Pain.
Blinding. Deafening. Numbing. Overwhelming.
Pain.
Every part of my body ached, but my mind was overjoyed. After all, didn't one of Dad's friends say that pain was a way of life telling you that you were alive?
Okay, ow, humour is not exactly the best thing at the moment.
I tried to open my eyes, only to close them with a wince as the sun betrayed me and stabbed my head with daggers of pain. I waited a moment before gradually cracking them open as they adjusted to the light.
The van had taken the worst of the damage, the fist having slammed right into the engine block, and had landed on its roof. The driver and the robber in the passenger seat were both dead, going by the puddle of blood that had started to ooze out from under the crumpled tangle of metal that had been the front of the van. The back had been tossed around and I was certain that I'd picked up a stellar combination of bruises across my body to go along with the mental trauma of the day and the damn contract I'd signed. No forgetting that anytime soon.
Fortunately for me the side door had popped off on impact. Unfortunately though, several of the crates had ended up on top of me. I started to wiggle as much as I could and slowly began to extricate myself from the mess. It was slow progress, as the crates had wedged themselves in a way that made them almost unyielding.
I froze as a crate clattered to the ground and landed in front of my nose. It wasn't one of the ones that had me pinned, I could still feel all of their weight on my back, which meant that someone other than me had made it through the crash.
"Motherfucker!" Another crate fell down and I saw Ellis pushing several more off himself out of the corner of my eye. I held as still as I possibly could and closed my eyes as he stiffly walked past me and out of the wreckage. His clothing looked stiff and something must have spilled all over him during the crash. I licked my lips and tried to think of something, anything to keep him from checking if I was alive.
Something pulled on my hair and I cracked my eyes open. In the air above the building across from me I saw a light appear, growing until it became a gaping hole in the world, a window that offered me a momentary glimpse of something indescribable. Only for a moment, a shadow moving across it before obscuring the other side entirely. I felt my a sudden fatigue in my limbs as the shadow pushed itself through the opening and out into our world.
Pale skin wrapped tight in a shifting black dress that hugged curves I could only dream of and If her method of arrival hadn't been enough of a clue, the pair of gossamer wings stretching from her back and the butterfly motif headpiece that covered face were obvious indicators that she was sure as hell not human. The fact that she was at least three or four metres tall was a fucking big clue too.
The demoness swung her legs over the side of the roof and languidly struck a pose that didn't put any pressure on her wings. She laughed as she watched Ellis catch sight of her and trip onto his but as he stumbled backwards.
"Ah hell in a fucking handbasket..." he swore as he got back to his feet. He turned back to the van and I flinched as his eyes passed over me. For a moment I thought he might have noticed, but he continued sweeping the wreckage without pause, settling on something behind me.
"Hawke! We got ourselves a big fucking cape problem! If you're alive in there, I want our ace out of the hole and in the air now! " There was groan and a stream of muttered curses off to my side, Ellis' lips curled up into a grim smile before he turned to face the monster I'd summoned.
I could see him wincing in pain as he forced himself to his feet and out of the wreckage. He was spitting mad, oh no wait, that was actually just some blood, and I felt the air around me turn cold as frost began to build on the ground and scattered pieces of broken glass. He clenched his hands into fists as he stared up at the demoness.
"I don't know who the fuck you think you're screwing with, but you picked the wrong damn people to mess with. The Iceman Cometh, and he's pissed as fuck."
The woman-shaped demon laughed at his words, only to cut off abruptly as a spear of ice suddenly erupted out of her chest. I winced and my vision blurred further, but even through the new pain I could feel the demoness, and I knew exactly the way Madama Butterfly hungered.
Almost distractedly she snapped off the frozen spear and removed it from her body. She let the chunk of ice fall to the ground and as it shattered she dropped down from the roof and shot into motion. Ellis was a fraction of a second behind her as he dashed off to the side, spears of ice shooting out from every surface. I could only catch glimpses of the ensuing fight, explosions of ice in all kinds of shapes and broken in all kinds of ways, as I continued to try and extricate myself from the wreckage.
I slowly started to pull myself out from under the van. It wasn't easy, as several of the large crates were sitting in top of me, forcing me to drag them along with me. I didn't have the strength or leverage to push them off of me, and I was hoping that they'd catch on something so that I could slip out from underneath them.
My hand caught on asphalt instead of the upholstered roof and allowed myself a brief smile of relief. I looked over to the fight and it seemed like things were looking well in hand. Ellis was panting and moving stiltedly, obviously favouring his right side, while Madama Butterfly looked just as pristine as she had at the beginning of the fight, not a hair out of place.
That's when I heard it. It was a low hum, like that of an engine, and it was rapidly growing louder. I managed to twist my head toward the source of the sound and saw a small bird approaching.
Except the bird kept getting larger, quickly becoming larger than any natural bird and then bigger still. The hum I heard before turned into a loud road as a giant metal falcon the size of a semi smashed into Madama Butterfly. It clawed at her face with talons longer than I was tall before taking off again.
Now that it was close enough to see properly, the roar had become deafening as the air was sucked into a pair of massive jet turbines attached to the falcon's shoulders. Madama Butterfly's head tracked it as it wheeled through the air.
Taking advantage of her distraction, Ellis limped as quickly as he could back to van, barely pausing to give me a glance before passing by. I could hear him shifting some of the wreckage before passing me again, this time half carrying his friend beside him. Hawke was missing his glasses and staring blearily at his phone while occasionally looking up at the demon and bird machine.
"Alright, her guns are hot now," He grunted and shrugged off Ellis' arm. He typed something on his phone and the falcon abruptly changed direction, turning to take a run at the demoness. The falcon opened its mouth and discharged a stream of bullets that tore up the road and stitched a rolling line of explosions across the demoness's body.
Against my best efforts I gasped in pain as I my vision flashed black and my energy is sapped from my limbs. Slowly, my sight returned to me, only have my view blocked by a pair of scuffed and stained boots standing in front of my face.
I let out a cry of pain as I was hauled up by my hair. I blindly groped around for anything to grip onto, my hand closing around a jagged piece of metal, and Ellis growled into my ear as he started to drag me along with him. " You're coming with us you little bitch. I don't how you managed to call that freakshow down on us, but you're obviously worth something to her. Worst case, if go, I'll take you wi-" Ellis cut off as the sound of tearing metal filled the air. I don't need to look behind me to guess what just happened as all the blood drained from his face.
"Shit..." Ellis swore softly. His eyes went wide before he whirled us around. "Hawke! Get down!"
A little ways down the street I saw Hawke look up with confused look on his face. He didn't even have time to realize what happened to him. One second Hawke was standing next to a parked car, his laptop sitting on it's roof, the next his headless body was collapsing like a puppet with it's strings cut while Madama Butterfly stood over him with as close to an expression of rage as I could imagine on her face. Ellis stumbled a half step towards them and I grinned as I took my chance.
Ellis gasped, more in surprise than pain, as I vindictively buried the shard of metal deep into his stomach. He released me and I stumbled a step forwards before I hastily turned around. Ellis and I stared down at the slowly spreading crimson stain on his shirt. He looked up and I saw the exact moment the light went out of his eyes before his corpse dropped to the ground.
A cool shadow passed over me as Madama Butterfly casually drifted over to us. I couldn't break my gaze to look at her and I could feel my hands starting to tremble. Distantly, I heard the sounds of approaching sirens.
"Oh god," I muttered weakly as tears slowly started to leak from my eyes. "What have I done?"
Madama Butterfly rested a finger on my shoulder and I finally turned to look up at her. God will not hear you Child of the Moon, not anymore. If it is of any consolation, you did only what you needed to survive.
"Survive?" I shrieked. Inwardly I had a sense that I was bordering on complete hysteria. "I killed someone!"
Such is the nature of the beast. Violence is much a part of you as I. The life you have chosen, no, the life pushed upon you, will not be a peaceful one. But it will not be a solitary one. With this blood we have spilled, our contract is now complete.
Madama Butterfly tilted her head down towards me before taking a step backwards. First her dress, then her
I dropped to my knees as the full weight of what I had done, what I had unleashed, crashed down on me. I had killed someone, no I had killed them all, Madama Butterfly's victims were still mine for summoning her. And if she was right, this wouldn't be the last time.
That's how the police found me, on my knees with eyes staring blankly ahead, a million miles away.