CRAZE

7

I stood in front of Mr. Big. His arms were crossed and I couldn't tell whether his bulging muscles had to something to do with steroids or not. The room we were in appeared to be a workout kind of gym. It had a lot of stuff in it, weights, bars, and a bunch of gymnastics stuff I recognized from when I was a kid.

Mr. Big stepped once toward me. Then another giant step. Then another until he was only three away from me. I started to hyperventilate, then I quickly remembered what Craze had said to me in the hallway. He pulled back his large fist. I shrunk back and completely forgot the instruction. But I never felt anything except for the ground shaking for a moment after a loud, huge crash. I slowly opened my eyes and saw Mr. Big recovering from a fall ten feet away from me. My eyes widened. Did I do that?

Craze's manic laughter filled the large space. I looked to him and saw him coming toward me. "You, Doll Face," he said, grabbing my shoulders and smiling evilly down at me. "Are quite the find." What had I done? Then he looked quizzically at my head, taking a few strands of mysterious, blood red hair and twisting it between his fingers. I felt something warm and wet run down my top lip. Craze's brows creased and he ran his thumb across my lip and my skin tingled with the contact. He held up his thumb. Blood. My eyes became saucers now. I was bleeding. I put the back of my hand against my nose and saw more blood on my skin. I pressed my hand back against my nose as Ghost's voice suddenly echoed right beside my ear. "Hey, do you mind if I run some tests on some of that stuff?" He asked, sliding a test tube under my bleeding nostril. "Blow through your nose," he instructed. I did and he took the tube away. "Thanks."

Ghost put the test tube in his pocket, taking another one out along with a pair of small scissors. I flinched. "Chill," he said and snipped off a piece of the red hair newly on my head, putting it inside the second tube. "Okay, last one." He then took out another one with a cylinder-shaped metal thing with a screen on one end and a button on the other. He grabbed my hand and pressed the screen to my index finger print. "This is probably going to hurt," he warned. "A lot." I tensed, and then the burning started. But thankfully it didn't last long and Ghost took the device away just before I would've started screaming.

Craze took my hand in both of his and kissed the top of my index finger. I watched Ghost click a button that I hadn't noticed and what looked like black ash fell out of the screen end and into the test tube. "Wha--" I didn't get to finish because suddenly a bone-chilling scream echoed through the gym. Everyone's head whipped to a woman who was looking at me with a horrified expression. "Y-you..." she whispered, clutching her head. "What about her, Iris," Ghost said, looking at her intently. "She...is
th-the...Cruciamen," Iris said quietly. The what? "That's not possible," Ghost said, looking at me up and down with his eyes narrowed. He then looked at Craze with so much hatred that if looks could kill, Craze would be splattered up against the wall. He giggled, putting an arm around my waist and pulling my into him. I gasped quietly at the abrupt motion. What was so horrible about me being the...whatever she said.

"Why would you do this to us?" Iris yelled at Craze. She advanced toward us and brought out a knife from her jacket. I gasped and Craze held me impossibly closer. He growled--yes, growled--at Iris. She halted and glared at me. "Well, why the hell not?" Mr. Big seethed through clenched teeth. "She's just going to kill us."

Ghost suddenly shone a light at my eyes, then looked at Iris. "Because she can kill you much easier than you can kill her. She's knew to this, while she's young we can get her on our side," he said, putting the flashlight inside a pocket. I had no idea how many pockets he had, or how much stuff he kept in them, but my guess for both was a lot. I didn't really want on anyone's side. Well actually, I wanted to be on the side that wouldn't kill me. "Why don't we hand her over to Bloodworth so he can kill her then?" Iris said. Who was Bloodworth? "Do you really trust him after what he did to you, Iris?" Craze said, chuckling. I was wrong. Iris's look would've splattered the both of us against the wall, not Ghost's. "He's right, none of us have any reason to trust that motherfucker," Mr. Big said, stepping cautiously around me. "Hey, where's Zerda?" He asked, looking around.