Cherish Red ✔️

Chapter Twelve

~ No Harm Comes To Her ~

Red used one of her inky blade-like arms to decapitate Masey on the spot. She roared, as if one kill hadn't satisfied her enough. Mr. Henderson gasped. First he lost his brother and now this guard's boy? Confusion leaked through his mind like a waterfall. First he hates the boy, and now he's feeling sympathy for a monster?

"Mister! You need to let her go!" Yelled another attacker. Mr. Henderson's fists shook. He wasn't going to give her up so easily. "Get out of here!"

"I can't!" He argued. Mr. Henderson grabbed his chest and cried "Please! Just let me talk to her! You'll only make things worse, I'm telling you!"

"Leave," The girl with the rifle said. She already had several bruises from trying to take Red down. "Or else we'll have no choice but to arrest you."

"Huh?" He gasped. Mr. Henderson couldn't get arrested: if he did, everybody would find out that this was all of his fault and give him a death sentence. "I-"

Mr. Henderson protested at first. But he did his best to predict the outcomes and gave in.

"Fine. I'll leave. But if you dare to kill or even hurt her, I'll call a hitman to take you out myself."

The lady gave a quick nod and returned to shooting at Red. Mr. Henderson flew to the bunker's entrance and a man resembling Masey let him inside. The door immediately slammed down behind him, but it didn't matter at all. Mr. Henderson had failed her and it was all too late...

He was going to lose the daughter he had dared to try and raise.

As he curled up and wept, the fight dragged on. The girl's radio signal tapped into her ear. She rolled her eyes as she kept mindlessly shooting at Red. If she stopped, the monster could easily kill her.

"Hailey! Hailey, are you there?" Asked the voice from her radio. "All you have to say is yes, and I'll tell you what to do next! That thing won't go down! Bullets ain't going to finish 'er off!"

"Okay, yes! I am here!" Hailey scoffed. She'd ran out of ammo, so she threw the rifle into the dirt. "What else can we do, Daniel? We're going to run out of time!"

"Bullshit!" Daniel cursed. "Get that man out of the bunker: if he tries to 'talk' to it, that creature will be distracted and will probably kill him, so we can take it down!"

"Ugh, fine!" She said, stomping on the ground. "You get him though. I'll keep fighting with Pat, Lindsey, and Wyatt! You go now!"

"Okay, I'm going!" Daniel replied. He shoved his portable radio into his pocket and raced to the steel doors. He accidentally bumped into Macey's replacement, but quickly showed him his coded card and let him in. Dan spotted Mr. Henderson curled up to his knees.

"Hey! Are you Eddie Henderson?" Daniel questioned. He was frantic to finish off the monster as fast as possible, even if it meant sacrifice. It was his duty after all. "Because if you are, we desperately need your help!"

"Yeah, yeah, okay!" He mumbled. Henderson shook his head and sighed. "I will help you, as long as it doesn't involve violence or any threat. I will not hurt-"

"I heard! We won't! We need you to talk to her!" Dan lied. Sure, he was actually going to sacrifice this man to the beast, but it was his daughter. "Come on! There's no time to waste!"

Daniel snatched Mr. Henderson's wrist and pulled him out the steel doors, which shut behind them. He felt like he was in one of those action movies where there was an explosion was behind them, and the hero walked out like a boss. But instead he and Mr. Henderson were running and tripping over each other: Not so movie-worthy.

Dan then pushed him towards Red. Mr. Henderson hung his head down. Would this really and truly work? Or was it just another one of the government's schemes against him? He figured that these gunners must be involved with them somehow. Henderson squeezed his eyes shut. Maybe someone would pinch him and wake him up from this horrible nightmare.

He waited.

But it didn't happen.

Recognizing reality, he slowly looked up at Red with newly opened eyes. This was now. Not then. Now. He needed to let go of the past and stand up for her future.

"Red," Mr. Henderson started. "I know it's still you. I know you're still there: you're just... mad. But you don't have to be. I'm mad too. Everyone probably is. But we need to let it go. You need to regain control over yourself and your emotions."

She stared down at him as if he were just a miniature toy to her. Mr. Henderson reached for her face. Red recoiled, as if he were the one to be feared, but he knew that wasn't the case.

"I'm saying this not as your father, but as your creator. I'm the whole reason you're here. The whole reason why all of this happened in the first place. But I can fix it. I took you with me and showed you the world in the wrong eyes. You just need to see the right side and we'll be together again. As a family: not a creator and their creation."

The two stared at one another. Flashbacks of when they first stared at each other like that flooded back to him. Mr. Henderson felt tears and shaky breaths coming up from within his throat. Red just looked at him with no emotion. Was she really lost and gone? Did she lose all of her development?

Mr. Henderson began to lose his train of thought. He began to roll off of the tracks as he wrapped his hands around his neck. He needed to get her back, but he hated it. She's a monster! Mr. Henderson thought as he began to shake. How can you call such a thing your daughter? She's a creation, not a human.

His teeth clenched together as the toxic ideas filled his mind.

This is all of her fault! You know that, right?

You can't love a monster. Remember? They don't have genuine feelings.

Why have a change of heart now? You already killed five of them.

All of this effort is useless. Just leave her behind.

Move on with your life.

There's no point. There never even was.

She's just using you as a way to get out.

This monster portrayed itself as a normal girl: how could you fall for such foolish tricks?

Now look: her plan has succeeded and she's killed everyone you loved.

"NO!"

Mr. Henderson ripped his hands off his throat.

"None of this is your fault!" He cried. Mr. Henderson screamed as more bullets slammed into Red's body and eyes, causing her to roar loudly and fall to the ground.

Every single gunner and governor circled Mr. Henderson and Red. But he blocked all of them out. This was his situation to fix, not theirs.

Taking in a shaky breath, he - like a child - whispered "You're not the monster everyone fears you to be. You're not some beast disguised as a curious girl. You're not a rampaging destruction whose only goal is to kill everything. You're hurt. By me. All of this is my fault because I thought it'd be a good idea to kill your only friend and three others. You've been damaged so horribly, and this is your only way to express it... isn't it?"

His voice wavered on the last sentence. He didn't even realize a river of tears raced past his cheeks. But he did notice that Red's eyes were spilling blood. He couldn't tell if it was from the shot wounds or genuine crying.

But he did know that she was in there somewhere, and he had to find her.​​​​​​​