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The Blood Trail
Who knows how long after, my eyes slowly opened again. It was still dark out, and the rain was still pouring down hard. I was still soaking wet with water and blood. Slowly and carefully, I tried to pull myself up. It took a while and a lot of effort, I blood spat from my mouth, but I finally managed to stand up feebly. I held my left side with my right arm, then limped as best I could to a door to my right. I had to stop rest, taking those few steps was extremely painful and exhausting. I leaned against the door for support because I knew I would fall over otherwise, too weak to stand up on my own. Then, after several deep breaths, I opened the door to a stairwell which led to lower floors in the building.
I leaned against the wall and held onto the railing for support, taking it one step at a time, stumbling a bit, barely able to keep myself up. Slowly, carefully, and painfully, I climbed my way down a flight of stairs and then another. At the bottom of the second set of stairs was another door. I again caught my breath against the wall, then turned the knob and slowly opened the door. I poked my head into a hallway. There were many doors along it. I kept an eye out for any human who might come out of one, but so far, nobody. Across from the door where I stood bleeding, was a sign hanging on the wall. It read 'T.G.R.I. - Techno. Globo. Research. Institute. To Director's office ----> to Elevator <----' Techno Globo Research Institute? This must be some kind of bio-genetic lab building or some other kinda science mumbo-jumbo. I obviously wanted to take the route to the elevator, so I turned to my left and began limping my way to the end of the hall where I could see the elevator.
I hobbled inside, turned around and pressed the button for the first floor, then leaned against the wall, still bleeding profusely. I looked down the hall before the elevator doors closed. All down the hall, leading to the door to the stairwell, was small puddles of blood on the floor. I it wouldn't be good when someone walked out of one of those rooms and saw a trail of blood all over the floor and smeared on the walls. I was just waiting for someone to come out and see it and scream their head off, but I saw no one come out of their room as the elevator doors close. I stand there, leaning against the wall, breathing roughly as my wounds continued to bleed. I laid my head back on the wall and tried to steady my breathing. I listened to each ding sound as the elevator reached each level. I still had about twenty levels to go. I closed my eyes and continued to try and relax my breathing. It was tough enough to even stay conscious let alone breathe right. As I felt the elevator hit my floor, I opened my eyes and pushed myself off of the wall, needing great effort. I continued to hold my side as I peeked outside of the elevator.
There was a large lobby, it was empty. I looked down a hall to my right, and at the end, I could see the faint red glow of an emergency exit sign. My ticket out! I pulled myself out of the elevator and began hobbling down the hall towards the exit as the elevator doors closed behind me, but a sound from behind me stopped me in my tracks. Footsteps. The hallway, having its lights turned off, was dark, and so I held myself against the wall in the shadows, as I looked to see who approached. Out of a door across the lobby, came some sort of scientist, wearing a long white lab coat. He didn't see me, but I dared not move. I stifled my breathing so he would not hear me, although breathing was becoming harder for me. I held my limbs closer so that the sound of my blood dripping on the floor wouldn't be heard either. The man, continuing as he was, walked over to the elevator doors and pushed a button to go up. Oh no ... not good. The elevator dinged, the doors opened, and the man gasped in horror at the sight of the blood-smeared insides of the elevator. Not soon after that, a woman's high pitched squeal could be heard from upstairs. Someone else must have seen the blood trail upstairs. The man continued to stare amazed, then he looked down at the floor. He saw the fresh blood droplets on the floor leading out of the elevator, and his eyes followed it down the hall until he was staring right at me. I don't think he saw me though. The man fidgeted with the glasses on his face and squinted his eyes, trying to find whatever it was. "H-Hello? .... Is anyone there?" the man called out to me down the hall. I couldn't let him spot me. So I decided to make a break for the exit.
I turned around and quickly began limping as fast as I could toward the doors. I almost cried out the pain was so unbearable, but I had to get out of there. When the sound of my footsteps began echoing down the hall, the man looked harder, and he must've seen me. "Hey! You! Wait!" and the man began running down the hall toward me. Before he could get to me, I burst out the exit doors, and I stood there panting outside in the dark. I had to find a place to hide before the man came out here and saw me. That might be hard considering the fact that my trail of blood would lead him right to me. Well, it's dark out, and this guy has glasses, so I'm hoping he won't see the blood. On a split second decision, I limped my way around the corner and hid behind the building. After hearing the man burst through the doors, I carefully stared around the corner to watch the man. I saw him come running through those doors and slow to a halt when he saw no one there. He turned around a few times, looking in every direction for me, but he never spotted me. After his quick search, he pulled a cellphone from his pocket and quickly dialed a number and put it to his ear. "Hello, Police? Yes. I'd like to make a report. I need you to send some squad cars down to T.G.R.I down on Maple Street ... Yes .... Yes ... Well there's blood all over the walls and- .... Yes .... I understand .... Can you also send an ambulance? .... Yes, I saw someone limping out of the building ..... Ok then, I'll tell the officers about it when they get here. Thank you so much." then he clicked the phone off and headed back inside. With my good sense of hearing, I could hear people inside as they had finally taken notice to the situation. Far away, I could hear sirens wailing as they began heading toward the building. I should probably get out of here before the cops arrive. So, too weak to leap from the roof tops, I began limping my way along the back alleys, trying to get back.
I was losing too much blood. I knew I'd pass out again before I could make it to Delila's. The only place close enough that I could get to was, and as much as I hate to say it, Devil May Cry. So I continued hobbling in the darkness toward Dante and Nero's place. I began hyperventilating and staggering as I limped along. My vision was beginning to blur. Not a good sign... But in my blurry haze, I managed to find my way to Devil May Cry. I stood there, breathing heavy and bleeding intensely, and with one fist, I pounded as hard as I could on the door. A second or two later, I feebishly stood there as Nero opened the door. " ... Nero ... " I tried to say through my heavy breathing. After saying that one word, I collapsed right there, unable to stand any more, but before I could hit the ground, Nero thrust his arms out and caught me as I fell. His arms around me, he held me up, my head in his chest, on of my hands tightly holding onto his sleeve. He stared at me with shock and terror. "Oh my god .... Kimiko ... what ... what happened?!" he said, his arms firm around me, making sure I stayed up. "..... Nero ..." I whispered again. "Shhh, don't talk. I need to get you inside and take a look at those." he said. Then, with one arm under my back, he placed the other under my legs, and picked my up, then he turned around and went inside as he carefully cradled me in his arms. He walked over and laid me out on the couch and looked me over as he knelt beside me. "This is bad ... I can't believe this happened ... DANTE!! I NEED YOU OUT HERE!!! I NEED HELP!! NOW!!!" Nero shouted over his shoulder.
I turned my head to see as Dante came out of the back room, and he stopped cold when he saw me laying there. "Kimiko!!" He walked over and stood over me, staring me over. Then he held up his hand. "Hey kid, how many fingers am I holding up? Come on, Stay with me! How many fingers kid?" Dante said as he held his hand to me. I couldn't answer him, but even if I could, I knew I was going out of it, because all I saw of his hand was one big blur. "Dante, you gotta do something!" Nero pleaded as he placed his hand on mine and then placed my hand on one of my wounds. He was applying pressure to try and stop the bleeding. "I know one thing, you owe me a new couch now, cuz I aint gonna sit on that thing now that it's covered in blood ... I'll go get something so wrap those wounds up." and he walked over to a dresser and pulled out a white t-shirt, then went over to his desk and grabbed a thread an needle. Then he came back over to the couch. Dante then handed the supplies to Nero. "Start sewing her up. Once you've sewn up a cut, rip off a piece of the shirt and tie it around it. I'll be back in a little bit." Dante said, and turned and walked to the door. "Where the heck are you going?!?" Nero asked. Dante stopped with his hand on the door, and looked back at him. "Something came up, I've got things to do." he said in an almost dark tone. "What could you possibly be going to do that's more important than what's just happened?!" Nero replied in shock. " I said I've got things to do, my reasons are my own, so step off about it .... I'll be back in a few hours." Dante said, and then he pushed the door open and left.
"What's ... the deal ... with him?" I wheezed. "Don't talk. I'll call Delila and tell her what happened after I patch you up. You should be resting for the time being." So he threaded the needle and began sewing up my wounds. The pain from the needle going in and out of my skin was nothing compared to my wounds, so I could barely feel the needle as it stitched up each wound, and as Nero did so, I closed my eyes and soon was blacked out in a deep sleep.
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