Redemption chapter 25

Alessa just kept her eyes on the man walking before her. She knew this place liked to play tricks and if she got separated from him she'd never find her daughter. Maybe she should have gone with Grif and Simmons, but it was too late to turn back. If following this man would help her find her child she'd risk this false Alex leading her into a trap. She had a sort of automatic trust toward this man that looked like her husband though she tried to keep in mind that it could all be an illusion.

"You should have gone with the others." Alessa looked over her shoulder, searching for the source of the voice but found nothing. There was just a long empty hallway.

"Stupid girl, you actually trusted me. You actually think I'm taking you to their daughter." For a moment Alessa didn't know the source of the voice and then realized it was Alex's voice.

Alessa grabbed the man's arm and he spun around to face her. "What did you just say?" she demanded.

Alex furrowed his brow. "I didn't say anything," he answered. "I've just been walking."

"No, I just heard you. You said something. What was it?" she demanded. Alex took a step back and held his hands up. "Don't lie to me."

"I'm not lying. I didn't say a word." He suddenly spun around and cursed. His gaze turned up, toward the ceiling. Alessa looked up as well and saw the lights hanging above them. "Damn little pests."

"What are they?" Alessa asked, reaching out toward them. They defended a bit toward her and Alex forced her to pull her hand back. "What?"

"Leonard calls them fragments," Alex explained. "Unless you see my mouth moving, saying words, don't listen to anything you hear. These things are meant to pray on our fears. If they touch you you can't get them off and they'll just keep talking to you. Everything they say is a lie, it's just what you fear," he advised.

"Why does he call them fragments? They're just lights, not really fragments of something." Alessa moved away from one that was drifting down.

"I don't know. They weren't made for me, they were made for him. Therefor he got to name them." Alex reached out for her hand. "Let's keep moving."

Alessa didn't take his hand, just moving forward. He let his hand fall and they continued down the hallway. Alex only brought them to a stop when he spotted an odd symbol on the wall. He reached out and touched the symbol, closing his eyes. Alessa just watched, not understanding what he was doing. "What's that?" She finally asked.

"It is a mark left by Leonard. It is a bad sign. He shouldn't be able to do things like this." Alex turned away from the symbol. "We need to hurry." He moved off down the hallway a bit faster than before. Alessa had to hurry to catch up with him.

Soon the light around them faded and they descended into darkness. She felt Alex take her hand and allowed it. His hands were cold and it left Alessa more worried then reassured by his presence. She just kept reminding herself that he seemed to have a connection with her father and even if she had doubts about this Alex she trusted her father. Alex suddenly stopped and Alessa nearly ran into the back of him.

"What is it?" Alessa asked, unable to see anything. She reached out and found a stone wall, feeling an odd grove in the wall, and on one side of her and nothing within reach.

"There's a door," Alex answered. "Move back." Alessa did as he instructed and his hand slipped from hers. She may not have been comforted by him but she was more afraid without a connection in the dark to her protector. She could hear wood splintering as something hit it. It continued for a couple seconds before a hand landed in her shoulder. She jumped a bit. "It's just me," Alex assured her. "I don't know what's on the other side, be ready." With that is hand moved from her shoulder and a second later she heard him ram the door. She stood still as he hit it three more times before he door gave to his force, bursting open.

Red light flooded the hallway and Alessa could see where they had been. The hallway they had been in was large enough for three people to walk side by side and at least ten feet high, all around them the wall was covered in deep marks like something had scratched up the walls. The for ahead of them had been barred closed and she couldn't see past Alex ahead of her. He stood in the doorway, axe in hand, ready to strike.

Alex charged forward and Alessa moved forward, watching as he charged another man. She recognized him as the man who had attacked her father. The man raised a led pipe to try to protect himself from Alex's axe swings. She moved into the room watching as the two men fight. Alex seemed proficient with the axe but the other man was holding his own with his pipe. There were others in the room that were watching the fight but made no move to intervene. There were a couple men but before them stood a woman who looked familiar to Alessa. She almost reminded her of her mother. The woman watched the fight with indifference, apparently not caring who won or if either of them died.

"Dad?" Alessa's turned toward the voice, feeling hope. She felt a sort of relief as she spotted Alana but a fear at the same time that she was here, in danger. Alana was watching Alex and the other man fight and she thought he was the same man as her father. Alessa moved across the room and to her daughter." Mom, what's going on? I don't understand." As soon as Alessa was close enough Alana grabbed onto her mother's shirt. "Dad died, I saw it. I saw them kill him." Alana was becoming more and more frantic as she spoke.

"What?" Alessa didn't know what her daughter was talking about. "That's not your father, he just looks like him. Your grandfathers are taking your father to be healed, he's not dead," she tried to explain. She hugged her daughter to her chest, trying to calm her down.

Alana clung to her mother. "Mom, what have they done to grandpa?" She lifted her head and Alessa looked down at her, confused. Alana pointed across the room and Alessa turned to look at what she was indicating. She held Alana closer as her mind finally made sense of what it was seeing. She first realized that it was a person, and that person was still alive. Blood drips from open wounds and after a moment she finally was able to identify the man. Alessa froze, her heart beating fast and she felt a bit sick. It was her father, hanging from some structure, bleeding.

Alessa's attention was drawn away from her father as an axe hit the floor not far from them. She turned to look to Alex who had lost his grip on the weapon and was now holding onto the other man's lead pipe, trying to force him back. The other man lost his footing and Alex used it as a change to do some damage. He pushed forward and the two men fell to the ground, Alex pinning the man to the ground. Alex got the better grip on the pipe for a moment and he pushed it down, pinning it against the other man's throat, trying to strangle him. His opponent was pushing back, keeping the pipe from pressing enough on his throat to cut off the air.

"Enough of this, you are wasting time. God must be forged." The woman stepped toward them, pulling a combat knife from her belt. Alex looked over his shoulder as she moved toward him but before he could do anything she had driven the knife into his side. Alex rolled over and the woman pulled her knife free from his flesh. "That's how you take care of an enemy. Use a weapon with an actual blade." Alex tried to grab at him but the woman grabbed at his hair and she pulled his head up a bit. The woman swung her knife, cutting through his throat, spilling his blood onto the floor. Alex's hand went to his throat and tried to stop the blood but the damage was done. Alex fell to the side and lay on the floor, struggling to keep his blood in his body.

"Alex!" Alessa felt fear and in that moment she forgot that he wasn't her husband, was some other man. He was struggling to take in breath and his blood was starting to pool on the floor. Alessa gripped Alana a bit tighter, trying to shield her from the sight.

The woman stood over Alex and just watched him die. "You should be happy. You'll get to see the glory of God. See the world reborn in a more merciful way then the demon that you've been worshiping." She knelt down and wiped the blood on Alex's jacket before she stood up again.

"Idiot," Alex choked out. "God has no glory, or mercy." He coughed and move blood spilled forth. "God only brings Hell."

The woman kicked him and Alex collapsed to the floor. "Quiet! You have no idea what God is like. God will bring salvation; chase away the demon that you worship." Alessa froze as the woman turned to her. "Now to take care of these two. The girl has no purpose anymore and the child has no reason to be saved."

Alessa held Alana tighter as the woman neared. The woman pulled raised her knife and Alessa buried her head against Alana's hair. "Dad!" The blow didn't strike them. Alessa lifted her head and looked up at the woman. She was staring up and Alessa looked up as well. Something hit her cheek and Alessa reached up, rubbing the drop away. When she looked at her finger the liquid was red. Another drop hit her and steadily the fall of the liquid started to increase.

The dripping became rain and Alessa couldn't figure out where it was coming from. The water was starting to gather on the ground around them. Alessa stood up, pulling Alana up with her. The liquid that was covering them was thick and warm, matting in her hair and soaking their clothing. The hostile woman cursed and moved a bit away from them. "What is this?"

There was movement to Alessa's side and she looked over to see that Alex's body had vanished under the surface, but there was a lot of movement of the liquid in that area. An arm suddenly shot up, thickly coated with what Alessa was now sure was blood. A mass rose out of the blood, though it was too coated with the liquid for her to properly identify it. The figure stopped and the blood rain stopped, the level of blood on the floor starting to lower as if a drain plug had been pulled and finally it could flow away.

Blood flowed off of rusting the angled rusty helmet. Pale white skin appeared as the red liquid slowly ran down the figure's body. Bloody pants hung loosely from the person's hips. Alessa reconsidered calling it a human as she realized that there was something on its back, a pair of somethings. Bat-like wings spread a bit to stretch the stitched together flesh of the wingsails. On its arms were a monstrous pair of gauntlets that covered the back side of the creature's forearms and its hands. It looked like plates of metal overlaid, stabbed into the sides of the arm to hold them in place. They went from the thing's elbows down to its wrists. The gloves reminded Alessa of old knight's gauntlets. The fingers were long and sharp, like daggers attached to the monster's digits.

The monster turned its great pyramid head toward the woman and it flexed its fingers. The woman turned toward the other man in the room. "Kill it," she ordered.

"What?" The man looked between the woman and the monster. "How the hell am I supposed to kill it? I've never even seen anything like it." He took a step back from the thing. "Aren't you supposed to be the trained soldier?"

"You are absolutely worthless, Henry. Just shoot it," the woman urged.

Henry reached for a gun on his hip and the monster turned toward him. The monster took a step forward, its foot making a sick squish as it touched the bloody floor. The room around them rumbled and Alessa realized the sound was coming from the creature, it was growling. Henry fired but the shots ricochet off the metal helmet. One shot hit the creature's shoulder but it didn't seem to even notice. It just walked right up to him and the man tried to run away but the creature's hand struck out. It's long fingers stabbed into Henry's shoulder and kept him from moving away. The creature's second arm moved out, fingers stabbing through Henry's chest. The man screamed in pain, blood dripping from the wounds. The creature pulled it's fingers from Henry's chest and blood flowered faster from his chest.

The creature shook his hand and Henry slid off, crumbling to the ground. It then turned, facing away from Alessa and facing Church. Alana pushed herself out of her mother's arms. "Stay away from him!"

The creature stopped and turned back toward Alana. Alessa moved between her daughter and the thing. It didn't move toward them though, rather back to Church. It moved over toward the man but stopped a few feet away. It reached out and the fingers started to bleed and the metal cracked. It withdrew its hand and growled in anger. It took a step forward but the same thing happened to its metal helmet. The creature stepped back and let out a loud roar.

"You can't touch him, unholy monstrosity," the woman stated. She took a step toward the monster and raised her knife. "You are too late to stop it. I will have what I desire and God will be born."

There was movement and Alessa's attention turned to Church. His head slowly rose and she could see that there was blood caked to his face where it had run down his face. "That's enough, Carolina. Put an end to this." His voice was strained and followed by a cough, new blood coating his lips.

"No, this has to happen," Carolina argued. "God must be born. I have done the will of what is meant to be."

"The past is the past, it's time to let it go," Church countered. His eyes suddenly widened and his hands clenched. Church's head fell back and he screamed in pain. Invisible blades cut along his skin, fresh blood pouring forth and dripping down to the floor below.

A smile spread over Carolina's face and she took another step forward. "Yes, the time has come. God shall be born!"