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I swirled the murky liquid inside the test tube, it glowed in my hands. It looked… somewhat edible.
“so, how much am I getting paid to drink this?” I questioned Tord; Looking at him with disdain plastered on my face.
“enough to fix your stupid bass Jehovah.” Tord replied with impatience. “go on, drink it.” He waved me on. Looking at me like I was just a nuisance.
“Her name is Susan, not ‘stupid bass’. Put some respect on her name,” I replied spitefully. “or you’ll have to find another test subject. Got it?” I crossed my arms, tube still in hand.
“yeah, yeah. Whatever, do you want your money or not?” he gestured to the lump of money in his hands. I hesitated. “or are you going to waste my time? Like always?” he took a step forward invading my personal space, causing me to step back. He closely examined my face looking for something. Anything. Before taking a step back himself; still staring at me.
“oh shut up.” I rolled my non-existent eyes before I shot back the liquid. The moment it touched my tongue it made my stomach churn. It made me feel dizzy and disoriented. My body felt heavier, I felt like a rock. I grabbed the desk to help me keep balance. It tasted horrible, not that I expected whatever Tord made tasted good though. “what on God’s green earth did you put in this?!”
Tord looked at me in amusement, a slight smirk forming on his face. God I wanted to punch his face in, but the pain in my stomach stopped me from doing so. Why did I drink this? This was an incredibly stupid decision, I shouldn’t have drank it. But In a moments notice, a sharp pain stabbed me in the stomach.
I yelled in pain “HOLY PINEAPPLE ON A PICKLE STICK!” I keeled over knocking over some papers. They fell to the floor effortlessly, like feathers in the wind. They fell all around me. I tried regaining my stance but had no strength to even stand.
My head was throbbing, my hands felt even stranger. I lifted my hands up, just enough to see them. My body froze, I stared at my hands in horror as my fingers began to harden and turn purple. It was spreading all across my forearm. It was enveloping my body. I quickly lifted my shirt up. My chest, stomach, everything was purple and spikey. I felt nauseous, everything in the room started to spin.
My breathing became quicker. Up and down my chest went, growing faster by the second. I clutched my hair as I vomited something out onto the floor. It was… black.
Tord began to vigorously write on his note pad. Was he documenting me? He stood there proud. While I knelt down, grovelling in pain. “tord, help, please.” He said nothing. H-he’s not even trying to help me. He’s just writing in that stupid notepad. All I felt in that moment was rage.
With a sudden strength, I slowly stood up, towering over Tord. Am I taller? I sensed a mass behind me, waving. But in that moment all I focused on was tord.
“Tom can you move? You’re blocking the light.” Tord complained. I stood still. “Jehovah I told you to mo-“ before tord could finish, I took my chance and struck him, and he finally stopped writing in his notebook.
“AUGHHH!” Tord bent over and clutched the right side of his face, crimson liquid started to drip from his fingers. “WHAT THE HELL TOM?!” he screamed in agony, as I relished in it. He was sprawled on the floor, writhing in pain like a leech in salt. Tord slowly looked up at me in fury with his only working eye.
I didn’t notice it, but. He had a weapon with him. He pulled the trigger, a bang rung through the air.
Tord tapped the stand microphone. Infront of him stood many people awaiting for his speech. “My fellow nation, today we stand here because today is the yearly anniversary of how our army started…” tord droned on continuously.
I stiffly stood by him, bored out of my mind. We do this every year and still nothing changes, the same script every-time rehearsed to the max. Nothing ever changes in this hell hole. Yet something was amiss in the air.
My blue uniform started to itch. it was tight around my neck, just like a noose. My visors green led flickered around as I stood. I looked at todays schedule and oh waffle tarts it was busy. My shoulders dropped as I sighed. Did my hair look okay? I’m not sure I put enough gel in it.
My mind clouded with thoughts as I looked around for at least a few minutes. looking for something interesting enough. I glanced over to my right. There situated beside me was Paul. He was a scruffy brunette guy, and had way to bushy of eyebrows. My goodness they were hairy. A scar ran down his right eyebrow, cut through like a razor. He had a large build like a big ol’ fluffy bear. Could crush me in a minute.
After a few minutes of silence, I turned my head and spoke in a hushed voice “Anything new?”
He stood there in silence, just like a statue. He glanced at me once but returned to his stone state. How does he do it? He is sure a wonder.
“Alright then…” I said awkwardly. I turned my head back to my original stance. Completely bored out of my mind.
Finally i looked upon Tord, uniform clean and sharp emitting confidence and poise, and his face overshadowed by a shiny scarlet mask.
If you look closely enough, you could see his face. Half disfigured and sullen. His face was coloured with all sorts of shades of pink flesh. Wrinkly and shiny it was. His eyepatch covering up his eye that’s no longer there. His sharp teeth glared under the spotlight.
Tord could no longer look at himself the same way anymore. His face forever scarred from the past. Yet he had to stay strong, for the army, and for Tom.
Tom could hear the annoyance in tords voice, having to repeat this speech for years is not an easy thing to do. It was starting to grow old.
After what felt like a century, tords speech was over. The crowd in-front of him staring in admiration and applauding. Cheers came from the left and right. Tord was their crimson hero, their saviour, and their god.
A red alert flashed onto my visor. It was a warning something dangerous is near. I quickly scanned the crowd, yet nothing came to suspicion. I quickly turned to Paul.
“I just got a warning,” I said urgently “there was a threat detected.”
“We need to get red leader out of here quickly.” Paul said in a gruff voice.
“We need them to search the place.” I scanned the hall once again— hoping to find the threat. Yet none was detected.
“On it, ill call the troops to sweep the place.” Paul speedily walked away, holding his communication device. Presumably calling the hall to be secured.
I took a step closer to tord trying to warn him of the danger. “Red leader I sense a danger in the hall. We need to get you out immediately.”
Just as I reached him a click could be heard. I spotted the threat, he was peaking through the chairs. He had on a green hoodie with a black trench coat. His hair was dark brown. And a lucky can wrapped around his neck. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t put my hand on it. The gun glowed in his hands, him aiming at tords head.
A bang rung through the room. Red blood splattered all over my uniform. People screamed in terror and ran. Some rushed towards the threat. So many things were happening at once. I had to make sure tord was safe.
I fixed my gaze at tord, he was sprawled on the floor, he had no injuries. His mask on the floor. He was trembling, his face was in dismay. His eyes filled with shock.
A stinging plagued my chest. I wiped my hand against It and brought it towards my vision. Bright red stained it. I looked in horror as I slowly looked down. My torso had a hole, a large one at that. Blood flowed from me, like a waterfall.
I felt my knees growing weak, I tumbled to the floor. I could see in the corner of my eye, tord was crawling towards me. He looked glum. I wonder why? He took my head, and brushed the hair out of my face. Why was he doing this? Wet began to drop onto my face. It felt like a warm rain on a summers day. He looked sincere, and said something but it sounded muffled. I tried to reach for his face but my arms felt heavy. His hands brushed my face, it felt comforting. Like a mothers touch.
He slowly took my visor. He clicked the clasp off, and put it by my side. It was all blurry now, all I could see were blobs. But the most prominent one was tord.
He lifted my head up onto his lap. It was just like my pillow, nice and comfy. My eyes began to heavy. And my breathing began to slow. My body felt stiff. Noises muffled.
I could feel the shaking beneath me, my face was sprinkled with tears.
With all my strength I lifted my arm up, and caressed his sobbing face. “Don’t cry”
My eyes closed, I tried my hardest to open them again, to have one last glance at Tord. But I just couldn’t. My body went limp as my hand fell from his face to the floor.
The last thing I heard before it all went dark was “Thomas, please, please wake up. Don’t leave me please. I need you.”