Ethereal 0.01

Barely grown and already on your deathbed, Oliver's mind wandered as he stared at the blank convex glass ceiling above. Raindrops battered it like soldiers in a line sending a hail of hellfire down at him though never once hitting their marks.

Is it weird that this doesn't hurt? He knew it was supposed to, that having his body repeatedly ploughed with the pointed end of a knife was supposed to hurt. Yet it didn't, it was uncomfortable and trickled with that strange feeling like when you sit on your leg and static crawls up it when you stand, except, all across his chest.

The first hit had hurt but that lasted only a second. He blamed that sudden surge of hurt on just how out of nowhere it was. His adrenaline hadn't had the time to kick in and quell the hurt.

He could feel the steel entering and tearing his flesh only to be ripped out and rammed back in cracking through his ribs and chipping the tip.

His eyes rolled weakly onto his murderer. A beautiful young girl with tears to her bloodshot blue eyes.

She was short and always kept her cinnamon hair in a bob. She was about his age in looks but was really two years younger and went by the name Solenne Chausson. She'd come to the city for college, she with her father, had gone to Oliver's college and were ultimately lead around to see if it was anywhere she'd like to go.

Ultimately it had been. Perhaps if that's as far as their relationship went he wouldn't have found himself under her knife.

Even now she was dressed neatly. A cute, bell-sleeved white blouse added with knee-length layered red and black skirt and beneath that a pair of thigh-high black stockings that left just enough skin open to be almost mystical.

Solenne had been his girlfriend, Had, being the operative word at the moment as things were tending to be. It had been a good relationship and they'd been set for a long, love-filled life. If only he'd been able to predict she'd kill him.

Oliver didn't know what she'd seen in him but she saw it nonetheless. Enough that she'd ended up confessing and setting their relationship off with fireworks just the day after the first week she'd been there. Even back then it was so sudden and out of nowhere. Maybe that was a sign to be careful… he wasn't going to complain, a game design major like him didn't have the most opportunities to go out and chatter with the opposite sex. Perhaps it was his penis talking back then.

"Why?" Solenne's voice cracked as she stared down at him with pained and teary eyes. A spattering of blood coated her right cheek contrasting against her deathly pale complexion. "Why couldn't you be happy with me?"

Not happy with? Oliver adored her, hell, he'd been planning a proposal sometime in the future and could afford a ring and a comfortable life. So why did she think he'd cheat on her?

"Ah…" A spark of realization died within his eyes, his head tilted to the side to see the pale-faced girl stood not far away from them. Even she was coated in his blood and it was seeping into her dirty blonde hair risking damage to it. It was clear she was lost, her mind stale and confused lost in a void where only her and the scene before her stood prominent.

"Was I not good enough for you!? Is that it!? Was fucking me not enough for you!?" Solenne screamed, tearing the flip knife from Oliver's chest, its bloodied iron blade glistening in the low lighting of the mall he'd brought his sister to distract her while their parent's put up the birthday decorations back home.

This time though before she could bring it down and ram it down a sound echoed.

*Bang!*

The noise raged so loudly that even in death Oliver was tempted to tilt away and nurse his ear.

Solenne's arms weakened and her head dropped, looking to the bloody splotch rising and dying her blouse red. "E-eh?" she whined, not daring to comprehend the bullet that had burrowed through her flesh and out her back.

She rocked weakly, arms dropping and knife falling from her grasp as her eyes rapidly decayed and lost their lustre. Solenne forced herself to meet his eyes and shimmered in splendid morbidity, "I just… wanted you to love… me…" she fell backwards, arching before clattering like a sack of meat to the floor.

Solenne, Oliver thought. Any attempt to talk came out only as gargles and spatters of blood.

"Oliver!" Bonnie, his sister screamed calling out to him. Her tear laden cheeks and blood-red eyes appeared above him. A single dash of red across her cheek from the first arterial spurt maimed her otherwise pretty face. Though call her pretty or worse, cute, one would rapidly find themselves with a fist in their sides.

"Bon… Bon…" Oliver gurgled. "Sorry… for the shitty birthday." His expression faltered to a sallow smirk though swiftly soured as another sputtering escaped him.

"Nonononono." Bonnie wept, the tears muddled the blood and only shone more prominently over the tired dark bags always hung beneath her eyes. She dashed her hands to his chest to cover the bleeding holes but with everyone, she covered another would only prove to leak more.

"Don't do this!" Bonnie's voice cracked desperately. She couldn't lose him, he knew that, he just wasn't sure if he could stay long enough. "Don't do this to me you asshole!" her tears trickled, dropping from her chin and wetting his clothing only to blend in with the blood already dying his coat.

He didn't want to go. Not now. Not on her birthday. Seeing this was already more than he'd ever want her to go through but truly losing him was… it was a terrible thought.

Oliver winced as the adrenaline started proving inefficient for blocking all the pain. His mind already feeling addled by anaemia. In the background, he could hear them just barely over the incomprehensible chatter of the crowd, sirens. 'The doctors…' he thought, he knew they weren't doctors but he couldn't care less at the moment. "Do me a favour," he said with what little strength he had left.

"Any-anything." She sniffled, clasping tight the hand he lifted to her. Even now it was so comforting and warm, just like those days he'd wrap her up and hug her whenever the bullies became too much.

"Next to my bed," he struggled, "drawer… under the socks… that's, that's for you." By then he couldn't even make out Bonnies cutesy, petite face from the sky rain addled sky piercing through the glass ceiling above. A dark vignette rapidly drew in from his peripheral vision as he breathed out the last of his words.

"Happy birthday… Bonbon…"

Oliver went still, the hand she held lost its tightness, his arm the strength to keep upright and his eyelids the ability to stay open.

"No-nononononon! Oli! Please no!" She screamed until her voice cracked and broke into hoarseness. She shoved and shoved, pleading for him to just wake up. To just say it's all a joke and that she could punch him in the belly like she always did.

But he didn't. "Please… Oli please… please don't leave me alone." She clasped bundles of his reddened shirt and burrowed her face into his chest uncaring if she painted herself red.

As she lay there she felt it, a weak bounce against her forehead. Her head jerked up disbelieving but hopeful then pressed her air to hear it. That faint, barely audible thump. He was alive but barely.

"Ma'am, please move!" an EMT pushed through the tight-knit crowds of onlookers dragging with him a gurney. Pausing when he saw the two bodies but quickly steeled himself and fell to his knees beside Oliver. Another EMT soon joined and immediately went to stabilize Solenne.

"He's alive!" Bonnie lifted her head and tossed the EMT a bright, hoping smile, "you can save him! Save him!" all the while tears still streaked down her cheeks staining her body.

The man glanced over Oliver's body and a twitch coursed its way across his cheek. There was too much blood, too many holes for him to stabilize at the moment. He was going to need a miracle for this. He looked to the other EMT and his patient then faced Bonnie.

"Ma'am, please, step back. Let us do our job. I will do my best for him." He said as softly as he could.

"No! Not your best! Save him! You have to save him!"

"Please ma'am! Let us work and get him to the hospital. We can't work with you here." Raising his head he looked to the approaching police officers, some of which were filing off to deal with the crowd. One of them drew near and set a gentle hand over Bonnie's shoulder and guided her reluctantly from her brother.

Bonnie didn't have the will to resist. She knew they were right, that she was just a nuisance. The blue dressed officer helped her to her feet and calmly guided her away from the bodies, letting the EMT's go about stabilizing them and lifting them onto the gurney, a second one being brought in when another team rushed in from the parking lot.

She could only watch, her stomach dropping as she saw her brother wheeled off into the distance and disappeared into the bowels of the ambulance.

"Do you want to go with them?" the officer asked.

Bonnie jolted and spun, "yes." She blurted.

"Then let's go." He brought her after the EMT's, practically throwing open the door of his cruiser letting Bonnie take the back seat while he and his partner took the drivers and passengers. "Buckle up back there. This is going to be quite the ride." Flipping on the sirens they blared to life with the red and blue flickering of light shimmering off and glistening against all the glass outside.

Twisting the key the cruiser blared to life with the noise of a roaring lion and in seconds they were chasing after the ambulances. Swerving past corners and dashing through bus lanes with little care to right of way. They didn't have the time to focus on traffic laws. Not them, not even the ambulance.

Minutes later they were at the hospital. It rose high into the sky nigh a skyscraper but far from the tallest. They couldn't follow the ambulances and were left to park at the front entrance. The moment the car came to a stop the officer exited and opened Bonnie's door letting her scramble free, screaming back to them "Thank you!" before disappearing into the hospital in search of her brother.

"You know we have to question her right?" the partner mused.

"I do."

"Do you care?"

"Not one bit."

The partner smirked and looked at the bloody mess of handprints and stains that was the back of their cruiser. That's not coming out easily, he thought. "You are so cleaning this up."

"Sure."

"The chief isn't going to be happy with this. You going to apologize to him?"

"God no. That fucker can stick it where the sun don't shine for all I care. Wasn't just going to leave the girl there on her own. Least now she's near that boy."

The partner smirked, proud of his senior and bobbed his head, "good."