Disbelief

Finally home. I take a moment to look back at my car. I'm an embarrassment.

A good majority of my university lives in or has parents from District 11 and up. As such, it's not uncommon to see young students in nice cars. In fact, most are. District 7 may be lower down the "ladder," but actually has a stronger economic presence than most "higher" districts. I could have gotten a better car if I hadn't lost that District 7 job. Thanks, Demons.

I do wish I had something more presentable. I wonder what Janine thinks.

Huh. My roommates didn't lock the door. Idiots. I'm gonna—

Holy fuck.

Blood. Everywhere. So much blood.

I slam the door. Inside the house, the entryway is covered in a disproportionately massive amount of blood. My mind instinctively redirects my attention back to my car. To the street. Just away from here. Far away. Fast.

"Felix!" I hear my roommate, Cesar, scream. Shit.

Is there a Demon in the house?

I want to run, but every fiber of my being screams at me. I can't just leave Cesar. I have to help. Or at least try. My brain says it's suicide, but my heart gives into morality.

I am so dead, I think to myself as I enter. I take care not to step in the pool at my feet. If I have to run, I will most certainly be dead if I leave a trail of footsteps behind me. His bedroom door is shut, so maybe he's okay. I open it slowly.

Cesar has a giant hole in his stomach. I'm supposed to run now, right?

"What happened!? Hold on, I'll call an ambulance!"

"No, too late." His voice is getting weaker. "Please. Protect her. Your friend, too. Gone. Go." It's as though he kept himself alive just to leave me that message. The life in his eyes ended with his sentence.

But no. My friend? That idiot couldn't have come all the way here, could he? I figured he would just email me the notes. Shit. Did he come in person?

A banging from the closet steals my attention. In the next few seconds, I see my second roommate, Alice, emerge and throw herself on her boyfriend's body. She's screaming, crying, and begging. This feels unreal.

Am I dreaming? My consciousness feels like it's beyond my body, watching from the outside.

I need to regain my senses and think. I can't lose my grip on reality. We could still be in danger. No—we are still in danger.

"Alice. Listen. We need to get out of here. But tell me. I know it's hard to remember, but can you tell me what happened?" I offer her my hand, and she just pushes it away. She won't let go of Cesar. I have no idea how she wasn't found in the closet. That never works, right? Either way, if the killer comes back, they'll notice my car in the driveway. Then we're all dead.

I finally lift Alice off of Cesar, and work us back to the car. I must have been so overwhelmed by adrenaline earlier that I missed the ruined notebook by the front door. I somehow also missed the dead face of a close friend beside it.

In a brief moment of clarity, I notice that nothing is out of place. Aside from the recent gruesome additions of dripping red to our walls, everything is otherwise as it once was. I don't like thinking this way, but I really hope Cesar was just an unlucky, random murder victim. I don't want to think this was targeted and deliberate, but it certainly looks that way. That means they might come back for me or Alice.

Cesar, what the hell did you do?

Back to reality, we just need to drive away from here and to the police station. Unfortunately, District 1's precinct is cozily placed right on the edge of the district, comfortably away from all of the recent disasters. City officials must think this place is hopeless, or are too used to Hunters cleaning up for them.

I just hope nothing happens on the way there. I start the car and drive us away, quietly.

"Felix. Can we go back? Please. I can't leave Cesar like that. I have to bury him first. Then we can go." She's not making sense.

Does she know what she's asking? I was in disbelief earlier, but that wound—no, the hole in his torso was far from normal. My unwelcome imagination pictures an insane Rogue Demon tearing through Cesar's body with its bare hands.

And then I remember the touch of Janine's hand.

I reject the thought. Her hand was gentle. She wouldn't do that to me. Even if she has that much strength in her, she wouldn't do that to me. Right?

Idiot, I tell myself. I barely know her.

I overpower my irrational thinking with sheer willpower.

"Alice. We can't. We're still in danger. We don't know if whoever did that will come back. We're lucky they didn't come back right away."

"There's no point." She says, cold and emotionless. "They already know who I am. How to find me. We're both done for, Felix. Just take me back to him."

"No. We're alive, Alice. I know it's hard, but don't let yourself get caught up in those thoughts. Just look straight ahead, okay? We're gonna get to the police station and—" And then what? I have no idea what the hell will happen next. "And then we'll take this step by step. We'll take our lives back."

I hope.

"You're a good guy. Just forget it, though. Sorry. I do wish you could have survived, but this is too big of a mess now." She sounds like she's hiding something. She hasn't said a word about what went down, and I just figured she hid in the closet. Clearly, there's something she's not telling me.

But should I ask? What if she was involved in whatever Cesar's business was? Because now I feel pretty damn sure they were up to something. Is it safe to ask? What's more dangerous, knowing or staying oblivious?

Living in District 1 was already bad enough before being bombarded by the possibility of my house mates being criminals hunted by Rogue Demons.

Crack. Followed by darkness.

No. No! How did that happen? I just lost my left headlight. In the next second, I lose the other. I can't stay on this street, not in this direction. I flip my highbeams on to blind anyone ahead and force a hard right at the next intersection. Quick thinking is all I have left.

No gunfire. No impact heard from the front. I can't help but think it's some sort of demon ability, but I can't be sure. The next logical possibility is someone in the distance. I'd have heard a gunshot if they were nearby.

The next intersection is up ahead. I turn off my highbeams and drive through it. I slow down and start varying my speed. If someone's watching from afar, I can use the streets, my lights, and speed to hopefully confuse them.

"Felix. Whatever you're doing, it's going to get us killed faster."

"What are you talking about!? If there's something you know, you have to tell me now!" Our lives are on the line. I can't have her withholding information.

"You always were a know-it-all smartass. Good try, though. Smart, but we were trapped from the beginning. We should have stayed with Cesar. She's almost here."

Fuck this. She's not going to talk, so I'll work with what I have. What I'm hearing is that there's someone chasing us. Some woman. And she's closing in.

I hope with all my heart it isn't Janine.