A Murderer's Era

BE BRAVE.

                                                             SHIRO

We left the room quietly, my mind told me to go back, but I moved on. I can't be a coward in this situation, or else there would be so many people dead. Besides, I'm not alone this time, I have Kosame. Even though I hate to admit it, he is a better fighter than me, but at least that's in everyone's favor (except this mentally disoriented guy). We tried to move straight forward, but we both heard a deathly scream coming from below, it seemed like it would be three-four floors beneath us. I grit my teeth; we must use the stairs since they cut the power. We walked silently, holding each other's hand in a death grip, worried someone would jump out at us any minute now. We made our way to the last room, by the stair exit, and we saw a liquid creeping along the floor, coming from the last room. We edged closer. Blood. I jumped back a little, staring at the gray liquid crawling along the floor, I looked at Kosame, who was also staring at it, and we kept moving. We made our way to the next floor down, and we stood there, looking at the hallway that seemed even more dangerous. I held my breath. "It's okay darling." Kosame said with a wink, and chuckled. That lowered the intensity from before. "Why would you even say that?" I whispered harshly. Now that Kosame lowered the intensity a little, I could concentrate better. I took the first step to the dangerous hallway, Kosame followed. We continued that pattern until the hallway reached a dead end. I turned sideways, facing the last door of the hallway. For some reason, something felt off about this door. Kosame knew this as well and squeezed my hand. We needed to open the door. We have too. I squeezed my eyes shut, and I took a deep breath. I felt the doorknob, it was cold. I twisted the knob, and the door creaked open. I took a step inside the room, it smelled metallically, the same stench I smelled in the alleyway from the murder of Emily and Trenna...Grey liquid, which I assumed to be blood, flowed freely from a dead corpse.

The moonlight was shining onto the corpse's face, which was a young woman. Her eyes were wide open, and blood oozed from beneath her body, I saw her stomach, it was torn. I remembered what the murderer said, "I'M GOING TO GOING TO KILL YOU ALL...I AM GOING TO SCATTER YOUR GUTS OVER EVERY WALL!!" I immediately looked at the walls, blood trickled down from it. And something was smeared all over the walls, which I assumed to be the woman's guts. I felt like I wanted to vomit, Kosame squeezed my hands tighter. I squeezed his hand back, this means more people will die like this, won't they? There seemed to be a message on the walls, "You were too late." I assumed this message would be for the police. I turned swiftly on my heel, Kosame shook his head, and led us away from the room, we couldn't waste time gawking at a dead body. Or else, more people will die.

We walked out of the room opening the door next to the room next to the corpse, and I smelled the same stench. I scrunched up my nose and looked away, the murderer did this to everybody in this hallway. I walked away again, tears filling my eyes, who would do this? I closed my eyes for a second, calming myself down. I heard music coming from the speakers, I reopened my eyes in surprise. "You're too late." The voice on the speaker chuckled, the music it was playing was some catchy 80's song I'd catch my dad listening to. This means he was giving away his location, he was at the front desk. Kosame seemed to know this as well and we both tried to run quietly down the stairs. I tried to stop panting or at least try to make it quieter, somehow, I couldn't hear anything from Kosame. I heard the music become louder, but the only thing I was focusing on was the cut short half desperate screams, near where the front desk was.

As we were growing nearer to the front desk, I felt myself misstep on one of the stairs. I lunged forward; I knew I was going to fall face first. I widened my eyes; I couldn't make myself balance! I gulped, something tightened in my chest. This was going to give away our location, thoughts were swirling in my mind. Something grabbed my arm, I glanced back, I faintly saw Kosame struggling to pull me back up. He pulled me backward, I felt relieved. "Thank you-" I said through a gasp. I clutched my chest, trying to stop my uneven breathing. He nodded at me and continued down the stairs. I gulped and followed him, I prayed we didn't make too much noise to give away our location. I carefully watched my step.

At the last step I heard the stair creak, I squirmed, and breathed heavily. I shook my head; it didn't make that much noise. I frantically looked around for Kosame, I felt a slight tug on my hand. I turned around; I saw Kosame, pointing near the corner. I raised my eyebrow, I followed while he led the way again. Kosame and I peeked around the corner, I squinted, there were bodies lying on the ground, bodies in twisted directions. I winced; it looked so painful... I saw a man laughing to himself, sitting on a desk proudly, dancing a little to the music. Kosame took the first step toward him. I felt pensive, but I had to follow. Every step I took felt like the loudest sound ever. Every step I took, I glanced up, seeing if he noticed, but he kept facing one of the dead nurses. Kosame took tinier steps, I disagreed with that strategy since we needed to hurry up. I shut my eyes closed for a second and breathed, everything is going to be all right, do not worry. I took a step, breathing softly, until the floor creaked. That one, small creak, was the end of our stealth. The man turned his head in our direction, grinning sinisterly, and bounced off the chair. "Ah, is somebody there?" He paused for an instant, "Come out, please, come here...It'll just be a painless death, I don't want to find you."

I wanted to shriek, but I kept my sounds quiet. I can't be scared... My hand formed into a fist, I felt as if something almost switched inside me. The man came closer, confidently, and elegantly. He had his twenty-centimeter-long knife in his left hand. Kosame stood frozen, I did the same, what could I do? The man was growing closer, and closer, until I snapped. I darted toward him, I faintly saw Kosame trying to reach for me, almost shouting out the word 'idiot.' It didn't matter, I needed to save him! "Ah, brave I see? Trying to save your friend, how adorable! Sadly enough, your guts will soon be smeared over every wall." He laughed, his voice seemed like he was enjoying this, soon enough, you will regret this. He grabbed my neck with his right hand, and with his other, he thrusted upward, trying to stab me in my lower stomach. Though, I pushed his hand back, gripped his wrist, and with my left hand, sucker punched his jaw. He stepped backward a few steps, clutching his jaw. Kosame came running up from behind me, thrusting his knee into the man's stomach. The man pushed Kosame's knee aside, brandishing his knife, which was ready to swipe across Kosame's neck. But he stepped back and sidestepped to the man's right. I ran behind the man, side kicking his ribs, and soon after, Kosame grabbed the back of the man's head with one hand and slammed it into the desk. The man soon gave a slight groan, blood spilling. The man went limp after a minute. Kosame still held his head down. Soon after, he released his grip and stepped back. Kosame turned to talk to me, his face forming a glare, but that wasn't what I was focused on. I saw the man slowly rising, a grin on his face, he ran toward Kosame, and I pushed him out of the way, as hard as I could. "Kosame- '' I started to say, but the man thrusted his knife into my arm, and swept across. I held in a shriek, as I clutched my arm. Kosame turned around quickly and backhanded the man's jaw. A welt already forming. The man ignored it and tried to grab Kosame's neck, but as Kosame was about to dodge, the man juked him and dragged his knife across Kosame's stomach. While the man was busy with Kosame, I grabbed him from behind, trying to tackle him, and strangle him with my arms, but he managed to slam me on the pillar, which made me go limp at first, but soon after I yanked the man's left arm and yanked him to the side, which Kosame came from the side thrusting his leg into the man's side. The man shrieked, clutching his ribs, and Kosame held his arms behind his back. The man kept flailing, and screaming, trying to get away, and I even heard a distinctive snap, which I assumed was his arm, breaking in the process. I winced.

Kosame gripped onto the man, he mouthed to me, "Is the police here yet?" He seemed annoyed, I glanced at the door, I saw blue and red lights flashing. I heard the wails of the police sirens, I gave a sigh, "Finally..." The police shortly came bursting through the door, tackling the man, Kosame, and I. I grumbled, "Seriously..." I heard the police officers rushing through the doors, yelling orders. I couldn't hear anything, only a slight ringing in my ears, and I began to close my eyes. The pain in my arm felt like it was burning, I winced. I wondered if Rei and Rika were all right, and not scared. I wouldn't want to worry them. Soon after, I was unconscious, leaving me to only see pitch black.