Cold Blood

10

Pulling my arm back, I aimed before propelling it forward and releasing my grip on the rock. It flew passed the monster and into a wide alleyway, effectively distracting it and gaining Karma's attention. Confused he looked down at me before rage overtook his features. Before I could blink he was half way to me and closing the distance extremely fast. "Why the hell are you still here?" His teeth were gritted to-I assume-prevent himself from yelling.
"I'm not going to abandon you, why should my life mean more than yours?" He stared at me for a moment, thinking over our situation. "Of course your life is worth more than-"
"Why?" I cut him off, it was ridiculous to be arguing right now but Karma Saden was an enigma that I really wanted to understand. "It just is," he sighed, running his fingers threw his tangled black hair.

"It doesn't matter right now," No point knowing if I end up dying.
"Have you seen any kind of pipes of cylinders on that thing?" He sent me a confused glance before slowly nodding. "Yeah there's a bunch connected to needles embedded within the corpses' skin," Okay my theory could work.
"There's not much time, do they lead to a certain point within the mechanics of the monster?" He nodded once more before pointing over the creature who's outline I could barely see in the waning light of the evening. "They all lead under the legs, I'm assuming there's a processor under there that pumps the...oh you clever thing," A lopsided grin over took his features as he wrapped his arms around me. "We might just get out of here," I smiled back I continued on with my plan. He was to distract in while I quietly made my way under it, I would then somehow find a way to destroy their 'life support'.

Looking at each other once more we sprang into action, him climbing up onto a building and me edging myself closer to the monster, my back pressed to a wall. It was clear that I was it's main target, sure it wanted to kill karma, but it was definitely more desperate to end my life, probably doc's orders. Karma had begun making sound which meant I only had a few seconds to sprint under the thing before it took off again. Okay, now or never. Pumping my arms, I stretched my legs as far as they could, the longer the stride the more ground I would cover. By this point there was next to no light and it was difficult to spot the black steel in the autumn night. Luckily it was a full moon, tendrils of white light glinted of the cold surface of it legs, creating the perfect goal.

I was relying on the assumption that it wouldn't have any feeling in its metal parts, as it would mean the doctor would have to have implanted makeshift sensory receptors which, he is not smart enough to do. A small breath left my lips as my shaking hand touched the freezing cold steel with no reaction. Another, slightly larger, one left as I looked up and saw a thick glass case filled with red liquid. It spanned out into plastic tubing that weaved and wound themselves up through the machinery and into the skin of the beast. Karma had gone silent and I knew it was to get the machine to hold still while it searched for a new sound.

'One shot' I thought before gripping both hands onto the metal and pulling myself up. The entire time I kept my eyes locked onto the red liquid sloshing around in an almost beautiful way. For some reason I wanted to touch it, it looked silky and smooth like if I did touch it, it would feel like velvet. It was then, that I realised I wanted everything to look like this, beautiful. I wanted to paint buildings, landscapes and...people this shade. I wanted everything to be beautiful...perfect even.

The knife in my pocket felt heavy, like it was going to fall out and hit the ground. I didn't want that, not because it would make noise but because I wanted it with me. It was safe and comforting to have, it made me feel powerful. Paranoia eventually overcame me and I took it out, the wooden handle pressing into my palm as I gripped it with great force. I was now only a few centimetres from the blood of the machine and I wanted nothing more to break it's container and watch as it fell and painted the concrete a beautiful crimson. A strange giddiness began to overcome me and my skin felt itchy, I was smiling, at least it felt like I was. My fingers slid down the knife's handle until they were wrapped around its blade. I hissed when it's sharp edge dug itself into my skin, a metallic scent filled the air and yet it didn't stink like the one emitted from the corpses-I liked this one.

Taking in a breath, I thrusted the butt of the knife up to the glass hearing a loud crack...it hadn't broken yet. This wasn't good, the machine had clearly heard that. Panicking, I started rapidly ramming the glass with the handle until it finally smashed, a waterfall of blood and glass raining down on the once cream concrete. Screeching, pierced the silence as the legs I was holding onto began to twitch, they were soon moving in sporadic directions, throwing me off and thundering off to the right. I remember landing on my ass, in the puddle of blood but I don't really remember much else. There was definitely a large crack as I'm pretty sure the machine crashed into the admin building, but I was too preoccupied by the puddle of red I was in. It was old and smelt different from my own but it was as smooth as it looked, it was in my hair and stained my clothes. For a second the sick thought of not wanting to wash it off struck me but I quickly shook it off.

"I'll be fine tomorrow," I whispered not really listening to what I was saying. It felt like I wasn't all there in that moment, like part of me was somewhere far off. It...was strange but I think I like strange, I especially like the crimson spots of blood that decorated karma's converse.

Thank you for reading, as always please vote or comment if you enjoyed this chapter, I actually wasn't planning on showing her decrease in sanity so early but I've been reading a lot of thrillers and I really want to start writing crazy characters. Although in saying that I won't rush things, I hate it when the pacing in books moves to fast and I'll try as hard as I can to avoid it. Anyway I hope you continue to read my writing and have a wonderful day.
-T