the mist ✘ gunner &. garnet

As the machinery sputters to life, so does light.

A ring of dull fluorescence flickers violently with a buzz, buzz, buzz before it holds still. Before it illuminates the secrets the dark had kept hidden.

He goes deadly still.

A creature, a winged creature, looks at him from the shadows merely inches away, its dark and hollow eyes full of what can be only described as pure hunger. Its mouth salivates, wetting the teeth that glint wickedly, but it gets worse when his eyes slide up the body to see what protrudes from its back. Leathery wings reminiscent of a ragged sail unfurl themselves. It lets out a low, beckoning growl.

Then it lurches at him, only to immediately rear back with a terrible cry as it enters the light. He sees steam lick up from its skin.

He hears its pain and then fury.

Gunner hasn’t felt fear in a long time. He had slit the throat of fear multiple times: the day he joined the Longbarrels, the day he had his first backalley shootout, the day the peacekeepers flooded the underground, but it reincarnated itself every single time like a vampire and hopped back to unlife, eager for his essence.

He doesn’t ever want to feel scared again.

Forcing limp legs back onto a stand, he rises on a shaky foundation, using the stone pillar behind as a support. Eyes stare back at him from the dark. Then eyes stare at him from the light.

Gunner tenses. Had the other seen him quiver in fear? Had the other seen him shake? Regardless, he steels himself once more as he asks with a forcefully cool nod towards the light,

“did you do that?”