Blood Red: Chapter Four: The Red Fox
#11 of Blood Red
Location: New Vega, Club Phymn, Administrator's Office.
Time: 14:30pm.
Year: 2245, January 11th.
I didn't really want to go into how I had escaped. It was a blur even to me; my mind had immediately gone blank with fear and I just started running, jumping, climbing across every building until I arrived back at the club, by which time I had regained focus and had only just realized that I was out of breath, and felt as if my rib cage was going to crush inwards and rip my lungs apart. What was worse was that I had to report to The Administrator; he always hated it when things didn't go according to his plans.
I sat back in the same chair as before, realizing that I had been in this same position only three or four hours ago. Time flies when you're having fun; unfortunately for me, it flew by when I wasn't having fun, too. At times like these, I would have said that God hated me, but I had enough sense to tell that God doesn't really have the time to hold grudges. I did believe in a higher power, I just wouldn't call it God, since there are too many religions calling it the same thing, but telling different stories. I didn't care about that, just what God thinks of the present...
"-So you say the Fox was missing when you arrived?" The Administrator asked, bringing me back to the room; it was as similar as ever, with the ring-shaped lights, the two chairs, and the large, Jet Black, Purple Eyed Dragon puffing out another cloud of smoke that looked like dust in the light that broke through the window behind him.
"Either that or he was killed." I said, leaning back as far as I could in my chair from exhaustion. "Maybe he was taken away, ran away himself, or was killed and probably moved."
"And what about the Aura shipment?" The Administrator asked, taking me by surprise. I had almost completely forgotten about picking up the shipment. I stared up at the ceiling, expecting The Administrator to know what had happened.
"Well, it wasn't much of a loss anyway." The Administrator continued, putting out his cigarette and taking out a large glass, filling it with a strange orange liquid. "Barely fifty dollars lost; not much, considering how much money we gained over sixty years back."
"You mean the money I gained." I said assertively, bringing my head down and meeting The Administrator's gaze. "All you did was tip me off; I had to put my life on the line back then."
The Administrator sighed and leant back in his seat, looking up at the ceiling. It was obvious that he knew that I was going to win in this argument. I always did when it came down to this. Usually he would just ignore my comment and continue on; this time was of no exception.
"You're trembling." The Administrator said quietly, noticing that I was, in fact, still shaking from what had happened back in the abandoned apartment complex. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"You shouldn't try and act like a father to me." I retorted playfully, smiling at the Dragon. "It's not like you. I'll be fine; I just need a bit of time to collect myself...it was a little rough back there."
"...It's your mind, isn't it?" The Administrator asked softly, putting on a slightly professional tone. I nodded slowly and sadly, not wanting to admit that he was right.
"I don't know what's happening to me." I said angrily, gripping both my arms tightly; "I just go from angry to scared and confused. It's pissing me off, which messes with my head even more. It's like I'm trapped in this circle and I can't get out of it, which makes me feel scared and-."
The Administrator put his left hand up to silence me, and grabbed his orange drink with his right hand, taking four long gulps. I eventually eased down and started to look up at the ceiling again, keeping my mind as focused as I could without losing myself. I would have felt more collected if I wasn't thinking about the past, but knowing how long I had lived, it was hard not to do so.
"That's how things feel when you live for too long." The Administrator said quietly, leaning back in his chair again; "It'll be like that for as long as you'll live, now. The only thing you can do is get used to it, or turn it into something else."
The Administrator got up slowly and walked over to his desk, waving me out of the room. I did so obediently, but also reluctantly. I wanted to know what he meant by 'turning it into something else'. Usually he was clear about things; this wasn't like him at all.
Maybe he couldn't put it into proper words. Maybe he struggled to find them. It was hard to think that such a Dragon could struggle with such a thing.
Location: New Vega, Club Phymn, Room 172.
Time: 15:40pm.
Year: 2245, January 11th.
I slowly pushed the door open and entered my room, undressing all the way and falling nakedly onto my bed. My mind was slowly drifting off as I reached across to my bedside table, grabbing a tall glass of water; I slowly dipped my left hand in it and rubbed my neck with the cool, refreshing liquid, trying to get some rest before the evening settled in. Even though I was in a pretty bad mental-state, I still had my night-job to get through.
"Who have I got today, then?" I asked myself, rubbing my head against the pillows and rolling over a few times; even though my bed had been roughly the same for the last sixty years, it felt good to come back and feel the familiar, soft materials. I reached over to my bedside table again, where a small note was waiting. I picked it up quickly and inspected it.
The note read out:
JANUARY 11TH.
Red Fox today, literally.
Blood Red fur and all; around his twenties.
Should be pretty straightforward.
Signed, Administrator.
I placed the note back down on the table and leant back again, dropping onto my bed. It must've been my unlucky day; the only thing worse than one Fox in a bedroom was two. We always had a reputation for being very...active in bed...and in my current situation, I'd probably end up with a really bad hangover by the next day. What really caught my eyes was the description of the Fox. The Administrator said that the Fox had Blood Red fur; something that seemed very familiar to me.
I rolled over so that I was facing the ceiling, trying to think things over.
Where had I heard that description before? I knew that I had seen or heard about it from somewhere.
I took a deep breath and shut out everything around me; the blank white ceiling, the feel of the bed, everything.
I could only feel myself start to float in space as I thought back as far as I could.
"Keep quiet." Elise whispered, pointing down to the bottom floor. "Look there. Can you see that alright?"
I nodded quickly. I stared down at the ground floor, where the whole place was illuminated by a large tile of lights overhead. I also saw a few figures on the ground floor; four of them were grouped together, chatting amongst themselves and occasionally looking at the fatter, but stubbier figure on the other side of the room. The single figure looked like a full diving suit, equipped with some kind of large drill and a huge rifle about the size of my entire body.
"Who are they?" I asked, keeping my voice low. "Do they have the other keys?"
"Yeah. We're all after the same prize." Elise whispered back. "That group of four are all Foxes, known as Blood, Bane, Fang and Claw, members of Blood Clan. They started as a pack, and slowly turned into a clan, consisting of hundreds to thousands of them."
I picked up at that. They were the very same Foxes that had been rumored to be dead. They must've faked their deaths to get out of the business and right into hunting down this treasure.
"What about that guy over there." I asked, indicating the person in the diving suit.
"That's Rosie." Elise replied bluntly. "Don't mistake the name. That drill can pierce anything; even Dragon scales. No one knows what it is, and anyone who knows isn't alive anymore."
Elise ended suddenly and got up, walking across the balcony and across to a ladder propped up next to it. I followed her cautiously and stepped down the ladder once she was down on the ground floor.
By the time that we both reached the bottom, everyone was staring at us, watching our every move. I was about to draw my crowbar and baton, but Elise knew what I was going to do and put her hand in front of me.
"Don't try it." Elise said in a threatening voice. "We're all held back by a single rule; we can't kill each other until it is authorized."
Location: New Vega, Club Phymn, Room 172.
Time: 19:40pm.
Year: 2245, January 11th.
I had been asleep longer than I had thought. I suddenly jerked up out of bed in shock and started to breathe rapidly out of fear. I could remember who that Fox was; the one with Blood Red fur. He was a member of the Blood Clan, possibly here to get revenge on me for killing one of the four that tried to kill me over sixty years ago; but there was so much to consider.
Why would they decide to hunt me down now? What were they willing to gain? How did they know that I killed one of them, or where I lived? More importantly, what about Elise?
I barely remembered her; she was a Red Wolf; the same Red Wolf that helped me out with a certain treasure hunt around sixty years ago. Was she still alive? Did Blood Clan kill her? I started to pace around furiously, out of both anger and partly fear.
"Damn it." I growled, putting on a grey shirt and trousers, and pulling out the section of wall to grab my pistol; "What the hell's going on?! Why now, of all times?!"
I had just barely hidden my pistol under one of the thick pillows, when I heard someone knocking on the door. I kept my cool and took a few deep breaths, stepping slowly over to the door and preparing to open it.
I slowly pulled the door open and looked at the figure in front of me, dressed in jet black clothes which barely showed his blood red fur underneath.
"Hmm, so you're Kobalt." The Fox said softly, grinning at me and running his left hand across my chest. "You can call me Jack, by the way."