❝how do you kill a monster without becoming one?❞
In the last city ruled by man, fish soar in the skies above and monsters lurk in the alleys below. Ten years ago, Jase lost both his legs and his mother to one such monster. However, tragedy couldn't...
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Jase was sprawled out across his couch, doing maintenance on his legs.
He wouldn't say he was good with AI, but he knew enough to run weekly maintenance. His grandfather owned a shop so... Jase just grew up around AI even before his legs...
Rubbing his hand over his right stump, Jase thinned his lips. Both of his legs had been amputated about mid-thigh, but his right leg a little higher up than his left. That had always annoyed him as a kid. It still annoyed him to some extent. Red couldn't have bitten him in the same place on both legs, could she?
What was more concerning though was that Jase had been having problems with phantom pain again. He'd hoped that he'd just messed up when reattaching them during last week's maintenance, but it seemed that wasn't the case. It had been a while since he'd felt the pain, sort of like needles pricking into the stumps.
As Jase reattached his legs, Ghost jumped up on the couch, purring. She was still a stray at heart and Jase couldn't keep her locked in his apartment if he tried - one time he'd accidentally locked her in and felt so bad about it all day but when he got home, she'd disappeared, managing to get out of the apartment and then showing up for canned tuna the next night. But occasionally Ghost would follow him in after dinner and spend the night.
She was a strange cat - a smart cat. She would disappear every once in a while and just when Jase thought she wasn't coming back, there she was, sitting outside his door, waiting for her tuna. Jase would be lying if he said he hadn't come to enjoy her company.
Jase rubbed her head - her favorite place to be pet - as his Chip buzzed. Jase tapped the metal device around his neck and found Huraira had forwarded an invitation to the Rose Petal Ball. Jase had only been to one ball before, one that he had gotten kicked out of before the clock even reached midnight. He and Huraira had fun though. At least someone did.
Smiling to himself, Jase had to wonder if his past sins were forgiven. Probably not. The old generation had long memories but it wasn't a real party unless someone was chastising Jase.
That was when there was a knock on the Jase's door.
The first thought that flashed through Jase's mind was that the Big Five had come back to finish him off. He scrambled to grab his gun, which he had kept within an arm's reach since said incident, night terrors be damned. Whatever little trust he possessed for the dark was long gone, leaving him alone in the shadows with a loaded gun.
In his struggle for the gun, Ghost fell off of his lap, golden eyes staring at the door before she hissed and scampered to the back of his apartment, most likely to hide under his bed.
Should he even risk opening the door? If it really was a Smile then they would just break through his window, like last time. But Jase really couldn't afford to get his window fixed again unless he wanted to eat nothing but noodles for a month. He might as well open the door and save himself the money. Besides since when did Smiles knock on doors?
