Tension

Reaching the first floor of the building after descending the stairs, Marcus and Damian enter into an unusually desolate hallway. The homeless residents they had seen only some time ago are now gone. With tents empty and others overturned, they wondered what had happened.

"Where'd everyone go? No way they all left at this time of day…" Damian said, feeling a bit unnerved by the sight.

"It's nearly night time, I don't think they'd leave unless they needed to," Marcus stated as he looked into a usually occupied laundry room to find nothing but emptiness. "This is creepy…" he said softly.

Suddenly a loud crash was heard at the end of the hall as if something heavy had fallen.

Turning towards the location of the sound, Marcus and Damian began walking towards the back of the building as another crash and a loud cry followed. "Why am I investigating this creepy stuff? This is going against the stereotype!" Marcus cried silently in his mind.

Reaching what they believed to be the source of the sound, a partially opened door in the middle of an adjacent hall from one connecting to the lobby. Voices leaked the conversation within as shouts of rage sounded from deeper in. Slowly walking past a line of stained glass windows, they looked at the silver sign by the door, reading it as a pool room.

Opening it wide enough for them to pass through, the duo walked quietly through the men's locker room as it followed the entrance of the door and stepped into the pool area. There, using a side wall as cover, they continued silently towards the occasionally loud voices, getting close enough to hear if the conversation got loud enough as they reached a corner and peered over the side slightly showing an empty pool littered with random trash and junk.

As they did, they saw a small group of six in black suits walking forming a half circle as portable flashlights that sat on poolside tables and chairs partially lit the room. Before the group, a singular man dressed in a sleek black suit with a clean-shaven head and a woman with long green hair sitting on her knees before him, her back facing the empty pool..

"The hell is going on?"Marcus questioned in his mind, his hand slowly reaching for his phone before slowly pulling it out

"We should get out of here! This doesn't look good and this definitely doesn't involve us!" Damian whispered, his heart beginning to race at the escalating situation.

"We can't leave now Damian!" Marcus responded quietly and resolutely as he looked back at Damian, his fingers gliding over his phone screen before opening his camera app and pointing it at the people. "This is what I was talking about! The violence in the city is not reported on in the news. With a picture or video of this we can do something about this."

"I've had it with the stubborn tough girl act! Either you tell me what you're after and who hired you or you die and I get it off your corpse before I burn it to ash!" The bald man shouted, drawing their attention once again as they witnessed him pull out a pistol and hold it to the girl's head."

"I'm calling the police!" Damian said, his heart beginning to race at the rampant escalation of the situation as his fingers began tapping on the popup screen on his wrist watch, dialing the police in seconds.

"I'll get a picture and then we can go." Marcus said as he held his phone steady, the auto zoom feature working perfectly to capture the face of the bald man and others. Tapping the button to capture the picture, a flash followed as the room went silent, the bald man looking in their direction.

"Who is that?!" He roared, his cybernetic eyes gaining a purple glow as his vision zoomed in on the source of the light, capturing the faces of Damian and Marcus. "Damn kids!" He grumbled as he seemingly vanished from his spot, to the surprise of the duo but as they turned to run they were greeting with the cold scowl of the bald man.

Before they could react, Damian was kicked in his chest, his face a mix of pain and astonishment as the wall cracked behind him from the force. Marcus, shocked and unmoving with wide eyes as he looked at his friend, was quickly lifted by his collar.

"Who are you working for?" The man asked coldly, his eyes simmering with rage at the thought of his business here being exposed.

"Nobody!" Marcus yelled, his heart nearly beating out of his chest as his hands clamped onto the wrist of the man. To his surprise though, he felt a cold metal as he shifted his eyes down, noticing a black cybernetic hand holding him against the wall.

"Sir! We just got word, there was an intercepted call going to the police a moment ago." A man said as half of the group standing in front of the girl moved to surround the newcomers.

"Bring them over! We might as well clean up the rats at the same time! He said, as he tossed Marcus to the floor as he and Damian were subsequently grabbed and taken to sit beside the girl.

"Leave them alone Kren!" The girl said, as Marcus and Damian were placed on their knees beside her. Damian struggled beside Marcus as pain assaulted his very being..

"Are you rats all from the same hole? It would explain why you didn't want to say anything, it was to protect them right?" The bald man, Kren, spoke as he looked at the girl.

"You're wrong! I don't know these guys! Just let them go!" She roared as she looked at the two newcomers, her green cybernetic eyes scanning them. Spotting something on the back of Damian's neck, revealed by his hair as he hunched forward in a vain attempt to help the pain, she turned back to Kren and shouted, "These kids are gold members for the trauma response insurance! If anything happens to them we'll be swarmed in three minutes!

"Is that supposed to scare me? We could be long gone by the time a trauma team get here." Kren responded with a snort as he once again revealed the pistol he carried on his person. Marcus too shocked to respond to everything even as his phone and bag were taken by the henchmen behind Kren.

"You!" Kren said as he grabbed Marcus's head with his robotic hand, "You took a picture of me on a phone, is that right?"

"I-I did…" Marcus responded softly, his mind working to figure out how they'll get out of here.

"Were there any else taken?"

"N-No, I was the only one to take any pictures, Damian just wanted to go…" he responded again in a helpless tone.

"Well… unfortunately for you, I can't let any rats leave. Me being here is a secret so it needs to stay that way." Kren stated as he stood up once again, his pistol pointed to Marcus's face.

Speechless by such a weapon being pointed at him for the first time, Marcus sat there stunned.

"Leave them alone! You have their things already! Just take it and destroy it! The place is already jammed so any pictures they have aren't in the cloud yet!" The girl spoke hurriedly.

"I was planning to do that, This is just an extra precaution." Kren said coldly as he briefly shifted his eyes to the girl as his finger glided over the back of the pistol cocking it as a telling click pulled Damian's attention to the sight.

"If you let them go then i'll tell you why i'm here!" The girl said quickly, her eyes scanning Marcus and Damian before focusing them on Kren.

"Marcus!" Damian shouted, immobile by the fear developed through the situation along with his actual injuries. He wanted to move but his body protested at the slightest movement.

"Get away from him!" The girl shouted as she bounced up from her knees and launched herself into Kren, causing him to be off guard for a split moment. "Ru-" She began to say as her head was grabbed by a metal hand.

"You're an annoying girl. I gave you chances to talk earlier but I told you I'll pull the information from your corpse, let me be a man of my word." Kren said coldly, his hand closed tighter on her head as he raised her off her feet, her hands grabbing and banging on his arms intensely before they began trying to claw at his eyes and face, adding some superficial marks, as the pain on her head continued to get worse.

"You've tried my patience for the last time!" he said, locking eyes with the girl as three shots resounded within the room, the girl's muffled screams sounding clear as day in Marcus's ears as blood began leaking like a running faucet down her body, pooling on the floor.

Looking up in horror as the scene was too intense to bear, Marcus watched as the girl's eyes began streaming tears as her hands clenched Kren's arms. Finding her head momentarily released, the girl was about to begin crying as she saw a pistol pointed at her head as her feet landed on the ground.

Taking a step back in fear, she was unable to do anything as the trigger was pulled once again, sending a stream of blood through the air, her body falling lifelessly into the empty pool below.

"Annoying rat…" Kren muttured as Damian and Marcus watched on in horror at what they had witnessed.

Unsure what they should do, Marcus's mind worked overtime to figure out if there was a rescue coming, unfortunately he realized nothing was set in motion as they never mentioned this to anyone else.

"M-Marcus i'm sorry" Damian muttered softly, pulling Marcus's attention to him as he realized Kren had moved in front of him and he now had the gun facing his head. "Stop! Just let us go, we won't say anything!" Marcus pleaded, paralyzed by fear yet wanting to move to protect his childhood friend.

"Shut up!" Kren said coldly, "If I believed such a thing I would have been dead in this city long ago."

"M-Marcus!" Damian said as tears and snot streamed down his face as he began to cry. "I shouldn't have brought you here… I'm sorry… This is my fault… I want you to live though ok? You need to back the veil rem-"

BANG!

A shot interrupting Damian's heartfelt words as he fell backward, blood flying from a hole in his forehead. Feeling some get onto his face, Marcus sat there shocked, watching his friend's lifeless body fall into the dark pool behind them.

Beginning to hyperventilate, Marcus's mind quickly went back through all the memories he had of Damian. Remembering the good time, the bad, the heartfelt disagreements, and everything else they had done together, Marcus felt his vision blurr as his eyes quickly moistened causing an unstoppable amount of tears to fall.

"This all happened because of you, from what you said before your buddy Damian wanted to leave yet you stayed, for what exactly?" Kren said as he crouched down to Marcus's level, his eyes locking with the young man as he expressionlessly said, "Maybe your heart is in the right place, wanting to expose this and all." As he spoke, Marcus felt cold metal touch his chest, just over his heart, horrifying him of the thought of what was to follow.

"This just isn't the type of world where your heart leads, it's one where your head does…" Marcus listened as he felt a stifling pain in his heart as his hands instinctively went to it yet never made it, his vision blurring as he suddenly felt his quickly weakening body falling backwards.

His world shattered as he fell, the last thing he saw was Kren standing in the light as he descended as his heavy eyes closed, darkness claiming him.