Shadows of the past

for over a year. Nobody had. Ezra and I were the only ones from the a

ly fashion with a table below them filled with bullets, knife sharpeners, and so on. The wall opposite me had different rooms leading off of it. There were boys and girls dormitories and there was a recreational room with a TV, game console

ions, and in recovery. Starting on the right side of the wall and heading left, there were pictures fr

ll, looking at them making stupid faces at the camera while the other agents trained in the background. I moved on to where they were pretending to

f balls to play mini golf. There was one of them posing next to their "artwork" that they made by shooting patterns into the targets. As I went through, I found the class picture. In it there was Ezra, standing next to a very tall guy with brown hair, bushy eyebrows, and an easy smile; Liam Rylan, m

I looked at the picture, remembering

finally turned around. She wrapped me in a hug and I laid my head on her shoulder as we continued t

d the truth is, I wish we could. But we can't. After they left, we were losing agents. And those agents had actual training! Can you imagine how these kids would do? They

eart. I knew she was right; I just wished it was different. "I

and she smiled a

t just doesn't seem real." I nodded as she turned and walked back to the elevator. As the doors were about to close she said, "They were just cutting into

icked up a handgun and tested its weight. We didn't use real guns anymore. We ha

a real gun f

ed over to the paper targets that were still hanging on the wall in the range. I stood there, still staring at the gu

ng position against the wall and walked over behind me. Putting his arms on either side of me, he wrapped his hands around mine on the gun. He lifted it and aimed at the target. "The trick is in your breathing." His warm breath tickled as he whispered in my ear. He took a deep breath in, held it, and let it go. When he did it again, I copied him, though my breath was a little shaky. This time when we took a breath, he pulled my finger on

t firing until the gun ran out of bullets. Then, I dropped the gun and walked over to the middle of the room. There was a line of punching bags and a li

ught my breath as a couple tears ran down my cheeks. After a

f weapons. I stood in front of the table looking at the gun in my hands. I ran my thumb over it. Then, I reached over and picked up a new clip before loading

oom before shutting off the light