When Rain Rises

Chapter 21

Aiden looked up, drawing his pistol. Everything had a blurry haze to it, making Rain feel like he was in some sort of dream. He could hear the muffled sound of Aiden shouting above the loud ringing in his ears. Rain turned to him in confusion; his mind was blank, unable to process what was going on. It could only observe like a passive agent. A bright blue flicker flashed before his eyes as the sound of another gunshot went off and was deflected. As another blue flicker flashed in the air but inches away from Aiden's body, he turned to Rain and grabbed him, pulling him close to shield him from the bullets.

Rain's eyes darted to his left to see Alyse screaming and covering her ears. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she cowered against the wall right next to the corpse. She looked down at it for a moment before frantically crawling away as the pool of blood stretched out to touch her.

Rain's focus then fell on Davis and Janet. They had their pistols pulled and were returning fire at whoever was shooting at them from above. They were taking accurate shots; using both hands on their pistols to better stabilize their aim. Their faces were dark and serious; their entire minds and bodies focused in the moment and on hitting their mark. They hadn't panicked at all, they had reacted. So did Aiden; his first move was to protect Rain.

"What's going on?" Rain cried out as the ringing in his ears slowly began to die down. "What the hell! What the hell?"

"We've been attacked, but he was retreated," Aiden explained loudly, slowly releasing his grip on Rain and looking him over. "How do you fare?"

Rain was shaking like a leaf, but he didn't feel any pain. The scene of the teen's blood splattering everywhere was perpetually repeating in his mind. It seemed so surreal. Rain took a quick glance down at his bloody corpse as if to authenticate it wasn't just a figment of his imagination or something. It wasn't.

Aiden moved from him to Alyse, helping her up. She was curled into herself, and she swatted Aiden's hand away when it touched her shoulder.

"Get away from me!" Alyse screamed up at him. Her eyes were hysterical and her lips were trembling. "I want to go home! Let me go home!"

"What's wrong with her?" Rain asked. He was terrified, too, but Alyse seemed to have completely lost it. "Did she get shot?"

"She just witnessed someone's gruesome murder a mere foot away from her," Aiden stated plainly. "This is a very natural response. She has never seen such death before." It stood to reason that Aiden, Davis and Janet had. "How do you feel?"

"Not great," Rain admitted. "Gunshots are very, very loud. And seeing that guy die feels so surreal—sudden. I sort of knew him!"

"Yet you hardly react to it. Have you encountered death before?"

Rain shook his head. What was Aiden hoping his reaction to be? Did he want him to curl into a ball and scream, too?

"Interesting. You may not feel calm, but normally people feel much, much worse. You had a very mild reaction for someone who wasn't exposed to death before..." Aiden shook his head. "It matters not. We've been attacked; this situation has just escalated drastically."

"Where are the Dianists?" Rain asked.

"Still looking for the spy's hideout, in all likelihood. The same spy who has surely just murdered our deceased friend here to prevent us from learning anything from him.'

"So what's our next move?" Davis asked, holstering his pistol. "We can't let him get away."

"I'm going to talk with the Dianists and see if they've found his hideout yet. Even if he now moves to a different one, he could well leave behind evidence that we could use."