Trademarks - Trigger(7 out of 7) (Patreon)

"Papa? I c-can't shoot. The trigger's too hard!" says a young Alice, followed by an exasperated sigh. It was in the middle of autumn, just before the first snow falls. With Eastranch Beach located near the sea, a cold breeze can be felt, carrying with it the rustling of trees and the scent of saltwater in the horizon.

"Pull the trigger, and it shoots. The trigger will be hard to squeeze, meaning for someone like you, it'll be inaccurate but it'll do the job." Henry tells her calmly as he holds her hands and guides her through his instructions. "But if you pull the hammer back, it'll make the trigger lighter. It's a bit more work, but once you get used to it, it'll make your shots more accurate and precise. Now try it."

With her small frail arms, Alice lifts the heavy revolver with both her hands. Following her dad's instructions, she cocks the hammer back, and aims.

"This specific revolver fires a powerful round. You'll have to plant your feet on the ground and maintain your stance so you won't get knocked down."

With one deep breathe, and her eyes focused, she aims at the watermelon that was set up earlier a few meters back. As she squeezed the trigger, Alice's mind was sidetracked by the fact that pulling the trigger while the hammer was pulled back really did make the revolver easier to fire. However, this moment of distraction caused her legs to fail her, and the minute the gun fires and it's cylinder spins, Alice loses her balance and falls.

Alice chuckles in amazement on how powerful the recoil was. She looks up to her dad who then extends his hand to help her up.

"I told you to watch your stance, muffin."

"*Chuckle* I know, dad. But isn't it a little tiring to have to manually cock this thing every time I fire? Can't I just go 'boom' 'boom' when I want to?"

Henry kneels down and looks her straight in the eyes. He lips curl into a small smile, and tells her something that would change her outlook forever: 

"Listen, muffin. This revolver in itself is a very important lesson. Guns aren't evil, but they are made to kill. God forbid, that a time comes when you have to use this to harm or end another person's life, this revolver will serve as a reminder."

He cups her hands and lays the revolver in her small palms.

"The more your life depends on it, the easier it to kill. It's easy to simply pull the trigger, while it's definitely harder to pull back the hammer each time. Still, that split second you have in doing so gives you a chance to ask yourself whether the trigger is the right decision. Because once you pull it, there's no going back."

Alice looks back into this fond memory often. Her dad's words were something she would never forget. It was those words that came into her mind the second she decided to shoot those cops at Pecker Street. She steeled her mind into what was to come, and as she pulled the trigger, it was as her dad said: 'there was no going back'.

And so, she had decided that she will never stop until justice is served... With those responsible either behind bars, or six feet under.