Day 1: Rings

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Warning: Death and Mild(?) Gore

Please remember this is a book of One Shots based on the Inktober drawings by NotHeere

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Please remember this is a book of One Shots based on the Inktober drawings by NotHeere

The only sound was the wind whistling and the bustling city below. The man awoke slowly, blinking, trying to let his head catch up to the sounds and colors flashing. His thoughts were a mess. Where was he?
His eyes finally adjusted to the bright neon glow from the billboards nearby. He was lying on a rooftop, high above the packed night crowd below. A single figure stood across from him.
"W-Who are you? W-What do you want from me?"
The figure chuckled, a dark outline painted by the electric lights all around. The electric lights blocking out the stars.
"You can't give me what I want, even if you tried."
"What did I do to you? Please just let me go."
"It wasn't anything you did to me, it's what you did to a woman named Sara."
"Sara?"
"Yes, my client. Says you killed her brother."
"N-No that was an a-accident. I can expla-"
"Save it for someone who cares," a cool voice cut across his stumbling pleas.
"P-please no, I don't want to d-die."
"Do any of us?"
The figure held out her hand, slowly closing it into a fist. The man felt something tightening around his throat, cool metal biting his skin.
"N-No sto-" but his attempts were futile as the band snapped his neck, tearing through the flesh and crushing the bone. The man's body twitched and stilled.
The figure moves forward, opening her fist and  pulling back, catching the now tiny ring in her palm. She wipes the residual blood off on her pants before slipping it back on her finger. She pulls her hood off, feeling her lilac hair tug at her scalp in the howling wind around her. She pulls off the black jumpsuit she's wearing to reveal gold bands of every shape and size littering her apparel. She folds the black material up and stuffs it in her bag before making her way to the stairs.
A notification icon pops up in the corner of her vision and she pauses to tap it, looking at the message of a money transferral before swiping it away. The job was done, and now she could move onto the next one.
She paused one last time to glance at the body behind her before turning to walk through the stairwell. She twisted the ring on her finger, not so much of a nervous tick than a habit. She got to the bottom sooner than she's expected, sighing and checking her face mask one last time before exiting the building. She paused to let the retinal scanner on her motorcycle read her before pulling out of the alleyway into the city beyond, ignoring the sounds of police sirens heading in the opposite direction.
She let her breath steady as she felt the wind biting at her skin, her face hot in the helmet that formed around her skull. The comforting pressure of the rings squeezing and loosening with her breaths.
Another day, another job. Nothing new. She glanced one last time at the ring on her finger before turning onto the nearest highway. Letting herself fly on the wind and clenching her fist, the sting of metal, and the freedom she felt as she disappeared into the neon lights illuminating the sky.

Inktober 2019 @NotHeereWhere stories live. Discover now