With my attention focused solemnly onto the bowl in front of me, I lazily swirled the milk around with my spoon. My head was pounding, still trapped within the nightmare that had haunted my nightfall, and the hair along my arms refused to sink from standing on their toes in a desperate attempt to flee the horrors hunting down every inch of my body.
The worst of it all was that even though the night terror had been filled with aspects of Bennett, I still hadn't seen his face. The same part of me that had refused to see his picture knew that it was for the best, while the other, my curiosity, was longing for a sight of him. Instead his face has been somewhat distorted whenever the light had hit him just enough for me to see him. It was almost as if any of his personal features had been blurred, leaving me with nothing but his name.
My hand retracted at the notion of someone grasping my palm, but relaxed upon realising who it was. Luke smiled at me, heaving his body onto the breakfast bench and shifting until he was sat comfortably on the counter.
"How you feeling?"
"I'm okay," I responded truthfully, averting my gaze back toward the bowl in front of me.
"And you're knuckles?" He didn't even give me a chance to reply before he picked my hands up to inspect them carefully. He later found himself content with the state of them, but persisted to keep hold of one palm. "Have you spoken to your parents this morning?"
"No.Why have you?"
"I spoke to your father briefly before I came here," he admitted. "He wasn't too pleased with the way I got you to stop yesterday, but from what I saw, none of his attempts seemed to be work so he can't complain. You're mother was quite upset though, she's worried about you Adelaide."
"I'll go and see her in a bit."
"Are you ready to train now?"
"Yeah, I'm good to go. What is it that we're doing?"
"I'd planned shooting practise been as we've only done a few of those sessions," he explained, readjusting the cuffs on his shirt. "Let's go."
"Moving targets aren't as hard as they may seem," Luke began as soon as we were settled at the far end of the garden, where we had done our previous shooting sessions. "You just need to anticipate where the person or object is going. If you know that then you can aim just to the side of them, so that by the time the bullet gets there, they will be too."
"Okay," I said quietly.
"I'm not saying that you'll necessarily need to know that but I just want you to be aware of what to do," he explained as he began loading one of his handguns. "We can't exactly practise moving targets with the equipment that we have, so I thought that we could just go over varied distances and what not."
Luke handed me the pistol, stepping a metre or two away from me as he reached behind his back to retrieve a second gun. I clasped my hand around the metal, the feeling being familiar. However, it wasn't from our previous session but as if I was reliving the moment in which I had sat utterly petrified, being battered internally by the ceaseless bullets within my night terror.
"How about we go for the apple tree? Far right," he suggested. I watched as Luke raised his pistol in front of his chest, squinting one eye shut before quickly releasing the trigger. My body convulsed at the sound, automatically lunging away from it as the emotions experienced within my night terror crept back upon me.
I forced my eye line back toward the trees in time to see a single apple burst in half as the bullet struck it directly in the centre. Though any awe that I would have found myself in at Luke's precision was lost in my relapse of anxiety.
"Adelaide?" Luke called, attempting to catch my attention once again.
I turned toward him, "Sorry what?"
"I said, show me how it's done," he said lightly, sending a wide grin my way.
I responded with a forced smile, moving forward before raising the gun toward the tree. I took a deep breath, sliding my thumb over the skeleton of the pistol and preparing myself to shoot. Luke stood to the side of me, his arms crossed heavily over his chest.
He nodded at me encouragingly, but not even the smile adoring his face could reduce the anxiety that I felt from simply just holding the hardware, never mind actually firing it.
"I'm sorry, I can't do this," I stammered, releasing the magazine to let the bullets fall in a heap on the floor, the pistol following shortly after.
I fled in a hurry, refusing to give Luke an explanation for my behaviour as my feet raced along the grass in a hurry to get back to the house.
"Adelaide!" He called as he ran to catch up with me. I increased my speed at his voice, making it half way across the grass before Luke eventually caught my hand, spinning my body around instantly. "Hey, what's the matter?"
"Nothing, I just can't do this right now," I replied, attempting to flee once again but was prevented by Luke's firm hold on my wrist. "Please just let me go."
"There clearly is something wrong Adelaide, there's no point trying to hide it," he argued softly, evidently trying to keep his resolve.
"I'm fine, I just need some space."
"What aren't you telling me?" He said, searching my eyes for any sign of what was going on within my mind. I wanted to talk to him, to let it all out, but I also didn't want to be the continuous burden in his life. He dropped my hand before speaking up once again, this time in a much lower tone, "You had another nightmare didn't you?"
I coiled at his words, spinning my body around to continue my pursuit back toward the house.
"God Adelaide, you don't need to bottle it in all the time!"
I flung my body around to face him, an anger uncontrollably flushing throughout my body. "Well you don't need to persistently act as if I can't take care of myself!"
"Why are you being like this?" he demanded, keeping his feet steady on the floor in his position around twenty metres away from me. "I'm trying to look out for you, be there for you."
I flew my hands into the air, "That's the point Luke! You're so god damn protective and possessive all the time. Why do you have to be so controlling?! It's suffocating!"
My voice was far louder than I had anticipated it to be, my tone causing Luke's shoulders to sink. His face twisted into an expression of hurt, with his eye brows furrowing tightly together as a frown set upon his features.
He sighed, taking a few steps forward and lowering his voice into a dangerously hushed tone, "You really want to know why I'm so god damn protective? So possessive? So controlling?"
I nodded, suddenly losing every single ounce of confidence in my body.
"Because I care Adelaide. I fucking care," he paused. "There I said it, I care about you. Why is it so damn hard for you to understand?"
I stood in silence, not having the mental or physical ability to accumulate a string of words worthy enough to use as a reply.
Luke waited for a minute or two before finally coming the conclusion that I wasn't going to respond and then seemed to invoke himself in an internal battle, shaking his head slightly as he slammed his eyes shut.
I stood dumbfounded as he paced back and forth until he eventually hurled his eyes open, suddenly sending them directly to my own.
"Sod it," he mumbled, his feet pacing toward where my body remained frozen against the floor.
I hadn't known what to anticipate as he stalked his way over to me; I wasn't even sure if he knew what he was doing, but nevertheless he cupped my face firmly within his palms before gently pulling me toward him, planting a confident kiss to my lips.
