The Odd One Out

Chapter 8

Summer sits unimaginatively on the steps, her soul already half gone. Her eyes were wide with fear as she stared in horror at the bloodied body a metre in front of her. The body was barely recognisable as an adult male, lying face down on the ground. His white tracksuit stained with blood, his limbs badly deformed by the fall, joints broken in reverse, bones broken into several pieces, bone spurs piercing the flesh and creating a small bulge in his bloodstained trousers.

The skull that had landed first was shattered, splattering red and white all over the floor, mixing with the rain and filling the air with a strong, fishy smell that made her want to vomit.

The time went back to three minutes ago. Summer didn't wait for Oriella, and without looking back, she picked up her pace and headed out. In her mind, the lobby should have been full of staff going home from work, but in fact the large ground floor lobby was empty, as was the reception desk. Apart from her and Oriella, who was silent behind her, she saw no one else. There were enough strange things going on in this company, and she wasn't going to make a fuss about one more now, she just wanted to get out.

The door was a transparent three-winged revolving door and Summer could see that it was still raining outside. As she exited the revolving door, she looked down at the road and walked quickly down the three flights of steps in front of the building, while opening the folded umbrella in her hand. The umbrella looked like it had been used for a long time and the bones were a little rusty, so Summer opened it halfway and it jammed. She paused for a moment and shook the umbrella to see where it was stuck.

Summer had no idea that the moment she stopped because of the stuck umbrella would save her life. She had just shifted her eyes to the umbrella in her hand when a dark shadow with the fishy smell of rainwater wrapped in the strong wind carried by it as it fell from a height, hit the ground hard at a distance that almost brushed narrowly against her nose.

"Bang!"

It was the dull thud of flesh hitting the concrete floor, accompanied by the crisp cracking of bones and the splashing of rain that rang so clearly in Summer's ears. The moment the dark figure slammed down in front of her, she was so shocked by the strong force that she instinctively took a few steps backwards, then tripped on the steps and fell to the ground in a terrible mess. She was unaware of the splashing rain that had wet her clothes, and when she saw what had fallen in front of her, her mind went blank and all that remained was one endlessly frightening thought.

That was close! She had almost been the one to die!

If she hadn't stopped for a moment, she would have been smashed to pieces. A large amount of blood mixed with rainwater flowed out, and the pool of blood quickly spread to Summer's feet, and she scrambled up the steps to prevent it from staining her. The most crowded commercial centre had a dead man in the street, and it was the peak of the closing hours. The crowd of onlookers soon surrounded the scene of the incident in three layers.

Standing on the steps, Summer could only see layers and layers of umbrellas in different colours, forming a huge array of umbrellas that blocked the road. Her legs were now a little weak from the horrible experience of almost going to hell, and she didn't feel like opening her umbrella. No one came out of the building behind her, but Oriella came running out after her, screaming at the sight of the body on the ground: "Oh my God! Someone's dead!"

She looked around and saw where Summer was sitting and rushed over to her, opening her umbrella to shield them from the rain that was falling on top of her head, then pulled Summer up and down, "Summer, are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere? I just saw......" She seemed to be having palpitations at the mention of that scene: "It was so scary to see you almost get hit by him, I was almost scared to death back there. Are you okay?"