Page 36 of Rune
He crawled away from me, and I rolled onto my stomach to watch him go.
My heart lurched as he flew to his feet, some part of me panicking about the target he was making himself. Even if, logically, that made no sense. Just a couple days ago, I wanted him to bemytarget.
He threw open my door, then was gone into the hallway.
I might have promised, but I had no intention of keeping that. But I wasn’t brave enough to get to my knees, let alone my feet. I army-crawled forward across the floor.
Just as I reached the door, it flew open, making my heart shoot up into my mouth.
“Down,” Rune demanded, pressing Sofia’s shoulder until she lowered down onto the ground, her breath coming out in short, frantic bursts as Hamster rushed into the room as well, tail tucked, dropping down next to my sister.
The popping sounds downstairs had suddenly stopped, and all I heard was the squeal of tires as someone pulled off.
“Listen to me,” Rune said, his voice suddenly serious as I moved over to my sister who was crying quietly, her face pressed against our dog’s giant head. “Stay in here and stay down. Lock the door. And don’t open it for anyone but me. Here.”
He reached under his pant leg, producing a gun.
Not just any gun.
Mygun.
“Just in case. If anyone who isn’t me tries to get through that door, empty the fucking magazine.”
Sofia whimpered harder, curling into Hamster.
“But you…”
He pulled up his other pant leg, producing a smaller gun, giving me a nod, then walking to the door. “Lock it,” he reminded me.
Then he was gone.
A strange sound escaped me as I crawled over to the door, locking it, then scooting backward to sit between the door and my sister. I slid my hand around the gun’s handle and pressed my finger to the outside of the trigger, not wanting to squeeze it by accident.
“What’s going on?” Sofia cried.
“I have no idea.”
I mean, we didn’t live in the best of areas. We did occasionally hear gunshots at night. And I vaguely remembered a story about a drive-by shooting a year ago. But that was gang-related stuff. As far as I knew, there was no gang activity on our street. But, I guess, you never really knew.
“Why does Rune have two guns?”
“This one is mine,” I told her. “He was… holding it for me.”
She hadn’t been a fan of the idea of my going through the process of getting a gun permit. But when a woman just twostreets away had her place broken into and was assaulted, she’d relented that it might be a good idea for us.
Obviously, I didn’t tell her the real reason I got the thing, or why Rune was holding it for me.
“They were shooting up our house,” Sof said, voice hollow. Maybe she was in shock.
“How’d the audition go?” I asked, trying to distract her.
“The audition,” I reminded her. “How did that go?”
“I… I got it.” She still sounded shocked about that fact herself.
This was a hell of a way to celebrate.
“That’s so amazing. I’m so happy for you.”
