joeislove's 100-word story for July 26, 2025

joeislove wrote the following micro-story on Hectalex on July 26, 2025. Each story on Hectalex is inspired by a daily visual prompt and must be exactly 100 words.

No one ever pays attention to the quiet girl by the window as she unloads and reloads the magazine over and over, letting the handful of smooth 9mm cartridges tumble through her fingers then firmly slotting one after the other into the jaws of the double-stack magazine, pressing them down with her thumb. She's been carrying it around for years now. Not the pistol. Well, the pistol, but also the fear. It's become the jagged little center of everything. And she knows at this point she'll probably never even find him. He's long gone. But if she does, she's ready.

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