B.L.O.O.D (BlackRose)

Seventy

Angel felt a warm gust of air moving down her cheek as the shot rippled past her head. He heard the gunshot hit something. Slow thump followed by restrained breath.

He turned around to see the girl kneeling next to him, dark blood spreading in front of his shop uniform. He stared at the blood, then turned to Angel, puzzled.

"I .. I .. got shot..."

Two other shots erupted, breaking the silence of the shop. The baby clothes hanging over Angel flinched and swayed. Foam rain erupted from the contents of the Teddy bear doll on a shelf not far from it.

Angel was still crouching, Arnold beside her. There were voices outside the toy store. The voice of a man. Two men, who shouted a challenge. Commemorative

More shots were fired, this time directed outside the store.

"Arnold .. go!" That's Angel's voice.

"They're being distracted!" whispered Arnold. "Come, we-"

"No!" Angel shakes. "I can slow them down. You go!"

"Slow them down?" Arnold scoffs. "You're kidding me, right?"

"Not against them .. I'll talk to them."

And more shots. One of them hit a wall not far from them, bathing them with paint flakes.

"You're not talking to"

"I know Abel well, trust me he will listen."

"You're right, but but they're on a mission to kill us! You come out, they'll shoot you as soon as they see” Angel clutching his arm. "Arnold. anyway, I'm the one they're after. You go and find a vehicle for us to get to Boston.” He doesn't need to explain that. Arnold understood it well.

“I can take good care of myself.”

“I know, that's why I trust you. Well I'll follow your orders, on one condition you have to come out alive.”

Outside the shop, two guards were shot dead while Ricard and Louis hid behind a wall. Just a little more, a little more for them to sneak into the emergency exit. If only, the two people were not standing right across from them.

Ricard sees an opportunity to escape, but sees Angel being fired upon from outside the store.

“I'll distract one of them, you run.”

“No, you're hurt how can?”

“My arm is injured, but my leg is fine. While you still have to be treated well, otherwise your legs could get worse.”

“However..”.

“In times like this, the ability to escape is the most important. You go, I'm the general champion in race competence. I can run ten meters in less than fifty seconds.”

Of course Ricard lied.

Louis nodded, Ricard had a point. Now his legs are starting to ache, honestly he can not if he has to run any longer. Ricard smiled and began to take a deep breath.

“Hey you guys, over here!!”

Ricard waved like a madman, Faith turned her head and started shooting at him from afar. Ricard ran and Faith decided to chase him.

"know you"

"There's no time to explain!" Angel pushed. "Go! Go!"

Angel glanced at the girl next to them. The girl was in shock, her face deathly pale. Still alive, but probably not for long unless he gets help. The gunfight is starting to die down. Whoever it was that exchanged shots with the two people, was almost done.

"Rose, i...."

Angel silences Arnold by putting her finger on Arnold's lips. "It's not goodbye, don't ruin it by saying something stupid."

Angel heard a scream, the voice of a person she knew.

'Ricard, what he did.’ Inner Angel.

After Angel's scream heard the sound of a gunshot that had clearly missed, Arnold heard footsteps inside the store. Heavy, purposeful steps approaching.

Then, cursing himself for being a coward for abandoning Angel, he crawled through the plastic toy aisles, under a row of fur-hooded children's coats and muffled colorful boots, perfect for tiny feet to trail the autumn's rain puddles. Arnold continued to crawl with his hands and knees until he finally found the escalator.

Angel waited until Arnold was nowhere to be seen, then stood up, his hand raised. Abel pointed their weapons at him. Angel saw two male security guards lying bleeding from three gunshot wounds not far from Abel was, one of which was shot in the forehead. Dark streams of blood flowed between his thick eyebrows, continuing to the side of his nose from the gaping hole that was above his eyes. That's the perfect deadly shot.

"Where else?” ask Abel.

“Aren't you looking for me?”

“I think you're a great woman, it turns out you're a coward. It feels like this pursuit ended in vain.”

Angel felt slighted, but she just kept quiet and waited for the right moment. He glanced around, many people hiding behind shelves and in the corner of the store. “I think you're right.”

Angel walked forward towards Abel, Abel smiling with satisfaction. It would be like to shoot the girl dead in front of him, if only he had not been ordered to be taken alive.

“But I think you're sloppy. Because it attacked me in the crowd.”

Angel swiftly threw a pile of clothes hanging onto Abel's face, making Abel lose focus. Angel ran out of the shop, Abel put away all the clothes on her face and shot Angel. Angel avoided the shots very well, when he arrived at the turn of the corridor to the toilet he returned the shot while hiding behind the wall.

There was a group of people hiding there as well, some of whom were seniors who could no longer afford to run. Angel ignored them and as much as possible to save bullets.

Dorrr

Dorr

Dorr

All the bullets he fired missed, now only a bullet left. Angel listened well, it seemed like Abel had run out of bullets. It was a good opportunity to fight.

Dorr...

One shot hit Abel's arm, Angel came back running. Joining other visitors to the emergency exit, he broke through the crowd to get into the emergency stairs first.

The escalator takes Arnold slowly to the top floor of the store; baby and Toddler Clothing. The shop was still quiet, still so quiet. All he could hear was the slow hum of the escalator machine and the soft music of the mall outside. Still crawling, he looked one last time. Arnold lifted his head to look over the frosted glass beside the escalator, from above the black rubber fringe of the staircase and he saw Angel, standing only a few meters in front of the two support units. His hand was raised a sign of surrender . but slowly lowered it as if the sign of surrender was no longer needed.

Angel was saying something, faintly Arnold could hear his voice, low and indistinct. But it was clearly Angel who was talking.

For a moment there, just for a moment, Arnold allowed himself to believe for once that something might be on their side. Then Angel threw a pile of clothes and left, invisible. As the escalator took her through the storefront and she finally couldn't see Angel again, she heard four or five after-shots. Then, one last execution shot.