"We'll be okay, right, Nina?"
A little girl's scared yet hopeful voice resounded inside the dimly lit room fit to house a child her age but was instead packed with people who stood there, shaken, stuck between the desire to do something and waiting for something to happen. Blemishing the room's friendly tone that was supposed to be filled with stars, ponies and happy dreams was a group of people that were battered, damaged, and scarred, staring into nothingness as they all tried their best to fill the gaps in their memories. There, after looking at the broken bone sticking out of her carved leg, the same little girl who spoke with a whisper, as though it was a cry for help, tightened her embrace as she clung onto the arm of the woman who saved her.
"Tell me… hey… Nina, tell me that we'll be okay, please."
The face of her savior she gazed upon, as if she had trouble finding her words or the courage to look at her in the eye, soon had her face crumple in the same way as the others who stood in that room. This place that they chose in panic was supposed to be their refuge, their saving grace from their pursuers that tore their group in half but now after that blue light descended from the skies along with an ominous howl, none of them could stop thinking that someone was bound to come.
"We-we'll be alright, Steph," one interjected with her own shaking voice slowly breaking into an awkward laugh while fixing the collar of her green hoodie as she looked at her. "Nina is going to protect us… just like the last time… don't worry about it."
"We should be running already… if not for…" the man with a black shirt, who was the farthest away from them, stepped in and squinted at the kid's left leg who appeared as if its foot was bitten off.
"We can't just leave her here, asshole!" The one who sat by the bed glanced at Steph before she turned her attention towards him.
"Oh, then, what do you propose, wait for those goddamn reapers to show up so we could say pretty please?" The man replied in a conceited tone with his words burning with anger. "All I'm saying is that… we're not safe here. We barely escaped one because this bitch ya'll are clinging onto like a hero now suddenly gained some fucking superpowers!"
"Hey, man… you gotta chill out," the other man said before looking down at the floor as if something was there. "Past is past, let's just be thankful that we're—"
"Tell that to fucking Joe, fatass," the man interrupted him, raising both his hands along with his tone before he broke into an empty laugh. "do I need to remind you how many we were a few days ago when one of those fucking things found and demolished us?!"
"Who's Joe?" The other man replied with his eyes still glued to the floor.
Falling into silence, the man just looked at him with a smile and after a moment, as though he remembered something that he should call out for, he just pressed his palm over his face and laughed that was soon broken as if nothing happened. "You know what," he added, with his tone still sounding a bit sarcastic. "Why can't you just fuckers understand that we need to run? You're sitting here talking about the past being pasts but here you are, risking our lives because a child that was, mind you, supposed to be dead already can't run."
"Just stop!" the lady by the bed shouted once again before looking at her other friend who sat on the floor, sinking her face into her knees as if she was minding her own world.
"That goes to you too, you one-armed fucker!" The man roared back. "I bet you couldn't even remember it anymore that you and this fatass was the reason why Joe d—"
"Just stop!" this time, Nina shouted, bringing everyone to a halt and catching them at a moment when they seemed to be just one step away from pouncing at each other. "Please just stop, Dick… please," she pleaded and with a determined voice, she looked at the child next to her and to everyone and followed, "I'll do it… I'll protect everyone. This power… their deaths will not be in vain… I swear that I would protect every one of y—"
Just then after an explosion, with the sound of metal hitting metal in the far distance, something went by her ear and at the next second, the head of the girl in the green hoodie was smashed like a watermelon, splattering the walls and those around her with her white blood and grey matter.
Almost everyone, even Dick, the man on the black shirt jerked back in response to what happened even before one of them could shout except for that one girl that sat with them on the floor, who ran towards the door and Nina, who now had her arms covered in some thick and dense scale-like armor, jumping in the middle of the room to look where that attack came from.
"They have fucking guns!" Dick shouted with his knees immediately failing, causing him to fall down to the floor like a house of cards.
"Everyone, step back and hide!"
Right after his words that worked like band-aids to their crumbling tower of morale and with her eyes now that multiplied in number and looking as if it was a fly's, she heard a shot and soon saw a projectile, a bullet moving towards Steph that made her move her arms in an attempt to swat it away. She soon felt something exerting some heavy pressure at the back of her hand that made her feel that it was almost going to break but in the end, with a grunt through her gritting teeth, she was able to redirect the bullet so that it could bite through the wall instead.
This occurred even before the rest of his companions had realized what happened but when she was about to let out a breath of victory, at the moment she looked at Steph who she expected to gaze at her, the girl who was supposed to cheer for her, she saw nothing but a body devoid of life, left with nothing except a bloodied neck sticking out of her torso.
This caused her to widen her eyes in shock and freeze, thinking about what caused this right before the others could let out a helpless scream. Then at that same second, she heard the sound of a metal blade ringing as it went through a piece of wood and when she turned to look, she saw one of her companions, the woman who had kept her quiet all this time, standing by the door with tears in her eyes. She was getting gagged by a mouthful of white blood that oozed out from her gaping mouth. The woman looked at her friend once more before she paid attention to the sword sticking out of her chest and there, still in silence, her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fell to the ground with a thud.
"Oh… did I just kill someone? Please, let it be the neck, let it be the neck… Someone tell me if they got the camera..."
After a short delay, all of them that were frozen in place just watched as the man outside the room, who spoke like a talk show host with an overly melodic tone kicked the door open with a sharp breath. There, the maskless reaper, who at first seemed like a shadow as he entered the room, showcasing her dominant figure matched with a long single-edged blade that looked like it was taken out from an artisan who was supposed to cut up some tuna, made everyone's knees crumble. He walked in with a twisted smile, presenting his unkempt beard that matched his pale complexion that accentuated his deep blue eyes that were glinting as if it was sated with blood but was hungry from more.
"Guess who just won the game of spot-the-protagonist?" He exclaimed, letting out a hearty laugh with his grin getting wider as he raised his weapon towards her. "You're Nina Lauren, aren't you?"