Wondrous

Chapter 3

I always despised the weather when summer came around in the city. Everything that was grimey became grimeyer, as the sweat and decay began to boil with every passing day. My pale skin burnt quickly in the summer heat alone, but the constant metallic reflections across my skin cooked me like a melting pot. Fortunately for myself, Tsuko managed to be quite the homebody during the summer, only ever really dragging himself into the blistering sunlight whenever training became a necessity.
    It was a day I wouldn't have remembered, an afternoon I wouldn't regret, but all the same this day burnt my mind the same way the sun burnt my skin the day prior. Myself, Tsuko, Ima, as well as her partner Yuro had embarked on a trip to a nearby lake whose beach was rarely occupied. Had I had things my way we'd have spent the afternoon in the trenches of Tsukos basement playing board games, instead I was outvoted a startling 3 to 1.
    My skin having been eviscerated from the festivities of the day prior meant that I unfortunately needed to partake in the unnecessarily expenditure of sunburn treatments. My uncle, effervescent in his values, prevented me from using any mode of transport that was motorized and carried more than two wheels. Suffice to say I had calves toned like a greek god as I worked my summer job two miles north.
   

    The pharmacy who carried sunburn treatments was 3 miles south. I tucked my music player in my pocket and set my slightly broken headphones against my temple, suffocating my ears with sound. The trek was typical, as most in the area had become as I acclimated to the trails who swirled and swerved about the outskirts of my uncle's land.
    I turned the bend onto a frontage road that led into the first ring of the metropolis. Most of the smaller more affordable wares populated this sector of the city's underbelly, though a massive casino loomed above the area like a gleaming cloud. My uncle occasionally partook, though with a usual lack of success.
    Nearby store owners had young greeters blast company greetings with every chord of their squeaky voices, much to the chagrin of the elderly every other of which seemed to tuck their hearing aids deep within their pockets. Groups of foreigners crossed paths with residents, exchanging haphazard pleasantries in broken language, neither party too embarrassed, nor impressed with the others ability in engaging in conversation.
    The one thing I always managed to appreciate about the summer despite its shortcomings in heat was just how brilliantly the sun shone above the mountainside and skyscrapers onto each and every etch of ground that lay beneath it. Even in such a fake and metallic landscape nature still made itself known. I recalled the days I spent in my village heading on lengthy walks with fellow children deep into the woods, and yet no matter how far we ran the sun always followed, blessing us with substantially worse sunburns. 
    I watched as the sun peered around the corner of a towering skyscraper and unto the outskirts below, searing the steady burn that had laid dormant against my shirt. Wincing in pain I felt my hands jostle back and forth, disrupting the steady pedaling pace my mind had grown to know across this particular trek. I slammed against the breaks and exhalled to the point where a cloud could have emerged from my lungs. As I stood embarrassed, a nearby passerby briefly exchanged dirty looks with myself, then proceeded on their merry way, a prospect I was ecstatic at its introduction.
I continued biking through the outskirts till the neon lights of the pharmacy beamed into my eyes, activating the plentiful memories I had running through here with Tsuko and snagging snacks. Ima had worked there for her first summer job and always managed to keep what we needed hidden away, with today being the only memory where she wasn't working, something with her mother.
I parked my bike into the rusty bike area that sat adjacent to the pharmacy before journeying inside, then sprinting back once I recalled that I hadn't managed to lock it in place, unfortunately a common mistake on my behalf. 
Upon entry I felt my nose flare as dust cascaded down from the door and deep into my nasal cavity, causing a cataclysmic sneeze to echo throughout the entryway. The likes of which were quickly resolved as the cashier stated "bless you." 
As I trekked deeper into the pharmacy I noticed the neon signs that accompanied its halls flicker on and off, jarring my subconscious with an unsettling understanding. Each light showcasing a separate color but never at the same time, causing me to constantly reset and blink as the lights changed. I felt a headache make itself known as I slowly made it to the back of the store and snagged a set of sunburn repair.
Just then I heard a loud commotion at the front end of the store, as a young woman appeared to be deeply into a screaming match with an opposing male customer ahead of her. As I investigated the commotion, I stared upon the woman first, she was young as she sounded and wore deep red hair, wearing a tight blouse with a floral pattern, and name brand jeans with a cross brandished across the back pocket. She also wore a rather poignant diamond ring, who glinted in the neon light as she pointed at the opposing figure who I investigated after.
His hair was a deep silky gray, clearly dyed but natural enough to appear the opposite to the naked eye, he wore a brown jacket with several differing insignias brandished across its many patches, only somewhat hiding the gargantuan number of tattoos that appeared to litter his skin head to toe. He too brandished a similar diamond ring, although his was kept far from the light, and deep into the abyss of shadows that lie near the entryway.
As the pair's argument reached a fever pitch, I felt my heart drop in a pitfall, so slow yet so fast my legs barely held themselves up. The man slugged her in the chest, hard, before brandishing a pistol and driving it into her temple.
"Everyone on the floor!" He screeched, echoing throughout the building as glasses could be heard shattering upon people dropping to the floor. The cashier behind the register stood petrified as the man then turned his weapon onto him.
"Empty the fuckin' register now! Or I blow this skanks brains all over the fuckin wall!" The man's voice shook a bit as I hid behind the corner of a nearby aisle. He was clearly experienced, but at the same time something seemed to perturbe him here in particular. 
The cashier frantically emptied the register, dumping the plentiful currency into a bag nearby, petrified and yet procedural. The woman begged for the man to let her go, before the man barked at her to keep quiet, smacking her across the jaw with his palm.
The world went still for a moment, as the door to the pharmacy rang with its typical 'ting!' as a heavier set man made his way into the building. He stood taller than most I'd met till then, and still was only slightly bigger than the man sticking up the counter. He wore deep brown spectacles, and carried a long beard that hang to his chest. As he immediately noticed the man in front of him he bellowed with a loud grunt and slammed his shoulder into him as he turned around at the sound of the ring.
Both him and the woman toppled to the floor, his gun flying across the store floor and right next to the aisle I hid behind. The newcomer crushed the man's nose with a wound up punch, causing the thief to screech in pain. The woman stood to her feet before snagging something from her pocket and jamming it into the side of the newcomer,
"A knife?" I wondered .
The newcomer rose to his feet before blasting the woman against the counter with a kick to the stomach, before getting tackled from behind by the thief.
I crawled to my feet as the thief continued to engage with the man, and jumped for the gun that lay just ahead. The sweat from the thief caked its handle, as I cocked back what felt like a weightless tool. I thought of what to say but noticed the thief now dug into his own pocket for what could've been a knife. I had to stop it, the flicker flicker of the neon blinded my right eye as I aimed down the sights, my hands shaking despite my so called courage as I pointed directly at the thief and-
The gun went off as I felt it kick back against my shoulder, the frighteningly loud burst piercing my ears like a needle, blinding my hearing for a brief moment. I had shut my eyes deep, praying the thief had gone down as I slowly pried them open.
The woman's silky red hair became all the more so, as the crimson pool of her own blood dampened it, the shot straight through her neck as she choked on her own blood, gurgling, clutching to life before succumbing to it all the same. Her partner rushed to his feet as tears and sweat seemed to cover his visage, before he grabbed the bag of money sprung to his feet and rushed outside while the newcomer and I sat in awe.
Once the police arrived the newcomer backed up my story completely, journalists and citizens alike crowded the building and sung our praises. I was perplexed, as what praises were there to be sung? My uncle approached and embraced me as he finally arrived, making the lengthy trek all the way from deep within a nearby province.
It was all cold, that was the worst of it, everything felt like her hands as the newcomer and I investigated her, freezing cold.