Carnivore

v) Impetum

THE SKIES OPENED UP TO POUR CRIMSON RAN DOWN ONTO THE EARTH. Wherein the warmth of sunlight had vanished from her fading grasp, peppered with the taint of rust, of fallen souls that marked their passing by gouging tally marks into her very heart.

Steel and stone made up the urban jungle landscape, dust kicked up with the wind, and the flecks of crimson rain coloured the grey with its visceral hues. Her feet scraped against the rough asphalt she traversed, listless as she shielded her eyes from the rain to attempt to see through the dark. The acrid stench burns as she breathes, as if she had inhaled smoke instead of air, and her eyes stung just as much.

It was as if she was alone in the world, the only one left alive walking through a wasteland of human creation.

Perhaps, she really was.

The street she followed lead through a span of cityscape marred by crumbling buildings as streams of steady red trailed across the pavement, running along the edges of the road to pour down the storm drains. In a twisted sense the rain felt warm, but the wind was as cold as winter hail. The frigid bite tore through her flesh as if she were simply made of paper and water.

The rain falling from the skies grew heavier, thicker as it splattered against her body and blanketed the ground in red, and as she took a step forward, the chilling crack of crumbling stone permeated the air. Something latched onto her ankle through the dark, bringing her to snap her gaze straight down. A hand had risen from the cracks beneath her feet, skin wafer thin and splitting, and stained with blood as it tightened painfully around her ankle.

She tried to rip her leg free from the hand, to put as much distance between herself and the hand.

And with every shallow breath that escaped her, the more the ground beneath her began to crack.

Hands arose from the ground, latching onto her to halt her movements, to trap her within the rain and their painful grasp.

Until one last, deafening crack of stone, the slow groan of warping metal rung through the haze of terror and rain, and the ground beneath her gave way to reveal an endless pit of empty darkness below.

As she fell through the darkness, a strangled scream jolted her from the darkness.

And Kennedy Zinnia woke up.

Throwing herself upright, heaving shallow, ragged breaths and choking on the dry scratching of her throat, Zinnia's heart raced within her chest. Her hands had risen to cover her mouth out of instinct, cupping to hold her breath hostage. Tears prickled at the corners of her eyes as she struggled to calm herself down.

'Not again...' She whimpered as she screwed her eyes shut to block out the blurs of pre-dawn greys and moonlight blue from her vision.

The faint peppering of soft snores broke the otherwise terrified reeling of her mind's spiralling, reminding Zinnia before long that she wasn't actually home.

As the minutes ticked by and her breathing had finally settled down to its usual rhythm, she lifted her head to cast a small glance towards the sleeping redhead just a few feet away.

Kirishima lay undisturbed by Zinnia's nightmare, mouth agape as he snored away with a faint twitch of his every now and then causing his snoring to pause briefly.

Zinnia recalled that following Kaminari's mandatory tour of the arcade that evening, it had gotten late enough that Kirishima had essentially insisted that she stay the night, or at the very least, he walked her home. Needless to say, Zinnia didn't need very much convincing to wind up staying.