"Shit, this is why I hate children," said Milo, holding his wounded side where the ghost possessing a small child had stabbed him.
"You want to stay back?" asked Aphrodite, running ahead of him.
"Nah, I'm fine."
They cornered the child on an alley. Death Mask caught up to him first and held up his finger, starting to summon the infernal waves. "It's time to go back home," he said. "You don't belong here anymore."
The child lifted the knife in his hand and slit his own throat. Above them, the feeling of dread that seemed to cover the town heightened. Like a pressure in the air weighing down on them.
"What the fuck, Death Mask!" yelled Milo, rushing to check the child's body, but the wound was too big. He had bled out within seconds, gasping for air and choking on his own blood. "You couldn't exorcise him faster?!"
"I did! The first one was gone, but then another swept in just to kill him. Shit, this isn't just one damn ghost," his hair turned white and his eyes red. "There are dozens around us. Everywhere. Fuck this, I'm just gonna start exorcising everything and innocent souls be damned."
Aphrodite pointed to the entrance of the alley, where a woman stood, a knife in each hand. "Start with that one!"
She ran away and they both ran after her.
Milo set down the boy's body, took off his coat and laid it over him. Someone walked into the alley and he looked up.
Aioros stumbled forward.
"Hey man, are you ok? Where are the others?" asked Milo and jogged up to him. Another red flare lit up the sky a few blocks away.
"I don't know," said Aioros.
Milo noticed the trails of drying tears down his cheek, the unfocused stare. "What happened?"
Aioros shook his head and hunched in on himself, covering his chest.
"Did one of them get to you too? I got stabbed by one of the little bastards. They're possessing anything that moves, it seems."
Aioros shook his head. Voices and footsteps echoed on the streets around them and Milo looked up to see five people staring at him. Fire sets of unfocused, blank stares.
Behind them arrived Shura and Aioria.
"Are all of them possessed? Is that even possible?" asked Shura, running towards the throng of people. He saw Aioros and froze.
"I think they are," said Milo. "Aioros do you see anything?"
Aioros covered his chest even more and fell to the ground.
Aphrodite came crashing through a building overhead and fell into the wall of the alley. "I hate ghosts! I hate them!" he yelled, stepping out of the debris of the hole in the wall where he had crashed. "You give them an inch and they grab a foot. Literally!"
The wall collapsed over him, taking with it half of the building, crashing against the house next to it and falling over Milo and Aioros. Shura ran towards them, slashing at the boulders. Milo destroyed the rest of the debris while shielding Aioros.
"This is becoming a nuisance," said Milo, wiping at the side of his face where a rock had hit him.
Shura knelt down next to Aioros. "What happened to you?"
Aioria came running. "There's dozens! All over the town!" he yelled.
From a street away came Death Mask's voice. "I'm exorcising as fast as I can! You have no idea how many you can't see!"
Shura got no response from Aioros. "Milo what happened to him?!"
"He's off somehow, I don't know. Leave him there, he's not hurt," said Milo, jumping over the debris towards the people stumbling . "I'll paralyze them for a while until we can deal with them!"
Shura stood up. "Don't move," he told Aioros.
Aioros reached out to pull him back. "No. Don't go. Don't leave me," gasped Aioros.
Aioria ran up to them. "Is he hurt? A-Aioros, I-"
Shura pulled him away. "He's not hurt. The presence of the ghosts might be affecting him. Let's get rid of them so we can take him back to the sanctuary."
They left him.
Aioros saw them leave. "No…," he gasped, already losing so much control over his body, he could barely hold his head up. All over him, heavy presences pulled at him, tearing his spirit until he felt diffuse. Weightless. "Only you never let me go. Don't…don't leave me… alone…"
His vision blurred again, tears filling his eyes. He gasped for breath, but he had stopped feeling the air entering his lungs. He gritted his teeth. He felt angry. Betrayed.
Resentful.