Prompted Story Snippets

Sacrifices and Seeds of Doubt

The heroine started spitting up blood, coating the floor of the building with a sickly red painting. The entire space was already coated in a gruesome mix of red and blue blood.

The villain wasn't too far off, collapsed on the ground as blue bubbled from his lips. He started laughing, a wet sound punctuated by choking and coughing at random intervals.

The world narrowed down to the two of them, both on their last legs as the sun started to rise over the destroyed skyscraper.

The hero pushed her way up to her feet, arms trembling violently.

The villain remained on the ground, his shuddering cackles fading into violent hacking.

She made her way over, only falling once to the unforgiving floor. Her outfit was stained red and blue, both of their blood coating the fabric.

"You win in the end, don't you?" He whispered, talking around a mouthful of blue. She crouched at his side, letting one hand rest on the side of his face. Her eyes were sad, victory meaning nothing if she had to kill the other side.

He smiled slightly, curling on his side to try and get rid of the last bits of blue invading his lungs. She helped him up, uncaring of the mask falling from her face.

"You know I never wanted this." Her voice was shaking badly, tears rolling down her face.

He pushed himself up to a sitting position, placing one hand on her shoulder as a reassurance and a brace.

"I know."

"Then why would you-"

"It had to be done. Just believe me-" She weakly pounded a fist onto his chest, sobbing in the growing daylight.

"No it didn't! You could have lived! What made you think you-"

"They wouldn't listen!" He shouted, grabbing both of her shoulders. "If I hadn't shown them that you were needed then who knows what they would have done to you."

"The people wouldn't let them."

"It's the government." He laughed. "They can do what they want."

"That doesn't mean you had to die."

"I'm not a good person. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get them to listen, and if it takes mass murder, then so be it."

"No, no, it can't end like this. You weren't supposed to die." The tears flowing down her face subsided slightly as she glared at him. He shook his head, letting his hands fall away as he lost the energy to stay upright.

She let out a cry, trying to catch him. She lowered him to the floor, her body shaking with the effort.

"There's a lesson you have to learn. I've lived much longer than you have, and they sent you to fight me anyways. What does that say about them?"

"What are you talking about?" She whispered, horrified.

"Children shouldn't be forced to fight wars." He said, his eyes hard as diamonds.

"But I made this choice! If anyone's to blame it should be me!"

"No. You aren't to blame here. You're not at fault for my death. Just be better than they are and you've already earned my forgiveness."

"Please don't die." She whimpered, clutching one of his hands in both of hers. "You could fix the world in a different way, you just have to live."

"My time here-" He turned to cough flecks of blue onto the ground, "is over. Find the corruption and fix it.

"You can change the world more than I ever could. Just don't lose yourself like I did."

"I promise." She murmured, barely able to speak.

He nodded, eyes closing for the last time as sunlight flooded through the remnants of the windows.

His hand went limp in her grasp, slipping to the bloodstained floor.

Her scream shattered the remainder of the windows as well as the bug on her suit.

Somewhere far away, an official cursed under their breath before turning to look at a council. They shut off the feedback-ridden transmission from the bug, letting the council members deliberate on what to do with the wayward heroine.

For now, they just had to get their claws in deeper than the venom of those final words. The issue could be remedied quite easily after that.

Hopefully they wouldn't have to kill her, but if that's what the council decided then orders were orders.