Dozens of Skywatchers strutted out of the five-round spaceships, looking fearsome with guns clutched in their hands. It was the first time Seth saw the Skywatchers hunting down merchant robbers. He had never seen it before.
Foolish as the robbers were, several aimed their weapons at the Skywatchers. They tried to attack the aliens, but melee attacks didn't work against their tall, muscular bodies.
"You idiots!" complained Seth.
One of the men was choked by the Skywatchers. He didn't die by suffocation, but his neck was cruelly torn off due to the white alien's grip strength. The sight of one of their colleagues being killed made everyone in the place scatter in every direction, avoiding the Skywatcher's pursuit.
The Skywatcher wasn't a fool. It shot those people until a scream of suffering filled the entire city with terror. They were viciously slaughtered, their bodies torn to pieces as if the aliens were beasts.
There was a squad behind the Skywatcher assault force. Seth narrowed his focus, observing what the squad was doing.
"They ... took human limbs?" asked Mia, gasping.
Seth was taken aback at the bewildering sight. A thousand questions popped up in the man's mind, seeing the squad was tasked with collecting human bodies. What would they do with the severed bodies?
The two kept watching downwards. People scattered with random destinations; some went into a house to the hotel where Seth and Mia stayed.
"Get ready," Seth pleaded.
He reached into the back pocket of his pants, took out the gun that had been safely holstered, and grasped it firmly with his right hand.
"You take the crossbow," Seth ordered. Mia obeyed and stepped quickly towards Seth's bag, neatly placed in the corner of the room.
"Can you use it?" Seth asked.
"I guess I can. It's like a normal bow, right?" asked Mia, curious.
"More or less like that, but you don't need to pull the bow; just pull the trigger," Seth replied, now standing behind the wooden door to Mia's room.
"It's just like using a gun, except your bullet is an arrow," Seth said.
"I've never used a gun in my life. In fact, this is the first time I've ever held a weapon," Mia said, amazed at the beauty of the crossbow she was holding.
Seth cleared his throat, the corners of his eyes sharpened with his legs slightly bent, his palms leaning against the wooden door, as well as his ears. The silence outside the room made it easy for Seth to hear anything from there; even the slightest footsteps could be heard clearly.
"Someone help me!" a man screamed, his voice trembling as the footsteps began to fill the floor.
"He's calling for help. We have to open the door for him," Mia whispered.
Seth responded to Mia's words with a shake of his head. There was no sign that Seth would open the door. Mia squinted, walking over to Seth to ask about the man's response to people asking for help.
"If we open it, those aliens will kill us," Seth whispered.
"We won't open the door for anyone. Our safety is more important than helping them," Seth continued.
"But if we let them, they will-"
"AAAKH!"
A painful scream sounded from behind the door, Mia's eyes widened violently at the sound. Not just one, but five screams came from the hotel hallway. Seth guessed the criminals had been viciously murdered by the Skywatchers.
Ten seconds later, it was dead silent again. Only the strong clattering of the Skywatchers' footsteps could be heard. Seth was haunted by curiosity. He tried to open the door slightly to peek through the gap; Seth was surprised to find a Skywatcher standing before Mia's bedroom door.
Seth's eyes widened to find the Skywatcher's red eyes fixed on him. The alien's muscular leg mercilessly kicked the wooden door violently, causing Seth's body to bounce and hit the room wall, making a strong rumbling noise.
"AKH!" groaned Seth, in pain and falling on the wooden door that was split in two.
"SETH! Damn you!" screamed Mia, attacking the Skywatcher by releasing an arrow after pulling the crossbow's trigger. She did so because her heart was already filled with annoyance at seeing Seth injured.
"No, they can-"
DOR!
Skywatcher was hit by the arrow, embedding itself in his white shoulder. However, the attack would have absolutely no effect on the aliens. Instead, Skywatcher turned around and fired black lasers at Mia with reckless abandon. The alien attack managed to hit Mia's right chest, creating a fatal bullet hole wound in her body.
"Mia!" Seth shouted, trying to get up and walk over to the unfortunate girl.
The girl lay limp with a fatal gunshot wound to the right side of her body, leaving the room's floor stained with blood and organs scattered everywhere.
"You're badly hurt," Seth replied.
Mia only smiled broadly when he was beside her, then the light in Mia's eyes began to disappear as the girl lost her life in Seth's arms. She died with a pale body, losing a fair amount of blood from the alien's shot.
Seth looked back at the alien with a sharp glare as if he was about to avenge Mia's death. However, Seth's walk was stopped when he found other aliens arriving and began pointing their rifles at Seth.
He certainly couldn't fight them all, so his best option was to put down the gun Seth held so they wouldn't consider him a threat. Seth's right hand slowly released its grip on the gun, waiting for them to respond to Seth's movements.
Not long after, they began to lower their rifles, leaving Seth alone with Mia's body lying lifelessly with crimson blood flowing relentlessly down the right side of her body.
"I shouldn't have opened that door," Seth lamented.
There was sadness in his heart when Mia had to die because of his carelessness. He lifted the girl and placed her on the bed, letting her rest in peace for eternity.
Seth stared at Mia's body with a rumble of regret haunting his heart and mind. Moments like this made his heart, which was previously friendly and warm, turn cold again. He could not forgive himself for Mia's death, something that didn't need to happen.
The man looked down at his pistol lying on the floor, close to the puddle of Mia's blood. He reached for the gun with his right hand, aiming the tip of the loaded gun at the side of his head.
"If I die and do a time loop, I can save her life," Seth whispered.
Seth's eyes closed. He was frozen for a while with the gun pointed at his head. One pull of the trigger could make Seth go back in time, but he was worried that the headache might get worse if he went back in time any longer than before.
"I can't."
"I cannot put myself through so much pain just to save her," Seth replied, muttering.
He put the gun back on the floor, sitting limply with his back against the room's wall. During that night, Seth did not touch his food bowl at all.
The two bowls of food remained untouched until sunrise on the next day.