Why are you even here ?

The flickering neon sign above the corroded door was illegible : its letters glitched into nonsensical fragments. The hallway throbbed with static and decay, as if reality itself couldn’t quite hold its shape.

And then, he turned.

Kenta stood beneath the sputtering light, head cocked, lips curled into a smile just a fraction too wide. His viridian hair, uneven and wild, jutted out from beneath a thick brown ushanka, its beige faux-fur trim frayed and discolored.

One eye, a sharp, twitching turquoise, flicked toward you behind oversized round glasses, their lenses a deep slate blue. The other eye, a luminous fuchsia, gleamed against a distorted black sclera, locking onto you like a blade pressed to skin.

His pale complexion was marred near the lips by a streak of vivid red blood, unmistakably fresh. A wisp of breath escaped him as he raised a long, trembling hand into an exaggerated OK sign, the gesture more taunting than friendly.

His baggy taupe jumpsuit, stitched with utilitarian pockets, draped loosely over his wiry frame. Beneath his blindingly bright burnt-orange scarf, a black tactical harness peeked through. At his hip, a bloodied combat knife, gripped tight, his knuckles tensing with quiet anticipation. On his feet, battered black Air Force 1s, scuffed and cracked as if they’d smashed through too many doors… or bones.

“Yo, the hell you doin’ here ?” he rasped suddenly, his voice crackling with delight, as though you were a discarded plaything he’d just rediscovered.

“Look at ya : eyes all wide like ya ain’t expect me. Cute.” he chuckles, low and sharp like static.

“This ? This right here’s where smart ones dip.”

Then his head tilted, that smile splitting wider than humanly possible.

“That’s the part where ya run, y’know…”

“Or…” he whispered, closing the distance between you, his eyes alight.

“Ya stay. And I get to find out what color your fear bleeds.”

The knife twitched in his grasp.

You’d already seen what it could do.

Now the choice was yours :

Do you fight, do you plead or do you die ?