I walk down the streets of Skin row, dragging my boots on the ground. A cigarette lay between my lips as I headed for my apartment complex. “Fuck…” As I enter the complex and walk up the stairs, I enter my apartment, and after locking the door behind me I toss my Taurasaurus Judge onto my desk. Sitting onto my chair next to my desk, I puff on my cheap cigarette. After that I open a tab and start scrolling through job offerings. Today’s interview didn’t go well, they wouldn’t accept me as a janitor for a nearby bar because I hadn’t graduated high school, and my smoking didn’t really encourage the guy interviewing me. I was slowly exhausting my options for jobs nearby and at this rate, I’d have to apply in places past Little Troodon. As much as it was going to suck… I sighed. My life’s really going nowhere, huh? I picked up the revolver and opened the cylinder. Inside sat six .45 colt cartridges, waiting for when they’d inevitably be used. I say “inevitably” because Skin Row’s dangerous, and it had been getting worse while I was in the Navy for the last 3 years. Clink. I flicked the cylinder back into the gun, cocking the hammer back into position. I set the gun right next to my computer. After a while of sitting around doing fuck-all, I stood up to go to my fridge and grab some leftover pizza. But I checked and realized I didn’t have anything to eat. Shit, it was getting late… Bah, I’ll just bring my gun. Worst case I’ll point it at the hobo trying to mug me and I’ll make them fuck off. I stepped outside my apartment, gun in my pocket, and prepared to take my walk to a pizza joint I’d gone to last week. Pizza time, it was called? But before I could, I noticed something white-colored on the ground. I picked it up and examined it closely. It was a light blue feather, probably a few inches long. I set it on my desk and thought about it. There weren’t any birds that had this color or size of feather. Only one thing- No. Only one person had this kind of feather. But… She was long gone from my life. I went inside and grabbed a small plastic sandwich bag, dropping it inside and setting it on my desk. I know it probably wasn’t what I thought it was, but… It reminded me of her. I couldn’t just throw it away. I sighed. Closing my apartment door and locking it behind me, I start walking. As soon as I step food outside the complex and onto the grimey streets, I think about the past. Pretty much mostly High school, my relationship with an angelic light blue ptero girl named Fang. How I screwed everything up that night on the beach… God. If I could spend the rest of my life trying to fix that… Then how I dropped out of Volcano High to enlist in the Navy. Getting stationed on the USS Texas and it nearly getting sunk later in the year. It’s a fucking miracle that I didn’t get shrapnel in my damn lungs. Then there was the straw that broke the camel's back- my accident in the stairwell, busting my ass and getting discharged. Three years of my life I spent rotting in some iron tomb, only to get some medals and ribbons thrown at me, some shitty monthly compensation, and a letter from the VA saying my muscle issues and pain weren’t service related. My thoughts were interrupted by a neon sign that read “Pizza Time”. I went inside to order my food and stepped up to the register, paid for my shit with my government-issued card, and after waiting some 30 minutes I was already walking back to my apartment carrying 2 pizza boxes. Anyways… What the hell was I on about earlier? Oh yeah. I remembered how when I’d gotten back from the Navy, I’d called my father and explained I was on shitty times, and how I needed a place to stay. He’d flat-out refused to help, saying I was man enough to take care of my own shit. Fucking prick. I’d gotten a goddamn Purple Heart and a Silver Star for my injuries while carrying munitions around the warzone on-deck. What had he gotten in the Army? Jack shit. Because that’s all he did. And I’d let him know pretty fucking clearly. Fuck him. I didn’t need him When I finally got to my apartment, I noticed more of those feathers outside of the complex door. The sight made me freeze. Some of them even had blood on the ends of them. As if someone had been preening. Whatever… It’s probably just a new tenant, Anon. Calm the fuck down. I sighed, and went into the complex. I clambered up the stairs, and once I’d reached the top I walked to my door and put my keys in the lock. I felt no resistance from the deadbolt It was already back in the- The door was already unlocked. My blood froze. Without a second thought I took my free hand and grabbed my gun. Then I opened my door to find… Huh. My apartment hadn’t been touched? I sighed, letting out a breath I never knew I’d been holding in. What the fuck was going on? I locked the door behind me and then turned to put the pizzas on my counter. After that… I checked around the room with gun in hand- I’d been taught close-quarters combat in the Navy. After making sure everything was clear and there weren’t gonna be any homeless carfe-heads in my residence, I relaxed, putting the gun on my desk. Before I could even open my pizza box, however, there was knocking on the door. I grabbed the gun and put it in my waistband, slowly approaching the door. I don’t hear any breathing or talking, which is odd. “Who is this?” I ask through the door. “Delivery for a Mister Mous,” a woman said through the door. “It’s from a Mister Pseudon.” Wait. Why the fuck would Dad send me a package? I opened the door, and stepped outside. “Alright so where-” The woman who’d spoken to me through the door wasn’t in front of me. Neither was the package. Suddenly I got beat over the back of my head with a… something. Before I could grab my gun, something else struck me on the head from the side, and I fell to the floor. My vision was fading. Something pinned me to the floor face-down, my arms against my back. Before I went unconscious… “Is he dead?” The woman asked. “He better fucking be.” A deep-voiced male said. “...Look, I know how you feel about him. But we need him. I need this.” *** *** *** I woke up with my face doused in water and me trying to breathe in air. Before I could even get my eyes open, I felt someone slap my cheek. Once my eyes were finally open, I saw a bright light right in front of me, nearly making me blind. My arms and legs were tied to a chair, and in front of me stood a ptero with a bucket of water. As soon as I could breathe normally, and my eyes adjusted, I saw something I hadn’t seen in years. No. It can’t be. She isn’t real. She can’t be. “Oh yes the fuck I am, Anon!” In front of me stood Fang, her wings disheveled from preening, and behind her in the shadows stood Ripley, watching, a wide grin painting his face. “Wah- Huh? Fang? What the hell’s going-” She slapped my other cheek, and kicked my leg with her now-clearly steel toed boots. “GAAAAUH! What the fuck?!” I looked at her again, her amber eyes full of fury and her head completely shaved. She looked pissed, and it was all directed at me. So… This was how it was gonna end? “Start talking and I might let you live, fuckface.” I sighed. “What do you- GAH!” She raised a leg and kicked me in the stomach, making me nearly vomit. “First of all,” She said with cold malice in her voice, “Where the fuck have you been for the last three years?” She walked over to the side of me, and picked up a metal baseball bat that was laying around. “I went into the Navy and got discharged a few weeks ago.” I said with pain in my voice. “Got the Purple Heart and the Silver Sta- AAAAAAUGH!” She had hit me in the ribs with the bat, and I could swear I felt some of them break. Evidently, that was the case, as breathing became increasingly hard due to the pain. “You wanna know where the hell I’VE been, Anon? On the streets, scraping by. I nearly died from so much shit, you wouldn’t even know.” “Jesus Christ… Fang, I’m s- GAH!” She’d hit my other side with the bat. “Sorry? You’re fucking SORRY?!” “Yes,” I said coughing up some blood. “I am. Thats why I left Volcaldera for the Navy.” I think one of my ribs had pierced a lung or something… “Oh, really?” She said. “So why the hell are you back?” I saw her reach for a nearby table and pull my gun off of it. “Well…” I’d already accepted that one way or another, I was dying tonight. “I asked my dad if I could stay at his place to find a job in Rock Bottom. Evidently he didn’t want shit to do with me. I honestly don’t blame him.” “Oh, boo-hoo, asshole.” She cocked the hammer and walked up to me, sticking the barrel between my eyes. “You fucking ruined me that night, you know.” I sighed, as painful as it was to do so. “Fang, that’s-” I coughed. “That’s why I left. I did- I didn’t want to cause more pain.” “You left me and stomped my goddamn heart into the sand!” She took the gun off my forehead, only for a loud bang to emanate from it and a sudden pain to start radiating from my thigh. “AAAAAAAUGH!” Fang just fucking shot me. I chuckle, tears rolling down my face. “Yeah. I deserve that.” I said, wincing through the pain. She cocked the hammer again. “You’re right for once in your goddamn life.” She set the gun back on the table as my vision began to start swimming… I was losing blood fast. Evidently Ripley had realized, as he soon said to her, “Finish the damn job.” As soon as he said that, she stuck the barrel back onto my forehead. “GAHHHHH!” The white-hot pain from my legs and ribs joined in a chorus with the barrel searing my forehead. She kept it in the same spot for a few minutes, making me feel my skin and flesh burn. “You fucking skinnies are tough,” she said with cold hatred. “Shame you can’t stay around.” I thought of all the pain I’d caused her, and the hurt that still would remain even if I died. I had to make it up somehow. Even if I was 6 feet in the ground, I could care less. She deserved everything. I had ruined it, but maybe in some indirect way I could at least try to help fix it. “Hey, Fang,” I said, trying my best to ignore the pain. “I got some last words.” “And why the hell should I hear them out?” “Because it involves my money.” I swear I could actually hear the gears turn in her head. “What are you waiting for?” She pressed the barrel deeper into my flesh. “First of all, I left some money that isn’t from the Government in a lockbox. You can have it. The code is 7430.” “Dad, write that down.” Ripley pulled out his phone, grumbling about having to stop recording… Fucking dick. “The other things… You’re probably gonna find a noose somewhere.” “Yeah fuck you too, Anon. I don’t care if you were gonna kill yourself. I’m just glad I got to you before you could pussy your way to death.” I chuckle, pain emanating from my insides. I coughed up some blood. “Also… I know I’m gonna die, so I just want to say it while I can… I’m sorry. I- gah!” Blood was pooling down my leg and I was breathing hard, pain everywhere. “I’m sorry, alright? One last thing…” “What?” She said with anger and indifference. I don’t think she’s listening. I tilt my head up, the barrel peeling off my skin. I even saw some burnt skin stuck to it. “You’re going to want to aim from my chin up. Base of the skull. Learned it in Basic Training.” She chuckled, pressing the still-hot barrel under my chin. “Huh.” she chuckled coldly. “You know, if it wasn’t for the fact you’d shown your true colors, I would’ve probably liked you.” “I know, Fang… I know.” Everything went by in slow motion after I uttered those words. Her murderous grin. The gun firing. The bullet piercing my jaw. Boring its way into my skull. The gasses searing my flesh like sirloin steak. I felt every second of it. Agonizing pain as it tore through me, expanding and destroying anything in its way. That millisecond was the most pain I’d ever felt in my entire life. Until the bullet made its way into my brain. My last thought; Fang… I’m sorry. For everything. And then everything went black as I lost consciousness yet again. This time for good. *** *** *** …Is this what death felt like? Just dark nothing? No heaven or hell? No, wait. I was falling. I was absolutely going to hell. But I couldn’t feel my body. Everything was blank. No pain or feelings. All that remained was the heavy guilt I felt about Fang. I just hope what I left her would help her get better. Wait, why did I feel fabric? Why did I feel my body? Light slowly creeped its way into my vision, and it quickly became overwhelming. I felt a cold presence in my lungs. I felt my heart pumping blood through me. “GUWAHFUCK!” I jolted upright out of the thing I was inside… Wait. I had a blanket on me? I looked down at my chest. Where the hell were the scars from that battle in the Red Sea? Where was my chest hair? I looked around my apartment. I was… fine? I didn’t have a scratch on me. What’s happening? I grabbed my phone to find that it was the middle of April, but the year… 201M2020. No. This had to be a prank. I went into my phone to look up the battle I’d been a part of but… It hadn’t happened? Okay. Anon. Breathe. Was I… was I back? I looked out the window. Skin Row was still shitty, but not nearly as bad as before. Delving into my phone again, I looked through my contacts. Everyone was there… Reed, Naser, Trish… Even Fang. Fang. Holy shit. We were still together. But today… today was Prom. When we went to that concert and the beach. I hadn’t fucked up our relationship yet. Oh my God. I looked to the cross on my wall. Even if this is me dead, I don’t care. Raptor Jesus, thank you so fucking much. I have to fix things. I’d fucked up a lot, and today was just going to be where it all culminates into a wrecking ball that ruined mine and Fang’s lives. I got up to get ready for the day. I would make everything right. Even if it killed me again.