In the seconds after the barrel releases the bullet, several things happen.
The clang of the bullet ricochets off the walls, the sound drumming over ear-drums and shaking bones. It echoes violently and the entire room trembles.
The dog that earlier stood at Jasper's heal dives in front of him. It's as if she's lunging at Jeremiah, her teeth poised and ready to strike. Her eyes gleam in the darkness of the room as her body rises from the ground, pouncing like a wolf. Her leash is ripped from Jasper's grip and the handle smashes to the ground.
Jasper staggers forwards, the force of his dog pulling him over. His torso begins to fall over his knees and he knows that he's going to fall. He can feel in happening. The ground his coming up to meet him and he knows it's going to hurt like sweet Jesus, he tries to hold his hand out to protect him but the gun has taken up his grip and is currently sailing backwards past Jasper's side, his hand in toe, causing his body to spin...
Jeremiah half screams. The gun in his hand trembling as he tries to hold it steady. His body slumps down so his back is crushing down on Kurt's ribs. His gun hand flying back into the air above his head.
The dog nears Jeremiah, her claws bared and ready to slash at his skin; a strangely protective instinct coming over her, presumably the strong scent of blood mingling with her other senses. Just before she reaches him she lets out a high pitched yowl and her eyes go wide.
And the bullet strikes.
Jasper is thrown back as something solid smacks into his chest. He can feel the impact take the wind out of him and his stomach flips as his breath falters.
Jeremiah falls back. His body draped across Kurt's chest; his arms splashing into the pools of crimson by the teen's side.
The dog's eyes fade; the bright ferocity fading by the millisecond until they are nothing but a damp brown rather than the flaming amber they were before.
Jasper falls.
And something falls back on top of him. Squeezing the remaining air out of his chest and sending his heart into over drive.
It's the dog.
The limp, dead weight of a murdered dog that is pinning him to the ground. He can see the red already leaking into its fur. The bullet clearly lodged somewhere deep in her neck from the rate at which the blood is streaming out. The heavy paws of the canine slam down on Jaspers arm, trapping his weapon hand to the ground. Jasper lets out a small squeak at the shock and momentarily freezes. But that moment is a moment too long.
Jeremiah is scrambling back upright. He slips in the puddle of blood and falls back over. It's messy and Jasper can hear the squeak of shoes on the floor as Jeremiah stumbles up. But he gets there. And he's striding towards Jasper the gun clasped between two sweaty palms and a manic gleam in his bloodshot eyes. And now he's standing almost directly over him and Jasper tries to break free but it's too late and the gun is aimed and the trigger pulled.
And a second shot sounds out...
Jasper closes his eyes and waits for the next bullet to hit his chest. He hears it click into place. He hears it escape from the barrel and he even hears it slice through the air as it aims for its target.
But he never feels the impact.
He can feel his jugular pounding in his neck and a head ache beginning to form, and he opens his eyes, ignoring it all in favour of sight. His eyes are mere narrow slits, but it's enough to see the following events unfold.
The bullet hits its target. That much is obvious. In fact it's remarkable just how accurately it strikes.
The target however isn't Jasper.
It's Jeremiah.
Well to be more precise it's actually directly through Jeremiah's chest.
Jeremiahs gun clatters to the ground as he stumbles back; his trembling hands coming up to clutch at the seeping hole in his chest. His eyes are wide and fearful and he gazes down at the wound with an expression of absolute horror on his face. Then he looks back up to see the direction from which the bullet came...the door...
He tries to speak but the sounds come out as more chocked 'cacks' than anything else. He lurches back again, the blood now pouring down his front. His knees start to shudder and he falls to his knees with a sickening crunch; the awful sound of bone shattering making Jasper gag more than the sight of a man being shot in front of him.
The man is trying to hold on...trying to speak or cry out or scream or do anything... But he can't...
Jeremiah's hands squeeze at his chest once more before his entire body sways and collapses back onto the floor. One arm falling to rest upon Kurt's; the other smashing down onto the cold concrete like his knees and now head. If the bullet hadn't hit him, the force of that blow to the skull would have killed him for sure...
...Killed him...
...He's dead...
There's a ringing in Jasper's ears, drowning out any other sound. He can't remember how to breathe properly, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides, trying to grip onto nothingness and the gun.
This can't be happening.
It can't be real.
He would say that he's dreaming, but his subconscious would have to be truly perverted to come up with something this morbid.
He strains to see, trying to sit up, but the weight of the dog keeping him down.
Jeremiah is down. Almost certainly dead. And the teen next to him is bleeding out on the floor, no sign of a moving chest, no fluttering eye lids, no staggered breaths...just still.
And then there are people.
People pilling into the room, people everywhere. And they're shouting. And there are radios crackling and people calling out for help. And there's the sound of more dogs and more sirens and more voices filling the room, filling his head, filling his mind. And Jasper can't think...he can barely breathe. He is in sensory overload as everything happens at once. And he panics and he doesn't know what to do and he can feel his breaths becoming shallower as the dead dogs weight presses down on his rib cage. And then there are what seems like white sheets, and red and a whole swarm of blue and Jasper can't think he just...he can't...
Just as something pink-y comes and clouds his remaining vision. Jaspers lets out a chocked cough... and passes out in a mess on the floor.