Bow To The King

bullseye

I hadn't opened my eyes yet, but I was awake. It was probably daytime and I could feel the light coming in even though my eyes were closed shut.

"Is the guy alive? Is he breathing at all?" Someone hastily whispered above my head. I pretended to sleep in order to avoid the confrontation that was bound to happen.

"Zip it, Nate. Can't you see the guy is sleeping?" Someone scolded the guy. His voice was lower than the one speaking before.

"But why does he look like....that?" Do you think if the wind blew harder than it normally does on the hill, will he fly away?" The other one inquired again. Brother what?

This time the one with the deeper voice didn't speak. There was dead silence, but then SMACK!

"OUCH! Whyyyyy?" the guy whimpered. "Get off his head Nate." The man ordered and he did.

I had to wake up now or else they would actually assume that I was dead. I shifted in the bed and made some noise. "Look, he is waking up."

I opened my mouth as wide as I could and fake yawned before slowly opening my eyes. As the darkness withered away and the light restored my vision, I could see two tall, handsome men standing at the end of the bed. Both of them had their arms crossed in front of their chests, looking at me with curiosity.

"Who are you?" the guy who was previously wondering if I would fly away asked. "I'm the new guy," I replied with what Baris had told me to in case they asked me, and they did.

"Hmm." The guy who wasn't speaking anything nodded in my direction. "Then I guess Baris has told you everything that you need to know. Get up and get ready. They serve breakfast only once. If you miss it, you miss it." He finished and in no time was at his side of the room. On the other hand, the goofy-looking dude stood where he was standing before. "We are your seniors. Do as we say and we'll be cool." He had lowered his voice to sound threatening but, in reality, sounded more like a villain, from the Cartoon Network. "Yes sir." I mumbled and after some hesitation, I spoke with caution, "What's your name?" I pointed toward the other guy who was now folding his blankets.

"Him? He is Gabriel. He looks tough but he isn't, believe me. I am tho."Nate introduced Gabriel and all the while kept boasting about himself. "I am capable of introducing myself. You didn't have to-" Before he could complete his sentence, Nate cut him off.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He said in a sadder tone as if genuinely hurt, looked down and made a pouty face, and then perked up immediately after three seconds. "Okay, let's go. I'm starving." And he was gone.

Nevertheless, I did what I was told to do, dressed in a nice t-shirt and loose jeans that were hanging in the closet, brand new.

All of the men gathered in a room where breakfast was being served. Everyone chatted among themselves while I ate in silence. After that, we were taken to different training locations where we were briefly informed about our activities for the next few months. At first, I thought it would be easy. I mean you can do anything if you put your mind to it, but boy was I wrong. After three weeks, I was ready to give up. We weren't allowed to leave the mansion no matter what and it sometimes felt suffocating.

The only time we would actually leave the house was when we had to go to the shooting range for practice.

A few weeks had passed since I last saw Baris or Gelid, wishing to meet both of them.

Anna was the only girl who lived with us. During my early days, she was actually the only one besides Baris who guided me with care and understanding. Never rushed into things and broke them down for me so that I could understand them with ease.

Today was no different from the rest. It was just before evening and we were out for shooting practice. At the edge of the cliff, various targets were lined up and we normally shot at them from a distance under the guidance of our trainer.

It was freezing and on top of that, it had started raining. Johnny stood next to me and aimed better than me. If not perfect, at least he was hitting the target. I, on the other hand, almost killed my trainee.

"AIDEN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DID SIR GELID SEND YOU HERE TO KILL ME?" my trainee, Sir Andrews, shouted at the top of his lungs, his face completely red and eyes bulging out of anger. All the guys snickered, some of them couldn't even hold their laughter, Nate and Gabriel among the ones who couldn't. I glanced toward Annie, who gave me a sympathetic and weak half-smile. I felt embarrassed.

"Have you ever even held a gun?" Yes, but an empty one, and that too when I was planning to kill your boss. Of course, I said this in my head, wasn't planning on dying today, no matter how embarrassing the situation gets.

Abruptly, everything had gotten quiet. I hadn't noticed, but the shootings had stopped. Even that trainee wasn't shouting anymore. Before I could see what was happening. I felt someone behind me. In a split second, their hand came out from behind and completely wrapped around mine. I was still standing in my shooting stance and didn't dare to move. I was frozen. I used to think my hands were of average size, but when this hand completely engulfed mine, I was forced to think otherwise.

"Your stance is wrong, move a little and open your legs."

Gelid

It was Gelid, and he was standing behind me, holding my hand.

WHAT THE F-

Before I could think of anything more. He tightened his grip on my hand. My back was touching his chest and, even though it was freezing cold, I felt his warmth. His face was closer to mine. If I had turned my head even a little bit towards him, my nose would've touched his cheek but I didn't dare to. He was bending down a little so that we were at eye level. Although it was now raining fiercely, we weren't soaking wet. A man, undoubtedly his bodyguard, was holding an umbrella above us.

"And stop shaking." He commanded in my ear. His voice was as rough as before, but this time it was a lot quieter and softer. I nodded my head and a few of his hair strands touched the side of my face. I stopped nodding.

He pulled the trigger, his forefinger above mine, and this time we not only hit the target, but it was also a bullseye. His head turned a little towards me, I knew because his nose almost touched the side of my face. "You'll learn," he said gently, and in seconds pulled away. Took all his warmth and umbrella away with him. I felt cold, worse than before.

"Don't be too hard on him. He'll do better with time." Sir Gelid commanded and Andrews bowed, "Yess sir!" He, with a quick but lingering glance towards me, turned around and started walking away.

"Woah, man! He himself showed you how to shoot, even Sir Andrews doesn't do that. Man, I wish I was you." Everyone came and congratulated me, wishing they were me, but I wasn't listening to them. Instead, I was focused on him. Although he was surrounded by a few of his men, you could tell him apart. He wasn't exactly facing me as he was walking away, but I could still see him taking out a cigarette and lighting it between his lips. He inhaled and then let out a puff of smoke. Rain was falling down hard but I could still see him clearly. He was slowly moving away, fading away in the distance, but I didn't look away, not until he was completely out of my vision, and once he was, the glum and melancholy which already tormented me, momentarily increased.