"Ladies and Gentlemen."
She bowed like a violinist at the end of the performance. It was the time once every year, the time of the end for another beginning.
"It is the time you have been waiting for."
Drowned in the choir of anguish, the woman opened the curtains in front of her where the statue stands. For it's the time―
"FOR THE MAIN EVENT!"
The screams behind the little one was intensified while her eyes stared back at the woman in front of the statues with a lot of explosive material near her. Her figures were a bit foggy in the little girl's eyes. Oddly enough, through a sense of nostalgia, they felt they were able to face each other clearly in their own black dreamscape.
"Here we are to celebrate the 7th anniversary of the Angel of Sin."
The eyes only discovered the dark of outer space and the memories in their inner space. The crowd, the corpses along the way, the present time, and everything. All of that was ignored into obliviousness. Only one thing here that drew her attention.
"Look at me, now!"
That enigma, the woman who threw a dynamite to the sky high and it exploded, leave behind a flash and a smoke.
"With that firework, let us start a new year of redemption for y'all.
"Thank you for coming. Thank you to you who were singing along to our requiem, to you insects who can't do anything, and to you son of doofus who came here twice this week. Y'all truly enliven this party with your presence. So, in return…
"…let us change the game."
She steps down from the statue to confront the chaos with her head lowered. She raised her hands in line with her shoulder with both palms facing the little girl in front of her.
"Introducing the main star of this party," with a shrill energy that can combust an entire mansion, she announced, "Making her momentous debut! The little angel who protects this kingdom. The child of hope for thy sin. The rising hero of the beginning.
"Tenten!"
When she said her name, the little angel can hear a whisper. Unknown to where it came from, it asked her,
What did you see?
The little angel doesn't even know whether her eyes were closed or not when she heard that. And to answer that question, all she saw was nothing, except the light she wanted to be. Nothing, except the goalpost within her. Nothing, except the dreamscape of the past. Nothing, except herself and the savior.
"And her opponent," with her opened arms beside hers, she announced, "the madwoman who built this kingdom, the villain above all, and the savior of innocence.
"The legend, the myth itself. The Angel of Sin!"
And with that, both sides had prepared themselves for what comes next
One vowed to "beat Mama," and the other acted as her wall to stop her. Which one of them will thrive, only be known after they started it. After they kept moving forward.
"Witness who's among us will stop the rampage."
"For today, in the seventh heaven of our soul"
"Let us laugh till our heart's content"
With the surge of emotions, they charged at each other.
"HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"
It begins with a red confetti popping out of the zombie's head. From one zombie to another. Soon, it will color the nature of this brawl.
A brawl was hardly pleasant. Often time, they were murky and quick. A knife to the neck and a bullet through their head was more than enough to gush out of their life force.
"I can do this with my eyes closed," the woman assured.
Due to the circumstance that both sides were facing, everyone closed their eyes. The divine power can't affect them this way while the zombies still have their own way to navigate their target's position. But the woman still got the advantage.
Some zombies tripped from the corpse; some get baited into hitting a light pole. The woman's laugh mocks their lack of seven years of experience in a blind fight as she avoids all of these obstacles. On top of that, no bullets can penetrate her skin. Yet she still wasn't invulnerable as she found herself backing away. She can't let the number get the best of her, but she can't keep retreating either. Because her little angel was lost in the crowd.
"You can't just disappear twice a night, Tenten."
But unlike before, she can't think it through. Her mind has no room for thought. So when she was facing a human wall in her way, she said,
"This isn't enough to beat me."
She rushed toward the place where the angel fear to tread. Exaggeration? Maybe, similar to what she just declared might not be aligned with the gravity of the situation.
To approach them, she needed a strategy. But since she can't think, she was using a "strategy" that was attached to her. It's called instinct and it's also called violence.
She punches one of them. Hard. Using that unconscious body as a meat shield, she charged forward. She threw the body at them and successfully penetrate the frontline, only to be welcomed by more zombies.
She kept killing them, but in this proximity? The zombie will apprehend her sooner or later. She needed to find her little angel. Fast.
Somehow, this divine eye can't find her small thermal figure. This vision reaches outside themselves, but not reaching her.
In desperation, she called out her name, "Tenten."
She repeated that name. The name she gave seven years ago. The responsibility she holds…did she do a good job at it?
Scluck!
The woman planted the knife in the zombie's neck, losing it in the process. She hesitated for most of her shot. Her fist has more weight to it.
She kept repeating her name, not once raising her voice despite being drowned in the zombie's scream. Their number decreased, along with her bullets, and so did her stamina. Her body continues to act fast, but time seems slow.
Each time she said her name, a memory flashed. She recalled the time she trained her when she could live a normal life. She recalled that time she abandoned her at night when she could sleep beside her. She recalled when her little angel would welcome her blood-soaked presence in the morning. She recalled all of the stupid things she taught when she didn't know any better. Laughable.
Is she even serious when she did a lot of these things? She recalled frolicking with each other for most of our interaction. She remembered that her little angel laughed at the stupid things she taught. She remembered when her little angel was a better teacher while teaching her about cooking. She remembered the time they were having dinner. She remembered her smile.
If I could reach her through my words…
"Thank you."
Koko fell to her knee. She has poured everything into this brawl. Her spirit, sweat, even her gratitude towards the wishing star. Meanwhile, the little angel acknowledged her wish.
All this time, the little angel camouflaged from her thermal reading on one of the zombie's backs, hanging on it. Koko soon realized it as her little angel came out from her hiding. In Koko's moment of vulnerability, the little angel jumped from the zombie's back and sit on her mother's shoulder. What looks like playing peek-a-boo was actually her attempt to gouge Koko's eyes
"AAAAAAAGH!"
Her scream allured the zombies. They held her from leg to abdomen. However, Koko's concern wasn't in there, wasn't from the one on her shoulders either, and her concern wasn't lingered within her to begin with.
"Aaghhaahahaha. Knew it."
Like mother like daughter.
"You wouldn't satisfy with winning like that," she said as she threw her to her lackadaisical fans.
"I STILL HAVE ENOUGH FUEL TO SCREAM." She threw a person that held her and buried her little angel with it.
"Now, I found you." Koko rushed to her.
She dragged all the weight behind her. She shot all of her last remaining bullets at the approaching zombies. When she stumbled, she ran on all fours. When her little angel tried to escape, Koko buried her by keep throwing the bodies in her way.
Ten seconds full of rinse and repeat, a wheel that spins as if it rolling down the hill; pumped with stimulation where she loses track of time between fast and slow. Because that's her mission. Keep swimming through the sea of people. Keep standing up when her sins bury her. Keep opening the wound with her knife to open another path. Keep moving forward.
Until she reaches her.
"Open your eyes!"
Clap!
Koko sandwiched Tenten's puffy cheeks.
…
At that moment, a flash struck Tenten followed by a high-pitch whistle. Her heart ruptured in the sudden shock of it. Through all of that, it was tranquility.
"What is Tenten doing here?" Tenten confused.
Everyone just standing still. Calm and quiet. Only to be betrayed by the sight of her mother coughing up blood.
"Ma…ma?"
Taken aback by it, she realized that her hand just released its grip on something. It was a knife, planted in her mother's abdomen. She drifted her gaze to her hands which were shaking uncontrollably.
"Good morning!"
Koko forced her smile. Her face was twitching and her eye was shining, but the twinkles were lost. She looked limp like a person who just woke up.
"Is this…real?"
No matter how hard she tried to look away, her eyes kept finding a dolorous scenery. She covered her mouth. She swallowed the reality sandwich of this situation. It was disgusting.
"It's fine," Koko responded after catching her breath. "We're in here together. Everything is going to be okay."
After she tried to calm her down, she then reached the inside of her jacket and said,
"Time to get rid of our drowsiness."
If Tenten wasn't confused enough, her mother is humming a song as the voice of the voiceless night.
…Do it all to get them off their feet…
Her mother pulls out a dynamite and a lighter from her jacket.
…the crowd in here, about to blow…
Her body staggered near the firefly from the lighter.
…waitin' for me to start the show…
Her mother lit up the dynamite's fuse
… Out the curtain, lights go up, I'm home…
"WOOOOOAAAAAH-OHHHHHH!"
She threw it far away with every last burst of energy she had in her scream.
"Mama!"
Reflexively trying to reach the floating dynamite, she asked her what was her mother doing. Her mother hugged her and answered,
"To take out the mastermind!"
With her sight over her mother's shoulder, the dynamite goes across the entire crowd, landing near the statue, near the standing dead, near the explosive materials.
"Just you alone were enough."
She doesn't need a value from hundred persons, one was enough, one who she promised to, one who she wanted the most to value her.
"Look at me, now!"
Boom!
The light goes up. Hear the crowds were covered with the pyrotechnic behind her.
A sudden fright pounded the chest wall; burst like an explosion and released the adrenaline at last.
The blast wind hoisted her bloodstained wings as the reminiscence of the fleeting time that she could never get rid of in the near future.
Until the dust settled in her sight.