Chapter 9 - Awaken
DISCLAIMER: All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: a horizontal line indicates a scene change.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter, and upcoming chapters, are told from Jack's perspective again. Yay!
My phone dropped out of my hands.
I broke down in tears, holding my head with both my hands as I screamed with sorrow.
"AAAAAAAAAAAH! PRESEEEEENCE!" I called out. And then, everything went black again.
As I regained my vision, I found myself once again in the entirely dark and blackened area where I first met Presence.
"I feel much pity, and great sorrow for your recent loss, Jack." I heard Presence say calmly. I roared at him.
"Pity, huh?! And sorrow?! Yeah, thanks a LOT for that, pal! But it won't get me my Uncle back!" I became even angrier now "And besides, you KNEW that was about to happen! So YOU could have DONE something about it!"
Presence sighed at my words.
"If only that were true... Yet to my regret, I am only allowed to observe, show and advice. Never to interfere."
I growled again, raising and dropping my hands at those words.
"How convenient... How FUCKIN CONVENIENT!" I rubbed my forehead, sighing "So... Now what?"
"My advice to you for now is to remain vigilant. Watchful. Vengeful." Presence replied "For you have been granted a unique gift. You are the Siphon."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that you have the dark power to host the vengeful spirits of those who have fallen to the malicious, the bestial and the insane. As you had already experienced, those spirits will then inform you about how they fell, and grant you portions of their overall prowess when they were still alive." Presence noticed me nodding to his words. He then pointed at me "It is up to you what to do with this gift. Use it to protect those who need protection, or to harm them. Use it to grant vengeance to the fallen, or to aid those who made them fall. Use it for the benefit of the innocent, or for their demise. The choice is yours, though I may already know what you choose..."
I brought a hand up to my vacant left eye socket. I then closed my right eye, sighing...
"...I think you know exactly what I'll do with it."
"We knew We could count on you..." Presence replied, clealy pleased by what I said. Then, everything went black again...
I opened my eye again, noticing that I've dropped on the sidewalk. I moaned for a little while, and heard footsteps approaching me calmly. I looked into the direction of the footsteps, and saw two flashes of light
"Who's there?" I called out, and was answered by the laugh of an insane woman.
"Your time is up..." the woman giggled, approaching me more and more closely.
As she stepped into the light of the nearby lamppost, it was revealed to me that the long-haired female brunette had stitched her mouth, and was dressed in a dark grey hoodie, black skinny jeans and black goth boots, holding a large butcher knife in each hand. But perhaps the most noticeable feature of the lady was something she and I had in common - she also had no left eye. Instead, a pocketwatch's clock was sewn into the eye socket.
The woman lashed at me with one of her knives. I tried to block it with an arm, but she drew blood. I screamed with the pain, then leapt a few feet away from her.
"Stop this!" I warned her "I'm... I'm not what you may think I am!"
"Good..." the woman giggled, lashing out at me again. But this time, I managed to catch both her arms to prevent the knives drawing blood again.
But the cut she had delivered me before forced me to release again. Her free arm then cut my abdomen. I dropped on my knees in pain.
She towered before me, about to deliver me the final blow... but then... then it happened...
I once more got bombarded by a flock of vengeful spirits. The woman noticed me twitching with each spirit entering me, which startled her.
Once the final spirit had entered, a grin formed on my face as the cuts she had delivered me immediately healed again.
"Hahahahahahahaaaaa!" the woman laughed, slashing the butcher knives at me again.
But this time, I didn't just catch them... I actually managed to hurt her arms sufficiently enough to make her drop them. My grin then turned into a more seriously determined look, and I shoved her away from me.
"I warned you, Clockwork!" I yelled at the woman. Her name got revealed to me by some of the spirits that had entered me "Or should I say... Natalie?"
Clockwork looked at me with a hint of fear in her eye.
"What, how... how did you know my real name?!"
"Mommy and daddy are in here, Natalie." I grinned to her "They think you're a VEEEEERY bad girl... and they tell me to discipline you."
I then picked up one of her knives, handing her the other. "But I'd like to see what exactly you're capable of. So let's have a duel."
"Fine!" she declared, slashing at me again. Easily parried. Such a clumsy attack.
"Come ON!" I yelped at her, slashing her arm as I drew blood this time "Try HARDER already!"
The cut visible hurt her, but she let her insanity help her ingore the pain. She then leapt at me, impaling my leg.
I dropped on my knee again, growling with the pain. I then grinned up to her.
"...fool. You just wasted your only chance to kill me."
She realized I was speaking the truth... the only knife she had carried with her was now in my leg!
'Could it have been that he was planning me to do this all along?!' she thought, but then shook her head 'No... no, that's impossible!'
I then got back on my feet, lifting Clockwork off hers by the throat with one hand, removing the knife from my leg with the other. The vengeful spirits used their combined power to heal the wound again.
"Hmph." I sighed at Clockwork, throwing her to the ground again "You're pathetic. Just a stupid insane psychopath. Not worth my time."
I stepped away from her, dropping the knife.
Filled with an insane rage, Clockwork got back on her feet again. She grabbed both knives back off the ground, and leapt at me to slash them at me yet again.
"...you really are a fool." I coldly said, taking a quick dive to evade the attack as I delivered a crushing blow to her ribs with my knee. The knives dropped again.
I picked up one of the knives, towering before her this time.
"Any last words before I'll send you to Hell?"
Clockwork grinned at me "They... they will come for you. The Rake. Eyeless Jack. Smile Dog. Bob. Jeff... they will all come for you. And one of them will kill you."
I leaned close to her face, grinning into her eyes.
"The Rake is already in Hell..." I said, to which her eyes went wide with pure fear. I then slashed the knife at her throat, ending Clockwork's life as the blood gushes from the wound "...and you'll be joining it there, soon."
Two young men were hiding in the shadows just about where Clockwork was before.
"What do you think, Hoody?" one of them asked "Is he a threat to the Master?"
"It sure looks that way, Masky..." the other one replied "We should quickly tell Him!"
The boys hurried their way into a mansion within a nearby forest. They approached a tall and slim figure in the shadows.
"Yes?" the figure asked them.
"Master... Clockwork has fallen." the one who was known as Masky replied.
"Hmmmm... yes..." the slender figure replied "It is of no loss to us, though. She was weak in the first place."
"Master... we fear that the one who ended her could be a threat to your existence." Hoody added.
The slender figure now became a little angrier "WHAT?! You dare defy my power?!"
A shadowy black tendril then wrapped around Hoody, crushing his body a bit.
"MASTER! NO! PLEASE! STOOOP!" Masky called out, and the tendril lowered itself and released Hoody - who fell on all fours, gasping for air.
"...I will give you two 72 hours to find out more about Clockwork's killer." the slender figure said "Should you fail in that, I will end both of you."
"Th-thank you, Master... You are too kind..."
"Now GO! And do NOT fail me again!" were the slender figure's final words to the two young man, who ran off again. A young man with medium brown hair then stepped toward the slender figure from the shadows, wearing a knitted sweater over a dark blue hoodie over his pale face. His round orange glasses and black mask gave him a sinister grinning appearance.
"Yes, Toby? What is it?" the slender figure asked. The young man cracked his neck for a second.
"Master... if you'd let me find the one who killed my girlfriend... I really won't disappoint you!"
"No." the figure replied "Savour that rage for when the killer comes here. Then you can let it all out at them..."
END OF THE NINTH CHAPTER