Prompt
Walking anywhere at night can be risky in Destiny City, but tonight it’s not being attacked by some punk in a strange outfit. The squeaking above you is a dead giveaway that you’re not going to have a good night. Perhaps you remember the flock of bats that swarmed down on Destiny City last year; if you’re lucky, this is your first time being attacked by one. Thankfully it seems like a lone bat has made its way out of whatever cave they’ve moved from, but this thing is giant. It has a six foot wingspan. Does the bat fly away without harassing you? Do you fight it? If it scratches you, you walk away fine, but if it bites you then you can expect a rough time. Being bitten by these bats leaves two small marks that will itch for a few hours. Then, exhaustion and fatigue sets in and you become extremely sensitive to external stimulus; skin feels like it becomes overheated in sunlight, bright lights are painful to the eyes, and smells and sounds can seem overwhelming. The victim will feel constantly cold and hungry, no matter how much they eat or drink. They may also be prone to agitation and bouts of violence. These afflictions may last only a few hours or a few days and then suddenly disappear.
“******** s**t!” Chara grabbed the little flying beast by its wing and slammed it hard into the ground. The tiny little ******** had somehow snuck up on the senshi and dug its fangs straight through the layers of his fuku and into his shoulder. It hurt like a ******** stab wound, and it probably didn’t help that rather than pull it out and slam it down, he dragged it out, leaving a long and jagged gash there. He hadn’t really thought about it when it bit him, only knowing that he needed to get it off. And it wasn’t the first little winged b*****d to go after him either.
It seemed like a whole goddamn swarm of bats came down on him all at once, hissing and screeching and lashing out at him like he had set their nest on fire. And this time, he swore, he did no such thing! Before he managed to fight them all off, the had more than a few cuts and scrapes on him, but none burned and throbbed as bad as that bite mark the first one got on him. And it took a while to realize that it wasn’t a swarm, but just one giant pissed off bat. And what was once perceived as tiny, was ******** HUGE and the bite was far deeper and uglier than he thought it was. The entire backside of his fuku was stained red from the bite and he muttered a few more curses as he finally offed the b*****d and limped away.
From there, it all just seemed to go downhill. It burned and ached and he swore the entire arm was going to fall off as he tried to hurry to a hospital or something nearby. It wouldn’t take them much to patch this up and maybe give him some anti-venom… He wracked his mind as best as he could, trying to figure out whether or not there were such things as poisonous bats in this area, but… ******** if he knew. He was a student all about the flora of this godforsaken city, not the fauna.
Of course there’d be no mercy on his poor unfortunate soul as his pathway was blocked. Some ******** little basic negaverser came out at him with what seemed to be a knife, or maybe a scraper, something. Either way, Chara spat out his anger and lunged for the man, as was both his duty and what he liked to do.
For the start of the fight, everything seemed normal. Dumb threats shouted back and forth, fists thrown and blows exchanged, one getting him good on the bad side of his face. Then something, he didn’t know what, triggered a change in Chara’s fighting. Maybe it was the cut that ended up on his leg, or the pain that came from that ******** bite on his shoulder… But all Chara knew was that he wanted it to be over and the rage wouldn't let go.
His fists agreed with him as they swung over and over until the man was on the ground, begging for him to stop, whimpering and asking him to just let him go, that he’d give up this life, that he’d go and purify and somehow find a way to redeem himself if only the young man would let him go free. The man’s cries grew desperate as he felt bone after bone being crushed and broken under the rampaging senshi who didn’t seem to hear a single word he said. It was if Chara wasn’t there anymore, only a blazing hot rage that added extra force and maliciousness to every strike he gave the man.
Red was the color of everything in such a short amount of time. Red lights blinding his eyes, red staining his vision, soon his hands, his clothing. Red stained the pavement below his feet and splattered up in waves as his foot came down again and again and again onto the man’s stomach, heel digging in deep with a sickening squelching sound. It wasn’t long until the man fell completely silent, yet the Senshi of Chocolate didn’t notice, continuing to lose himself in that rage until there was nothing but mushy remains left of the man. How much time had passed since the man’s screaming finally stopped was uncertain, it wasn’t until the sounds of siren’s approaching that Chara’s head snapped up from its snarling and growls. In a single leap, he headed towards the nearest rooftop and disappeared from sight.
He was still infuriated, but for what reason, he was unsure. Being so angry wasn’t anything new for him, but this... This wouldn’t go away. It lingered and nagged and tore away at his mind for the longest time, leaving him unable to focus on anything. He barely seemed to recognize the passing of time, nights breaking into days and falling into nights once again. Sometimes he’d hide on the rooftops, watching the people below with hateful looks and wanting nothing more than to see them all be crushed under whatever he could throw at them until the searing pain on his skin from the sunlight forced him into the shadows. Other times he found himself huddled in a corner shivering so badly that he could hardly breathe, covering his head and praying for the pain and the aches and the blood to just disappear. Even when he managed to close his eyes for a few, sweet seconds, it’d come back just as sharply, and he bit his tongue bloody trying to stifle his screams. The Negaverser’s screams rang out in his head and that was more than enough for him.
On the third night, darkness fell around him as he wandered, pale and drained and hungering for something more than he had eaten in days… Every so often he growled into the emptiness of the graveyard he found himself in, looking at names, thinking of how they died and how hateful they must have been to be left alone to rot here… Names blended together until he found a tiny little placard mostly covered in dirt.
Chara stared at it for a long time, trying to piece together what it said, cold chills running up his spine and giving him a new sensation than what he’d felt in a long time… When the name finally registered, Chara’s eye grew wide, and he fell to his knees in stunned, frozen disbelief.
Here Lies Benji Rhodes January 13th 2000 – October 27th 2017.
Word count: 1080
