Bloodlust | lrh

2. Let the bodies hit the floor

The city feels a new sense of vibrancy as the smog from yesterday clears through the night. Everyone who tries to make an honest living is on their way to work, walking down the same streets that were so dangerous just hours before. Leah gets to her store just before opening time, waiting anxiously for her innocent employee to barge through the front door in a huff.

Five minutes pass. Leah knows the girl will come late, but after another five minutes, she begins to panic. Unknown to her, Soka won't be coming in to work today. Instead, she finds herself in some kind of concrete room. It could be a basement, maybe even an abandoned building. There's no way of knowing the time. By the time the doors are being locked again, Leah knows that something happened to Soka on her walk home.

The immense guilt that she feels is nearly too much to bear. There isn't anywhere you can report a missing person in this city, what little government was originally here now completely eradicated. When someone stops showing up to work, all you do is hire someone new. Leah feels too much love for the girl with the freckles, though, and from that point on will spend the rest of her days searching for her.

Soka desperately needs someone with that kind of compassion. Alone in a room you think about a lot of things, let alone with your life hanging in the balance. She thinks about the last memories of her parents. They disappeared one day just like she did last night, and they were never found. This gives the girl little hope of getting away, her mind runs ramped with negativity.

Who these boys wanted to bring her to was a question ringing in her head. Over the last few years, these same boys always stood at that same exact place. Soka hears chatter, even if she says nothing back. They're part of one of the largest crime groups in the city, or so she heard. The girl is right, and these boys have one hell of an adventure planned for her. Something that will change her life forever.

"You ready to go?" A voice echos across the empty room. Only then does Soka realize she has been sharing this space with two other women. They only stirred once someone spoke.

None of the girls answered. You don't really answer a question like that when being ready isn't an option. The bleach blond head of hair steps into the dim lighting, Soka taking note that he was there the night before. He goes to each girl, zip tying their hands behind their backs.

"Fuck off." Soka shoves the boy. She has enough fire in her to fight back for a short time, but not after a back hand to the cheek bone. Pain spreads across half of her face. There's nothing she can do besides fight when she can, and now is no longer the right time.

"You're really not going to like this." The boy's voice is threaded with anger and humor. He knows what a feisty girl like herself will experience, what a guy like his boss will do. He leaves that part out as he calls over his coworkers, each roughly dragging a girl out of the room.

The crime world in Chemin is a little different than you'd expect. There is someone at the top, as there always has to be. He is so twisted and deviant, though, that gifts are an effective way to gain favors. Small groups like the one that picked Soka up the night before are inclined to bring these gifts. They're on their boss' good graces now, but they have no idea how much better their positioning will be after presenting their offerings.

Soka listens as these two other women whimper and whine, continuously asking where they are going and what is the reason. She winces when she hears the one behind her get hit, even more so at the sound of her body when it hits the floor. Her escort mumbles a barely audible "get up", soon enough there are footsteps again.

They reach a door, Soka only having a mere few seconds to analyze it before a blindfold is placed over her eyes. She looks like death, blood from the hit earlier now dried mid drop on her cheek. It's better that she can't see it, for the girl is shaken enough as is. She's thrown into something, not even knowing it's a van until it starts to move.