Karma

Victim 12

Axel's feet echoed behind me in an annoying pattern. His breaths were coming out in short gasps as he grabbed ahold of my upper arm. I narrowed my eyes in his direction and tried to shake him off, however he only held on even tighter.

His head dropped as he caught his breath. "Dude." Breath. "You." Deep breath. "Can." Small breath. "Walk," no breath. "Fast."

I raised my eyebrows, before shaking my head. He could be a complete idiot sometimes.

"We need to see Phoenix."

Axel straightened up before me. Behind him, I could see the sun poking it's way out of the clouds and I gritted my teeth. His face became serious. "What was all that about?"

I carried on looking past him. It was the only thing I could do to not listen to the devil on my shoulder telling me to punch his face. Because the angel was telling me his face was cute and I agreed more with the angel, even though it sickened me.

But my gut was telling me to just walk away from him, because he was bringing trouble I didn't want. And my head was saying that Devan would be angry and then I'd be in trouble.

But the blood running through my veins was telling me to kill him and I thought that maybe that was the simpilest solution to this. I'd done it before I could do it again.

He's pure.

Pure.

As pure as one could be.

And that pissed me off. Because I could tell when someone was pure or not and his blood was clear as well as his soul. It would've made everything so much easier if he'd been a crappy person to another crappy person but he hadn't and I couldn't kill him because that would make me become what I feared the most. But I didn't even know what that was yet.

That pissed me off too.

I was pissed off a lot lately and that pissed me off, also.

I shook his hand off of my arm and spun around. I was too tired to actually run fast, but my legs moved pretty quickly and I put about ten metres distance between me and Axel in about two seconds. When I reached the door that led to the roof, I let out a breath before opening it.

I ran up the stairs two at a time, leaving Axel at the bottom. To be honest, the idea of running up multiple flights of stairs didn't appeal to me either, but I needed to get away from him. His presence alone was making me feel different.

When I reached the top, Phoenix was already waiting for me - his red eyes ablaze.

I held up my hands in surrender. "I did nothing."

He let out a breath and shook his head, his hair falling in front of his eyes a little. I squinted my eyes and then I realised, he wasn't angry. He was upset.

I cocked my head to the side, before walking up to him. I grinned and patted his back, probably too hard. "Cheer up, big boy."

His eyes snapped up to mine and I just smiled some more. He shook his head again, before looking down at the clipboard. "I-I-I need the d-d-deaths." He mumbled. I could barely hear him, even though I was only a few centimeters away from him.

Emotions confused the hell out of me. Why would someone want to feel all these different things, when it was much nicer to feel nothing at all. No trying for an ounce of happiness they wouldn't get. No dissappointment. Just, nothing. Something constant. No strings attached. No trying.

"Only five tonight, and probably will be for a while. Stupid thing." I kicked a pebble on the floor. It scuttered across the roof and off of the side. I heard a faint 'ow' and realised I'd hit someone, without really trying.

I snickered under my breath.

When I looked back around, Phoenix was looking at me with curiosity in his eyes. As I opened my mouth to give him some remark about staring, he opened his mouth.

"H-h-how'd do you d-d-do i-it?" He asked. His voice came out more of a whisper, but I still heard it. He sighed, before sitting on the floor. "H-h-how d-d-do you block o-o-out your e-emotions like you d-do?"

I smirked and joined him down on the floor.

"Ask me without stuttering and I may tell you."

His eyes met mine. "How do y-yo-" he growled under his breath. A small smile escaped my lips and I stood up, patting his blond hair that was surprisingly soft under my palm.

"Nice try." I said, before turning around and walking to the door. Just as I reached the handle, I heard his voice.

It was but a whisper, but the wind carried it to me. "How do you block out your emotions like you do?"

And I smiled at the door, before actually opening it and walking down the steps - leaving Phoenix sitting on the rooftop with the cherry skies.

I managed to escape past Axel, who was talking to someone pretty with blonde hair that reached far down her back and hazel eyes. I couldn't help but think that they fitted together well and that made something weird settle on my stomach and I'd decided there and then that I needed to get away as quick as possible.

He probably knew my address, anyway. And if he didn't, he'd have to find it.

For some reason I made my way back to the little lake where I'd found Teal. However, this time I only sat on the outskirts looking into the murky water and letting the silence wrap around my head.

I didn't like it. It was all too familiar.

I noticed that another bird was sitting in the water, just staring at me. I cocked my head to the side and smiled lightly at it. "Hey," I whispered. I didn't know why I started talking, but it was nice to break the silence. The bird quacked a little and swam forward.

And for the first time it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, this bird was missing Teal. Maybe they were friends. Maybe they were related. Maybe this bird was lonely too.

I held out my hand and it gently let me stroke it. This bird was more confident than Teal and that maybe wonder also. Human's had personalities, but so did something as simple as a bird. And maybe it wasn't simple. Maybe it was more complex, yet nobody studied it properly to understand it.

I shook my head. "You weird little thing," I said, before scooping it up in my arms. I studied the bird. It was covered in a grey blue colour, but what stood out most was the section on it's head that was a light red. "I'm gonna call you Reed. It means redhead and you have a cute little red head."

The bird quacked and flaps it's wings a little, before settling down again in my arms. I laughed lightly and spun around. "Somethi-"

The bird fell from my arms.