The Scarlet Phantom: Finding the Light in the Darkest of Times

Radius

The sight in front of him did not quite register until he saw him raise his free hand at her.

'STOP IT!' he screamed and sprang forward, tackling the guard to the ground. Sure, the guard was in his thirties and Gray was a twelve year old boy but five years of manual labor had built him the physique of a boxer. He punched the guy square in the jaw before he was pulled off by atleast five guards, kicking and screaming 'GOD KNOWS I HAVE WANTED TO DO THAT SINCE THE DAY I SAW YOU! AND MY FIST DENTED INTO YOUR FACE IS A MEMORY I WILL REMEMBER FOR A LIFETIME!'

Gray continued to bellow profanities at the guard before, finally, the other guards managed to pin him down, face buried in sand.

'TAKE HIM AWAY!' Bellowed the guard he had hit, wipping his bleeding lip.

'NO! GRAY!' Yor screamed, balling her eyes out, being held back by the other laborers as the other guards punched and kicked Gray and dragged him away 'NO! NO! DON'T YOU TOUCH HIM!'

'And you!' The guard was still holding onto his crippled cheekbone 'No foot for three weeks! Get back to work! Show's over!'

As the guards cleared out and went back to their laughing and alchohol and the laborers got back to work, Yor sat there, her eyes glassy and completely and utterly empty. Tears spilled like water down a river and her head was filled with cotton.

Snap

Every single pair of eyes turned to the screaming guard who was now scrawling and rolling around pathetically at Yor's feet. His bruised up face Gray had given him was now the least of his worries, because now he was bleeding through his eyes. Every guard, Every laborer watched in numbing shock as Yor kicked and punched the guard like a mad woman, beating him unconscious.

Not once in the past decade had any laborer revolted so.

Breathing heavily, covered in blood, and sweat, Yor staggered over to the dirty, rusting utensils sitting in the corner from which the laborers ate. She picked up a metal plate and a metal spatula, Banging the two against each other sending a sonorous throughout the half-finished building like a school bell.

'Can I have your attention?' Her voice vas filled with venom. It was scratched and scared from the screaming and crying and tight from rage. A rage, anger and eternal hatred like no other, her bloodshot eyes reflecting her blazing scarlet hair like hell fire 'WE HAVE TO FIGHT BACK! FOR OUR FREEDOM!!! WE HAVE TO STAND UP AND FIGHT! REBELLION!!!'

She sustained that hard, blazing look, waiting for the others to join her battle cry.

Silence.

Pin drop Silence.

'Idiot Girl,'

All eyes were torn away from Yor and to the snivelling, bleeding guard who was still hunched over himself on the ground. And he was....grinning!?!

'Did you really think that by giving a little speech, you could inspire all these people!?!' He cackled maniacally, his face mangled beyond recognition 'Look at them! Filthy, old, week and their skin crawling with magots! Their spirits were broken a long, long time ago. In fact...It is quite selfish of you to expect them to fight just because your friend got hurt. You get to stand there a be a hero while they risk their lives? Pathetic!'

The silence rippled with stone hearted muttering while the laborers went back to work with the same life as slugs, faces wrinkled with disappointment, like nothing had happened. The guards laughed and jeered.

'Help me up so I can teach this kid a lesson,' The guard with the blood-soaked face grinned, limping towards Yor, whip raised. A fat tear rolled down her cheek.

BAM!!!

This time, the guard was not unconscious. He was dead. Blood dripped from Yor's hands.

'REBELION!!!'

This time, an answering cheer from the crowd came. All hell broke loose. Hundreds of laborers came swarming over the walls and pelted into the guards, uttering loud war cries. The earth quacked under their feet as the guards broke ranks, shouting their surprise. Chaos reigned. The guards collected themselves began slashing whips and raining bullets. All since of civilization was ripped away as the laborers and guards collided in a barbaric clash. Under the cover of the battle, Yor buffeted up the fragile structure of wood that formed the exoskeleton of the half made building. And now came more, more guards from other parts. Of the building storming into the fray and Yor saw under her that the guards were quickly overtaking the laborers thanks to their weapons. Labors grabbed he rusty, dirty knives and utensils and screamed and waved them. They were hacking and stabbing at the ankles and shins of the guards, their faces alive with malice.

Yor knew she had to end this fight as a decisive victory for the laboeres and fast. Before her fellow rebels got hurt. And before it was too late to save Gray.

She balanced, just barely, on the cylindric wood, hundreds of feet in the sky. Her hardened hands rounded around an axe and struck it down on the wood. It only took three strikes for the fragile structure to begin to give away. All, guards and laborers, ceased the fighting to look up in utter shock and horror at her as Yor delivered the death blow. And as the wooden frame snapped, Yor knew she had made a mistake. She had doomed them all to be buried alive only and only due to her adrenaline and her selfish need to get to Gray as soon as possible.

'Gray...' Yor whispered as she fell through the earth 'I'm sorry...'

Everything seemed to explode at once, the building came crumbling down like it was made of sand and the screams and yells were squandered under the falling debris. But, just as Yor had anticipated, the laborers had managed to escape first due to sheer numbers. Now, corpses of the guards mangled under the rock and wood that they had served to imprison the laborers within the building for years littered the earth.

Soon enough, The sounds of police sirens filled the air.