She shook, gun in hand and eyes wide as she stared down at the man bent over in pain in front of her. Her ears were ringing, vision out of focus. She watched him slump against the ground, dead. Her mind was buzzing. She was acutely aware of her own breathing, quick and shallow as she tried and failed to calm herself down. Her legs felt like they'd give out at any moment. Her eyes stayed locked on the body as she began to regain her senses.
She barely heard the footsteps behind her before swinging around, shakily holding up the pistol. She nearly dropped it as she saw who was approaching, slow and deliberate steps. The familiar white mask left her with overwhelming relief as he approached, hands out in a reassuring gesture.
The pistol fell to her side with her arms. She heaved a breath, trying to calm herself down; she was crying now. He crouched down beside her and slowly took the pistol out of her hands. She let out a soft whining noise and fell into his arms, burying her face in his chest. Her hands immediately went to grip at whatever fabric they could.
She felt his clawed hand in her hair, gently shushing her. "It's okay... " He whispered, voice hoarse. "You protected yourself; I'm sorry I wasn't there, but you did good…" His voice was reassuring as dark tendrils of shadow and black smoke enveloped them both.
She shook as he slowly lifted her up, holding her tightly to him. She immediately curled up, eyes closing and her arms moving to wrap around his neck. He slowly stood, softly shushing her as she whimpered lightly. There was brief silence as he turned away from the body, hand briefly leaving her hair as he reached for his ear. "... He tried to take me away." She mumbled after a moment, making him pause in his actions.
A clawed hand gently rubbed circles into her back, causing a shuddering breath from the 9-year-old. "I know…" He replied carefully. He clicked on the communicator on his ear, "Traitor has been found and eliminated." He said briskly, earning a short reply in return. "... Understood." He grumbled, claws briefly pressing harder into her back in a comforting gesture.
She sniffed and held on tightly as they walked away from the body in relative silence. After a moment, Mary lifted her head to look up at him, slightly wet and speckles of blood covering her hair and cheeks. "... I need a new dress now." She said finally, earning a snort from the wraith. Looking down at her, he could see the splatters of blood on the dress, creating dark stains in the already black and red dress.
He sighed and shifted her onto his other arm. As the sound of agents began to approach them, he let out a short sigh. "... We'll see." He replied as the first Talon agent came into view. She hummed lightly, smiling now as they came closer. She'd stopped shaking now.
A/N: Hello, Fallen here. Finally back with another chapter. To be honest, I've kind of had this half-written for a while.
Who knew being terminally ill took away a lot of your energy for writing?
Anyways, this was a prompt from my friend Lacey- "Fire". I think she meant the element, but I instead decided to write about Mary's first time firing a gun. It was a kind of traumatic ordeal, but by now Reaper's been killing people in front of her for like 2 years. She's used to gunfire, but firing a gun herself is a whole other story.
In my mind, this happens due to a traitor/spy infiltrating Talon, and then trying to kidnap Mary upon discovering her and thinking she's there as a captive, or possibly brainwashed. Reaper has shown her how to fire a gun, and insists she always carry one, but she'd never actually shot it until the fear of being taken away overwhelmed her and she decided to very abruptly shoot the guy right in the chest/stomach 3 times.
Mary's of course a little freaked out and possibly had a minor panic attack, but she also is familiar with shooting people and recovers quickly when reassured she did the right thing by Reaper. This is also not the first time she's gotten blood on her face/clothes, as Reaper will let Mary go with her on extremely simple missions or interrogations. And, as I've said, Reaper has almost killed a Talon scientist for even suggesting to do something to Mary.
Thank you for reading, and please review if you like this dumb series or if you'd like to request a word prompt.