other creative writing ....

[Eilauver]

......

[Eilauver]

Everything became a blur. Following the same pattern day end and day out, he had grown tired of it and the repetitiveness. There were times when he longed for something else, screamed on the inside that more would fill his otherwise mundane life yet nothing ever changed it was always the same. He existed for the sake of existing. Although he failed to see his importance, there were people in his life who needed him and if it weren't for them, his life would fail to measure up to anything at all. 

One such person he knew needed him was his girlfriend, life wasn't so simple with her. They had been together for two going on three years having met on the crowded streets of Cidade somehow. Oen often wondered what she saw in him why she was with him and how he managed to pull smiles from her or that soft manner she could say his name which he enjoyed. He decided she found something appealing in him, something he had yet to discover. She, on the other hand, drew him in by her allure. The first year held excitement, the not knowing what would happen next, those hand holding moments down to the secret kisses in public. She set fire to his world and he would do anything for her. Nothing she wanted, within reason, he would not get for her because he loved her. There had been no question after the first year, Oen was in love and said it in his very own way through the smiles on his face or the hug of his body to hers, but actually saying the words he found difficult. A pull on him kept them from leaving his mouth without the young man ever knowing why. This also was a reason why they fought, if he loved her he would tell her. He did love her, he just couldn't say it. At two years that's when he started to feel, even with her, those feelings again life going on the same pattern. Oen tried to change it with a ring he saved up to propose he just never gave it to her. He kept it safely stored away in a box in the closet at home. He had wanted to give it to her to show her all her doubts and worries could be put to rest that he was committed to her and her alone. Again, that unknown pull prevented him from doing so and nearly reaching three years together they lived separately and argued much more. He still loved her and was sure she still loved him, however too much damage had been done he realized. The only way to even remotely fix it perhaps sat stored away possibly collecting dust.

It ate away at him these days whether he should just go ahead and ask her to marry him, have her move in that way she could be calm enough to settle her heart. 
Oen considered it as he rode the subway to the plaza, his stop. It wasn't packed by far, in fact, just a few people occupied the hard unattractive blue seats. 
They were all busy playing on smartphones or engaged in the Cidade Newspaper. The latter, Oen's blue eyes occasionally ran over from where he stood. Crime was on the rise in the other three cities; Abendroth, Skade, and Belt. Combined with Cidade, they were the four major cities with Cidade being the largest and less crime-filled aside from the small dispute here and there. 

All of the cities held their own government with said government dedicated to keeping the people safe from an outside world none could really remember. 

The Neprobojan, a massive wall, surrounded all four cities. No one knew why, no one questioned it save for the few fanatics claiming the government was against them. Oen didn't care, such things had nothing to do with him. His worldly blue eyes abandoned the front of the newspaper closing. 

One of his arms  lifted above his head where he gripped the metal pole in front of him. He was late getting off of work at least this nine to five job. Monday through Friday he pushed mail for a corporate office downtown. It was not the greatest job having people overlook him even after being there for eight years nor having any way to advance up the ladder. The reason why he stayed was for the money and benefits as well as on a good day he got off in enough time to head to his other job as a mechanic, his highlight. Oen thought best when he was under a car, inside it, taking the pieces apart to put them back together. His old man taught him everything he knew it was their bonding experience. He worked at a small shop that got peak business during the weekend, still when he got off one job he headed to the other even if it was just to hear his old boss talk about the good 'ole' days or ask him why he hadn't married his woman. It brought him some comfort.

He was not heading there tonight. For some reason the higher ups needed him to do maintenance. Well and fine, but he ended up leaving around seven catching a late train as the dusky skies gave birth to night. His girlfriend called him to remind him about dinner at her place of which he hesitantly told her, forgetting, he would be late. Needless to say after silence, she hung up. Instead of catching the subway all the home he would ride it to the plaza then walk to her place since there wasn't a direct way.

He really wanted to shower, lay down, and say to hell with food he was that tired then again he wanted her to be happy.
Having unbuttoned the long sleeve white dress shirt, Oen let the red tie hang loose around the collar while he pulled his tank top ends out of his dress slacks. With his other hand he fished around in his pockets to make sure he had his wallet and phone and keys when the train arrived at the plaza stop. He was the only one to come to life as the automatic voice filled out on the speakers announcing the stop. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he strolled out the opened door on the platform where passengers waited to board. The path lead to massive stairs leading up and outside. On the sides were small convenience shops and people loitering in front of them. Oen kept his eyes ahead climbing the stairs he'd done any countless number of times.

A gentle night breeze rustled his wavy black hair when he reached the plaza a grandiose place illuminated at night by hanging paper laterns and wide arched street lights. Throughout the wide space, brick paved the ground leading to a wide center fountain where water spurted from the cherub statue's water jug. A few people sat on the rounded edge conversing or threw coins in the bottom for good luck. Several food smells assaulted Oen's nose pleasantly reminding him he was hungry, that opting to skip food for just a shower and a date in bed wasn't the best course of action. Rhythmic sounds on steel drums brought people to dance with each other while others sated their appetite purchasing food from one of the many stands scattered throughout. Instead of cheating on his girlfriend's dinner, Oen bought her some white peonies, a great choice the bubbly female owner mused when wrapping them up for him. He only smiled. 

Turning away with the gift in hand, Oen noticed the loitering people from down in the subway chased off the fountain sitters and now claimed the territory as their own. It was four of them, male, all in oversized clothing laughing at their own jokes at least the three. The fourth, a guy with messy brown hair covering one side of his face took in the scene of the plaza quietly. He brought one green eye on Oen, an insincere smile lifted his lips. Oen on the other hand went about his business, he wanted nothing to do with them or any trouble they would cause.
He heard them talking and shortly after the group left the fountain their route leading in a follow after him.

 

Oen stopped some right in front of a shop selling speciality food straight from Belt as advertised by the handwritten sign at the front of the cart. Behind it sat neat rows of various cooked animal meats and balls of rice. 

He hadn't stopped for food though, his stomach angrily did somersaults for the clear deception and the round faced woman standing on the side well shorter than him appeared smiling at first at the prospect of a new customer until she realized his game and that smile vanished leaving a quiet storm in place. She narrowed her eyes at the unsuspecting Oen who had turned his head ever so slightly over his shoulder. From a side glance he was well aware of the foursome following after him, even stopping a distance behind. The three morons sharing a brain snickered among themselves leaving their green single eye leader watchful and smiling. 

Oh great, Oen thought miserably, he attracted the attention of punks. Did they notice something on him, his exhaustion from the day? Whatever the reason he wasn't having it nor giving in. He just needed to shift their attention on something else, blend in the crowd, and head to his girlfriend's. Easier said than done. About to move to another cart, the woman cleared her throat which sounded as if mucus caught in it. He looked at her less than pleasant face. She secretly told him in her expression he needed to buy something otherwise feel her wrath and already had he made one woman mad tonight. 

"Uh..." Oen cupped his hairless chin. He moved the flowers under his arm careful not to crush them.  "How about the rice?" His medium low voice carried on the breeze of the night. The woman's eyebrow lifted, he couldn't tell then if it was because he just ordered one item a plain one at that. Soon, the confusion was clear when the leader of the punks stood an uncomfortably close two inches away from him stretching his arm out in Oen's line of sight to pay the woman. 

"Whatever he's getting," The guy said. "I'll pay for it." The woman nodded accepting of this.

Oen frowned. "No thanks, it's not necessary."

"Oh, but I insist." The one named Blade smiled, a smile Oen didn't trust by a long shot. It held something in it, a darkness. He wanted to break this close quarters contact immediately hoping to salvage the rest of his plan but, Oen felt it was too late. That no matter where he went they would follow and he wasn't about to head to his girlfriend's place toting trouble on the way. Oen once again politely declined reaching for his wallet, the woman looked between them as she prepared the rice.

"You insult me," Blade whined. "I'm here offering to pay for your food being the generous asshole I am and you shit on my hospitality," Oen sighed. "What is it bruh, you think you're better than me? I think you do. I really honestly," He jabbed a finger against Oen's chest. "Think you fucking do." From behind, his three stooges were on key point to listen, all that laughter set aside. 

"No, I don't." Oen had enough. He quickly fished out money to pay for his own food thanking the woman. He turned around after she handed him a bag heading the way he previously came. Looking down by mere chance he noticed a cat close by. The young man paused. It was strange, something like it would have never made him pause, however, staring into the cat's mysterious eyes Oen felt a pull in a different direction. He knew absolutely nothing about animals only that when he was younger his mother's cat jumped on his face. Afterwards, he kept a distance from animals in general. Instead of walking away as he probably should have, he knelt feeling the eyes of the goons on him. He reached out to pet her unsure if the cat belonged to anyone, he didn't see a collar. Smiling some, he scratched the top of her head between her ears.

"Hey there," He found himself smiling. Despite the lingering danger, Oen calmed himself enough to enjoy the company of the cat wondering faintly if the rice he purchased was suitable or if the animal was even hungry at all. Placing the peonies carefully down, he also put the rice out. "Only if you're hungry." He spoke.

"Seriously, how rude are you?" Blade's voice interrupted. "We were having a conversation, you shit on my generosity-"

Oen put a stop to the antics. From a side glance, he wanted it just to stop. "Listen, I see what you're trying to do. Enough, really."

"What am I trying to do?"

Oen shook his head. He gave the cat one more scratch before he stood. He took his peonies, he made too much of a detour to keep engaging with the bullies. He'd seen their kind often, they wanted people to fear them. He wasn't afraid and he had no idea why he didn't move on in the first place. As he went, Blade blocked his path. The other three spread out. Noticing the trouble, people began leaving the plaza.

"Get out of my way," Oen frowned.

"Nope," Blade reached in the back of his pants retrieving a gun. Oen saw the black pistol as it was aimed at him not just that, everything in his view turned red and where the four stood they were replaced by monstrous black distorted shadows stretched out. They had the outline of white eyes and mouths. His own eyes widened at what he was seeing, did anyone else see? No. Other shadows hastily moved from the scene of red and the young man noticed a smaller black winged figure crawling between Blade's fingers piercing it with sharp teeth drawing blood so red it spilled over the black. Next, the tiny figure crawled on the pistol, the weapon aimed at Oen. He now saw the faces of his parents, his girlfriend, everyone in his life. His own life growing up in Cidade, cars, things he wanted to do, and that damn ring.

He also saw the cat.

And the sound was deafening, one he had never heard before. The sound of the gun. Force lodged in his chest throwing him backwards, the peonies flew in the air as in slow motion he could see the world around him turn to normal and the liquid red sprayed outward. His blood. The gun-wielder shot him again well before he even fell to the ground and once more. Pain stabbed Oen in ways he couldn't imagine possible, his insides felt smoldering hot as if they might explode. He hit the ground hard, his body arched involuntarily as his head snapped against the brick and the flowers saturated in his blood spread throughout the emptying plaza with screams reaching the night sky. Blade laughed murderously, his friends on the other hand were horrified by what he had done. They tried to pull him away but he shot Oen again while the young man struggled to breathe with blood filling his mouth and nostrils.
He gasped coughing out the blood.

 

Depraved, murderous, cold, asinine, sinister laughter. It filled the once tranquil Cidade plaza turning a place of gathering a place of relaxation to something dark and foreboding. A most treacherous act was committed on the very foundation, one never to have taken place before and all sense of structure vanished along with the people. They fled from the gunshots filling the air bouncing off the laughter of the individual responsible for destroying the sanctity of the plaza. It would not return here. Forever would the area have a tragic reputation for the very ground in which someone was gunned down on. Like all others, the woman with speciality food from Belt abandoned her cart. She bore witness to Oen's plight, the shooting all of it, and fearing for her life as well as the family she left at home her feet carried her in the crowd. Horror worked its way on her face like everyone else, no one thought to stop or to even try to help their lives meant more value than a fellow human being. 

And the culprit, he laughed to the night sky wielding his gun. He tossed his head from side to side, a thin line of saliva trailing from the corner of his mouth. His friends stared at each other, their arms in combined effort latched around Blade's body literally pulling him away. The madness engulfed him be it birth from his origins or something more, had the cat not left prior to his heinous act most likely she too would have been extended his level of madness. His laughter reverted to near choking and that fact alone made him laugh harder letting his friends usher him on. Footsteps hit the ground, carts of food and ornaments overturned as stragglers struggled to leave. Some stopped to look at Oen, but went the opposite direction. He smelled blood, Oen could smell and taste his own blood. Metallic, iron even. What did it mean? Why could he taste blood, was it in his mouth? Each time his lips parted, the crimson liquid surged out running along his chin and down his neck. His body spasmed, a peculiar coldness held onto him harshly but was that not a good sign? It meant he still felt, despite being shot, he still could feel. "Guh...ugh....gah." No put together words other than gasps came out of his mouth. Oen's glossy eyes absorbed movement all around him and somewhere off he could still hear the laughter of his killer echoing deep in his ears, it really wasn't important to him nor the shooting. He didn't want to be alone, Oen wanted someone with him. Everyone, they left him. He could see them from a sideways, sometimes upside down view leaving the plaza and screamed on the inside not to leave him. Please, he begged, don't leave me alone. I don't want to die alone.

Oen didn't want to die at all. 

There was still so much left he had to do and say. How could he go from getting off work late to this. "Ugh....ugh...." His head turned side to side, more blood pooled out of his mouth and rendered him in a heap of his own fluids where he saw the darkened sky above. His mind fell on his parents, the fact he hadn't seen them much lately and had hoped to change it. With the way his schedule was it gave him little time to plan a visit or maybe he just told himself that. What he really avoided was his mother's dislike of his girlfriend that she always told him if he didn't plan to propose he shouldn't be with her. Every single time. Over dinner, off to the side. It had grown so annoying Oen stopped bringing his girlfriend there. His old man didn't care either way, his interest lie on the current game season on television. 

All the memories flooded back to him, his childhood, regrets. Oen had so many regrets. For one, the beautiful face of his love popped into his head. He should have asked her to marry him, all of it. He could have done it tonight, fell on one knee told her finally he loved her despite his hesitations about saying the words. Yes, he loved her. As if it settled to say, the pain robbed him of feeling. 

No, Oen protested fruitlessly. His eyes shut and hot water filled them leaking out along his cheeks. And as if given up to fate, the young man heard footsteps. To him they sounded far off, but this was because he soon heard a distinctive ringing in his ears. Opening his eyes, he found not all of the people had abandoned him. To his right stood a woman, both hands to her mouth and sadness took her face to look down at him. As he lay there, Oen's eyes looked into hers. They were incredible, other worldly, and too beautiful to be real. Had he died? A mixture of grey, silver, and jade cast on him he felt lost in them their familiarity. Oen saw those eyes before, he just could not recall where. He was grateful to not be alone yet scared of what it meant unable to move to not feel the wounds pulsating with blood leaving them and his skin fading in color. "D-Don't," A word at last. It took so much energy to say it. "Leave......me." Three words to convey his anguish. If he could have no one else here, he wanted her. "Agh...." The blood wouldn't let him say anything more and his companion soon dropped beside him, he felt nothing when her hands covered a wound. Whatever she said was muffled and fatigue took him and told him to close his eyes. So he did. 

Outside the plaza some cats gathered from the highest vantage point, their tails raised and eyes on their brethren with the human male. All made hissing sounds. 

He felt his hand grabbed. This brought Oen to open his eyes again directing them at her face, those eyes, and lastly her lips. He tried to hear and read what she said, but the ringing grew loud much like his feelings of tire. He was slipping. His breathing had become labored. 

She could let him go, his slipping mind thought, just let him go. It would be okay, what would happen would happen. The male coughed again this time harder, the final stretch. Every struggle for breath came at a high cost. Oen's eyes shut and did not open this time. All around him he was submerged in peripheral darkness falling and falling.

He didn't want to.

The last face he should have saw was his girlfriend's, it wasn't, he saw the young woman and her inexplicable eyes. It brought him comfort as he fell arms suspended outward and opening his eyes he could see his body above surrounded in blood, that woman, and seemingly his vision becoming watery. Wide-eyed, Oen reached out for what was being torn away. He grasped at nothing. "Wait! I'm here, don't let me go!" His soul sank more until the darkness lifted and light replaced it. He thought he could hear someone talking, the ringing no longer a factor. Had he heard someone? Instead of sinking, he rose higher and higher into the calming warmth of the light where sleep tugged on him and words he wasn't certain he heard became clear.

This life for his...

It was pure chaos. The entire plaza filled with black sports cars embedded on the sides with a single white stripe and black lettering in italics reading Cidade Police. Their siren lights flashed soundlessly. The actual police officers in their midnight blue uniforms set up a perimeter roping the scene of the crime off with yellow tape. Some stood around, others kept the news vans behind the yellow line and not privy of outstanding details such as the victim's name. Still, every reporter headlined the same thing. 
"We are reporting live from Cidade plaza on the scene of a horrific crime. Earlier tonight gunshots rang out leaving one young man alive but fighting for his life. Police have no idea what exactly took place as some witnesses have stepped forward with conflicting reports. The victim is being rushed to Cidade Memorial Hospital, there's no word on his exact condition at the moment and authorities are not releasing his name yet...."

From behind the yellow line a man clearly not a police officer shook his head at the media. He hated them. They were like damned locusts flipping over the rocks they came from in order to get a story. If he could, he'd run them all over of course that wasn't something that would look good on record as a detective especially his. Bad enough his ex drove him to several drunken stupors last thing he needed was going on a wild tangent. He wore a beat up old beige trenchcoat with slacks and a button down shirt. He stood in place, his green eyes narrowing in anger the more he looked at them. 
Turning away, he reached in his coat to retrieve a pack of cigarettes. Having a time searching for a lighter, when he did find it the detective realized the cigarette pack was empty. "Fuck me," He spoke through gritted teeth. He needed one before dealing with this shit storm. "Hey," He called out to some officers. "Anyone notify this kid's people yet? I'm pretty sure they're going to want to know about this. Last thing the department needs is a lawsuit because someone didn't pass the word along."

"All I know is Pajari contacted a couple of people," An officer spoke. "I guess they would be headed to the hospital now."

"Good, good." The detective nodded. "Now, we have to figure out what in the hell happened here, but someone get me some fucking cigarettes and get those blood sucking leeches out of here before we have another attempted murder!"

[Eilauver]

.....

[lVergill]

I really do like Rie, she seems wonderful and will work very well with the mystery RP we have in mind. I wonder what will happen when she gets into that mystery and the horror waiting for those two.  

[Eilauver]

...