Melody rolled out of the way as the ghoul, a name she decided on because calling him guy or kid or boy or any name that would keep him human in her mind would be detrimental to her survival, jumped her once more. The same primal instinct that had made her angry now filled her with a need to survive, a need to adapt and live to fight another day.
Her mind raced, weapons, she needed a weapon to keep him at bay. Damn her choice not to listen to her mother and keep the small sidepiece she’d gifted Melody with her at all times. A gun would have made this easy, consequences be damned. Thinking of her mother reminded her of the other gift she’d been told to keep close at all times. She reached for the knife hidden in her boot. The short silver blade was gleamed in the streetlight. As the ghoul ran at her she positioned the blade in its path. The blade sunk in and the wound sizzled as the smell of burning flesh and superheated metal filled the air. ‘Huh’ was the only thought she could form before the ghoul screeched and pulled out the knife.
There went that plan, she thought as she noticed the wound was still burning. ‘The blade must have chipped.’
Before she could try anything else, she heard the high-pitched sound of a small object hurtling through the air seconds before an arrow was suddenly sticking out of the ghoul’s eye. “Headshot! See, I told you that wound would have slowed it down. You’ve gotta trust me more sis’, I know my stuff.” The voice uttering these words was that of a girl just a bit away from adulthood.
The voice that followed felt more motherly … matronly? Melody couldn’t think of the right word, her voice felt both old and young and had this authority that could only be found in the voice of a mother. “When we’re in the field, cadet, you call me Misstress. And yes, on this occasion, you were right in your assessment but do I need to remind you of the NUMEROUS times where you did not make an accurate assessment? And had it not been for the chipped blade of the young lady there, it would have been wrong and you would have missed and alerted the beast of our location.” As the motherly woman spoke, Melody got up and the younger woman turned to her.
She rushed to Melody and started checking her for any signs of wounds, Melody was too dazed to process what was happening now that the whirlwind of emotions was over. “No sign of injuries directly caused by the ghoul, just a few abrasions on her arms from being thrown against the pavement. She got lucky.”
The older woman turned to look at the corpse, removed the arrow from the ghoul's eye and closed it’s eyelids. “Rest Bernard, as your father does.” She then took a body bag out of her backpack and stored the body. Then she started a call, “Yes, this is Huntress Hyppolyta, I need a cleanup crew on my location and an identification for a young woman who’s been attacked by the quarry. If it turns out she’s a civvy, I need a blank room prepared.” Melody could barely hear a “Copy.” before Hyppolyta ended the call and handed the younger woman a first aid kit.
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“Echo, please treat her wounds while we wait for the cavalry.” Echo nodded and took out disinfectant spray, a small jar filled with a green goop, a tweezer, bandages, and lots of tissues. She then turned to Melody, “What’s your name?”
Melody, unsure on what to do decided that the best option was to cooperate with the people who’d just killed someone right in front of her eyes. “I’m Melody.” Her voice felt raspy, like she’d been screaming for ten minutes straight.
“Well Melody, as you might have heard from my sister, I’m Echo. I’m going to treat those nasty wounds, is that OK?” Melody nodded and started treating her arms. “Is it all right if I ask you a few questions Melody?” Melody wasn’t really sure how to answer. Right now it felt like she was watching a movie. This wasn’t real, this couldn’t be real … Right?
“Melody? Are you there?” Melody shook her head and answered. “Yes, you can ask me some questions, although I’m not sure I can tell you much about what just happened.”
Echo smiled at her and it was surprisingly soothing. “Don’t worry, we know what happened, we’ve had eyes on Bernard ever since he suddenly appeared at the school. If we’d known he had been turned, we wouldn’t have waited for so long to react. I’m sorry for that. Now, on to the questions. Do you feel any tightness in your chest? Do you have any difficulty breathing or are you feeling lightheaded? And most importantly, are you okay?”
Melody answered no to the first two questions and decided to ignore the third one. Now that the adrenaline was also wearing off, she could feel how much her arms hurt. The pain stopped after Echo applied the green sludge. Lastly, she bound Melody’s arms in bandages to make sure the sludge did its job and after she was done, more and more people started arriving. It was only now that she noticed the uniform. All of them wore the same blue leather pants, they all had a rapier strapped to their side. They also all wore jackets that reminded her of biker jackets, except for the parts of the jacket that had been reinforced by steel that had been painted a matte black. They each also carried another weapon aside from the rapier, these were personalized, although just like the rapier or any other part of the uniform, it didn’t gleam in the light.
A tall man motioned for Hyppolyta to approach. Melody could scarcely make out what he was saying. “We’ve run into some complications regarding the girl Ma’am.” Hippolyta looked at him with annoyance. “What is it now Perseus?” She couldn’t make anything else, not for a lack of trying.
Hippolyta walked up to her and told her to enter a van. Realizing that any chance she’d had of running was now probably gone she complied.