The Killing Hour

Chapter Three ~ January 30, 2013

That night still scarred her. The blood that oozed from their bodies haunted her dreams. Their expressionless faces paralyzed her body every time she went to go to sleep. Her thoughts brought her to a state of insanity and no matter what she tried to do to stop it from trying to take over, she felt herself fade away. Every dream she witnessed as she was asleep would carry through the rest of the day. It would keep replaying the moment until the moment she bolted upright in bed with her face coated in tears and snot. To say she was heartbroken didn't do her any justice. Her body felt weak whenever she moved; two innocent people she had grown up with were now dead, murdered by the wicked and vicious Leader. It was the Leader's fault it all happened. Every single tear, every ounce of pain; it was all the Leader's fault. 

Those guns wouldn't have gone off, her mother wouldn't have been so tired, her father wouldn't have been acting so distant. It was all the Leader's fault. All of it. It was why their eyes would flash red. It was why their neighbours would avoid them at all costs. It was why they were now stuck in their house unless an emergency came about. It was all the Leader's fault. The little bastard..

But little Mabis couldn't do a thing about it. As she stared out of her bedroom window, her eyes wouldn't focus on anything. Her fists balled up at her sides, just to release. She repeated that action several times as her eyes skimmed across the black board that covered her bedroom window so she couldn't see out of the house she had grown up in for her entire life. What were they doing to these people right our of her sight? She couldn't hear a thing either, so why were these boards up? The Leader had probably decided that it would be best to keep them up, Mabis thought. She was young, that's for sure, but she was bold, and beyond clever. If her family had let her, she would had been done with high school already, but they knew she needed the extra years. But it was useless to her now. She was too busy trapped in a house with boards blocking every exit or window. 

She strolled around her house and let everything get soaked into her system. Her brother was no where to be seen, her parents were still snoring in their bedroom, and there she was: tiptoeing through every room in her house so that no pair of ears would ever hear her movements. Except for when she jumped when a loud series of knocks exploded from the other side of the front door. She jumped a good three feet into the air before her attention was focused on the door and the next series of knocks. It continued on repeat until she walked up toward the door and opened it slowly to reveal an older man on the other side with dull, grey eyes. 

"Good morning, fair lady," the man said smoothly, every word pronounced carefully and with strength. "I was wondering if your parents were awake this time?" Mabis stayed silent as she stared into the man's lifeless eyes. Something was wrong, but she couldn't figure it out. "Miss?" Mabis snapped back into reality and stared at the rest of the man's face before she quickly jerked her head side to side several times. That caused the man's face to nearly crumble into a pile of dust, though he masked it seconds after her response with a slight smile. "Thank you for your time," his voice rang out, though it was tempered down. "Enjoy the rest of your day." He took a step away from the door before taking a few more, sinking his hands further down in his trouser pockets, and hanging his head in a way where Mabis was sure that he couldn't see where he was headed. 

"Wait!" Mabis cried out and ran out of her house. "Wait, sir!" She cried out more desperately as he walked closer to the road. She slowed down her pace and tilted her head slowly as his pace never faltered. His steps looked confident, as if he knew what he was doing, all while Mabis still had no clue. "Sir?" She whispered as she walked carefully to the curb that he once walked over, but as she stared at him, he was a good five feet away, right in the middle of the road, where a car was speeding down. Not just any car, but one of the Leader's cars. Mabis' eyes went wide as time seemed to shift into slow motion. The man didn't look up, nor did he speed up his walk. Instead, it seemed as though he had purposefully slowed down, because right before the front of the car hit him, he looked right toward it with a glint in his eyes. It was that moment where Mabis saw that his features didn't look lifeless anymore. Instead, they looked relieved. Even more so when the car ran right into his body, and he was left without a soul after his body landed back onto the ground, as the car continued to drive off. 

Mabis stayed still, staring at the man with mixed emotions. What had the world come to?