Lucky and the Killer ✔

His Best Friend

They'd gotten in two hits on Gray. He'd gotten in three-hundred on the shadows. The area around them was finally clear enough for them to see one another, and Gray was ever-so ready for it.

Lucky was running beside King. They were encircling him like crows, and it made Gray sick. They were just pieces to him, though: pieces in the way. After he put them together where they belonged, the bigger picture would start to come into focus. He wanted to win, and he wanted it bad.

"Come at me!" he yelled.

His voice echoed across them. It slipped over them while holding its own tiny vibrations in the middle of the war. There was no tremble in his voice. There was no wavering doubt. He was ready, and he knew that it was either going to be him or them that time around. That was okay, because he knew who to hit first.

He raised his gun up and pointed. He pulled the hammer back. A grin slipped onto his face. It pulled at the corner of his mouth and made him look, somehow, more inhumane than the shadows leeching all of the life from around him. He shook his head. He wanted redemption so bad. He wanted power over those birthmarks. He wanted the control. They were so capable. They took weak underlings like Lucky and turned them into heroes. He would subdue them. He would control them and take his place as their ruler. The people would finally know that that a human was their royalty—that his mother was a Queen. They would know that he really was somebody, and it would all start with Lucky. He shot, and he didn't miss.

King watched as Lucky fell. Her eyes were no longer as hollow as they once were. They were coming back to themselves again, little by little, as she fell to the ground. The curse mark slid back down her face, past her neck, and beneath her collar bone.

"No," King whispered.

"She always ran on one side of you," Gray spat. "It wasn't hard to hit, and this time, you're not there to take the bullets for her."

"Go to hell," King yelled as he ran towards Lucky's motionless body.

"I believe that takes you out of the running now, doesn't it?" Gray gasped. "You're not going to leave her to chase me. Are you?"

"I just might," King groaned, and he did.

He ran for Gray. He'd never made his legs carry him so fast as he was doing then, but he kept going. His feet pounded the ground as he ran towards the weak, little human. His eyes focused in on Gray, and again, the moon moved ever-so-slightly over their heads. It crept through the sky towards its grave, and King ran past it.

"Hiding behind guns is going to get you killed," King said through his teeth as he tackled Gray and pinned him down on the ground.

Around him, the shadows watched. Their eyes and hearts calmed. Scattered citizens hid from them. The dead lay around them, too. The remaining shadows slowed down to watch. They drifted off to the sides like ghosts—waiting to see who would die. King had caught their interest.

King's hands were around Gray's neck in record time. His best friend stared up at him unable to speak, but pounding at King's already-hurt side with his fist. King wouldn't move. He squeezed tighter and tighter. He could kill a human with his bare hands. He had before—just as he was taught.

"Ahhh," King said in anguish, "I should have killed you then and before that and the time before that, but I kept...letting...you...live. Somehow, I thought, the Gray I used to know was still in there somewhere, but you're gone. You're as dead as the shadows. No, worse than that. At least they still know who they are. They know they need fixing, but you, you're beyond repair."

Gray punched at his side. He couldn't say anything. It was the only weak point King had, so he punched repeatedly. He hadn't expected him to leave Lucky that way. He'd flipped his algorithm, but then again, he was King. If he just kept hitting him, maybe he would let up. He hit harder.

Lucky winced and opened her eyes. Everything was blurry. Things weren't as crisp as they were before. She didn't feel power pulsing through her veins, but she did feel the poison.

She reached down and touched her neck absentmindedly. The curse mark was even further down by then. It was almost gone, and she could feel it. She groaned against the flat ground that held her up as her limbs began to quake with fever.

"Damn it," King yelled. "Die already!"

"K-king?" Lucky whispered, and she turned her head to see King on top of Gray some distance away. She saw Gray wailing on his side in a last-ditch effort to get some sort of air in, and it made her shut her eyes.

She didn't want to see any of it. The bodies around her, Gray's clawing hands, and King's resolute eyes all chilled her inside. She shuddered, but she wasn't sure if it was from the poison...or them.

Her hearing was messed up. It pulsed—with her own heart-beat taking center stage. It was like she was under water on dry land.

The shadows began to speak to her. They moved from their spots alongside King and Gray—migrating towards the poisoned Lucky on the ground. As if she were able to do anything, their chorus sang out to her: fix us, please. Fix us.

"I can't," Lucky whispered, but her hearing was so far gone, that she couldn't even hear her own response. She wasn't sure if she was speaking out loud or if it was all just inside of her head. She could see the spirits hovering above her—broken and defeated. They would not have a victory no matter who was chosen. They were engulfed by their curse marks to the point that their humanity had been stolen from them. "I'm so sorry."

She rolled over onto her side—watching as Gray's hits came slower and slower to King's side. She looked away from the two and up towards the sky. The third moon sat, high above it all, unfazed by the death and destruction. It glittered in a pale, metallic-pink as it watched from on high. It sifted nearer to the horizon on its journey towards death. In a half-hour, it would be gone again. It would pass just as the second moon did—only to return upon its summoning. She thought it was crazy, but it was an idea.

She tried to push herself up from the ground as the spirited creatures around her watched in awe. They danced back when she moved—dangerous beings as skittish as mice. She fell back down to the ground and moaned.

"Damn," she sighed. "I just want...King to be alright. I just want the fighting and everything to be over."

The halflings looked down at her with envy and awe. Their murmurs started to fill the air again as they talked with one another as best they could. Lucky knew that if she could get them all to stop, things would be okay in some way. Calming them all down was a great plan—except that she couldn't move. Still, she thought if they could all just calm down before the moon passed, that the halflings would get their bodies back again. Maybe, they didn't have to die.

She let her head fall to the side as she watched Gray's arms stop moving all together. Her body was numb. She couldn't move—not even with the help of her birthmark. The curse receded down into her stomach, past her hip, until it was gone. Her eyes felt hot, and she was sure a tear or two fell from them, past her cheeks, and to the dirt below. King...must have finally killed his best friend.