What a Terrible Date

Lilac had done everything she could to be perfect for today. She had selected her best outfit: an unassuming modest skirt with a button-up shirt. Maybe it was formal, but she didn’t want to seem lazy. She had wrangled her hair to perfection, working until she couldn’t find any more tangles or loose strands fuzzing it up. She had made sure her makeup was on point, even managing to get a whole beauty mirror and light setup to try and get all those finer details. She had even managed to get her friend to lend her a perfume she had silently been jealous of, even after her friend had stopped wearing it. It was a shame, then, that she ruined that smell. It was a shame that her outfit was completely ruined, torn badly at the shoulder down to the chest.

It was especially a shame that her tidy hair was soaked in blood.

Most of her was soaked in blood, actually. Instead of the date she had dreamed of for weeks, Lilac had ended in quite possibly the most gruesome location in a 500 mile radius. A dead man in front of her, an axe in her shoulder, and not a lot else. Not even in some shady house, just an alleyway a few blocks from her home. Nobody else around, maybe people inside of their homes like it was any other day.

Despite everything, Lilac knew that it was better that this happened to her than anybody else.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket, but she couldn't move her hand to grab it anymore. She wasn't sure if that hand was even attached to her anymore.

At the shopping mall, Bray was tapping his foot nervously. He had been waiting for Lilac to arrive for about 10 minutes when he saw some of her friends walking around. Thinking she was with them, Bray had approached them only to find out that they didn't know where she was, either.

"Look, I swear that she wasn't going to stand you up!" said one of Lilac's friends.

"Yeah, she's been talking about this non-stop for, like, a week!" said another.

"Then why isn't she here?" Bray asked. "And she's not picking up the phone, either!"

The third friend hung up as the call rang through for a third time. "I-I don't know... She texted me this morning asking to borrow some perfume, and... She came over to get it, I-I don't understand!..."

"Okay... Well, maybe something held her up at home?" Bray asked.

"Yeah, I'm getting worried too," the nervous friend said as she put away her phone. "U-Uh, you two, k-keep going! I wanna go check on her in person."

"Alright, but make sure you call us, okay?" said the first.

"Yeah, for sure!" said the third.

And with that, the two more confident friends walked off, leaving Bray with the shy one. They exchanged glances, and Bray nodded.

"Yeah, I'll come with you."

"O-Oh! Uh, are you, uhm... Sure?" she asked.

"Yeah. I mean, if she shows up and sees I'm not here, she'll probably try to call, right? Then she either calls me or sees the million missed calls from you, and either way, I find out what happened."

"R-Right, that... That makes sense, yeah."

So, the two of them started the walk out of the mall quietly but hurriedly. Lilac's house was only a 15 minute walk from the mall, there was no reason for Lilac to be this late.

Along the way, the sun was starting to set- not because it was nearly the afternoon, but because of the mountain range to the west of the city. It made sunset arrive early, which was really nice for dates on a curfew. But, with the way the date was going so far, Bray wasn't really counting on a golden hour kiss anymore. He just wanted to know if Lilac was safe.

"S-So, uhm... You're Bray, right?" the friend asked.

"Oh! Uh, yeah. I'm Bray," Bray responded, mentally checking to ensure he was answering the right question. "I know you're Lilac's friend, but I don't think I've met you personally."

"N-No, we haven't met," she replied, "my name's Orochi."

"Orochi?" Bray said. "Well, that's certainly not a common name here."

"N-No, it... Really isn't. My family is, uh... Big into eastern things. Apparently my name has... S-Something to do with a snake."

"Huh. Well, hopefully that doesn't have anything to do with how I ended up alone with you instead of Lilac?"

"N-No!" Orochi said, shaking her head vigorously. "No, sorry! I-I'm just... Really worried about her... I-I promise, that's all!"

"Heh, don't worry. I trust you well enough."

Orochi nodded, then fell quiet. Bray felt like he had accidentally put her off with the comment, but since he couldn't be sure, he decided to just be quiet as well. So, the two of them walked a good while in absolute silence.

They made it to Lilac's neighborhood, and Bray started to lead the way. He had picked her up twice before, so he knew the way to her place. He made a left after entering the neighborhood, crossed the street to take a right, crossed the street again to make a left, and-

"Holy CRAP," Bray said suddenly, "Somebody did NOT take out their trash!"

"Oh, eugh," Orochi agreed in disgust, "Something does smell horrible..."

It was coming from the side of one of the houses a few blocks away from Lilac's. Out of some morbid curiosity, Bray decided to look at the house and see if their trash cans were knocked over or open or infested with flies or something.

"Hey, what's th-"

Bray's words caught in his throat as he gagged. Red was everywhere. In the grass, in the dirt, on the clothes, in her hair. The worst part is that he swore he saw her eyes turn towards him the moment he realized that it was Lilac he was looking at.

"Did you say something?" Orochi said, looking up at Bray, completely clueless to the fact that the large boy was about to hurl.

When Orochi didn't get a response, she followed Bray's terrified gaze to the corpse of her friend. Her eyes went wide, but for a completely different reason to Bray's shock. Immediately, she looked around. Nothing was triggering her senses. She closed her eyes, but still nothing came to her. So, she ran over to Lilac.

Beside Lilac's body was the remains of a man. He was as cut up as a human would be after attacking somebody like Lilac. Deep gouges in his neck, arms, and sides along with several groups of 4 or 5 stab wounds to the chest. She fought like the hell she brought with her. Orochi looked at Lilac, grimacing. It sucked that her poor boyfriend really was about to be pulled into this hellish reality, but there wasn't any going back now.

"Bray... Look away."

Without checking to see if the boy was going to heed her command, Orochi planted a foot on Lilac's chest and grabbed the axe with both hands. Then, she yanked it out.