Cherish Red ✔️

Chapter Fourteen

~  Don't Leave... ~

Red fell down as the bullet went into her head. She felt the instinct to kill the predator, but tried her best to refuse it. She couldn't risk losing control again, and this was the closest she got to telling her creator everything. But it was all coming back again to try and kill the only humanity she had left.

"I think it went down!" Shouted a gunner.

"One more shot and it'll probably be done for!" Said another one.

"Ti struh! Pots ti! I t'nod tnaw ot eid!" Red tried to say, but it quickly translated into growls and distorted roars. She covered her head. "I tsuj tnaw ot eb namuh niaga!"

"You can talk?!" Hailey said with a pout. "You have got to be-"

"Yes! Don't hurt her!" Mr. Henderson waved his arms around as he put a small earpiece in his left ear. "I can understand! I'll take her with me and figure things out!"

BANG!

The last shot.

"No!"

Red closed her eyes: how come she wasn't dead yet? There must've been a million bullets that hit her. The pain was unbearable. She felt herself losing more and more of herself, as her humanity slipped away. After she was gone, what would happen? She didn't want to know. Would she feel all of the pain that the new host would inflict? It was her body, after all. Red waited for her kingdom come.

But instead of death, she felt her body melting. Red didn't get it: what was going on? She took a shot to the head and should've died right there. What was wrong with her?

Mr. Henderson stared. Red had started to melt. She was currently a mess of eyes, blood, and that same black substance that had haunted her. Before the two of them knew it, she was back - not exactly normally - but enough for Mr. Henderson to run over and squeeze her into a hug.

"Dad...?" Red choked out dark blood. She still had the same amount of eyes - they had taken over her body. "I don't like siht gnileef... I-I naem this feeling-"

"Oh god, Red... I thought I lost you," Mr. Henderson held her tightly and never wanted to let her go. He held her cracked cheeks in his hands. "You still must be a b-bit shaken, r-right? Don't worry... I-I am too."

"Creator - I-I naem Dad... nac we please og home...?" She whispered. Her voice was hoarse and still raspy like before from all of the roaring. "I don't annaw be here anymore..."

"No, I'm sorry Red," Mr. Henderson answered. He'd broken into tears. She was shot in the head. Red didn't sound well or stable enough to go too, along with the war that raged on outside the Heaven's Bunker. "I... I think we should stay here. It'll be b-better-"

Red's eyes rolled back into her head. He grabbed her before she fell and brought the kid into his lap. Mr. Henderson wanted her to stay, but knew that she was on Death's door. She went limp in his arms as all of the extra eyes closed. The shooters and some of the "coders" surrounded them. A few of the gunners put their rifles to her head just to make sure she was finished off and she wouldn't kill anyone else.

Mr. Henderson immediately checked her pulse. Nothing. She lay completely still in his arms. He froze. The feeling of guilt washed over him like a tsunami. All of the people he had killed and hurt seemed to whisper horrific things that were all so smashed together that he couldn't make out any audible words. His heart hung heavy in his chest. More tears had welled up in his eyes. He felt like he could only go down from there. His lungs felt like too much weight to hold.

His daughter he had created had died.

With shaking arms, he set Red's body down in the grass and kneeled. Quietly he said "She's gone. Put your weapons down. You can all leave now."

Like robots, they all left and went to their next destinations. Soon it was just Mr. Henderson and Red's dead body. Silence filled the air. Even the wind stopped as he buried his face in his hands. The only sound heard now was Henderson's muffled sobbing. He took off his backpack and looked for some kind of item to set down by Red. He felt something leafy and pulled it out from the bottom.

It was a colourful flower crown with red and blue roses. Beautiful emerald-green vines added the finishing touch. He recognized it easily... it was the one flower crown of the girl he'd killed years before the lab.

He thought for a moment. It seemed wrong to place the most treasured accessory of a sixteen year old dead girl next to Red, but it also seemed fitting. Violet and Red shared the same type of personality. The same love for flower crowns. Even the same backstory. Living their "normal" life in a lab, getting taken by an old man, being showed the Big Dipper and later getting picked up by a younger man in a tux.

But this was the first and last time he had actually gotten one of them to the secret bunker. Except now it wasn't so secret in the midst of World War Three. The first time he ever felt horrible for killing a child. This was his fault. If only he had learned from his mistakes earlier...

Mr. Henderson raised his head and looked up at the stars. He looked for some kind of sign something would happen. Something else than being all alone in a dome. Even a star meaning something would help. There wasn't a sign though, but a different constellation.

"The Corona Borealis... you want me to put me to put a crown on Red?" Mr. Henderson asked the constellation. Nothing replied of course, but he continued anyway. "This flower headpiece... will be your Northern Crown, Red..."

He gently lifted her head and placed the flower crown. Then he laid her back down. Before he did anything else, Mr. Henderson lowered his head and kissed her. He knew it wouldn't bring her back like in the fairytales, but he was so out of hope that he had nothing else to rely on.

Sighing, he slowly got up and stood over Red's body. He had no choice but to leave her. It hurt. But he did get the backwards translator working in time and had recorded everything Red had tried to tell him. He already had listened to one of the first parts, but that was it. The tears suddenly came back. She was in pain, and he realized he probably could've done something to help her if he weren't so shaken up. He bit his lip as he walked away.

Looking back at her for one last time, Mr. Henderson whispered "I have faith in you, Red. I know you'll be there soon. She will take you there so you can peacefully move on without me. I love you, sweetie... good luck..."