Ahhh, what a beautiful day. As I stared at the orange sunset barely bathing me in warmth. The sun that fell from the sky was covered by the old buildings that surrounded us with shadows at the dead end of an wide alleyway. Listening as the Cicada made their singing noises from the summer, a shivering sensation ran through my body. Why am I doing this? Lowering my gaze from the twilight at the trembling girl with her back against a tall wooden fence. I stared at the schoolgirl with my cold eyes...
Did I lose to jealousy? Am I so inhuman that I would hurt my childhood friend? How did this even start in the first place? Lowering myself towards the helpless girl that laid there with her green and black sailor school uniform. I seized her soft and silky black hair with my burning hand, raised her beautiful and dirtied face that stared on the ground towards my black eyes.
“Noah… It hurts” she said, as glittering tears rolled down from her blue eyes and covered the stone road in darkness.
Why… I don’t understand... And those eyes… Stop gazing into my blackened soul, Ayumi… Avoiding her eyes, I released my once beloved friend, stood up with my heavy legs that dragged me towards the ground as I could hear groans nearby. Holding my aching left arm that could barely lift, I walked towards one of the boys laying on the ground barely conscious.
Kicking the supposed boyfriend at the stomach that lightly wettened the road with his drool, I checked the other two that followed him here. Even though I used to be a bully, at least you could come here alone after all that bragging and mocking towards the tolerant me at school… I even quit long ago or did you still bear a grudge against me?
Taking a last breath of the stale air of rustic blood, I took out a gift from my pocket that I had gotten this year with a platinum chain attached to the platinum object and checked the time. Tch… It’s 7… 1 hour left until lockdown...
Putting back the first and probably the last gift from Ayumi. The pocket watch now laid gently inside my pocket of the black sweater, I took a last glance behind me towards her who sat there crying as she held her knees against the wooden fence. I am sorry… I don’t even know how it ended this way… A cold drop of a single tear rolled down my slightly swollen cheek.
“I guess this is it…” I muttered, "Where we part and take our different paths..."
Taking the first step towards the street from the shrouded alleyway, a cold breeze together with a sudden darkness filled my vision, stretching endlessly to the end of nothingness. What's going on? Where am I? I... I can't even see my hands... It was as if I was blind, I could see nothing other than reach out my hand to feel around me.
"Hehehehe"
An eerie tone of a girl made a shiver run down my spine. My heart started to race filling my palms with sweat. A stench of decomposition crept closer to me through the total darkness. I picked up pace, walking towards what I believe was once a street but now only pitch black. Am I even walking straight?!
"Hello?!" I screamed, looking around, hoping for some answers as my sense of direction have been scrambled.
"..."
This... Uneasy feeling… No… Not her. As I kept walking the sound of bones crushing and tissues being ripped apart could be heard from behind me. With a tremble I turned around but found nothing but an endless darkness. The stench of rotten flesh and blood sent desperation after me. My fingers started to shake… Wave pulses was created starting from my feet with each step I took on the black floor. I ran as the dripping rustic liquid echoed through my ears.
"Hehehe"
Shit! Have I finally lost my sanity!? I need something to calm myself...
"Tick... Tick..."
The Pocket watch? Feeling around the pocket in my sweater I took out the clock and opened the lid.
19:06:14.
19:06:15.
19:12:17
20:42:53.
22:11:32.
What the hell?! I have lost it now... Either the pocket watch just skipped time itself or I ain't even self aware anymore, shiit!!
Wait... Why can I only see this?
"Noah..."
The tone of Ayumi stopped me on my run... No, what felt like chains and hands with icy cold fingers that held me down while draining the warmth from my feets did... My heart shrinked, the ache on my left arm took hold as I struggled to get lose to no avail.
"Noah..."
Hah... I get it now... What was it? The recent brutal murders in the news... No wonder the bright guy I usually avoid in school suddenly wanted to meet me on my last day… The manipulative type?
Trembling I took a deep breath and turned around towards the sound that kept creeping closer. As I stood there in the pitch black darkness with my visible watch that echoed its ticking music, I gazed upon the humanoid like creature that was a total abomination...
"Noah... " she said, staring at me with those bright red eyes that lit the darkness together with blood dripping from her decayed mouth. Draining my strength until I fell on my knees onto the colourless floor, the bodies of my classmates ripped to shreds laid there behind her. Urgh… I want to puke...
“Ayumi... That new look doesn’t suit you…” I said, putting back the watch inside of what felt like my soft sweater while holding in the uneasy feeling in my stomach that could burst out in any seconds.
"Noah... " She said, walking closer to me as her gigantic arm made her unbalanced body stumble a few times.
“... When did it start? Was it at that rainy day? If only I noticed it sooner… I could have prevented this...” I muttered, staring at the black floor that reflected a teen from the asiatic regions. It’s strange… Why can’t I see what I want to see?
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Noah…” She said, grabbing my collar with her gigantic arm and lifted my weightless body to the stale air.
Closing my eyelids, tears rolled down my cheek, “...Sorry Ayumi… I didn’t join the Order after that bloody incident 5 years ago for nothing...”
“Noah.... Food… I like, I love...” She said, bringing my neck closer to her mouth filled with drool and pieces of flesh, while tears dripped from her eyes to the floor creating waves as if we stood on a puddle of water disturbing the smooth surface. Those red tears definitely doesn’t suit you… I gently caressed her cheek from the blood as she pulled me closer.
“Aaaaah” She moaned, gaping her mouth open with thousands of bloodied teeth.
Bound by a contract and oath, I call for you, come forth… At my command a crimson black customized desert eagle appeared from thin air. Grabbing it with my right hand I aimed the handgun inside her throat filled with sticky drool.
Starting from where I was, the once colourless world of darkness started to be filled with colours, revealing the hidden alley with the full white moon shining its light at the bloodied scene. So this is how it feels to have all your senses scrambled without the weapon… Master, I forgot about the rules you gave me…
Ayumi… “I’m sorry, I couldn’t fulfill my promise...” I muttered, with my finger trembling on the cold trigger… Why you of all people? Tch... Never falter against your enemies... even if they were once your soulmate.
“Click”
“BANG!” echoed throughout the city, the sound left the night Cicadas flying instead of singing their music.
Blood scattered on the wooden fence and the stone alley. A tiny smoke left the wet gun barrel, as the now struggling creature released my collar and fell to the ground. Wiping my face, I aimed the gun stained with drool at the body of the creature.
“BANG!” “BANG!” “BANG!” “BANG!” “BANG!” “BANG!” “Reload”
“N…”
“BANG!”
With each gunfire the creature got shredded to pieces, blood scattered to the ground and walls, some even onto the shredded leftover bones and flesh of my classmates that laid nearby. Gazing upon the scattered stars, cold liquid fell onto my cheek. Rain drops started to sting my vision as the streetlamps tried to illuminate the dark city. The water that fell onto the ground, cleaned the scene from the bloody mess… Running like a tiny red river to the hole in the ground to the systems.
Tch… Once again a rainy day...
Closing my eyelids I waited as the raindrops drenched my clothes in heavy water that shattered into tiny pieces as they collided with my wet face…
Waiting for hours that passed by I could hear those related to my classmates, mourn at front of the four coffins as rain fell heavily from the cloudy sky.
Opening my heavy eyelids in dire need of rest, I checked the time... 13:13… Lowering the platinum pocket watch, I stood at front of the coffin with the remains of Ayumi. Kneeling, I sullied my pants with wet mud while I gently placed my flowers to pay my respect. Standing up I went back to the sidelines for the next person presumably one of her relatives. I stared at the coffins that the murky clouds above passed by one by one.
A pat on my right shoulder removed my trance of silence, a tall and broad man with a wet black suit like mine stood beside me and said “You are lucky, it could have been worse… Especially since you are a recruit in training. ”
Master… I would definitely have died if she didn’t… “She held back, more than I could ask for…” I answered with my burning fist clenching the gift while gazing at the handsome black haired man around his twenties with brown iris and a scar across his nose.
Patting my wet and messy black hair with his warm hands, he said “Even after standing here all day out of guilt without sleeping, know that this isn't your fault Noah Akatsuki… That anger should be directed to the mutated virus that clad themselves in human skin”
“I know… But, to think it was that easy to manipulate me…” I said, grinding my teeth soon after as I avoided his eyes, gazing down onto the wet green grass.
“That happens when you haven't summoned the Magic Gun for a while. Remember this lesson… Never trust anyone unless they are a user, actually not even them and not even your closest friend, as you can see...” He said, patting my head once again with a gentle smile that eased my mind.
I nodded, “Yes, master…” Though it was you who forbid me from summoning it… And what a cruel method to train me… Bastard...
"Noah, do you remember the Oath we made a few years ago?" he asked, even though he knew that I wrote it inside my heart.
Heh..."Never falter against your enemies even if they were once your soulmate; Never waver against the world even if you are alone; Believe in your heart and never give up" I said simultaneously together with my master who joined midways.
He grinned and added, “The car is waiting for you outside. You had your last days… It’s time for you to move on to your new environment provided by the Order and train to become a stronger hunter”
I bowed, ‘Master... Thank you for taking care of me all those years.”
“Heh” He gently laid the black fedora on his wet hair and turned towards the gate, bright red, “Lets go, shall we?”
I smiled as the sky cleared, revealing the blue sea together with the sun that happily bathed everyone at the ceremony with warmth, “Yeah, I forgot that you were the one driving”
“Heh, lets go… To your new home.”
The Order… The organization worldwide known that revealed themselves around 15 years ago to fight the new mutated strains of virus called Human Virus or in short H virus. It only affect humans and is capable to transform those affected into monsters disguised as the host. Not only that, they blend in within the society of humans, eating the non infected whenever they could… It’s the Orders job, No… Ours to find and hunt those that threaten the humanity with our new weapon.
The Magic Guns.