Falter walked past the unconscious bodies, the keys to the basement jangling in his clawed hands. He was breathing heavily, trying to keep his body from shaking as all the adrenaline slowly drained away. Walking past all the rooms, his blurry vision caught somebody peeking out from behind one of the doors.
The woman yelped as Falter rushed the door, slamming it open. She fell to the floor and crawled towards the door, holding up her hands in front of her. As she shivered in fear and fought back tears, she regretted ignoring her mother's messages.
"Sorry about that," He said in a soft voice. "There's a mess back there but you can leave now."
She didn't hesitate. Pulling up the towel covering her, she ran past him and out of the door.With a sigh, Falter pushed past the emergency exit with the mass of his body, and walked downstairs.
In the dark basement, he saw what he was looking for. A whole shipping container had been slipped past the entrance through the parking lot in the back, and squeezed into the squalid room. He moved closer to it, his whole body aching, lungs screaming, and a weird sensation in his neck, before reaching the lock. He took a minute to check all the keys, making a lot of noise that echoed through the emptiness.
The lock fell to the dirt covered floor softly. Falter grasped the handle, and with all his strength, wrenched the door open.
A young girl yelled angrily, rushing forward and driving a sword directly through Falter's stomach. He felt the coldness as soon as it entered as his organs ripped open and immediately started bleeding. However, as her silver hair glittered in the dim light as she charged him, Imti's eyes locked eyes with the girl's from behind the helmet, and suddenly all the pain in the world couldn't distract him.
Her face was round, or at least it had been, because she had the facial structure of someone who had lost an unhealthy amount of weight. But through it all, her green eye's were full of life, full of anger - they had the light in them that Imti saw every time he looked in the mirror.
She had carried too much momentum, and when the sword slipped from her hands, she fell onto Falter, who instinctively wrapped his arms around her.
"Ow." He whispered, before letting her go.
She stepped back and growled, spreading her arms in front of the opening. Behind her, Falter could see dozens of girls of different ages, all dressed in that dirty grey garb. There were stains and bruises all over them, and none of them had the fiery demeanour of the girl in front.Falter gripped the sword. and pulled it. He gasped - there wasn't pain but there was a much more unpleasant sensation as the steel left his body. Of course, the Drive kicked in and he could feel his insides go back to their usual positions. As he held the sword by his side and rubbed his stomach through the new hole in his undersuit, the blood on the sword disappeared.
The girl's eyes widened but she tried to lift her shoulders in an intimidation display. "S-stay away! You-"
"It's okay. I'm- I'm here to help, please." He spoke louder, now addressing all the people behind her. "I'm sorry for all the things you've gone through, but I took care of the- the bad men upstairs. They're all g- they won't be a problem. But please, I see a lot of you back there are not doing good, please, just come out and-" He dropped the sword. "Please."
YOU ARE READING
FALTER
Misteri / Thriller"Do you remember what we used to say?" "Never falter." "Yeah. Forever after." When a familiar cult emerges from the shadows of Youth City, underground rockstar Imti has to choose between hiding his demons behind a mask or finally facing everyone bur...
