A part of me is a part of you is a part of me is a part of you is a part of me is a...

Faint whispers haunted the winds that breathed onto my ears. It was hard to distinguish if they could be the carried voices of those around me or something

...part of you is a...

Speaking to me in the confines of my disoriented brain. Everything I could hear was just a wash of static noises, each one popping and crackling with unrecognizable rhythms patterns. If they were voices they surely did process well from what I could understand. All of the noise was going to drive me insane. I pressed my forehead against the wet concrete and tried moving my hands to my ears to block everything out, but they refused to move.

My whole body uncontrollably writhed around like an erratic flag in the wind. Shaking, flapping and rippling throughout every muscle. More deaf screams shout out from me and registered as whines of static in my brain. But it didn't matter, because that was the only way I could relinquish my pain, was by screaming out at the top of my lungs until they compressed painfully. I found myself on my weary hands and knees, each limb pressing further into the ground than the ground would permit. Even my forehead wanted to imprint itself within the solid matter of the concrete.

A sudden, clear noise orchestrated such clarity into my brain that I could instantaneously make out what it was, and what it may've come from.

It was word.

A name.

...a part of me.

A voice called it.

And I could recognize that voice.

It was... someone... who? Who was it?

Crimson

"CRIMSON" the voice shouted from across the courtyard. I darted my head up quickly to see that my vision was too shaky and blurry to make out who was calling my name. As I laid hunched over and looking up in the direction of the voice, my vision started to restore a bit to reveal five figures in the distance. I still could barely register who that voice belonged to, but why had I heard that voice before? And who did I hear that voice from...

One of the murky figures sprung out and kicked the other to the wall further on ahead. I screamed out again, more harder and more painful than before as two cracks whipped my brain remorselessly. Sharp whines dug their sharp blades further within my brain. After a while I could start to register it was gunshots that further wrecked my hearing.

The one grayed silhouette who shot the second silhouette started to fight the other one behind them. Two others stood idly on either side of them, probably frozen in unknowingness of what to do. The main figure fighting against the other two brought the third one to the wall and shot them once, as I could hear the sharp static pierce within me once more.

This serum... it was making me go weak. All of this mental pain that took hold of my whole body seemed to be deteriorating every sense of functioning normally. How could this have happened? How could the council... how could the Forbids... how could Zoe... let this injection be ready to use in the ceremony? Obviously there was something

Born

...seriously wrong with it. What kind of backlash would all the higher up officials receive?

Could I

You will

...die from this? No. No I couldn't. I CAN'T.

"CRIMSON" the silhouette called out again. It was hobbling towards my direction. He was limping towards me. I could finally see who it was.

It was my father.

All my memories came flooding back to me as they escaped the moment the injection took its effect on me. I could recognize who he was now, and I started to question why my father was here in the first place, let alone... killing people.

But I knew I had to get to him; he'd take care of me. Protect me from whatever the hell was happening to me. I gasped for air trying to call his name. All of it escaping me constantly when I unconsciously screamed or quivered from the coldness. More blood dripped from my chin and to the concrete to be washed away.

My father hobbled his way over to me for he tripped over himself and fell forward, trying to catch himself on his hands and knees. He screamed out in a bloody cry to the world. His groans and harsh breathing brought more cringing to my stomach. I twitched my head side to side erratically thinking of all the pain he must've been feeling. He looked utterly horrible from how I remembered him last.

His face was still distinctive but... he had gashes and purple bruisings along his face. Each opened gash oozed a rich and dark red blood, bloody streaks remained stained from being washed away in the rain. His faded blonde hair matted down, soaked in the rainwater. There was barely a shirt on him, as it hung on by the strings of fabric on its back. Large, open cuts laid barren against his muscled back, about a good ten for a rough estimate. They were fresh and raw as blood ran down him into a pinkish hue following him. His wrists were worn in with red imprints, looking as though he had been bound by each one.

And a ruby necklace swung from his neck. The brown leather cord whipped around a jagged ruby that glimmered with little reflections of the world.

"Daddy's coming sweetie" my father called out not as loudly this time around. He was getting closer to me by the second, not needing to shout.

He looked back to the two people behind him, seemingly worried about what they may or may not do, and we turned back around to face me I could see the look of absence in his. All the fear, pain and worry seemed to be wiped away in one head turn. I couldn't make what kind of emotion he wore on his face now. Some deep underlying feeling gave me such a nauseous wave across my stomach at whatever devoid emotion it might be.

His large hand went upwards to his neck, shaking violently. He gripped onto the necklace and in one swift movement; ripped the cord from his neck and threw it towards me. The ruby bounced off the concrete and rolled close in front of me. Confused, I took the necklace in my hand, letting the cord snake between my fingers. I kept looking at it wondering why he'd do this. But the more I looked at the dripping gem the more the realization began to wash over me.

He knew he was going to die...

"Don't just stand there Thrree, d-do s-s-something" the silhouette to my left shouted to the one on my right. The more I began to focus on them the more I realized that the two figures were people I'd briefly seen before.

It was Zoe, she was the one shouting at the other figure.

The other figure was Thrree. And he was holding a gun at his side, his figure and faint face looking distantly out towards my father and I. His figure jittered around a bit either from my flutterly vision or the rain making him cold...

Or the contemplation of what he was going to do with that gun.

Thrree seemed to be in a place of his own, frozen at the world around him, or the orders that Zoe shouted to him. What was the meaning behind all of this? Why was my father in this situation in the first place? Was he in danger? There were too many questions to contest the injection taking hold of my brain.

Zoe muttered something, barely audible to me over the sound of rain and the faint ringing in my head. She seemed to be trying to force another sentence out but couldn't. But then she found the will to do so. "KILL him now Thrree" Zoe paused and then quickly added "you w-will do as I order and I order you to kill him NOW".

My eyes widened further at the command Zoe shouted to Thrree.

Kill my father...

'He couldn't! No... why? WHY? THEY... HE CAN'T KILL MY FATHER'.

I could feel my heart pang more deeply than before, so much so that I almost collapsed in the guttural pain of it.

My father did really know he was going to die. I... he couldn't die. Not like this. He had so much more life left in him I don't... All my thoughts were becoming more abstract and blank. Gaps couldn't make complete thoughts, everything started to disappear and collide with each other in a mish-mash of dark, emptying thoughts.

Ever so slowly I could feel myself slip in and out of consciousness. A darkness began to waver in the peripherals of my mind.

Thrree raised his gun; aiming it at my father.

'No... he can't. He can't. He just can't. How could he take my father's life with no second thought... no remorse. That damned monster. MONSTER...'

"DO IT NOW DAMNIT" Zoe shouted out to him.

I tried forcing out words to my father, trying to warn him of what was about to happen. All the words I could murmur out were "D-dad... l-look o-".

But I was interrupted by the sudden crack of a thunder-like explosion and made me freeze in place. In the blink of an eye my father jerked forward and collapsed to the floor. A mist of blood flourished out of his head and into the space between us. The arterial spray covered some of my face and I twitched my head violently. His arms and legs gave out, letting his body hit the concrete in a heart-stabbing 'thud'. He remained there... lifeless.

He was dead.

I involuntarily screamed out as much as humanly possible at the sudden sight of my father and my overbearing pain coursing through my body. My eyes watered up and flooded with hot and heavy tears. I crawled over to my father's body trying to encapsulate him in my warmth.

HE CAN'T DIE

From the faintness out of the corner of my eye I could see my sister burst from the crowd and ran over to me.

I could feel the strength suddenly be ripped from me, and I gave in, collapsing onto my father's dead body. Letting everything consume me.

Everything went dark.