We all sent messages to our families alerting them of the situation and put our phones on silent so we can communicate with each other if necessary. Right now we’re at the supermarket, trying to find something to hide our faces, but all we can find are surgical masks and sunglasses. They’ll have to do.

We’re hiding inside some boxes full of plushies close to the entry gates, so we can spot if anyone is coming and hide. Let’s make the point of the situation. There’s a crowd, three terrorists with a gun, one is holding a kid hostage, and the others are ready to shoot everyone. There’s probably a bomb somewhere, although I didn’t seem to spot it. “Ari, I couldn’t see the bomb, was any of them missing?”
“Hmm, I’m not too sure… but I think I only heard two women talking. One was there, so there’s another one missing.”
So we have at least one more terrorist around. “How about the men?”
He shakes his head, “I only heard two male voices. We can’t exclude that there could be more, but on the other hand, some got arrested yesterday.”
Mina has a surprised look on her face. “I’ll never get used to these moments when Ari actually acts as smart as he actually is.”
“Neither will I. Anyway, manager, you know this place more than us. Is there any way to get closer to the terrorists without being noticed?”
He starts scratching his head, “I don’t spend much time outside of the arcade, let me think, hmm…”
Looking towards the shops I can’t spot anything. I’d like to look around more, but I can’t go out, especially when I could find absolutely nothing. I’m trying to get a mental image of the mall. If my memory isn’t tricking me, I think there is some kind of second floor on one of the sides of the lobby. It’s visible from there, but I never paid attention to how much of the whole mall it actually covers. “Manager, you know those fancy glass barriers on the top of the lobby? What are they for?”
He rises his eyebrows. “Oh! The office floor! It’s not easily accessible to the public and the door blends well with the surroundings, so good chances are that they didn’t see and block it!”
Ari looks as if he finally uncovered the biggest mystery of his life. “Oh, so that’s what’s up there!”
“Right! So, there are none on top of the supermarket, but I think they cover about half the west side of the mall, and we should be right on top of the shops behind the terrorists!”
That sounds perfect. “How do we get there?”
“There’s a stairway behind a door, in the corridor with the restrooms close to the arcade. There are emergency doors that lead to the outside too, but even if they’re not locked, they’d definitely trigger an alarm, we can’t risk ending that kid’s life.”
The restrooms might be dangerous, though, that’s where most people would hide, and there’s still a terrorist somewhere that might be patrolling around. But we might also not have much time, depending on their plan.
Mina snaps us back to reality, “okay, but what do we do once we’re there?”
That’s a great question. “Our best bet for the one taking the kid hostage is to… hit him with something on the head?”
Mina raises her brow. “Are you ready to kill a man?”
“… No, I’m not. Let’s scout the location and make decisions later.”
“Alright, good idea.”
There should be a hardware store right beside the supermarket, “let’s go get something to defend ourselves at the hardware store for now.”

We all got metal pipes, as pans and anything else would be too big to carry around. They should be enough to hit someone in the head, worst comes to worst. We don’t want to kill anyone, but we’d rather take the chance than let them kill innocent people. Before leaving we also got tiny mirrors from the beauty section of the supermarket, so we could use them to look at the hallways without exposing ourselves too much. Ari saw it in a movie.

Our next stop is the restrooms. So far we haven’t seen anyone, nor did Ari hear anything, he’s leading the group so he can alert everyone as soon as possible. We’re keeping our guard high, a small mistake could cost our lives.
We’re in front of the arcade, a few meters from the restrooms. Almost there. Ari freezes for a second. His ears are twitching. “I heard something, let’s hide inside.”
The arcade is darker than any other shop, so it’s a good place to hide. Honestly, the fact that they didn’t come and check it shows that they might not be that smart. I guard Mina as I let her check both our phones. “Mom said that the police are right outside the mall, they can’t enter because the terrorists will kill the kid if they see a cop. Looks like we’re on TV too. Remember, if we get outside alive, we can appeal to the right to avoid media attention for minors. Sorry manager, nothing we can do for you.”
“Guess I’ll blend in with the others.”
“Also, our parents are worried sick. We’re gonna get the most thorough scolding of our lives.”
I guess I did set some death flags, after all.

We’ve been waiting for over 10 minutes now. “Ari, something new?”
“Ahem… are you sure you want to know?”
It doesn’t sound good, I’m getting anxious. I look him right in the eyes. “Yes, please.”
He stares right back at me. “I think… someone is having a real hard time on the toilet, at the wrong time possible.”
“… what?”
He looks disgusted, “I swear I could puke at any time, ugh!”
I can’t believe we’ve wasted time hiding because someone is having explosive diarrhea. “Alright, let’s get moving.”
The hallway to the restrooms is clear. We pass by the doors that lead to them. The stink got outside, it must be really bad. “Get better, my double, my brother.”
“I’m not paying attention to the sounds anymore, I’m revolted.”
Can’t blame him. We pass the restroom and get in front of the door that leads up to the offices. It’s vinyl-wrapped in some graphics, no wonder we never noticed it. We can finally stand up and take a breather, and almost end up making too much noise. Then, as we reach for the door, we hear a click. I can feel my heart stop. We turn towards the sound and find a woman just out of the restroom, dressed in black, with a large bag at her feet, pointing a gun in our direction. “How did you get here?!”
Ari is hyperventilating behind his face mask, Mina is holding the arm I’m using to shield her, and the manager is kneeling with his hands up. We fucked up. We’re done for. It’s the missing terrorist.
“You… go against the wall and raise your hands! Fuck! Thank Lord I was here!”
We sit down with our hands up in utter fear. This is the worst outcome possible, we completely ignored the possibility that the one in the restroom could’ve been a terrorist.
We wait for her to say something, call reinforcements, or bring us to the others, anything really. We might as well become hostages. But instead, she seems to be panicking too, walking up and down the hallway, mumbling something by herself.

It’s been a while now since she found us and we’re still waiting for her to say or do something to us, besides occasionally stopping her nervous walk to check on us and to remind us to stay put. The time started to flow slower and slower, I don’t have a watch, but it’s been at least 10 minutes. Ari’s breath seems almost back to normality. I try to whisper very softly, as I know he can hear me. “Ari, it’s her, right? Nod or shake your head.”
He nods. It’s her. Something’s wrong, though. Well, what do I have to lose at this point. “Is… is everything ok?”
“Shut up! Shut the fuck up! I messed up! I messed up!”
I take a look at the bag, maybe she’s keeping the bomb there. “Shouldn’t you… take that to your friends?”
She freezes for a second, just to turn back and stand in front of me. “Friends? Those? You think those are my friends?! They treat me like a damn servant, they’ll kill me when I tell them that we have a bomb that won’t fucking work!”
She goes back to her panic, walking up and down the hallway, mumbling something by herself. I let out a sigh of relief. The biggest threat is gone. “Aren’t you going to bring us to them? Or kill us?”
She takes a while to answer, still walking along the hallway and mumbling. “I can’t go to them like this, fuck! I told you to shut up!”
She isn’t even trying to shoot to intimidate us. Actually, she’s barely holding her gun, as if she doesn’t want to use it. Maybe it’s because the others might come to her if they hear gunshots?
“If you don’t like them, then why are you doing this?”
She gives her reply while still in her panic. “For the greater good, of course! Nobody believes in the good Lord anymore because of you pagans!”
Christian terrorism goes way back. Our divinities didn’t want to interfere with anyone, but when the Church tried to start a war against Sogna and our ancestors that lived here, more than once, fearing that they could be a menace to their influence, they went and declared their existence to the entire world, basically turning christianity into an extremist cult as the Church lost its power. Funnily enough, they were the only ones who tried to interfere, which explains why, as far as I know, we never had terrorist attacks by other religions.
I take off my mask and sunglasses and look in her direction, hoping it’ll attract her attention and help me make a proper connection with her. “You know, we don’t revere our divinities as gods. They’re just… people we respect, and we’re grateful for what they did for our ancestors and our land, our nation. We don’t mind at all that some people believe in other gods, I might go as far as saying that one’s existence doesn’t interfere with the other.”
She stops to listen, although she’s still showing us her back. I’ll keep going. “We have shrines for them, but they’re basically just museums with some art and photos of them. Sometimes they go and visit them unannounced, listen to the worries of those who happen to be stopping by, give them some advice or admit that they have none, and let us go with a pat on our shoulders. We don’t even say prayers to them nor expect anything from them, as they’re not omnipotent or omniscient. They’re as imperfect and flawed as we are, they just happen to have powers that defy our understanding and infinite lifespans that they use for our good. Maybe we treat them a bit like celebrities, but it’s as if those celebrities are our friends too. They keep giving us all the freedom we want, they protect us, love us, hide their identities to look like strangers and help us, they’d even step down from being our representatives if we asked them to, but we never will. We don’t adore them, we love them as we love our friends. They were like parents for some of our ancestors, to the point that they asked our Shigure for something that reminded them of her, her ears, like those on Mina’s head. They’re the symbols of our love for her and every other divinity. So we’re not pagans, we don’t have a religion, and we have no reason to tell you to end your beliefs. But we know that our divinities would never want any of us to kill in their names, as they always condemned war, never killing any of their enemies, not even those from the Church. And I’m sure that if your god is real, he wouldn’t want any of this.”
She’s still in the same place as before, still showing us her back, but I can see her hands shaking. I want to know more about her reason for being here and trying to kill so many people. “This is why we won’t change our beliefs. Instead, can I ask you why you believe in your god, and why you’d end lives in his name?”
She still won’t turn around to look in my direction, but she’s answering anyway. “I don’t have a choice. I don’t get to choose. I… I made a promise to the man I swore my love to.”
It might be a piece of the puzzle. “Is he a terrorist too?”
This time she turns her face to me, crying, and gets closer. “He’s the one who started all of this.”
I want to hear her story. “Please tell me more, if you want.”
She lets out a sigh. “I’ve known him since we were kids. Then we got married, it was no more than an arranged marriage. I didn’t hate him, so I ended up just accepting it. But then… I got involved in this mess and trained to use guns, to kill people. I… I feel like I didn’t ever really know him, his true nature. I never expected him to be a terrorist.”
Then she starts crying harder, lowering her guard. But I don’t wanna hurt her, or take advantage of this. I want to understand her, help her, and take her to our side. “So you love him? That’s why you’re going along with the plan?”
She keeps sobbing, “I… I swore love to him in front of our Lord. I have to obey what he tells me. I don’t get to choose!”
She’s not pointing her gun at us anymore, so I try and take a tissue from my pocket, and give it to her. She looks at it for a while before taking it and wiping her tears. I repeat the question. “Do you love him?”
She stares at me in silence, tears still running down her face. I can finally take a proper look at her. She looks at the beginning of her thirties, if not a bit younger, with long blonde hair tied in a ponytail, and green eyes full of suffering. She gathers her courage to give me an answer. This is a statement she’s making for herself. “I… No, I don’t. He’s not the man I used to know, and I never loved him. And… if this is what he wants from me, he doesn’t love me either. I don’t wanna do this, I never wanted to!”
She puts her gun away and starts crying harder on her knees as if all the weight of her actions hit her all at once. I put my hand on her knee, and she holds onto it while crying. “You don’t have to do this. We’ll do whatever we can to help you.”
We let her finish crying her angry, sad, desperate tears. When she’s done I give her another tissue, and she thanks me. We all get back up, and Mina goes and hugs her. “We’ll save you, those people, and even the terrorists. You don’t have to help, but please hide somewhere.”
She smiles at us, still sniffling a bit. “I was about to shed blood in the name of God, I have to take responsibility. I’ll be with you if there’s anything I can do. My name is Roxanne.”
“I’m Kolten, she’s Mina, he’s Ari, and… Manager, what’s your name?”
He was still petrified. “Ah, it’s Keith. N-nice to meet you.”

Licensed under Yozakura BY-NC-SA-NoAI 1.0