" All the kids at school had been daring me to take my older brother's gun out of the shed even though Damon and Daddy told me not to go near the shed all the kids at school said that if I didn't I would be a wimp. So I met up with the kids about 50 feet from the shed which contained the loaded flintlock and gunpowder Stefan was standing close to the kids and nervously whispered, "Are you really going to do this?" To which I replied,"Of course it sounds like fun," I replied in a shaky voice. Stefan had a sad expression knowing the only reason I was doing this but he was only 2 years older than me and the kids, so some of the boys were almost his height but there were six kids so he would have trouble stopping me, so he walked away with his head down feeling guilty to which I had a twinge of sadness in my stomach for making my brother upset. I knew I had to do this because I would be teased endlessly if I didn't and they might tease Stefan. I immediately thought I have to do this for Stefan whether it hurts me or gets me in trouble, I have to do this for Stefan I thought as I approached keeping the image of my brother's face in my mind, not just Stefan's face but also Damon's face and his expression if he ever found out I touched the gun. I was now standing in front of the shed door and paused, so scared I wanted to cry. One of the kids loudly whispered,"DO IT NOW!" So I mustered up my courage and tucked away my fear as I shakily opened the door and saw the gun perched on the wall and cobwebs surrounding it with the large barrels of gun powder. The gun was Damon's from when he was in the army and I didn't ever want him to leave but he had to, to gain respect and it was conformity for the young men to serve. I thought back to how hard I cried after Damon left, I had put on a strong face when he was leaving and I later cried my eyes out on my bed quietly so no one would hear. I immediately came back to my senses and slowly walked to the gun hanging on the wall and picked it up my throat tensed up to the point it felt like I couldn't breathe and someone was grasping my throat. I wanted to just throw the gun down on the ground and run away crying and screaming but I carried it out slowly peaking around the corner as the kids looked on expectantly I showed then the gun and they even looked nervous probably because I was holding it so awkwardly with the gun upside down and my hands frighteningly close the trigger. As the gun was slipping through my grasp I almost hit the trigger but I held it in the uniform army pose even though it looked ridiculous on my small thin body. I held it like Damon had showed Stefan how to on his birthday, I remember Damon and Daddy telling Stefan he is old enough now to learn to protect himself and they showed him the gun and Emily rushed me away as I hid behind a tree looking at how they showed him to hold it. I had in a split second realized how close my hand was to the trigger and then BOOM! The gun had gone off and I had shot a tree and I dropped the gun because someone had most likely heard me shoot the gun because the gun was so loud my ears were ringing and I couldn't hear anything and the kick from the gun was so strong it had hit my directly in the face which stunned me even more so I started running and tripping along through the woods and I started crying quite loudly still running through the woods and then I heard Damon, Daddy, and Stefan's voice. I immediately hid behind some trees and Damon carefully picked up the gun I then realized how I hadn't run that far from the crime scene and I grew nervous. Damon saw the blood on the gun and he and Daddy's eyes grew big and Stefan gasped they apparently thought someone got really hurt because I realized then how much blood was on the gun and how bad I probably hurt myself, then the thought crossed my mind if I did return home after 'playing with my friends' they would see a bruise or something on my nose. Suddenly Stefan burst out and said,"It was Emma she told me the kids at school said that she had to pick up the gun or she was a wimp!" I almost gasped out loud but stifled it with my hand. Damon immediately had a very angry look on his face full of rage and so did Daddy but Stefan just looked nervous. "You boys go look for her in the woods and I will tell everyone to search for her around town," Daddy said sternly. "Why didn't you tell me!" Damon asked Stefan as Daddy walked away. "Because I didn't want Emma to get into trouble!" "But you would rather she shoot herself!" "She said she was only going to pick it up and show the kids," Stefan said with a guilty tone. "You go East I'll go West," Damon said with a slightly angry tone. Stefan began heading in my direction into the woods Damon headed away from me. I sighed but I knew I couldn't run away now because it would be to loud plus I now had realized the blood trickling down my face and how the numbness from how shocked I was had worn away and now my face hurt and throbbed with excruciating pain to the point that I almost screamed when I reached up and lightly brushed my fingers against my face. Blood was dripping from my face onto the ground and I realized that I was had distracted myself with the pain as Stefan rounded the corner and saw me extremely bruised cut and bleeding profusely from my face and muttered under his breath,"Oh lord." Which made me want to cry thinking how hurt I must be. Stefan tried to pick me up but couldn't and tried dragging me by my arms and as his technique of dragging me by my wrists began to work pulling me towards the direction of Damon and I immediately knew he was taking me to Damon and then I remembered his angry expression in my mind and began pulling away from Stefan trying to run and I slipped away and tripped falling onto my face and I screamed an unholy shriek that was so high pitched it sounded like I had been killed and Stefan ran over cradling my head in his arms and holding me as I cried and whimpered saying,"Ow ow ow ow ow," repeatedly whilst whimpering in a very depressing manner. Damon came running over at an impressive speed with a surprisingly enough guilty expression, I was shocked having thought he would be very angry. Although he breathed a sigh of relief thinking that I had shot myself picking me up in his arms I went quiet. He didn't seem to be shocked by how wounded I was as Stefan was although having fought in war or whatever they sent him off to do he probably has seen much worse making another guilty twinge occur in my stomach worse than the others. I said quietly,"Please don't tell father?" "I am pretty sure he put two and two together," Damon said still keeping his sense of humor. He brought me back home as I fell asleep in his arms I heard through my sleepy daze Emily gasp quite loudly. Father saw me and had a relieved but kind of angry expression I immediately started quietly crying to myself but stopped when father kissed me on my head "I am glad you are okay but do not ever do that again." Father was surprisingly kind as I was expecting to be punished. Damon put me in my bed and I immediately fell asleep but I could feel someone cleaning my wounds most likely Emily. I opened my eyes to see it was night, I looked over to see Stefan and Damon sitting in my room, Stefan had fallen asleep with his head in his hands next to me but Damon was looking out of the window in my room a tired expression on his face. I pretended to be asleep as Damon sat in the chair on the other side of the room I could here him slowly breathing and finally his eyes closed and his back slumped as soon as I was sure he was asleep I went over to my dresser and quietly picked up a mirror I was lifting it up to my face and considered putting it down because Stefan has hurt himself quite badly before and he never gasped or was shocked by other people's injuries. I just decided that I couldn't be afraid of mirrors until my wounds heal so I pulled the mirror up to my face and stifled a scream with my hand as the mirror fell on the ground I had a quick flash of memory when a wounded soldier was brought here he had been shot and I remember father asking me if I was sure that I was going to be okay to enter the room that the man was having the bullet removed in and bring some bandages to Emily to help fix him up I bravely said,"Of course I will be fine father." I walked in there almost passed out handed Emily the bandages and left as quickly as possible Emily a few minutes later walked out of the room and said,"Well you are a kind smart girl who would make a good nurse but you definitely will never be one," we both laughed. My face wasn't as bad as the mans wound but I was bruised all over my eyes and nose I had 2 black eyes and my nose was broken and the metal on the gun had supplied me with cuts all over my face. I was usually described as cute and young being only 10 but I looked wrecked and horrible considering I was just expecting a broken nose rather than what looked back at me. I wondered how the bruises even covered the other areas of my face and then I remembered how I had fallen and that probably accounted for the other bruises. Damon apparently heard the mirror shatter when I dropped it realizing what I had done I immediately cringed hoping I didn't wake him or Stefan up. Damon walked behind me and picked up the shattered mirror and said,"It really isn't that bad" "Just didn't think it would be that bad " Damon picked me up and put me in my bed kissed me on the head and laid down next to me and told me the story of the time his 'friends' said he had to play with father's gun and how he almost shot one of his friends and we laughed and joked with each other until we both fell asleep./p