Cassandra
The blood iseverywhere.
It rolls across the pavement like a crashing wave, a red so deep it appears black in the moonlight. I’ve never seen so much in one place.
This isn’t real. It can’t be real.
The thought is stuck in a loop, banging against the confines of my skull, but the metallic bite of sulfur and iron coating each breath tells me otherwise. Haphazard pops blare through the midnight street, jolting my bones with each blast.
Gunshots. Those are actual gunshots.
My eyes leap to the car I was just standing beside on the street, before all of the shooting and gore ripped through the block.
Just ten minutes before, the night had been like any other. I’d driven down to the city for the weekend, but with early classes tomorrow, I sent my friends home and walked back alone. Just twenty minutes to my car, I’d reasoned. What could happen in twenty minutes?
The irony tastes bitter now, swirling with the copper tang in the air.
Of course, by the time I heard the first crack through the night sky, I’d realized the depth of my mistake.
Stupid, Cass. So fucking stupid.
The pops echo against the walls of nearby buildings, making it impossible to discern any directionality. The puddle on the dirty street creeps closer. It’s not my blood. That much I know.My body curves into the large cans lining the alley, embracing the cool bite of metal digging into my side. I need to stay small, stay hidden, find a way to get through this night. But through the chaos, I hear something else.
A gravelly cough sputters into the darkness beyond me. Between us spreads a widening moat of blood, slowly encroaching toward my hiding spot against the alley’s shaded wall.
Someone else is here.
Unfortunately, I’m too terrified to steal a glance at the interloper. I curl tighter, rocking on the balls of my feet. Back and forth. Each rock brings a deafening crunch of the gravel under my shoes below, but I can’t stop. Have to keep moving. Can’t freeze up. Freezing up means dying. The glacial fear threatens to shatter me with every shot, but movement—even this pathetic rocking—keeps the panic at bay.
The river of red has just reached the tips of my boots when the gunfire stops thundering through the air. The aggressive voices also seemed to have cut off, making a shiver wrack through my limbs.
Is it over? Please let it be over.
I wait. Seconds? Minutes? I don’t know. The silence feels loud, unnatural after the cacophony of sounds from before. I start to count my breaths, a pitiful attempt to dissolve the pit of fear in my stomach, but I lose track at twelve. I’m too scattered to focus on anything but the horrifying stretch of silence.
I allow myself the comfort of one last rock. Back.Crunch.Forth.Crunch.
It’s time, Cass. Who knows how long the reprieve will last? We gotta move.
The coaching doesn’t work. I’m still stuck.
Shock? No, probably just stupidity.
We’ve been working through stupid for years, Cass. Work through it.
Move!
Dread coats my skin in a thick layer of film as I rise, the icy wind whipping into my unfurled figure like a flag in a storm. Cold is good. Cold means I can still feel. That I’m still alive. The thought should be comforting, but it only reminds me that someone else might not be.
Ears straining, I step forward on the platform of my toes, as soundlessly as I can manage. Quiet as a mouse. Just a blip in the shadows.
Another step.
It comes down harder than I wanted. My shoe lands right into the puddle of blood I’d completely forgotten about, a soft splash radiating in my wake.Shit.Shit, shit, shit. Drops of reddish black coat my ankle, stark against my pale skin. The warmth of it makes my stomach lurch. That’s someone’s blood. Someone’slifeis draining out onto the concrete.
Then a click crackles through the quiet of the alley, and I turn?—
Only to be met with the silver barrel of a dripping gun.
