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A suffocating silence fills the space where the warmth of light had once fluttered through the rooms, the shadows now more prevalent then they had once been.
My footsteps are light against the carpeted flooring as I edge my way out of my bosses office, gently shoving the two pairs of keys into my back pocket, attempting to stop the slight dinging of metal as I peek around the corner of the kitchen entrance. I grasp the hand of the gun that's wedged into the hem of my jeans, slightly flinching at the sheer weight of the weapon as I gently pull it out and grip it infront of me.
The shine of the benches come into view, and the hunched figure of a paled, pudgy man in his mid fifties sleeths forward, wispy strands of his course brown hair slip into his frantic, whitened gaze; his black gums seep through his crack lips as he bares his teeth.
It's Greg, my boss. The man who had employed me. He's one of them.
My attention swings toward the kitchen freezer that's now been left open, chilled mist seeping from the coldened area, as a box half filled with different food products lies on the floor. Just a few metres away pops out a head of fiery red curls as freckles turn my way and Eliana's frightened gaze meets mine. A silent plea swirls within the different shades of emeralds.
She's only mere metres away from me, yet it's as though she is miles, like I'm not close enough to protect her from the odour that is him.
His light blue, chequered shirt strains against his back as he leans down, his hand reaching into the tiny shelf below the bench, metals clanging together as he pushes the balls around, as though he knows he's searching for something.
Bracing my hand against the wall I slide down, now crouching on the floor, jestering my hand at her to come to me, and mouthing one word into the space between us.
Crawl.
So long as he doesn't hear us, he can't find us. The last one smelled us though, through the cracks, he knew where we were. Are they all the same, all with the same abilities, or do they vary between them?
Her movements are small and delicate, so much so that the stickiness of her sweaty palms against the black, grimy floors is not to be heard. I reach out to her grabbing her tensed upper arm and pull her the rest of the way to me, now trying to shove us both behind the wall that shielded me from him, but the clanging of metals halt suddenly and is replaced by air being sucked in.
My fingers grapple at Eliana's shirt as I pull her trembling figure closer.
A squeal rips from the kitchen, echoing throughout the store.
"Run."
I grunt as I shove her forward and up off the ground, her light violet sneakers squeak against the floors as she trips over her own feet trying to correct her footing from beneath her, now sprinting forward, her hands grabbing at the walls as she swings around the corner, strands of her bright hair slipping from the silky ribbon holding it all together.
My own steps slap against the hard flooring as I round the corner, my muscles aching in protest as I grab ahold of the top of one of the shelves, almost jumping from the ground just to reach it, and rip it downward, items slipping from the shelves with the sudden motion. A deafening crash of wood splinters into the ground as I hurtle my body past the counter and begin swerving through the randomly placed tables.
The bell dings as Eliana clashes through the door, and I'm just dodging out of the way of the last remaining tables that cluster before me as it shrieks behind us. It's so deafening that I can't even tell how far it is from us, and a fear has seeped so deep into me that the only way to go is forward. I don't want to know.
We just need to get outside and around the corner, his car is just ther-
I break through the remaining tables, a sort of glowing light greeting me at the exit, like a hope shining through, but just as quickly as the entrance was coming, my body slips from beneath me, a disgruntled grunt ripping from my throat as I smack against the floor that was once beneath my feet, my back burning.
I heave in breaths, as I flip my aching limbs over, a chair clangs against the ground just a few metres away from me, bearing his rotten teeth as he flings his flailing limbs at me, landing half top of me. His nails dig into my flesh beneath my shirt as he rips himself upward, his teeth aimed at the raw, tender flesh that's attached to my pulsing neck. My hands reach out, straining against his heavy shoulders as the stench of his breath fans over my face. Bile rises up the back of my throat as I swing my head to the side, my cheek cracking against the ground as I somehow attempt to get away from rancid odour.
My arms burn as I push him upward, but he only gets closer to me as I'm pinned to the floor, my attempts futile as my throat grows raw from the silent scream grinding up my throat as I try to push harder against him. My vision blurs, his disfigured face that I'd seen for the past two years, melting together, like water had been spilled upon a painted horror before me.
"Stop, please, stop," my pleas are torn from my throat.
His hot breath fans over my cheek as the salted tears in my eyes slip down the side of my temples.
His cracked lips slowly draw out a singular word.
"Naseria."
My eyes shoot up to his white irises, a hunger feastering behind the mist.
He's no longer Greg, no longer the man who withheld portions of my checks, no longer hungy for money, but for the very flesh upon my bones, and yet through the white hase of his deathly gaze, he seems to remember who I am?
His head flings to the side as a mug smashes the top of his skull and down onto the soft skin of my hollowed cheek as I swing it to the side, my eyes squeezed shut.
"Get off of her," the screeching words are hurtled from the entrance, each word higher than the last, almost morphing into a shattering scream by the end.
And just as quickly as the weight of his body dropped on top of me, it had disappeared, his nails digging further into my skin as he propelled himself forward, a shattering shriek tearing its way from him as his steps staggered against the floor, desperate attempts to get to her.
Something drops within me as I swing around, my hands grappling at the floor as I heave my broken body toward them, the shattered shards of the mug slicing into the delicate layers of my palm, leaving the floor slippery beneath them.
"No!"
It hurt as the single word was ripped from me, everything hurt, and at the exact same time, I felt nothing within me. My heart no longer beat against my ribs as he threw his cold, disfigured body at my sister, slamming them both into the swinging door that she had just gotten through, my skin no longer harboured any warm within me as they both fell towards the pavement outside, a picture of fiery red and ghostly white falling toward the ground. It was as though someone had sucked the air from my lungs as Eliana's small body smacked against the cement, a sickening crack ringing out as her head smacks against the pavement.
"Nas-" the word is never finished as it slips into a blood curdling scream as his head dives for her shoulder, something so chilling my entire body bristles as it fills the space.
Flesh being ripped from the bone.
My hands smack against the door with a splat as my palms leave a bloodied print on either side of me.
Her screams fill my senses, consuming my thoughts, the air, everything. There is nothing that is not her scream, that isn't this very moment, the stillness of right here.
I'm out the door, the cool air hitting my wet cheeks as I stumble through it and grappling at the hem of his button up shirt, ripping him toward me and away from her, but he simply slumps at my feet, his whitened gaze clearing as it seeps away, revealing what lies beneath the hunger.
And that is death and nothing more.
Black liquid oozes from the side of his temple like the one at our apartment, the one I had shot with our gun.
My gaze flickers toward Eliana withering on the pavement as she flips her body to the side, her hand hovering over the wound of her shoulder as she draws her legs into her stomach, her breaths quick and strained.
My legs slump beneath me as I crutch over her, my hands hovering over her wounded shoulder, my vision blurring before me.
Crimson flows down around her balled up figure, the pale yellow shirt becoming more red by the second.
I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.
It's all the rings within me. Within the fog that is my mind.
"Nas... it hurts," her cries blend into the words, making it almost not heard as she gazes up through the strands, the hairs dripping with her own blood.
Through the tears welling in my eyes, I stare down at my lap, my light grey cardigan splattered with droplets of crimson comes into view. I rip from me, slinging it over my head, so numb that the cold no longer exists in the reality that consumes me in this moment. With haste, I pull her arm upward, a cry slipping past her lips with the sudden motion as I push it under the pit of her arm and tie it at the base of her shoulder.
Through the fog of my thoughts, steps grinding against the loose rubble on the cement finds its way to me. My head swings, expecting a frailing pile of ghostly limbs sprinting toward me, but all that I'm met with is a tall figure stopping a few meters from me, in the same tactical gear that the man from earlier was wearing.
They stop, and stand there once again with the helmet on as they hold the long, pointed gun in the grasp of both their hands. And I'm left in the unknown of what they think behind the mask. Left to the fate of their own making. A moment passes, and then they lift the gun toward me, and to the side, another moment passes, and they do the same motion.
They want me to move. They're going to take her life.
My gaze hardened as the droplets of salt slipp down my already puffy cheeks.
"No," its grunted out.
They do the same motion again.
"You're not taking her from me," my words ring throughout the street.
"Please just leave her alone, I can get her help."
They stand there, unmoving.
"Please."
Their finger grazes their thigh, a small rectangular section of the reflective mask flickers up, relieving a pair of eyes behind them.
Their dark feline eyes, gaze though the hemet down at my trembling body slumped over my sister, and through their thick lashes, something shifts within them, something softer than the tonic stare it had just been.
"There is no hospital within this city that will be able to help her now."
And they turn away.
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Chapter word count // 2,017
Overall word count // 23,765