lockdown - c.h. {on hold}

prologue : 2100

Blood.

That is the only thing which fills all of my senses - the smell of the blood on me and around me, the sound of my own pounding in my ears, the sensation of it dripping down my scarred and bruised limbs to the concrete floor below, the acrid taste of it on my tongue, the smear if it on the corner of my eyesight.

I look down. The body is beyond recognition, the only distinguishable feature - the dyed red hair - appears to blend in with the torrent of coagulating blood on his pale, mutilated face. I don't know his name. I never will. But that's not the point.

The point is he tried to kill me and my baby boy - currently hiding behind the dumpster a few feet away - and I can not - will not - allow that to happen. We have gone through so much and I will not allow us to die tonight simply because it is legal to kill strangers tonight.

I grab my child and attempt to leave the dingy alleyway, but the shape of a man - tall, broad-shouldered, muscular - steps out from the shadows.

"That was my best friend. My brother." His voice is deep, angry, furious.

I quake in fear, Oscar clutching into my trouser leg as he hides himself from this intimidating stranger whilst I rest my hand on his small Afro in an attempt to reassure him.

"You killed him-"
"I did what I had to do. I'm sorry. It was either him or me and my family. Tonight's the Purge. You go out, you run the risk of meeting Death. That's what happens."
"Exactly: that's what happens. Someone tries to kill you, so you kill them. On and on it goes until everyone is dead," There was a touch of resentment, a bitter sense of hatred as he spat out the syllables, almost as if they pained him to form them in his mouth.
"That's what happens. So now I'm going to kill you."