Carlton ✔

37| The Raving Monster

Reality seemed to be slowly slipping away, the edges of my vision blackening by every passing second. I coughed and gasped, fighting my conciousness, kicking my legs like a maniac.

I pushed my limits, but my vision went black anyway and suddenly I was younger. A similar situation. My trainer was behind me, choking me, and I was endeavouring to push him off. Because even though it was training it actually felt like he was trying to kill me.

I coughed and screamed.

My father was in front of me, arms crossed, looking as disappointed as a king who lost a war. And I remembered feeling horrible that I couldn't be the son that he wanted. I knew deep in my heart, a feeling that I just didn't want to accept — that my father wanted custody of Caden but he lost the custody battle against my mom and he got me instead.

And everytime I got that feeling, intense amount of rage boiled up in my heart, so wrathful and perilous, it could drive a normal man insane.

And it drove me insane too. It morphed me into a madman that did horrible things to people, it woke a monster inside that changed me. I began to feel furious for no particular reason. And it kicked my responsiveness to a whole different level.

My conciousness flooded back and I turned a little bit towards the right. And then, I violently rolled to the left with as much dexter as I could muster.

The man's arms loosened and I grabbed the opportunity to pry them away. I didn't entirely gain my strength back so all I could do, as blood continuously spilled form my mouth between coughs, was crawl as far as I could.

My vocal cords convulsed, robbing me of my voice and replacing it with excruciating pain everytime I breathed.

The man caught onto my shoes.

Angrily, I started slamming my foot into his face. What once was a mere act of self defence, turned into a vicious bloodbath. And I enjoyed every second of it.

I kicked him till blood covered his entire face, till he was no more recognisable. And I left him to die.

I found the stairs. Fuckin' finally.

Getting down was another thing. I gripped the railings, slipping down, tripping, half-dead. I coughed some more, wiping my blood with my already blood-drenched sleeve. I tried to take shorter breaths so my throat would hurt lesser, but my heart was racing and my breath came in long inhales and painful exhales.

I fell down once I reached the bottom, touching my forehead to the ground.

Come on soldier, just a bit more.

Breanna's face came into my mind, her contagious laugh and innocent demeanour, so worth cherishing. Thus, I pushed myself up, stumbling towards the parking lot, slammed the door open and walked in.

Nothing.

Lots of cars but not a soul in sight.

What happened to them? Was I too late?

Or...did they forget about me?

No, they wouldn't-

"Now I've got ya!"

The floor shifted from beneath my feet as I turned around and saw someone standing at the parking lot entrance.

The guy who I kicked in the face.

Blood glimmered, running down his head but it was as if I could feel his starvation for vengeance from a few meters away. And he didn't wait.

He reached for the gun and shot me.

My whole body fell numb. The ceiling above me tilted, no, I was falling backwards, a stream of my blood spraying in the air above me.

My head collided with the ground, a loud ringing noise echoing loudly in my ears for a few moments. My vision was completely gone. Replaced with a few patches of white, black and red.

Something moved in front of me.

I groaned trying to look up to see what it was, and when I tried, my whole left arm suddenly flexed into tremendous pain. I screamed in misery. Despite my burning throat, I screamed.

Slapping my hand where it hurt the most, my palm came in contact with warm, spilling blood somewhere near my shoulder.

I was shot, but it missed my heart by a few inches.

The sweltering, burning pain slithered down my body from the site of the wound, as if sparking all my nerves to ashes. And I groaned, biting my lip to keep myself from screaming too loud.

The man stood in front of me, lifting the gun to my face. He was huffing too. "I've been told not to kill you. But monsters like you deserve to be annihilated as soon as possible."

All I could do at the moment, since my whole body had given up on me, was inch backwards as far as I could get from him.

In the moment, a shrilling noise of car tires grating against rough grounds echoed throughout the gargantuan parking lot. From the left, a car came diving towards us.

And it slammed into  the man in front of me, sending him flying across the ground, colliding with the parked cars around.

I had no time to react.

The car stopped in front of me. The door opened and out stepped Breanna Riley in her dusty sneakers and battered hoodie hanging low from her shoulders. Blood was on them and on her cheeks and on her hands.

But she looked perfectly fine, thrilled even. I bet the people who she encountered weren't fine though. Breanna's eyes met me, a smirk tugging her lips when she saw the mess I had made of my shoulder.

And she asked, "Lookin' for me?"

**********