Yang awoke in a strange room; her vision blurred, and her wrists bound in front of her with regular metal handcuffs. She blinked and rubbed her eyes to clear up her vision. The room she sat in only had one door and steel walls all around her. She stood, and the intercoms in the ceiling blared to life, “Hello, is this thing on?” Violet said over the comms.

Yang froze, her heart starting to race, “Y-yes,” Yang said weakly.

“Ah! Good! Alright, Yang, listen up. I’m going to kill you, and I will do it slowly,” Violet said calmly. Yang felt her knees weaken, and she almost fell to the ground when Violet spoke again, “But you do have a sporting chance. If you can get to the last escape pod on the port side of deck F, you will go free and never see me again. And if by some chance I run into you out in the normal worlds, I won’t kill you. I’ll even go so far as to make sure you’re safe. But if I catch you…well, you know. Anyway, I don’t know where you are, and you don’t know where I am. So, have fun escaping. HAHAHAHA!”

“How is that fair!? You’re the reaper! I can’t escape you, let alone defend against you,” Yang said, hanging her head in defeat with tears forming in her eyes.

“I know. That’s why I’ve been assured that there is an assortment of weapons outside your door. Have fun. I know I will.”

The click of the intercom system shut off and the airlock door unlocked. Yang immediately moved the door, and it opened automatically. Several corpses fell toward her, their skin blue and puffy as though their blood had boiled them from the inside as they suffocated. She jumped back with a scream and covered her mouth in horror. Her heart raced in her chest, and she saw that the bodies had several pistols, rifles, and a few grenades on them.

Yang hesitantly took a pistol from a corpse, a few grenades, and the keys to the handcuffs. She almost couldn’t get them off; her hands shook so much. Once she got them off, she ran out the door and turned left, not knowing where she had to go or where she had been placed on the massive ship.

“Where are you, Yang? I can hear you. I can feel your fear,” Violet said over the comms drawing out every word she spoke. Yang tried to ignore Violet speaking over the comms and focus on running, but the fear in her gut told her to run. Runaway and live. The sound of Violet over the intercom did nothing to ease her mind and body. Then a whistling sound came from behind her, and she instinctively turned to look toward the sound, and she felt a rush of air past her face.

She didn’t see what passed her or see it, but she knew it would’ve killed her. And she tripped over her feet, falling to the ground with a loud bang as she accidentally pulled the trigger of her pistol and fired a shot. Yang stopped and listened for Violet, waiting for the sound of her boots to come around a corner any minute.

“I found you,” Violet said over comms. Yang stood and ran to the nearest door, opening it and seeing a broom closet full of buckets and used mops. She almost kept running when she heard the sound of Violet’s footsteps running down the corridor. Yang jumped into the closet and closed the door, sealing her in complete darkness. She pressed an ear against the door, listening over her pounding heartbeat.

Violets running footsteps came and went, and Yang breathed a sigh of relief. Then a very purposeful thud hit the door, and Violet said, “Where are you, Yang? I feel your presence right here. Where are you?”

Yang put a quivering hand over her mouth and took several deep breaths through her nose as she thought quickly about how she could get out of there. Then she remembered the grenades. She pulled one and examined it. The black ball had a simple activation method, a big red button. Yang put her thumb on the button and opened the door. She ran out, saw Violet to her left, dropped the grenade, and ran to her right.

Violet whorled and saw the grenade hit the ground; an explosion resounded throughout the hall and threw Yang forward five feet. A piece of shrapnel hit Yang’s left outer thigh severing her rectus femoris muscle. The shock from the explosion stunned her enough that she barely noticed it until she tried to straighten her leg. She looked back a the fire behind her, and a small smile spread across her face.

“Did you think that would work?” Violet said over comms. Yang’s smile disappeared, and she stood as fast as possible and sprinted down the hall. “You’ve only delayed the inevitable, Yang. And now you’re injured. You should stop running, take that pistol, and end this little game quickly. Cause after that stunt, I will make the game last even longer!” Violet yelled over the intercoms sounding angry.

Yang quickly made it to another door down the corridor and opened it, finding a staircase that led to the other decks of the ship. She quickly looked around, seeing the directory and reading, deck D portside. She immediately ran down the stairs going down two levels and stopping at the directory, quickly found the location of the escape pods, and ran through the corresponding door to her right. Then she heard a whistling sound and a sharp pain in her side as something entered her body. Yang screamed and clasped a hand to her side to stop the bleeding and felt a hole in her side.

“Oh, sounds like my bullet hit you finally,” Violet said, “It’s a fascinating bullet. It makes its propulsion using air so it can turn on a dime and will only stop when it hits something. Like flesh,” Yang gritted her teeth and ran forward, trying to ignore the pain. Then another whistling came from behind and in front of her. She fell to one side, trying to dodge, and screamed as two more bullets entered her left leg.

‘I’m almost there,’ Yang thought, ‘Just a little further.’ She forced herself up and limped as fast as possible to the doors at the end of the hall. She almost made it when she heard the pounding of footsteps behind her. Yang’s heart raced even faster, and she quickly opened the door as she pulled one more grenade and left it on the other side of the door. The door closed, and she ran down the hall of escape pods, examining them. Each one still rested in their shoots, but above each shone a red light, except one had a green light.

She limped to that one as an explosion sounded behind her, blowing in the door. Yang made it to the escape pod, pushed the button, and looked behind to see Violet fearlessly walking through the fire. A red haze around her as a shield protected her from the fire. Yang wasted no more time and jumped into the escape pod, closed the airlock, climbed into the front seat of the small cylindrical pod, and pushed the red launch button. The escape pod quickly accelerated down the shoot and into the vast expanse of space.

Yang breathed heavily, her heart still racing; then Violet spoke over comms in the escape pod, “Congratulations! You escaped me. Well done. Now, as promised, I will leave you be. You will never see me again, and I will not kill you.”

“How do I know you will keep your word?” Yang asked skeptically.

“Yang, darling. I’m the grim reaper. My word is my bond. You will never see me for the rest of your life, and I will not kill you. So, I sincerely hope you have a wonderful rest of your life,” the comms went dead and left Yang in silence.

Tears formed in Yang’s eyes, and she began to sob uncontrollably. Then she laughed as the adrenaline in her system began to wear off, and she thought, ‘I’m free. I’m alive! I’m free!' Her wounds began to hurt even worse. She tried to stand but had trouble doing so with only one leg. She forced herself to stand anyways and found the first aid kit in an easily accessible cubby. She took it, sat down, and began bandaging her wounds and applying stims to her body to accelerate healing.

Then she felt an itch on her left arm; she scratched it, then scratched it more. Finally, she looked at the itchy spot and saw something moving under her skin. She hurriedly scratched at it, pulling at her skin and drawing blood. Then another thing crawled up her right arm under her skin. She scratched at the creature, her heart racing faster than when Violet chased her.

Then she felt things in her abdomen moving, crawling, and knawing on her insides. Yang slowly looked down and saw her belly writhing like a pot of boiling water. Then her skin broke, and insects of every kind began crawling out of her eating their way through her flesh. She screamed, fell back, writhing on the ground in agony, and released a blood-curdling scream. Then her heart stopped, and she twitched a few more times as her life flashed before her eyes and released her last breath.

***

Violet watched the video screen with a bowl of popcorn and happily watched as Yang clawed open her stomach and pulled out her intestines. It ended with Yang lying on the ground, blood streaming from her eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. Haru sat with her back to the screen, also enjoying the popcorn.

“Damn, that’s Jin’s new neurotoxin?” Violet asked, impressed. Haru nodded, not looking back at the screen. “Are you still squeamish about torture?” Violet teased.

“Well, I don’t like seeing it when I’m eating!” Haru defended.

“Or bathing, or hearing, or being near, or-”

“Fine, I don’t like torture. Happy now!”

Violet smiled, leaned in, and said, “Yes, I am, honey.”

Haru chuckled and rolled her eyes, “Finally got a good one.”

“Yes, I did, honey,” Violet repeated and leaned forward to kiss her.

Then Haru put her hand on Violet’s face and pushed, standing up, “Well, too bad torture puts me out of the mood. I’m going to get out of these bindings. They’re suffocating.”

“Can I help?!” Violet asked excitedly.

“No.”

“Aww, come on! It’s been forever for me!”

“You got other tools,” Haru said, making her way to the airlock door.

“Yeah, but I want something real! Plus, they’re all on my ship. Also, what kind of ship is this?” Violet said, getting up to follow Haru.

“The ship is a black knight model dreadnaught with prototype NTR-303 engines and broadside neutron lasers. The ship’s name is S.F.M.C. Reaver,” Haru said, opening the airlock door.

Violet’s jaw dropped, and she said, “Okay, I need you to fuck me right this very second!” then she lunged at Haru and went face-first into the airlock door. She fell to the ground with her hand over her broken nose, “HARU! YOU BROKE MY FACE! Kiss the booboo and make it feel better!”

“No,” Haru said over the intercoms.