Your Own Red Color

[10:41 PM]

You yawn into the back of your hand. There is a 15 minute interval between buses. Yours should be here soon in a few minutes.

The streets have been quiet, no cars or people now. A little odd but you throw away the thought. This place is on the outskirts of the shopping district near the river bank, not many go through here anyways.

"...."

You hear the quietest of footsteps approach the bus shelter from your right side. You look and see a hooded figure in a grey hoodie and a short skirt. A girl? At this time all alone? You can't see her face that well due to her hood. She walks behind the bus shelter and you break your staring not wanting to look like a creep.

As this happens you look forward from the girl to the road in front of you....a car. It silently pulls up and stops.

Black car, tinted windows. Your heart jumps as if it's a jump scare. Your body tense and you lean forward to get up ready to flee remembering the other day. "Fuck." You whisper to yourself.

BANG.

A loud sound echoes between the buildings from the city blocks ahead of you.

By the skin of your teeth you instinctively dodge to the left and a flying bullet grazes your right cheek. The projectile breaks the glass panels and screens behind you. The colorful pop-up displays of the bus shelter shatters and glitch.

A sniper.

The doors of the dark vehicle swings open and several men in dark suits step out. Each of them draws an automatic handgun with an extended magazine that protrudes past the bottom of the hand grip.

You place your finger tips to your cheek to check yourself....blood? How did the projectile pierced your skin? And how long has it been since you saw your own red blood?

"FUCK!" You shout as you begin to sprint out of the bus shelter taking a few steps towards the left side. The gifts of your friends and family still held tightly in one hand.

Right as you do, quick steps approach from that same side and you watch as the girl with the hoodie from earlier does a spinning kick aimed at your face.

Surprised you immediately block it with an arm and get lifted off your feet. Your eyes widen in shock as you fly back into the bus shelter and through the broken screens completely shattering what's left of it. Shards of glass fly into the air as you land on your side clenching your teeth. This sensation and ****....it's a mana reinforced kick.

Your gift bags clatter to the floor near you.

"What the fuck?" You whisper to yourself as you groan and get up onto your feet.

"Copy-" One of the men says and nod to the others. Before you realized what he was indicating to the others you hear the sound of silenced gunfire.

The men formed a line while you were down and with a single command they give you no mercy. Bullets rain onto you ripping through the fabric of your clothes. You feel the hot sensation of the rounds impacting against your skin. But unlike the first one that you barely dodged, these ones don't pierce you.

You put up a hand towards the men and look away from their direction.

"STOP!" You shout. "What's your problem!? What do you fucking want!?"

You know what they want. Your life. Your position as the Crowned. You don't know what to do. Are you trying to buy time? Do you kill them? Do you run? CAN you run? You're blighted with indecision. So much is running through your mind right now. Your gifts, are they okay? Ms. Kathrine, they didn't see her with you did they? That hoodie girl, who is she? That sniper, how are they piercing your skin???

Suddenly the sound of silenced gunfire stops and the men release the empty mags onto the concrete ground, clattering hollow.

"Goddammit." You say as you lunge forward rage filling your eyes. "_LEAVE _me alone!"

Your right hand clenches into a fist, your left foot steps forward and your arm swings. You feel the wind rush through the bullet ridden clothes you wear before your hand swings through the body of the man you're attacking....clean. You almost didn't feel any resistance.

....

Seconds go by as everyone stood still. The man you punched has a scared look on his face as he stared down at his abdomen....or rather the lack of one. Your hand is drenched in a red color still tightly clenched. You're as shocked as they are.

All the men watched as their colleague flopped to the ground motionless. No matter the kind of preparations they had....they clearly weren't prepared for this. The men looked at each other, fright displayed on their faces where their dark glasses can't hide. Then they all proceed to take a step back from you and continue on reloading their weapon with a terrified haste.

You stare at the man below you and gulp. Shit, you didn't intend to do that....then a kick from the edge of your vision makes you flinch and you immediately block it with a raised arm. You clench your teeth, the **** behind it would be deadly to a normal human....the concrete below you cracks. The hoodie girl from before stands there having done an axe kick from above. She's incredibly strong.

With the delivered kick you see her face more clearly. The girl has an odd look to her. Her brows are thick and she smiles with both her mouth and eyes. A pleased smile displays openly showing you sharp canine teeth. Her bangs looks to be dyed purple dangles and flutters across her forehead back and forth with her quick kicking motions. What catches your attention the most causes you to hesitate, her eyes, she has....bright yellow eyes. They seem....familiar.

BANG.

Another loud fire, another bullet. But this time you don't dodge in time distracted by the hooded girl. A sharp pain shoots throughout your body from your right shoulder and you turn to look at the gaping hole that has been left behind by the powerful hit. Your thoughts race for a conclusion of how this is possible and go onto one knee in the process.

It hurts. It fucking hurts....

"Painful isn't it?" The hoodie girl in front of you says as she lowers her foot from your arm. "To think I'd get this chance." She says before taking a step back and reaches into her hoodie to take out a handgun, a tough looking revolver with a black sleek finish.

The gun glows and activates with flashing lights spilling out of the cracks of the gun from within. With a smug demeanor she lifts and points the gun to your head.

"....I would say goodbye. But unfortunately they want you alive so they can choose who the next Crowned would be....what a pain in the ass....but I'll still have my fun." She readjusts her aim and fires at your knelt knee.

You dive out of the way completely landing onto your side as you clutch onto your bleeding shoulder.

"Tch- you're no fun....but it does make me happy seeing you act so pathetic." She says as she aims again.

You're out of steam. This amount of pain you can endure but the state of your body is entirely fucked, you feel....dizzy, nauseous, heavy and even sleepy. Not to mention you're bleeding like crazy. Ameko said your body was strong but one hit from a well placed shot turned you into....this, a pathetic Crowned, a boy with nothing to show. Defenseless and weak inside his own reality....damn it all! You curl your hand into a fist in frustration.

Everything you have, everyone you cherish, after you die....will they all be gone just like that? You'll have to start over right? In the next reality? Ruled by another crowned? How will the next reality be like? Will your family still be the same? Would you even still remember? So many questions you don't have the answers to. It's hard to face....but you actually feel scared....your reality and your wishes are going to be taken from you and you could do absolutely nothing about it.

....

"Ahem. Hello there."

A velvety female voice says with a slight distortion as if it's being spoken through a filter. Everyone turns to look in it's direction. You yourself try to spin your head around in confusion but you can't see the source of the voice.

"Who are you?" The hoodie girl says pointing the gun towards the shadows.

"Good question." The voice responds.

The girl with the revolver looks to the side, she has an earpiece on.

"What? Retreat? What do you mean retre- I got this! He's right in front of m-"

But before she can finish rapid footsteps cut her off. The girl flinched with fear in her eyes.

"Rain Bunny, cut their comms." The voice says while you trace the sound of the steps and see that there is no one there....the woman is invisible. Some sort of cloaking tech?

Static and white noise blurts from the hooded girl's earpiece loudly, even you could hear it. There's a loud one-two impact on the girl and she grunts not able to defend from the unseen assailant.

"Shit, fire on them!" She says and jumps back a good few feet before trying to command the scared looking men in suits.

"I suggest you all to leave." The voice says and then is interrupted by the loud bang of the shot in the distance.

Bang!!!

The projectile instantly impacts the sturdy metal wall of the building behind the voice, missing entirely.

"What the hell is happening?" You whisper to yourself on the ground.

"How....unnecessary." The voice sighs. "Looks like I'm going to be home late."

Despite the hot pain flowing through your body you can feel coldness in those words that send a chill up your spine.