Chapter Forty-Three: They Don't Write 'em

AN: I don't normally put the author's note at the beginning of the chapter, but I am, so deal with it. For the first time in over two years, I've delivered and uploaded some chapters. Definitely subpar chapters, definitely not worth the two year wait, but still. I delivered. Why the major delay? Well, we all knew I struggled with writer's block in 2014, but 2015 and 2016 were even rougher, not to mention I went through numerous relationships, graduated, had surgery, got rejected from military service about three times (currently trying for a fourth and final time), lost my best friend who was closer to me than my own brother to a woman, and started going through a depression again, though I didn't realize that until a few weeks ago.

I'm not trying to garner pity, nor am I trying to make excuses. I have wrote for the story consistently since I last updated the story itself, and the bit included at the end of this chapter was finished almost three years ago, on March 25, 2014. Life happens, you know? And to be frank, for a while, I didn't enjoy writing for ADD. Writer's block, reluctance to write, life, other interests? They all add up, no pun intended. I love and appreciate all of the support you all have given me since 2013. I read all the reviews, and I'm happy that there are people that enjoy the rather pathetic story I've weaved. There is one request I make of all of you: if you have any suggestions, please, contact me and talk to me about them. I love hearing new ideas, things that make me think. Writer's block for this story is the strongest, and it took a lot for me to get to this point. This doesn't mean I won't take forever and a half to upload another chapter, but this time around, I am going to try to be a little more active. I really would love to close out this story.

Finally, the second part of this chapter goes pretty well with "Deference for Darkness" or "The Rookie" from the Halo 3: ODST OST.

"Alright, Suzuki, what are you supposed to be?"

"Asleep."

Laughter roared in the classroom, the narcoleptic girl's quip unexpected. The classroom was almost full of dressed up students, a sizeable majority of them having donned outfits for the sole purpose of cosplay. A few students, deciding to capitalize on the American spirit of eating copious amounts of sweets, brought bags of candy to class, something Mutou-sensei and most other teachers didn't seem to care about.

Suzu, having caused the raucous collective cackle, had come to class quite literally asleep, donning just her pajamas. She herself had seemed out of it, more so than usual. Miki showed up to class late, wearing a simple "costume," one that was made up of just a Deadpool zip-up jacket - one of the ones that zipped up over the head to simulate a mask - and a pair of blue jeans. Yet again, she refused to speak to me, though I hadn't attempted to engage her in conversation.

Shizune, in a shocking display of aloofness, dressed up in a bear costume, while Misha, forever enthralled by misunderstanding American politics and the memes to come from them, donned a blonde wig and wore a loose suit, all the while building a wall out of books around her desk while laughing and saying "sore wa kyodai ni narudarou," which meant "it will be huge." I had a hearty chuckle at that. Hanako, unsurprisingly, didn't don any costume, instead just showing up in her normal clothes, an idea shared by a couple others, such as Komaki. Naomi thought it would be cute to dress up as a 1930s-era news reporter, while Lelouch dressed up in... something. When I asked him, he simply said, after finding the words necessary, "to defeat evil, I must become a greater evil," which was concerning, but I couldn't tell if he said it due to aphasia or he genuinely felt that way.

"Adolf-chan!" Misha boomed in the middle of grabbing more books, much to Mutou-sensei's defeated dismay. He didn't seem keen on fighting with the bubbly Student Council Vice President, at least not for Halloween. I looked at her and gave a quizzical look. "What are you supposed to be?"

I got out of my chair and immediately popped a classic squat, my head facing my legs to analyze the style of clothing I wore, my still injured leg screaming in pain, though I ignored it. Black nylon covered my torso and legs, three white stripes running down my sides, and my feet were enclosed by shoes with a similar design pattern. Embroidered on my chest was one of the most loved icons in the impoverished eastern bloc: Adidas. I just looked down and back at Misha about five times, just giving her an expression I hope conveyed something along the lines of "what the hell do you think?" but, given Misha's unchanging expression, I assumed she really didn't know. The whole class was staring at me at that point, bar Miki, who uncharacteristically stared at the chalkboard.

"Ya gopnik," I said, adopting my Slavic tongue. The class continued to look at me strange, even though I knew they knew what I was supposed to be. Finally, I gave in and repeated what I said in Japanese. "I'm a gopnik."

Misha chuckled heartily, something a decent part of the class took part in, but only because they thought I looked ridiculous. Suzu shook her head and muttered something about Slavs with a smirk on her face; she was dating a straight up Ruskie, after all. Are they dating? Are they just talking? I can never tell with Mikhail. I glanced at Mutou-sensei in time to see him roll his eyes with a faint smirk, something he didn't usually do. He didn't really need to dress up for Halloween even if he wanted to, because he was an Asian David Tennant. I was only able to imagine a fraction of the girls that would have fawned over him back home for just that reason, which included ex-girlfriends of mine in the States.

Aside from the opening silliness and Misha having to clean up her wall before placing a "tariff" on Class 3-2, the rest of the morning went rather smoothly, in a manner typical of the week that had passed; this included Miki ignoring me an obscene amount and placing some more undue weight on the already extreme strain on our relationship. I made a note to inquire about the situation to Suzu around lunchtime. Oddly, when I tried to approach Miki during the morning, she dodged me or the conversation in a manner that wasn't displaying anger or displeasure, but rather one that implied fear or anxiety or something like that, like she was nervous about speaking to me.

Lunchtime came sooner than anticipated, and everyone dipped out of the classes and made their way around the school and, subsequently in most cases, the campus. The school was littered with students in costumes, simple and extravagant. Word spread quickly throughout the student body about a potential pageant being put on in the cafeteria, something that kept getting repeated to me as I pushed my way through the mass of bodies as though I was in the Battle of Stalingrad. My destination was slightly unusual, not being any of the normal places I went to for lunch. Rather, I made my way around the third floor to reach my homeroom, class 3-3, where I expected Suzu to be sleeping. Miki bolted out of the English class almost immediately after the bell rang for lunch, but I had no fix on her location, though I hoped she herself wasn't in the classroom, that way I could converse with Suzu alone.

I approached my homeroom, the sea of humans waning greatly, and neared the slightly ajar Hanako Entrance, otherwise known as the rear entrance door, deciding to peer into the room before entering. It turned out to be a good idea, since a mass of dark hair that I had become all too acquainted with flowed around the desk of a pajama-clad student, the only two in the room.

"Hey man, you just dip-"

"Shush!" I angrily whispered, shoving my hand in the English-speaker's face. My head rotated enough to register the presence of a person I had already identified standing behind me: Sean. He threw up his hands and went to protest, but I just shook my head and returned my attention to Suzu and Miki in class 3-3.

"...Micchan, you have mulled over everything, right?" Suzu asked loud enough for me to hear.

Miki sighed and put her head down, nodding. "I have, I have."

"Then what are you doing?"

The one-handed girl threw up her hand and stump. "I-I... I don't know, Su!" She brushed some hair out of her face and huffed. "I'm nervous, y'know?"

Suzu sat up and shook her head. "No, I don't know. What's there to be nervous about?"

"There's a lot, dude."

The turquoise-haired girl groaned. "I can't believe you're having an issue with this. I told you exactly what happened-"

My estranged girlfriend waved her hand and turned to face the chalkboard. "And I heard that damn recording, I know, I know."

Suzu shrugged and tilted her head. "You can't face a misunderstanding but you tried to work things out with a creep who wanted you to shove your stump up his ass?"

"What the fuck?" Sean whispered next to me, having decided to snoop and take the words right out of my mouth at the same time.

"Are you- did you really just...? Dammit, Su." Miki leaned against a desk and looked at her narcoleptic bestie, who looked back at her. I wasn't able to make out their expressions, sunlight seeping through the windows causing a glare. "What?"

"Are you at least gonna talk to him?" Suzu asked pointedly, making no dramatic arm motions or anything of the sort.

Stumpy didn't move, seemingly stunned by Suzu's inquiry. "I, uh-"

"It's gotta be yes or no, Micchan. I know he'd love to talk about it all."

Miki looked down and reluctantly nodded with a sigh. "Yeah... yeah, I should talk with him, I just..."

I pulled myself away from the door and began walking toward the stairs, unsure of what to make of the exchange. I was glad to hear that Suzu had indeed talked to Miki and Miki had heard the recording, thus eliminating any suspicion that I was a dirty pig, but... why's she so hesitant to speak to me?

"Why didn't you just go in there and talk to her?" Sean asked, breaking my thoughts as we approached the stairs. It genuinely slipped my mind that he was there.

"I don't know, man," came my response as my fingernails brushed against my left temple. "I guess it would seem a little awkward?"

"How?"

"I dunno." I guess I'm in the same boat as her in that aspect. "Like, would you pop into a room after eavesdropping on Lilly and start trying to talk about what just happened?"

"Nah, not really."

I nodded. "Alright then."

"Are you gonna try talking to her, then?"

My brain raced for a moment, concluding that both action needed to come from Miki so it wasn't a one-sided repair attempt, but also that it was my duty as the boyfriend to appease my girlfriend. Either way, it didn't seem like it was going to end well. "I mean, we'll see, dude."

Sean scoffed. "Jesus."

Sean, in a similar vein to the rest of the school, dressed up, though like me, he didn't take it too seriously, and just threw some clothes he already had together and called it a "costume." In his case, he threw on our old work uniform from when the both of us worked at Taco Bell, which was the summer before and then leading up to our accidents. On his head was a trucker style cap that said NOW SERVING BREAKFAST with a little Taco Bell logo next to the large words. His torso was covered by a gray T-shirt with black bordering that had "Feed the Beat" on the back, and an apron that had the same message as his hat and a name tag attached that said "Hot Sean." The most average sonofabitch at the restaurant had to be called hot by the store manager's daughter, I mused in thought. He wore black dress pants and dress shoes to complete the look.

"I hope you don't think I'm going to call you Hot Sean anytime soon," I said as we stepped onto the second floor landing.

"Damn, I was hoping you would," he mockingly replied. "I didn't plan on it. You've always been jealous of my good looks."

"Yeah, sure, if I wanted to look like the default, cookie-cutter video game protagonist."

Sean rolled his eyes. "Slavic prick. I must look good if I'm the go-to look."

I let out a chuckle. "It's because you're basic."

"Fuck you."

I laughed and waved him off. "C'mon, let's get something to eat."

"Yeah, yeah. You hear they're doing a cosplay show in the cafeteria?"

The wind blew lightly, causing the branches in the trees to sway ever so gently and the clouds far above in the atmosphere to move at a snail's pace. Very few students lingered about on the school's grounds, partaking in various activities whilst wearing thicker clothing for the most part. From the day's earlier costume wearing came a new wave of costumes as another contest was quickly set up in the lobby and not the cafeteria, drawing more attention and a larger audience than that which took place during the lunch hour.

I, however, was not about to partake in such a trivial pageant.

Instead, facing me as the wind toyed with my track jacket was one of the most beautiful girls in all of Yamaku – perhaps in my entire life. A girl that had immediately tracked me down and made it a point to befriend me, to ask me on a date, even.

It was pure misunderstanding that lead us to this meeting, a misunderstanding that started entirely with underclassmen; one of which attempted suicide and injured me and my half-blind best friend as we dangerously saved her in perhaps the luckiest moment of her life. "Dangerously" saving her because it was indeed a miracle that all three of us lived with such minor injuries. Surprisingly, the news of her suicide attempt wasn't nearly as widespread as the news of me angrily shouting at the student body in German.

It was a malicious misunderstanding, one that lead me to take justice into my own hands, managing to gather proof and exact vengeance in one fell swoop. A misunderstanding that was really just a manipulation of events to exact indirect revenge on me for something so inane. Despite that, his plan may have worked, as the strain it put in a week alone was intense; it was a wonder it hadn't straight up ended the relationship.

To put it simply: it was a silly mess.

"Adolf," my estranged girlfriend said after what felt like an eternity of silence.

"Miki," I responded, unsure of how to really approach the situation, though I did wonder why we didn't agree to meet inside of a building.

We stared at each other for a few moments, though those moments seemed like minutes. Miki heaved a shaky sigh and walked closer to me. "Adolf, I don't think I've ever explained much of..." She spoke in English and held up her stump. "...this."

I shook my head, really unsure of where this was going. "You never did."

She stuffed her stump into her hoodie pocket and chuckled nervously, looking down. "Yeah... I didn't tell you much of anything." She looked back up and blinked a couple of times. "I wasn't born without a hand. I lost it... in an accident."

I figured no response was the best response, so I just nodded.

She once again chuckled nervously. "Yeah, kinda obvious. Bandage and all." She tapped her feet and exhaled heavily. "I was mowing the lawn, back home in Vancouver a couple of years ago. Long story short, hand got chopped off by the lawn mower blade."

"Oh my," came my surprised response. I didn't think I wanted to know what made her put her hand in the lawn mower to get chopped off.

"Yeah..." She turned around. "School was awful afterward. People put me in the centre of attention, in a bad way. I was the girl with a stump, or Miki Mano, or stumpy, or something." I noticed a few tears in the corners of her eyes. "I wore the bandage to feel normal. To not feel phantom pains... but Canada isn't all nice."

"Never figured it was," I muttered, having known quite a few assholes from Canada.

"My brother was traumatized by what happened," she continued, her voice shaky. "He's still adamant that it's his fault..." Sounds familiar. "...so, because of school... Suzu suggested I come here. Yamaku." I nodded, refraining from commenting. "My mom was completely against it. It meant me being closer to my dad, but he's down in Osaka."

I was getting even more unsure why she began telling me her backstory that late into the relationship, especially when such heavy tension needed released. "Why is that a bad thing?"

She snorted and turned a little more to face me. "He's a piece of shit. Abusive, alcoholic, unpredictable." She looked down and kicked at the ground lightly, a few tears running down her cheek. "It's a shame, really. He never used to be like that." She pulled her hand out of her pocket and wiped away some tears before shoving it back inside the pocket furiously. "Goddammit, so much for the tough girl."

"Yeah..." was all I managed to say, internally debating if I should have begun spilling some beans about my past or just let her continue; her crying put me off slightly, since it was so uncharacteristic. Regardless of what I decided, Miki continued with no delay.

"So, I come here, to Yamaku, and y'know... I'm the happiest I've been since the day I lost my hand." She turned around completely, so we were face to face. "I've got my best friend back at my side, I've made other great friends here..." A slight grin crept upon her face. "I fit in. I don't feel singled out because of my disability, or because I'm exotic as some guys in Vancouver said. I've done so much better in school, I've performed better in sports..." There were solid streams running down both of her cheeks as she suddenly propelled her self forward, and slightly upward, and planted a kiss on my lips. We held the kiss for good while, passion certainly an ingredient in this particular kiss that warmed me up and made the wind feel like nothing, before she pulled away and wiped her eye on her shoulder. "...and I found myself a dorky, handsome, funny, smart, wonderful boyfriend." She broke into a full grin, but something about it didn't feel quite right.

Despite that, I myself found myself smiling. "I don't think I could have asked for a more beautiful, amazing girlfriend, myself," I said, hope that this was the good ending to this particular adventure rooted in the back of my mind.

My handless girlfriend laughed. "Please, don't flatter me. I'm a mess." I mean, if you say so, there's no point in arguing. "But..." She stopped smiling, her eyes pointed downward. "...this is where it all comes to an end."

My heart felt like it stopped, an unusual but not unknown feeling manifesting in my abdominal cavity. "What?"

"Babe – heh, this is gonna be the last time I get to call you this – I don't know how to explain it."

Waitwaitwaitwait... "What are you explaining? What do you mean it's all coming to an end?"

"You know what this means." She looked wistful, even more tears streaming down her face, but the words came out so naturally it was as if she had been planning such a thing. "I admit, I was wrong about last week. I didn't see everything that happened. I just... y'know, assumed the worst."

"If you would've just talked to me-"

"Suzu told me everything you said and what Aoi said," she interrupted, sniffling. "I heard about what happened with Aoi yesterday and I heard the recording you made that spread around the school." She broke into a full-on sob. "I'm a damn moron, Adolf! I find genuine happiness and what do I do? I ruin it! I jump to conclusions and fuck it all up!"

The feeling in my stomach began churning, though I found it genuinely hard to believe she was happy with me. "Miki, you didn't fuck anything up, it was just a misunderstanding!"

She sniffled and sobbed. "A misunderstanding that blinded me!" She wiped her eye with her shoulder again. "When I saw Aoi kiss you, when I thought you kissed her? I was manic, Adolf. I was hurt. I was confused. I was betrayed, blinded by pain." She sighed and inhaled some air shakily due to the sobbing. "You don't deserve that."

"You're telling me that you being upset is something I shouldn't have to deal with?" I wasn't sure if I should be feeling angry or what, becoming aware that I had instead reached the bad end of the adventure.

She frowned. "Everyone gets upset. I'm saying you deserve someone who trusts you and won't lose their crap over misunderstandings." She put her head down, chuckled for a moment, and looked back at me. "She's right. You're too good a person, but I think letting you go is best for the both of us, hun."

In response, I reared my head back and held my hands up, palms facing upward, my eyebrows lowered and my mouth ajar. "What the hell?"

She didn't even try fighting the waterworks's relentless onslaught of tears, her warm smile radiating in the cold. The long tendrils of hair she grew blew around in the wind, mere toys of nature, as her hand and stump left the warmth of her pockets and wrapped me into an awkward and hurried embrace. "What the he-hell," she repeated, her words still shaky. "Do you think we could still be friends?"

"Well, yeah," I responded quickly, trying to cut her off. "But we don't-"

"I'm glad," she muttered, squeezing me harder. "Maybe it was the right person, just the wrong time, you think?"

"Miki, you can't be serious right now."

She let go. "I gu-guess we're both single friends, now," she said solemnly, ignoring my words. "I'm sorry for e-ever doubting you, babe, but this just feels like the right thing to do."

She turned around and ran toward the school grounds, leaving me completely and totally speechless. I just watched in awe as she sprinted, her hair flowing behind her and to the side due to the wind. Her strides were majestic, even in distress, and the mass of hair I used to love have get in my face during a kiss, the body I felt comfortable lying next to, the girl that was my home theater buddy... it's all getting away from me.

I snapped to and dashed after her. "MIKI!" I shouted, my legs pumping me across the center of the field. "HOLD UP!" It was already too late, however, and just as I reached the track itself, I came to a halt and just watched as Miki disappeared from view behind the school buildings. Thoughts beat around in my mind, all of which were just me berating myself for not being persistent in explaining everything to Miki.

But I tried to, came my mental retort to myself.

You didn't try hard enough, dammit, my brain berated.

My stomach felt as though it had turned upside down, a constant churning feeling in place. My heart, although definitely beating, didn't feel as strong, replaced by an unpleasant emptiness. While all that happened within my body and mind, another strong feeling surged within me. A fire was ignited from the depths of my being, one I had only felt a few times in my time at Yamaku, the most recent being just two nights prior. Anger had arrived.

Upset, anger, emptiness, failure, sadness... all five feelings mixed into one unhealthy blob. My mind was at a loss for direction, being pulled in different directions of the same thing. I was slightly happy that Miki wasn't angry with me anymore, but at the cost of our relationship? The longest running relationship I had with easily one of the greatest girls I'd ever met up to that point? That was probably more depressing.

Wetness spread slowly on my head, but not around my eyes; I wasn't about to start crying. No pressure came close to even forming behind my eyes to induce the crying. Looking up to see wasn't necessary, for the wetness that was falling landed gently on my hand. Snowflakes fell gracefully and peacefully, the entire landscape around me becoming a tranquil space. Aside from my breathing and the faint howl of the wind, it was quiet, it was serene, it was peaceful... pleasant.

It was everything I wasn't.

Blood stained the floors and the walls of the dimly lit hallway. A lone figure stood in the corridor, spattered with blood and various other bits of gore, an equally bloodied katana in its hand. The figure approached the intersection of hallways that another figure, a teenage male with sandy blonde hair, was standing. The floor creaked with each step the bloody figure took. The teen frantically looked for a way out, but an identical figure was walking down each hallway. The only sources of light were the heads of some people he knew with flames on their scalps.

"Adolf!" a male voice rang out. The teen looked up and spotted a scarfed man toss a rope ladder down to him. "Climb!"

Adolf grabbed hold of the ladder and hurriedly began climbing, the bloodied figures not increasing their speed any. He reached the top and climbed through what seemed to be a skylight, his scarfed savior pulling him up. Kenji's face was specked with blood, a gash on the side of his face.

"Thanks, man," Adolf said, breathing heavily. "What the hell was that?"

"My best guess is-"

The sound of flesh being impaled reached the American teenager's ears and a blade suddenly protruded from Kenji's chest. Blood bubbled out of the wound and Kenji managed to gurgle out the word "run" before his heart stopped. Adolf looked briefly at the killer in shock and turned around, sprinting toward the edge of the building and jumping across the small gap. He took a look at the surrounding scenery and concluded that he was in Pittsburgh, recognizing the Golden Triangle.

He continued running, but slipped on a random pool of blood and fell. As he righted himself, he noticed a body, one whose face he recognized as Hisao. No wounds were visible anywhere except for his chest, a clean cut right above his heart. Adolf began running again, tripping over several more dead bodies, all of which he recognized: Emi, with her prostheses stabbed into her; his uncle, his neck slit; Suzu, her vertebrae sticking out of her skin and her neck broken; Sean, his eyeballs gouged out; his twin cousins, impaled with a steel beam...

Adolf dry heaved but kept going on, knowing that stopping meant sure death. Rather than accept his fate and face oblivion, he decided to fight fate. His footsteps echoed and he jumped to another building, this one lower. He rolled upon landing and looked around, noting a helicopter near the building. With a rush of energy, he sprinted to the opposite edge of the building, passing two extremely charred bodies along the way.

"Hey!" the teenager shouted at the top of his lungs as he hopped on the ledge. He began waving his arms in the air in an attempt to get the pilot's attention, but noticed the helicopter was flying erratically. The chopper spun to face him and Adolf spotted the pilot, who was none other than Lilly. He didn't question why she was piloting and continued yelling, making sure the killer wasn't directly behind him.

"No," he muttered as the helicopter suddenly lurched forward and rammed into the building a few floors below. A resulting explosion shook the building and caused Adolf to stumble back some and fall on his back. Swearing, he looked around and his eyes widened. The killer, their katana soaked with blood, calmly approached him. Hastily, the teen rose to his feet and began running again, right to another ledge. He springboarded off of the ledge without hesitation.

"FUUUUCK!" he screamed as he crossed the wide gap between the buildings, almost certain he would fall to his death as he began falling away from the ledge and toward the building itself. Arms extended in front of him, Adolf busted through a window and rolled as he hit the floor, pieces of glass cutting his arms open.

Gasping and groaning due to the pain, he got up and brushed stray glass off as he walked, blood running down his arms and glass crackling underfoot. He walked into one of the corridors and agonized screams echoed throughout. Bodies hung from the ceiling and blood was spattered on the walls. The overhead lights flickered on and off, revealing that the bodies were either charred or mangled beyond recognition and dismembered body parts were being chucked out of printers. Resisting the urge to vomit, Adolf followed a blood trail and ended up at a stairwell, so he began descending.

The stairwell was no less gruesome than the corridor he left. There was a charred corpse hung on the wall every two flights, each one cut open like a cadaver with their insides falling out, and blood pooled on each flight. When the teenager finally reached the bottom of the stairwell, he was ready to vomit to his heart's content. Instead, he pushed open the door at the bottom of the stairwell and looked around, noting that it was clean and the lights were on.

"Maybe I'm safe now," he muttered, though he had his doubts. He began walking across the clean floor of the office building's lobby. Bloody footprints were left by his blood-soaked shoes. He noticed that only one person was in the lobby, either dead or asleep on the keyboard of the computer at the receptionist's desk. He looked at the face of the person, who turned out to be his old friend Louis. He shook the body slightly and its arm slowly slid off, splatting on the floor. As he looked up slightly, the lights suddenly dimmed and he was face to face with the killer once more.

Backing away, Adolf ran to the door and sprinted out into the street. Rain was pouring down and cars passed by at high speeds, but no pedestrians were on the streets. He put his hands on his face, unsure of what to do. He had just seen so much death, but he couldn't begin crying. Pulling his hands away, he noticed that they were covered in blood and that he was holding a knife in his right hand. Looking down, he saw his dead sister lying in a puddle of blood, red mixing with her brunette hair and plastering it to her face. Blood dripped off of the knife and Adolf dropped it, running away from his dead sister.

"I didn't kill her!" he cried, trying to reassure himself, though his attempts were futile.

His running came to a stop as he bumped into someone with long, purple hair. The person turned around and the streetlight illuminated their face. "Miki?" Adolf said. He quickly grabbed her hand. "Come on, we got to ge-"

Her face quickly contorted, expressing pain, as metal stabbed into meat. She cried out in pain, but her cries were quickly silenced when the killer's katana sliced through her neck. Miki's head rolled off into the street and her body slumped onto the ground with a sickening thud.

"Who the fuck are you?" Adolf asked as he backed away, slowly losing his mind.

"Now we can be together forever," the killer said, their feminine voice distorted. The menacing figure, naked and the right half of her body and all of her face obscured, slowly approached Adolf. He had nowhere to run as the blood soaked murderer neared him. He didn't have the urge to fight back and instead stayed in place, almost as if he were finally accepting fate.

Lighting struck a nearby building and illuminated the darkness, revealing the killer as a whole, revealing her in her entirety.

Her scarred and manic entirety.

ACT IV

IN THE AIR TONIGHT

END