Ringing…

All Liam could hear was ringing. He had been hearing sobbing and screaming just a couple of minutes before, so why was he only hearing ringing now?

He couldn’t feel much either, just the slow throbbing of his heartbeat. It felt familiar, that throbbing, even though it had been the first time he’d ever been able to hear it in his life. He looked down, wearily glaring at the results that had come from his earlier actions. The Ego-Death had been pretty weak, fortunately. It had barely been stronger than him, and full of openings for him to exploit. New ego-death never got the handle of their abilities in time if you were fast enough to kill them.

He was kneeling on top of it now, the Ego-Death too bloodied up to even be recognizable as a girl anymore.

Well, Liam was sure he was hardly recognizable either.

Blood erupted from his throat, and he had to catch himself on one arm as he fell forward, almost landing on top of the creature. Instead, Liam vomited pints of blood onto its face. He couldn’t hear it, but the burning in his stomach made him wonder if the class had caught fire.

Everything was too blurry for him to see.

Another surge of blood erupted from his throat, and this time the ringing stopped, and he could hear everyone around him again. His vision cleared up too, for a moment.

No one was screaming anymore, but people were still sobbing, crying into each other’s arms while they looked at him as if he had just tried mutilating them.

Like he didn’t stop the creature that had actually wanted to do that.

It didn’t matter anymore, honestly. Liam was too busy noticing the massive holes in his stomach, and the fact that most of his right arm had been completely torn off. His body had so many tears and rips across it that he felt like a fool for worrying about something as dumb as not being liked, as not making too many friends. He should have cherished what he did have more, instead of focusing on the negatives. Those problems could have been fixed with time after all.

This… though?

It wasn’t something he could come back from.

His only arm finally gave out, and he slammed face first into the bloody, pulpy mess that had been the Ego death’s corpse. He shifted to the side a bit so he no longer had to feel the flesh of the creature so much, and fell to the side, giving him a different perspective on the thing he’d killed. Its eyes were wide open in fear, and its tongue was hanging haphazardly out of its mouth. From the side, when you couldn’t see its transformation, and it almost looked like a normal, terrified girl.

Behind it, the door that was encased in steel suddenly burst forward, and a hand burst out from outside. It was Wyland, you could see his face peek in for a moment. Another hand went in and separated the metal as simply as…

As simple as…

“…Mom.”

The words croaked out of Liam without any reason. Maybe it had been a cry for help, what kind of kid didn’t look to their mom for answers, after all…

He wondered what she was doing right now. Had the news finally made it to her? Wait, this just happened so of course it didn’t. It sucked that this would take time out of her job… Mika would be sad that this happened, and he wasn’t sure if she would take it lying down. He hoped she did, though. People in the badlands didn’t care to much about family, but that woman had always been a bit too sensitive for her own good. If she went for revenge…

He didn’t like the idea of her being killed by a bunch of heroes, even if it was to avenge his life. Besides, none of this had been the school’s fault, it was just bad luck at a bad time.

Liam died, his eyes finally closing as he made his peace with that fact.

His heart beat one last moment, and his mind had the last few sputters of thought…

And then he was suddenly aware again, finding himself in front of the house with a pair of meat scissors in his hands, in front of a landscaped bush that seemed almost complete.

He screamed, falling on his back and scuttling back on all fours until he hit the front door.

His heart was pounding, and his eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his skull because of the rushing thoughts in his head, it took a couple of minutes for him to realize that his body was just working normally.

He had just gotten used to his body being dead.

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The next couple of moments had been a dull blur.

A few moments later and he was trailing on a stolen bike, speeding towards the school as fast as his bare feet could pedal. In the time it had taken him to do this, Liam had figured a few things out.

1. The clones didn’t have anything to wear for shoes because the shoes he’d been wearing to school had been his only pair.

2. They had pretty good fashion taste, or at least, they liked wearing what he usually wore when there was nothing important to do.

3. He had died. Really, actually died, and this body he was in wasn’t his.

There were a few things he still hadn’t figured out, like which copy he had taken, or why the hell it had been taking care of the front yard, but he still had to make sure of one thing.

He had to make sure all of this was real.

Car horns blared at him as he passed a red light, something he thought had only stood for cars. Another car blared at him when it whizzed past him, even though he had moved to the other for it to pass. This happened for a couple more minutes until he saw the school.

And the huge crowd surrounding the gates.

His mind was buzzing as he went closer, throwing the bike aside when there had finally been too many people to ride through. Everyone was being loud, some with worry while most seemed to be shouting in anger. Liam couldn’t make sense of it until he made it to the front, having to shove and elbow half the people he passed to get there.

The first thing he had seen was the crater on the side of the school, and the man standing next to it with death in his eyes. Liam ducked, fear taking over his mind when he saw them.

Wyland.

They were standing stock still, doing nothing but staring at the hospital van. Paramedics were running all around while they stood there, awkwardly making their around him like ants did a pebble in the road. He could see all of his classmates sitting at the side of the school, some drinking water carefully with the help of the paramedics, each with some sort of metal blanket around them. None of them looked any better than Wyland, making the situation seem so much grimmer than it really was.

Only one person had died after all.

…right?

Liam had almost decided it hadn’t been worth it to make an appearance, until he saw a couple paramedics walk out with a gurney. A body had been inside it, covered with a sheet and strapped down with metal clamps. He sighed, wondering how his body was making trouble for people even in death. It made sense, considering it could turn into an Ego death at any second. Liam’s death had been particularly gruesome, and even though he had… died peacefully, none of these people had any way of knowing that.

Forgetting his earlier fear, he pushed past the tape, earning a couple of yells from the security guarding the scene. Liam didn’t care, too focused on making sure the truth. He jumped over one of the guards trying to tackle him, and started running.

Sweat was running down his forehead while he ran, but it wasn’t due to the effort. He was scared again. As the paramedics hurriedly brought the gurney toward the vehicle he had started experiencing a hellish dread that made him want to turn back. Maybe that wasn’t him. Maybe he had died too early and the Ego death had just fallen unconscious…

Maybe he was actually just a clone, and the moment he saw the body he’d come to terms with that fact and finally dissolve into dust.

His thoughts were interrupted as a soldier twice his weight finally made the purchase on his back, throwing him to the floor with a thump.

“Wait, let go of me! You don’t understand!”

He was picked up by two more soldiers, and was being dragged away from himself, from what he hoped to dear god wasn’t the truth.

He needed to know!

“Wyland! Wyland, It’s me, Liam! I’m alive!”

Despite the noise in the area, the hero flinched.

Hard.

His eyes turned in his pinpoint direction, as if Liam had instead shouted right into his ear. He grinned, hoping that was enough to get him free passage toward his corpse.

“Yeah! It’s me! Wyland let me throu-”

Something came from the sky behind him, a dark figure with streaking black hair.

It landed on Wyland, who jutted out a hand in response, stopping the blow while the earth beneath him shattered. The figure had a look of complete rage on her face, and Wyland couldn’t even see as the earth below him gave way as the woman slammed him into the ground, causing an even bigger rupture.

The soldiers holding him went twice as fast as the scene broke out, and Liam was left shocked at what had happened.

Why was his mom here!?

The soldiers were pulling him back as the fight continued, and Liam could soon see who was clearly going to win. Even though Mika had landed the first few hits, Wyland had soon gotten up, looking just as depressed as before as he dodged her attacks. It wasn’t that he was more skilled, his powers just made him faster than his mom’s brute strength.

His mom was going to die here.

Without thinking, Liam bit down on his tongue.

The blood tasted like copper on his dry mouth, but it was just what he needed.

Just like last night, blood poured out of the wound in amounts that wouldn’t be possible in a normal human body. It coagulated immediately in the air, falling in front of him and transforming into a copy almost instantaneously.

He didn’t even need to give it the order to run, bolting forward with a speed that was inhumane. The soldiers tried to reach out to it but it was gone in a flash, and Liam hoped that even without words, it could-

And then he found himself running.

The shift was jarring, but instinct kicked in and he bolted toward the direction of his mom. Wyland had finally pinned her to the floor, using his legs to stop the woman’s superior strength in a headlock. Even if she had been a title-holder back in the third district, she had been only that. People in this district were raised and taught to be the best fighters and killers in the country.

She was going to die.

He charged, accepting the fact that he’d go along with her. Wyland saw him and looked like he was going to say something, but the words were immediately stopped by Liam punching him as hard as he could in the face. He could feel his hand break, but sent another wild punch, and then another and it was only then that his mom looked up at him.

She was crying.

He gritted his teeth.

“Get the hell away from my mom, you psycho!”