Snow Space

Apex

They should have expected it the moment they emerged from behind the store, after the amount of noise that had surfaced from the brawl - it had been enough to alert anyone where they where. That trepidatious feeling hung in the air between the two groups, cold and unforgiving - for they had just come face to face with Hade in front of a group more than double the size of theirs, their faces hungry for bloodshed. Khamil had frozen in his steps, as had the rest of them, Gaz rigidly stood beside him. 

"Kind of you to make this a little easier for us," Hade drawled, a macabre playfulness to his tone. "I mean, we hardly expected you to make to effort to even get down here."

He never said Khamil's name, but his eyes were trained on him like a bird of prey, until they flicked down to the knife he'd scooped up from Finn. Khamil hadn't even realised he was still gripping it tensely. 

"Drop the knife."

Although Khamil had no intention of using it, it seemed the only thing causing some apprehension in the group before him, who otherwise seemed ready to kill. 

"No."

Hade's mouth curled up in a smile, and it took Khamil a moment to catch on why he was staring to the far left of him. Confused, he turned to glance, a paralysing iciness gripping him as he saw what Hade's eyes were indicating towards. One of the boys who'd bumped into him at school was stood, his feet planted, with a silver gun in his hand, his eyes dark with the knowledge of his power. Though it wasn't the gun that terrified Khamil. No - what terrified Khamil, was the boy's arm, wrapped like a boulder around the neck of a brown-haired girl, doing her best to hold in the fear bubbling up inside of her as the barrel of the gun rested coolly against her head. He felt a sickening choke pushing its way through his throat as Poppy closed her eyes, visibly willing herself not to break. 

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this a friend of yours? As I said. Drop the knife."

With no further hesitation, Khamil released his grip on the knife, letting it clatter to the ground a few feet in front of him - much to the satisfaction of the Sutherland boys. Despite his actions, the boy didn't release his grip on Poppy, prompting a bout of irritation from Gaz.

"He dropped the fucking knife, now let go!"

Relishing in all his power as the controller of the situation, Hade rolled his head towards the boy, a slight nod allowing him to step away from Poppy. This was a mistake in his part, for with nothing more to lose, the group behind Khamil instantly charged towards Hade and his army with war yells, quenching their blood-thirst, and hatred towards the rivals. Already having predicted the reaction, Khamil used the sudden rioting confusion to make his way over to Poppy, quickly ducking under the flying punches to reach her, planting his hands on her shoulders. 

"We have to go, now."

Still coming to terms with the situation, Poppy breathlessly nodded, her eyes wide as Khamil held her hand and raced her through the chaos, though he instantly skidded to a stop as he caught sight of someone heading for Gaz; letting go of Poppy's hands, he brought a hard, fast elbow round to knock the guy backwards, then used the other hand to wrench him the other way. 

"KHAMIL!" 

A piercing scream from Poppy raised the hairs on the back of Khamil's neck, and he whipped around to see Hade on the floor, his hands outstretched for the discarded gun, before staggering to his feet. Instinctively, Khamil pulled Poppy behind him, his yell echoing around the violent, bloody pandemonium.

"GET DOWN!"

Despite the urgency and roar of his words, the war-like fighting continued, and he could only watch as the spine-chilling sound of a bullet being fired escaped the gun - almost in slow motion as it tore through the now frozen action, perfectly clean. Khamil had broken into his sprint before the bullet even reached his friend, though only in time to catch him as he fell - everyone else had frozen in shock, the anger ceasing. Real-time suddenly came rushing at Khamil, as the harshness of what had just happened began to settle in.