Chapter 1: Dried Blood

Third Person POV:

"This wasn't supposed to happen..."

Today felt like a dream, a nightmare, to be precise. The leader died, and everyone accused each other. At some point, the shooting happened and took some unfortunate souls. Caron failed to defuse the situation, and all she got was a bullet wound.

The rain erased the trail of blood under her boots. It was a public place, and people walked all around. 

Good thing she often wore a dark-colored shirt as it masked the sight of blood. Some people might notice it but weren't curious enough to point it out. Curiosity killed the cat, and nobody wanted to be the said cat.

"Caron..."

Caron hastened her pace, ignoring the agonized pain on the side. Good thing it was not a deadly wound, else she wouldn't have any strength to go home by herself.

"Caron!"

The sound of rain made it difficult to be heard, but someone called her out from behind. Caron turned her back to meet Emory.

"Caron, you're supposed to tell me if you are going! you can't walk by yourself with that injury!"

Emory said as he approached Caron with an umbrella in his hand.

Emory was also there when the shootout happened. He was one of the few people who tried to cease the conflict and was fortunate enough to make it unscathed.

Caron pulled Emory closer to her level as he was taller than her. 

"Mory," she said in a whispered tone. "Lower your voice, Don't let anyone notice this stupid wound." 

Emory was caught off guard realizing that people were staring at him.

Caron pulled Emory and hastened their pace, pretending nothing happened.

"How was Sergey?"

Caron asked as she walked without looking back. Despite walked along with someone else, her pace refused to slow down.

"He passed out... but alive. I'll send him home after you."

Emory kept up with Caron's pace and making sure to keep Caron under the umbrella, forgetting that he was also drenched in the rain.

"...Sorry, but I'll leave the rest up to you..."

A hint of apathy was in Caron's voice. Not that she didn't care, she was just tired.

"That's okay, Caron. You're injured."

Caron tried to ignore the pain, but as soon as Emory's word reminded her of it, the pain started to bite back. 

"...It's not that bad."

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- Caron's Home -

"You're not going to the hospital?" 

Emory asked, not sure if going straight home was a good idea.

"How should I explain this wound? Guns lover club accidentally shot me when they tested some guns? Sounds convincing, alright." 

Caron said sarcastically. She didn't usually speak this way, but the wound left her in a bad mood.

"You don't need to do the explaining. I'll handle the explaining part." 

Emory tried to convince Caron, but she kept refusing to do so.

"Thanks, Mory, but really, leave it a day or two, and it will be okay."

"Caron! It's a bullet wound!" 

Emory's scolding was ignored as Caron closed the door with a thud. She knew it was a childish response, but she was too tired to think of anything right now.

Caron wanted to deal with the wound soon so she could sleep. She threw her coat to the floor and proceeded to get the medical equipment box. Caron was lucky it was just a graze. Else she wouldn't be able to treat it by herself. 

Caron Started by getting herself some anesthetic shot. She waited for a while to get the drug working and then disinfected the wound using alcohol. The pain stung as it came to contact with the alcohol, but she knew she could endure it. She had endured worse.

The next step was quite difficult. A mirror was needed to accurately see the wound on her side. Caron positioned herself in front of the mirror and stitched her wound with the mirror as the guide. Thank god she got an anesthetic shot. Else it would be impossible to deal with the pain of stitching. It wasn't the first time she had to stitch her wound in front of the mirror, but it was always annoying whenever she had to.

"Ugh... I screw up..." 

The pain stung. It hurt much more than she thought.

"Should have used more anesthetic..." 

She decided to deal with the pain and continue stitching.

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Caron rested on the bed after changed into her pajamas. The bloody coat and shirt on the floor were as good as forgotten. She was going to clean the blood after dealing with the wound, but as soon as she hits the bed, exhaustion took over.

Gunshot conflict was not rare in Livingstone. It was a prosperous city ten years ago, but the conflict between Brimstone and Bluestone turned Livingstone into a battlefield. The two cities brought most of their conflict to Livingstone, which happened to be located between them.

Involvement in gunshot conflicts would put you in a bad position regardless of being a culprit or victim. That's why Caron refused to go to the hospital even after a gunshot wound. That's why she learned how to treat minor gunshot wounds by herself.

Getting shot was nothing new, but getting one from her comrade was a different story. Caron knew the team did not have a strong foundation as they were only some thugs who banded up together because the leader gave them a place to be. Now that the leader died, whatever bounded them together had disappeared.

It didn't take long for her mind to wander off before exhaustion took over and invited her to a deep slumber.

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"Sergey! Lower your gun! Nobody is going to hurt you!" 

Caron faced a trembled man with a handgun pointed towards her. Caron's hands were up and open in the air to show that she held no weapons and meant no harm.

"Shut up! Shut up! You were the killer! Admit it! You're going to kill me next!!" 

Sergey cried, refused to listen to any reason. He kept his back against the wall, making sure nobody attacked him from behind.

"Sergey, I'm empty-handed! I can't harm you!"

"SHUT UP!"

BANG!

A gunshot echoed throughout the room as Caron fell on her back. She was bleeding, but fortunately, the bullet just grazed her. Caron decided to play dead and hoped for Sergey to come to his senses.

"I... I didn't mean it...!" 

Sergey's voice trembled. He really didn't mean it. He was just afraid, very afraid. Their leader mysteriously died, and nobody knew who killed him.

"Caron!"

Emory lifted Caron to check if she was alive. Caron hated to be touched by anyone but decided to keep playing dead for now.

"It's not my fault! You deserved it!" 

Sergey ran away from the scene, leaving the two behind.

"Stay with me, Caron! I'll get you some help!" 

Emory tried to pick Caron's body up, but Caron pushed Emory back.

"I was playing dead! You were supposed to stop him when he was dazed!"

Caron tried to stand up, but the wound made it difficult to do so.

"Move away, you accomplices!!" 

Sergey cried could be heard from the next room.

BANG

BANG

More gunshot sounds, Sergey had gone crazy.

"Don't just stand there! Hurry!" 

Caron cried as the two started to chase down the madman.

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Sergey blindly shot his remaining bullets to what appeared to be the ghost of their dead leader.

"Stay away! You got the wrong person! I'm not the one who killed you!!"

Sergey kept fired his bullet endlessly until...

Click

Click

Tap

Tap

All that left was the sound of clicking trigger and ominous footsteps. 

The ghost kept getting closer to Sergey, and nothing he could do to stop it. Realizing that his effort had gone to waste, he turned his back and ran and ran, and ran...

Until there was nowhere left to run.

Then, a flash of light blinded his eyes.

BANG

Sergey fell with a thud. Blood surged from his feet. He was blinded by the light, rendering him unable to identify who or what his attacker was. All he knew was the sensation of pain in his leg. The next thing he knew, someone strangled him, and everything faded to black.

Caron threw away the corpse of the leader. Which, unfortunately, was used as a meat shield. 

Waiting for Sergey to run out of bullets was such a pain since he brought multiple guns. It was a peak comedy witnessing Sergey mistook the corpse for a ghost, but the joke was not fun when someone was actually dead.

The flashlight did help to blind Sergey and guided Emory to shot the target. After shooting Sergey's leg, Emory proceeded to strangle Sergey to kept him down.

"I trust that you can deal with Sergey. I'll see who else injured and get some help," 

Caron said as she left the flashlight on the ground so Emory could get some light as the guide.

"How about You?" 

Emory asked, still holding down the unconscious Sergey.

"I remembered the way out," 

Caron said as she disappeared into the darkness.

Later she discovered that aside from the three of them, there was no other survivor.

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Caron woke up to the bright light right above her. She forgot to turn off the lights before she went to bed last night. 

It sucked that yesterday's worst event was what she saw in her sleep. It felt like she was forced to relive the nightmarish reality.

As Caron got up from her bed, her feet touched some clothing on the floor. It was the bloody clothing she wore yesterday.

"Right, I should clean this up..." 

As Caron picked up the clothing, she noticed that the blood had dried and blackened. Removing the blood after it was dried would be difficult. Strangely she could imagine that the dark color of the dried blood looked fitting on her as if that's where it belonged.