A petite girl rose from the dark, cold alleyway ground. She took a single step which elicited a hiss. She almost loses balance from leaning over to examine her knee; the cause of her grief. It was scraped up something bad. Blood had oozed from the abrasion and dried down her grime-smudged shins. It stung with each weakened stride as she began to maneuver her way from the depth of the brick labyrinth. Where was this place? She looked skyward to the only freedom she could witness. The sky was a deep burnt orange and sprinkled with faint constellations. Afternoon. A bird soared on the breeze and provided her with relief.
Her wobbly legs carried her through a couple twists and turns of the maze and was about to round yet another grime encrusted brick corner when her ears perked immediately - identifying the sound - the rustle and clang of tin garbage cans - but why? Her eyes sharpened the shapes in the shadow cloaked section of wall. Another loud bang of the tin lid falling to the pavement. The observation swallowed her concentration as she froze perfectly still to reduce her own created noises potentially drawing danger toward her.
Her increasing suspicion and paranoia was swept away when a black cat, it's coat shining almost silver, leaped up the wall and climbed to the rooftops.
She silently watched the feline slink further from her range of vision before releasing her long held breath in a sigh. Feeling the relief flood her system, tense muscles softened and her shoulders slumped with relaxation.
Her right foot jut out from beneath her to take the next stride round the sharp corner, her eyes still glued to where the cat had last been. Her shoulder connected to another, her momentum providing the strength of a hefty shove.
"Ah!" She exclaimed, peeling her eyes from the rooftop gutters to the matter at hand. Her heart raced with the shock of colliding with someone else down here.
Before she could even mutter an apology, her eyes grew wide like a dinner plate at the creature half kneeling, shoulders tilted at a disturbing angle. The back pocket of their denim trousers were sodden with muck and the stench- her hand flew to her nose to reduce the strength of odor. It smelled like decay of a carcass left to bloat in the unrelenting sun rays of summer.
Straw blonde soiled hair was matted atop the strangers head, that's at least what she could assume from behind. Words flew through her mind too quickly for her to form a coherent sentence. None seemed to fit what she wanted to say or just wouldn't do the moment justice.
She took a shaky step backwards when her calf muscle tensed against the rough clay of the wall. Shit
The hiss of what could only be described in comparison to that of an alligator filled the alley before a deep snapping sound from the being in front of her registered in her mind.
The body, almost slack like a marionette, twitched and pulsed as it struggled to twist around to face her. The orange light of evening beat down on what appeared to use to be a white lab-coat. Dull gut wrenching crunches resounded from within the body as it rose and man, did it continue to rise taller with each passing second.
The person sounded to be breathing the pronunciation of the letter 'H' as its face snapped toward her. A loose plucked eye swung from the socket and swayed with the motion. She shrieked and pressed her palm over her mouth as she felt as if she were sinking in its disgusting, glassy stare. Void of any resemblance of a soul existing within, she couldn't find her voice to scream. Cries rose in her throat but deflated like pockets of air dying on her tongue. It shuffled sideways to turn further and near as it towered over her petite frame. Too stunned to defend herself her eyes screwed shut in a wince as it continued to breathe on her youthful face. It got closer, too. So close it moved what was left of its chin over her head and took a long deep raspy inhale before a vicious rumbling bellowed from its exposed voicebox through its open throat.
Warm goo splattered her scrunched face. The gurgling sound from the presence before her grew deeper and softer until there was a distinctive thud of a body colliding with the cracked pavement. She unscrewed her eyes but remained flinching, afraid of the scene within her immediate gaze. Her ears rung as she took in the extent of the sight in front. The body looked crumpled and split open on the pavement, what looked to be too thick to be blood slowly seeped from the wound like slime. The filth stiffened lab coat soaked the fluid as it continued to exit the host.
The petite girls hand rose to brush her bangs from her forehead and she noticed how hard her body was shook.
Her face felt sticky with that slime mess painting the concrete. She absently wiped a cheek before a faint scent of a cigarette filled her nostrils.
Her deep crimson eyes darted to the much lighter section of the alleyway; that in which hogged the final rays the day offered.
A person- a girl - who glowed in the afternoon sun, held a sawed off shotgun to her shoulder and a cigarette between her lips.
She looked mean as she stared at the trembling girl. Fingers plucking the cigarette from her lips every so often as she continued sizing her up.
An dull white hat secured atop her crimson shoulder length hair. Draped down the sides of her frame were that of an unbuttoned blue plaid flannelette complete with a white wife beater hugging her torso. She was slightly reclined, leaning her weight back on the hood of a faded blue ford pick up truck. It looked old, too.
She leaned forward and held her weight on her feet some more before removing her gaze from the shaken up girl to stamp out her butt on the bull bar of the vehicle.
Her denim shorts crept further up her thighs but she didn't care to notice as she moved the shotgun to waist level. Pointing it outward as a mild offensive as she strode slowly towards the foreigner. Brown cowboy boots covered her feet to mid shin and the shaking girl was yet again at a loss for words.
Red irises met a vibrant lavender and her breath hitched.
The redhead knocked her foot against the shorter girls and narrowed her eyes quickly before speaking.
"Well?"
What? The petite girl questioned, taken aback by the sudden question.
"W-what?" She stuttered out, leaning further back from the taller girl. Avoiding looking at the shotgun pointed directly at her.
"Where's the big thanks you owe me for saving your life?" She answered with another question. The blood splattered of the two only concentrated on how straight and white the tallers teeth were beneath her pouted lips.
"Look" The girl leans in, not too much for the exchange to be uncomfortable but enough for the red eyed girl to know she was being ridiculed.
"It's clear you aren't from these parts, so I'll let this one slide, stranger. But you should know not all people are willing to waste rounds on some random that doesn't even have the manners to offer a simple 'thank you' for the trouble." The redhead smirked as she finished patronizing and scuffed a boot, turning to head back to the truck.
"I would've..." The petite girl muttered, brow creased and palms sweaty.
"What was that?" She turned, eyeing the smaller. Gun barrel rested on her trim shoulder.
The raven haired girl grit her teeth and squeezed her fists tight.
"I said; I would have!"
The redhead paused for a moment longer anticipating the next words to ring in her ears.
"You would have gotten a thank you if you hadn't become so arrogant!"
The redheads eyes sparkled, maybe not for long but the raven haired lass noticed.
Silence hung between them as she seethed further.
"And what was with the berating about manners? You so clearly have none yourself, why should I bother when you're probably not even educated to understand social cues."
"Geez, I think you're forgetting who has a gun between the two of us." The petite girl mouth opened agape, looking up to the other girls very symmetrical face.
She recollected her thoughts and sighed. She was losing this argument? She never lost an argument!
"It's me, if you hadn't noticed." She quipped.
"Yeah! Kinda hard to miss it." She answered, folding her arms.
The redhead tilted her cream cowboy hat back, raising the brim and exposing her hairline. Her brow glistened as she scoffed.
"Shoot. Well, just making sure you have the ability to use your eyes as you appeared unable to see you were standing in front of a starved cannibal and didn't even move to run or even raise a fist." She murmured downward to her.
"Not that throwing a fist would do too much in your case... with puny arms like that." She chirped.
"Excuse me?!" She roared
"You heard me, little lady." She replied coolly. Face uplifted and as smug as ever.
"At least i'm not some redneck cowgirl who spends her free time polluting her lungs in random alleyways filled with cannibals." She fired back without a single stutter.
"Oh, I'm sorry- was the word 'cannibal' not the correct term?" she mocked, "I wouldn't want to offend your family."
"Ooh burn, you got me there. Because I'm definitely the one who has blood splattered clothes and smells like death." She exclaims, expression contorting to sour as she used her free hand to gesture to the shorter girls attire.
"Also, again, who has the shotgun here?" Her regular lowish voice climbed an octave to ask the question sickeningly sweet.
"Oh yeah." She added with a tap of the barrel to her shoulder before lowering it level with the other girl.
"It's still me."
Red eyes bore down the double barrel as warm sweat trickled down the side of her face.
She closed her eyes for some shred of clarity to restore her mood. Her shoulders dropped once more as she released a sigh. She submits.
Her arms raised into the air and she exposed her palms for mercy.
"Okay, okay. I'm sor-"
A loud crackle of static and a high voice pitched over from a device clipped to the redheads back pocket, interrupting the petite girl.
"Panther. panther, come in!" Her violet gaze averted from her youthful face and the barrel drooped some as she divided her attention to gripping the device.
"This is panther, what do you need? Over." she clutched the mechanism close to her lips as her eyes pinned the black haired girls again. A look that could almost be interpreted as steamy or intimidatingly seductive, but she cast that thought aside.
The device whirred and whistled at a ear splitting frequency but the redhead didn't bat an eye.
Static crackled further before the same voice said "Nya has taken a turn for the worst- her fever isn't letting up in the slightest. We need you back at nest ASAP. Over."
Her eyes scanned her face during the transmission and her features softened, lips pouted further like she was feeling something.
It made the foreigners heart race.
"Roger that." She said, giving one last long look at her before lowering her gun and peeling back to the pick up.
"Uh, wait!" She called. The redhead didn't so much as hesitate in her stride or consider looking back.
Her departing figure had the smaller girl panicked. Sure they weren't friends. Hell, they weren't even on friendly terms- but they seemed to become more familiar through their argument didn't they? Her skittish mind put together the best idea possible.
So when the drivers side door slammed closed, so did that on the passengers side.
"What the- G-Get out!" The redhead shrieked, face warming with blood. Seems she had been caught off guard.
In the few seconds before the shorter girl had climbed into the the seat, the redhead had removed her hat and placed it atop the shotgun in the middle.
The seats were so old fashioned it was more of a lounge within a car.
"Nope, not a chance-" She replied defiantly, mouth curling into a smug grin as she restored her power between them when she raised the shotgun at the opposing girl, "Tell me- who has the shotgun?"
The redhead looked like a deer caught in headlights. Ah, yes. Sweet mercy.
"Hmmm? Just who is it?"
The redhead scoffed and inserted the keys into the ignition. Ignoring the threat on the other side of the cabin. She had somewhere to actually be.
"Oh yeah" The dark haired girl whispered, securing the gun on her lap, pointed at the driver before finishing; "It's me."
I wrote this in maybe an hour-ish? and haven't yet been bothered to edit it. Honestly this idea sprouted a few hours before I got to typing away so it might be a mess of a fic, but I hope it can be enjoyed nonetheless. I will probably refine the story to be more descriptive and to properly capture what I wanted to depict so don't worry anyone who wants to tell me it's shotty work every so often throughout it :) I gotchu.
I hope Nico and Maki aren't too OOC
I might continue on with this AU if this is received well
Please leave a comment, I'd love to know what you think!
Have a good one ya'll!