11.1
09/22/2009
Cold, towering buildings leered down on any who braved the cracked concrete. Made of a dark, almost black, roughly textured metal, the skyscrapers reflected practically no light whatsoever.
These tightly packed, tall, thin buildings made up the entire city and reached for the sky like a collection of massive antennae. The matrix of towers was interconnected through a maze of skybridges, making it possible to never once step foot on the actual ground.
Although it was no longer used, the ground's entire surface had been paved with concrete years earlier, before the skybridges had been constructed. There was no wall around this city; in fact, rogues were welcomed as they would either be killed from above or fall into the pits, which were deep moats around the buildings that were coated with sharp iron rods, and be harvested of their resources.
Sure, it was more efficient to navigate the city by ground, but it went without saying that only a madman would step foot on those decaying concrete streets.
However, if one were to look down through one of the dusty windows that ran up the sides of the buildings, they would see two individuals walking side by side on the exposed gray surface below.
Rain drizzled down on the dreary figures, who moved with no clear direction in mind.
"Maaaan, we really shoulda brought umbrellas, huh?" the taller of the two complained, tugging on the wet sleeve of his white button-up shirt and exposing the glittering silver watch beneath it.
His shirt was tucked into gray chino pants, and his white hair and purple eyes gave him a surreal appearance. His left eyebrow was notched, and, on the same side, his neck was covered in a spiraling, galaxy-like tattoo.
"Let's go in one of these buildings," the man continued as he looked around at the surrounding structures. "We've literally been in the rain for hours. What are we even doing?"
He turned towards the nearest iron tower, and his companion trailed along behind him.
"For real?" he complained.
They'd circled the building's deep spike pit without finding a single entrance. "Hah. There's no door. What are we gonna do if the rest are like this?"
They went from building to building before, on their fifth attempt, finally finding one whose moat was bridged by a thin concrete strip that led straight to a tall glass door.
The young man grinned.
"Finally!"
After bridging the gap, he grabbed the handle and pulled, but the door didn't budge.
He nodded. "Wow."
He turned to his silent companion, pointed at the door, and said, "Believe it or not, this thing's locked."
They stood there and did nothing while their clothes continued to soak up the water that fell from the sky.
"Ahhh," he sighed. "I'm tired of this, Kwame. Let's hope we can be forgiven."
He tightened his grip around the metal bar and pulled, this time tearing the handle clean off the door with a sharp snap.
He raised his eyebrows. "Woah. I guess the lock wouldn't break before the handle." He flashed a white smile at his partner. "Too late now though, huh?"
The stranger held his open palm a few inches from the surface of the door.
The city's reflection in the glass suddenly warped, and the second man covered his eyes and took a long step backwards.
The white-haired one laughed. "Don't worry. I'm gonna blow it in."
The instant those final words of reassurance left his lips, the glass shattered with a tremendous crash.
Through the perfectly rectangular opening, the two of them stepped into the dry shelter of the skyscraper's dimly lit first floor.
Now that he was out of the rain, the second man, Kwame, removed his hood and wiped the water off his face.
His baggy black hoody matched his sweatpants, and he had thick dreadlocks, one of which was dyed purple, that ran from the front of his head to the back, where they were tied up in a high ponytail. His shoes and, although it wasn't visible, the lollipop inside his mouth were the same shade of purple.
In his moment of inattention, he stepped on an especially large shard of wet glass, which shot out from beneath him on the smooth, concrete floor.
His back slammed into the unyielding surface with a thud, and he let out a low groan as his breath was torn out of his chest.
The noise reverberated throughout the enclosed space, and the other man spun around in surprise.
First, his mouth opened and a sneer crept onto his face. Then, he clutched his stomach and doubled over, cackles bouncing off the walls in a multi-layered echo.
"Hah heh he. Phooooo." He straightened himself up and wheezed, "Man, you're too funny, Kwame."
Kwame, who was not laughing, pulled himself to his feet and hastily proceeded deeper into the building, never realizing that his back was covered with tiny shards of glass.
This brought on another fit of laughter from the white-haired man as he pointed at Kwame's back while, in his hysteria, covering the upper half of his face with his free hand.
Blushing, Kwame furiously wiped away at the glass, which chopped up his hands, leaving them cut and bleeding.
The other man ducked into a squat and put his face in both of his hands, gasping for air. "Tough day, huh?"
They found a staircase and began to climb.
After exploring the first floor, and then the second, it was obvious that they were inside a residential building.
Each floor had a hall that ran down the middle one way, and another that crisscrossed the first one. Additionally, there was a hall that formed a square shape around the perimeter of the floor.
Rows of iron doors lined each side of the hallways, and every floor was perfectly symmetrical.
They were all exactly the same.
The walls and floors were made of smooth, bare concrete, and dim lights ran along the ceilings, emanating a soft bluish light, which gave the halls a cool, icy appearance.
"Hmm. I wanna see what's in these rooms," the white-haired man said to himself.
Suppressing his urge, they continued climbing, all the way until they reached the highest floor.
"They're all the same," he observed. "We just wasted our time. Of course," he shot a glance at Kwame, who turned away and aimed his eyes at the floor, "we did have some fun coming in."
Just as they turned to leave, a muffled sound penetrated through one of the thick metal doors.
"Ahhhhn. ahh-ahhhhn"
"I love you. Uhh. I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you…"
Like a meerkat lookout, the white-haired head spun around instantly.
"I love you I love you I love you"
The words were barely audible, dulled behind the weight of the door, but they still stung his body like hot needles.
His neck and shoulders locked up, and the words repeated themselves inside his brain.
"I love you… I love you."
His eyes no longer saw reality.
A dark room.
A pair of shadowed figures.
"I love you I love you I love you I love you."
As if drawn in by a magnet, his feet dragged across the floor, purple eyes fixed on his target.
"I love you"
He stood there, face to face with the cold iron surface.
"I love you."
Slowly, he raised his hand, and he pressed his palm into the metal.
A female voice screeched from within the room.
There was bang and a crash as the door was torn clean off its hinges and sent flying at his face, but his hand still held it, and he casually pushed it aside.
The noise tore through the hall, and the remnants of the echo seemed to carry on forever.
What ensued was a ringing silence, in which the man waited patiently.
A naked woman was lying in a pool of blood at his feet, and the dented door was strewn aside, splattered with the same red color.
A man came staggering to the entrance of the room. He gazed into the hall with a chalk-white face and a mouth that hung open limply.
"H-huh? The hell?" He spoke in a coarse whisper as his eyes were drawn to the limp woman's corpse.
Stumbling forward, he fell to his knees at her side and lifted her head, the primary source of the blood, in his arms.
"Ka-kasey. Kasey. Y-you're ok, r-right? You're ok."
The purple eyes were angled downward, and a calm smile was worn beneath them.
"Yeah, she's ok."
The pitiful, bare-backed figure lifted his head and found the eyes of the monster.
Those purple eyes caught something in the light, and they flicked to the man's left hand.
"Wow. You're even wearing your ring? You must be recently engaged, if I had to guess."
The naked man's head shook, coated with a layer of sweat and silent tears.
"She isn't dead yet, and I can heal her."
Upon hearing this, the man on the ground wrenched his eyes away and stared at his bloodied fiancee, willing her eyes to open with every strand of his awareness.
"But I can't just heal her for nothing," the leering figure continued. "In exchange for her life, you'll have to give yours."
"Heal her," the man croaked.
His pleading eyes turned upward once again.
"Heal her."
"Alright." The stranger held out both of his hands, palms facing down at the couple on the floor.
The hunched man felt a tugging sensation pulling him backwards. It was weak at first, but he suddenly lost his balance and found himself on his back, staring up at the cold, recessed ceiling lights.
But everything was ok, because he heard her cough.
It was a little, girly cough. The same one that he'd always loved.
His eyes sparkled, and a smile tugged at his lips.
But when he tried to raise his head off the floor, his body couldn't respond to his brain's command.
The force pressing him against the floor had only gotten stronger.
"Michael!"
Kasey's voice was panicked as she crawled to his side. Her hair was soaked in blood, but it was as if her body had forgotten the contents it had lost.
"Michael!!"
A hand, whose wrist was clad in a silver watch, softly laid its long fingers onto the lying man's chest.
Kasey's eyes flung towards the stranger, who she hadn't even noticed up until that point.
The purple eyes remained fixed on Michael's strained face, but he said to the girl, "He chose to sacrifice himself to save you. You two must have truly loved each other.
Then, he leaned closer over the man's face.
"Michael," he whispered. "Don't worry, you're allowed to change your mind."
Kasey couldn't hear a word he said, but she'd pieced together what had happened, and she grabbed white hair with both hands, desperately straining to wrench the monster away from her lover.
Michael could no longer breathe.
"If you'd rather live in place of your girlfriend," the thin line of a mouth whispered, "just blink."
Michael's ribs snapped, and blood spurted out of his mouth.
The pain inside his eyes was evident, but he couldn't muster even a gasp.
He forgot everything.
He forgot his past, he forgot where he lay, and he forgot his future.
He needed to breathe, but his lungs were like plastic shopping bags, torn to shreds.
And he could do nothing.
The weight pressing his body into the floor prevented even the thought of any movement.
Any movement except one.
"Ahhhh."
Michael's bones stopped breaking.
Kasey's hands released the white hair as the stranger's head turned, and that pair of purple eyes was the last thing she ever saw.
Against the wall, her body was crushed.
The damage to Michael's lungs had been undone, and raised his head in horror to look at the woman he used to love, reduced to no more than a soulless hunk of flesh.
The stranger turned, his leering face now wearing an expression of pure contempt.
His eyelids were heavy, and his gaze alone could surely have killed someone.
"You should have kept your eyes open."