Revolving red and blue lights lit the scene in alternating waves of colored light and darkness. A grim-faced policeman scribbled furiously on his notepad as the traumatized young woman shakily related her story.
The coroner recorded the time of death, and set about preparing the body for removal. Another night, another victim; a criminal with a criminal record as long as the man was tall.
"Cause of death appears to be identical to all the others. I'll need an autopsy to be sure, but it appears he suffered from a catastrophic failure of the central nervous system. CSI has already confirmed: no fur, no paw prints, not even a bit of saliva or tooth mark to be seen," the coroner told the second police officer. "How ever he was killed, it didn't leave a mark or a shred of evidence on the body.
"He called himself Nerrow," whimpered the would-be victim of the deceased criminal. "and he was an Archan... a nightmare Archan..."
In the hustle and bustle, no one saw the single woman detach herself from the crowd of onlookers and slink away into the safety of her front yard.
. . .
Alicia Walker crept into her back yard, pet Tigrean on one side, pet Mortiking on the other. She did not turn on the back yard lights. Enveloped in darkness, she could hear the trilling of insects, the soft twittering of sleepy birds, the soft rustle of trees in the gentle breeze.
"Alicia, we should not be outside. He could get to you too easily in the darkness here." The Mortiking rumbled in concern.
"I know sweetie. I know. Just give me a second, okay?" Then she whispered a word in a voice too soft to be heard by her protective pets. "Nerrow."
It is said the onomatopoeic sound of a heartbeat is lub dub. She could hear the sound of her own heartbeat now.
Lub dub. Lub dub.
Lub...
Silence. The perfect silence of a heartbeat, stilled in mid-beat. And there was nothing. The breeze that moved the trees had gone still. The sleepy twittering of the birds had been silenced. She couldn't even hear her own breathing. She spun to her Tigrean and saw that he was frozen in a half crouch, his head turned away to sweep the far end of the yard to her left. She reached out a trembling hand to touch him, and it was like touching a statue made from marble, with about as much give. Her Mortiking was equally still and stone hard; locked in a posture of wary alertness, still scanning the edges of the yard to the right for the presence of her tormentor. It was as if everything had been frozen in time.
Then she began to notice something else... It seemed so gradual that Alicia wasn't sure it was really happening at first. Everything was becoming... brighter... in a way... the grass, the plants, the tree leaves, the buds and the berries on the bushes were being oddly illuminated by something that was not-quite-a-light, and had no source. The world around her was slowly turning from the black of night into a uniform, stormy gray, every blade of grass and leaf on a plant was sharply outlined by the strange not-light. And as the world seeped to gray, the starry sky became affected too: the stars faded away to nothing. In place of the black, the sky took on a much more frightening color. The world was suddenly bathed in a tide of red, the color of freshly spilled blood, that washed across the sky and then spilled over the gray world around her. Everything was left outlined in a blackness so solid and sharp edged that she wanted to shrink from it.
But she couldn't move. She dared not move.
Because that's when the sound reached her. Low at first, almost a hum. But there was something malignant in that hum. Intelligent and knowing, the hum deepened into a low rumbling that grew louder and louder until it solidified into a deep, deadly snarl.
Alicia strangled the shriek of terror down to a whimper as hot breath ruffled her hair, blowing over the back of her neck. The creature she had called was behind her; looming and threatening. He was waiting for her to turn around. Daring her to try to flee. Like every movie monster that ever waited for its victim to turn around, so that it could savor the look of terror on its victim's face before the teeth tore into them.
As much as Alicia wanted to flee, she knew it would do her no good. She had called it. She had deliberately drawn its attention to her. Nothing she did now would put any distance between her and the creature she had summoned.
"Nerrow," her voice hitched only briefly before she managed to squeak out, "Welcome."
She could hear him inhale, feel the pull of air as he drew in his breath, and the moving air made her hair tickle the back of her exposed neck.
"Oh?" The voice was deep, almost pleasant to listen to; a male baritone as smooth as tumbled stone. "Am I indeed? Welcome that is."
"May I stand and face you? If I am to die tonight, I would like to face my killer."
There was a low chuckle, and she felt him drawing back. He was moving away just a little; giving her the breathing space she needed.
"Thank you." She turned to face him, her face full of fear as she took in the creature that looked like nothing more than Darkness solidified.
The Archan skin that clothed the thing within was a dark, almost greenish gray, and sported rips and tears, exposing blackness beneath. It was as if the real Nerrow was wearing a moldering fur costume, so old and rotted that it was caught in the process of dissolving away, a hair's breadth from falling apart completely and revealing the thing that only vaguely resembled a real Archan.
Black fog billowed and curled through these rips and tears, snaking away and writhing and coiling around on the ground like living appendages. One tendril snaked out and coiled around her calf, and it felt as real and as solid as something belonging to a living creature, for all that it was a gauzy tendril of mist.
Oversized meat hook claws protruded from his massive paws, and brilliantly white teeth gleamed in a muzzle that seemed to be stuck in a wide, maniacal grin. But it was his eyes that riveted her attention. Or to be more precise, the lack of eyes. It looked as though someone had scooped them out with a melon-baller, leaving deep wells with a tiny pinpoint of light far into their depths. Those lights seemed to look right through her, and suddenly she felt as though she was at the bottom of a well, staring up at the sky far, far above.
Alicia swallowed very hard and managed to say, "I have a request."
"I am not accustomed to answering requests," Nerrow's voice was suddenly harsh, threatening, and guttural; "I have a few questions. Why should I do as you request? Why would you ask for such services? And why..." he stepped forward and ran the curved backs of his claws down the side of her face, "should I let you survive calling me here at all?" He trailed his paw down her face, sliding his claws along until the lethal tips nestled oh so gently under her chin for an instant before letting her go.
Her chin quivered, and it took her precious seconds to wet her mouth enough to answer. He gave her those seconds, curious in spite of himself.
"I-I c-came to ask you to do what you always do. Tha-that's question one. For question two, he is someone you would take anyway, once you were aware of him. That's your second answer... As f-for question th-three" she swallowed again and her voice cracked, "I dun- don't exp-p-ect to leave here alive regard-l-less."
Nerrow went very still. If she had whipped out a spoon and threatened to neuter him with it, he couldn't have been more stunned.
"... You have my attention." Nerrow steepled his claws and waited.
She took a deep breath and began. "My name is Alicia Walker. My... my life is in danger. I'm being stalked. Only my fence and my pets have kept me safe so far, but he's been bold enough to stand on a street corner in broad daylight, watching me."
"The police..." Nerrow began, but she shook her head with such vigor that it was a wonder she didn't give herself a migraine.
"He is very high in society. He has the highest paid lawyers in the county and his fingers in every law enforcement related pie as well. He's basically considered untouchable, and the last time I went to the police, he practically got in my face despite two Mortikings and a Tigrean, and smiled and said to never do that again."
"Did he ever hint at what he wants?" Nerrow couldn't stop the question from popping out.
"Me..." she swallowed heavily, "He wants me. He's already made it clear that my children are just expendable pawns. If I do anything he doesn't like, he will hurt my children in order to punish me."
Nerrow blinked slowly. Doomed if she did, doomed if she didn't. Small wonder she took this risk. The Archan killed people in horrible ways, but his track record showed that he never killed the innocent... and especially never touched a child. Nerrow could see that, by comparison, he just wasn't as scary.
"I think I know what you do to your victims." Alicia whispered. "You steal their souls." Nerrow looked sharply at her. "If you kill my stalker, you can have his soul... and mine, in payment. Just so long as my children are safe."
The nightmare Archan was silent for so long, and so completely, that if she hadn't been looking at him, she would have thought that he had left. Finally, he spoke; "Interesting. I wish a test. Before I accept, I wish to know whether your soul is worth the bargain you are offering to me."
"I understand. And I accept your test."
"You may be sorry that those words crossed your lips, human. But it is too late to change your mind." He thrust his muzzle into her face, and for a single moment, their eyes connected.
Alicia felt as though she had been sucked down the holes that made up his eyes. She could actually feel him inside her head; massive meat-hook claws sorting and shifting through thoughts and ideas and parts of her personality with cool efficiency. He paused briefly, eyeing the memories she had of her stalker and tormentor; absorbing details about him. Eventually, he passed everything and settled around the very core of Alicia's very self. For an instant, the woman felt as if he clutched her very existence in his deadly claws and inspected her the way a child would observe an unusual bug.
She quivered in his grasp, but did not fight him. Instead, she tried to quell the gibbering terror that screamed at her to thrust him out and keep him out, to not let him do this. To not let him reach so far into her head and catch hold of the very thing that made her who she was. He had her by the soul, and she could feel how easy it would be for him to rip it out of her.
For that eternal instant, nothing moved, and then suddenly he was withdrawing. Thoughts, feelings, ideas settled back into place as his presence slid out of her mind, leaving nothing behind but a shaken, unsettled feeling.
"Most of your soul has very little of value to me. There is no point in accepting it as payment. And never, under any circumstances, offer your soul to anyone... anyone, ever again." The creature's lips curled back from his teeth in a snarl of pure threat. "I will, however accept your request, and take the tiny part of your soul that does have value to me. There's a part of you that you do not need as part of your soul. A small stain. A small taint, which has no place with the rest of you."
He drew away and Alicia sucked in a deep, shaky breath.
"Do not try to leave your yard. I shall return." Nerrow turned away from her.
"Thank you..."
The Archan did not pause at the whispered words, though he heard them. Closing his eyes and shaking his head just a tiny bit, he slipped out of that red-washed, timeless path. She would have to be dealt with, but first things first.
. . .
"Hello Mr. Samael Teivel." Nerrow's threatening growl cut through the night air.
The man spun around, surprise on his face. He was dressed in high quality clothes, the kind worn by the filthy rich as 'casual' wear. The kind of clothes that could be auctioned off and feed all of Centropolis.
The crime scene of Nerrow's last victim was only half a block down the road, still swarming with cops and curious onlookers. But no attention was directed here, where a single man lurked outside a well-to-do yard.
Nerrow smiled in the darkness, his teeth milk white and sharp. "You've been a bad boy Mr. Teivel." The Archan purred, tendrils of wispy mist snaking along the ground to slowly encircle the man.
Unaware, he straightened under the predator's soulless gaze. "I suppose she hired you to scare me off?" he inquired arrogantly. "Tsk tsk. I shall have to... correct her behavior. You can't touch me, dear kitty. Whatever organization you work for, I can most certainly end your career with a single phone call." So saying, he flipped open a cell phone.
The tendril of dark mist at Mr. Teivel's elbow darted forward and punched through the phone with such force that the pieces flew out of his hand and off into the darkness.
"I think you've mistaken me for a working citizen." Nerrow murmured silkily, "Tsk. Tsk. I shall have to correct your mistaken assumptions. I am no mortal... and mortal laws don't even apply to me."
Blood drained from the man's face.
"Say good night, Mr. Teivel."
The man had just enough time for his eyes to widen in terror, before the Archan locked eyes with him.
Half a heartbeat. A lub without the dub. And Sam Teivel's high pitched, full volume scream of agony and terror cut off... permanently. A soul ripped out of a man's still screaming body, all without ever coming into physical contact.
Chaos. Shouting. Police shoving their way through the dumbstruck crowd, trying to see what was happening. But the shock of the scream had briefly frozen everybody, and everybody had been looking away. By the time even the bystanders had whipped around to look, the only sight was that of the body falling to the ground... with nothing and no one next to it. The dark predator had already slipped out of the world and back into that timeless, red-washed path.
. . .
Alicia barely had time to register that he was gone before he was padding his way back.
"It is done." There was something on his face that kept her from doubting his simple statement... something that reminded her of a well-fed, mortal Archan. He helped the impression by licking his lips, slowly and deliberately, a satisfied expression somehow conveyed in those dark pits that passed for eyes.
"I will keep my end of the bargain," Alicia quavered.
"I never doubted that you would." The statement was almost kind, and he locked eyes with the young woman for the second, and final, time.
Something darted into her mind; fine like mist, quick as thought. She felt the cut, so clean and precise that the feeling of a piece of her soul being cut away and consumed didn't even register as pain.
...dub. Lub dub. Lub dub.
She was enveloped in darkness, which made her feel odd for some reason. The sounds of an ordinary summer evening surrounded her; chirping insects, sleepy birds, the rustle of the trees around her. She had the strangest thought that everything had been completely silent and still for that span of time between one heartbeat and the next, but couldn't grasp it. After a moment, she let it slip from her thoughts. It was silly, really, to think that things had gone dead silent and her pets had not reacted to it.
Alicia reached out and caressed her Tigrean's head, feeling the soft thickness of his fur. She blinked and looked around, feeling a very strange, and faint, sense of loss. She had come outside and then... and then... why had she come outside anyway? She shouldn't. She knew her stalker was lying in wait for a moment of vulnerability.
There was a sudden, very loud, and very agonized scream from the road... and it cut off very abruptly.
Her Tigrean grunted in alarm and snapped his head around to look toward the sound, ears flicking back and forth as chaos erupted on the road. Police were yelling.
Her Mortiking was quicker on the uptake. "Inside."
"What..." Alicia started.
"Inside!" Her powerful pet seized her arm in his jaws in a firm grip and dragged her back to the house, hustling her in, where her second Mortiking was already bounding forward to meet them all at the back door. The portal closed, cutting off the sounds of pandemonium that had broken out just outside the gates.
"I WANT EVERYBODY TO CLEAR THE AREA RIGHT NOW!" came the dim, authoritative bellow of a police officer on a bullhorn. "INSIDE! I WANT EVERYBODY INSIDE UNLESS THEY ARE DIRECTLY ESCORTED BY AN OFFICER FOR QUESTIONING!"
For some strange reason, the yelling of the police was comforting, and she felt exhaustion dragging at her eyelids as her pets hustled her to the couch and pressed her into it, taking up their customary spots to protect her. She sank into a deep, healing sleep as soon as she hit the couch cushions.
. . .
A loud pounding on the door made Alicia sit up abruptly, blearily rubbing sleep from her eyes. Her two Mortikings had taken up positions on either side of her, their customary protective spots whenever she managed to catch a few winks of uneasy sleep ever since the whole ordeal started. Her Tigrean lifted his head and yawned deeply, stretching in her lap with the lazy grace that every waking feline shared.
The pounding came again and she stumbled to the front door. One of her Mortikings answered the door first, growling menacingly in case it was that rat bastard who had been stalking her. His bared teeth were hastily covered at the sight of two police officers standing on the front step, grim-faced and holding a notebook and pad of paper.
A team of very exhausted looking CSI members were swarming outside her gate. A body bag was lifted into the back of the coroner's transport vehicle. Flashes of light dazzled her eyes even at a distance as they took the final photographs of the now processed scene.
"Sorry to bother you ma'am, but we have some routine questions for you." The officer announced. Numbly she let them in.
"Were you home all night last night?"
"Yes."
"Did you go outside at all?"
"Just for like... two minutes. I needed some fresh air. Two of my pets were in the back yard with me." She gestured to the pets in question, who nodded their confirmation.
"Did you hear anything unusual outside?"
"A scream," she admitted. "We hurried inside immediately. What's going on?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out ma'am," one of the officers grunted, stone faced.
The questioning was brief and efficient. She finally managed to piece together that her stalker had been murdered less than half a block from an entire team of police officers, who had been working on another criminal victim. It had caused a massive stir, and the news was having a field day.
"Ma'am, does the name 'Nerrow' mean anything to you?" One officer finally asked.
After a moment of thought, Alicia shook her head in bewilderment. "No. I don't think I've ever heard that name before."
The officers both sighed wearily. "Thank you for your time ma'am. If you need to leave the house today, please use a side gate until the CSI team can finish processing the area in front of your house."
Before they left, Alicia gave them her case number so they could look up her complaints against Samael as part of their investigation, but she suspected that little would come of it. The Dark Predator killed criminals. That was well known. It wasn't like anyone could hire the terrible creature; it was on its own killing spree with unknown motives. The only ones that survived the whole ordeal were the ones that the Archan had no interest in, also for unknown reasons. She accepted the officer's card and promised to contact them if she recalled anything else about that night.
Shutting the door behind them, she slumped to the floor, tears of relief streaming down her face as she embraced her pets.
She was free.
She was free!