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Beginnings (Part IV)

"So, Howard, now that Zack is gone... I believe it's time for us to continue our previous conversation." Rachel spoke, her foot tapping impatiently on the floor.

Howard looked up at the blonde while shaking tremendously; his face swollen and covered in bruises. What had once been a decent-looking man now resembled a deformed ghoul. Courtesy of Zack's fists.

He bit his lip; tasting the blood and dirt that lingered there, and swallowed hard.

"I don't have anything else to tell you..." he said with slight difficulty. "You know everything now."

Rachel tilted her head and tried to see if he was telling the truth. Her dark blue eyes stared deep into his green ones; seeking for a flicker of something. It had become second-nature for her to decipher human emotion- and she could quite easily tell when someone was anxious.

It was clear that their captive; Howard, was not telling her the truth.

When she had killed all of his comrades six hours ago, it had been all for the sake of protecting Zack at first. A survival instinct, if you could call it that. He had been mortified at the time and spilled nonsense in hopes that she would be gullible enough. Sadly, it did not work.

So by means of precaution, she threatened him and forced him to drive them back. And now, he was their captive.

But he wasn't cooperative.

"I'd like it if you were a bit more honest with me." Rachel said with a menacing glare, "that load of rubbish you spilled in the forest, it didn't work on me."

Howard bit his lip, obviously thinking intensely. "I... may have left some details out, but it was the truth. I am part of an organization, and yes, we have been ordered to track Isaac but..."

He looked up with pleading eyes, "saying any more would kill me. So please, try to understand..."

Rachel pulled out her gun and pointed it roughly on his temple.

"No, you try to understand." The blonde glared, "We are being constantly followed, threatened, and stalked by not only the police- but also a bunch of hoodlums who pretend they're part of some secret organization. And for what? Justice?"

She pushed the cold end of her gun further into his temple, making him twitch in fear.

"All I ever wanted was to die by Zack's blade, and you people are making it harder for him to accomplish that task." She whispered, her eyes appearing darker than before. Howard was left both dumbfounded and speechless at her words, who on earth was that crazy girl, and why didn't he get more info on her?

With a shaky sigh; he decided.

"Okay... I'll tell you, but you must give me something in return."

XxX

"Damn that crazy bitch... Tryna' make me feel less like a man." Zack muttered to himself before spitting on the ground, his scythe carefully close to his burnt skin. She had taken most of his bandages off, and now he felt vulnerable somehow; with his scars visible to the world.

He sighed and kicked a random can on the ground, surveying the area for cops just in case. The situation had gotten so messy, he didn't quite know what to think about it. What Rachel had told him repeated itself in his mind, and he began to wonder if his fuzzy memories were really accurate.

It was a shitty week, to say the least. But not the worst he had experienced.

He hadn't been burned alive this time around.

Hm? Smells funny... Zack thought suddenly as he sniffed the air. He briefly looked down at himself, wondering if he was finally starting to smell bad; but then realized that the scent he had caught wasn't of body odor.

I feel like a friggin' dog. He thought in disgust at himself as he took more whiffs just to find out exactly what smelled so... odd. It was a mixture of blood and something else, something he couldn't quite decipher. It was dreadfully familiar.

"God damn it, what is this?" He thought, frustrated, as he sniffed and followed some kind of lead. The scent got stronger when he got closer to the underground parking lot, making him grow more suspicious.

Ever since they had found the abandoned apartment building and made it their home; Zack had never stepped foot in the parking lot, for reasons. The first reason: it smelled like shit. Second reason: it smelled like shit.

Oh, and there would be no benefit in going in there.

But something's different now. He rubbed the edge of his nose and went in, not minding the intense darkness. There was a power generator somewhere, he just had to find it-

Ho, there we go. He thought and turned the switch on, lighting up the whole space. What greeted him were a few abandoned cars, some dead rats, and questionable brown stains on the wall.

"Okay, that's blood." The killer pointed out to no one particularly, sensing a presence somewhere nearby. Some cockroaches made way for him as he got closer to the dusty old cars, which dated from god knows when. The same brown stains were on the cars, and Zack wondered for the briefest moment if there was a dead body in there.

He curiously pulled at the car door handle-

It didn't open.

So he shrugged and just punched the glass hard enough for it to break-

Not a wise decision.

"Oh, shi- COUGH!" He started coughing and wheezing, the smell of death invading his nostrils and making him feel nauseous as hell. Whatever died inside died long ago, but not long enough for it to fully decompose.

"Sick! Blegh!" He backed away while covering his nose, feeling disgusted beyond imagination. When did that happen?! He was pretty sure that no one had come during the few months he and Ray lived in the apartment. Had he been careless? Did someone slip right under his nose?

"Who the heck died anyway?" He muttered curiously and peered inside the car while pinching his nose. There was indeed a body, but that one had its face blown off and deformed by a bullet. He could tell that it was a male though, but that was it.

"Yuck, what a messy job. I could have killed ya better." Zack spoke to the corpse, pitying him for a moment. "Shame we didn't cross paths."

He backed away from the car and finally breathed normally again. The stench was still there, but he gradually got used to it. He didn't have much of an idea why the random victim got killed; or who did it, but something itched in the back of his mind..

Just what was it that felt so familiar?

"Why am I thinking so much? How creepy." He shook his head to regain his senses. While he did find a corpse, the stench that emitted from it wasn't the smell that he had initially caught. There was something else around, something fishy and suspicious.

The killer looked to his right, there was an elevator that seemed to be out of service. He grimaced at it, remembering all the crazy insane shit he and Rachel had to go through solving puzzles on every floors etc etc...

But Zack felt like the smell was stronger over there.

So he simply made his way.

And found the unexpected.

To be continued...