...I'll succeed as you breathe your very last breath...
~.....~
Julian straightened to his feet with wicked satisfaction drawn across his features. He landed a hard kick in Mikael's side and chortled with obvious delight.
"So this is what the great Mikael has become." Julian said, circling him with a ravenous sneer.
Mikael rolled over onto his stomach with a painful groan.
"A devil with no power. Bound by rules from an Entity that loathes our kind as much as we loath Them. Pathetic."
"Screw you." Mikael choked.
"Do something." Jenny whispered urgently, and Mikael lifted his head to look at her. "You do have power. Show him."
"What a joke." Julian said. His foot came down and smashed into the side of Mikael's head.
Mikael dropped his face into the ground and lay still for a moment, before his limbs began to move in excruciating sluggishness. He was trying to crawl away.
"Where do you think you're going?" Julian said playfully.
He came down on his haunches directly in Mikael's path. A very clear 'pop' resounded through the charged air, and Mikael stopped moving.
"You don't know... who... you're dealing with." Mikael mumbled.
"There is just no end to your cockiness, is there?" Julian chided, and another 'pop' snapped through the air. This time Mikael let out a scream.
"Don't do this. Please, Julian..." Jenny sobbed and crawled on the ground beside Mikael. She didn't bother to wipe the hot tears streaming down her cheeks anymore. "Mikael, don't let him do this."
"I'll come for you." Mikael whispered in a strained voice. "Jenny...tell Anny..."
Julian's malevolent laughter drowned out his words. "Shame on you, you lowly bastard. How dare you try give her any hope? You know, I'm going to kill Andrea in the slowest, most painful way imaginable. Pity you'll be dead in a few minutes. I wanted you to watch."
"Mikael, do something," Jenny pleaded.
"I can't." Mikael breathed hard and tensed. "It hurts too much."
Julian wrung his hands together and paused to stare at them. "Not much of a devil."
Mikael let out a weak laugh.
Jenny tried to scramble away when Julian reached for her, but his reflexes were snake-like and he hauled her to her feet quickly.
"Kill him."
Something that resembled a column of ash descended from the sky. A low, buzzing noise started up, and Mikael tried to crawl faster. The column separated into three. The next moment, Mikael was flung onto his back like a ragdoll.
"Ow, fuckit..." Mikael groaned out.
The first cloud of ash raked across him, and when it pulled away from his screaming form, he didn't resemble anything human. The Invisible Man, Jenny thought in pure horror. He was a piece of meat made up of sinewy muscle and bleeding tissue.
The second cloud of ash attacked. Mikael's screams came to a dead stop. When the particles lifted off, the flesh was nearly gone from his bones. She could see his intestines, purple and red and black things. She could see his heart through the gaps between his ribcage – it was still beating.
And the smell. Jenny staggered away when the last cloud of ash enveloped what was left of his body, and she bent down and gagged.
She struggled when Julian seized hold of her.
"You won't win this war. I won't let you." Jenny spat at him.
"Careful, Jenny. I'm not in the mood for your games tonight." Julian said.
Jenny pulled free of him and turned to run, when the sight left on the ground made her blood freeze. A skeleton lay where Mikael had been only a moment before. All flesh was cut clean off – the bones were a deep golden ivory, smooth, polished. Mikael was dead. Really, truly dead.
Jenny was doomed.
~...........~
A/N: As I said, just for you Raven ;)
Don't feel too sorry for him, btw. He's seen way worse than this, ha ha ha evil laugh :)
Reviews *pulls out begging hat* reeeevieeeewwwwssss...
