I slid my hand under the couch cushion, feeling for the familiar, cold steel grip of the old service revolver my grandfather had left me.
The system - if it can be called that continued with his dramatism while I cleaned the slight dust off the gun.
"For you shalt reject me once more, ill never answer thy hopes again"
It wasn't loaded. It hadn't been in years, ever since that night.
"A non-player piece of loudout," the shadow observed. "Useless against what's to come."
I got closer to a nearby desk by the bed, and searched the ladders.
"Everything is useless against them, still it'll work for some situations," I muttered. "So, system.. What do you recommend?"
Not finding what I searched for, I stood up looking around.
[RECOMMENDED ACTION: AGGRESSIVE PLAY. THE GREATER THE GAMBLE, THE GREATER THE POTENTIAL REWARD.]
He stood quietly behind the blue window, looking at me, his eyes burning with red fervor, almost hoping I'll accept this time.
[RECOMMENDED ACTION: WIN BIG IN CASINO, TO HAVE A CHANCE AGAINST THE CONGLOMERATE RISK ACCEPT COOPERATION WITH SYSTEM'S ECHO - ANIMA.]
"Anima..? Is that what you are? Anima..? Anima.. What was it again?"
A black mass which appeared to be a hand pierced slowly through the blue window, which renovated itself around it.
"Tell me now, the decision is yours. Will this world be ours, or will you let it consume you? Accept the deal now, or never see me again."
I looked at the shadow, and for the first time since he arrived, my smirk wasn't born of fear. It was born of cold and raw hope.
"You need to be used," I said, looking straight into those burning eyes. "You want me to roll the dice of death? Fine."
"Let me warn you though, for using the system in trial it is free but the cost of using me is high, little one. I take a piece of you every time you draw."
"They're taking the whole house, the whole street, and probably my future," I said, a cold calm settling over me. "it's not like I have a choice. If heavens dare reject me, I'll make a sanctuary on earth."
I reached for his hand and shook it. In a second the hard senses returned, two screams,
TING-TING-TING
A gambling dice dropping on a table, a rolling ball of roulette falling on a color. What I experienced earlier returned, this time though - My crucifix wasn't near me anymore.
"Fight it, if your will is strong enough It'll leave."
I almost dropped back, barely saving myself from a rough fall - landing on a chair.
'SO this- Is… A trial? I must FIGHT it-'
Flashes of Marie passed through my head. She ran into the casino just below a pair of black legs—the guard, most probably. I ran in after her and raised my head to be blinded by the bright lights of the casino, then darkness.
A scream.
I looked around me, suddenly small in size, my eyes adjusting now to the night. The air was thick, heavy.
An orange light cast high into the dark sky, wind carrying ash and blood. Paramedics hustled by me, their heavy boots thudding against the pavement. One clipped an order into his shoulder mic, his voice tight: "Multiple victims, we need triage kits immediately!" The other pushed a gurney, yelling, "Path clear, clear the path! Move! Move!"
They didn't see me. They didn't see anyone who wasn't bleeding out on the asphalt.
My arm raised upwards as I looked at my sister. Marie was staring, fixated, at a burning house.
I couldn't understand what was happening. She ran inside the yard oblivious to the couple of cops arguing just besides the gate.
My jaw widened a bit, should I run after her? Can I save her? Do I tell someone else? Why are those cops not doing anything? Did they not see?
A siren died with a choked wail behind me. Two paramedics, bulky in their turnout gear, moved with a heavy, ground-eating jog, not a sprint. Adrenaline, a sharp fizz, narrowed their focus, making the world seem to tunnel around their objectives.
They weren't looking at the fire. They were looking at the ground, at the bodies.
"Triage them," the first one, a woman whose name tag read 'HINASUKI', clipped into her shoulder mic. Her voice was flat, professional, a stark contrast to the raw human screams around us. "Start on the left. I'll take the right. Tag them and move."
They moved past me, efficient machines wading into chaos. I followed Hinasuki as she looked calm and nice enough hoping to get her attention, even though my heart wanted to just run in.
"Im sorry-" I whispered, she ignored me.
She knelt by a man in a scorched business suit. Did not check for a pulse. She performed a rapid assessment, checking breathing and consciousness in seconds. "No respiration, no pulse," she muttered, pulling a black plastic tag from a holster on her belt and looping it around his wrist. I realized what it was as my heart dropped. Black. Deceased. A label, not a person. She didn't pause for grief or pity; there wasn't time.
"Hey," Hinasuki said to me, her blue eyes just above the white mask covering most of her face finally finding mine for a fraction of a second.
"You're a bystander. Get clear of the hot zone, go to the casualty collection point. Now."
She raised her hand towards the still arguing cops,
"Come get this kid away and stop arguing, good for nothing pigs." She muttered the last part in disgust, they turned around and approached me.
Their grins widened and their faces were somehow black, devilishly scary. A shiver passed through my tiny back, I realized there won't be help coming from anyone here.
Finally my legs and heart moved like one, two cops knelt trying to take me into their arms.
I ran just beside them, small enough to pass between their arms. Realizing too late how quick I was, running already through the gate, following Marie's steps toward the flames their screams of -
"STOP- STOP THAT KID, NOT ANOTHER ONE-" Died out behind me, another one, I thought? So they did see?
I felt the Emp looking disgusted at them most probably thinking they should also go in.
The heat hit me first. A physical wall of it, pushing the air from my lungs. The orange light, bright as a sun flare, almost blinded me. The air, thick with the metallic tang of ash and the coppery smell of blood, felt heavy under my mouth.