Fifth Avenue
Chapter Thirteen

“Hartley! Hartley, are you okay?” Shooter asks worriedly “Come on wake up” Hartley stirs slightly and forces her eyes open. “Oh, thank god” he breathes “Kit came in to wake you up and he found you on the floor, motionless, we thought you were dead” Hartley gives him a weak smile and sits up.

She lets out a shaky breath “I need to talk to Doc” Hartley says firmly and Shooter nods helping her up.

“I need to warn you he’s, well he’s not doing to great right now so it might be hard to get him to actually talk to you” Hartley nods and follows Shooter as he walks into the room across from hers.

It was pitch black, “he’s just through there” Shooter says pointing to the door in the far corner of the room. She nods and moves to the door, feeling weaker and weaker the closer she drew to the door.

Knocking lightly, she waited to be called in, but she never was, growing impatient Hartley pushes the door open only to be met with yet another dark room. “Hello?” she calls out, her voice echoing against the empty walls.

“Go away” Doc voice croaks “I’m busy” Hartley feels around for a light switch and flicks it up when she replaces it. “Turn it off!” he booms loudly running over to Hartley.

His normally neatly pressed suit was crushed, his usually cleaned shaved face was spiked with a growing beard and his eyes were blood shot from crying. “I have to ask you something” she says stubbornly. Doc turns to leave her but she grabs his arm holding him in his place “I get these visions” she says scared “I don’t know why, but I used to think them dreams, but I know better now” Doc scoffs and pulls his arm free.

“Leave me alo-” Hartley cuts him off.

“I know Bullet and Shooter had a child, I know Justin’s real name is Harrison, I know Wisdom was your wife” she gulps “I know you had two little boys called Joseph and Allen and you had a little girl called Farrah” Doc slams Hartley into a wall hard, his breathing was loud and the look in his eyes showed Hartley how truly broken he was.

“Who have you been talking to?!” he sobs “Who?!”

“Nobody” Hartley whispers “I told you, I get these visions and I don’t know why, they used to only happen when I was sleeping but lately they have been happening more and more constant, I can tell they are coming because I get a dull ache in my head and when it finally feels like my head is going to explode, I get transported, or that’s what it feels like, and it’s like I’m standing in somebody else’s memory.”

“I’m sorry for hurting you” Doc says ashamed “how long have these, so called, visions been occurring?” he asks with slight curiosity showing which makes Hartley smile weakly.

“Put me down, we can both sit down and I’ll tell you everything I know” she says and Doc steps back releasing her and walking to yet another door and walking through it. Hartley follows quickly and notices they are now in the dusty old sitting room of the main hall.

Doc sits on the armchair and Hartley sits across from him “Okay, I’ve been getting them for as long as I can remember; usually it wouldn’t be anything personal to anyone or anything so I thought them just to be bad dreams. Usually it would consist of me standing in a street, I am holding a gun and firing it at someone, that someone who has recently been revealed to be Justin. I shoot and kill him on the first shot but it doesn’t seem to be enough, I unload the entire magazine into him and I laugh, no worry, no sadness, I laugh in enjoyment” Hartley stops talking for a second to control her breathing before continuing.

“When we went to Bullet and Shooters house and I saw the picture, it must of triggered something because I saw their story, then while out with Justin I asked him about his name and he told me something about the fact it might not be his real one, and I saw glimpses of his past, and I think maybe his future” she shivers “the other day while walking the halls I saw a man, I’m not sure what he was doing but I know it was wrong, and then tonight, I was lying in bed when all of a sudden I got a flash and I saw what, what happened to your family” Doc looks away quickly before looking back to Hartley.

“What else have you seen?” he says curiously, a slight hint if fear showing in his eyes.

“Nothing, I swear that’s all I’ve seen” she promises and Doc nods, a large smile forming.

“This is fabulous” he says happily, something resembling pride glistening across his eyes “Just like your mother” he mutters before Doc jumps up and claps his hands “Marvellous, I’m going to tidy up, tell Bullet and Shooter I’ll need to talk to them in about half an hour” he says nodding before running back through the door.

Hartley nods to herself before walking up the stairs, she had absolutely no clue where Shooter or Bullet was but they usually liked to hang outside to catch some fresh air. She moves towards the forest looking thing only to, out of the corner of her eye; see Justin locking lips with a fake blonde woman.

Something unpleasant bubbled inside Hartley and her hair turned a dark shade of green, the tree which the happy couple were leaning on began to crack and fall and it would have hit them if Justin hadn’t moved them away soon enough.

He looked at her like she was crazy but in her current mood she couldn’t have cared less, the pain and anger she felt was too strong. Without a word, she turned away and stormed back into the storage box running into Bullet and Shooter on her way.

“Hey kiddo” Shooter chuckles but stops when he sees her angered expression, “What’s up?” he asks slightly concerned.

“Nothing” she grumbles harshly “Doc wants to see you” they nod to her and walk towards Doc’s room.

Hartley throws herself onto the biggest couch in the sitting room with an overly loud groan to dramatize her current mood. A laugh comes from the corner of the room and she jumps up only to see Kit sitting in the corner with a huge laptop sitting on his tiny legs.

With a nervous laugh and small gulp Hartley asks, “How long have you been sitting there?” Kit gives her a large grin closing the lid of his laptop.

“Long enough to know not to mess with you” he jokes, slowly he slides off the seat and walks up to her grabbing her hand with his “Come on, if your free I can try and teach you how to use a computer…again” without argument Hartley followed Kit into his room.

His room was much like hers but he had cords running throughout the floors, a desk sat where the bed should have, littered in laptops and computers which all lit up as he walked in.

“Wow” Hartley says looking around “you really take your work home with you” she smiles taking a seat on the wooden chair beside her. Kit giggles and runs to his desk and pulling off a huge laptop. “Can that get any bigger” she exclaims as he puts it on her legs.

“Stop complaining” he groans pulling up beside her “Now turn it on”

For the next 4 hours Kit tried tirelessly to teach her how to use a laptop, but they didn’t get very far. Kit still managed to calm her down and turn her hair back to its usual blue colour.

“Do you ever wonder what your natural colour is? Like before any of this happened?” Kit asks kicking his legs under his chair and Hartley shrugs.

“Not really, I think I’ve always been blue, well at least I’ve had blue hair for as long as I can remember” Hartley sighs leaning down so her head is resting on the back of the chair “Maybe my natural is blue” Kit glances at her before nodding.

“Can you shoot a gun?” Kit asks making Hartley sit up quickly “I know someone who can teach you if you want” Kit grabs Hartley’s hand and pulls her, rather quickly out of the room and down the hall she had wondered the other night.

Kit stops in front of a metal door and knocks heavily. They waited 2 minutes before it swung open revealing Shooter, he was topless and sweaty, Hartley couldn’t help but glance at his well-built body. “Want to teach Hartley to shoot?” Kit chirps and Shooter gives her a toothy grin.

“Come on” Shooter pulls Hartley in and closes the door in Kit’s face. “He’s a bit young to be shooting, he usually watches me practice but your new so I don’t want him to be around” Shooter let go of Hartley’s arm as they reached the shooting area, he picks up a gun and hands it to Hartley.

Her hand drops lightly as she holds the gun but she holds it up. “Okay mind the weight” he chuckles and Hartley smiles rolling her eyes, although she did has to acknowledge the height difference between the two of them made her appear to be an ant “Now pull it up to your eye level and look over the top and at the target” Shooter hit a button and a cardboard person shot up. “Now don’t be too quick, take your time, breath, there is no reason to rush it.”

Hartley closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before pulling the trigger, the shot echoed throughout the room and Hartley dropped the gun as the shot sent tremors down her arms. “Good job!” Shooter praises “I mean you weren’t even close to hitting the target but still, congratulations” he leans down picking up the gun and hands it to her again “Let’s try again, this time brace for the impact” Hartley aims the same way she did before and Shooter moves her into position “okay try it now.”

She leaves it a second, gaining her concentration before pressing down on the trigger, she stepped back slightly but felt no tremors this time. She was left in awe as she noticed that the bullet had pierced through the cardboard man’s chest.

“I hit it!” she cheers happily “I actually hit it!” Hartley jumps around slightly her hair turning slightly yellow “Can I try that again, but this time by myself?” she asks Shooter giddily, he nods chuckling slightly at her excited attitude.

She lines herself up and fires, throughout the hour she misses nearly 40 times but hits the target in the chest twice, once in the head and three times in the groin, overall, she was pretty proud of her overall progress through this session.

The door creaked open as Hartley was readying herself for her last shot, both Shooter and Hartley look back to see Justin walking in, his face showed anger and Hartley knew exactly why.

She turned really quickly, aimed the gun to him and he froze, his eyes going wide and his face going white. “Hartley...” he starts, Hartley fires the gun, moving it up slightly, just in time for the bullet to miss him.

“Oops?” she smiles innocently.

Shooter covers his mouth to stop a laugh from escaping, Hartley smiles proud of herself and hands Shooter the gun before walking out not forgetting to hit Justin’s shoulder on her way. She heard Shooter whisper to Justin “don’t worry she wouldn’t have hit you” he paused for a second before continuing “she’s a much better shot that you are” he added which made her smile grow.

Although she knew that was a bad idea, she felt proud of what she had done.

That night Doc ordered Chinese food and set out a make shift dining table out of wood over chairs and sofas pulled up so everyone could sit down. Bullet pulled a sheet from a bed and placed it over the table so everyone could lean on it without getting splinters.

First to the table were Shooter and Kit, followed by Bullet, Doc and Hartley, everyone bubbling with happiness. “Is Justin coming?” Bullet asks making Shooter laugh.

“I don’t think he will be joining us tonight honey” he says still laughing “Hartley is really scary when holding a gun” Bullet gives her a sceptical look before shrugging and dishing out some food.

“This looks yummy” Doc says rubbing his hands together. Everyone seemed overjoyed and at peace, because it felt like in that moment, they were normal, just like a family, something Hartley had never had but always wanted.