What I'd do for Love

Grey

I froze. Time stopped. Everything slowed down. The only thing that I saw was a shadow, emerge from the person AFTER they came into view. At this point, I thought I'd gone insane. There's no way this was happening. No. Way. There wasn't a guy at the back, waiting behind the dumpsters. People came out from the Grill every five minutes to throw crap out, but no one was here yet. I stood still, praying that someone would come along. No one did. The person breathed, not a normal sound, it sound pressured. Strangled. Helpless. It took a step forward, and the light found him.
He was a tall man. Around six foot one, and was rather buff. His clothes were leather. Leather jacket, leather shoes, leather trousers. But, there was something. They looked... Dyed. Strong in some places, and non existent in others. The light wasn't strong enough to see. He held something in his arm, I couldn't see it clearly either. I could see something very clearly. Very clearly
He was wearing a mask.
It wasn't a normal looking one. It was... odd. Like someone had vent the rules of reality a bit. It was white all over, but it had red patches on the sides, and a faded, red mouth painted around the area. The edges of the mouth were lined with red, in which a line of red creeped up towards his eyes. The eye holes were just as big as they needed to be. The rugged edges of the mask almost seemed to fuse with the wearer. It looked stuck to his skin. His eyes.... they were brown, but they looked red, as if someone had tainted them. I don't know why, but as soon as he saw me, he smiled. I could tell. He took a step towards me, measuring the distance between us with his eyes. He took another step. Then another. Then another. Until he was a couple of inches away from him. He was still breathing steadily. No panic in his eyes. The stuff on his clothes wasn't dye. It was blood. Strong in some places, faint in others. The metallic smell became stronger. The place seemed to become darker. There was a knife in his hands. The size of my arm, it seemed. He raised it, ready to strike, to kill me, to maul my corpse with a metal tooth, when out of nowhere, I heard someone call my name.

We both looked sideways. Of all the people. It could've been a homeless man, it would've been a Grill worker, heck, I would've been happy with another murderer. Instead of it being someone who helped me, it was someone who stood back and watched one of the only thing I cared about stolen away from me.
Justin.
He stood there, as if he was a hero, not a bystander. He clearly saw the same thing as me, because his eyes didn't leave the man himself. I saw his facial expression change, morph almost, into disgust.
"Where have you been?" He called, stepping into the alleyway "Everyone has been scared shitless about you!"
"Yeah, well I wasn't too happy myself, and I'm kinda busy here" I nodded towards this... thing. I wasn't entirely sure what was going on in this guys head. I'm pretty sure he was a prankster. A joker. Probably doing this for a laugh. But... the mask...
"Come on then. You've got to tell people your still kicking!"
'Ignore him' I heard the voice in my head say
'Shut up' I thought
"Yeah it sounds good." I took a step out, towards Justin, out of the way of whatever the fuck that was.
It stopped me.
"You can't leaaavveee?" It said, twisting it's body so it could block me.
"Your goooiinng to diiieee heeerrree" It mustered it's breath, and swished. The knife sailed towards me, making a whistling sound, and I froze.
'Duck' The voice came to my mind. Somehow, I managed to hear and follow it. I ducked. The blade swished over my head, barely missing my head. The thing growled.
"It told me to kill yoouuuuuu" It murmured repeatedly "KILL youuuu..". He swung again, faster, angrier, efficient.
'Grab his hand' the voice said
'Are you crazy?!?' I thought 'it'd kill me if it had the chance!'
'It'll freeze after its next one, I'll make sure of that' the voice said. I swear I saw a face wink in my mind as it entered my mind.
"No! I will killl thisss oneeeee. You toldddd meeee tooooo!" It argued. I don't know who to. We were the only people here. I heard Justin approaching from my back. For some reason, this assured me. If I died, Justin would go and get help. This creep would go to jail, and we could all live happily ever after. Well, minus me, who'd be dead on the floor.
"Holy shit" I heard Justin mutter under his breath as he got a closer look. I wasn't worried about him though, I was worried about the death threat in front of me. I waited until he was about to swing, and, as he did so, I shoved Justin out of the way, throwing myself on the floor, and dragging him along with me. It missed, and.... froze. Just froze. Like the voice in my head said it would. Using this to my advantage, I locked myself up, spun round, and roundhouse kicked him in the jaw. It made the most satisfying CLACK sound I've heard in a while, and his jaw almost spun. He staggered back, still slightly frozen, muttering "You lied to me, you lied to me, I'm not boring yet, no no no...". I carried on, almost relentlessly, hitting him in the face, the stomach, the face. I never saw him bleed, I only heard the sound of plastic hitting skin as I punched the mask. I felt oddly satisfied, as if I was letting out all my anger, all my fury, on this creature. This thing that wanted to take my life, and would if I let it. The beating continued, teeth fell, bruises busted out of the hole I'd made in its shirt. Finally, after a long and thorough beat down, it fell, after a long period, tired. He was breathing. Unfortunately
'We could change that' the voice said. 'Your welcome for my help, by the way'
'Huh?' I thought 'what do you mean?'
'You could kill him' It murmured
And that's where it all went wrong