled, I took a step closer and scratched his face as fast as possible.

Like William used to say, each time you scratch, it’s ten chances to poke his eye. Clearly, I had accomplished my goal when he held onto his eye, groaning.

I didn’t waste any time. I grabbed onto the man’s shoulder and kneed him in the groin, pushing him down onto the floor. Getting onto his back, I put him in a headlock and tried to choke him until he passed out.

Except he was much stronger than me and managed to still stand up. Slamming his back onto the wall, my grip loosened from the pain. He used this opportunity to grab onto my hair and swing me forwards and off of him. My back took most of the impact as I roughly hit the floor.

I stood up immediately but took too long to recover. I felt the attacker’s punch on my left cheek before I even saw it. I lost my balance and went over to the teacher’s desk, falling flat on my stomach on the floor. I was out of energy. My entire body was in pain. If this was how I felt now, I couldn’t begin to imagine the shock I would feel when the adrenaline wore off.

Laughing internally, I couldn’t help but admit I probably wouldn’t live long enough to bear it.

I could see his footsteps rounding the desk, coming for me. I tried crawling away from him under the desk. I knew I was stalling—this was it, and no amount of crawling and kicking would save me. I was feeling defeated when my hands made contact with a cold object. Looking up from my crawling position, I saw my only way out.

Grabbing onto the gun, I quickly turned around onto my back just in time to see the man facing me. Noticing my weapon, his sadistic smile disappeared. He took a step back, alarmed by the sudden change in dynamics. I stood up from my position, never breaking our eye contact, while my gun never left its target. I kept two hands on the weapon for safety. This wasn’t the time to lose possession of the only saving hope we had.

“Get behind me,” I told the rest of my classmates as I guided the man to the wall they had just been standing in front of.

“You won’t do it—you’re too weak,” he taunted, laughing. He took a step forward, and I pulled the trigger.

***

William

When we arrived at the building, it was chaos. Students were running out of the building, scared out of their minds. Police officers were trying to calm the students and parents, while the paramedics were examining injured students and teachers.

Although all I wanted to do was get to Harmoni, we had to move strategically. We didn’t know if there was only one shooter. This was not the day to be reckless and die. Taking the entrance closest to the art room Harmoni mentioned, we slowly made our way to her classroom.

After turning a corner, we noticed a student lying on the floor, a puddle of blood around him. Cayden bent down to check his pulse while we kept an eye out. He shook his head, indicating that the student was gone. ~Dammit!~

We were finally in the corridor, making it to the classroom Harmoni had mentioned she was in when I heard a shot fired. ~No, no, no, this cannot be happening. Please be okay. Please be okay.~ I thought, speeding up.

That’s when I heard her voice. It was barely recognizable. It was cold and emotionless.

“That was a warning shot. Do not test me. The next bullet will go straight through your sociopathic brain.” I could see the hole in the wall a little to the left of the man standing against the wall. He looked scared, rightfully so. Facing him was Harmoni—her face was bruised, and I could see some blood seeping through her shirt—but what held my attention the most was the gun she had in her hand. Finger on the trigger, aimed at the man.

“SWAT, put your weapon down!” Cayden screamed at her. He didn’t recognize her.

“Stay back! Stay back, or I’ll shoot him,” she said, slightly shifting her feet so she was facing both men. “I don’t trust you. If you say you’re SWAT, then let me talk to Sergeant Huntz,” she said.

“Har, it’s me. I’m here,” I said, trying to sound calm. “Put the gun down,” I repeated.

“I can’t,” she said with a trembling voice. “If I put it down, he’ll kill me.” She was petrified. I slowly walked towards her, careful not to startle her.

“Take him away,” I ordered Freddy. He walked towards the man, turning him against the wall. He cuffed him before patting him down. That seemed to be enough to reassure Harmoni as she gradually lowered the weapon.

Looking up for the first time, she made eye contact with me. That was enough to crumble her walls. She ran into me, clinging to me like her life depended on it, as she let the tears fall free.

One of the police officers who was also evacuating the building came closer to us.

“We need to take her in,” he said, looking at Harmoni.

“Like hell we do!” I defended. There was no way I was letting her out of my sight when I had just gotten her back. She was staying right here in my arms, where I could keep her close and safe.

“Sir, with all due respect, she had a gun pointed at a man. The least we have to do is get a statement,” he explained, slightly wary of my sudden change in tone of voice.

“I said we are not taking her in. The only place I will be taking her to is the hospital. I will get you a statement,” I said menacingly. He raised his hand in surrender before leaving the room.

Harmoni was still crying in my arms, completely unaware of the conversation I had just had with the officer.

When the tear flow slowed down, I could feel her body tense.

“Will… It hurts,” she barely managed to get out.

“Where does it hurt, Princess?” I asked slightly panicked. Looking at her like I was for the first time today, I noticed all the bruising and blood covering the skin that wasn’t hidden by her clothes.

I had seen it earlier, but having her in my arms now made me temporarily forget it.

How stupid could I have been?

“Everywhere,” was the last thing she said before she passed out in my arms.