Devil's Backbone // Frank Castle

·CHAPTER THREE·

Scarlett's heavy eyes start to open and she didn't know where she was. The floor below her felt cold and hard and a little wet. She slowly sits up and takes a look around her. She was sitting in the middle of the street. It was dark, the only lights were street lights and lights from the city above. She was confused about how she got there. Also, she was confused about why the streets were so quiet. She lived in New York, there never really was a calm night there. Scarlett slowly makes her way to her feet and looks around her. No cars, no people, no noise. Nothing. She starts to hesitantly walk, she wasn't sure where she was going but her feet knew. Scarlett felt as if she was being watched but no matter where she looked there was no one in her sights. Then in front of her, there were headlights. They were in the distance but they were coming her way. In the corner of her eye, she saw a figure. Scarlett turned her head to see a woman. She knew it was a woman. She could tell even if there was a shadow covering her. Scarlett could tell the women had dark hair, maybe black? Or brown? She couldn't really tell. She did know however the women was wearing something big around herself. Maybe a jacket. But before Scarlett could get much of a look at the women she turns her head forward and is met with a blinding white light and a loud screech of wheel on pavement. As the headlights grew blinding close, Scarlett covered her eyes with her arms and dropped to her knees. Her eyes where shut and she sat there, waiting for impact but it never came.

Scarlett timidly removed her arm away from her face and opens her eyes. She was no longer in the street with oncoming danger but in an elevator. The dig of the doors made Scarlett jump a little but never the less, she stood to her feet. Scarlett looked around the elevator then felt a drop of something on her head. She placed her fingers on the wet spot on her head and Brought her fingers down to her eyes. A red color stained her fingertips and the lights flicker off and then back on and Scarlett gasps. The walls of the elevator were splattered with blood. She looked down to see lifeless bodies of people she didn't recognize laying in pools of their own blood and in her shaking hand was a gun. Scarlett let out a scream and dropped the gun into the blood and fell back out of the elevator. She brought her hands to her face, they were shaking and covered in blood. So much blood. She quickly backed away from the elevator and turned away from it on her hands and knees and pulled her self up. Scarlett quickly turned back to look at the elevator but it was gone. There was just a blank wall staring back at her. She looked down to her hands to see them normal and not covered in red.

She let out a breath and turned back around. The hall she was standing in was long and had doors on either side but her focus zoned in at the end of the hall where a lone door stayed. Without Scarlett realizing, she was walking towards it absentmindedly. The door was different from all the others. Scarlett was sure though that wasn't the reason for her being attracted to this said door. It was like an invisible force was guiding her towards it like she was meant to be there in that moment. But before she could get closer to the door she dropped down to her knees in the middle of the hall when sharp pain spreads throughout her head. She grabs her head as the pain increases. A voice. She could hear a voice. She couldn't hear what it was saying even though it was like it was whispering right in her ear. She forced her self to look forward and she met pairs of hazel eyes. The rest of the person was a blur. It was like the person was trying to help Scarlett but nothing was happening. The pain got worse and the edges of her vision got even blurrier. Scarlett fell backward onto her back and her eyes were looking up at the ceiling, the lights bright above hurting her eyes, making them squint. A shadow soon covered the lights and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the change of lighting.

The person hovered over Scarlett, they were crouched over her, looking down at her. Scarlett could see more of the person now. They had light skin and what looked like jet black hair. It was a woman, Scarlett could tell now. The woman's lips were moving but Scarlett couldn't hear her. She couldn't hear what the women was saying but it looked urgent. The women looked worried. Scarlett's vision grew worse and worse as the pain grew. She could feel herself fading fast but before her eyes closed she could see another figure walk up behind the women. She could tell it was a man but he was a full blur. He looked on and so did the women as Scarlett's vision faded into blackness.