6 streets away, the 2 girls sneaked in carefully under hooded clothes, Claire was all ears hearing Maggie's new exciting story.. "You heard about him?"
"Who!" The excited girl asked.
"A masked man, who has been folding the night, taking down thugs and gangsters everywhere"
"A vigilante" Claire added increasing more spice to the story.
"I wouldn't know, I wasn't saved by him before" laughed the other girl hinting, ...
"What! You meant that man. He wasn't wearing a mask beside that man was a lunatic, he wasn't saving me, he was just out for blood"
"Well, if he killed some guys who did me wrong, I'd call him my life saviour_ "
-Bang Bang-gun fires-screams of men-
The gunfire and the screams of men were unheard of, in the first few streets of Chinatown, but that didn't change people's reaction to what to do.
Men ran off the street, Vendors went closing their shops and others, & hid in their houses, some clothing their windows and hiding behind them and others just laid on the floor even behind their closed windows.
A Russian muscular half-naked man -with a huge lion tattoo covering all over his back- came running out of some narrow ally. The man ran down the street, his limbs popping off his body trying to escape ahead of him, his breathing staggering and his head is fixed on behind, looking over his shoulder as he continued to run, drenched in sweat, he didn't have the time to wipe off his falling sweat off his swelling eyeballs. It was the metallization of the saying (He ran with his life on the line) like a predatory beast coming after him before he too got shot like a hunted prey from far.
Shot and down on the asphalt, his body was halved in two, a half already giving in for the blood loss only hoping for the end soon. While the other half began crawling to the girls -who stood nearly behind a dumpster in the nearest alley where he fell- his systems still running and his hand was clutching on the ground still fixed on the escape.
The difference between the two halves was great but they both shared one property, the most important property of all: they were both driven by fear from the goblin.
He crawled on the asphalt. Blood gushing below him. hands smeared with blood and snot running down his nose. Face, pale like a white ghost as life began escaping him.
The girls stood at distance, one mesmerized and one frozen. Maggie hid by the wall and behind her was Claire placing one hand on the girl's shoulder and the other slipped to her waist and stayed there hanging in a weak clench. Absorbed in the scene before their eyes, they both lost contact with their surroundings, trapped in such event for the first time in their lives, their senses were like a child, they began to engulf the sight as a new experience comparing it with what they know as murder.
Claire looked at the man watching his body and reaching out for her, she slowly stepped forward in a daze. Maggie with shaky hands pulled her back and kept her hidden under her wing taking cover in the girl herself. Eyes wide, she kept watching the man's slow death and how his fear slowly connected with them.
Though the fear was overwhelming and pressuring. The man's pain was great that drove his mind mildly. They all still noticed his presence, a remote slim fit figure at the end of the street calmly emerging from the abstract same alley.
Maggie tightened her arms around the girl's arms. They both kept still in their old ruined dirty corner. And effortlessly glided their line of sight away from the dying man and kept watching the Prada of the grim reaper. Unable to take their eyes off him, they finally saw the man's large figure. It appeared huge while they were the ones who shrank multiple times in his presence.
The man loomed as a lump of darkness walking the illuminated street sided with few light poles. And through the black outfit and the heavy arms he carried in the back bag, his steps were smooth and quiet almost as the earth moved itself pulling his victims to his position. He stood there before the escaping man hiding his head under the hoodie and his face with a demon mask that terrorized the city for months. He showed what his hand held all the way here: an evolved machine gun in his left and a short Japanese sword in his right dripping blood leaving a trail of small drops all the way all over the city. He reached the man on the ground and bent down to his level.
"Please," asked the man still begging for his life "You can't do this"
He didn't move much less give a breath but the dying man knew it, he felt his smile and the terror over his head.
The masked man scoffed "And why can't I do it?" His voice was hoarse as it appeared cut and scarred. A grim reaper in disguise talked in the tongue of humans.
"That's the neutral area... You can't kill me here"
A big long guffaw burst out of the man squatting down the asphalt. His laughs seemed hysterical as an old man mixed with the joy of a young child "You of all people shouldn't ask of peace in this city. This damn cursed town was ruled by fear long ago before you and I came to exist. This violence is sacred. Peace, that… I can't do"
"A deal" shouted the man with every inch in his power.
"You wanna deal. Where is it?" answered the goblin instantly.
"Okay, I'll tell you," coughed the man a full mouthful of blood continuing, "The new arms are stashed in 13th street in the penthouse at the city's … new.. hotel"
"Outside! So clever" sneered the goblin as he stood up and threw away his gun and turned as he raised up his sword and divided it into two.
-It was a Wakizashi about 60 cm that can be separated into two blades with quite useful handles-
"You said you're gonna leave me"
"Yes, I did spare you on my part... but the goblin must collect his debt" The man slashed his prey leaving an X mark over his chest and vanished instantly in the darkness of the city.