Fangirl x Hunters Chapter 3

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If the dead were trying to help, Riley couldn't hear them- all her senses were overrun by panic. Bag over her shoulder, the girl runs back out of the room, determined to find her pet- no, he wasn't just a pet, he was her familiar.

"Krollo?! Krollo?!"

Let it be said, Krollo was a very intelligent arachnid, capable of fully understanding human speech. However, he was also as curious as a cat and as reckless as a baby, and he felt a spike in aura somewhere else in the hospital. The large spider scuttled out of the room, chased by the man's screams as his human began her experiments, and followed his instincts to the source of the spike.

Skitter skitter down twisting corridors and over broken furniture Krollo goes, until he finds himself in a large, echo-y room, with broken stained glass windows and rows of pews. This room also contained thirteen people and the nearly over-whelming scent of chemicals, lit with a scattering of white candles. The spider crawls up the walls to get a better view of the room, eight pink eyes glittering in the dim light.

There was the man that had sat next to his human on the fountain when they were still new to this world, though he seemed to be in a grouchy mood. Then there was a man with wild hair, and as big as three of his human! There was a man in a dark coat with long hair, who seemed to be the main source of the chemical smell. The next person that caught Krollo's eye was a man in a long coat settled on the dais at the front of the room, a few books scattered around him as he read the one in his hand. Eight eyes zoom in on one of the tomes on the ground, a book he knew his human had been wanting for a while!

No longer wanting to observe the room, Krollo scuttles closer to the man on the dais, jumping down some bits of the crumbling walls before landing in the shadows behind the man. He was intent on getting that book for his human.

Right as his forelegs are placed on the cover, however, he is noticed by the reading man.

"How curious," says the man, eyes glinting with questions. "I don't think I've ever heard of a spider this large."

Krollo is tense, two forelegs still protectively over the book. He starts to click his mandibles menacingly as others draw closer. 'This book is for my human.'

"Danchou? What are you- holy shit!" the man from the fountain exclaims, and that does nothing for Krollo but make him tense even more. He raises all four of his forelegs to show a violent red underbelly and hisses in warning.

'Stay back! My book! My territory! Mine!'

The room freezes, and Krollo situates himself firmly on the book- in fact, he's so big that the majority of it is hidden from view (and the book isn't small in any sense of the word). As the minutes tick by, Krollo relaxes, but only slightly. 'My book.'

"Danchou… what do we do?" Fountain Man looks between the two beings on the dais, the other eleven people looking on in caution.

"Leave it be. I believe it only wants the book, though I don't know why," Book Man responds, and this causes Krollo to relax near completely.

'Indeed, Book Man.'

The room goes back to its previous atmosphere, though there is still and underlying current of tension. Krollo stays perched on the book like it's a throne, a-la cat caught the canary. He keeps catching glimpses of what Book Man was reading, and thinks that it's something that his human had read before.

Speaking of his human, her piercing shriek echoed into the room, followed by faint crazed giggles, though Krollo couldn't tell how far away she was thanks to the acoustics of the building. His legs twitch uncertainly, unsure if he should go to her or not. 'No,' he decides. 'My human is strong. She will be fine.'

"What the fuck was that?" asked a skinny man in a yukata and a tall topknot.

"Probably just some dumbass kids," the conversation is continued quietly, and Krollo loses interest.

He glances back to Book Man, and sees one of his favorite scenes coming up. Krollo crawls up to the man and peeks over his arm before finding a perch on his shoulder. To the man's credit, he didn't tense, only shifted so that Krollo could better see the page.

Krollo liked Book Man, he decided.

Some semblance of reason had returned to Riley's mind, and she was currently checking the area around the entrance she used to see if Krollo was hanging around there. Harried hands run through the hair that had escaped the high ponytail, which wasn't so high anymore from all the tugging she'd done.

"Motherfucker," leaves her mouth yet again. She wanted her little Krollo (technically, he wasn't so little anymore, but that's beside the point) back and go home and shower because the blood was drying and she liked this shirt, goddamnit. Riley turns around to go back inside when a voice stops her.

"So this is where you disappear to."

'Goddamnit you stupid little cuck.'

Ryu walks closer to her, eyes full of anger. "That was quite the little trick you pulled earlier today."

"Thanks," Riley replies, tired. Slowly, she inches further into the shadows of the building and away from him. "Seriously, though. Fucking stalking? Take a hint and get out of my goddamn life."

"Like I said earlier, you don't get to say no." His smile is sick, making Riley feel nauseous. Again, he steps closer, and she steps back. "And I always get what I want."

"Get any closer and I'll kill you," she hisses, hand on the doorknob, ready to flee. Ryu laughs, and it is cruel and sadistic and wrong.

"I know your type; you talk a big game, but you wouldn't hurt a fly, would you?" If this was happening four months ago, he'd be right. Riley used to be a bit of a coward, completely unable to join a physical fight. But dimensional-hopping does shit to you, and Riley had taken down people stronger than him. Ryu swipes his hands towards her. "Get over here!"

Riley busts through the door and runs like a bat out of hell.

Subconsciously, she retraces her steps from earlier that night, this time the prey. She doesn't like being the prey, she didn't like feeling helpless, and she definitely doesn't like predatory shit-bags like him telling her what to do.

'I'll kill him.'

She dashes past the congealing pool of blood and manages to grab the iron pipe she had dropped. Riley can hear his footsteps behind her, and she zips around a corner and prepares to fight. The second Ryu turns the corner, she hits him in the side with so much force she can feel some of his ribs break, and he falls to the ground with a groan.

"Wouldn't hurt a fly, huh?" she says, standing over the man as he tries to regain his footing. "I might not hurt a fly, but I sure as hell will hurt you."

Ryu raises his head, and finally gets a good look at the teenager in front of him. Her hair was wild, entire body splattered with blood and viscera, hands gripped tight around a similarly-covered pipe. Finally, her eyes- they were wide, feral, and terrifying.

Ryu felt fear.

Ryu felt like prey.

Riley felt like a predator. Order was restored.

"Do you want to live?" Riley asks, voice hollow with a hint of humor. The man nods his head shakily, and a predatory smile crawls onto her face. "Then run."

When he takes off, the teen is once again surprised at how fast he's running. 'Well,' she supposes 'adrenaline does strange things, doesn't it?' Riley follows at a quick jog, allowing the dead to guide her in the right direction once again. She may have asked if he wanted to live, but she had absolutely no intention of letting him out alive.

'I swear to the gods I'll kill him.'

Krollo looks up when a man limps into the room, obviously out of breath and in pain.

"Help me!" he wheezes out. "There's a crazy bitch after me!" When he doesn't receive an answer, he limps further into the dim room. "Please, call the police!"

"Why should we?" asks Fountain Man, puffing on a cigarette. "It's not really any of our business."

"Unless you paid for it to be our business," said Topknot. "But I really don't think you have that kinda money."

He is gob smacked at the casual atmosphere of the room. "She's going to kill me! Please, I'll do anything-"

"Then perish." Comes from the still open doorway, and Krollo's beloved human strode through, a bloody pipe being twirled in her hand. Her eyes were wild and promised violence and were fixed on the injured stranger, grin nothing but a knife slash.

He trips backwards, trying to get away, but Riley strolls over as though it were a sunny Sunday afternoon. He's still scrambling backwards, and she raises her weapon ready to strike-

"Riley?"

She turns and is as surprised to see Phinks as he is to see her, she thinks. "… 'Sup, dude?"

An awkward silence fills the room as they just stare at each other. Ryu takes the distraction to try and escape, but Riley turns around to look at him. "If you move another goddamn inch I will disembowel you and force feed you your own stomach." He promptly stops moving.

"Soooo…" she turns back to Phinks with an awkward smile. "Fancy seeing you here."

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Total Word Count: 1,636

Story Word Count: 9,722