by Jamie Wang
Three sharp knocks on the door interrupted Bryce. With a small sigh, he turned and retrieved the brown bag left in front of their door. It was unusually heavy. Bryce ripped the bag open and dumped its contents out onto the table. To his surprise, a gun clanged against the wood.
“Holy shit.” Bryce whistled.
He frowned as he inspected the weapon. It felt cold to the touch. The handle fit in his hand perfectly. Beside it was an unopened letter bearing the seal of The Boss. Bryce stopped playing with the gun and ripped the letter open. A picture popped out and floated onto the ground.
“Damn,” Bryce muttered. He bent over to pick up the picture and froze, a smile spreading across his face. Two scarlet eyes stared back at him from the ground.
Bryce laughed and returned to the letter. “To everyone,” he read. “Tomorrow, the target will be delivering a drop to the address provided. Kill her.”
He took one look at the address and threw his head back in laughter. Somehow, everything had fallen into place.
SASHA
“And if I think, even for a second, that anyone in your little group of Mice knows our secret, I’ll kill them all.”
Sasha opened her eyes to the sound of The Dragon’s voice. She was alone in her tent and The Dragon far away. Yet, she could still hear him just as clearly as in Hawk’s Lair. If push came to shove, he wouldn’t blink twice before killing everyone she loved.
The past twenty-four hours felt like a dream, some horrid fantasy she had yet to wake from. She scraped her nails against her skin with brief hope that she would awaken. Instead, it only proved she was already awake.
“I’m sorry guys,” she whispered. “It’s all my fault.”
The wind whistled outside to the soft percussion of rain. Sasha climbed out of her blankets and shivered. Normally, the chill would be enough to convince her to snuggle back under the covers, but she had a deal to keep.
One last drop to decide it all, that was the deal that released her from Hawk’s Lair. If she could deliver the medicine to some kid that burned his back, her family would complete the contract and earn enough to escape this place. In return, she promised to take The Dragon’s secret to the grave. And if she knew anything about The Dragon, she wouldn’t have to keep his secret for long.
Sasha stepped outside into a grey world. Nobody but her was awake. The black clouds blanketing the sky looked like thick smoke. The only color in this world seemed to be the umbrellas above her. She looked up and watched the rain falling on them. Each umbrella colored the rain droplets in its own unique way. How long she stood there just gazing at their roof, she didn’t know.
Sasha reached into her pocket and brought out a bag of pills. She sniffed loudly. “C’mon now, haven’t you been crying a little too much?” she asked herself with a smile.
Her attempt at humor didn’t lighten the atmosphere. Nothing could distract her from the fact that she had put her family into harm’s way. Perhaps because everyone had considered her their savior, even she had believed it. Now, nothing was further from the truth and the realization felt like a boulder crushing the air from her lungs.
“You owe them this,” Sasha whispered. She put the bag of pills back in her pocket and left.
At Project Persist, anyone else would’ve just taken the money. Why do I have to be like this?
Sasha stepped out from under the cover of their home. The rain felt like ice. She pressed on until she reached the end of the alley. As she neared the open streets, the wind picked up into a hurricane. She reached a hand outside the protective shield of the alley walls to test the storm. Her hand whipped around until it was back by her side.
You swore you’d protect them…
“But I can’t,” Sasha answered herself with a sad smile.
When previously she had doubts, now she was entirely convinced. What was she supposed to do against a monster like The Slasher? How could she fend off the soldiers of The Dragon? All she had left to give was a final successful drop. If this was her punishment for failing them, she gladly received it. As long as she was the one being punished.
Sasha clasped her hands together and for the first time in her life, she prayed.
“God,” she whispered, tears spilling from her eyes. “If you can really grant wishes, this is the only thing I’ll ever ask for. Make the storm rage. Keep my family from coming after me. Even if it costs me everything, I beg of you, keep them home. Keep them safe.”
She wiped her eyes and with a deep breath, stepped into the monsoon. Her hair blew behind her, dragging her backwards. Even with her hands shielding her eyes, she could barely keep them open. The rain crashed into her, each drop like the sting of a bee. At times, it even smothered her breath.
Sasha smiled.
Only a few minutes passed before Sasha found herself needing rest. Already, murky brown water covered her toes. Her tank top clung to her skin like tape. The howl of the wind was the deafening shriek of God Himself, or an answered prayer.
She ducked into an alley to catch her breath. In the alley, the water turned to a disgusting yellow and green. Leaking trash bags became little hoses for their rotting insides to escape.
“Hey!” a scratchy female voice called out.
Sasha turned to see a green hooded figure at the end of the alley. It slowly made its way toward her. The figure kept its head down so that Sasha couldn’t see its face.
“Are you a Mouse?” the same female voice came from this hooded person.
Sasha’s breath caught in her throat. “No,” she lied. She slowly stepped backwards.
When the hooded woman had made it halfway down the alley, she lifted her head to reveal a plain white mask.
A Lion! Why?
“Red eyes!” The Lion shrieked.
It took a second for Sasha to process what just happened. When she did, she tore down the alley back into the open streets. But the streets were no longer empty. Scattered throughout the streets were various figures cloaked in hooded green raincoats. They were both in front and behind her, cutting off every alley, entrance, and exit.
“What the fuck,” Sasha muttered to herself.
She saw the orange flash and then heard the explosion. It was the same sound she had heard at Hawk’s Lair, but feint from the wind. Her shoulder jerked backwards and flared with pain. She clutched her shoulder only for it to burn even hotter. Before she knew it, she had collapsed onto one knee.
“I got her!” a male voice screamed. “It’s over, Mouse!”
“Like hell it is,” Sasha muttered to herself. She grit her teeth and squeezed her bleeding shoulder. “Who the hell… do you think I am?”
GUNTHER
The gun shook wildly against the wind. Gunther gripped it with all his strength but could not stabilize it. Clenching his eyes shut, he pulled the trigger. Thunder escaped from the barrel, its power coursing up his arm. He hadn’t imagined such a small gun to kick like this.
When he opened his eyes, the red-eyed Mouse had fallen to one knee. She clutched her shoulder while staring at the ground.
“I got her!” Gunther couldn’t believe it, he almost didn’t want to. For not having ever fired a gun before, he had never expected his bullet to actually connect. Now that it did, he wasn’t sure how to react. “It’s over, Mouse!” he shouted only because it was an appropriate response for a Lion.
“Why the fuck did you shoot?” Shae screamed. “What if you missed and hit someone? The Boss specifically told us not to involve anyone else!”
“Well, I didn’t.” Gunther replied. “The bullet hit.”
There was no way he would tell her that the only reason he was able to pull the trigger was because he thought he would miss. The bartender had introduced him to Shae and told him that she was to look after him for his first few jobs as a Lion.
“Please, you barely grazed her. Let’s just finish this and go home,” Shae shook her head and stepped out the alley with her own pistol out. “I’ll give you the pleasure.”
The
houses around them lit up one by one. The gunshot must’ve awoken people. Gunther stepped toward the Mouse. Each progressive step came heavier than the last. The red-eyed Mouse stayed on her knee. Around them, the other Lions closed in, each had their gun drawn. There was no escaping.
Gunther brought up his gun to the Mouse’s head, shaking as he did. “I’m sorry,” he muttered.
I owe Lissandra this.
The red-eyed Mouse brought her head up to face him. She glared at him, unafraid. For a second, Gunther swore that her eyes were as green as Lissandra’s. He shook his head to dispel the illusion.
Pull. But his finger didn’t have the strength. The gun itself seemed to be resisting him. It shook uncontrollably, growing heavier. Gunther bit into his bottom teeth. Pull! And nothing happened.
An orange glow caught his peripherals. He turned to see the house next to him open its doors. At the doorway was a single man, his face wrinkly and limbs like bones. Fading white hair parted at the top of his head to reveal dark blotches of skin. All he had on was a pair of boxers.
“What is this?” The old man exclaimed.
The Mouse slapped his gun away and jumped up. Before Gunther could bring the gun back, the Mouse flung a handful of mud into his face. He clawed the mud from his eyes just in time to see the Mouse crash through the door into the old man’s home.
“You idiot!” Shae screamed and ran past him. Her arm stretched out in a mad attempt to grab the Mouse. Just as her hand entered the house, the door slammed shut on her fingers with a bone crunching crack.
Shae let out a bloodcurdling scream and dropped her gun. She held onto her fingers as if they would fall apart if not for her grip. The door rebounded open just enough for a muddy foot to shoot into her face. She fell backwards and splashed into the street.
In two steps, Gunther barreled through the door into what looked to be a living room. There was a dusty couch turned toward a television on one side of the wall and at the end of this room, a tiny window to chuck trash into the alley. His eyes adjusted to the glaring lightbulbs and caught the Mouse crawling out of this window.
Gunther ran to it and jammed his torso through. If aiming was hard before, it was impossible now. Half his body hung out the window at an awkward angle. With a grunt, he pushed against the window frame, but it was no use, he was too large.
“The Mouse escaped!” he heard excited voices behind him.
Gunther bolted out of the house. Lightning streaked across the sky followed by the immediate sound of an explosion that dwarfed any gunshot ever fired. The rain came down like little icicles and the wind drowned out all the noise around him.
Already, the other Lions were in full sprints. He counted six ahead of him and one behind. He turned back briefly to see Shae crying on the ground. Her mask was off, half of it sunk into the water. She was screaming at him. He couldn’t hear it, but he could read her lips. “Help.”
Beside her was another man, tall with lanky arms. He wore the mask of a Lion, but without the green raincoat. His mask held a dark red smile and his hand, a twisting blade.
All the more reason to keep going.
SASHA
The main streets had become a cluster of flying debris and furniture. Anything unsecured was picked up by the wind and thrown into whoever was unfortunate enough to be outside. Rain had flooded the streets, its water reaching well past Sasha’s ankles.
She pressed herself against the garbage bin, praying after each flash of lightning that nobody would find her. This was the first time in ten minutes of ducking and weaving that she had found herself alone.
She peeked over the trash bin. Lightning split the sky in two and in that second, she saw an alley devoid of any trash. This was what wealth brought, shiny metal garbage bins emptied weekly. At the end of this alley stood a Lion.
A second flash of lightning illuminated the Lion’s back. Before its thunder had finished roaring, Sasha charged the Lion’s back.
“Out of my way!” she screamed and lunged at the green raincoat in front of her. She crashed into the Lion and tumbled onto the ground. Before the Lion could get his bearings, Sasha rolled onto her feet and was already up and running.
It’s too dangerous to use main roads.
She turned the corner into the alley and screeched to a halt. A plain white mask stared back at her. Both of them jumped backwards.
“Shit,” a female voice muttered from behind the mask. She reached into her pocket, fumbling for her weapon.
Sasha didn’t wait, she turned back into the main road and sprinted away. She heard thunder coming from the alley and understood that it was a gun. Ahead of her, Lions poured from the alleys, converging toward the gunfire.
There were no alleys to escape into, only a wall of houses. Without a second’s hesitation, she skirted toward a house. Sasha rammed her body into its rotting door, but it refused to budge.
A bullet rammed itself into the door, sending an explosion of splinters into Sasha’s face. She jerked to the side and twisted around. A blank white mask stared back, a gun pointed at her.
Shit!
A wooden stool crashed into the Lion, flung by the wind. It broke on impact. The Lion tumbled into the water. Before she could get back up, Sasha was upon her. Sasha pressed her head under the water while wrestling with the gun with her other hand. Debris slammed against Sasha’s head. It was all it took for the Lion to flip Sasha under her.
Though Sasha’s eyes were open, she could barely see through the water. All she saw was a flurry of bubbles. A single hand held her down. Sasha kicked the ground and pushed against the hand, but she was too weak, and only getting weaker.
She grasped the ground around her, digging her nails into whatever she could find. Her fingers rapped around something solid and long. With the last of her energy she jammed it into the Lion’s arm. The Lion screamed and fell backwards.
Sasha shot up into the air. She took a mighty breath before coughing it all back out. The Lion crunched over trembling. What Sasha had found was the broken leg of a stool. It had pierced the Lion’s thin arm. A dribble of blood crawled down the wood into the murky waters below.
There was no time to lose, with every passing second, the other Lions came closer. Sasha ran back to the rotting door and tackled it. The door cracked but didn’t open. She stepped backwards and stomped at the door. Tiny splinters dug into her heel, digging deeper with every stomp.
Two arms grabbed Sasha and propelled her through the door in an explosion of wood. They fell onto the bare ground into the house, a new Lion on top of Sasha.
“Stop squirming!” the Lion commanded.
“Get out of my house!” a man screamed.
Sasha heard the sound of hollow metal and suddenly, the Lion released her. The Lion screamed and rolled over writhing on the ground. Her back lurched forward and her arms crumpled into her.
Sasha scrambled up just in time to see a metal bat flying toward her. She felt its breeze as the bat scraped by her face.
“This is your last warning, get out of my house,” the man with the bat said.
The man was short, but his muscles stretched the holes in his t-shirt. He held the bat up as if it was a sword. His arms shook and his knuckles turned white. Behind him in the living room, two small pairs of eyes peeked over the couch.
“She has a gun,” Sasha motioned at the Lion.
The owner’s eyes darted to the Lion and in this moment, Sasha lunged at him. Both hands clung to his bat. She pulled with all her might, but only managed to spin them. With a small grunt, the man shoved her backwards, deeper into his home.
Sasha stumbled back before tripping over the small table in the living room. Two shrill screams filled the house in a steady note.
“Get away from my kids!” The owner ran at her with the bat raised above his head.
Sasha rolled off it just in time to dodge the bat. It slammed into the wooden table, breaking it in two. Before she get could up, the man’s shadow swallowed her, his bat raised and re
ady.
“Okay, stop!” Sasha clenched her eyes shut and put out her hands.
“Leave.”
Sasha slowly opened her eyes. “I will. Just calm down.”
“Don’t break into my house and tell me to calm down,” the man snarled back.
The door behind him swung open and another Lion stepped through. The two kids shrieked louder than ever. With a mighty roar, the father flung his bat at the Lion. It hits it mark, splitting the Lion’s mask in two. The lion crumpled to the ground, but as soon as he fell, another walked in. The owner roared and charged the next Lion.
Sasha darted her eyes around the room, finding the window she was looking for. She climbed over the couch, over the two boys still crying, and landed in front of the trash window. Behind her, the kids’ father wrestled with the invading lions. There was nothing more in this world Sasha wanted than to help him, but she also had people she needed to protect.
She opened the window and crawled out of it straight into the garbage bin below. To her surprise, she fell into water deep enough to submerge her entire body. The garbage bin only held a few black bags at its bottom, but gallons of water. She pushed herself up, spluttering out sour water as she broke the surface to breathe.
“I knew you’d pull this stunt again.” It was the same Lion that had shot her.
Sasha closed her eyes as the barrel of a gun pressed against the back of her head.
GUNTHER
Gunther waited behind the metal trash bin. Its green had long ago faded away until all that was left was the orange hue of rust. Beside him, kids were screaming through the wall. He could hear the owner of the house yelling at the Lions breaking in. He understood well. If anyone were to ever threaten Lissandra or Leon, he’d be in as much of a frenzy.
The window above him opened and then he heard a splash as someone fell into the garbage bin in front of him. Gunther frowned and gripped the cold iron of his gun. He had never considered himself a Lion, only a brother, one guilty of failing his sister when she needed him the most. He stood and brought the nose of his gun to the Mouse’s wet hair.
