Home. Heart. Hero.

Two Hearts, One Beat

"It's easy to fool the eye but it's hard tofool the heart."

-Al Pacino

His breath tickled the back of Katie's neck as he stood so close behind her. It made her stomach turn, but she didn't show it. She wouldn't dare show weakness, not now when her captor/tormentor now punished every indiscretion she now made. Whether it was a show of weakness, or even the inclination of fear, then she would some how be reprimanded. At the moment, she held the cold steel of a silver .9mm, fully loaded and ready to be shot in her hands. It wasn't the first time. The first time, her hands shook uncontrollably, as the small item in her hand felt like it weighed more than what it should. Up until that point, Katie rarely even looked at a gun that wasn't held by a police officer or person of the military. That first day with the gun, when Lian saw her hands shaking, he hissed in disapproval before taking the gun from her hand. That's the day the punishments happened. He forced her her to stand with her back to the wall as he pointed the gun at her.

"What do you fear when you hold this gun?"

"What the fuck do you think?!" she snapped watching him closely. She didn't know if he were bluffing or if he was being serious. She never could. "I don't want to kill anybody. I'm a doctor, I just-" he pulled the trigger and a bullet struck right beside Katie's ear. It didn't touch her, but she could feel the heat from the impact and dropped to the floor covering herself.

"Get up!" he ordered angrily. She didn't move, she couldn't move. Sure, when she signed up for doctor's without borders, she thought she'd be alright with a gun in her face, but now when it was happening, she just knew that she wasn't. "If you don't get up, I will pull this trigger again and it will pierce some part of your body." at this point...after months, she figured being here, his words were rarely in jest and so she took a deep breath and stood to her feet, pressing her back against the wall. "If forced to make the decision whether to kill or be killed, what do you choose?" she didn't say anything, and his gun hand rose about to shoot again.

"Kill!" Katie grit through her teeth angrily.

"So if the intended purpose of this gun, or any weapon is to do just that, then what are you afraid of?" he asked and Katie looked at him long and hard before answering.

"Losing my soul! Losing everything that I knew about me. Losing everything I was taught." Lian chuckled with a shake of his head as he walked over to her, once again bringing himself into her personal space.

"Look where you are?" he asked his eyes scanning over the dark room, illuminated only by the lanterns on the wall. "You're in hell, remember?" he turned back to her with a smile that caused a chill to creep down her smile. "You lost your soul the moment you became mine." he pushed the gun in her hand. "I see any fear and we come right back to this spot, do you understand?" Katie simply nodded before taking the gun in her hand.

The nine times after she held that gun, only three times did her hand shake. After being shot at three times, all with the fear that she was going to die, it seemed, that weight in Katie's hand lightened. The tenth time in fact, her entire body was completely still as she stared down to the target. He circled around her, watching her closely as he did all the time.

"Now remember what I told" he said, his voice moving around her. "Breathe, and focus. That target maybe across the room, but to you it's staring you right in the face. Every detail, so when you take that shot, missing isn't even possible." he placed his hand on top of her gun hand, and she didn't dare flinch. "This is not a thing. It is an extension of your body. You control where it goes and where it doesn't. That target is death and you only get one shot to take it out, so make it count." he dropped his hand from hers and turned toward the target. "Shoot!" Katie didn't hesitate, she didn't shake, or quiver. Her eyes scanned over the target in one second and in the next she pulled the trigger. Lian clapped his hands slowly and loudly as he walked over to the target and looked at the perfect shot. "Bravo." he turned back to her and smile. "Next weapon"