The Purge: the Big Eye

Chapter 4

8:10 pm...

«ALEX!!!» shouted the other 3 in unison; Alex ignored them and turned to Liam: «Give me your hands...» she said, opening the bottle of disinfectant. «You have a fucking cut on your face and you're dressing me??? Give it to me here, you need it the most!» Liam replied, taking the bottle and the cotton; «But I came for you...» Alex said, looking down. Liam lifted her chin with two fingers and looked into her eyes: «They dared to disfigure your beautiful face, my hands can very well wait...» he said. Alex was speechless: she blushed violently and smiled at him;

«AWWWWW!!» exclaimed Ariel, putting her hands on her chest. «Give us a cut...» Ron laughed. Liam dipped a cotton ball of disinfectant and passed it gently on Alex's wound «OUCH-» she gasped, squinting «Sorry...» the boy replied, blushing, and continued to dress her.

«You need to be medicated too, Ron...» Ariel said, taking a plaster
«No, stop, I'm fine...» Ron answered, putting his hands in front of him; «You bleed everywhere, you fool!» She insisted as she discarded the patch. Ron stepped back, twisting his nose:«No, Ariel, NO, STOP-»Too late. Ariel squashed the plaster on his forehead, right in the middle.
«... Seriously?» Said Ron with a bewildered face, pointing to the patch with both hands; «I wanted to treat you too!» Ariel grumbled, puffing out her cheeks and opening her big gray-blue eyes. Alex and Liam watched the whole scene literally doubled over in laughter «HAHAHAHAHAHA ARIEL YOU'RE UNIQUE!!!» said Alex, wiping her eyes.

«Guys, we should get going before we are seriously killed...» suggested Liam, grabbing his baseball bat...

Suddenly, a scream echoed in the street...

«Who was it?» Ariel jumped.
«Tsk, let's get out of he-» Ron didn't even have time to finish the phrase, that Liam was running in the direction of the scream, followed by Alex; «Dammit... » Ron swore, adjusting his glasses in exasperation, and taking Ariel by the arm, he followed the other two.

When Ron and Ariel turned the corner, they reached Alex and Liam who were standing there, holding their weapons firmly, they found themselves in front of a gruesome scene:
It was a little girl who had collapsed on the ground, trembling and breathing heavily, having found herself in front of a corpse ...

Alex and Ariel jumped in shock, Liam was petrified, while Ron, keeping calm, had already approached the girl:«O-Oi...» Ron whispered. She spun around and let out a high-pitched screech, making the four guys jump; «Shhh, stay calm! We don't want to hurt you!!» Alex said, putting her hands in front of her;

The cry died in girl's throat, then began to peer at the quartet with her small brown eyes, streaked with yellow and trembling with tears. Ariel approached her and held out her hand. «What's your name?» She asked, putting the gun in her pocket so as not to frighten her;
«T-Taylor...» the girl sobbed after some hesitation, taking Ariel's hand to get up

Meanwhile, Alex and Ron had bent over the corpse to see it closer: he was a man, he could not have been less than forty years old, lying on his back, with his eyes wide and glazed, still veiled with terror, and his unkempt beard; it had a very long and deep gash in the throat, at the level of the Adam's apple, from which copiously fresh blood gushed; until then there was only one rather frightening and clearly visible detail: on the man's broad forehead, barely framed by light brown hair, what appeared to be fifty little stars had been engraved; small streams of blood slid from the incisions into his ears.
Ron reached over the corpse's neck and touched the mortal wound, then rubbing his fingers together to test the consistency of the blood:«It's still fresh. This guy couldn't have been killed over an hour ago. What do you think, Alex?» Said Ron, realizing that Alex was not listening to him: she was busy observing the macabre incisions on the man's forehead with a bewildered look.
«W-Who can be so sick as to affect 50 fucking stars on a dead man?» She murmured;

She glanced through the lifeless body of the victim, pausing suddenly on a detail: he wore a white polo shirt, soaked with blood, but without torn parts or anything else; Alex instinctively took a corner of the man's shirt and raised it... But what she saw was even more disturbing than she ever expected...

To be continued...