Chapter 6: Blood Moon pt 2
I don't own anything. Resident Evil belongs to Capcom and Tomb Raider belongs to Core Design, Crystal Dynamics, and I think Square Enix. The only thing I own is the changes made to the stories of the Tomb Raider games/comics and Resident Evil games/comics/CG movies, the Government branch S.P.E.L.L., the person that has taken over Kathrine Warren's life, and Rose Warren. This story also will be bloody, violent, and have cursing. It's rated T for Teen.
Century: Germany, State: Erft, City: Bedburg, Place: Pyran Collage, Area: Cafe, Month: November, Day: Wednesday 4th, Year: 1998, Time: 13:02 CEST…
Kat looked at the ground below her boots. She and Luella were taking a walk on the campus, aiming for the next class but taking a look at the crime scenes on the way. This was the first one. The blood from the scene was still there. But there was something odd.
"Hey, Lu, how much blood was on the scene? Before it was cleaned up." Kat asked.
Lu looked over the blood frowning too. "A quart, from the autopsy report."
Kat shook her head. "That's not enough blood loss to kill someone…" She looked to Lu. "The rest of the blood had to have gone somewhere."
"The most resent victim had more blood at the scene. All the others had the same as this one, but you're right. It takes a lot of blood loss to kill someone." Luella nodded. "What are you thinking?"
"Not sure. Only two things are coming to mind. A vampire or a werewolf. I'm leaning more toward vampire now though." Kat guessed. "But I'd want more evidence or to see it to really make a guess."
Century: Germany, State: Erft, City: Bedburg, Place: Pyran Collage, Area: Library, Month: November, Day: Wednesday 4th, Year: 1998, Time: 14:51 CEST…
Kat observed the crime scene. The tape stopped them from getting too close and the blood on the scene was still there, staining the pavement and dried to bush leaves. There really wasn't much to look at. But Luella pointed to the leaves that trailed on the pavement.
"Do you think the killer was hiding in there?" Luella asked frowning.
"If something was, then it would leave…prints." Kat walked to the bushes. "Did it rain at all that day or night before?"
Luella shrugged. "I don't know."
Kat looked around them. "Can you keep a watch for people?"
"Sure." Luella nodded looking around. "What are you looking for?"
"Prints." Kat told her as she pulled her sweater sleeves over her hands and pushed the lower parts of the bushes aside. "If I see the prints, maybe I can figure out what it was."
"Whoa, you know how to track?" Luella gasped looking to Kat before looking around again.
"Well, not really. I'm kinda a noob. But I can tell the shape of things." Kat informed as she looked at the dirt. "Oh…okay, that is weird."
"What is?" Luella asked looking over.
"The tracks here…they're weird." Kat looked to Luella. "There's hoofprints, and footprints…I think. They're all messed up though. Like the one that made them…patrolled or pivoted around a bit. They stepped over the tracks." She sighed and looked to Luella. "I'm sorry, Lu."
Luella took Kat's hand in hers with a smile. "Hey, it's okay. You tried."
"Thanks." Kat smiled as they walked away. "Hey, um…for that date after this mission…" She began. "What do you want, um dinner or movie?"
"Maybe a…Dinner sounds fun." Luella smiled. "I like Korean food. What about you?"
Kat had to think for a bit and smiled. "I like Korean and Chinese. I even taught my girls to use chopsticks. I totally love Bibimapap and Mandu."
Luella smiled a huge smile at the fact that Kat knew some Korean dishes. "That is so cool! I knew we would make great partners."
Kat nodded then looked back at the library. "Have you ever done a stake out, Lu?"
Century: Germany, State: Erft, City: Bedburg, Place: Pyran Collage, Area: Library, Month: November, Day: Wednesday 4th, Year: 1998, Time: 20:38 CEST…
"Well, this isn't what I pictured for a stake out position." Luella sighed quietly as she looked around them.
They were in dark colored clothing of blacks, dark greens, and browns. All hair pulled into ski hats to hide the color. They were also in a tall thick old tree. Kat had a barrowed Karabiner 98k from the German branch. Since she couldn't bring hers or her cover would've been blown. She did, however, have her climbing axe and knife.
"It's never like the movies." Kat stated as she peered around the grounds through her scope.
"Oh, I know that, I was talking about the place you picked. Up a tree is very different." Luella stated as she looked through binoculars. "Why not on a roof?"
"The tree was closer to the scene. Plus, I didn't want to leave holes on the side of the library's walls." Kat joked as she looked over the practically empty campus. "Damn this is spooky. And giving me just a bit of Deja vu."
"You were involved with the Raccoon incident, right?" Luella asked lightly. "It must've been horrible."
"It was. My only regret is that my girls went through it too." Kat said closing her eyes a moment as she had a few flashes of the dark city and the hungry moans of the dead as they shambled along the streets.
Luella was quiet for a bit. Then Kat jumped as she felt her hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry it happened to you. No one should have to go through anything like that. And…" There was a long pause. "I very much admire your strength to get through something like that. I wish I had that strength."
Kat pulled her eyes away from her scope and looked at Luella. There was something about her tone, there was a vulnerability that Kat hadn't heard before. "Did…did something happen to you? You don't have to say anything if it's too soon."
Luella nodded. "Just a little. But I do appreciate the concern."
Kat nodded as she turned back to the scope, and they quieted. Another two hours passed and then they both heard it. A scream. They searched around. But they couldn't see anything.
"Could you tell which way that came from?" Kat asked still looking around.
"No. I couldn't. Do you think it was our night creature?" Luella asked as she looked around. "Wait, I think I've got something."
"Where?" Kat asked.
"North side, forty meters, just next to the student store. Kinda hard to see, but…I saw a glint of something." Luella informed as Kat shifted her position to see. "Switching to inferred…Whoa…"
Kat peered down her scope and could only just make out two shapes. One was very tall the other kinda short.
"What can you see? I've just got silhouettes." Kat told her trying to figure out which one to shoot.
"Two people, one is rapidly cooling down. The tall one has their head in the short's neck." Luella said. "But there's is something weird about the taller figure."
Kat struggled to aim. "This might not be a very good shot. I can't see and this scope doesn't have thermal."
"Okay…" Luella said before giving Kat some directions on where to aim. She gave Kat the elevation and the wind reading and how much to adjust the scope to compensate for the bullet dropping at such a long range.
Kat lined up the cross hairs on the leg that Luella could see. Kat gently pressed the trigger, then she took a breath held it and squeezed. The bullet hit, but there was a loud plink and whine sounded. Kat frowned as the tall figure jolted. That jolt made something glint in what little light there was.
"What the hell?" Kat asked.
"Kat…it…Oh god I don't know what it is, but…" Luella looked both fearful and confused. "I think it has armor on its leg."
Kat nodded as she popped the brass from her rifle. "I'm going to fire again…Wait…" She looked again and hissed. "Where'd it go?"
"I…I don't know it was there, then it was gone." Luella said turning around a little on the branch she was lying on.
"Shit. Okay…what about the person who screamed?" Kat asked as she lowered her rifle gritting her teeth. This was not how she'd hoped this to go.
"I'm not sure…let's go check." Luella said but then stopped. "Unless…"
Kat already understood. "Unless that's what this creature is planning."
"How do you wanna go about this?" Luella asked unsure.
"I'll go over by the ground." Kat said as she put her rifle to her back and pulled her climbing axe. "I'll get my brass and then head over. You try and keep to the roof tops and shadows…and try to stay down wind." She then climbed down the tree.
Kat landed on the ground after kicking off the base of the trunk and looked around for her casing. She found it on the pavement and pocketed it before looking to the north. She gripped her axe and slowly moved in that direction. She kept her walking slow, starting with the sides of her feet then rolling to the rest of her foot. Luella could hear Kat in her earpiece just barely. The only thing she could hear was the fabric move and maybe the lightest of breathing. It was a little terrifying to hear, but also exhilarating to know that Kat could be this quiet.
Kat reached the area the attack had happened and paused in the shadows. Kat slowly pressed her fingers to her necklace as her eyes scanned the area. The only things she could see were the buildings sides, the alley of the two, some bushes, one lamp post ten feet away to her right, and the man slumped to the ground choking on blood.
"Luella, he's still alive…It's quiet…" Kat said as she looked up to the roof. "Can you keep an eye on me?"
"Yeah…I can see you. Sir, can you hear us? We may soon have a living witness." Luella reported into her own neckless while adjusting her binoculars.
"Stay focused, both of you. Agent Warren, help the witness. We can't have him die without a description." Reinhart ordered.
Kat nodded. "Moving in, Sir." She then dashed to the man and looked around the shadows. "Area's clear for the moment." She then turned to the man and started to check him over.
His neck was slick with blood as Kat pulled him to sit up against the wall. She gritted her teeth as she pressed her hands to his neck. She could feel the blood seeping through her fingers.
"Could I get a bus out here?" Kat asked. "He's bleeding out."
"Where is he bleeding can he—SCRREECH!"
Kat yelled as she covered her ear, then ripped the earpiece from her ear, stopping the painful feedback sound. Kat then ducked from the movement she saw to her right and above. She rolled over her shoulders before jumping to her feet and looking to the target.
"Freeze!" She yelled as she raised her climbing axe, even as her training told her to go for her gun, her instincts told her to stick with melee.
"A waste…" Said a deep feminine voice from the tall figure.
Kat frowned at the accent, it sounded Greek. "Come into the light slowly."
"He was such a young man…his blood was sweet…" The woman said as her shadowed head turned from the now dead man to Kat.
Kat gritted her teeth. 'Shit. Vampire. Have to think fast with this.' She thought as she tightened her grip on her climbing axe. "Step away from the corpse." This time she heard the change in her voice now that she heard it on the recording.
"Is that how you feel…" The woman seemed to smirk. "Is he really a corpse to you…Oh…" Kat then heard a sound of…sniffing. "Ah…you're a Chooser. I never thought I'd see one, let alone smell one." She chuckled in amusement. "I normally drink from men that I've swayed, but…I've made exceptions to women before!"
With that, the woman jumped at Kat. Kat ducked back again and swung her axe at the left leg. There was a sound of metal-on-metal that hit Kat's ears and a whining sound. Kat ducked away, turned to the woman, she could now see what the woman was, and was both shocked and worried.
The woman landed and turned to Kat, her hair was a flaming ginger color and was curly, making it look like it was on fire. She would be beautiful beyond belief, if her lips weren't pulled back into a grotesque smile showing her pointed blood-stained teeth and if her eyes didn't glow red. Her legs are what told Kat everything she needed to know. Her right leg was hairy and bent like an animal, ending in a hoof instead of a foot. Her left leg was a brass leg, it glinted in the light. Imbedded on the inner thigh was a rifle bullet and a big dent was on the outside of her thigh.
"Shit…you're an Empusa, aren't you?" Kat asked as a fleeting thought hit her head. 'Is Percy Jackson going to be a book series with two slightly shity movies, or is it going to be real?'
"You impress me, Chooser." The mythical Greek creature snorted. "Not many would know what I was." She laughed. "The men and girls certainly didn't."
Kat shook her head. "I'd ask you why you keep calling me that, but it's not my job." Kat gripped her axe tighter. "Killing you to stop the killings is."
"We'll see." The Empusa smirked before rushing at her again.
Kat let herself fall back into the memories the way she did in Raccoon when she was facing Wolf Pack. Pulling up the grace and moves of a long past ancestor that knew how to fight, block, and stay alive for another day.
Kat ducked back from the nail swipe. It seemed, like vampires, Empusa had long and sharp nails. Kat knew this because as she ducked back, her dark green jacket was cut open by four of the nails. She hissed, just barely feeling the paper-thin cuts on her chest. They didn't feel deep though. She changed her grip and swept her axe up, aiming to have the point hit the Empusa's chest. She just missed as the Empusa rocked back on her heel/hoof to avoid it. The Empusa dropped to her side and reared her donkey leg back like a spring. Kat didn't move to the right intime and felt the sharp hoof clip her right arm.
Kat hissed as her right arm started to go numb from the impact of the hit. She swung her axe into the leg that kicked her before it was pulled back, but it was half the strength that it should have had as she lost the feeling of where she gripped the axe.
When the Empusa screamed as she dropped to her back, trying to grab at Kat's axe, Kat knew she must have swung hard enough for the axe to bite into the flesh of the leg. Kat rushed to straddle the pined Greek vampire and pulled her knife out with her left hand, aiming to stab her neck.
The Empusa back handed Kat and sent her flying back. Kat fell onto the pavement, cracking her head to the ground and dazing herself. But as she got up, the Empusa was nowhere to be seen. Kat looked around flexing her right hand to get more feeling back into it. She pulled her new handgun. As much as she'd hoped to be quiet, she was starting to think that she couldn't be. Maybe bullets would slow the Empusa.
Kat felt the air change behind her. She started to turn only to feel sharp pain in her shoulder as the Empusa latched onto her back. Kat screamed out as teeth sank into her shoulder. She rocketed her elbow back and at the Empusa's diaphragm. The Empusa let go on a hiss as air was forced from her, spraying the fresh blood from her mouth, painting Kat's shoulder with her own blood. Kat snarled and stabbed at the Empusa's head with her knife. The Empusa screeched and let go of Kat, grabbing at her nose where the knife had sliced a deep vertical path down one side.
Kat grabbed at her shoulder as she spun around to face the Empusa. "Am I infected?" She asked with a pained voice.
"No, bitch!" The Empusa growled. "You can't become an Empu—"
Kat pulled the trigger on her handgun. Four shots to the distracted Empusa's face. Four gaping holes appeared, bleeding a weird mix of black and goldish blood. Four more shots sounded from Kat's left side, they struck the Empusa's chest, letting Kat know that Luella had arrived. Kat then rushed to the Empusa, and kicked her legs out from under her, ignoring the pain the brass leg caused her when she swept the legs. With the stunned expression, the Empusa fell to her back. Kat straddled the creature and pined her arms with her knees.
"Die, Blóð drykkyumaðr." Kat hissed in her oddly musical voice.
She then stabbed into the side of the Empusa's neck, making the creature gurgle and struggle. Kat felt herself move, but she pulled her knife in a sawing movement, the blackish blood spurting form the jugular and staining Kat's hand. She eventually severed the flesh part of the neck, the head only attached by the bones of the spine. Kat panted as the image in her vison flickered for a moment.
She saw a body she'd never seen before. It looked like a man, with an axe and shield. He was bleeding badly, mortal wounds that there was no coming back from. But as he looked at her, he smiled with such joy and as he lifted his axe and let out a glorious battle yell. Then he slowly fell to his knees, he rested back on his legs as he kneeled at her feet. He never let go of his shield and axe as his last breath puffed out in a little cloud of vapor in the cold air. Slowly his head bowed, and she knew he was dead. Kat closed her eyes hissing as she stood from the motionless creature. She opened her eyes, and everything was back to modern day.
"Kat, are you okay?" Luella asked as she came up next to Kat. "I could hear you, so could Reinhart."
Kat shook her head as she gripped at her shoulder. "Not really. She bit me." Kat looked to Luella worriedly.
Luella looked down at the creature. "What is she? You called her an Empusa?" She reached into a hip pouch and took out a med kit and started to do a quick field dressing on Kat's shoulder.
Kat nodded as she explained. "Empusa or Empousa is a shape-shifting female being from Greek mythology. They are said to possess a single leg of copper, commanded by Hecate, whose precise nature is obscure. In Late Antiquity, the empousai have been described as a category of phantoms or specters, equated with the lamiai and mormolykeia, thought to seduce and feed on young men."
Luella nodded. "Well now we know who made that shrine we saw. She was praying to her Goddess."
Kat nodded. "I'm not sure if Empusa can infect other people with a bite or not. I asked her and she said no, but I don't trust her."
Luella looked over the body on the ground. She gripped the neckless on her neck. "Reinhart, do you know if Empusa can infect others?" She paused for a moment then nodded. "He's sure they can't but you'll need a few days of observation just to be sure."
Kat nodded. "What about the body?"
"It'll be dealt with. Cleanup crew is in route." Luella smiled. "Come on, let's get out of here before campus security shows up. We need to let Reinhart deal with them."