Bad Company

Dodging a Bullet

A wave of fear washed over my body, causing a shiver to run through me as my adrenaline spiked. My fingers curled into my palms, and I found myself slowly stepping away from my truck. My eyes flickered between my boots and Sam in an attempt to back away without letting whoever was hiding know that I was there, but every successful step seemed to taunt me with the chance of failure with the following one.

My heartbeat was painfully thudding in my chest, but I fought desperately against the natural instinct to panic and run away because there was a good chance that whoever was there wasn't without a gun. If I ran, he might have felt pressured to end me before I could alert anyone else to his presence.

As I forced my body to calm down, my mind couldn't help but fall back on a happy memory to help me relax. In particular, it drew upon an image of my dad before kicking it into a live action memory, roughly starting almost like an old film having its dust blown off and being played for the first time in years.

My dad's rumbling laugh echoed through my ears as softly as the wind's whispering, and a gentle shiver coursed along my body. I could still smell his unique scent of whiskey and gun metal with a hint of grape jelly. A grin tugged on my lips at that particular detail--grape jelly.

Suddenly, a younger, higher pitched laugh harmonized with his, and I could see a blonde headed toddler run through a bubblegum pink room with her hair in loose pigtails. She wore a purple tulle dress with a lopsided tiara precariously perched on her head as purple jam decorated her porcelain skin and rose bud lips. She was missing her front two teeth, but she didn't care. No, she was mesmerized by her strong, muscular daddy sitting cross-legged beside a plastic picnic table maybe half of the young girl's height. He picked up a glitter laced biscuit piled high with grape jelly and forced the horrid food into his mouth, fighting to keep the smile on his face. Sure, it tasted disgusting, but she was his little princess. I was his little princess, and a true King would never upset his princess.

After smothering his gag reflex, my daddy offered me a dazzling smile--quite literally actually because the glitter had lodged between his teeth, only drawing more chiming laughter from the younger, easily excitable me. My big, bad biker King had glitter in his teeth, and I had thought it was the funniest thing.

The laughter began to fade out as my hands stopped shaking and bravery, however temporary and possibly insane, washed through me. I figured if my dad could stomach my cooking, I could face a shadow. Although, to be fair, it wasn't the shadow that scared me. It was what cast the shadow that scared me.

Ignoring the chance that the person could have had already heard me, I swallowed my nerves and slowly crept backwards. A hushed curse slipped from my lips as my boot slid across a pebble, causing it to skitter across the dirt parking lot towards the truck.

My body froze in fear as the shadow melted back into Sam's silhouette. I couldn't help but tilt my head in confusion as the previous shadow of the person disappeared in silence.

My fingers slowly unfurled from digging into my palms, and another erratic round of heartbeats fluttered painfully against my ribs. My breath hitched, but I pictured my daddy smiling broadly at me with glitter in his teeth. His warm voice brushed across my ears as he whispered, "Deep breaths, princess. Figure it out. You're smart, just like your mamma."

With his words still ringing in my ears, I cautiously sank into a crouch, my palms grazing the pebbles littering the parking lot. My colorful eyes scanned along the underside of Sam, but there was absolutely nobody behind him. There were, however, distinct footprints leading towards the bed of the truck before disappearing all together.