"Get him!"
The sounds of hurried footsteps came from behind Garret, heading closer to his location quickly. Not stopping, he kept on running as fast as he could, his breathing got heavier and heavier each second.
The road ahead was unlit, darkness blanketed the area while the heavy rain plummeted from above. The temperature dropped noticeably as the blackness gently covered every surface of his body.
Tap! Tap!
Whoosh!
A hellish wave surged out from his feet, changing the whole scene into a world of fiery red and orange, illuminating everything around Garret. He was now able to see clearly, although he didn't have that much time until the headache became unbearable.
"Shit! It's too dark here! Use your flashlight!" Ivan shouted.
"But my phone is not waterproof! The rain will ruin it!" Juneau, the shrill voiced-man, complained.
"Just cover it with your shirt or something! I don't care!" retorted the tall Ivan.
"*Panting* You can use my lighter, here," the chubby Robert added, his voice sounded exhausted from running.
"It's raining you daft! Your lighter is useless!" Juneau snarked.
In the dark corner ahead, Garret was hiding behind a dumpster while intently watching the three burned corpses charging at him. Both of his hands were grasping onto the stolen baton firmly-- the umbrella had been discarded somewhere along the way.
Although he had the veil of darkness on his side and a weapon, he still didn't think his chances of winning were high, especially since the enemies had weapons as well. He had also never been in a real fight since school. After all, his life had been very peaceful up until now.
The burned corpse in the middle, which belonged to Juneau, suddenly took out a cellphone and turned on its flashlight function, shining its bright light aggressively in front of him. To Garret, the light looked like a fiery beam, making him want to stay out of its reach whatever the cost.
I have to disarm the tall guy first no matter what. That knife is very dangerous. The first hit will have to strike his hand.
"Come out here, man! We are harmless. We just want to talk!" Juneau shouted loudly. His voice sounded like it could disperse the noise of the rain with its sharpness.
Your lies are just as ugly as your face, Garret thought. He had the strong urge to retort out loud, but it would give away his location, so he held back.
Splash! Splash!
Relying solely on the illumination from the cellphone, the three thugs kept on running ahead, trying to find where their target had hidden. Little did they know that they had passed the dumpster where Garret was crouching, out of the reach of the flashlight.
Suddenly, Ivan gestured for them to stop.
"He can't have gone too far. Search around here! That security guard had better be worth all this trouble," Ivan commanded.
"Yeah. If not for the fact that we have fuckall money left, I wouldn't want to run around in the rain like this. Let's teach that piece of shit a lesson once we see him," Juneau added.
Robbert stayed quiet.
Meanwhile, Garret was smiling bitterly.
If they find out I also have no money at all in me, they will be furious and beat me up to death most likely. They are hungry, so they must be desperate, but they could still afford alcohol. Talk about priority...
Argh!
Quietly, Garret tapped his right leg twice because the headache had become too unbearable for him. He stayed hidden while waiting to recover, all the while paying close attention to where the flashlight was shining. The occasional lighting also helped him see, but at the same time, it also risked him getting found.
Since there was only one flashlight, they didn't get too far away from each other. The three thugs hostilely searched around for their target.
Once his head was no longer pounding, Garret reactivated his hellish vision, granting him a clear sight of the thugs. He crept carefully towards them with the baton in his hands, staying away from the fiery glare cast by Juneau's cellphone.
Making sure to avoid the puddles, he stayed close to the wall on his left, using the darkness as his cover. The rain covered the sounds of his boots, but the lightning could reveal his position, so he had to be quick.
It seems that I have to target the flashlight first and then the knife. After that, I'll see what I should do next. One thing at a time.
His heart was beating fast and the grip around the baton tightened. Garret approached Juneau, who was now standing with his back against him. It was his chance!
The moment he was close enough, he got into position and raised the baton as high as he could.
Smack!
"Arghh!!"
Juneau's left hand, which was holding the phone, was hit hard by the baton, causing him to drop the object to the ground. He screamed in pain and flailed his left arm about, trying to ease the agony.
"The fucker's here!!" he yapped in anger and pain.
Without giving the others a chance to react, Garret kicked the cellphone as hard as he could, sending it flying away several meters. The adrenaline rush was still kicking, so he made use of it to its utmost potential.
Once the flashlight was taken care of, the three thugs were deprived of their source of lighting. Garret could see through their burned corpse versions that their expressions had turned ugly.
"Rob, get the phone quick!" Ivan yelled.
"My hand! Do something about it!" Juneau was still whining about his pain.
"Shut the fuck up!" the tall man bit back, angry at his companion's wimpiness.
He is a little bit drunk, so his aim shouldn't be that good. This is my chance!
Garret sneaked behind Ivan, who was holding the knife in his right hand. The man was frantically looking around in the dark.
Roar!
Suddenly, thunder and lightning struck!
"Behind you, Ivan!" Juneau cried out.
Whack!
Because of Juneau's warning, Ivan turned around and Garret couldn't hit the hand that was holding the knife. Instead, his baton hit the man's left shoulder, hurting him but not enough to incapacitate him.
Ivan quickly waved his knife around in the dark, hoping to hit his assailant. Although Garret could see the enemy's movement perfectly, he was still not fast enough to avoid the attack. The knife grazed his chest, wounding him superficially.
Not willing to give the chance for the enemy to attack again, Garret put all his strength into swinging his baton.
Smack!
He hit Ivan in the head very hard.
Thud!
Ivan, who was a little bit drunk in the first place, toppled to the side because of the impact, and his head hit the raised concrete platform of the sidewalk. The loud sound of his skull smashing against the concrete alerted the other two.
Meanwhile, Garret watched closely as red blood began flowing out of the burned corpse of Ivan like water. He knew right away that the man was dead, but his adrenaline rush kept him focused on the overall situation. His heart was beating was and his breathing heavy.
"Ivan, are you alright? What was that sound?!" Robert, who had managed to pick up the cellphone, hurriedly ran back to the source of the sound.
Garret quickly picked up the knife that the dead man was holding before hurriedly retreated back to the darkness. He was once more at his limit, so he had to deactivate the vision.
Roar!
Thunder clamored from the sky, following the flash of lightning that illuminated the dark clouds above, as well as the deathly scene in the street below.
"R-Robert quickly come here!!" Juneau shouted in panic after seeing the bloodied body of Ivan lying on the ground.
"What happened?" Robert hurried to his companion's side, worried and scared because of the man's tone.
With the flashlight in hand, he shone it upon the lifeless body of Ivan with a horrified look on his face. If he hadn't been able to control himself better, Robert would have dropped the flashlight in shock.
The tall man was lying on the concrete ground with a pool of blood that had started to get washed by the rain. His face wore an expression of shock and his lifeless eyes were staring wide at the distance as if having seen death in person.
"Ivan! H-he's dead!" Juneau screamed in horror. His jaw was wide open from the shock.
"H-his knife is gone!!" Robert realized.
The two thugs looked at each other and then at the dark spot in the distance.
"Let's run for it!" the chubby man decided.
With their shot-caller dead, they didn't have any confidence anymore in what to do, especially now that the enemy was armed. Gone was all the arrogance that Juneau was showed, and only fear and disbelief were apparent on his face.
Splash! Splash!
As fast as they could, they scrammed without even looking back.
Meanwhile, Garret's heart was beating faster and faster until it felt like his chest was too tight for it. He had now come to sense and realized that he had actually killed someone.
His stomach was churning at the sight of the lifeless and burned corpse version of Ivan that was still etched clearly in his memory, but something was preventing him from bursting out in terror.
"I... I actually killed someone. It was self-defense, so it should be alright... right?" he muttered. There was a hint of denial in his tone and slight panic.
His hand was still trembling, but he had to get going. With difficulty, he hung the baton back on his waist belt and folded the knife that he had stolen from the thug.
"If the other two attracts the attention of the police, I will be done for. I have to get out of here quickly!"
Since it was dark, he had to again rely on his hellish vision. He tapped his right foot twice, sending a surge of red and orange waves out from his position.
Suddenly, Garret noticed that something was glowing above the corpse of Ivan the thug. Although he didn't want to see the dead body again, he had no choice but to observe the peculiar object.
It was an orb, blood-red in color and the size of a tomato. The orb looked solid, but at the same time, illusory like it wasn't actually there. Garret knew that he could only see it because of the vision, so the object wasn't actually real, but he didn't know what its significance was.
"It is floating right above the man's heart. Should I try to get a closer look? I've never seen something like this before... then again, I've never seen this kind of world before either," he mumbled, "I still can't quite believe that this is real. Maybe I am actually just dreaming... although it's very unlikely,"
He cautiously approached the man's body to examine the orb closer. Once he was close enough, it became very clear that the object was indeed coming out of the man's heart. There were some strange illusory tendrils, also red in color, that were flowing mysteriously out into the orb from Ivan's chest.
Standing close to the orb while avoiding eye-contact with the corpse, Garret had the strong urge to reach out his arm to it. Without understanding, he just did as his guts told him and stretched his right arm close to the orb.
Suddenly, the floating object got attracted into him like metal to a magnet and gorged itself into the man's black, burned heart. Garret took a step back in surprise but was then overcome with pain as if his heart was burning. The pain lasted only a couple of seconds, but it was enough to drain the color out of the man's face.
"I don't know what that was, but it's time to go now," he decided.
With the hellish vision still activated, he quickly ran towards the dark part of the street, the opposite direction from where the thugs had escaped. He ran as fast as he could without looking back, relying solely on the vision while bearing with the ever-growing headache.
Once it became too unbearable, he deactivated the vision and rested until he recovered, before activating it again.
He repeated the process and got very far away from the place of the incident. Strangely, however, the street was still dark without any sign of streetlights in sight. Luckily, lightning was still flashing from time to time to aid him in his escape.
"Psst... hey... come here..."
While he was resting, suddenly, Garret's heart sank because there was a mysterious voice coming from the darkest corner of the street. It sounded somewhat bony and distant, but at the same time very close like it was speaking right in his ears. The voice didn't sound like it belonged to a human, but it also sounded like the voice of a very frail old man on death's bed.
Raising his guard, he tapped his foot twice and was surprised by what he saw. In the corner, there was a hooded figure that wasn't there when he arrived. The figure was wearing a tattered cloak, ashen grey in color, completely covering all of his body. There were bony hands emerging from his feet, some caressing the figure's legs gently while the others tried to reach outward aggressively. The figure was standing only about one and a half meters tall, short in comparison to Garret's 1.75m body, but he didn't want to lower his guard because of that.
"Don't be... alarmed. Come here... I sense that you... possess a soul essence..." the voice beckoned. The figure's cloak was raised and its covered hand gestured at Garret to come closer.