Chapter Summary: Blade meets up with a group of ex-familiars who contacted him. Blade learns of the secrets which have been hidden from him, and learns of the new threat which emerges from far beyond the grave.
Chapter 3: Tainted Memories
There was a photograph on a fire place next to a raging fire. One that stood out more to them than any other that crossed their eerie and deluded minds, one that left more tainted memories than actual highlights. It was a photograph of Abby and King, the Nightstalkers, which was nothing more than a final memory. A faded one... it was rather saddening to think that, just 3 days ago today, their fate was lost to Phenom, the Devil himself.
It had been a mild, timid summer night that night for the Nightstalkers Abagail and Hannibal. Without Blade, every night and day from there on in was the same. The feeling of consequence of fighting the war against vampires no longer reeled it's way into memory, all of it was gone. The blood, the warfare, the tragedy, the thought of losing someone very close, all of it. It all became a thing of the past.
Now the Nightstalkers must carry off into the present, where they were seen together, on another one of their usual night-ins where they would live the night in peace, something they haven't had for a really, really long time. An array of stars covering the night sky over a blanket of darkness soared over the city into the night, together, seemingly by themselves. They've been together for months, and with the vampirial menace out of the way, there was simply no stopping them from taking it to the next level, except for maybe a few tainted memories to come around.
"How are ya feelin', King?" Abby asked him out of curiosity.
"I feel like I'm kinda..." Kind responded, not entirely sure of himself. "in a zone right now. Life without Blade and everything... it just makes me wonder about a lot of things."
"Wonder?" Abby questioned him. "About what?"
"Like what he's been doing with his life," King replied. "ever since he left us, where he could be, you know, that sort of thing."
"Well," Abby corresponded. "What do you think?"
"I've heard a lot of different things," King answered her. "I heard he was up in Brooklyn with a couple of hot shots who think they're better than us, I heard he met up with your long lost sister, Ally, there, hell freezing over, you know, shit like that."
"In Brooklyn?" Abby corresponded in doubt. "the home of vampires? You can't be serious."
"Well actually, I think I am serious on this one, Abby," King said in regret. "I guess he's just out there doing what he's gotta do, 'cause you and I both know that the war never ends, right? ...or maybe it's just a rumor or something, I don't know."
"While we're here playing it safe, huh?" Abby implied.
"Yes," King inferred, scratching his head. "..but not safe from eachother."
"Far from it, King," Abby concluded, joining lips with King.
So there they were, arms clutched tightly around eachother, exchanging kisses to one another, outside on the deck where Abby does her crossbow training, Abby piled right on top of King, feeling eachother's body heat as they dazed off into the night in eachother's reach. They knew they wouldn't go it alone..."
(Elsewhere...)
In the barren wasteland of Dead afterspirits where the Devil lurks inside his steel-ladened throne day by day, night by night, looking for redemption against the Gods that have banished him here, waiting ever patiently for the day in which he may make his return to the upper world, and justify against the living with the presence of his Dead...
Suddenly, he was confronted by a tall man with long wavy black hair and a mage's cloak and staff. He knelt down before Phenom, ready to deliver his message...
"I deeply apologize," Vladimir, a servant of his who died and was born Russian and was sentenced to Hell for eternity. "for the sands of time seem to be favoring the Gods at this point, but I'm afraid I have some news."
"I do not see," Phenom responded with an indescribably sadistic tone in his voice. "how a mere heretic, such as yourself, can merit an apology to the True Demon. What Demon's Tale have you for me today, unloyal heretic?"
"About your loss," Vladimir deeply regretted to inform him.
At this moment, a party of more mage servants came walking in, all of which were carrying a black coffin bagged in leather and with a seal in the form of a demon's cross embedded onto it. A trail surrounded by boundaries of eternal flames awaited their arrival to the Devil's throne.
Upon their arrival, they set the coffin down, and placed it within plain sight of the so-called "True Demon". He was within a foot's distance of the sealed casket from his throne, waiting to be opened...
A rising entity of smoke clouded their paths just as soon as the seal was lifted, and the coffin lid opened. They saw none of it for moments to come, and neither did Phenom. When the smoke elapsed and vanished, they found a lost soul inside of it, waiting to take his last ride into Hell, the matter of who tarnishing Phenom as soon as he saw anything of him. His eyes gleamed to an essence fury of blood red whenever they laid eyes on it... it was Drake, his only son, the only thing being left a mystery being the autopsy, which was a mystery even to Phenom at this point, though he very clearly wasn't here for autopsy... he was merely here for revenge, and much more often than not, he would get what he wanted.
"And am I to assume that this is my final parting gift?" Phenom questioned in fury. "Another lost soul to add to my collection? Just when it struck me to think that, after all these years, I have expected the Underworld to be worthy servants, yet weakness and deception were all that you have offered me! Now for my part of the bargain!"
His eyes were gleaming with enough hate to boil down even the most condensed form of lifeform on earth. That hatred translated into fuel to light his fire, where he glanced up upon his mages for merely one second, and set them all on fire the next. He left each of them burning to eternal crispy goodness, a stash of charcoal to add to his fiery collection.
"They say anger is what weakens he who possesses it," Phenom self proclaimed. "They lied!"
Phenom raised one hand in pure agony, towards a chain of fiery summits surrounded by liquid hot lava pools and a nearly blind-sighting hail of fire and smoke somewhere far in the distance, and appeared to be acting towards them by forwarding a pushing motion with both hands, destroying everything in it's line of sight in mere seconds. He released from the forward motions, and all of the fiery mountaintops collapsed immediately into the lava awaiting them down below. A sizable combustion of rising lava erupted from it's massive impact, leaving behind an ordinary display of fire and lava. The summits were nothing but ash in lava, and all of his Dead creatures who hung loose along the mountainsides went down with them.
"This time," Phenom proposed. "I am the giver, and you are the takers! Enjoy it while it lasts!"
At this point, Phenom turned around from his cold shoulder position and used a telekinetic force to level 5 more of his servants into a nearby wall of stone supporting them and a seemingly endless line of stories somewhere up high above them, along with his trusted weapon—a 5-bladed hell fork—which preceded them. The unlucky 5 were forced into it as it lay pinned against the wall by this telekinetic force, stacked all the way up against it as far as it's 5 tips would stretch and, with that force, released them from it. The results were rather messy and left lots of their own blood behind and stained onto the hell fork.
"Failure comes at a price," Phenom sought after. "Are you willing to pay it?"
Phenom, with no intention whatsoever of that question being answered, converted more of his still-flowing hatred into an array of a tornado composed of lava and Dead souls within the lava pools, tearing up and consuming much of the Death Angels which were soaring about somewhere high up. It was pretty much the equivalence of the nearly-invisible ceiling, if there was such a thing in this "place". No results were left but a sum of more souls on his conscience, and an opening... looks like Phenom found himself a lead.
(Back on Los Angeles...)
As Abby and King were still having their ways with one another, they were unkindly interrupted by a sudden implosion taking place somewhere deep within the city, which was in almost plain sight from where they were. Abby couldn't help but release her clutch from King's as she got up on foot to witness the tragedy that was painstakingly at hand. They witnessed that, one-by-one, the city was erupting in flames, fractions of it burning and falling like dominoes. Smoke and the scent of flame was the image that portrayed much of the downtown area up to here. They couldn't help but run, knowing their time was very soon coming.
"What the FUCK!" King yelled cursing in his usual tone.
"The war's not officially over," Abby reasoned.
"Indeed it isn't," King forewarned under his breath.
"So what are you waiting for?" Abby asked him curiously. "Let's get the hell out of here."
"Funny how you should say that," King comprehended. "I thought we were in Hell."
"We are," Abby corrected him. "It's Hell on Earth."
"How do you know so much, Abby?" King tested her.
"There isn't much else to know," Abby answered. "is there?"
"Yeah," King rationed. "We kinda need to..."
King looked ahead and saw that suddenly, the deck and the hinges surrounding the doors were lit afire. He knew the house would be next."
"RUN!"
King did just that, and so did Abby. Whether they realized it or not, they were in a situation far from escapable, the only choice left being to survive the inescapable. They ran inside the house, just as Abby came into realization that he actually bothered to grab some essentials from his room: his pistols, body/vest armor, everything. Abby couldn't believe it.
"King!" Abby called out. "There's no time for that! We must go!"
"I'll be there in just a sec, okay?"
"KING!"
King, in seconds timing, was all geared up and prepared for an improbable hunt for vampires, or whatever it was that was out there wrecking havoc amongst Los Angeles when, just as he made his way over towards the front door, a burning piece of wood fell on top of him, keeping him in his place. Abby was in a tight position right about now, and King left in an even tighter one.
"I'm not leaving without you, King" Abby insisted.
"You must," King encouraged. "It's what's best for us... the Nightstalkers. Don't worry about me... I'm just an asshole."
"I'm afraid I'm gonna miss you, King," Abby inferred.
"Oh, I'm sure you'll see me again someday," King predicted. "...in the afterlife."
"I guess this means goodbye then," Abby implied.
"G-g-goodbye," King said stuttering, then closing his eyes as his body begins to light up in flames underneath the fallen wood piece.
Suddenly, Abby heard someone's cry from another sleeper cell bedroom somewhere close by... it was Zoe.
"Mommy!" Zoe started crying for help.
"Yeah, I'm coming, Zoe!" Abby answered her.
On her way there, however, another piece of fallen burning wood came crashing down right at her feet, barely missing, thus blowing a huge hole in the upstairs surface. The fiery wood could be seen somewhere several feet down below, as could the ashes rising from it, but Abby had absolutely no time to observe and rescue her daughter from even more falling debris.
When she got there, she noticed that much of her room was an inferno, with a maze of flames to surpass to get to her daughter, Zoe's, location. Abby saw a fiery pit, and bared no fear in leaping it, jumping over without withdrawing a single burn on her hit count. Abby approached Zoe with a usual Mother-Daughter relationship look, holding her tight in her Mother's arms.
"It's okay, Zoe," Abby whispered to her. "Momma's here to save you."
She wasted no time—even with Zoe held tightly in her arms—escaping her bedroom, and heading down the stairs to yet another maze as, for each and every one of the 15 steps heading down, the stair step behind them fell and collapsed to a burning array of ash all the way down. When Abby made it outside, she found herself rushing safely towards her backyard, which was engulfed in a river of flames as well which burned the grass. She continued running merely a foot ahead to a random burst of flames which collected themselves and formed into something deemed to be deadly; an Underworld fiend of some sort. Abby backed the other way, and ran as fast as she could, only to be cornered by another fiend which was derived from the rising flames. Abby, phased by it's presence, fell to where she would be sitting on the grass area not yet harmed, in pure shock. To the left of her, her path got blockaded by a wall of flames, as had the path to her right. She clearly had nowhere to go... she was trapped, and, more or less... doomed.
"Mommy, I'm scared!" Zoe pleaded.
"It's okay, honey," Abby encouraged. "I'm scared, too."
"What about King?" Zoe asked her.
"King'll be just fine," Abby somewhat lied. "Just not himself."
When suddenly, Abby looked back to face her biggest fear, as well as every mortal's biggest, and dared not hesitate to turn and look the opposite direction, to something more or less intimidating than what she saw just 2 seconds earlier... Hannibal King, in vampire form, once again. He clearly was not the same as before.
"Abby," the deeply scary voice behind her back called out to her. "Oh Abby... your 'boyfriend' is here to see you."
Abby stared at King as he had begun approaching her, and saw no choice but to stay where she was... better him than the Devil—Phenom—after all.
...followed by an incoherent, emotional scream seconds later, as well as the sound of sharp vampire teeth sinking into her smooth-surfaced flesh. Zoe watched, in tears, as her own Mother was being attacked by the one she always knew and loved, the one she redeemed of his evil tasks as a vampire, only to go back to being what he was before they first met, whereas Zoe herself remained safe... in Phenom's arms, not that she had anywhere else to go, either. All was good aside from that, though... the Devil himself wouldn't be as evil as to harm a child... would he?
(3 days later...)
As the so-called "ex familiars," Ash (Broodbank) and Reidyn (Sheilds) were hanging out that night, by the fireplace, Blade came in, occupying himself on his first night working with them, still curious as to what the situation was, as expected, being that this was only his "first day on the job".
"Just what brings me here to you?" Blade began to question. "A group of ex-familiars?"
"Hannibal King," Reidyn cited. "died of a burning home falling on top of him, came back to life as a vampire... Abby Whistler, died of a broken heart, of a broken soul, and of massive blood loss from the one she always loved and trusted... Abe Whistler... died of an explosion, yet came back to life when he sold his soul to the Devil for Immortality. Now we are all that you've got left."
"Her sister's still alive," Blade informed.
"Who?" Ash questioned, introducing herself to the conversation.
"Ally Whistler," Blade answered. "Last I heard, she was up hunting vampires in downtown Brooklyn... she calls herself a Nightwalker."
"Abby's older sister, huh?" Reidyn corresponded. "How cute."
"Someone mailed me her calling card," Blade foretold, showing it to Reidyn. "She says she's been tearing up vampire night and strip clubs all across town. She's one feisty heffe."
"Well right now," Ash sought out. "there are bigger things out there than vampires, much bigger things. That's why we contacted you; because you need special help and training."
"Bigger things," Blade dissented. "like what?"
"Come see for yourself," Ash encouraged.
They played a game of Follow the Leader inside the computer room, on a situational rule. Ash was the leader and Blade and Reidyn were her two followers. They aboded by the typical rule of women coming first and men coming second behind her.
When they got there, they confronted a computer desk with a batchful of items stacked across it: a copy of the PlayStation game Jersey Devil, an End of Days DVD, photographs captioned "the Devil's Tramping Ground" w/pictures to follow, a New Jersey Devils banner and game puck, a bunch of plastic Devil masks for Halloween costumes, even a replica of a demon's index claw/finger w/a bloody tip. It was like devils galore in this place.
"Does any of this stuff ring any bells, Blade?" Reidyn asked him out of his own curiosity.
"Fuckin' Devil worshipers," Blade mouthed off ranting to himself with a barely audible tone in his mouth.
"Not anymore," Reidyn corrected him. "We are his ex-familiars. We showed him a part of Hell his kind never wanted to see, his final parting gift.
"Oh," Blade intrigued. "so Blackrist Hell exists after all."
"Right, exactly," Reidyn commented in gratitude. "There are two sides to Hell: one of light, and one of darkness."
"How do you know all this?" Blade asked him curiously.
"Well, there comes an old saying," Reidyn explained. "before you can see the light, you must travel through darkness. It is the one path which leads to destiny."
"Hmm," Blade grunted to himself. "Now I've seen everything."
"Oh no, trust me," Reidyn insisted. "you ain't seen nothin' yet."
"And?..."
"And," Reidyn responded back to him. "I just wanted to let you know the kind of danger you will be getting yourself into. Whether you know it or not, you are all alone with the Devil, on a mission to Hell, and when it's all said and done, you will be lucky if your soul is left intact. His rage alone took King's life, and that's child's play compared to what the Devil is truly capable of."
"Just what is it about Satan," Blade proceeded to ask. "that makes him any different from his predecessors, anyway?"
"Please," Reidyn sneered. "the dark era of Satan is a thing of the past, my friend. Over the years, his evil deeds have earned himself the self righteous name of Phenom. Don't let his destruction of you and all that you live for be one of them."
"So that's what this is about?" Blade questioned passionately. "A bunch of suckhead Gods losing their identities?"
"You know, that's funny," Reidyn carried on. "because at some point, you are bound to lose yours as well. The thing is, you are not yet ready. Get some rest. We'll train tomorrow morning."
With those final words of advice, Blade is headed towards the staircase—located outside the computer room into the living room—bewildered by the many dismal thoughts lingering in his head, as usual. He remained his usual self by the time he made it upstairs and, more or less, himself when he was secured safely in bed inside their "guest" bedroom. He clearly was not ready to give into the night, not yet...
(Did Abby Whistler really perish? Or is it just a small glimpse of things to come? Continue reading Blade: Hellbound to find out!)
TBC