Tw: fire, kidnapping, guns
"Jake! This is a really bad idea! Listen to me for once, damn it!" Tricky tried to grab the hood of his friend's sweatshirt to stop him, but to no avail.
"Then go home, Tricky! It's not like you're my mom!"
"Unfortunately, I happen to be the oldest in the group, so I have some responsibility for your well-being, you know!"
"Jake, what the hell!" Fresh supported her and tried to convince Jake to stop this madness. "You're just a kid! Who do you think you are, a macho man? What were you planning to do?"
"They're right, Jake. If that guy is really down here, we're risking a lot. It would be a perfect opportunity for something very bad to happen: five kids alone in a subway depot in the middle of the night." King struggled to keep up with his friends, sounding almost out of breath. "I don't know if any superheroes are going to show up to help us here."
"Then maybe your aliens will come and rescue us. Didn't they abduct you once?" Jake replied sarcastically as he peered into the darkness, trying to see any kind of movement. The place of the first encounter with the stalker looked like this to him, but he didn't want to accidentally get lost.
King opened his mouth to say something, but he was immediately interrupted by Yutani. "King is right, Jake. Why are you making fun of him? We are in a very stupid and dangerous situation. I dare say that if anything were to happen to us now, it would be the perfect example of natural selection. Darwin was more than right."
"Again, I am not forcing you to stay here."
"We can't leave you here, you idiot!"
In response, Jake shushed the group and put his hands over his mouth to amplify his voice."HEY YOU! I'm here!" He shouted into the darkness. Seeing no one, he was tired of waiting and hearing his friends complain. Although the others immediately tried to silence him with gestures, he continued.
"I am finally here! Your target! Now you can stop hiding, you coward! Are you afraid of a kid?! What do you want from me? What did I do to you?!" His voice grew more and more desperate as he spoke. "I just want to talk to you! Stop putting innocent people in danger! If you have a problem with me have the balls to say it to my face!"
Silence.
"Jake..." Yutani gently took his friend's hand and immediately noticed that they were shaking. The poor boy was probably terrified. "That's enough. Please. Stop."
"I can't let him hurt anyone else again -" He abruptly got interrupted by a sharp sound that broke the silence. Everyone immediately turned their heads to an old subway car painted with gray and green stripes on the sides. Although the windows were dirty with grime from years of disuse, they were still perfectly intact.
Silence again.
They stared at the old subway with their hearts in their throats, clutching each other. They hardly dared to breathe.
Suddenly, a dark silhouette, clearly human in appearance, appeared at the edge of a window. The boys felt an adrenaline rush, as if all the blood in their bodies had suddenly gone cold. The silhouette seemed to have two ears sticking out of its head, but the darkness made it impossible to be sure.
"JAKE!" Tricky's cry was like the sound of a gunshot at the start of a race. If time had seemed to stand still for a few moments earlier, now everything seemed to happen at once.
The boy ran straight for the subway car. A few steps before the door, the silhouette disappeared.
"You BASTARD! Come back here!" yelled Jake, and tried to open the door of the old subway. The doors struggled open, creaking under Jake's grip. The boy threw it open wide enough for him to enter, followed by his friends who despite their fear, had joined him.
"Wait a minute, what is that?" Yutani gently wiped some strange liquid from the walls of the subway and sniffed it. As soon as the realization hit her, her eyes immediately widened and she raised her voice as high as she could to be heard by everyone.
"GUYS! GUYS! It's gasoline! We have to go!"
Before anyone could react, a loud click towards the doors made them gasp. They looked around in alarm, but saw nothing. Fresh followed Jake's gaze. He was only a few steps away from them, but for some reason he was as still as a puppet. Fresh exchanged a worried look with the others before they all approached their friend together.
"Jake? Did you hear what Yutani said? It's full of gasoline in here."
"I've got a bad feeling. Let's go, please."
"Jake?"
The boy did not answer. It was hard to see his face in the dim light, but when they got close to him, they knew something was wrong. He was staring at the window in front of him with an expression of pure terror and held his mouth open in a silent scream.
The group looked out as well and their hearts stopped for a moment.
It was him.
The man Jake had described.
The rabbit mask stared back at them, before focusing on Jake. The man was motionless, yet there was a sense of restlessness in watching him. His glowing red eyes gave the impression of a hidden tiger ready to jump; his body was as taut as a violin string.
They didn't have the courage to say a single word or do anything. They all froze.
Knowing that you have a mysterious enemy ready to hunt you down is already unsettling enough, but seeing him in front of them was an experience bordering on the surreal: the contrast between the elegance of his clothes and the menace of his mask gave him the appearance of a malicious entity, like seeing a demon.
After what seemed like an eternity, the man raised his hand to show them a lighter. Slowly, he took a match from his suitcase and lit it. With a natural movement, as if he was doing something mundane, he threw the lighter into a small hole in front of him that communicated directly with the inside of the carriage.
The kids exchanged alarmed glances before turning their attention to the hole in the wall. To their horror, they saw a massive crown of fire spread across the subway car, engulfing the entire wall of the train in seconds, following a path of flames across the old fabric of the seats, and creating many small glowing columns.
The realization hit them like a ton of bricks: they were going to get burned to death. Panic coursed through their veins as they let out terrified screams and ran frantically towards the doors in an instinctive and primal rush. They tried to open them, but they were either jammed or the metal was too searing to touch with bare fingers.
"We've got to get out of here, now!" Tricky shouted, her voice was full of fear.
"We're going to die!" King sobbed, falling to his knees. He covered his head with his hands, trying to shield himself from the sparks raining down from the ceiling. Some of them managed to reach his paper crown, leaving small burns on it.
Everybody down on the ground! Try to breathe through your shirt!" Yutani tried to remain as calm as possible, but she knew they would soon die. There was no escape from a fire in such a small enclosure, they were in a literal oven. And they were being baked alive.
Despite his horror, Jake turned to look at the man again, and to his surprise found him in exactly the same position as before. The fact that he was burning five children to death did not seem to bother him in the least, he just looked curious. The only thing that expressed any kind of emotion was the sardonic grin painted on the rabbit mask. He watched them like a scientist watches his guinea pigs, studying their panic reactions and survival strategies. Even though the temperature was becoming unmanageable, Jake felt a cold shiver run down his spine. Either that person was a robot, or they were dealing with a seriously disturbed human being, completely devoid of empathy and compassion.
He choked on the acrid, intense smoke that burned his lungs, the stench of burnt plastic filling his nostrils. Jake put his palms to the glass and mouthed a desperate question."Why?"
The stranger shrugged slightly. Jake realized there was probably no real reason behind his actions, just the banality of evil. And that scared him even more.
He slowly collapsed to the ground, coughing heavily and losing any shred of hope. The screams of his friends echoed through the underground. Absurdly, he could not help but think of his favorite sandwich at that moment. He imagined himself at home, next to his mom, enjoying that sandwich on Tuesday nights, watching their favorite TV show.
A tear ran down his face.
"Forgive me, Mom. I broke my promise." He thought as darkness began to peer from the side of his field of vision. He imagined his mother hearing the news of his death, probably reported in the newspapers as an attempt gone wrong by some stupid guys smoking and drinking together in an old abandoned underground. She bet the stranger had planned every little detail to hide his identity. After all, fire destroys a lot of evidence.
Suddenly, a roar that seemed to echo through the entire area. Gunshots. Silhouettes moving out of the train. More gunshots. Finally, the deafening crash of the window shattering into a thousand pieces. He shielded his face to keep the shards from getting into his eyes. He felt himself lifted off the ground by two strong arms. Immediately after that, another roar. Another window shattered into a thousand pieces.
Jake blinked, and through the thick blanket of black smoke he could see a group of tall, muscular strangers dressed in all-black military uniforms, their faces shielded by gas masks, pulling him and his friends out of that hell. Saving them. Was this a dream? Jake couldn't believe his eyes.
Even as they gently placed them on the ground, away from the burning wagon, their faces were still tense, their gaze lost in the void. They were afraid that this was just part of their imagination. They still could not fully comprehend what was happening to them. The masked men talked to them and to each other, but none of the children understood a word.
Jake's face suddenly lit up as he turned to see who was touching his shoulder. He had not expected to see the grumpy but kind face of the old inspector.
"Inspector!" The boy shouted and stood up to hug the guard. He was still wearing his normal uniform, so he was not part of the team of masked men who had just saved them from a cruel fate. He had probably called the police or something.
Jake let out a desperate cry as the inspector hugged him and stroked his back to comfort him."Hey, kid. It's okay now. It's all right. You had a really bad time, but you're safe now."
King suddenly burst out laughing as the inspector's dog greeted him with kisses on the cheek. Immediately after, the animal went to work comforting the rest of the group, collecting smiles and tears of relief from the kids.
"How... how did you find us?" Jake couldn't keep his voice from trembling. His body tensed visibly as a soldier walked beside them, the motionless body of the killer dangling from his shoulder. His crimson eyes, usually vivid and piercing, were now dull and motionless, giving the mask a completely lifeless look. Strangely, both his ankles and wrists were handcuffed.
"Is... is he dead?" asked Tricky in a weak voice.
"No. We need him alive." A military man answered in a robotic voice. "We just neutralized him."
If even these masked policemen were so wary of the hacker at the point of physically restraining an unconscious man, that meant the man was truly dangerous, Yutani thought. She still could not believe that they had survived such a brutal attack.
"They will take him to a safe place away from us, don't worry kids." The inspector replied gently.
"They already know him and have been looking for him. They are some kind of secret police, I don't know much about them. But they contacted me and offered to help me catch him in exchange for my cooperation. When I realized that this monster was after you, I couldn't refuse." He let go of Jake, noticing that the boy looked a little calmer. "Let's all go home now."
"Negative." A soldier suddenly pointed his gun at the group. The children immediately screamed and hugged each other. They felt as if they were in a never-ending nightmare.
The only person who remained calm was the inspector. He clenched his fists as his dog began to stare hard at the masked man and growl loudly. He put his body in front of the kids as if to protect them.
"What does negative mean? I have fulfilled the agreements. Now respect our deal and let us go. I have already told your leader that no one will say a word to anyone about what happened." The inspector's tone was firm.
"We have new orders. We cannot take any risks. You are coming with us. All of you. Our boss will decide what to do with you." Another soldier replied.
Without hesitation, three of them pulled the trigger and shot repeatedly at the helpless group. The bullets didn't hurt and not a single drop of blood was spilled.
Their voices slowly faded as they fell to the ground next to each other. They were not even in time to feel any fear, a darkness as thick as honey embraced their minds and forced them slip into a dreamless sleep.