Music Inspired Stories

Crossing the Line (E)

-I do not own this image and have no idea who took it, or created it.

       The smoke of burning filled the entire town as the blaze drew more eyes then the screaming civilians. Government buildings collapse with the splintering oak and the deafening sound of the metalwork slamming into the ground. A few people on the streets carrying guns kill townsfolk who are trying to escape the blaze. Their black jackets having the word INFERNO across the back, which announces to the world who they are. Yellows, reds, blues, and whites light the way as they lick everything they can, the creaking and snapping unheard under the screams, cries, and gunshots echoing through the air.

       A man around his twenties is carrying ammo and guns, trying to help everyone try to survive, supporting his injured mother out of the smoke infested place of memories. Breathing is becoming harder as everything is becoming clouded by smoke, tripping over debris, corpses... friends, and at one point a stuffed animal. Everything is being recorded by an INFERNO member, directly televising to the main news channel as they speak, "...don't you see? This fire will allow the land to become anew, for magic to come back to the land, and for that to happen, it has to be burned. This town is N..."

. . . . . . . . . . . .

       The news is playing muted from a television hanging above the pristine metal doors with a scanner to gain access. The room is hospital white, the smell of antiseptics could seep through every sealed corner if able to. Medical equipment is spread throughout the lab, some haphazardly, and others, like the large tubes, are lined up perfectly in order. There is a shadowed cage hanging in the back that holds a humanoid figure curled up on itself, branches emerging off limbs or curving with the body. A closer look shows it's not breathing, track marks could be seen on its arms and back of the neck, exact scarring as if an experiment. The tubes are filled with different colored liquids, varying in consistency, but they hold what may seem to be a figure, each different from the last, in different states of rest, or one case, dim glowing organs.

       In the middle of the lab is a gurney with a woman strapped on it. Her black hair was spread out with a feather-like quality, outside of the knots, her hazel eyes glazed as she stared between the television and the vacant husk within the cage. The scared woman's throat was raw from screaming and scars riddling her body. The doors open to let in a female wearing a lab coat, brushing ash off her shoulder as she controls her breathing. Calmly she paced across to the female's side, sitting down then reaching behind herself.

       "It's time for your next treatment sweetheart! I'm a little late, of course, but not as much as I was with your friend over there." The scientist grabs a jar filled with what could only be a toxic material, filling a syringe with a metallic silver liquid, mercury.

       The girl on the table starts to struggle as the scientist grins at her maniacally, tapping the glass to empty it of all bubbles before she leans in to whisper in the woman's ear, "You nymphs are rather rare now after all. Like common sense, you know?"

       A cough, "I'm not..."

       The clinical woman grabs her arm and places the syringe by her veins, ignorant of her surroundings. Releasing a chuckle, the mouth on the cruel creature opens, "You are lovely. Probably one of the last."

       In an instant, the sound of snapping leather could be heard. Blood splatters across the victim's body as her right came over grasping the container to rip it from the scientist's fingers. Tightening her grip, she rips the scalpel from the frozen woman, injecting the contents into her neck, then slamming her shoulder with as much strength as possible. The scientist's eyes widened as her head knocked into the table, causing her to fall unconscious, never to wake again, the mercury inside her bloodstream.

       The raven-haired woman's eyes flit around the room, focusing onto her restraints, then fumbling and straining to remove them for an unknown time. Once removed, she incrementally stood before reaching for the tools on the table. As quickly as possible, she places the scalpels inside her clothes, then two prefilled syringes of the flowing liquid to hold in her hands. I have to escape. One last look around the room, her eyes lingers on the figure in the tube next to her, hand caressing the tube holding the red-skinned male husk. Tears glisten, slowly traveling down her face, the salt adding to the horrible hospital scent. I'm sorry, I'll see you soon. The raven-haired woman shook her head, gingerly reaching down and grabbing dead scientist's wrist and dragging them to the scanner to open the door, only then did she run out to freedom.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

       An outdoor cellar door creaks open, rust flaking off as it slams into the burning grass. The woman crawls out onto the gravel, smoke invading her lungs causing her to cough, agitating her lungs and larynx. Looking up, horror fills her face as she sees burning buildings fall apart, the putrid smell of burning flesh and bubbling blood filling the air. Bile threatens to burn her throat as she spots tripping townsfolk. Gunfire causes a boy running past her to fall to the ground gasping, his dying eyes stare at her, blue dulling to reflect the flames behind her.

       Her head whips side to side before seeing the shooter, his jacket keeping the smoke away from his face, facing the opposite direction. She scrambles to stand and spots another male on the other side of the road, holding their dying mother while carefully aiming at the INFERNO member, then presses the trigger, watching as the man's strings were cut leaving him limp. Quickly the woman grabs a scalpel from her useless jacket, ripped beyond compare, and throws it pass the male into the throat of another whose gun was pointed at him, wind guiding its path. Running, she grabs the guns and ammo off the body before going under the woman's other arm to help try to help him stay alive.

       They shot three more men before getting out of town, sitting on the back of a pickup truck as it drove off, the woman limp between the two, grey. Watching as the last of the people try to escape, the buildings concaving and the smoke rising through the air. Animals limping away, a doe on the left of the village, barely able to be made out, before one last gunshot was heard, and the fear-filled being dropped to the earth where it came from, and black cars of varying types drove off into the night.

       Dull eyes looked around at the people around her, the man closing the women's eyes, cries and more that she didn't bother to look for. Her hand palmed the last syringe, the man's gun pointed at her face war shone in his eyes, just like her own, a will to survive. So she nodded before placing it back into her newly acquired scorched bag, pilfered from the truck she was occupying, along with the last of the scalpels before jumping off. Her body fading into feathers, a raven emerged heading north, it was obvious, her imprisonment and the now-dead scientists, this blazing massacre of a settlement. This was not just a nonsensical fight to bring back magic. This was not just against a dying race or just humans. It is greed, wrath, a mass genocide, and she, Aurai, had a job to do.

       Prepare for war.