Afterlife

30

Ever since she'd seen the horrors of the devastating destruction outside the hall, Connie had remained in a trance of sorts as her mind failed to produce a reason that could possibly excuse such animalistic behavior, especially from the people she'd come to know and trust for the entirety of her life in this place. She remained in this state for how long...? She could not tell. In fact she hadn't even noticed that they had moved from their previous position outside the hall until she felt herself forcefully awakened when they were rushed from behind, and she saw Santino fall forward, their attacker close on his heels before her vision swirled off in another direction as Marcus stumbled forward slightly from the shock of the sudden blow, spinning slightly in attempts to regain his balance, whilst maintaining his hold on Connie. Thanks to his years training and experience, he managed to regain his balance with reasonable ease, before he turned his head slightly to see if Connie had been harmed in any way. "Are you alright?" he questioned, noticing that the blow seemed to have returned her to her senses.

"I'm fine," she replied quickly as she slid down from his back before turning just in time to see Santino pull off his hat trick in order to free himself from his attacker's grasp, feeling her entire body wince as she heard his painfilled cry as he did so, and saw the look of obvious agony on his expression after he finished the motion. Then looking to their attacker, she saw that he was recovering from Santino's act much faster than he was, and that he was in the process of rising to his feet once more to have another go at Santino while he was still blinded by his own pain.

She was just about to step forward herself when Marcus held her back, touching her shoulder with his hand as he stepped past her saying, "Allow me," as he marched confidently over to where their attacker was still attempting to rise to his full height.

The man must have heard Marcus coming, because by some instinct he turned to look in Marcus' direction, and the look of menacing confidence about his every feature as he made his approach, filled the man with a fear he never expected to experience as he dropped his knife and began backing away from the scene, but Marcus, having expected this to happen, increased his speed at the last second, instantly closing the gap between himself and the attacker as he dealt the man a powerful blow to the head, knocking him out instantly as the man crumpled to the ground in an unconscious mess.

Having watched all this play out from the sidelines, and finding the actual sight of it quite amusing in the moment, Connie then smiled briefly upon realizing that the threat had been neutralized. Then, her heart unexpectedly leapt into her throat as she felt her ear twitch sharply in a direction to her right as she heard what sounded like a pistol hammer being pulled back. Whipping her head immediately in the direction of the sound, this feeling only intensified when she saw a second attacker that none of them had noticed.

A young girl, about Fiara's own age, with short, dark hair, was standing in the middle of the street with a slight smirk on her face. Her pistol aimed in the direction of both Marcus and Santino.

Connie rapidly looked from her to her friends and back again as she tried to ascertain who her bullet was meant for, but she couldn't be sure. Either way, it was evident that neither one of the boys had noticed the second attacker's presence, and there wasn't enough time to warn them as all of this had taken place in only a matter of seconds.

Realizing there was little else she could do, she then screamed out, "NO!" as she sprang into action, sprinting to a position between the attacker and her beloved friends. Then the second she'd reached her desired position, there was a bright flash of light, and a loud sound that reverberated around the entire area, echoing off the surrounding buildings and trees before it finally faded away into the distance, leaving the area once again shrouded in a deathly silence.