Bleeder's Crusade
Summary: Slightly AU. Being the sister of an assassin can be a dangerous job, especially if you have a severe case of Hemophilia.
A/N: Of course, it may seem that I hate Anna Williams, judging by some of my others and this story, however that is not true. No matter how hard it is to believe, I do not hate her.
Disclaimer: I do not own Tekken! Tekken is that of a game belonging to Namco!
Chapter 1
Anna Williams walked through the door to her apartment and laid her keys down on the kitchen counter, automatically locking the door behind her. She'd been out all night eating with an old friend and then at the gym burning off all the food she ate. Now she was a little hungry again from her workout. Anna reached into her refrigerator and pulled out a canister of yogurt.
When she was through, she decided she would wash up and get ready for bed. She took her tags from around her neck and placed them gently on her nightstand, before crawling in between the blankets. Almost instantly when her head touched the pillow, Anna was asleep.
Anna ran down the alleyway, panting, looking over her shoulder every few seconds. Someone was following her. She looked up only to see a blonde woman blocking her way. The same one she'd been running from. The woman was pointing a gun at her. Anna tried to move out of the way, but the bullet came too fast and cut her below her ribs. Anna felt up close to her neck. She wasn't wearing her tags. Her blood wasn't going to clot.
Nina knew this, but she only stood there laughing in Anna's face. She held out her hand, shaking something shiny. Anna's tags. A voice rang in her ear. "No one will find you, Anna. When they do, it'll be too late." Then she turned and walked away, leaving Anna there, in the alleyway, to die.
She tried to put pressure on her wound but Anna didn't have enough strength left. She lay there for hours, bleeding, until the breathing stopped.
Anna awoke from her sleep with a start and sat up in bed. She lifted her shirt. No gun wound. She picked up her tags and slipped them back over her head. It was 3 am; she still had a few more hours to sleep. But how could she sleep? So much more paranoid than before she'd fallen asleep.
She got up and took a shower, leaving on her bathrobe, brushing her hair as she walked into the kitchen. Anna sat down at the table and sighed. "If only my life was different." She was talking about her dream, her sister, and most of all her hemophilia. She was born with it, as are the others who have it. It's a rare disease where blood does not clot. There is no cure and the only way to stop a hemophiliac from bleeding to death is to put pressure on the wound. There are also injections. But Anna can't get them. They cost too much for her liking and she wasn't often bleeding where she really needed anything but pressure. Anna constantly worries about bleeding to death. She often has dreams of it, most of them involving her sister and their feud. Anna fears one of their feuds will become an onslaught and her sister might have the chance to take her life.
Around Anna's neck was a pendant on a chain. Her tags. The pendant was that the size of a nickel. Inside the pendant was all of Anna's medical information, including her name and her illness. She hadn't seen other tags. She'd never met another bleeder and it wasn't likely that she would. Hemophilia is either through genetics or, in Anna's case, if there is no history of Hemophilia, it is a spontaneous mutation of genes.
Anna sighed again, breaking away from her thoughts of her sister, and got up from the table. She walked back in the direction she had come, went into her room, and carelessly threw on a pair or jeans and a shirt.
She didn't have to work today. She was a nurse. She only took care of the sick people. Nothing to do with blood. But she knew people in the Emergency Room in case she ever did need the injections. And Daren only charged her half price since he is her roommate. Since they work the same hours he sometimes picks her up after work and they go to dinner and talk about what went on that day. He has learned not to talk to her about the blood, or the amount of it, or else she trembles out of fear or vomits up the food she was in the process of eating. Minus all the blood, the ER didn't seem that bad to Anna. But she could never work there, especially since just hearing of blood made her puke. Of course it seems a little dramatic to everyone but if they had this disease, they just might vomit as well. But Anna couldn't really complain about her job. Sure, Daren got paid more but Anna couldn't work there. At least he helped her with the bills, not to mention cooking the meat.
Anna was in the process of deciding what she needed to get done when she received a phone call. "Hello?"
The voice on the other end was familiar. It was the voice of Julia Chang, her boss' secretary. "Anna, can you come in to work tomorrow? Haley is sick again and you know how sick she usually gets. Daren said that he can fill in for her today but he has to work in the ER tomorrow and he told me to see if you can fill in for her."
"Wait, Daren? Oh, that's right, he did have to go into work this morning. He usually doesn't have to work weekends," Anna said, talking more to her self than to Julia.
"And neither do you." The secretary paused a little before continuing, "What do you say?"
"It pays me extra money, so sure!"
"Alright, see tomorrow at eight then. You have a good day, Anna."
"Thanks, you too." Anna hung up the phone and sighed. "Well Daren does know I need some more money then." She sighed and walked out the front door, grocery list in hand. She walked through her apartment complex's parking lot, looking for her car. When she found it, Anna, reaching her left hand forward to open the door, stepped inside the car.
After she'd reached the grocery store, she began walking toward the entrance, looking at the different Japanese symbols on the license plates. A man walking to his car, while pushing a shipping cart, almost ran into her as neither of them were focus on the person ahead of them. The shopping cart brushed by Anna just slightly. When the man noticed, he said, "Gomen nasai." (I'm sorry)
Recognizing this speech, Anna replied, courteously, "Daijobu desu." (It's alright) And it was alright, just as long as she didn't get too badly hurt and had to get sent to the hospital due to some random person's carelessness. But, of course, Anna would be fine.
She looked down at her list at the things she needed for dinner that night. Eggs, garlic salt, hamburger, milk, and lettuce. All the rest of stuff they had. Anna walked down the aisles with her shopping basket on her arm. She ran her finger along the air that surrounded the containers of seasonings until she spotted one that said, 'Ninniku.' (garlic) Even though the container only said garlic, Anna knew that it was garlic salt. She'd been shopping here long enough to know that.
She walked to the back of the store where everything cold was kept. She picked up a dozen eggs and a carton of milk before heading to the where the fruits and vegetables were kept. She past the meats without a glance as she'd done so many times before. She always got the meat last so that she wouldn't have to look at it a long time. Anna reached for a head of lettuce and placed it gently in her basket next to the eggs and the milk. Then she walked back to the meat section, barely looking and grabbed a package of hamburger and walked to the registers.
She found the man she always looked for when she shopped. He spoke English and she was used to him. He rung up her items and as he rung the hamburger he questioned her expression. "Why do you always seem so squeamish when you look at meat? Are you a vegetarian?"
"No," Anna held out her tags so that he could see them. But the cashier only raised one eyebrow confusedly. "I'm a hemophiliac."
"Oh." He continued ringing up her groceries and bagged them for her. She handed him his money and he handed the bags to her. She smiled at him as she left. "Have a good day, Miss Williams," he called after her. But Anna didn't look back.