Allapoe Street
ATTENTION
A CURFEW IS IN EFFECT
THIS IS NOT A DRILL
STAY INDOORS AND LOCK ALL YOUR WINDOWS AND DOORS
THOSE WHO FAIL TO COMPLY WILL BE TAKEN INTO POLICE CUSTODY
After reading the notification, Lilith put her scroll down and stirred the tea cup in front of her, the clinging of the metal spoon against the ceramic cup was almost hypnotic in a strange way. Once she was done, she took a sip of it, her stress accumulated over the day practically disappearing in mere moments.
She placed the teacup down with a satisfied exhale and a slight smile. She looked to the couch and saw Steve, still in his uniform sans mask, a cup of tea in his own hand. He blew on the cup before taking a sip and exhaling after it in a similar manner to Lilith.
The witch smiled at this before starting a conversation, "you know, Steve, I appreciate the company and all, but I don't think you came here just to have some conversation and tea."
Steve chuckled before placing his teacup on the table below, "well, the tea is nice," he said with a mutter before he continued, "but, yeah, your assumption is right. I've been tasked to watch over you by order of the Emperor's Coven."
Lilith's lips thinned at this before taking another sip of her tea, "I see," she said with a slight exhale of annoyance.
Steve raised his hands in defense, "hey, don't get mad at me!" He assured her, "I'm just-"
"Following orders, I know." Lilith cut him off, a subtle rolling of her eyes. She's heard that excuse a million times, often from herself. With a very small huff, she continued on, "doing your duty, all that."
Steve's face lowered, "I'm sorry, Lilith," he said, heartedly, trying to reassure his best friend, "look, if it helps, it's better a friend watching over you than some stranger."
Lilith shrugged, "I suppose."
Steve knew Lilith was content, but he still felt bad doing this. He hated the fact that his best friend could never have a moment to herself anymore. Even now, he could still hear that gremlin Kikimora's words.
"Defector or not, she is far too valuable to be left roaming about. We are to keep a strict surveillance over her, preferably at all times."
He took another sip of his tea as though it were alcohol at the very thought of having to remember that imp's annoying voice.
Regardless of his own thoughts, he knew it was his duty. One he would follow… no matter how reluctantly.
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. Both he and Lilith looked to the source of the noise with perked ears. The knock continued again for several seconds.
With a slight sigh, Steve picked up his mask and placed it on his face, "I'll get it," he told the witch as he got up from the chair and headed towards the door.
He looked through the peephole to see a figure covered in thick rags, shaking and coughing occasionally. He raised a brow beneath his bird-like mask and unlocked precisely one lock of the door, but leaving the chain lock intact so that the door didn't fully open.
"Can I help you?" He asked the figure.
The cloaked figure coughed into his sleeve before answering, "Oh! I'm sorry for intruding, officer, but I am just a simple homeless fool down on his luck," he explained with a slight wheeze, "I couldn't get to the shelters on time before everyone locked their doors."
Steve's lips thinned behind his mask, "Sir, you do know what happens when you are out past curfew, yes?"
"I don't mean to be a bother!" The figure tried to assure the demon, "I just wish for some shelter, just for one night."
Steve thought about it for a second or so. He couldn't just leave him, but he knew he would have to take him into custody and he imagined that his fellow Coven members wouldn't treat him with any more respect, and seeing how pale this guy looked, as well as his nasty sounding cough, he was practically on death's door already.
"I say we let him in," the voice of Lilith said behind Steve, making him turn around to see her, teacup still in hand, "I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"
Steve furrowed a brow beneath his mask before turning back to the homeless man. He slightly sighed before closing the door to unlock the latches properly, he then opened the door after doing so, letting the hooded figure inside. "I shall call a squad to escort you to the nearest shelter," he addressed the figure as he walked inside, "in the meantime, we'll give you a warm meal while you wait."
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" The hooded figure exclaimed with happiness as he walked inside before he began… chuckling. It went on for a long time to the point where both demon and witch were incredibly uncomfortable now.
"Thank you…" the hooded figure said before grabbing his rags and tossing it aside in a dramatic fashion, revealing his lanky figure, deathly pale skin, and prominent ears and fangs, "... for being so gullible."
Steve and Lilith were taken aback at the reveal that they had no time to properly react as Orlok immediately wacked Steve out of the way with such force that it sent him flying and impacting against the wall, crashing into a cabinet.
"Steve!" Lilith cried before getting pinned against the wall by the vampire at preternatural speeds. She struggled under his vice grip, trying to squirm and slither her way out of it, "let me go!"
"Don't worry…" Orlok said with a wicked smile, "it'll be over before you know it." He then bared his mouth full of razor sharp teeth, his jaws opening to the point of dislocation… and struck the base of the witch's neck.
Time seemed to slow. Lilith felt piercing pain and let out a gasp as the air seemed to leave her lungs. She felt her very blood leave her body, growing weaker by the second because of it, her vision getting slightly blurry with each passing moment.
"LILITH!" Steve cried out from the floor, getting up and rushing towards Orlok, who simply kicked him in the ribs without even looking back, forcing him to hit the wall again, but with the added bonus of his ribcage feeling like it was shattered into a million pieces.
Orlok, meanwhile, enjoyed every drop of his meal… or so he would have thought. The blood tasted of mud, bone, and other strange substances he couldn't describe. He pulled back from the witch's frame, spitting out blood on the floor in disgust.
"Your blood tastes putrid!" He exclaimed to the witch, attempting to spit out every trace of blood in his mouth like a child spitting out medicine, "What do you do to yourself!?"
Lilith didn't answer as her now weak frame slid down the wall. She lifted a trembling hand to the wound on her neck, feeling the warm liquid on her hand pouring out. She looked at her wet palm, gasping at the red and black substance that stained it.
Wait a minute. Black?
Orlok noticed this too. He watched as the blood that leaked from Lilith's puncture marks was not only red, but black as well, as though it were diseased. He slightly cringed, the taste of her blood still in his mouth as he pondered what it could be.
His questions seemed to get an answer in the most unlikely form: A bunch of feathers popped up from Lilith's hand like strands of grass propping themselves after being walked over. Lilith gasped, not at the literal pain in her neck, but at the sight before her.
"No…" she softly muttered as more and more feathers covered her arm and an immense pain appeared throughout her body. She clutched her sides and grunted, her body finding itself lying on the floor, convulsing as she felt her bones being stretched,
"NO, NO, NO!" She screamed as her thoughts ranged from terrified to confused. She was terrified this was happening again. She was confused that it was happening again. She knew she took her medicine. She did it just before Steve showed up, in fact. So why was it happening?
She never got - nor could think of - an answer as her thoughts became static and her body experienced unimaginable pain.
She cried out as Orlok watched with widened eyes. He watched as Lilith's eyes turned pitch black, her body stretching, twisting, and growing beyond what is naturally possible. The sounds of tearing ligaments, flesh, and muscle echoing across the room, and her screams were slowly replaced with a deep, hoarse, and animalistic screech.
"GRAAAAAGH!"
By the end of it, she had grown big. Really big. So big that the room couldn't even properly fit her. A coat of thick, black feathers covered her body, her limbs replaced with talons, as massive wings attempted to stretch themselves out, held back by the confines of the living room. Her face and ears were stretched and grown beyond normality, topped off with black, soulless eyes that pierced into one's very soul.
Orlok took a few steps back, both in fear and in awe at the beast in front of him while Steve finally came to and saw the ghastly sight, reeling his head back in shock as the Raven Beast began howling and lashing its claws and body at the furniture around it in an attempt to get out, shattering chairs and desks and punching holes in walls and ceilings, its roars grating the vampire's ears as he covered them.
A piece of flying debris hit Steve square in the face, knocking him unconscious.
After much thrashing and flailing, the Raven Beast headed towards the door, its massive body crashing through the walls, window, and door, sending a million splinters and glass shards flying out to the streets outside. The Raven Beast growled, stretching its wings and taking off to the sky at high speeds, screeching along the way.
Orlok walked outside, glass crunching beneath his boots as he looked upwards at the slowly shrinking frame of the Raven Beast, disappearing into the moonlit clouds above. He placed a thin finger and thumb on his chin in deep thought.
"She had already possessed a curse?" He thought to himself, "this is a most unexpected turn of events, but not something that is… unsalvageable."
"The noise came from over here!"
The voice of a nearby Scout interrupted his thoughts and made his ears twitch. He looked to the side to see a Scout party head towards the wreckage. With a slight snarl, he took off at speeds so fast, he was a blur and hid in the darkness of a nearby alleyway.
"Dear Titan, what could have torn apart this place?" A Scout said, not receiving an answer, only turning towards his superior officer in charge of the party.
"It could have been the Hellspawn!" He said to the other members in a gruff voice, "spread out and search for him! Inform the other scouting parties to keep an eye out!"
"Yes sir!"
The Scouts then split up to various parts of the streets, passing the ruins of Lilith's house as the vampire watched them all leave and narrowed his eyes.
He was still thirsty.
He leapt upwards to the top of a building, following one Scout for what felt like hours with hungry eyes, leaping across rooftops at speeds so fast, he was already several buildings ahead of him. He landed in a corner at the end of a street, his ears perking with the sound of every step he made. The Scout inched closer and closer. Orlok licked his lips hearing his footsteps get louder and louder. He opened his maw, already drooling at the very thought of it.
The moment the Scout was in range, he struck.
He rushed from the corner, surprising and confusing his prey. This brief moment of surprise let him grab the Scout by the shoulders pushing him down to the floor, giving him no time to scream as he bit down on his neck. All the Scout could do was flail his legs around trying to get out, letting out quick gasps and the briefest of screams before going limp.
Oh, how Orlok missed this sensation. The horrified looks from his prey before he feasted on them. The feeling of his eternal hunger being satiated for just moments as the warm, metallic taste of blood went down his throat. It gave him a rush like no other. He felt like a young lad again, terrorizing villages for the first time.
"What was that noise?"
His meal was interrupted as his ears perked at the distant sound of a voice, his bat-like ears enhancing the noise, making what sounded like a distant murmur to everyone else, into a question that was practically next to him.
"It came from over here!"
Another voice called out, followed by what sounded like three sets of footsteps- no. Four.
He raised his head from the newly made corpse as the sets of footsteps grew louder, blood dripping from his chin and staining his mouth. He smiled, his blood stained teeth on full display in a sadistic grin.
Spawn walked down an empty fog-covered street, with nothing but the occasional gust of wind as sound and nothing of visual interest beyond a weird dragon wrapping its serpentine body around a lamppost. He noticed that it gave him a weird look, but he shrugged it off. It was just an animal, what did it know about an oddity like him?
He looked back to the road and slightly sighed. If he wasn't dead already, he would be from pure boredom.
Eventually, he found something of interest: A body lying in the middle of the street.
He went up to it and placed his fingers on their neck, checking for a pulse. Nothing. Upon closer inspection, he then saw a trail of dried blood running down from their neck and onto their chest. He removed their mask, seeing a skin tone that was almost deathly white. Poor bastard wasn't just dead, they were drained of their blood.
Spawn narrowed his eyes, "vampires," he muttered, "this place really does have everything."
The corpse's eyes then shot open and shot its arms upwards as if intending to grab him. It never got the chance as though it was fast, the Hellspawn was faster as he had his foot on its neck, pinning it down. He unsheathed the massive blade he acquired last night from his back, pointed it downwards and thrusted it towards the bloodsucker's chest, making its snarls and movements stop.
The freshly-turned vampire was impaled in its heart. Its arms limped down and hit the floor, its flesh shriveling and drying up like expiring fruit. Once the sun comes up, it'll turn the corpse to ash.
Spawn drew out the blade from its chest and kept walking, intent on ending this vampire epidemic before it could begin.
Back at Lilith's utterly ruined house, Steve woke up, groaning from the pain that afflicted his bones. With every ounce of willpower, he got up, wooden debris falling off him as he got up ever so slowly.
"Ugh, what happened?," he muttered to himself knowing he would receive no answer. He leaned against a wall weakly for a second or two, catching his breath to help his aching body, "felt like I was kicked by a snorse…"
He looked up to see the ruined living room of Lilith's room. It all came back to him now, "oh, no…" he said with a frantic breath, "Lilith!"
Clutching his aching sides and hobbling past the absolutely destroyed entrance, Steve found himself in an empty street, devoid of anything beyond a gust of wind blowing away a piece of light debris around. "Lilith!" He cried out, hoping to get a response. No one. Just the wind and the fog.
He didn't know where to start to find her, but he supposed starting anywhere would be better than standing around and doing nothing. He chose a random direction and began his pace there, hoping to find someone to help him.
He didn't know how Lilith could have transformed like that. He also didn't know how that vampire jerk came in, nor how he knew where Lilith lived. He sighed at the questions with no answers, knowing that asking them wasn't going to help him at all.
After several minutes of walking, he stopped as he spotted a group of Coven Scouts led by a Guard standing in a circle, looking like they're in the middle of a discussion.
"Oh, thank Titan!" He exclaimed, as he walked up to them, "hey, fellow Coven members! I was looking all over for some friendly faces - or rather masks."
The group turned around rather slowly as Steve continued speaking, "first of all, I may need serious medical attention," he stated with a wince, "second, we need to get a tracking party down. Lilith Clawthorne is…"
The demon's words trailed off when it was only now that he realized just how… off the group looked. They just stared at him with a tilted head and hunched over postures like confused and curious animals.
"Uh… guys?" He said, trying to snap them out of their trance-like state, "are you ok?"
"Blood…" one of the Scouts said in a voice that sounded raspy and parched.
Steve tilted his head, "excuse me?"
"Blood…" the same Scout said again before grabbing his mask and taking it off, every other member of the party following suit, revealing a variety or species of witches and demons that looked incredibly pale, trails of dry blood running down from their necks were illuminated in the moonlight and dim lampposts.
Steve took a step back, shaking ever so prominently, "Um… guys?"
"BLOOD!" the Scout yelled before baring a mouth with razor sharp teeth and very prominent incisors with a hiss.
Steve screamed, recoiling at the sight before immediately turning tail and running the opposite direction as fast as his legs could take him. Sadly, he didn't go very far as one of the Scouts rushed in front of him with a blur, snarling with drool dripping down his chin.
Steve stopped himself like a car braking at the absolute last minute and turned sideways towards an alleyway, dodging the swipe the Scout in front of him took, but ever so barely.
"Just a bite!" a voice from behind him said as Steve continued to run, "it won't kill you!"
Steve ignored the voice as he kept running into the alleyway, knocking over trash cans to the floor to try and slow down his pursuers, not that it did anything. They were practically on top of him, crawling on the walls, leaping next to him and taunting him with fake swings and guffaws.
Unfortunately, it seems his path would be cut short. Quite literally as he reached the end of the alley wall, the stone wall practically taunted him as he clawed at it to try and fruitlessly climb, maybe even find a hidden door to slip by the vampiric pursuers.
Alas, neither option occurred.
He turned to see his vampiric pursuers, every set of hungry mouths drooling a waterfall as they hissed in delight, "nowhere to run…" the Guard said as he licked his lips, "nowhere to hide."
"Join us…" a Scout said to the terrified Demon, scratching the wall with her elongated nails.
Steve was terrified out of his mind. He couldn't fight back because they'd overpower him and he couldn't run away, because where else would he go? Through them? He was boned in every way he could think of.
The vampires were getting closer and closer, their hungry eyes piercing into his soul. This was it. This was how he would die.
"I'm sorry, Lilith," he whispered to himself as he closed his eyes beneath his mask and prepared for the inevitable…
The inevitable never came.
The sounds of piercing flesh and a gasp of pain, followed by what sounded like chains being tossed and more sounds of punctured flesh and gasps of pain filled the alley. Then, a series of explosions and what sounded like viscera impacting the ground echoed across the alley, with some of the viscera hitting Steve's uniform, dotting the white outfit with red blood.
Steve opened his eyes to a nauseating sight. He held in the urge to vomit in his mask as he gazed upon blood and guts caking the alley walls and floor, green embers emanating from floating chains and dissipating into the wind, with the Guard impaled with a massive blade from behind him, paralyzing him.
Steve also had a realization. "I-I'm alive?" he said to himself, with a confused tone, before that tone switched to triumph as he pumped his arms in the air, "I'M ALIVE!"
The chains then retracted behind the Guard, followed by the blade being pulled out from him, forcing him to collapse onto the floor face first… revealing the form of Spawn to be the one behind the recent gruesome acts. The Hellspawn sheathed the giant blade on his back as he took a step over the Guard on the floor, with the next step being more of a stomp to the vampire's head, turning it into paste.
Steve's hopes immediately shattered when he recognized who was approaching him, "I'M DEAD, I'M DEAD!"
"Shut the hell up!" Spawn said, immediately making the demon shut up, "Are you trying to wake the whole goddamn city up or something!?'
The demon did not answer, standing as still as a statue before speaking in such a low voice that it was practically a whisper, "y-you… saved my life?"
"You're welcome," the Hellspawn snarked before turning around from him and walking out of the alleyway, leaving a very confused Steve behind.
As the Hellspawn walked away from the blood spattered alley, Steve began wondering why he let him live. He has heard the reports of Emperor's Coven members being massacred and has seen a few of their tattered remains to know they were true. In fact, just now, he killed a bunch of them in front of him! Vampire or not, it was a capital offense…
But he was spared? Why? Why him? Once again, several questions raced through his head with no answer.
Regardless, he knew what he had to do. He raised a hand and conjured a spell circle, aiming it at the Hellspawn, "stop right there!" He commanded, with Spawn actually stopping in his tracks, not even turning towards him as he continued, "by order of the Emperor's Coven, you are under arrest for - among many things - acts of vigilantism and murder of law enforcement officers!"
Spawn didn't respond. Not for a few seconds anyways. Finally, he piped up, "this is the thanks I get for saving your life?" He snarked with a neutral tone.
Steve kept the spell circle trained on him, "yes," he responded a bit shakily, "it's my duty to turn you in!"
"Duty, huh?" the Hellspawn remarked as he turned his head towards the Scout, "I've heard that excuse so many times and it always reeked of bullshit ."
Steve slightly flinched at his words, but remained steady. Spawn enacted some lines as he turned around to face Steve, "'It's just my duty. I'm just following orders…'" He had fully turned around when he finished, "It's always the people with authority who abuse their power who say that bullshit. They think it's a good excuse for the things they do."
Spawn then extended an arm and pointed towards Steve, "I was almost hoping you'd be different. I can tell that beneath that uniform, you're reluctant to keep on going in this little stint. Tiny little cracks of doubt growing by the days…"
Steve was incredibly unnerved at this sudden peering and took a step back, the arms holding up the spell circle shaking more and more by the second. Spawn kept ranting, "but it seems I was wrong. You're just another cog in the machine…" he then turned around, "I'm in a relatively good mood tonight, so I'll give you a choice: Go ahead and try to take me down… or let me walk away."
Steve froze. He froze his thoughts, his nerves, his muscles, and his heart. Everything seemed to stop as he watched the Hellspwan disappear into the fog. For the briefest of seconds, his nerves unfroze and he almost fired a blast of magic at him…
He never did.
By the time the vigilante disappeared completely, the spell circle dissipated as he collapsed on his knees, suddenly finding it hard to breathe. He took off his mask and panted to himself, catching a breath that never left him.
His breath slowed down to an optimal level soon. He then found himself looking at his mask as though it was the first time he had ever received it. Only instead of awe, he felt uncertainty. An uncertainty of what to do now.
Deep down... He knew that everything the Hellspawn said was right and he hated it.
Al has fought vampires before. Tracking them down was pretty easy once you got the hang of it: Follow a trail of mutilated and bloodless bodies and be sure to destroy the hearts of said bodies as you go along. So simple, even a child could do it.
With all that in mind, a butcher shop that was broken into would also be a good indicator of the blood-suckers. If a vampire was hungry enough, they would feast on the blood of animals and what better place to feast on animal blood than a butcher shop? Al headed towards the ruined entrance, noting the shattered glass windows and splinters that were once walls decorating the floor. The sounds of ripping flesh and clattering bones were heard even on the streets, accompanied by growls and hisses.
"Definitely a vampire," he thought to himself as he took a peek of the ruckus inside, before raising a brow at the sight in front of him.
"... Or is it?"
Spawn expected a lanky, pale humanoid lapping at the ripped open package of a raw steak (or whatever constituted as a steak in this godforsaken place) but instead, he got what looked like a very big, four-legged bird with black feathers that almost resembled unkempt hair. And it was so big that it could barely fit in the shop, not helped by an even more massive wingspan that struggled to even fold. It was gorging on a shank, holding the bone in place as the meat shrunk with each hungry bite. A pile of bones lay beside it, indicating it has been doing this for quite some time.
Spawn inched closer inside with a curious gaze, his boot crushing a glass shard beneath him, making the beast stop feeding and turn its neck towards him, its disturbingly humanoid face and ears on full display as it looked upon him with black eyes. It growled, dropping the shank and baring its teeth at the encroaching Hellspawn.
Spawn flared out his cape with a slight huff as he clenched his muscles and fists
"So… what can you do?"