Supernatural Influences: Shadow War

Chapter 3

Smoking Out the Snake

Having acquired the information that he was looking for, the man in black hopped across rooftops towards the location of the leader of the local gang, thirsting for the vengeance he would soon taste by the end of the night. After a few minutes, he stopped to catch his breath. The shadows that were in his eyes had faded out and were now filled with tears that were being vigorously choked back. The man reached into his left pocket and pulled out his cell phone, which was surprisingly in good condition. He tapped his contacts and opened his voicemails. At the very top was a voicemail from his mother that had just been delivered that afternoon. Below it was another voicemail also from his mother but was dated back to 10 years ago.

He tapped on the newer message and put the phone up to his ear.

"Leo, it's your mother sweetie. Your aunt called me up earlier this afternoon telling me you weren't at home. She thought you had forgotten about tonight's gathering at 9 and went to your place to check on you." Leo checked the time on his phone and noticed that it was already 8:30. "I know you haven't been feeling all that well considering all that has happened, but please call me back as soon as you can. Talk to you soon." Leo then tapped the saved message.

"Leo… I… I don't know how to tell you this but… (sobs) your father's been shot. Someone barged into his office and shot him. I need you back home immediately. Please, I can't have them take you from me as well!" As he listened to the voicemail, the choked-back tears started streaming down his face, mixing in with the intoxicated rain. As the sobs of his mother continued to ring out from the phone, he couldn't help but think back on the years that led him up to where he is now.

It wasn't always this way, he thought to himself. There weren't always bad times that remain now. There were still some good memories. He then began to recall all the love that he received from his parents.

One memory that first came to mind was the time when his father took him to an Angels game and caught a home run ball. He remembered how once every month, his parents would take him to Disneyland or Knott's Berry Farm and have a blast. They were able to do this because Leo's father was a very high-ranking employee of a software company. Even after all the hardships that Leo and his family had been through, his father's words rang true in his ears:

"You are capable of anything Leo. People will judge you for every little detail that makes you different and unique. Don't ever let them tell you that you won't amount to anything." People will judge me for everything all right. The tears had now been evaporated from the fires of rage in Leo's eyes. But not anymore. It's my turn to play judge jury and executioner.

"You just gonna stand there and get soaked or are you gonna tell me what you're up to?" Leo barely even looked up as a man of age 23 leapt down from a nearby building and onto Leo's building.

"Fancy meeting you here, Ray," Leo said grimly.

As far as clothing, Ray dressed like Leo, except that everything he wore was red, orange, or a mixture of the two. Unlike Leo however, Ray wore a cotton jacket with emblazoned flames running up and down it. He also wore a red headband that made him look like an MMA fighter in search of his next fight. Ray also carried a swiss army knife on his right hip. His hair was slicked up into spikes that were partially held up by the headband.

"So, what you up to?" Ray said, pacing the roof as Leo put away his phone. "By the looks of it, I'd say you've already killed someone, judging by the bloodstains around your pantlegs."

"What's it to you?" Leo jabbed. Ray raised his hands up and shook his head.

"Ay, no need to get all defensive with me." Ray said a little taken aback. "I'm just, how should I put this, offering my services to my best friend."

Leo turned to face Ray and stared at him dead in the face, easing the grimace a bit. "You want to help me?" he said.

"Just like old times," Ray said, smiling. Leo started to smile now as well.

"Okay then," he said. He then threw a map at Ray, which he caught with ease. Unfurling it, Ray noticed a red circle going around a three-story apartment complex.

"I found where the Moccasins are hiding. I was just on my way to slaughter the entire lot of them."

Ray looked up with a plain face. "So, what's the plan?" he asked. Leo then laid out the map and took a red marker.

"I was thinking of just sneaking in and killing the boss first, then have them raging to their deaths, but with you, I can sneak in and kill him like before while you deal with his subordinates." Ray nodded as Leo folded up the map and stashed it into his back pocket.

When the pair reached the apartment building, the sight that met them gave them no doubt in their mind of how easy this job would be. In the parking lot, a fight was occurring. Many men were circled around two other men who were boxing each other.

"This should be easy, Leo. Just leave these guys to me." Ray expected an answer of acknowledgment from Leo but received none to his surprise. "Leo?" Ray then turned to find Leo spinning around in circles. "Leo, what the hell are you doing?"

"We're being watched." Leo said, keeping his eyes fixed on the rooftops of the adjacent buildings. As Leo was gazing towards the west, something caught his eye: a dot of white and silver scanning the area. As if it sensed Leo's gaze, the dot ran back west and out of sight.

"Shit. He must have seen me." Leo said, now directing his attention back towards the boxing match. "We'd better see where he is." Leo then focused as shadows began enveloping his eyes. Leo began to scan the apartments, searching for any sign of the leader with his specter vision.

"Got him!" Leo called out quietly, fixating his eyes towards the room marked with the number 327. Leo then turned to Ray as the shadows receded. "All right Ray. Time to burn some stuff."

Ray grinned as he jumped off the roof and onto the asphalt. He then pulled out his knife and started walking towards the circle.

"Hey!" he shouted. All at once, the men looked at Ray with a sense of hostility on their faces.

"What's this then?" one of them shouted defiantly. "Looks like we got someone with a death wish," another chimed in. Ray then looked to his right and saw Leo sprinting towards the back of the apartments. He then turned back towards the group and with a grin burst into flame. Some of the group started panicking and jumped over the fences, fleeing for their lives. The rest pulled out their pistols and knives as Ray continued to walk towards them. "Time to fry some gangsters!" Ray screamed as he raised his sword and charged towards the gang. Bullets began whizzing towards Ray but to no avail, for they melted from the heat before they could even reach his body. As Ray continued to charge forward, the only sound he heard were the screams of the gang members.

Meanwhile Leo had managed to sneak into the back of the building and leapt up onto the roof. As he looked back towards the parking lot, he could see the slaughter that was unfolding before his eyes. He then turned his attention towards the roof access door. Using his knife, he picked the lock and began his descent into the snake's nest. As he reached the third floor, Leo heard voices coming around the corner. It seemed that there were still some gang members who hadn't gone out to see what the commotion was. Peaking around the corner, Leo noticed two members standing in the middle of the hallway carrying Uzi machineguns. By the look of it, they seemed burly and tough, yet one of them was shaking like a leaf.

"Dude, what the hell! It sounds like a goddamn warzone out there," one of them said. "Yeah, perhaps the fuzz finally found our hideout. All I know is there's gonna be a lot of dead coppers tonight," the other one said, unfazed by the violence occurring outside.

"How can you be so sure?" the scared one asked. "That awful smell tells me otherwise, like someone lit a bonfire outside and is burning something."

"Or someone," the tough one corrected. "We best go warn the boss if he hasn't already been alerted of this commotion."

The two gangsters turned around and began walking vigorously walking down the hall. Leo then extended his blade and began creeping behind them. As soon as he was almost right behind the gangsters, a woman wearing nothing but her underwear stepped out from a room behind the three in the hallway. When she caught sight of Leo, she let out a scream that set off the two gangsters that Leo was stalking. They whipped around only to feel the cold steel of Leo's blade breeze through their necks. More men started popping out of the doors, spraying the hall with lead. Leo went into a blood rage, deflecting bullets and slicing up gangsters left and right until they were littered all over the hall slumping in pools of blood. With the last of the resistance taken care of for the time being, Leo sprinted down the hall until he reached room 327. He kicked open the door only to find the room empty. All that was there were empty wrappers that once contained drugs and women's clothing scattered around the room. There was also a lot of guns in the room: pistols, shotguns, machineguns, assault rifles. This guy looks like he was ready to go to war with the LAPD if he had to. Then from behind, Leo heard footsteps coming from the bathroom.

He raised his sword above his head and kicked open the door. What he found was not the Moccasin leader, but a woman wrapped in a towel who had just finished taking a shower. She shrieked and begged for her life when she saw Leo. Leo, who did not believe in harming innocent people, firmly told the woman to leave the room, which she did, still fearful of Leo. As Leo turned to leave the bathroom, a shot rang out from behind him. Leo collapsed to the ground as he felt a stinging in his right shoulder, trying not to scream from the pain in his shoulder. The man who now stood over Leo was none other than the leader of the Moccasins: Duane Diamondback.

"Well, isn't this a nice surprise," Duane laughed while reloading his double barrel shotgun. "Leo Strauss. It's been quite the while since I've seen your mug." He jerked the barrel up, snapping it into place. "Let me guess." He said, pressing down hard into Leo's wound. "You're here to get your revenge for your father." Leo looked back with eyes of pure hatred, the pain in his shoulder becoming almost unbearable. "Thought you could catch me with my pants hanging low and do me in." He then pressed harder making Leo scream a bit. "You see boy, I'm not like the other gangs around here. Oh no, I'm much more experienced and cunning to be lulled into a sense of security. I'm too wise to think that I can rule the city's underground network and not expect any sort of hostile attempts against me. You see, you're not the first, Leo.

"Now, about your father, he had it coming. The original owner of the company used to pay me good money to keep his company free of any criminal involvement. However, your father thought he could stand up to me and stop paying the usual fee. In fact, when I came in to receive the money, he ordered me to leave his office. So, I had to put him down. I had hoped that you would learn your lesson from his death, but it seems he only became a martyr to you. And now you come to me, thinking I will beg on my knees, pleading for my life as you clear my head from my shoulders. Well, you thought wrong boy. Now it's time for you to reunite with your father."

At that moment, Leo's eyes began to fog up in black shadows as Leo's blade flashed before Duane's eyes and plunged deep into his leg. Screaming, Duane fell back and fired the shotgun in the air. Leo then leapt up and drove the blade into Duane's heart. Before Duane's eyes, the wound seemed to heal itself, driving the buckshot out and onto the floor. Spluttering, Duane gazed in horror as he was met face to face with what saw was a demon cloaked in shadow, eyes burning with the fires of eternal damnation. His mouth agape, he felt like screaming but his voice did not emit a single sound.

Leo drove the blade deeper into Duane's heart. "You murdered my father, threatened my mother, made my life a living hell, and now I stand triumphant over my enemy, my thirst for vengeance and justice quenched and satisfied. Your hell awaits you for all the blood you spilled, all the pleasures you took, and all the lives you destroyed."

With his last breath, Duane grabbed Leo by the collar and yanked him forward.

"You think you've won?" he said weakly. "You've only stirred up the hornet's nest. The darkness will swallow you soon, asshole. He will not let this go unpunished." With his final words, he succumbed to his wounds. Leo yanked the blade out of his enemy and spoke one final sentence. "Burn in hell, asshole!"

Leo then heard swift footsteps from behind him and swung his blade around. It was met by another blade surrounded in white light that clashed against it.