'Time. All I need is time.' The thought crossed my mind. Running back to the place we thought we ended it all, but we lied to ourselves. I couldn't help but laugh at myself, thinking that I… we had stopped it all. We brought this on the city, and I have to fix my mess.
The building was once glamorous and glittery with its dazzling lights, porcelain white tiles, and spotless windows, but it was now dull, dimmer, and had lost that fabled beauty. The windows, well, most of them, shattered and reduced to shards, the tiled floor covered with blood and bodies, and finally, the lights were either missing, damaged, or dimmer than before.
Once bustling with men and women dressed in sharp suits and dresses now empty. Elevators filled with workers, operational escalators swarmed with workers, and security at every post at work searching for any illegal item that enters the premises. Empty.
In the two hours that I was gone, everything was thrown into chaos. The one thing I thought was just a concept hit me harder than the first time it met me: hopelessness. It reminded me of when I was with them, Donny's father and Marie's mother. 'I haven't changed my mind on you and them. I am struggling to keep that one promise,' I spoke under my breath with a great sigh.
I looked up at the ceiling and got lost in my memory and had a flashback.
Many years ago, I was with two spirited semi-gods, but they were both friends and great adventurers. Donny would have loved to spend time with his father. Smart, cunning, dashing, and very fit. He was a good man and husband; it was bad enough that she lost him in the battle, and he wasn't that much older, either.
Marie's loss was no better; her mother left quite early, not being given the chance to raise her well. She was gifted with the power to call on the strength of a thousand elves at will. Making her formidable against demons the size of a giant. She was an adorably cute and vertically challenged woman, a petite person in other words, and she had knowledge I never thought a human being would possess.
My memory of them was good, but not the best. One day, we were separated, and I had to rush back to where we hid out and away from the city. I was off duty and had arrangements with them for some time. Two hours away from any civilisation, we found an abandoned home that was in a decrepit condition, where we camped for a few days.
Out in a forest, I rushed back since I had lost contact with them for a few hours after we had headed out our separate ways on our mission to scout out an overrun town a few kilometres south of our base. 'Almost there! I have to hurry!' I thought while I was running as fast as I could through the forest. Meandering between the trees and jumping across the gaps and unlevel ground surface.
Shadowy figures I saw by the corner of my eyes were running alongside me. 'They are fast. I must engage them quickly!'
Swiftly, I handled the figures. Their presence only told me we were being followed.
I got back to the hideout and opened the large doors with my strength and closed them behind me. Inside, two individuals were packing the equipment that we had brought and set up to monitor the town.
"Shit, Captain! What a majestic entry!" Josh spoke. He looked stressed about the situation, and he relieved it on me.
"Josh, don't talk that way!" Helen warned. "Were you followed?" she asked me.
"I was, but I got rid of them," I responded, assuring them both.
Josh sighed in relief, but Helen felt that it was suspicious, but she took my word for it.
"This shit has to go before we head back there again," Josh stated, grabbing an electronic tape recorder and holding it up for some time. He was focused on it, and I called him to snap him out of it. He came back to reality and put it aside.
We placed them away before we planned what we were going to do in the town.
That day was my last time seeing them. They died before me while we were fighting to eradicate them.
Already in the elevator, I was following the strong power I sensed. It was peculiar and seemed to be split between two individuals who were in close range of each other.
Back down to the place where these freaks originated from.
I stopped at sub-level nine, where I felt it the most. No stealth, no plan, only strength and agility could help me here. Mistakes of ten to thirty years ago will not be repeated.
Reader, I don't know where we can begin to resolve this.
Stepping foot on the floor, smells I had not once smelled before, hit my nose with the intensity of their scent. It was disorienting, yet I forced myself to walk through unfamiliar hallways. Unlike the other floor below, this one was modest. Wood was used for the walls, well, wallpaper that resembles wood, or so I thought.
Slowly pacing through the padded floors, which were well-lit and had signs well placed at specific junctions. I made it to a large room, furnished with leather couches and sofas, polished trophies on clean wooden bookshelves, and a desk in front of the bookshelves. On top were files related to the business's financial statements and business letters, some discussing lawsuits and others discussing experiments that have gone awry.
Footsteps approached the room from the left. I gripped my gun tightly, waiting for whatever would walk through the door to attack. Then, she walked back inside. "What do you want?" I asked her very calmly. Internally, I had a debate about whether I should shoot and kill her or not, since the first confrontation failed.
She stepped in and didn't show any signs of hostility. "My master had many problems, except me," she paused, carefully picking her words. "However, he couldn't wait for the moment to unleash his works into this city, but he stuck to a certain plan, and he had to restrain himself."
Moving closer, she kept her gaze on me, and I stepped back, my hand ready to shoot her. Then she stopped. "You come here and disrupted his plan severely. Forcing him to cut back on manufacturing his weapons and having to hasten the plan," she explained. She walked past the desk and dragged her fingers along the surface.
"You killed off those who were key to his plans, forcing him to be merciful to a whore he used in his spare time, and then finally killing him. And all you ask me is what I want. The answer is clear: I want your blood to pay for your sins." She said, stopping by the centre of the desk. Her face was no longer neutral; she showed emotion, hatred, and sadness.
I looked at her and spoke, "I am not sorry for that coward." I emphasized my hate.
She looked at me, unsure of what to feel. Raising her arm, she pushed me toward the wall with her power. Feeling my body getting crushed, I used my strength to push myself off the wall.
Then that force suddenly stopped, and I fell to the ground. I rose, pistol in hand, looking around for her. She had left. I felt a bit of relief, but I knew it was going to get worse from here onward.