Acherontia Atropos: Part 1
I let out a soft sigh and stared at the tattered manga in my hands.
It was a historical one this time, about a legendary sword guy
that swore off killing. Interesting stuff.
Not that I could concentrate on it. Hell no. How could anyone
concentrate on anything when the object of all their lusts,
embarrassing dreams and dirty thoughts was sitting not five feet
away, clad only in a pair of thin cotton boxers. My life is just
too damn hard sometimes - I should get put up for sainthood when I
die.
The room was completely silent except for the steady clacking of
the keys of Heero's laptop. I and the other pilots had been to a
lot of schools before in our travels, but this one took the cake
as far as cheap, tiny rooms went. It was definitely something
smaller than a breadbox. The two narrow beds in the room were
practically side-by-side, and this time around, we had to share a
desk. The bathroom, well, I didn't know what to compare it with.
If I wanted to take my life into my hands and attempt to dry off
in the bathroom and away from Mr. Perfect Soldier, I had to get
into the shower to do it, or else risk falling over the toilet.
About the only thing this prison cell of a dorm room had going for
it was the fact that it was clean, new, and had some kick-ass
wiring for my stereo system.
Not that Heero ever let me turn the stereo ON when he was in the
room.
With another sigh, I put the manga on my face and let my eyes go
unfocused. Heero just kept typing away, completely oblivious. Damn
him. The silence stretched out longer and longer - funny how I
hadn't noticed it until I thought about it - until I just couldn't
take any more.
"Hey, Heero."
No answer.
"Heero!"
"Yes?"
Hot dog. A response, and only on the second try. I was in business.
I pulled the manga from my face, hoping that there weren't smears
of ink on my nose, and sat up. "Whatcha lookin' at?"
"Information on this school."
I waited, just to see if he would elaborate on his own. No luck.
"What kind of info?"
Heero swiveled in his chair and fixed me with one of his glares.
It was the kind of look you'd get from a wolf right before it
decided if you were threat or food. A normal person would have
gotten the hint and left him the hell alone. After dealing with
him on a personal level for over a year, though, I'd gained some
immunity. "Well?" I grinned at him.
Heero snorted and turned his attention back to the laptop. The
clicking started back up. "Nothing of interest," was his only
comment.
"Come on, Damnit, tell me! It's not nice to tease!" I jumped off
of my bed and tried to look over his shoulder. For once, he let me,
which made today something to mark down on the calendar. Some
girl's school file was on the screen; picture, class schedule,
pertinent information, uniform size, the whole shebang. "Why Heero,
I never figured you for the voyeuristic type..."
He ignored me. Just peachy. I leaned over his shoulder to take a
better look at the file. Heero'd gotten a lot easier with casual
touching ever since his - damn, I never knew what to call it -
brush with death. So friendly touching was okay now. Most of the
time. Anyway - the file. It belongs to one Kishiro Ayako.
Ayako. Something about the name struck me as familiar. For a long
moment, I just leaned against Heero, thinking. Oh yeah, Ayako was
one of the girls in my class - good ol' grade eleven, class four.
Quiet, unobtrusive, kept to herself and didn't hang all over me
like most of the other girls, which was probably why I'd never
noticed her much. I was too busy flirting with her friends. Me, an
attention whore? Naw.
Something niggled in the back of my mind about her. "Hey, she
wasn't in class today, right? Why are you looking at her file?" It
took me a couple minutes longer to realize it, but she hadn't been
in class yesterday, either. As little as I knew about her, she
didn't quite strike me as the type to just ditch class. The only
reason I even thought of it was a combination of luck and a well-
trained memory; the teacher hadn't remarked on her absence either
day. Kind of sad when not even the adult supervision notices that
you're gone.
Heero still hadn't answered me. I could feel warmth rising from
his body in waves, and it felt nice to be so close to him. Ain't
it great how I like torturing myself? A half-hearted wave of
suspicion formed in my brain. "You didn't do anything to her,
right?"
Heero snorted, again. Who says he doesn't have a sense of humor.
"No," he said flatly. "I saw she was missing, just like you. Her
dorm room has been cleaned out."
"Changing schools?" That was a perfectly good explanation. People
normally didn't to it midway through a term, but hey, if we could
do it so could she.
"No transfer order or explanation. Parents have been contacted,
and they don't know anything about it. This has been reported to
the police, but quietly."
"Shit." Without think about it, I put a hand on his shoulder.
There was something, almost like a jolt of what I'd felt a year
ago when Heero'd come back from the dead. I snatched my hand away
and sat back down on my bed, trying to keep my breathing at a
normal level. Heero just looked at me from over his shoulder for a
moment. Damn him and his lack of facial expressions. "So are we
looking at a kidnapping?"
"We aren't looking at anything," Heero stated. One key clicked,
and the girl's file disappeared off the screen. Boom, gone. "I was
curious."
"Just curious."
"Yes. If this is a crime, it's not our job to deal with it. We
have other matters to attend."
I shook my head, "Yeah, our job, right." I lay back on my bed for
a moment. The manga scattered all over the blanket were square
bumps along my back. "So she just disappeared. No struggle or
anything. Room packed up neat as you please, ready for a new
student."
"That is not our concern."
He sounded so goddamn dispassionate. It hurt, and I couldn't even
begin to explain why. I wondered if he'd sound just like that and
say the same things if I disappeared. It wasn't fair of me to
think that of him, but as long as I'd been around Heero, I still
hadn't the foggiest about how his mind worked. There had to be
someone real under there, right?
I growled at myself and rolled out of bed, standing to go to the
door. I ended up almost nose-to-nose with Heero. He'd gotten up
out of his chair, and I'd been so stuck on my own thoughts that I
hadn't even heard him. Crap.
For a long, long moment I found myself staring into those
beautiful blue eyes of his. I felt like I was drowning in them.
All I wanted to do, right then, was reach out and touch him. What
came next, well, use your imagination.
I could still hear that dispassionate voice talking about the
missing girl, though, like he was observing that it was supposed
to rain tomorrow, or that we were out of shoe polish. Suddenly, I
just wanted to yell, or hit him, or do something, anything that
would get a reaction.
Instead, I grabbed my jacket and shoved past him, brushing against
him a lot more than I really wanted to right then. "I'm going for
a walk. I'll be back in a while." The door shut firmly behind me,
cutting off anything that he might have said. Not that I really
thought he was going to say anything.
"Damnit," I muttered as I slouched down the hall. It was dark, no
one was up, and I didn't have to worry about anyone seeing me
looking abnormally pissed off. Further down the hall, a door
opened, and yellow, buttery light spilled out across the floor. It
definitely didn't go with my mood. I made myself smile, though, in
case the room's occupant saw me.
It was Wufei, the one guy I could never bluff. I grinned at him
anyway, hoping that the expression reached my eyes.
Wufei opened his door a little wider and leaned against the frame.
It looked like he'd just gotten out of the shower - his hair was
not in the usual ponytail, and tracks of water glistened on his
chest. He was wearing a set of loose white pants - wearing them
quite well, I might add.
Wufei was great, probably the best friend I had. He was the one
that cajoled, threatened, and talked me into promising to stay
alive no matter what a year ago. Other than a little casual noting
of how great his bod looked at times, he'd stayed strictly in the
category of friend and nothing more, which was a relief to me. I
didn't need another man complicating my life. One was enough for
me, thank you very much.
"Duo," he said quietly.
I stopped in front of him, not stepping in the pool of light. Kind
of like that little game some kids still played - not stepping on
the cracks in the sidewalk. Yeah. Or maybe I just felt better
being in the dark. "Yeah, man?"
"I heard a noise. It must have been your door. What are you doing
out here?"
Direct as always. "Going for a walk."
Wufei raised an eyebrow. "In the middle of the night."
"Yeah. In the middle of the night. I didn't feel like being
trapped in my room any more," /with him/. I didn't have to finish
the thought aloud. We both knew who I was running from. Yeah,
running. No better word for it.
"You should just try talking to him, Duo."
"We've been over this before, Wu. Not going to happen, because in
some ways I'm just your run of the mill fluffy wuss. Besides, I
don't think you want to have to pick up the pieces again."
"True," Wufei smiled slyly. "I've had enough of your belly aching
to last a lifetime. I don't need any more."
"Jerk," I grinned at him. "Look, I'm just going to take a walk.
I've done it before. I'll be careful. Death's honor."
Wufei nodded, "If you need to talk about it..."
"I know where to find your room. It's all good." I grinned at him
and then started walking again, cutting right through the pool of
light on the floor. See? Easy.
"Without a doubt." I heard Wufei shut the door behind me.
A couple doors later I was out of the school and slouching my way
down the street. Sometimes I wished Wufei hadn't turned into such
a good friend. He made me want to talk to him about stuff I was
personally not ready to deal with - not that I'd EVER be ready.
The good thing about him was he knew when it was important to push,
and when he should just leave me the hell alone. He'd definitely
made the right choice this time around.
It was a nice night out, just edging its way toward spring - so,
nippy enough that I needed the jacket, but not could enough to
drive me indoors any time soon. I was skinny, okay? Getting cold
easily went with the territory. I really wondered how Heero did it,
sometimes, sticking with spandex even in the middle of winter. It
made certain parts of my anatomy cringe just thinking about it.
Damn. I had to stop thinking about Heero. I needed to relax, or
else I'd never be able to get to sleep.
The sky was totally clear, that special clarity you see only in
the last few days of winter when spring's wrestling the year from
its cold grip. I could see the stars like they went on forever,
tiny little ice shards on blacktop. The moon was waving, about
five or six days from full. It went with the rest of the night
decor; some atmospheric trick had colored it a cool, soothing blue.
I was starting to like the night more and more. When I was little,
I didn't like it very much - not many kids do. I hated the dreams
the most; they didn't bother me any more, though, because after
dealing with them for years, nightmares start to lose their shock
value. It wasn't just that, though. I'd been feeling more and more
comfortable in the darkness, which was just as well. I was out
walking most nights, trying to figure out where the hell my life
was trying to go. Kiss or kill Heero, shit like that.
Just walking was making me feel a lot better. I hated being
trapped in that tiny room. Hyperactive, me? Or maybe just a little
claustrophobic. Being trapped in an enclosed space while piloting
was a little different from being trapped in an enclosed space
when I wasn't doing much of anything. Maybe it was a control issue.
Besides, Deathscythe was...himself. It's hard to feel
claustrophobic when you feel like you're riding in the embrace of
an old friend. Never mind the fact that you're killing people and
blowing shit up at the same time. Details, details.
I was rapidly approaching the line of trees that marked the edge
of the school grounds. They lined the fence along the teacher's
parking lot I was walking through. Occasionally, my foot kicked up
a bunch of soggy leaves, sending them scuffling along the pavement.
Time to turn around. I wasn't upset enough to take the trek
through the woods to one of the crappy little bars; being on the
ass edge of Tokyo wasn't doing a lot for my social life. No, I was
only mildly annoyed, so I decided to turn around just as the
skeletal shadows of the trees reached their fingers up to touch
the moon.
Four things happened in quick succession. The little gold cross
that I always wore around my neck suddenly lit up like a halogen
lamp, blinding me.
I said, "What the hell?" mostly because I wasn't used to jewelry
acting like that.
There was a very soft sound, like a breath of wind moving the
leaves, except there wasn't even a breeze. I started to turn
around, but slowly, way too slowly.
Something big, heavy, and very fast that smelled a little bit like
snakes and a lot like blood hit me from behind and took me down to
the ground, doing its level best to grind my head into the
pavement.
I tried to struggle against the thing on my back. Whatever the
hell it was, it was stronger than anything had a right to be, even
stronger than Heero when he's having a bad day. Nothing I tried
moved the thing even the tiniest bit, and I knew I was no wuss.
After about the third time my head got slammed into the pavement,
I gave up struggling since it wasn't doing shit for me anyway, and
just started screaming. I learned a long time ago that screaming
is what you do when you're up to your neck in bad pucky and you
don't have anything better to do with yourself. This situation
definitely qualified.
I couldn't fight the thing, and after my head contacted the ground
for the fourth time, sparks started dancing in front of my eyes.
The sound of blood rushing through my veins got so loud I couldn't
even hear myself any more.
Just another normal night on the town.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a pale face
with eyes glowing like blue flamed. I'd never been so afraid in my
entire life. The thing - I didn't know what else to call it -
looked down at me with those scary eyes and hissed. There were no
other words to describe it. It hissed, like a pissed of cat or
snake, and I caught a glimpse of teeth that would have been more
at home in the mouth of a cobra than a human.
A sharp blast of sound broke through the roaring in my ears. The
creature's head just exploded. Its weight was abruptly gone from
my back, and I dimly heard a second blast. Somehow, I lurched to
my feet. I was spattered with blood, both mine and the thing's;
there was warmth on my face and neck, rapidly cooling in the
chilly air. My clothing was ripped to; things were a lot more
ventilated than they used to be.
At least I think that's how it went. At that time, I wasn't
thinking all that clearly. My mind was sounding out one high, thin
note of pure fear. When I got to my feet, I just there, swaying
like a drunkard with blood and thicker things sliding slowly down
my face. My vision was fading in and out, but I thought I saw a
woman in the light of my cross that was barely taller than me. She
stood with a shotgun in her hands like she knew how to use it, her
mouth moving like she was trying to say something, but I couldn't
hear a thing.
Somewhere along the line, my hair had come partially out of its
braid, and I picked something out of one of the loose waves that
looked suspiciously like a piece of bone, right before I collapsed
to my knees and everything went mercifully black.
I let out a soft sigh and stared at the tattered manga in my hands.
It was a historical one this time, about a legendary sword guy
that swore off killing. Interesting stuff.
Not that I could concentrate on it. Hell no. How could anyone
concentrate on anything when the object of all their lusts,
embarrassing dreams and dirty thoughts was sitting not five feet
away, clad only in a pair of thin cotton boxers. My life is just
too damn hard sometimes - I should get put up for sainthood when I
die.
The room was completely silent except for the steady clacking of
the keys of Heero's laptop. I and the other pilots had been to a
lot of schools before in our travels, but this one took the cake
as far as cheap, tiny rooms went. It was definitely something
smaller than a breadbox. The two narrow beds in the room were
practically side-by-side, and this time around, we had to share a
desk. The bathroom, well, I didn't know what to compare it with.
If I wanted to take my life into my hands and attempt to dry off
in the bathroom and away from Mr. Perfect Soldier, I had to get
into the shower to do it, or else risk falling over the toilet.
About the only thing this prison cell of a dorm room had going for
it was the fact that it was clean, new, and had some kick-ass
wiring for my stereo system.
Not that Heero ever let me turn the stereo ON when he was in the
room.
With another sigh, I put the manga on my face and let my eyes go
unfocused. Heero just kept typing away, completely oblivious. Damn
him. The silence stretched out longer and longer - funny how I
hadn't noticed it until I thought about it - until I just couldn't
take any more.
"Hey, Heero."
No answer.
"Heero!"
"Yes?"
Hot dog. A response, and only on the second try. I was in business.
I pulled the manga from my face, hoping that there weren't smears
of ink on my nose, and sat up. "Whatcha lookin' at?"
"Information on this school."
I waited, just to see if he would elaborate on his own. No luck.
"What kind of info?"
Heero swiveled in his chair and fixed me with one of his glares.
It was the kind of look you'd get from a wolf right before it
decided if you were threat or food. A normal person would have
gotten the hint and left him the hell alone. After dealing with
him on a personal level for over a year, though, I'd gained some
immunity. "Well?" I grinned at him.
Heero snorted and turned his attention back to the laptop. The
clicking started back up. "Nothing of interest," was his only
comment.
"Come on, Damnit, tell me! It's not nice to tease!" I jumped off
of my bed and tried to look over his shoulder. For once, he let me,
which made today something to mark down on the calendar. Some
girl's school file was on the screen; picture, class schedule,
pertinent information, uniform size, the whole shebang. "Why Heero,
I never figured you for the voyeuristic type..."
He ignored me. Just peachy. I leaned over his shoulder to take a
better look at the file. Heero'd gotten a lot easier with casual
touching ever since his - damn, I never knew what to call it -
brush with death. So friendly touching was okay now. Most of the
time. Anyway - the file. It belongs to one Kishiro Ayako.
Ayako. Something about the name struck me as familiar. For a long
moment, I just leaned against Heero, thinking. Oh yeah, Ayako was
one of the girls in my class - good ol' grade eleven, class four.
Quiet, unobtrusive, kept to herself and didn't hang all over me
like most of the other girls, which was probably why I'd never
noticed her much. I was too busy flirting with her friends. Me, an
attention whore? Naw.
Something niggled in the back of my mind about her. "Hey, she
wasn't in class today, right? Why are you looking at her file?" It
took me a couple minutes longer to realize it, but she hadn't been
in class yesterday, either. As little as I knew about her, she
didn't quite strike me as the type to just ditch class. The only
reason I even thought of it was a combination of luck and a well-
trained memory; the teacher hadn't remarked on her absence either
day. Kind of sad when not even the adult supervision notices that
you're gone.
Heero still hadn't answered me. I could feel warmth rising from
his body in waves, and it felt nice to be so close to him. Ain't
it great how I like torturing myself? A half-hearted wave of
suspicion formed in my brain. "You didn't do anything to her,
right?"
Heero snorted, again. Who says he doesn't have a sense of humor.
"No," he said flatly. "I saw she was missing, just like you. Her
dorm room has been cleaned out."
"Changing schools?" That was a perfectly good explanation. People
normally didn't to it midway through a term, but hey, if we could
do it so could she.
"No transfer order or explanation. Parents have been contacted,
and they don't know anything about it. This has been reported to
the police, but quietly."
"Shit." Without think about it, I put a hand on his shoulder.
There was something, almost like a jolt of what I'd felt a year
ago when Heero'd come back from the dead. I snatched my hand away
and sat back down on my bed, trying to keep my breathing at a
normal level. Heero just looked at me from over his shoulder for a
moment. Damn him and his lack of facial expressions. "So are we
looking at a kidnapping?"
"We aren't looking at anything," Heero stated. One key clicked,
and the girl's file disappeared off the screen. Boom, gone. "I was
curious."
"Just curious."
"Yes. If this is a crime, it's not our job to deal with it. We
have other matters to attend."
I shook my head, "Yeah, our job, right." I lay back on my bed for
a moment. The manga scattered all over the blanket were square
bumps along my back. "So she just disappeared. No struggle or
anything. Room packed up neat as you please, ready for a new
student."
"That is not our concern."
He sounded so goddamn dispassionate. It hurt, and I couldn't even
begin to explain why. I wondered if he'd sound just like that and
say the same things if I disappeared. It wasn't fair of me to
think that of him, but as long as I'd been around Heero, I still
hadn't the foggiest about how his mind worked. There had to be
someone real under there, right?
I growled at myself and rolled out of bed, standing to go to the
door. I ended up almost nose-to-nose with Heero. He'd gotten up
out of his chair, and I'd been so stuck on my own thoughts that I
hadn't even heard him. Crap.
For a long, long moment I found myself staring into those
beautiful blue eyes of his. I felt like I was drowning in them.
All I wanted to do, right then, was reach out and touch him. What
came next, well, use your imagination.
I could still hear that dispassionate voice talking about the
missing girl, though, like he was observing that it was supposed
to rain tomorrow, or that we were out of shoe polish. Suddenly, I
just wanted to yell, or hit him, or do something, anything that
would get a reaction.
Instead, I grabbed my jacket and shoved past him, brushing against
him a lot more than I really wanted to right then. "I'm going for
a walk. I'll be back in a while." The door shut firmly behind me,
cutting off anything that he might have said. Not that I really
thought he was going to say anything.
"Damnit," I muttered as I slouched down the hall. It was dark, no
one was up, and I didn't have to worry about anyone seeing me
looking abnormally pissed off. Further down the hall, a door
opened, and yellow, buttery light spilled out across the floor. It
definitely didn't go with my mood. I made myself smile, though, in
case the room's occupant saw me.
It was Wufei, the one guy I could never bluff. I grinned at him
anyway, hoping that the expression reached my eyes.
Wufei opened his door a little wider and leaned against the frame.
It looked like he'd just gotten out of the shower - his hair was
not in the usual ponytail, and tracks of water glistened on his
chest. He was wearing a set of loose white pants - wearing them
quite well, I might add.
Wufei was great, probably the best friend I had. He was the one
that cajoled, threatened, and talked me into promising to stay
alive no matter what a year ago. Other than a little casual noting
of how great his bod looked at times, he'd stayed strictly in the
category of friend and nothing more, which was a relief to me. I
didn't need another man complicating my life. One was enough for
me, thank you very much.
"Duo," he said quietly.
I stopped in front of him, not stepping in the pool of light. Kind
of like that little game some kids still played - not stepping on
the cracks in the sidewalk. Yeah. Or maybe I just felt better
being in the dark. "Yeah, man?"
"I heard a noise. It must have been your door. What are you doing
out here?"
Direct as always. "Going for a walk."
Wufei raised an eyebrow. "In the middle of the night."
"Yeah. In the middle of the night. I didn't feel like being
trapped in my room any more," /with him/. I didn't have to finish
the thought aloud. We both knew who I was running from. Yeah,
running. No better word for it.
"You should just try talking to him, Duo."
"We've been over this before, Wu. Not going to happen, because in
some ways I'm just your run of the mill fluffy wuss. Besides, I
don't think you want to have to pick up the pieces again."
"True," Wufei smiled slyly. "I've had enough of your belly aching
to last a lifetime. I don't need any more."
"Jerk," I grinned at him. "Look, I'm just going to take a walk.
I've done it before. I'll be careful. Death's honor."
Wufei nodded, "If you need to talk about it..."
"I know where to find your room. It's all good." I grinned at him
and then started walking again, cutting right through the pool of
light on the floor. See? Easy.
"Without a doubt." I heard Wufei shut the door behind me.
A couple doors later I was out of the school and slouching my way
down the street. Sometimes I wished Wufei hadn't turned into such
a good friend. He made me want to talk to him about stuff I was
personally not ready to deal with - not that I'd EVER be ready.
The good thing about him was he knew when it was important to push,
and when he should just leave me the hell alone. He'd definitely
made the right choice this time around.
It was a nice night out, just edging its way toward spring - so,
nippy enough that I needed the jacket, but not could enough to
drive me indoors any time soon. I was skinny, okay? Getting cold
easily went with the territory. I really wondered how Heero did it,
sometimes, sticking with spandex even in the middle of winter. It
made certain parts of my anatomy cringe just thinking about it.
Damn. I had to stop thinking about Heero. I needed to relax, or
else I'd never be able to get to sleep.
The sky was totally clear, that special clarity you see only in
the last few days of winter when spring's wrestling the year from
its cold grip. I could see the stars like they went on forever,
tiny little ice shards on blacktop. The moon was waving, about
five or six days from full. It went with the rest of the night
decor; some atmospheric trick had colored it a cool, soothing blue.
I was starting to like the night more and more. When I was little,
I didn't like it very much - not many kids do. I hated the dreams
the most; they didn't bother me any more, though, because after
dealing with them for years, nightmares start to lose their shock
value. It wasn't just that, though. I'd been feeling more and more
comfortable in the darkness, which was just as well. I was out
walking most nights, trying to figure out where the hell my life
was trying to go. Kiss or kill Heero, shit like that.
Just walking was making me feel a lot better. I hated being
trapped in that tiny room. Hyperactive, me? Or maybe just a little
claustrophobic. Being trapped in an enclosed space while piloting
was a little different from being trapped in an enclosed space
when I wasn't doing much of anything. Maybe it was a control issue.
Besides, Deathscythe was...himself. It's hard to feel
claustrophobic when you feel like you're riding in the embrace of
an old friend. Never mind the fact that you're killing people and
blowing shit up at the same time. Details, details.
I was rapidly approaching the line of trees that marked the edge
of the school grounds. They lined the fence along the teacher's
parking lot I was walking through. Occasionally, my foot kicked up
a bunch of soggy leaves, sending them scuffling along the pavement.
Time to turn around. I wasn't upset enough to take the trek
through the woods to one of the crappy little bars; being on the
ass edge of Tokyo wasn't doing a lot for my social life. No, I was
only mildly annoyed, so I decided to turn around just as the
skeletal shadows of the trees reached their fingers up to touch
the moon.
Four things happened in quick succession. The little gold cross
that I always wore around my neck suddenly lit up like a halogen
lamp, blinding me.
I said, "What the hell?" mostly because I wasn't used to jewelry
acting like that.
There was a very soft sound, like a breath of wind moving the
leaves, except there wasn't even a breeze. I started to turn
around, but slowly, way too slowly.
Something big, heavy, and very fast that smelled a little bit like
snakes and a lot like blood hit me from behind and took me down to
the ground, doing its level best to grind my head into the
pavement.
I tried to struggle against the thing on my back. Whatever the
hell it was, it was stronger than anything had a right to be, even
stronger than Heero when he's having a bad day. Nothing I tried
moved the thing even the tiniest bit, and I knew I was no wuss.
After about the third time my head got slammed into the pavement,
I gave up struggling since it wasn't doing shit for me anyway, and
just started screaming. I learned a long time ago that screaming
is what you do when you're up to your neck in bad pucky and you
don't have anything better to do with yourself. This situation
definitely qualified.
I couldn't fight the thing, and after my head contacted the ground
for the fourth time, sparks started dancing in front of my eyes.
The sound of blood rushing through my veins got so loud I couldn't
even hear myself any more.
Just another normal night on the town.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a pale face
with eyes glowing like blue flamed. I'd never been so afraid in my
entire life. The thing - I didn't know what else to call it -
looked down at me with those scary eyes and hissed. There were no
other words to describe it. It hissed, like a pissed of cat or
snake, and I caught a glimpse of teeth that would have been more
at home in the mouth of a cobra than a human.
A sharp blast of sound broke through the roaring in my ears. The
creature's head just exploded. Its weight was abruptly gone from
my back, and I dimly heard a second blast. Somehow, I lurched to
my feet. I was spattered with blood, both mine and the thing's;
there was warmth on my face and neck, rapidly cooling in the
chilly air. My clothing was ripped to; things were a lot more
ventilated than they used to be.
At least I think that's how it went. At that time, I wasn't
thinking all that clearly. My mind was sounding out one high, thin
note of pure fear. When I got to my feet, I just there, swaying
like a drunkard with blood and thicker things sliding slowly down
my face. My vision was fading in and out, but I thought I saw a
woman in the light of my cross that was barely taller than me. She
stood with a shotgun in her hands like she knew how to use it, her
mouth moving like she was trying to say something, but I couldn't
hear a thing.
Somewhere along the line, my hair had come partially out of its
braid, and I picked something out of one of the loose waves that
looked suspiciously like a piece of bone, right before I collapsed
to my knees and everything went mercifully black.
