1. *The Fuse is Lit*

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Chapter 1 – The Fuse is Lit

TRIGGER WARNING: MENTIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT

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TRIGGER WARNING: MENTIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT

In the graveyard hours of the night the streets were deserted. Garbage littered the ground in front of the newsagents and fast food restaurants, splayed open by scavenging foxes. The ambient sounds of the city of London now a muted mumble instead of its usual deafening roar.

Frantic footsteps interrupted the peace.

A middle-aged man dashed across the street, sweat glistened from his wrinkled forehead as he tripped over his own feet in his desperation. His breathing was laboured as he tried to get away from whatever was chasing him, his body racing into the nearest alleyway clumsily.

With his arms waving wildly and eyes filled with palpable fear you would think a beast was chasing after him.

In a way one was.

After taking dozens of turns and losing his own sense of direction the man couldn't physically move any longer. He collapsed against the wall to his right and held his hands to his knees in an effort to recover his breath.

When his vision started becoming blurred and nausea rose from his stomach the man prayed to whatever God was listening.

"Please, please, please, please, please, please." He muttered under his breath, his lips quivering in terror as he prayed for escape.

"Isn't that what she said?" A voice whispered from above.

The man's entire body jolted in shock, throwing himself to the ground and crawling backwards as his head snapped in the direction of the voice. He looked up to see a petite woman crouched on the windowsill above his place of rest.

Her angular face matched the sharpness of her voice, a slight narrowing of her eyes being the only physical indication of her rage.

"S-she's lying, I didn't do anything to her. I swear I didn't do anything." His voice shook and stuttered and broke. Tears sprung to his eyes as he panicked hoping for escape. But his body betrayed him, freezing in fear, his eyes refusing to budge from the crouched predator above him.

"She said no. In fact, she screamed no, and you didn't listen. Neither did the courts apparently because here you walk free. While she has to live with what you did." The woman's foreign accent became more and more evident as her voice began shaking with rage.

A scowl forming on her lips as she looked down on the mewling creature below her.

"No, I'm innoce-" His pleading was cut short when the woman leapt from the windowsill, her entire right arm blazing with a volatile orange energy as her fist connected to his face.

A wave of heat washed over the surrounding area; the dark burning red-orange energy seemingly unable to be contained to just her arms. The man screamed in agony, a sizzling sound could be heard as the burnt flesh on his cheek held the indentation of a fist.

ATLAS • W. MAXIMOFFWhere stories live. Discover now