Just Survive

Chapter Eighteen

- Ashley Gray -

A scream. A thud. Then hectic yells.

The whistling of a tiny chrome pellet descends into muffled screaming, everything else in slow-motion as I watch the body respond to the impact. Their head flies back and their hair coats in a fresh cherry fluid. The trickle of carmine running down the bridge of their nose highlights their wide eyes that fade from a vibrant emerald into a lifeless grey. The rest of their skeleton begins to fall, their limbs limp. The bullet hole gaping between their eyes allows a stream of light to pour through until the blood blocks the glow.

The screams are barely audible. My ears refuse to comprehend the shrill shrieks and terrified hollers that cry out for the poor soul and our friend.

My eyes struggle to focus on a single thing as the dreadful moment stretches over hours. My irises flicker over everyone's terror-stricken faces but ultimately return to the lifeless face in front of me.

No one can move. No one can gather the intent or power to shift a toe, their energy instinctively and unwillingly forced into an eternal scream of shock. Thoughts, words, concepts are muddled into one huge mess of knotted and intertwined threads of confusion. In all my tormented life, I've never encountered a moment quite like this, a moment that seems to never end because of the sheer shock of it. It's almost as if the ground, the Earth is crying with us, the core fizzling out before exploding, burning red-hot within our lungs.

A common emotion - surprise - but this wasn't common or conventional or normal. It's insane. I'm sure that I'm going crazy, that I'm hallucinating when I watch their dead lips move and their dead vocal cords whisper, I'm sorry.

That's all the voice states, monotone but resonating as they rest on their scraped and scarred knees for a second. Then they fall completely, the dust rising to cover the body as it thumps against the ground. That's when the screams pierce my eardrums and the silence becomes loud and when my eyes finally focus. I wish it had stayed quiet.

Juliet's body dusts with gravel and powdered sand, her face buried in the rocks just inches from my feet while a pool of blood gathers beneath her. The blood disperses from her bullet bludgeoned brain and under my boots.

When I close my eyes, blocking Juliet's deceased corpse from my mind, it's replaced with every other dead body I've ever perceived or caused. Their pain, their blood, their life flashing behind my eyelids like lightning. I'm overwhelmed with guilt. I'll never know why Juliet always frowned in my direction, or why she picked a fight with me over the smallest of controversies. Perhaps it was something I did or my mere presence. I wish I had the chance to reciprocate my apologies but as I stare at her carcass in front of me, I know now, she deserved better.

My eyes shoot open, my skin crawls and I can't stop the tremors from rolling all over my body. My legs become weak and I almost join Juliet on the ground. I stop breathing. My eyes now watering. My fists clench, my knuckles draining from all colour, they turn an awful white which I'm sure matches the shade of my face.

That chuckle, the discordant cackle that ruptures my ear's every vessel, it sends a spiralling pain through my temple - a migraine inevitable when in his presence. But I can't believe my senses, I don't trust myself to believe that the menacing voice is truly there because... I killed him. I sent his body back to hell, the flames tore apart his skin, burnt him alive while his cries echoed off of the walls of that damned building. The corpses were surrounding him, attracting to the flames like moths while plucking off his people bite by bite. Had he kept them? Kept their rotting bodies, led them all this way just to get back at me? I can't shut off my mind, the thoughts running wild until...

"Miss me?" His voice sends shivers down my spine and my blood boils in pure fury. The sarcasm laced within his twisted words only makes my eyes squint with a grimace and a glare that could kill if only looks could.