A New Game (EDITING)

Chapter 7

What...?

What?

What!?

I'm what!?

I pushed Joshua away and backed up against the cold, hard wall of the dressing room. This has to be some kind of joke, right!? This really can't be happening, right!?

"Josh, if this is one of your jokes, it isn't funny!" I yelled out in desperation, hoping this was just a joke or another bad dream.

"I'm not joking Neku. You are now Shibuya's new composer!"

That last word shot through me like a bullet, making my mind and body go numb with shock. 'Composer...' My feet weighed heavy on the ground while my chest felt like a hollow husk with only a rapidly beating heartbeat echoing in my mind.

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way...now that you know what you are, they'll be looking for you."

Before I could ask who 'they' was, a loud 'bang' echoed through the store, soon followed by loud footsteps across the tiled floor.

"Oh composer? Where are you?" a familiar, honeyed, sing-song like voice spoke. Oh no, I knew where that voice came from. It was the same voice from last night, the one who fired the gun at me and Shiki.

Mid-gasp, Joshua covered my mouth with his hand. "Shhh...if he doesn't hear us, he'll leave..." Josh spoke in a soft whisper.

Suppressing the urge to scream, my heart pounding violently in my head as a female voice joined in. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" she taunted in a cheerful tone as more footsteps fell on the tiled floor.

I tried to swallow but my mouth was completely bone-dry. A third shrill, nails-on-a-chalkboard like voice spoke: "We know you're here, little composer, hiding is futile!"

The taps and clunks grew louder and louder gradually. Joshua pressed himself closer to my body. I could feel his rapidly beating heart against mine and his body trembling with shaky breaths. "Don't. Say. A. Word." Joshua whispered harshly.

I practically held my breath, for the fear that one unstable breath might give us away. Then, it was dead silent. Was it all over? A wave of relief that shot over me and Josh as he removed his hand from my mouth and we both took in a deep breath. That feeling of relief was soon shattered as the door violently flung off its hinges as the voices had exposed us. "Found you!" All three said in horrifying sync.

Three figures stood over us as we fell to the cold, hard ground with a thud. One was a short, stubby older man with a thick, white, bushy mustache and eyebrows and an off-white lab coat. Another was a woman with blood red twin-tails, dyed dark blue at the ends. Her black lips smirked wickedly down at me as her piercing deep blue eyes filled me with terror. The third one, who stood in the middle, wore sunglasses. His skin was pale with pink scars all across his lower chest and white binding tape covering the upper half as a black long coat draped over his shoulders. They loomed over us like monsters from a ghost story that made their way to your dreams and turned them into nightmares. The expression of the man in the middle quickly changed from a devilish smirk to disgust and confusion. "Doc are you for real? This kid? This wimp?"

He took a few steps closer to me and I quickly scrambled backward, my back hitting the mirror and my chest rising and falling with panicked breaths.

"I mean, look at him now..." he chuckled to himself.

"Yes Bates, I'm sure he's the one!"

"If you say so doc, Now let's have some fun with these two why don't we?" He cocked the gun and sent flashbacks piercing through my mind. The girl leaned on his shoulder, pressing her hand into his scarred chest.

"Oh babe, why don't we just kill them now, wouldn't that be sooooooo much easier?" Her voice was high pitched and whiny.

"Come on Penny" He placed his hand on hers "You know we can't do that. Plus we already got the special bullets, and we already used them on those kids"

Those kids...? No, oh no. Please no.

"Those kids...?" I croaked out quietly, my voice quivering.

"Oh yeah, remember one of them had those funny lookin' glasses? Ha, The look on her face when you shot her was priceless!" The girl, apparently named Penny, cackled.

"Yeah one of them tried to act so tough, trying to protect that other kid who was with him! Totally pathetic! I couldn't stop laughing!"

No, oh god no.

"Now, now. Bates, Penny, we're getting sidetracked. We need to get back to the task at hand." The short man piped up.

"Yeah, yeah. Now let's have some fun why don't we?" Bates then cocked the handgun in his hands "Now let's see...which one of you should I join first?" Joshua quickly attempted to thwart him, but before he could even stand up all the way up. Bate's finger curled and Josh fell back with a loud bang. His thin body hit the tiled floor with a hollow sounding thud, along with the shell of the bullet.

"Well, that was an easy decision. Now..." He cocked the gun again and slowly walked towards me, every step felt like the ground itself was violently shaking. I instinctively backed up against the wall. Staring him directly in the eyes, trying to mask the horror and dread that shot through my nerves like bullets. I stared down the barrel of the gun, looking into the black void that my demise was soon to come through.

"Welcome to the game kid."

His finger curled with a loud bang before everything went dark.