Complications // Gravity

I was staring down the barrel of a 6.5mm automatic pistol. It was a Lassiter 65, It had a nice, matte black finish and redwood grip. Serial number 70G39793. It’s funny what you'll notice about something when it’s right in front of your face. When it's a cold pistol barrel pressed against the bridge of your nose, it demands your full attention.

Gloved fingers flexed with anticipation around the grip, creaking with the tension. I watched the lone finger lay across the trigger, waiting to take up the slack. Right arm extended, body turned to the side, it made her curves stand out even more than usual. Odd thing to notice when you're literally staring death in the face, many would say. I found it hard not to.

Now, I'm not the kind of guy who's bothered by guns, but when one's barrel is leaving a mark on my face, I get a little anxious. Even more so when I realized how dark and angry Laura's normally enchanting hazel eyes seemed. Her shoulder-length cherry red hair seemed almost bloody in the light the desk lamp provided. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried.

As Laura slowly drew the hammer back, I could hear the mechanism locking into place, and I could feel it in my skull, pressed as hard as it was... It was like being in an empty room and hearing deadbolts lock shut. All she had to do now was pull the trigger.

The leather gloves she was wearing squeaked as her fingers tightened around the gun, I turned my head and there was nothing. Well, there was no gunshot at least. Instead a noise just outside the room, it was a thud, or a clatter, I didn’t care or even hear it but Laura did. She turned her attention away from me for a moment, her movement sharp and sudden, like she was being shaken out of a dead sleep. She stepped back slowly, her figure moving out of the light cast by the desk lamp. I could barely make out her shape as she drew near to the door. She was trying to keep the gun trained on me; but her attention was on the noise and the door. I toyed with the idea of trying to escape but I couldn’t come up with anything that didn’t result in my getting shot. Still, I figured something was better than nothing.

I shifted my weight in the chair and it creaked loudly, louder than the noise outside, which was exactly the opposite of what I was going for. She snapped back to me and corrected her aim, I turned my head and in an instant heard the booming report of her pistol going off, the bullet grazed the top of my ear, not that I cared. I was already running by the time the gun had cycled its next round, I was aiming for a plate glass window to my right and a second before I hit it Laura fired again, putting a massive crack in the glass which I promptly plowed through… out into the night sky, three stories up.

I fell.

Fast.