"Hello?"
Allen tore his gaze away from the gruesome scene before him when he heard the voice. In the doorway stood a curious looking teen. His trench coat, trousers and boots were all black, and he had shoulder length red hair, with bangs that covered his eyes.
The red haired boy didn't seem shocked or horrified by the blood and limbs that covered the floor, like Allen thought he would be. In fact it looked as if he didn't see them at all.
The stranger's head turned in the direction of the crying orphans.
"Is anybody hurt?" He asked, making his way over to them.
"Koda~" The children wailed.
The young man reached his hand out and touched one of the kid's faces closes to him, a girl named Evangeline who was about seven years old, wiped the tears of her face with his sleeve and pulled a handkerchief out of his coat pocket for her to blow her nose.
"It's ok. I'm going to get you out of here" He smiled.
The girl gave a wry smile in response, which quickly faded when she screamed "Look out!" and pushed the stranger to the ground.
A loud Crack echoed through the room, causing the children to scream and scurry about.
"Elfy! What are you doin'!?" Allen yelled. The cracking sound had been his sister's fist crashing through the wall right above the young man's head.
The teen pulled a gun out of a sheath on his left thigh and aimed it at the girl's head.
"Why are you trying to kill me?" He growled.
Her answer was to pull her arm out of the wall and pounce at him again. He dodged her attacked and shot, but only hit her in shoulder.
"Damn I missed" He aimed again.
"No!" Allen grabbed his arm.
The stranger tried to shake the boy off, but to no avail, "Get off me kid! Can't you see your friend is trying to kill us?"
"She- She gotta to be possessed'r somethin'! She doesn't look normal!"
Allen was right, Damon did look strange. Her hair was a silvery-white, and her eye's were like oily black pools that had no emotion in them whatsoever. Under them were lines that went down her face and other marking seemed to decorate the rest of her body, but were partly covered by her cloths. Her nails had turned into claws. Her canines had grown into long fangs, and the mark on her tongue was glowing purple.
The young man hesitated. What if she really was possesed?
"Well, what do you suggest we do?" His turned to the boy.
Allen bit his lip "I have no Idea..."
The young man sighed heavily. "Alright. If I can't kill her then what do I do?"
A sudden idea sparked as the two dodged another blow.
"What triggered your friends...outburst?" the redhead asked in a strangely calm voice.
"W-wha?" Allen's voice was nowhere near calm.
"Why did she go berzerk?"
"Oh, ah, 'cause Koda died."
"Koda?"
The boy nodded over to the child's body "That's 'im there"
The teen shook his head "Um, I'm gonna need more direction than that."
Allen gave him a puzzled look. Which of course the young man didn't see.
"I'm blind."
The boy said nothing for a moment, then shrieked "YOU'RE BLIND AND YA USE A GUN!?"
Now it was the stranger's turn to be puzzled "Why is that always the first question?"
This guys an idiot... Allen thought.
"Anyway why do ya wanna know what made her freak out?" still holding the red head's arm the boy quickly led him to where the dead child lay.
"We have to get her out of here because if she stays in here with the kids much longer she'll end up killing them. And my guess is she'll target anyone who is directly connected to the reason she's upset. So if I do this..."
The stranger bent down and picked up Koda's body "...She'll-" He hadn't even finished talking when Damon tackled him to the ground, making him drop the child, and started punching him repeatedly.
"As- I- suspected- OW!" he said in between punches.
"He's so stupid..." Allen sighed, "weren't ya suppose ta get out the door before this happened?"
"That- Was- Plan-"
"Sorry about this Koda..." said the boy, as he picked up the child's corps, knowing that he had to get Damon out of the room.
Just as Allen made it out the front door and outside, a sharp pain shot through his leg causing it to buckle. He glanced down to see three large gashes on his left thigh.
Lifting his head back up he looked at Damon with a look of pure sadness.
"Elfy, please... It's me. Allen, your brother. I know this ain't you! Ya have to fight it!"
He begged and pleaded. But nothing worked. Instead of giving up, he struggled to his feet, ignoring the pain, and staggered over to his sister, hugged her and buried his face into her shoulder.
"Ya must hate me..." He sobbed "Koda died 'cause a me! I couldn't save him or the Hamlets o-or you! I'm sorry I'm so weak!"
Allen knew that what he said hadn't affected her in the slightest, and that he was going to die by her hand. But he only hugged her tighter, closed his eyes, and waited for the finishing blow.
But it never came. And the reason for that was the three words that come from the person the boy thought he'd never hear again.
"Damon Walker, stop!" Mana's voice rang through the air. And Damon's body stopped moving.
XXXXXXX
"It's hot... It smells like... blood and rotting flesh... Where am I? I'm...I'm afraid to open my eyes... Was what happened... real?"
I didn't know if that was a nightmare... Or reality. The excitement that the sight of their blood gave me was sickening. The sound of my own blood pounding in my ears was almost deafening. But not so that I couldn't hear them scream. How strange... it's all so clear, and yet... It's as if the one that did all this... wasn't me...
Hee hee, You're close.
"Who are you?"
You. But not you.
"That doesn't make any sense."
It does and it doesn't.
"Mmh..."
If you don't believe me... Just open your eyes.
I did. But I wish I hadn't. Because what I saw... Was hell.
XXXXXXX
After Mana had called out to the Damon she had broken out into a fit of screaming and crying.
"Mana what's wrong with her? Why won't she stop screamin'?" Allen asked his foster father, panic evident in his voice.
Before he could reply a low booming voice shouted "Freeze!"
Allen and the old clown's heads whipped around to see the sheriff of Alexandra, Stefan Helope, and about a dozen other officers, pointing guns at the them.
"I don't wanna hurt you and your kids, Walker, so just come quietly and nobody has to get hurt."
"W-why are you here?" the boy asked.
"One of the kids from the orphanage called..."
Allen flinched and pulled Damon, whose wailing had calmed to soft hiccuping noises, closer to him.
"This is about my daughter." Mana didn't say it as a question.
Sheriff Stefan nodded slowly, "Yes it is. And I'm afraid we're going to have to take her from you."
Allen open his mouth to tell the sheriff he'd have to kill him to get to his sister, but didn't get the chance before the red headed stranger showed up. Taking a defensive stance between the officers and the trio.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that."
"Who are you?" Stefan's studied the teen.
"Oh, my apologies. My name is Shigure Yamazaki and that girl," red hair pointed at Damon "is going to help me find a serial-killing slave trader I'm looking for."
"And who is this serial-killing slave trader exactly?"
"James Colavich. But your town knows him as Father Grimms."
"No way! Father Grimms is a good man!" one of the men shouted.
"Father Grimms is a liar, a human trafficker and a murderer! Nothing about him was good by any stretch of the imagination." Damon yelled from her crouch on the ground.
"Shut it kid. How do we know you didn't kill Grimms, eh?" another officer said.
The girl shot to her feet, noticing her actions made Allen flinch, then strode forward and took up a place beside Shigure.
"Oh I will." her words came out on a growl "And every other scumbag like him. And I promise you, I'm not going to jail until I do.
"I'm afraid you don't have a choice." said the sheriff, "You're coming with us. Now."
Damon tensed to run, calculating her scenarios of escape, when a gruff voice said "So we're takin' the girl are we brat?"
Damon and Shigure both felt a heavy arm drape over their shoulder.
"Care to explain?"
Shigure paled "Y-yes sir..."
The man smirked "I'm waiting."