Trial and Error

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The man in black armor stood, carefully watching a row of students in front of him. The kids were no more than fifteen, but they followed his orders like they had been practicing for decades. It made sense. Thanks to the scarily increasing amounts of anti-monster propaganda, the entire country wanted the people of the underground to go back down.
The man's mask covered his entire face, with a tinted visor over his eyes. There could've been anything under that mask, and it would've remained covered by the inhuman armor plating that surrounded him, encasing him in a blast resistant shell.
The man spoke. "Here's what we'll do. I'm going to kill each of you, one at a time, until a monster reveals itself," he looked at each of them. He picked out the tallest one and said; "you'll do."

Then he unholstered a small gun, similar to the design of a modern day pistol—something that might've be carrying nine millimeter or .45, but sporting red glowing highlights along the slide and grip—and shot the kid in the head.
Blood sprayed from the gaping hole the bullet burrowed into his head, and the kid fell down, a crunch ringing out as his skull shattered on the concrete floor. It didn't matter, he was dead as soon as the round was fired.
The man stepped out of the pooling blood at his boots, and said; "well. At least you're not a monster."
There were other ways to check for monsters. Blood tests, which wouldn't work for monsters, or even the rather slow method of trying to cross-reference their appearance to one of the several thousand monsters previously recorded, if other ways were unavailable.
The method of Trial and Error was usually only used in the most extreme scenarios, and never to people under the age of sixteen. But whatever governmentally-supported extermination business this man represented with his armor didn't seem to care about the legality of monster hunting.
"Eenie, meenie, miney..." The man strode up and down the row, looking for his next target. He found it in a small quivering boy, trying to stand stiff like the others, but he couldn't hide the complete fear he had.
"Mo," the man said, before raising his weapon and shooting the kid in the head.
This time, there was no blood spray. The image of the kid shimmered, like a low quality video, and then he vanished into a spread of dust, which was blown away by the gentle wind.
The man held a button on the radio strapped to his chestplate, and spoke into it. "Monster has been disposed of. ID unknown. One civilian casualty," the man paused for a bit, before adding; "casualty by monster."
He heard someone stifle a giggle, and raised his pistol back up at the row of kids.
"Who was that?"
The kids remained completely silent.
Keeping his firearm raised with his right arm, his left still clutching the radio, he moved forwards until he was close enough to just about poke any one of them with the barrel of the gun.
"Which one of you was that?"
It was so quiet he could hear the words echo, once, twice... and then a new voice, repeating his words back to him, so sharp it was as if they were whispering in his ear.
He spun around, keeping his gun level, but he couldn't tell the source or direction of the voice.
"Who said that?!" He screamed.
All the kids remained completely still and silent.
The voice returned, spitting his own words back into his head, with a harsh tone as if it hated him just for being here.
"You'll regret doing this!" The man continued to shout.
The voice repeated it back to him, in a thousand voices at once, so blurred he could hardly make it out. It was too loud, and then they all stopped in a single moment, and he heard the voice, so clearly it was as if it was standing next to him.
"You just killed two a good person," the voice said. "If anyone is regretting anything, it'll be you."
He swung his right arm around to face it, gun in hand, but suddenly there was a sharp pain in his leg. He looked down and found a seven inch knife sticking out of his right thigh. It's blade was bloody crimson, and there was real blood running down it too. His blood.
His eyes widened as he realised what had happened, and then a pale hand reached out to the knife and yanked it out of his skin. He gasped, trying to breathe but he found no air. He tried to fire his weapon wildly, hoping to hit the attacker, but his fingers weren't listening to him. The gun felt heavy in his hands, and he dropped it, the pistol clattering to the floor.
The same hand picked it up by the barrel, and he looked up at his attacker. Their face looked feminine, very pale with a bright pink blush in their cheeks. Their hair was a light brown, medium length, and went down to their neck. Their lips were pressed into a slight smile, as if this brought them joy.
And their eyes. They were a deep red, and looked inhuman, like a bit of a monster within an otherwise human face.
"Ugh," they sighed casually, like some mildly unpleasant topic of conversation had just been brought up. "You humans don't do anything fun. I mean, would it kill you to fight me, blade on blade?"
They giggled and waved the knife around in front of the mans face. "Actually, maybe it would."
He reached out to grab it, to yank it out of her hands, to hold onto their arm for support, anything, but his arms didn't want to listen. An unbearable pain shot through his body and he recoiled, falling onto his back. He looked down and found the knife sticking out of his chest, fitted in between the armor plating. There was a dark red mark growing in his undersuit. He tried to use his legs, to kick himself away, to escape, but his entire body was paralysed. All he could do was watch as the kid—no. It was a monster. It had to be. It surely couldn't be human—walked towards him slowly, as if they had all the time in the world.
He tried to open his mouth to call for help, but all he could manage was a grunt, and he laid back, his energy depleted.
The monster kneeled down beside him, and reached out, taking the knife in their hand. They twisted it inside the man's chest, and he finally found his voice. He screamed curses like it was his only chance of survival, and then fell silent.

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⏰ Last updated: Jan 09, 2022 ⏰

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