JULY 22nd, 2014.

“You fell for it, human...” the elemental challenges, staring directly at Seth.

How…?! The floor below was…?!

Getting a better look, Seth can see the air around the elemental’s snout distort as it briefly exhales. Then, he makes the connection. It had released an amount of methane on the second floor and must’ve set a fire near it to trick him into thinking it was still there. Despite the animalistic appearance, Seth realized far too late…

…That this spirit was just as capable of tactical thought as he was.

If it’s come to this, then… I have to…

Images of Kat’s bloodied, twisted body lying on the floor of the arena flood Seth’s mind, forcing him to wince at the very thought of that happening again.

No, I can’t… I have to find another way.

The elemental snarls once more as Seth raises his pistol, aiming toward his head.

“You have nowhere else to go. There is nowhere you can hide.”

Seth noticed that ever since the elemental was trapped under the rubble of the two buildings earlier, its flames had lowered in intensity, though they still burned brightly… more importantly, it seemed to be avoiding large attacks.

Earlier, if I ran in here… it could’ve just melted the entire building with me in it… but it chose to chase me in here. Why?

As Seth intently watches the elemental, it opens its mouth to show its teeth, but he notices something different this time.

The usual flames that would spew out were just measly sputters.

You’re running out of gas, aren’t you?

Seth shifts his stance to one filled with more confidence, as the elemental notes the change in body language.

“What are you thinking, human…? I have every upper hand against you.”

Seth was focused on one thing, but didn’t directly look at it because he knew it would hint at it to the elemental. Where its paws were standing… the floor slowly melted and began to give way.

Alright… let’s do this.

Seth runs forward and to the elemental’s right side, shooting its chest as the bullet passes through and leaves a hole. The elemental brings up its blazing paw, trying to hit Seth with it, but he slides under the swipe as he feels his body temperature increase rapidly.

Dammit, too close for too long…

He twists his body, stopping the slide with his right hand’s fingertips as his body arches forward, steadying the gun toward the elemental but not firing.

Stay there… don’t move.

The floor begins to melt under the area of the floor where the elemental’s paws are, and if you drew a line connecting the two melted areas, they’d begin to make a crescent. Seth darts forward again, barely dodging another swipe from one of its paws as he breaks through the border of a cubicle, rolling on the other side.

…It’s getting tired, all it can really do at this point is turn and attack.

Another rush, another few shots fired… the melted indents have almost created a circle around the elemental. As Seth fires another shot off near its snout, he miscalculates the trajectory of his run as one of the paws comes crashing into his back and left shoulder, burning into his clothes. He gets knocked back through three different cubicles, tumbling through them before stopping on the wall before the fourth.

Gah… my body is sizzling…

Slouched down over his legs, the elemental turns to face him as he coughs out a small bit of blood, choking against the pain.

“This game of ours is over now, human.”

However, right before the elemental can take a step, the third floor begins to give out in the middle from the structural instability of the middle melting.

“Yeah…” Seth retorts while coughing in pain, pointing toward the elemental with a smug, pained teeth-showing grin. “...For you.”

Seth’s plan had worked, as the elemental crashed down onto the second, and then broke through onto the first floor, sprawling out on its side in pain. Seth sluggishly walked over to the edge of the collapse with his pistol in his right hand, unable to move his left arm at all. The skin had crisped over, visible through the torn suit. His waistcoat was also scorched, though not irreparably so. As the elemental watches him through its paralyzed eyes, it sees Seth raise the gun and aim it down toward him.

“You…” it begins to mutter, in great pain, “...take action with no… second thought… a dog… more of an animal… than even I…”

It glares at him, sluggishly gritting its teeth in an act of defiance.

“If she… does not pass on… because of you… my soul…”

Seth puts his finger over the trigger, hesitating. Part of him doesn’t want to pull it, but…

“...I shall haunt your soul… far longer than… the remainder of your life…”

…Seth pulls the trigger, firing a round against its body.

Again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Until the voice that caused him to doubt himself and those around him…

…Was nothing more than a fading essence, lost to the crackling of the endless fires around them mixed with the torrential downpour of the rain.

Though he had won against the spirit, and though he kept his life…

…Something in the very deepest parts of his soul began to say that he had made yet another mistake.

. . . . .

Copper.

The air smelled of copper, if only it could rot.

It was a smell that would make anyone fall ill, drowning everything in its presence.

In an inconspicuous alleyway, like any other in the Garden… and especially in the Outer Layer, there was a sight that was beyond horrific.

Unprecedented violence.

Corpses of multiple men, their bodies crudely disassembled and mutilated.

Across the alley, organs and limbs were strung up meticulously, sadistically…

…Using the fiber of their muscles like string.

It was a horrendous, disgusting piece of cruelty.

Their heads were missing features by which to identify them.

They were taken, and sprawled out like a devilish artwork, across the alleyway they were strung up in.

On the wall next to them, was a directed message.

A question.

It read:

WHO KILLED POOR ALICE?

It was written in their blood, sloppily painted by someone’s hands.

Unbeknownst to anyone else but the one who had murdered them, these were the men who had brutally killed the young girl… A blonde girl, wearing a blue dress. The very girl the fire elemental fought to avenge.

They had dumped her body in a trash can.

Their killer found it before the spirit did. As her flesh had already been disgraced, the killer hadn’t touched it. Instead, they hunted for the ones who did it.

And when they found them, the group stared.

They laughed to themselves, calling the one standing in front of them a deranged freak.

And now, that freak stands upon a pool of their blood.

Wrapped in torn, bloodied trash bags fit tightly against their body.

They were held in place by ravaged, barely held-together strips of police tape.

Through their mask, which had only two holes, their bright red eyes pierced through the night… the same color as the crimson they muddied their feet with.

Nothing else was visible.

This was a horror that the Garden had never known before.

Even in the Outer Layer, something capable of an evil like this…

…Was outcasted, or killed, before they had the chance to ruin what little peace this place had.

Yet, there they were.

Alive.

Unphased.

Sluggishly making their way deeper into the alley, retreating into the shadows.

Whether something that looked like that…

And walked like that…

That could do something so disgusting, was human?

That wasn’t a question anyone could answer.

Neither the ones who were brutalized by the one in question…

…Nor the Gatekeepers who found the men’s corpses the next morning.