Hey readers :-)
Please please please forgive me, I promise I'll make it up to you guys one way or another. Now, someone asked me what inspired me to write this story. Like the rest of my stories, in my dreams and music. Yep, you heard right. I dreamt most of my stories, and music that somehow relates to the dream inspired me even more. In this case, it was Hollywood Undead.
Enjoy ;)
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~ Let's watch this city burn
From the skylines on top of the world
Till there's nothing left of her
Let's watch this city burn the world ~
(-City by Hollywood Undead)
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Streets have different kinds of smell.
The smell of hot dogs right by the hot dog stand.
The smell of various people with their cologne and body odor. But aside from all that, there are other different kinds of smell. The smell of happiness in a neighborhood. Despair, peacefulness, and wealth.
In my neighborhood, it reeks the smell of blood and war. Women going against women, men going against men, women going against men. People against people. For children, the monsters and demons they read about in books were already roaming around the streets even before they were born. For some of them, their parents are the demons.
Tonight, the smell of blood blanketed around me, clinging for its life.
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I shivered.
Mike told me to never, and I mean never, roam the streets at night. People fuck with other people's problems, and guess what? They all eventually get killed, which makes Amy and I vulnerable.
Just keep on walking, Pamela, I thought to myself. Just keep on walking like it's a normal thing.
A gunshot was heard somewhere deep within one of the alleys, and the night awakened. I shivered again, and kept my eyes averted from direct eye contact from anyone. From that moment on, I was aware of everything. The half-dead woman laying by the curb, a car's radio cranked up to the maximum, group of teen girls smoking with their too-revealing outfits, and a group of mixed women and men walking across the street like rulers.
I felt sick to my stomach, this is not good. Some one was laughing, and I hope to God Amy was alright. In instinct, I turned my head around to see if Amy started to walk, which was a grave mistake since I made eye contact with one man. That man was in a group with other suspicious looking men huddled together.
Curious, the man shifted, and cocked his head to his men, and all of them looked in my way. Smoothly like nothing happened, I slowly turned my head towards the front, and walked a little faster subtly, but I can feel my blood running hotly through my veins.
It's all in your head, Pamela, I thought to myself. All up in your head. But the realist side of me nudged and awakened, and warned me that the men are going to follow me wherever I go. I turned my head slightly, and I was right. The men were already following me with their hands in their pocket, a sly grin sketched on their mouths.
"Yo beautiful, wait up for us!" one of them sneered. "Do I need to sign up for an appointment?"
The men roared with laughter, my body flinched. I needed to get out of there and fast. Just as I was about to walk around the corner, another group of men walked towards me, all of Hispanic origins. As I was about to walk back, I stumbled into the previous group of men, which were for the most part of white origins. Shit, I thought.
My heart stopped beating. I knew these groups. These were THE groups that had a strong, but violent history, and they absolutely hated each other. They're the guys you hear of starting a fight in the middle of the day. If one member, just one, walked up to the opposing gang, automatically guns, knives, and fists will fly everywhere.
Pride is such a powerful thing.
I tried going to the other side of the street, but I knew that will lead to my death. That was the heart of the neighborhood, others call it "The Belly of the Beast." Every civilian that wandered in that area was either severely injured or even killed.
A name popped into my head: Cassandra. A punk rock teen, but an extremely intelligent student, she was the rebellious type. She cut her long red hair, layered and spiked it against her family's wishes. She didn't care, and she never did.
We hung out throughout middle school and freshmen year, but it was then she decided that she wanted something more out of her life. She knew she wasn't going to find that "something" in this neighborhood. So, she decided to run away.
I remembered it well. I remember sitting on her bed, trying to convince her out of it, but whenever Cassandra set her mind on something, she'll accomplish it sooner or later.
"Well, what about your name?"
"Psh," Cassandra had said, packing her Paramore Cd's (she got her haircut's inspiration from her favorite singer Hayley Williams). "What about my name?"
"I don't know," I said as I was eyeing her at that time. "What if random people ask for your name? Real name?"
"Hmmm..." she said, zipping her bag, "I'll go with Doe. Carrie Doe."
I laughed, "Carrie Doe? Why Carrie? Just go with Jane Doe, dumbass."
"Hey now," she said, grinning. "I like Carrie. It sounds sexy, dangerous and powerful. Like you have something to hide. Sort of like Stephen King's 'Carrie,' you know?"
I shook my head, and she patted my shoulder. Then off she went.
A week later, she was reported missing. She was last seen wandering around the belly of the neighborhood. She just vanished without a trace, and I guess the authorities just gave up. They probably had bigger priorities, you know? I mean, who would spend their time looking for a girl from a shitty neighborhood when they have to look for a millionaire's son that was missing for three days?
Ridiculous.
Hell no, I wasn't going through the belly. The other choice I had was to go through an alley, supposedly a shortcut to the Dojang, but I knew it was dangerous. Who knows who or what I'll encounter through there.
But. I had no choice.
With my hands in the coat's pockets, I walked through it with every confidence I had in me. There was barely any light except for a lone flicking bulb. With my cell phone, I let the display screen shine the way.
As I made it halfway through the alley, I stopped when I saw a group mixed with teen girls and boys coming my way. Theses weren't just a group of teens; they had red shirts and red bandanas on. The Red Gang.
I looked back where I came from and saw several members of the previous groups arguing heatedly with each other. I looked around the alley, desperate to avoid the Red Gang as possible. I saw doors, but I know for sure that if I came knocking on these doors, no one will be my knight in shining armor.
Most people here are afraid of the Red Gang.
I closed my eyes, and let out an unsteady sigh, feeling my body panicking. Please, I thought to myself. Let me get out of this alive.
"Hey girlie!" a female voice with the gang said. "What you up to tonight, huh? Why you all alone?"
"Someone might fuck with you," a guy's voice boomed. "Like me."
I can feel my hair sticking up on the back of my neck, a sign of warning, but I didn't know what to do. I couldn't fight these guys without getting extremely hurt, and who knows what weapons they might surprise me with. I cleared my throat and walked to them, my eyes straight forward.
Let's try to reason with them, I thought to myself.
I silently scoffed. Yea right, like that'll happen.
"No trouble," I said with confidence, gulping. The members simply just looked at each other and broke out with laughter. A guy around my age walked to me and literally stood an inch away from my face. He sneered, his dirty teeth covered in saliva. Suddenly, he pushed me with full force, but luckily I didn't fall down.
Breathing heavily, I tried to keep a cool head. Relaxed. I held out my two hands in front of me, showing that I didn't want any trouble, but that angered him even more. He got something out: a gun. And he pointed it to me.
His friends behind him chuckled, looking at me with interest.
"Don't you see, bitch?" he said with so much pride in his voice. "We own this. We can do whatever we wa-"
A gunshot was heard close behind me, and the other members got their own weapons out, ranging from a mere knife to a shot gun. I couldn't breathe nor move. You know those moments when you have so much adrenaline, but all you can do is freeze? That's what I did. Frozen like a statue. Firearms and I were never a good combination.
"S-stay away!" a voice behind me said. My eyes sprung open. Amy?
"Well hellooooo there!" the teen said, smirking. "Didn't yo' folks tell you never to ain't play with guns?"
He pointed the gun at her, his eyes pleading for violence. Amy, on the other hand, stood her ground, her body fidgeting while holding the gun unsteadily at the teen. But this guy wasn't a dumbass. He knew Amy wasn't the type who would randomly pull out a gun out of nowhere.
He spat on the ground, and pointed the gun back to me.
"I know your type, girlie," he said, gliding his tongue across his teeth. "I know it ain't yo' nature or have the fucking guts to pull tha' trigger. But what makes this" he crushed the barrel on my forehead "piece of nothing so special to yo', hmmm?"
"She-" she began to say, her voice breaking.
Suddenly, there were gunshots and a couple of sparks flew everywhere. The teen along with his friends started shouting, and I decided that it was time to get out of there. I sprinted and took Amy by the hand, who was looking curiously at the top of a building.
"Who the fu-" the teen cursed behind me.
Amy and I were almost halfway through the alley. All we can hear was our ragged breaths and our shoes making heavy contact to the ground. And all I can do is pray that the previous gangs were gone. Well, I was half right.
Once we came out, most if not all of the members were all down on the ground, either dead or not. I stopped for a second, catching my breath, while Amy went behind me and hugged me from behind.
As her hands were gripping my arms, her body was shaking. I can feel her chest heaving violently against my back. A drop of sweat glided down my face when I cam to realize that I recognized some of the faces among the bodies.
Lance, Javier, Jools, and Hanna. I knew them from school. I saw them most of the days walking through the hallways, always curious to learn. But I guess along the way, something happened. Somehow something blinded them to join this epidemic instead of being blinded with their studies.
I wanted to do something, help them up, drag them somewhere safe. Something. But that'll just involve me even more, even Amy.
But I don't see any bullet or knife wounds, I thought to myself while observing the bodies. They all look like they're all...sleeping?
