FALTER

CHAPTER 3: The flames we escaped from.

"She's on the floor! Come on, move!"

Rachel was completely dazed. She felt a shriek of pain ring through her hazy mind as Yuki dug her fingers into Rachel's bicep to pick her up. Seeing her struggle to get to her feet, Ichiro snapped out of his trance and grabbed Rachel's other shoulder. Together, they started moving through the sea of panicked concertgoers. The energy of the night had changed completely. The cheeriness in the air had been replaced by hysteria. With every breath Rachel took, she felt a white hot jolt of pain spread out which made her eyes tear up more. Leaning on her friends, she started taking steps forward. Everyone was screaming, multiple people were on the floor and it had become extremely dark. The only illumination came from the fire now blazing on the stage. Rachel held back a sob as she thought of the armoured man. He would swoop in any moment now, and take her to the exit, back to her parents, back to her old life. The stress of the last week finally hit her all at once, and she let herself silently cry as the overwhelming mass of people towered over the 3 teenagers.

The speakers crackled to life.

"Hey-o! It's your beloved guitarist speaking! Imti here!"

The roar of the flames around them were drowned out by the crowd gasping. Everyone's eyes were trained on the blazing rubble covering the stage.

"Yeah, we're all good back here. Takes more than that to keep me down but seems like we got interrupted pretty badly, huh? Well, don't worry about it. I want all of you to calm down, organize yourselves, help anyone you can and cleanly make your way to the exit. First one out gets full refunds! Go!"

Everyone was seconds away from panicking again, but Yuki and Ichiro seized the momentary lapse to continue dragging themselves to the exit. Five feet from their escape, the fire escape door swung open on its own. From the shadows behind it, the barrel of a gun emerged, trailed by the person holding it. He was dressed in an all black undersuit, with light armour on his shoulders and chest. His eyes were visible through his ski mask, and as soon as they made eye contact Rachel felt his cold gaze completely fixated on her. The millisecond he took to raise his gun felt like a lifetime to the girl. She could tell from his movements that for some reason, he held an unimaginable hate for her. Deciding not to face death in the face, Rachel closed her eyes, not seeing the clawed hand shoot out from behind her.

Falter grabbed the barrel, and in the same swift move, kicked the assailant in the groin. As he keeled over, the armoured man used his gauntlets to break the rifle in half, then dropped to the floor, slid his feet around and a second later, the man in black was squirming on the floor. Falter picked him up by the scruff of his neck, before motioning wildly to the awestruck kids.

 "Go!"

Rachel once again found his intonation familiar but she had had enough. Finding the power in her legs again, she almost leaped into the fire exit. Her friends were right behind her. They all trotted down the single flight of stairs and Rachel looked up at the sky. It was pink, with a blue gradient barely making an appearance. The sun was almost up. The girl filled her lungs with the fresh air outside, in an effort to clear the smoke she imagined had accumulated inside. They were flanked by the armoured man. As he came out, Rachel got a new look at him in the light. His armour was glossy, and the gold patterns weaving all around his torso were glinting cheerfully in the shape of a flower. His visage, however, was still as ugly as ever. He sized up the teens and put his hand on Ichiro's shoulder, causing the boy's eyes to widen.