The Fall

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Chapter Zero, Chapter One

Chapter Two - "Guardian"

Part I

Part II

"That's not-"

Nathan's words, intended to offer clarity on why he had told her no, were cut short. A glimpse of the live stream now occupying the smart screen took complete hold of his attention, and his heart began to race.

Two night's prior, while watching Chloe's channel, Nathan and Ellie had learned of a serial killer operating in the Eastern district. The murderer had been making a show of his kills by streaming them on the chain. Chloe's plea to the community of London, begging them to flag the stream and to stop providing the killer with the audience he sought for, had clearly not been heard.

The video on screen, and being viewed by 36662 others, depicted a middle-aged man strapped to a table in a dimly lit room. His arms were spread out wide and bound with rope, and he had a thick layer of duct tape wrapped around his mouth. The terrified man's puffy eyes begged for mercy towards the point-of-view camera upon the killer's head, as they circled their prey slowly.

"You deserve it." Whispered the killer, before offering a sinister chuckle and raising a large hunting knife into the visibility zone of the camera.

Pouncing from his seat, Nathan snatched the remote from Ellie's hand and quickly switched the stream back to Chloe's feed. "You don't need to be seeing that." He said, realising the little he knew her to have witnessed and experienced in her short time, was likely far worse.

Chloe Petrov's stream now showed revolving text expressing that she would be back shortly, inviting the question as to whether she too had gone to watch the murder.

"It's not fair."

Nathan's eyes widened with surprise as he landed back on his seat. He turned and looked towards Ellie, curious to learn what had finally, after all this time, inspired her to speak.

"It's not fair that you all get to live up here in the heights." She turned her eyes from his unto the screen. "Safe."

"You live here too now." He responded, poorly masking his dissatisfaction with that fact. Hoping she didn't notice his revealing tone, he followed up his words quickly. "But you are so wrong about that one, girl."

Ellie placed her apple on the table and shifted her back against the arm of the couch, turning her body to face Nathan. She lifted her bare feet onto the couch, took hold of her ankles, and tucked her head behind her knees, showing only her eyes peering over the top of them. "How?"

Part III coming soon.