A Crimson Christmas
He shivered.
He shivered again.
It was cold, damn cold.
†‹.
.
.
Pit... pat... pit... pat...
He swiveled his head in time to see a young girl with long, flowing pink twin-tails and an oversized, pricey-looking trenchcoat, panting as she turned the corner, sprinting in his direction.
"Hey, you there!"
He glanced behind him, looking around in confusion.
She rolled her eyes, shouting, "Yes, you, stupid!"
He blinked. "Wait, me?"
At this point she had reached the bench he sat on, and managed to get out a few more words in between her heavy breathing.
"People ... chasing ... me ... hide .... me ... quick..."
He blinked once more. "What? Uh..."
She sighed in frustration, resisting the urge to facepalm, before vaulting over the bench and crouching down behind him. He twisted around to ask her for more detail, but he quickly turned to face forwards as he heard heavy footsteps growing closer.
"Shit, Jacob's gonna kill us! I can't believe we lost Momo-hime!"
"Hell, Jacob's gonna black-list us! We gotta find her or we'll never get another job again!"
Two burly men in crisp, black suits and dark shades bounded down the path, coming from the same direction the girl had came from.
One of them glanced at the young man, who was nonchalantly shivering on the park bench. "You there, we need your cooperation. Have you seen this girl?"
His partner reached into an inside pocket, pulling out a slightly crumpled photo of the girl from before.
He opened his mouth to answer, before he felt a sharp kick to the back of his legs.
†‹"Yeah ... ouch! Er... I saw her go that way." he replied, as he gestured down the path.
The man in the suit nodded. "Thank you, sir."
The two ran in the direction he had pointed to, and one of them pulled out a radio.
He turned around to stare at the girl crouching behind the bench, asking, "So, what's your story?"
She stood up and brushed the snow off her coat, replying, "That's none of your business, idiot. Why are you sitting here alone on Christmas anyway?"
He grimaced unpleasantly. "Well ... that's a rather long story..."
She quickly glanced around, checking down the path. "Well, be grateful then! No one should have to spend Christmas out alone in the cold, and I, Momoka Grady, have decided to grace a lowly commoner like you with my presence!"
He stared at her, at a loss for words.†‹
"W-what!? Don't stare at me like that!" she stammered, blushing lightly.
"Right ... well, thanks. So your name's Momoka?" he asked.
Momoka frowned. "Don't call me that. It's Momo for short, but to you it's Momo-sama. You didn't answer my question! Why're you sitting on a bench in the middle of a park on Christmas night?"
He shrugged. "I've kinda got nowhere to go ... I got fired last month, and-"
She interjected, "fired?"
He raised an eyebrow, "you do know what getting 'fired' means, right?"
She crossed her arms crossly. "O-of c-course I know what being fired means, idiot! Papa says it means getting rid of useless bums at his company."
He smiled weakly. "I guess you could call it that ... they called it 'downsizing' though... I'm officially homeless as of today too, my landlady drew the line ... I haven't been able to pay my rent for a while..."
Momoka blinked. "Wait, you mean you're going to sleep on a bench in the middle of some park!? It's snowing, are you stupid or something?"
He grimaced once more. "I guess, yeah. But that's enough of me. What about you? You mentioned your dad firing people - that means he's the big boss or something?"
She nodded. "I'm sure you've heard of Papa, he's really famous. He owns Fakku Corporation."
He choked. "Holy shit, Fakku? The Fakku? As in the one that just acquired Roogle?"
Momoka shrugged. "Yeah, that's Papa's company."
He laughed bitterly, forcing a smile on his face. "You're really fortunate, you know? I'm sure you're ... pretty well-provided for. So were those your bodyguards just now?"
†‹"Yep, but they're really annoying, you know." she acknowledged.
He frowned, raising an eyebrow. "I'm not sure ditching them was the best idea, Momo ... sama. The Grady family is really rich and influential, and anyone who would want to ... do something bad might go after you."
She rolled her eyes. "What's the worst that could happen!? Stop worrying, stupid."†‹
Suddenly, a gunshot cracked, cutting through the silence.
Momoka dropped to the snow-covered ground, clenching her teeth and whimpering as she held her ankle.
He stared in shock, watching a small patch of snow begin to stain red. "Holy fucking shit! Seriously, what the fuck?"
A man burst out from behind a tree, wearing a creepy, deranged grin as he waved some sort of pistol around - it was too dark to identify, but it looked like a Glock of some sort.
"Momo-chan, oh Momo-chan! How long it's been since I've seen your pretty little face! You really shouldn't have gotten me locked up, you know. But it's all right, I've come to give you my sweet love!"
He made a snap decision, reaching down and picked up Momoka gently, cradling her in his arm. She protested weakly before giving in, too distracted from the pain to put up a fight. Epinephrine pumping through his veins, he began sprinting away from the deranged madman.
"So, who's he? An ex-boyfriend or something?"†‹
Momoka whispered hoarsely, "No, stupid! He's a stalker ... Papa got him arrested."
Several more gunshots rang out and one bullet grazed his arm, cutting through the sleeve of his coat and ripping the material. "Fuck! Where the hell are your bodyguards?"
Abruptly, the shots stopped and he looked back, watching the madman pull a trigger with no result.
In a brief moment of insanity, he laughed madly, somehow finding the whole situation absurdly funny. "You're out of fucking bullets, asshole!"
The man's face twisted into the very picture of madness and he snarled, "My love for Momo-chan knows no bounds! I won't let your filthy hands defile her!"
The lunatic angrily cast aside his pistol and pulled out a genuine kukri knife.
His jaw dropped comically and he began sprinting with twice the effort. "Momo, he's got a kukri! A fucking kukri!"
Momoka took another pained, deep breath before replying, "I told you, it's Momo-sama! And what's a kukri!"
He shouted, "It's a big fucking knife! Like a machete."
"Oh... that's not good," she commented.
†‹He looked back once more. "Oh god, he's catching up! He's getting closer!"
She glared at his face, shouting, "then shut up and run faster!"
Suddenly, he staggered briefly, and she looked up to see his eyes bulge in shock, his face contorting into a twisted, pained expression. "What's wrong? What happened? Did he get you?"
He grimaced painfully. "Nothing ... he missed me, I'm fine."
She panicked slightly. "But your face ... oh my god, there's some blood on your jacket!"
He shook his head. "Don't worry, Momo ... that was from the gunshot earlier, where he grazed my arm... I was just surprised at your weight."
She pouted. "Oi! Are you calling me fat! You're the fat one, you're running too slow!"
He smirked weakly, before a expression of slight relief crossed his face as he staggered to a stop.
"Momo, the calvary's here, thank god you're safe."
A dozen men in black suits emerged from the path ahead of them, running towards them. One of them stopped in front of the pair, letting the others pass. The man in shades raised his arms up to hold her as he passed Momoka along.
They stood there for a second, watching a pair of twin barbs shoot through the air and attach themselves to the madman's body, before he began convulsing involuntary. As he dropped to the floor, four burly men tackled him, handcuffing his arms and restraining him.
He stared blankly at the sight ... everything was fogging over slightly.
He turned to Momoka, who was screaming in panic ... as he turned, he realized that he was actually on the floor now ...
One of the men in suits was kneeling in front of him, another had his cellphone whipped out, with an urgent look on his face.
He took a brief moment to look down at his chest ... and he noticed that his jacket was red, and the snow around him was red as well...
Momoka was leaning over him now, tears falling onto his face.
"Don't die, Onii-san! I don't even know your name!"
He stared up at her, smiling. "Don't worry, Momo. Onii-san's just going to have a nap, he's feeling so tired... he can't keep his eyes open."
He smiled weakly. "Sorry I lied earlier... I guess he got me."
The world slowly faded out of view....
and then there was silence.†‹