IN A SINGLE SHOT

"Don't worry. It's just a gun," she says, running the tip of the gun from her temple down her cheek.

"Please... stop!" Mihira shudders from the feel of the metal on her skin.

"No. No. Sweetie! Don't beg me like that!".

"Wh... why?" Mihira asks with a voice muffled by her sobs.

"At least you stopped asking who I am" she chuckles.

Mihira cries more into her blindfold. Louder this time. Her head is aching from the blow, she took not long ago. She woke up to the wet feel of a kiss on her cheek. She screamed and tried to push away, only to find, she is bound to the chair. She screamed for help and cried for a long time before she came to terms, that no one was going to rescue her. Her kidnapper is her only company. Why did this woman pick her? What does she want from her?

"I'm glad you don't wear makeup. Your pretty face would be smeared with that shit from all your crying, " she says, gently stroking her cheek.

Mihira tries to pull away again.

“Ah! Sweetie, you don't like me? Want me to kiss you again?”

“NO."

The room echoes, with her monstrous laugh bounding off of every wall. "What is this place?" Mihira thinks.

“Now now, little girl, look up at me,” she says.

Mihira raises her head, trying to follow the direction of the voice.

“Of course! You can’t look at me!” She laughs. “I would very much love to look into those beautiful, brown eyes of yours. But then, you would see me, wouldn’t you?” She laughs yet again, then she stops. The room goes silent.

Mihira strains her ears to hear the slightest sound. She can hear nothing but her own breath. Did the woman leave? But she did not hear any door open or shut. Is there a door? She sits still and tries hard to listen for any sound from the direction she last heard her.

“Missing my voice sweetie?” she asks her breath almost in Mihira’s face.

Mihira jumps up in her chair in fright. But she is strangely relieved. At least she knows where the woman is now. She is seemingly on her knees, in front of her.

“Please tell me why you are doing this?” Mihira pleads with her captor.

“Are you not worried about what I will do to you?” she asks in her teasing tone.

Mihira feels the hair on the back of her neck stand. Her mouth opens in shock. Is she going to kill her?

“No sweetie! I won’t kill you! I love you. Don’t you see that?” she answers Mihira's unasked question.

"She loves me?" Mihira whispers to herself.

“Yes, my little flower! I love you. Look at you, pure and innocent like… Ummm... Let's see… milk!. Poetic. Aren’t I?” She laughs again. Mihira waits for her to finish.

“You wouldn’t hurt me if you loved me. You wouldn’t hold a gun to my head!.” Mihira says.

“HURT YOU?” for the first time, there is seriousness in her voice. Mihira shudders.

“Well, this is how I show love. Don’t you like it?” She asks, cupping Mihira’s face in her hands. “ Well, I can't bake choco-chip cookies like Grace, you know,” she says, followed by a low chuckle.

“You know my mom?” Mihira almost screams. Is this woman a friend of her mother’s?

“Your foster mother. And no, I don’t know her. You should not have known her too. Too late now. You will have to forget her! You are coming with me.” she says.

“What? No! I am going nowhere with you!”

“Don’t say that! You don’t want to hurt me! Your new mommy. Do you?” she chuckles again. Mihira cannot take the hysterical chuckles anymore.

“YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER!” Mihira yells, unable to contain her rage.

Mihira feels her captor rise and pace, to and fro. Not taking more than three steps on each side. Is she angry? Maybe she should not have screamed at her. What is she going to do with her now? Suddenly, she stops pacing and the room is silent again. Mihira does not like it when she is silent.

“Tell me... why do you like grace?” She asks.

“Because she is my mother...” Mihira whispers, crying at the memory of her mother. Where is her mother? Does she know about her kidnapping?

“There! You will love me too... I will be your mother. We need to move into our new home now. We can't sit here in your garage forever. Can we?” she leaves, after lightly stroking the side of her face with the gun again.

They have been in the garage of her own house, all this time? It comes back to her that she was outside the garage when she was knocked down from behind. She had come to find Emmet. Emmet, her brother, should have been here! Where is he? Did she hurt him? Oh, Emmet! She hears the garage shutter open. The engine of a car roars to life somewhere outside the garage. Is it hers? Is she going to steal her away from her own home? No! She has to do something!

“Emmet! Emmet! Where are you?” She cries desperately.

“Emmet!” she cries again.

“Well, little Emmy boy is out running an errand for me. You shouldn’t have done that! Maybe I have been too nice to you.” she answers.

“What errand? What did you do to Emmet?” she demands.

“You talk too much sweetie,” she says and holds something soft to her nose. A sweet smell fills her nostrils…she feels her head falling off to the side, drifting off into unconsciousness.

“CUT!” It’s the director.

“Can someone remove this blindfold! It’s creeping me out” Anna yells.

“No sweetie, you look obedient to mama with the blindfold on,” Amanda says.

“Jeez... Mandy!” Anna laughs out loud.

She begins to wriggle off the loose knots on her wrists when she feels the gun brushing over her temple again. She freezes, momentarily.

“Don’t worry. It’s just a gun,” Amanda says in a raspy voice. “Woah... I am feeling this character!” she chuckles.

Anna pulls down the blinds, to look at Amanda, her co-star. “Mandy, you are a natural!” she giggles.

“You too Anna! look at you shake like a leaf!” she says in the raspy voice again.

“Hey! I like that voice... I think we should reshoot the whole scene, with that voice..” Jade, the director says, looking thoughtful.

“No Way!” Amanda shakes her head in disbelief.

“Well, that was a joke and good work everybody! We completed the whole scene in a single shot!”

“Phew!” Anna sits back in the chair, relieved. “No more guns,” she thinks to herself.

“Wait, what is the next scene?” Anna asks the Jade, Amanda’s evil laugh echoing in the background.