Demon Rising

Chapter 6: Jinkara's Awakening -Version 2.0

Chapter 6: Jinkara’s Awakening
Authors Notes: Finally, Chapter 6 is done! I'm happy with it now. 12 hours of editing spread over 3 days! I was about to lose it! But I finished, and it's here now.

Edit: Version 2.0 is now here! I decided to redo this chapter by adding some detail and smoothing it out. It took nme probably 6 or 7 hours of total work, but it was well worth it, as like everything else in life, Version 2.0 is much better then the first one. Enjoy!


As soon as the jewel touched Vaugn's forehead, the pain started. The pain was beyond words.

Every muscle seemed to be screaming to get out of Vaugns very body. His spine was arching, so his stomach stuck out, and his arms were straining to break the ropes binding him. His fingers were curling, giving him the impression of having claws. His teeth were clenching, and it felt as if they would break from the sheer force of him biting down.

His body felt as if every nerve ending was on fire. It was a pain that was simply unimaginable. But the worst pain, was the pain inside.

Everything inside, though he didn’t know what it felt like, seemed to be in agony. Not his organs, but his heart and soul. The pain felt as if he witnessed every member of his family die 1000 times over. Inside though, apart from the great emptiness and sorrow, he felt anger and hatred rise up inside of him. An anger so pure, and a hatred so raw that his very heart felt like it was on fire.

Through his agony, Vaugn heard something. Not himself screaming, the pain was beyond that, but the old man talking.

"For years my family held this jewel. We were greedy and held onto this jewel, whishing no one else to ever possess it. For we felt to be chosen to possess such a terrible yet wonderous jewel was an honour above all else. We were fools. We should have gotten rid of it the first chance we had. From the minute the jewel slipped into our possession, our lives slowly began to fill with suffering. I witnessed my brother go mad because of it. He slashed his throat because he said the jewel wished to feed on his blood. The voices he heard inside the jewel were hungry. He was an idiot. He was too weak to defy the jewels wishes. He let the voices seep into his mind and taint his soul, and that drove him to madness. Then my wife was stricken with an irreversible form of cancer that killed her within 3 weeks. I watched as she withered away, her form becoming frailer and frailer, her body growing weaker and weaker until she was bestricken, to weak to even speak. My children suffered aswell oh yes. My oldest son had to suffer going through life with legs that were dead. Never being able to play with other children, he suffered greatly, never knowing friendship, forced to watch as the rest of the children played and laughed.Loneliness was his only friend. My oldest daughter suffered aswell, oh yes. Even she was not immune. From birth she was so weak and frail, she was unable to go outside and play, for fear that even the slightest bump would cause unstoppable bleeding, and she too was shunned by the children. Declared a freak and isolated like a diseased rat. The jewel had it’s wish. Jinkara had his wish. Jinkara showed his power. My grandchildren suffered just as much as their parents. I witnessed 2 of my 9 grandchildren die at a young age, never knowing the joys of life, even if their life was full of suffering. Passing this curse onto you will save my family. Never again will we suffer. You will suffer for us. And for that, I thank you young man. Pity though…you were such a handsome young man too.", the old man finished, and casting Vaugn a cold look, turned his back on Vaugn and started to walk out of the room.

Then, without warning, a voice spoke. Vaugn could feel through his pain, his mouth move, and issue the words.

"You fool. If you think you’ll see your grandchildren grow up, you’re wrong. Your blood with seal this mortals fate!", the voice said.

This voice was horrible. It was full of hatred, malice and anger. Every word seemed to drip raw hatred. Then it happened. Through his pain, Vaugn felt himself laughing. A laugh so cold that it froze the very room around it.

The old man felt it. He stopped in his tracks, unable to move. He seemed to scared to move as his breath rose up infront of him. Vaugn felt his neck move and his face look down at the man, and saw he was petrified. His face was white, and his eye’s fearful.

As Vaugn looked at the old man, everything seemed to be going hazy.

The edge of his vision was misty, as if looking at someone through a foggy window, and gradually it started to move inwards to the very center of his sight.

The cloudiness overtook Vaugns visions, and suddenly, it started to grow darker and darker.

With the insuing darkness, reliefe came, and Vaugn welcomed it. When all was black, the pain was gone, the hatred was gone. Vaugn thought nothing, said nothing, did nothing.

Vaugn was unsure of how long he was trapped in darkness, but it was very peaceful without so much as a thought to ruin the tranquility.Suddenly and forcefully, a thought shot through his head, like lightning through the darkness of a storm.

"Is this death? Then I accept it. The pain, the hatred, the anger...I wanted it to end, I wanted to escape. If this is the only way out, then I welcome it."

"Wrong mortal. This is not death’s grip. I still have use of you.", a voice said, a voice of pure hatred and anger.

Then, as if standing outside at sunrise, a red glow started to emerge. The glow seemed to come from all around Vaugn.

As the light grew brighter, and his eyes adjusted,Vaugn looked down and saw himself standing. Shocked, Vaugn quickly patted every inch his body, but he felt that he was whole. He looked around and saw nothing, just the red glow.

"Was that a dream?", Vaugn asked aloud, "No, it wasn’t. The pain was to real. Then where am I?"

As if answering his question, a bright red flash exploded infront of Vaugn's eyes, engulfing him completely. Gradually the red glow died away, and what met Vaugn's eyes after they re-adjusted made his heart stop.

Infront of him, was Tokyo, or what was left of it. Looking down from what appeared to be a mountain over looking the city, Vaugn saw it all.

Everything that he was over looking was leveled. Buildings that were standing were mere shells of their former selves. Many of them had collapsed, and the ones that were standing were only walls and blown out windows. Metal and concrete layed n the streets int wisted heaps, creating oddly beautiful piles of ruble in the decimated city. Burning houses and cars dotted the city like bonfirs at a campsite, smoke furling and twisting into the sky like snakes. The many trees were had been torn from the ground, their trunks splintered, snapped and burnning. The rest of the city scape was littered with massive craters with burned and charred ruble and debris all around the edges. It looked like a scene out of old black and white World War Two movies.

The sky was a horrible blood red. The sun was glowing through the clouds and had an erie ruby red glow. Black smoke striped the sky, and everywhere Vaugn looked, there was no sign of life.

Turning to look behind him, what Vaugn saw almost made him vomit.

400 feet high, smoldering and dripping, stood a mound of slaughtered human bodies. The bodies had clearly been victums of some horrible war, as many of them were missing limbs or heads, while still others had been ripped open from gut to groin. Many of the bodies were still oozing blood, forming a large pool around the mound. Others were starting to decay, their skin a horrible greyish green, and more seemed to have been knawed on by something. Some of the corpses wre burning slowly, their flesh blackened and smoke rising gently from their skin, filling the air with it's putrid stench. But, it wasn’t just human corpses in the mound.

There were many odd looking creatures mixed in aswell.

Many of the creatures had what seemed to be horns, razor sharp talons and teeth, and what appeared to be chains around their arms. Their faces had many eyes, or else eye’s like an insects, but other then that, the faces had no discernable features like noses and ears.Though their bodies weren't burning, their flesh was was coal black and stained red with what looked like human blood. The other creatures seemed to Vaugn to be human, but yet also appeard to glow, even though they were firmly in death’s grasp. Looking closesly, Vaugn saw that these creatures appeared to have wings with feathers that looked razor sharp and which were a silvery colour. Some of the winged creatures had their wings pulled out, the ripped off wings and loose feathers strewn around like garbage. All the winged creatures had what looked like human arms, but those had been ripped off and thrown away aswell.

Though there were rotting corpses everywhere, Vaugn could only smell the blood and smoke.

"What did this?", Vaugn asked, shock and terror all over his face and filling his voice, "N-no human could have done this. No army could have done this. Nothing could have done this."

He continued to look at it, confusion and terror running through him, his breathing getting faster and shallower. The fear he was feeling began warping his face, and his lower lip began to tremble, as did his body. As if hoping for an answer, he looked up the sky and yelled.

"WHAT HAPPENED!", he shouted to the heavens, and he heard his voice echo all around him, though there was nothing to echo off of.

All was silent, except for the gentle crackle of the fires buring down in Tokyo, and the quiet drip of blood from the mound of dead humans and dead creatures.

Then he heard something totally out of place in a scene like this. In the warzone that was Tokyo, amongst the thousands upon thousands of torn apart humans and monsters, Vaugn could have sworn he heard breathing and gentle laughter.

Whipping around over and over, Vaugn desperately searched for the only sign of life apart from himself. But yet he saw nothing that was evenly remotely alive. Suddenly, and with an enormous explosion of fear and realization, Vaugn saw that the mound of corpses was gently rising and sinking as if breathing.

Vaugn stared at it, and the mound started to rise and fall even more. All the while, gentle laughing could be heard somewhere in the distant, getting louder and louder and seemingly echoing off the clouds themselves. Or was it in the distant? Vaugn was so shocked at what he saw, that his perception was not up to what it usually was.

Suddenly, the ground underneath him gave an almighty shake. He looked behind him and saw that in the distant, the buildings that were still standing down in the obliterated city of Tokyo had fallen over, toppling over into piles of twisted concrete and iron. Underneath him, the ground shook again, and several bodies ontop of the mound started to tumble down, with sickening, dull thuds as they bounced off the decaying corpses of the mound, and finally splashing into the pools of blood at the bottom.

The gound shook for another five times. Vaugn was petrified. He wanted to run because he knew that whatever was coming would surely destroy him. He tried to run, but his legs wouldn't move. Again he tried, but again nothing moved. He couldn’t move a single muscle at all. But that wasn’t it.

Vaugn blinked and a second later saw that he had left his body. He wasn't on the ground anympre, but rather he was now floating some one hundred feet above his body. There his body stood, rooted on the spot, a rather relaxed expression on his face, his hands at his side.

For a moment, he was confused. If his body was down there, then what was he doing up in the air? Slowly,Vaugn looked down at his floating body, and saw that he was somewhat transparent. Sort of how one would expect a ghost to look.

The confusion and fear that Vaugn had been feeling before was nothing to compared to what he was feeling now. For whatever reason, he had left his body and was now unable to do anything about it, all the while his body remained rooted on spot.

Forcefully, Vaugn's fear and confusion was broken, as out of nowhere, a voice full of hate and anger rumbled across the sky and landscape, so loud that it shook the very ground.

"Finally, I am reborn. After 4000 years, I am free to destroy the world. Mankind will feed my legions. And together, we will rule this world.", the voice called out, and the voice was strangely familiar.

Vaugn looked around for the speaker of the voice, but then, without reason, he looked at the mound of bodies, and saw that the mouths of the corpses were the ones speaking. Though all of the bodies were clearly dead, they seemed to be moving their mouths. Yet, for some reason, they all spoke in the same voice.

Vaugn ,who was still petrified at what he saw,was only starting to take this all in when it started

Two spots on either side of the mound of corpses,about eighty feet apart, were starting to crack and rise up, as though a balloon was slowly being inflated under it.

Then all around the cracking ground, five long, jagged, spikes raised up out of the ground on each side, and slowly bent inwards, curling and balling into an enormous fist. A fist?

Suddenly, and terrifyingly, Vaugn knew what those were. Those were hands of some monstrous creature, and what he origanully thought were spikes, were really it’s claws.

And sure enough, the fists raised up to the sky, bring with them, long, muscle filled arms that ended in massive shoulders. As if following the lead of the arms, the ground under and around the mound started to raise up, and crack. Suddenly, what ever was under the ground,gave a massive upward thrust, and the ground exploded. As if a powerful bomb went off underneath the mound, the enormous pools blood, giant piles of bodies and a cascade of dirt erupted into the air and was scattered everywhere.

Outlined in the earth beneathe where the pile of corpses had been, Vaugn saw a massive chest and stomach of a man with many scars all over it. The body seemed to be covered in a very fine hair.

The body was enormous. Larger then anything Vaugn had ever scene before. And instinctively, Vaugn knew that what ever this was, was the cause of all this destruction and death.

While Vaugn's ghostly self was mesmerised by the strange body beneathe it, his bosdy seemed to take no notice, as it didn't so much flinch when the mound exploded.

Quietly at first, Vaugn heard a distant din of something indistinct, sounding like the distant thrum of thousands of bees. Gradually the sound grew louder and louder, and with a terrifying realization, Vaugn knew what it was: it was Vaugn speaking. Not the ghost Vaugn, but rather his body. And what it said, inflated Vaugn's confusion to it's breaking point.

"Rise Jinkara, Master of Demons. I surrender my body and soul to you, so that you can rule the world and wipe out the human race. I will serve you until my use is deminished and you have no more use for a pathetic body", Vaugn’s body said

With a deafening boom, the ground at the top of the body in the earth suddenly exploded in a cloud of dust. The dust cloud slowly began to spread along the ground like a creeping fog that slowly enveloped the body within it's dark brown mass.

The brown cloud of dust was so dark that no light seemed to beable to penetrate it, yet Vaugn could clearly see the outline of something monstrous stirring within the cloud. It was as if what ever was inside the cloud was darker then darkness itself.

Slowly, the outline of what was hiden with in the dust cloud pushed itself up from the ground and the dust cloud began to slowly thin and vanish, revealing what was hiden within it's dark depths.

Vaugn's heart skipped a beat and his breath caught in his throat, for what he saw was something that he had only seen in his nightmares.

Even sitting down the creture was huge, at least 80 feet tall. It’s body was greyish-green, the colour of wrotting flesh. The creature flexed it’s longs fingers, and Vaugn could see the bones of the hands through it’s skin. But it was the face that scared him the most. It’s head was like a dogs. It had jaws 10 feet long, with 4 huge canines and rows of jagged teeth. It’s eyes were black, except for red slits for pupils. And it had 3 rows of horns covering it’s head, 2 over it’s eyes and going to the back of it’s head, and one down the center that started at the nose and ended at the base of the creatures spine. The creature licked it fangs, and Vaugn saw that’s tongue was forked just like a snakes.

When the creature stood up, Vaugn could see that it stood on the balls of it’s feet, just like a dog would if it stood on it’s hind legs. Staring at the creature, Vaugn’s fear, if possible, started to increase even more.

The creature growled, a low, rumbling, cold growl, and looked around. It seemed to be smiling- though Vaugn wasn’t sure- at all the death and destruction it saw. Gradually, the creatures attention was drawn down at the body that was Vaugn's and took one step towards it. With it's massive footstep, the ground shook as violently as an earthquake, yet Vaugn's body showed no signs that it had noticed anything.

Staring at Vaugn's body, the creature's red eyes slowly began to burn brighter and brighter, as if glowing with happiness. With it's eyes glowing as brightly as raging inferno's, it spoke in a voice full anger of cold hatred.

"You are my vessel?", the creature asked in a low rumbling growl that was colder then the reaches depths of space.

"Yes Jinkara", Vaugn replied, in a voice as casual as if he was talking with his friends.

"Do you give me your body and soul? So that I may be reborn in full power and destroy humankind?", Jinkara asked, his voice dripping with raw fury.

"Yes Jinkara.", Vaugn replied again, sounding as casual as before.

"Excellent.",Jinkara purred, his long jaws pulling back into an unmistakeable smile.

Slowly the monster bent down, and reaching out it's enormous clawed hands, seized Vaugn by the arms. The creature held Vaugn by the arms, though not really needing too, as Vaugn’s body didn’t struggle or resist.

"To start the awakening, I merge my body with the body of this mortal, so that I may be reborn.", Jinkara snarled, "But when I do, nothing will stop me from becoming more powerful then ever before."

Even though Vaugn knew what he was seeing was happening, he still found it to unbelievable to happen.

Firming it's grasp on Vaugn's arms, the creatures hands began sliding right through, as if Vaugn's body was merely made of air. Slowly the creatures hands drew closer and closer, until after a minute, they met in the center of Vaungs body.

Without warning, pain shot through Vaugn’s ghostly body more intence then anything he had ever felt before. It was a pain that was pouring from his very heart. The creature was holding Vaugns heart, as if trying to stop it from beating.

Vaugn's eyes began blurring once again from the pain, his vision fading from black to white and back again. Through the pain however, Vaugn saw what was happening to him, and he was powerless to stop it.

Vaugns body was starting to smoke where it stood. Smoke was coming from every inch of his body- his arms, his legs, his hair even. As he watched, the body started to glow at the edges, and then start to blow away and disappear as though made of embers. Smaller and smaller his body got as more and more was blown away in the wind. Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime of watching his body burn and smoulder, Vaugns body was gone. There Jinkara stood, his hands clenched around nothing..

Vaugn stared at site where his body used to be, his body coursing with shock and terror. The pain had stopped the instant his body had vanished, as if had been connected somehow, and with the ceasing off all feeling in Vaugn's body, his mind and gone completely blank.

"The body is mine.", Jinkara growled, standing up and staring out over the obliterated city of Tokyo and savering it, "Now…for the soul."

Quicker then lightning, the monsters hand shot at Vaugn, and faster then he could react, the clawed hand snapped around him like a bear trap. The immence hand closed around Vaugn with such force that it squeezed the air out Vaugn's lungs, threatening to make him pass out.Slowly the creature dragged Vaugn out of the air and and down infront of it's face. Struggling all the while against the powerful grip, Vaugn stared at the monstrous face of Jinkara, to scared beyond words to speak.

"Your soul will allow me to be reborn. More powerful and terrible then ever before!", the creature roared, and he squeezed Vaugn’s soul.

Immediately, beams of light started to shoot from Vaugn's eyes and mouth, as if it was trapped inside of him. It was a bright, light blue light and it seemed to be getting brighter and brighter the harder Jinkara squeezed Vaugn’s soul. Jinkara seemed to be pleased at what he was seeing. He didn’t stop or hesitate, but squeezed harder harder. Vaugn wasn't in pain, but felt as if with each passing second, he was about to explode with a strange swelling sensation. Finally, with the swelling sensation at it's greatest, Vaugn felt his soul slowly tear apart and a bright blue flash exploded out of Vaugn that engulfed everything around it.

Everything around Vaugn was black. It was darker then dark. All Vaugn felt was a great emptiness, but with every passing heartbeat the feeling grew fainter and fainter, and then…Vaugn felt nothing more.


***



Vaugns eye’s twitched. He slowly moved his hand up to his head and rubbed his forehead- it was throbbing for some reason. He layed there, not moving, not doing anything. Everything in Vaugn's mind was blank. It was like the sky right before a thunderstorm. Everything was dark, and everything was still. Then like lightning, a thought shot through dark head and brought him back to his sences.

A burned out city, dead bodies everywhere, and a monster saying that Vaugn would let it be reborn greater and more terrible then ever before.

Vaugn’s eyes snapped open and he sat bolt up-right.

For a moment Vaugn's eyes were unfocused, but looking around he saw that he was in his room. He was laying on his bed. The sun outside was setting, and he looked at the alarm clock, it's red digital face declaring it was 6:30.

Looking out the window, Vaugn saw that everything was normal. The sun was setting,the sky was blue, streaked with red and orange, the buildings were standing, and smoke was no where to be seen.

Letting out a sigh of reliefe, Vaugn slowly pulled himself out of bed and walked to the window, resting his hands on the window sill.

"Was that a nightmare? It seemed so real. The pain and the smells were all to real to be from memory.", Vaugn said out loud, shaking his head slightly, "It had to be a dream. What else could it have been."

Thinking that dinner must be ready, or close to being ready, Vaugn left his room and went to the washroom. He had been sweating for some reason, and thought that he’d wash up a bit. Entering the laundry room and grabbing a towel, he went to the washroom, taking his shirt off and tossing it aside.

He entered the room, but didn’t look at the mirror right away. He leaned over the sink, turned the taps on and soaked his towel. Ringing the towel out, he folded it up and looked into the mirror. With the first look in the mirror, he let out a scream that surely carried all the way downstairs.

Vaugn stared at himself in the mirror, horrified at what he saw.

On his chest, wrapping onto his arms and carrying all the way to the back, were bright red marks that looked like hand marks. But these hands had claws. The tips of the claw marks all stopped at his chest, right where his heart was. Twisting to look at his back he saw, two more, shorter claw marks. The full affect was as if something monstrous had grabbed him and squeezed him very hard to leave these marks on his flesh.

Then, a memory flooded Vaugn’s mind. A memory of a monster grabbing him where these marks were. But it was only a nightmare wasn’t it?

"What the f…But, that’s where that thing grabbed me. But, it was only a dream. It had to be.", Vaugn said, still looking at himself with a very scared expression on his face.

Then, right before Vaugn’s fear filled eyes, the marks started to slowly vanish. It started at the tips and moved outwards, as if being erased by an invisible eraser. The marks continued to fade away until nothing was left of them, not even the slightest red welt.

Vaugn took this all in, but didn’t believe it. He closed his eyes,took several deep, calming breaths and opened his eyes again.

"That was just an after shock of the nightmare. Yeah, that’s all. My eye’s were playing tricks on me. I just gotta wake up more.", Vaugn said confidently to himself.

Turning the tap on and running cold water, he stuck his hands under the icy jet, and let out yet another scream.

The water that was hitting his hands was clear and fresh, just as it should be. But the water running off of his hands was deep red and thick. It was blood.

Vaugn withdrew his hands lightning quick and stared at them, shocked at what had happened. The blood was running from his finger tips. But it wasn’t his own blood. The blood seemed to be dripping from his tips, just like when an animal slashes something and merely gets blood on it’s claws. But Vaugn didn’t have claws, so why should he have blood on his fingers?

Vaugn stuck his fingers underneath the water again, trying to wash the blood off of his hands furiously. Gradually the blood started to get thinner and thinner until it was completely gone off of his fingers, and nothing but pure water ran off his fingers.

"Okay, maybe some…dye, yeah, dye, got dropped in the water system. It wasn’t blood, it was red dye.", Vaugn said out loud and in a slightly hysterical tone, "The marks on my chest and back were just the after shock of my nightmare, and the blood was just red dye in the water system. Good. Now that all the strange happenings that have happened in the past one minute have been explained without a shadow of a doubt, I will head downstairs.", he finished in a tone of utter contempt and confidence.

Looking at himself in the mirror, he saw that he was still pale and his eye’s were still wide with shock. He seemed to come back to his sences while looking at himself, as if his reflection made him realize he was being silly. He took a deep breath, Vaugn straightened himself up and fixed his hair slightly.

"Man, I must be losing it. Hey, who am I talking to anyway?", Vaugn asked with a slight laugh in his voice as he ran his fingers through his hair.

"Who indeed.", a evil voice purred back.

Vaugn’s heart stopped. The voice that had spoken seemed to come from the very walls of the washroom itself. It was a voice that seemed to chill Vaugn's very heart and soul itself.

Twisiting around, Vaugn searched the washroom to see if he could find the speaker,but all was in vein as Vaugn knew he was alone.

"That was just my mind. I’m so out of it right now, my mind is playing tricks on me.", he said dismisevly, though slightly hysterically none the less.

Leaving the washroom and stopping off in his room to put a clean shirt on, he left his room with a slightly racing heart, down the hall and downstairs. At the foot of the stairs Vaugn heard voices from the diningroom. Gathering himself the best he could as he walked down the hall, Vaugn to one last deep breath before sliding open the diningroom door. Inside he saw that Uni, Asuke, Imari and Kihari were all there, watching the news, drinking tea and snacking on cookies. They looked up at Vaugn when the door slid open and smiled.

"There you are Vaugn. We were wondering when you’d wake up.", Imari said.

"I like my sleep, what can I say.", Vaugn replied with a shrug, trying to keep his voice as causal as he could given the recent events that happened.

"Have a good nap by the way?", Kihari asked after sipping her tea.

"I guess so,", Vaugn replied thinking of the nightmare and sitting down at the table, "What time did I get home by the way?", he added

"Coonai says you got home at quarter to 4, Vaugn.,", Uni replied not looking away from the news, "She also says you went straight to your room and fell asleep there."

"Really? Wow. It must have been a good nap, because I don’t remember anything like that. I remember leaving school, and then waking up, and that’s it.", Vaugn replied, in a somewhat confused voice, running his fingers through his hair.

"Have any good dreams then?", Uni asked slyly.

Thinking, Vaugn suddenly realised he couldn’t remember anything at all about the nightmare he had, even though he had been thinking of it not 30 seconds ago.

"I don’t know. I can’t remember it.", Vaugn replied slowly, wracking his brains for even the slightest grain of the dream he had.

"Here Vaugn, have some tea. You look pale.", Asuke said, pouring him some tea and handing it to him.

"Thanks Asuke.", he replied, and started to drink.

On the news, the reporter was now on a story about a local man who was killed.

"Today, the neghbourhood of Cojuri is reeling from a very horrific slaying.", the reporter started, "Today, and elderly, 75 year-old man who lived on Rionta avenue was found slain in his small, 2 story house."

"Rionta? But’s that’s the street we take to school. That’s really close to here.", Imari said, in a slightly worried voice.

"The man, who’s name has not been released for the family’s sake, was found laying on his back in his apartment. Though there was no sign of an attemtped robbery, the man was none the less found slain. Laying in a pool of his own blood, the man was found with 8 large slash marks on his chest. Each slash mark stretched roughly from the mans shoulder and dragged down and across his body. Crime Scene experts say the man probably died instantly from the shock of the wounds, as there was no sign of motion from where he laid.", the reporter finished.

"Wow, that’s horrible.", Asuke said, clapping her hands over her mouth.

The reporter finished the report by showing a picture of the man, "If anyone has any information about this case, please contact the police immediately."

Vaugn stared at the the picture of the man. He had a long white beard and his face was very heavily lined. A small spark of a memory popped into Vaugn's mind at the site of the man.

"I-I know that guy.", Vaugn said in a very shocked voice.

All the girls looked at him, and they saw that Vaugn’s mouth was slightly open in a shocked way, and he was staring at the screen, though the report was finished and the news had moved onto the weather.

"You know him Vaugn?", asked Uni, and she aswell as the other girls were clearly unnerved by this.

"Where do you know him from Vaugn?", asked Asuke, and she looked scared.

"I-I don’t know. For some reason, I had this memory in my head like I had seen him and spoke to him.", Vaugn replied, now looking from face to shocked face.

"Vaugn, are you feeling okay", asked Kihari in a very conserned voice.

"Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.I don’t know.", Vaugn replied, running his hand through his hair and waving an impatient hand, "Maybe I think I just need some fresh air and food in me. I’ll be fine after that.", he finished shakily as he got up, leaving the dining room and headed out to the back yard.

Swaying slightly as he walked down the path, Vaugn took several deep calming breaths of the cool night air to try and clear his head, which had gone slightly cloudy. Walking into the meditation garden,Vaugn sat down on one of the cold metal benches and let the fresh air flood his lungs as he looked up at the now emerging moon.

What was happening to Vaugn? First, he has a nightmare in which a monster destroys his body and tells Vaugn that his, Vaugn’s, soul will let that thing be reborn and rule the world. Then, he has marks on his body like giant hands had grabbed him, and blood on his fingers like he had used them like claws. Then he sees a flash of a memory in which he saw the murdered man and was sure he had spoken to him.

Thinking of that memory in which Vaugn had seen the old man, and then hearing he had been killed, Vaugn suddenly felt pleasure in this news. He couldn’t explain it, but the old man being killed braught him joy. Great joy. Vaugn started to slowly and quietly laugh. And suddenly, it started to get louder and more evil.

But just as quickly as he started, Vaugn stopped. The joy he had felt so suddenly was gone. And Vaugn was even more confused then he had been.

What had caused Vaugn to feel such joy and pleasure at the thought of that mans death, he didn’t know, but what ever it was seemed to vanish as fast as it appeared.

As Vaugn was lost in thought of the strange happenings, the door to the back yard opened,bathing the dark backyard in golden light, and Vaugn heard Asuke call out to him, "Vaugn, supper is ready."

"Thank you Asuke.", Vaugn called back and, standing up, Vaugn went and joined the rest of the family in the dining room, taking one last lung full of fresh air to try and clear his head.

Though the memories were fresh in Vaugn’s mind, aswell as Uni’s, Imari’a, Kihari’s and Asuke’s, none of them mentioned anything while they ate their supper.

That night, though Vaugn could feel the occasional stare from the girls, they had an enjoyable evening. There was a 2 hour long live comedy show that they had a very fun time watching. It really did help Vaugn forget about the strange happenings and memories

As Vaugn climbed into bed later that night, Vaugn was sure that it had been just a strange happening that Vaugn couldn’t remember the walk home. He was equally convicned it was a strange coincedence he was sure he had met the murdered old man, and seen those marks on his body.

After all, Vaugn thought, he’s just the average 16 year old boy.



***



The weeks following Vaugns nightmare were ones that were, what Vaugn thought, strange. Given, nothing as bad as the nightmare, the blood, or the marks had happened again, but it was still dotted with occurances that were strange.

Ocassionally, Vaugn's sence would rise to alarming levels, to the point where he'd be overcome with such an upsurge that his head would start to pound. He could smell the perfume that a girl was wearing…from across the street. He could also hear whispered conversations between 2 people while they stood next to a loud motorcycle. His sence of touch so sensitive sometimes, that his tea would be ice cold and it still felt like it was boiling. Most of the time, Vaugn would act as if nothing had happened, but other times, his head would be pounding so much from the upsurge of awareness, he felt as if his head would split wide open.

Other times, it’d seem like Vaugn was possesed by some sort of animal. For example, while Vaugn was doing a 200 meter sprint in gym class.

While running aginst 6 of his fellow class mates, Vaugn was feeling the rush of competition. He was losing, but Vaugn always did better when he was losing. Without warning though, Vaugn felt a sensation as if he had suddenly left his body. He felt his spine arch and suddenly felt his hands meet the ground and push off again. He was running on all fours like a dog. Blasting past his classmates, he crossed the finished line, and suddenly felt himself snapback to his sences, though confused as to why he was on all fours, while his classmates laughed and applauded.

A couple of weeks after the nightmare, the strange occurances continued. Though Vaugn couldn’t explain it, he seemed to have loads of energy all of a sudden. Though having loads of energy was nothing new to Vaugn, it was the amount that shocked him, and his friends aswell.

One such day, after not being able to sleep for 3 days straight because of his extra energy, Vaugn could be found running in the gym.

The gym was a very large building that had basketball courts in it that could be converted to volleyball courts. There was a large stage at the far end that plays could be held on. There were bleachers that people could watch the plays and the sporting events. All around the gym was a long track that would allow for a very long run. That’s what Vaugn was hoping for.

Sitting in the bleachers, watching Vaugn run were Nikkai and Shentin. The girls had a cooking club meeting and said they would join them after it was done.

"Man, how long has he been out there?", Nikkai asked shentin, leaning back on the row behind him, and looking quite bleary eyed, both of them watching Vaugn circle the track at top speed.

Rubbing his eyes, Shentin checked his watch, "It’s been an hour and twelve mintues straight.

"Man, just watching him makes me tired.", Nikkai said with a yawn, "What’s gotten into him lately?"

"I dunno,", Shentin replied with a yawn aswell, "But whatever it is better stop or it’ll be the death of him."

At that thought, Asuke, Imari and Kihari pushed open the gym doors, and searching for a second, hurried over to the bleachers, climbed up and joined Shentin and Nikkai, sitting down beside both of them..

"So, how long has he been running out there?", asked Asuke, stretching out.

"An hour and fifteen minutes now.", replied Shentin.

"And he hasn’t stopped yet?", asked Imari looking startled

"Nope. Hasn’t stopped for a rest, or even a drink of water.", Nikkai replied, and standing up, yelled to Vaugn, "Vaugn! The girls are here! Let’s head home now!"

"2 more laps!", Vaugn called back, and with that, he got a sudden burst of speed and started to sprint even faster around the track, turning into a blonde, blue and black blur.

Finishing his 2 laps in record time, he bounded up the bleachers and jumped the last two levels to join his friends.

"So Vaugn, did you burn off all that energy you’ve had lately?", asked Kihari, letting out a huge yawn.

"Nope, not one bit. Look, I’m not even sweating!", Vaugn replied in an upset tone, raising one of his arms and showing the friends, "Damn it! That means another sleepless night!"

"Come on Vaugn. Coonai is good for helping people. I’m sure she knows what to do to help you get to sleep Vaugn.", Asuke told him as she threw him his back pack.

"Hopefully…well, let’s get going.", Vaugn said with a sigh, dreading the thought of another sleepless night.

The walk home wasn’t what you’d call normal. On one hand, you had 5, perfectly normal high school students. They were carrying home their bags, full of homework, and looking like they’d like nothing better then laying down on the sidewalk and sleep for 2 hours. On the other hand though, you had a tall, blonde boy carrying his bag, bouncing off the wall. Vaugn was so wound up, he was shaking from head to toe. Everytime they’d stop at a crosswalk and wait for the cars to clear, he’d either be bouncing on the balls of his feet, or else tapping his foot so fast that it sounded like a helicopter.

Walking into the yard- Vaugn carrying all the school bags in hopes of tiring him out- yielded a hopeful end in site.

Walking straight to the dining room and pushing the door open, they found Coonai and Uni, sitting on their pillows, watching TV and doing homework..

"Oh hello everyone. How are you doing?", Coonai greeted them kindly.

"Tired and worn out. But luckily Vaugn has enough energy for all of us.", Nikkai replied, flopping down onto the floor.

"I’ll say. Geez, and hour and fifteen minutes straight running and he didn’t even break a sweat. Something is up with Vaugn.", Imari said pointedly flopping down next to Nikkai.

"Oh dear.", sighed Coonai, placing her hand to her cheek, "Are you still wound up Vaugn?"

"Yes he is.", said Asuke, "And we were hoping you’d have something to cure it sis.", she added with a slightly pleaing look to her oldest sister.

"I think I still have that recipe that mom always used when we were little.", said Coonai, getting up and heading to the kitchen.

"Man, I hope this works you guys. Another sleepless night and I think I’ll just about kill someone.", Vaugn said as he started to tap his fingers very quickly on the table top."

"Don’t worry Vaugn. It works great. This stuff will put down anything.", Uni said, looking a tad concerned.

Five minutes later, the kitchen door slid open and in came Coonai, carrying a mug full of a steaming drink.

"Here you are Vaugn,", Coonai started kindly, "Now, drink this and…"

THUMP!

With a force strong enough to shake the whole table and a couple of pictures hanging on the wall, Vaugn had done nothing less then a grade A face plant onto the table.

Vaugn was bent over the table, sleeping on his forehead, snoring away as if he had been sleeping for hours. The friends all stared at Vaugn, clearly surprised that he had finally falled asleep.

"Oh my,", Coonai said in a slightly worried voice, "I do hope that didn’t hurt."

"Atleast he’s asleep now,", Nikkai said, lowering his head so has to look at Vaugn’s sleeping face, "Grab his legs Shentin. We’ll take him up to his bed."

Together, with the help of the girls, they lifted Vaugn up and started to walk him to his bed on the second floor.

It was strange. They had never seen anyone sleep that deeply. Several times they bumped Vaungs head, and even when Shentin sneezed and lost his balance on the stairs and dropped Vaugn down the entire flight of stairs, he still slept soundly as if he was sleeping in his bed.

After fighting with Vaugn's sleeping body and gravity, Shentin and Nikkai somewhat dropped Vaugn in his bed and pulled the covers up over him. As the five friends watched Vaugn sleep, they had to admit he looked exactly like a sleeping angel, except slightly beaten and battered with a couple of visible bumps.

"Man, how heavy is this guy?", Shentin asked, wiping his sweating brow.

"Well atleast he’s asleep. Now he won’t be so wound up. And tommorow we’ll have a normal day.", said Nikkai trimuphantly.

Though the friends left Vaugn in his to sleep for the first time in several days, they were quite mistaken when they thought everything would be back to normal. They were very wrong.

Not only did Vaugn sleep all night, but all day, and all night, and all day, and all night. He slept for 2 straight days. Never waking up, never mumbling in his sleep. He did turn over in his sleep, but that was the extent of it.

"Damn…sleeping for 2 days straight. What’s up with him?", asked Nikkai, as he, Shentin and the girls came to visit Vaugn in his room, Asuke bringing Vaugn his homework from school. They had managed to explain Vaugn's absence by saying he was in bed with a bout of flu.

"I dunno. But he had better wake up before tommorow. We’re going to see that movie remember.", Imari said sitting at the edge of Vaugn’s bed, sounding slightly desperate.

"Yeah yeah, we remember Imari.", Nikkai said as he rolled his eyes slightly, sitting on Vaugn’s desk, and looking at the sleeping form of his friend.

"It may be strange, but sleeping for 2 days straight after what he went through before, kind of makes sence. I’m relieved he just didn’t die from exasution…even though he had boundless energy.", Kihari said fairly.

"Yeah, it is strange, but I guess to be expected,", Asuke agreed, looking down at Vaugn sleeping peacefully, "Come on guys. Coonai should have our snack ready.", and with that, the group left Vaugn to sleep peacefully and undisturbed.

Two hours later, while the others were watching TV, Vaugn stirred in his bed, and with a slight groan, he finally woke up.

Though many teenagers would find the thought of sleeping for 2 days straight peaceful, Vaugn’s rest was anything but.

For the whole two days he had been sleeping, he had nothing but vicous nightmares about monsters and angels killing one another, and killing innocent people. All the while, Vaugn watched from what seemd to be high above the battlefield unable to help or do anything but watch. Everything about the dreams were so real. The screams of terror, the roars of the monsters, the sound of flesh being torn, the sound of people splashing through pools of blood, the smell of buring bodies and buildings. Everything about it said dream, yet whispered reality.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Vaugn slowly sat up and looked around his room. Pushing his hair out of his eyes, he stretched out his arms wide and swung his legs out of bed.

The sun was starting to set in the evning sky, the clock read 6:30, and everything on the street below was quiet.

Standing up and stretching out some more, he walked to the window and looked out the window. Vaugn was thinking of his dream.

Vaugn was not a violent person, quite the contrary. Vaugn was quite peaceful actually. Yet, thinking of the dream, Vaugn felt pleasure in it.

Unexplainably, Vaugn found himself smiling and quietly laughing to himself about this. Vaugn was feeling great joy for the death and destruction he saw, and for some reason, he wanted more. When he thought about it, the death and destruction he saw made his heart race and mouth water. He wanted more. Much more. He wanted to hear the screams, smell the smoke, and savour the fear that would fill the air.It was like what he had scene was like some sort of magnificent drug that gave Vaugn utter pleasure.

But just as suddenly as these vicous and violent feelings and thoughts surfaced, as it did on the night in the garden, the pleasure vanished, only to be replaced by confusion by his sudden evil thoughts and feelings.

Shaking his head, Vaugn slipped on his slippers, left his room, walked down the hall, and down the stairs. At the foot of the stairs, Vaugn could smell something delicous, and suddenly felt as if he hadn’t at anything for days. Walking briskly to the dining room and walking in silently- the door was open- he found his friends all watching TV. The show must have been quite interesting as none of them noticed Vaugn walk in. As silently as a shadow, Vaugn slid into the room, sat down, put his elbows on the table and looked around smiling.

"Morning guys.", he said, and smiled even broader at the site of them all jumping from their pillows and whipping around to look at him.

All of the friends stared at Vaugn, and all of them seemed to be too shocked beyond words.

"Vaugn! You’re up!", said Imari in a surprised voice, but still sounding relieved, "You were asleep when we were visiting you 2 hours ago."

"Was I? Oh well. That was a great nap. So what did I miss while I was sleeping?", Vaugn asked in a very casual voice.

As one, the friends all exchanged rather concerned looks. It seemed to Vaugn that they were debating about how the best way to break bad news to Vaugn. Neither of the friends seemed in any great hurry to tell him, but straightening himself up and facing Vaugn, Nikkai was the one to break the news

"Well, you missed two days of school Vaugn.", Nikkai said, rather sheepishly.

Vaugn looked from Nikkai, to his other friends, with a puzzled look on his face.

"Two days? Are you serious?", Vaugn asked, clearly showing confusion and sceptisism on his face.

"Yeah. We thought something might be wrong when you didn’t wake up after the first night, but we thought we’d let you sleep, and if you showed no improvement then we’d get help.", Shentin told Vaugn.

"Wow…two days.", Vaugn said with a confused look on his face, "But it didn’t seem like that long. It felt like I had only been napping for a couple of hours.", Vaugn finished looking around at his friends.

"We figured after burning that much energy you needed all the sleep you could get. You were wound up pretty high earlier this week remember.", Asuke told him

"Not really, but I feel fine now. Strange huh?", Vaugn asked, running his fingers through his hair.

"Yeah, but atleast you’re better now.", Kihari said fairly, giving him a warm smile.

"Yeah, and ateast I got sleep. So what’s for supper?", Vaugn asked, returning to his usual demeanor

To answer his question, the kitchen door slid open and Coonai, Uni and Mr. Miasoto entered the room, laidend down with trays carrying the nights dinner. They all greeted him marily as they sat down and dinner was served.

Though his friends were acting happy, Vaugn knew that they were very concerned about him.

Vaugn wasn’t sure what was happening to him, but what ever it was was definetly not him. It almost seemed like there was something else in Vaugn’s body and mind, that was occasionally breaking loose and taking over,making him feel happy at the thought of death and destruction. It always seemed that when something like this would happen he was always watching. Watching from the sidelines as someone else was doing it all.

Maybe it was just a temporary thing he was going through, Vaugn thought, as he started on his dinner. He was afterall, a normal sixteen year old boy. Right?



***



It was a sunny, cloud free 10 o’clock Saturday morning. Many people were outside enjoying the cool morning, looking at the cherry blossoms which were in full bloom, or going to the park and enjoying the peaceful calm that it provided. Many of the residence were sitting in the garden in warm windbreakers, enjoying warm tea and the smells of autumn, aswell as the flocks of birds that had begun flying south.

Vaugn was not one of them however.

Vaugn was upstairs in his room, catching up on 2 days worth of homework. Sleeping for two days may have been what he needed, but school continued none the less.

Not only did Vaugn have 4 chapters to read and summerise for english, he had 6 pages of math calculations, 7 pages of science notes to read and answer some 70 questions about it, aswell as he had to find 6 articles about politics for his social studies class.

At 12 o’clock in the afternoon, Vaugn finished his homework. Rubbing his bloodshot eyes, he stood up and stretched his back and arms, with many groans and cracks from the various cramps that had built up. Vaugn had never stared at that many numbers and letters before in his life and was feeling quite aggitated.

Grabbing a towel from the laundry room and heading downstairs, Vaugn headed towards the training hall for sometime with the punching bag.

Vaugn couldn’t explain it, but his tiredness that would normally follow a long session of homework was absent, instead replaced by an unexplainable anger. He felt as if everything and everyone in the world was against him. As he started with the punching bag, he found himself thinking of every little annoyance about his friends, family, school, and anything else he could think of. It seemed that the rage inside was buring and destroying his very heart. The hatred he had inside seemed to be bursting through a dam and flooding his body, driving him onwards to despise his friends, family and everything else.What was stranger still, was while using the punching bag, he seemed to have left his body. Though he knew he was hitting the bag, it seemed like he was viewing it from a different perspective then his own eyes. Though angry, he felt something inside feeling great pleasure at this. It felt as if what ever it was, was happy that Vaugn was this angry and wanted it to continue.

After 30 minutes with the punching bag however was enough to burn off all of his anger and bad feelings. It seemed that like the normal growing boy that he was, he had the occasional outburst of anger and just needed a way to vent.

Wiping himself off as he walked down the hall, free of all anger and malice thoughts, he heard someone call out to him from the dining room.

"Vaugn, in here!"

Poking his head into the dining room, Vaugn saw Asuke and the others sitting around the table eating lunch and watching TV.

"Hey guys. What’s up?", Vaugn asked stepping into the room

"Finished your homework?", asked Kihari, though muffled because her mouth was full of noodles.

"How womanly,", Vaugn replied as Nikkai, Shentin and Imari chuckled, "But yeah, I’m done it all."

"Good. So you’re still planning on coming to the movie tonight?", asked Asuke

"Yep, I am.", replied Vaugn, "But if you’ll all excuse me, I’m going to take a bath now. I’m just so tence after all those polynomials and partial paragraphs.", Vaugn replied, thinking of his homework with a shudder. With that, he left the room and headed upstairs to the bath.

After a nice long bath, Vaugn felt back to normal. Vaugn thought that the bad feelings were just from the strain of doing all that homework. Putting on clean clothes and heading downstairs, he joined his friends to watch TV and start his own lunch, forgetting all about his anger and bad feelings.



***



At 4 that afternoon, the group left the house and headed towards the movie theatre. As far as Vaugn knew, there weren’t any movie theatres in his area. The only one he knew of was in downtown Tokyo. The gang, which had been walking the way to school, were in high spirits. Not only did the movie promise to be good, but Vaugn was back to normal-no hyperactive Vaugn-, and it was peaceful afternoon. Walking past their school, they arrived at a busy buisness area 10 minutes later.

Everywhere Vaugn looked, he saw grocerie stores, office buildings and small buisnesses. He saw an auto garage, a warehouse store, several clothes store and a busy strip mall. People were walking from store to store, weighted down with bags full of shopping. All of the shoppers were in high spirits, and enjoying the cool autumn air.

The only thing that seemed out of place in this shopping center was a flight of stairs that lead down into the ground. It had a railing sperating it into 2 sides, and the rather large square opening that it made in the ground was circled my railings. There was a large square sign with what appeared to be a schedual on it.

"So, how exactly will we be getting to the movies?", Vaugn asked the group, looking for a bus stop or a taxi.

"We’ll be taking the subway.", Nikkai said as Asuke pointed to the stairs leading underground.

"Sounds fun.", Vaugn said happily as he followed the others to the stairs.

After walking down the stairs a short distance, they arrived in a brightly lit waiting area.

Immediately infront of them was a ticket booth, where people were buying their tickets from a very tired looking ticket man, then being passed through a gate that locked and unlocked at the push of a button. Seeing past that, Vaugn saw a large platform with benches and small kiosks full of candy, trinkettes and magazines.

"6 please.", Shentin said, and passing the money under the booth window.

When they had their tickets they were passed through the gate, and Vaugn was afforded an even better look. Every 40 or so feet stood massive circular braces. They were all covered in old posters and advertisings. Everywhere else on the walls were up to date posters and advertisments, advertising TV shows, movies, concerts and more. At the far edge of the platform were the train tracks. Even from where Vaugn was, he heard the gentle hum of hundreds of thousands volts passing through the tracks.

"Okay, so our train will be here at 6:50,", Imari said, squinting at a small schedual and checking her wrist watch, "And it’s 6:45 now. Wow, good timing or what.", and the others nodded.

Vaugn and the others had only been waiting for about 2 minutes when the train pulled up. The train, which was a metalic white and full of windows, was only 4 cars long. Yet so many people were on it, that they were pressed right to the door with standers. When the doors slid open, with a hiss of rushing air, the many passengers disembarked, leaving very few people left in the 4 cars.

The group of friends walked onto the third car("I guess my watch is slow", Imari saying) and found 6 seats near the middle of the car. Imari and Asuke sat in the first pair, Kihari and Shentin in the second pair, Vaugn and Nikkai in the third pair.

The doors slid silently closed, and with the sound like a helicopter revving up, the train started to move with a gentle shove to the passengers.

Enjoying the ride, Vaugn looked around the car. All over the top of the car were more advertising for home insurance, a car advertisement and many others.

Every 5 or so minutes the car train would stop to let more passengers on and off.

Vaugn could tell that he and his friends weren’t the only ones going out tonight. There were many other kids about Vaugn’s age joining them on the train, and from what he could tell, they were probably going to see the same movie he was.

"Well, 5 more stops guys, and then that’ll be ours.", Shentin said checking the map that was provided in the train.

The train stopped again, and Vaugn was just checking out an add for a new TV show coming soon when 5 of the loudest people Vaugn had ever heard got on.

Looking towards the front of the train, Vaugn noticed that these guys seemed to be the heavy metal type. They had spiked hair, pierced noses and ears, black leather jacket with metal studs and black leather pants, and everything else one would imagine the stereotypical heavy metal listener to look like and wear.

These guys for one reason or another, seemed to be harassing innocent train riders for no reason. It looked as if they were merely doing this for fun. They did seem to be quite proud with themselves as they pushed people out of their way and knocked people down.

As they walked into Vaugn’s car, he heard what they were saying.

"Damn, look at all these mongrals. They’re all so damn ugly!", one of them said loudly, "Look at that guy! Looks like someone beat him with a damn baseball bat!", he called out as he pushed a man out of the way and his friends laughed.

As a group, the punks 6 or 7 seats away from where Vaugn and his friends were sitting, and looked around the car. Then, slowly, one of them pointed in the direction of Asuke, Imari and Kihari. They group looked at eachother, smiled and walked straight to the girls, pushing more people out of the way, very dirty smiles spread across their faces. Together, the six punks gathered around Imari and Asuke's seat, looking very smug. Slowly, and with the air of a man who was trying to to get lucky that night, the one who appeared to be the leader of the group put his foot on the edge of the seat and leaned on his knee.

"So, where you pretty ladies going?", the guy asked to Asuke and Imari.

Neither of them answered. Both Asuke and Imari looked out the window, ignoring the punk.

"Not the talking type huh? Oh well. You don’t have to talk. Hell, we like our woman not to talk. Makes it more fun for us.", the guy replied to their silence, as his friends laughed.

Deep inside Vaugn, a spark of anger flared to life and began growing larger and larger. Slowly, a chill ran through the train car, snaking it's way through the passengers like a large snake. Not going unnoticed by some of the rides of the train, the lights alround the train began to flicker and stutter. Some people on the train looked up as the flickering got faster and faster, but then suddenly stopped as if it was a fluke.

"I would have thought that their silence would be answer enough for you.", Vaugn said coldly, and all the eyes turned on him. Again, the lights flickered on and off, the time between the lights turning back on becoming longer and longer.

The others could see that Vaugns eye’s had gone strangely cold just as his voice did. A small shudder ran through the five friends as they stared into Vaugn's ice cold eyes.

"Standing up for your girl huh?", the guy said, starting to play with Imari’s hair. Imari looked as if she was about to scream, but didn’t.

Vaugn slowly stood up, and he seemed to be much larger then usual. Though he wasn’t showing it, his friends knew that he was enraged. Again, the lights flickered on an off again, and one in the far back of the train shattered, raining glass down onto the floor, the train giving a slight rumble that rattled the windows and advertising frames.

"Leave her alone.", Vaugn told the guy slowly, and each of his words was as cold as ice. This time, the lights of the train were extinquished for several seconds, leaving only the lights of the train tunnel to light the train. Everyone in the train was noticing now the odd behaviour of the lights and was starting to get slightly spooked.

"Or what? Are you gonna defend these hotties? Are you gonna try and take us all on?", the guy asked in a sarcastic voice as his friends laughed, "Sit down, shut-up and let us do our thing."

The guy went back to playing with Imari’s hair, but Vaugn stood there, and crossed his arms, "I thought I told you to leave her alone.", Vaugn said, not taking his eye’s off of the punk.

The group of punks stopped laughing immediately, all of them looking very upset that Vaugn had been so persistant in standing in their way of a good time. Looking at the punks like they were nothing but pieces of trash, Vaugn stared into the eyes of the leader of the group, unblinking and unwavering. Like the silence before a gun duel, a tense silence spread throughout the car, leaving only the sound of the clacking train wheels to fill the train car. Annoyed, the lead punk let go of Imari's hair and straightened up to full, yet still shorter then Vaugn, height, looking very upset.

"Brave man. Not many people would stand up to the four of us. Oh well,", the punk said, taking off his jacket and tossing it aside to one of his friends, "Back up guys. I want room to beat the crap out of him."

His friends did as they were told and backed up, giving him pleanty of room. All of them were smiling indulgently. Clearly they thought that Vaugn was about to be the victum of street style beating.

"Vaugn, don’t do this! It’s not worth it.", Asuke hissed at him, twisting in her seat and looking pleadingly at Vaugn.

"Listen to her man. She knows what’s good for her.", the punk said, smiling and cracking his knuckles in a menacing kind of way.

"Stay there Asuke. Do absolutely nothing.", Vaugn told her simply.

At Vaugn's words, the lights of the car died for an instant, yet when they flashed, an eerie blood red light filled the car several times before going back to being white light.

Vaugns friends stared at him and the harasser.

"Here, just to be fair…I’ll let you have the first punch.", he said, offering his cheek to Vaugn as his friends laughed, who merely smiled at him.

In the blink of an eye, Vaugn took a quick half step back and drew his arm back, balling his hand into a fist. Before any of the punks could react, Vaugn’s fist exploded forward and crashed into the jaw of the man standing next to the leader. Underneath his fist, Vaugn felt the punks jaw shatter and teeth break. Lifting the punk off his feet, Vaugn’s powerful blow launched him into the air and sent him flying backwards through the car, landing several feet back and remaing motionless on the car floor.

Faster then any of the punks could react, Vaugn’s free hand shot up from his side and wrapped around the throat of the lead punk, who’s cheek was still offered to him. Clamping down on his throat like a vice grip, Vaugn balled his fist, and with a blow faster then lightning, Vaugn drove his fist into the punks gut with bone shattering force. As if the punk weighted nothing at all, he was picked up off the ground by the shear force of Vaugn’s attack. As the harasser seemed to float in mid air, Vaugn braught his leg back, braught his fists over his head, clasped his fingers together making a hammer like fist, and braught it crashing down on the back of the guys head as he drove his knee upwards. With a sickening crack of bone shattering, Vaugn crushed the punks face between his fists and knee. With sickening pleasure, Vaugn felt as the harassers nose and teeth shattered and his face collpase under his fist, warm blood splashing over his pants and soaking them.

The punk’s body instantly went limp and he fell motionless to the ground.

Looking around, Vaugn saw that the other 3 members of the group were surprised and scared at what they had just witnessed. Clearly, none of them knew what to do.

With a sudden explosion of speed, Vaugn spun around, swinging his arm around like a mace. With the full force of his body behind it, Vaugn drove his fist into the face of a punk behind him before the punk had a chance to react. Instantly, Vaugn felt the punk’s nose and teeth shatter and crush. Like the others, the mans body went limp and he slowly fell to the floor of the car, blood spattering the roof and windows, the wounded punk merely twitching and bleeding on the floor.

Without fail, the lights of ther train all suddenly died, bathing the car in complete darkness. The only light to be had was that coming from the lights in the train tunnel.

Staring at the fallen attacker through the darkness, like a dog staring at a stranger, a wide, evil smile spread across Vaugn’s face, his teeth shining brightly in the dark train.

"You bastard!"

Spinning around, Vaugn saw another one of the punks was running all out at him. Showing little sign of caring, Vaugn merely stood his ground and watched as the attacker drew his fist back and threw his whole weight behind it.

Looking as if what he was seeing was rather boring, Vaugn didn’t so much as flinch as the fist sored towards him. The fist rocketed towards Vaugn like a missile, the attacker roaring in fury. But as suddenly as if it had hit a wall, the fist stopped. Faster then anyone could see, Vaugn’s hand shot up from his side, and his fingers snapped around the punk’s fist like a bear trap, stopping him instantly in his tracks.

The look on the attackers face was that of pure shock and terror. His eyes were as wide as they’d go, and his lower lip was tembling. Slowly, Vaugn moved his hand to the side so as to see his attacker’s scared face better.

Staring into the punk’s face, Vaugn could see he was close to tears out of shear fear, his lip now trembling worse then ever before. Inside, the pleasure that had risen inside of Vaugn was now reaching it’s boiling point.

Slowly, an evil insane smile spread across Vaugn’s face, contorting his usually handsome face into something utterly terrifying. Squeezing the punk’s wrist even harder then before, he slowly pulled the man closer to him and slowly turned his arm over, locking his elbow.

"You should have ran when you had a chance. More fun for me then.", Vaugn whispered, bringing his face to within an inch of the punk’s face, his insanely smiling face reflected in the punks terrified eyes.

In a pink blur, Vaugn’s arm exploded upwards in a lightning fast uppercut. A heartbeat later and the silent air of the train was rent with a bone-shattering crack followed by the most horrible scream anyone had ever heard. Smiling broadly, Vaugn let go of the punk’s wrist as he fell to the ground screaming in agony. His arm had been broken- snapped in half right at the elbow.

Rolling on the ground in agony, the punk’s face was streaked with tears and blanched off all colour. Vaugn watched with an insane glint in his eye as the punk began slowly pushing himself away, screaming and holding his broken arm. Like a lion going in for the kill, Vaugn slowly followed the punk as he pushed himself away from him.

Vaugn’s eyes were alive with joy and his mouth was watering. Vaugn wanted to cause more pain and suffering. Everything at the edges of Vaugn’s vision was a blur, the many faces of the riding passengers pink smears, yet everything in the center was crystal clear, the outline of his wounded prey sharp and bright. He wanted to show no mercy. He wanted to spill more blood. Something inside of him wanted Vaugn to attack again, to grab the man again and shatter every bone in his body. Just thinking about what he could do to the wounded man made Vaugn’s pulse race and his breath quicken. Yet something was wrong. No matter how much pain he caused, it wasn’t enough. He needed more, much more. He needed to kill.

Licking his lips, Vaugn slowly raised his hand beside his head and bent his fingers, as if they were claws of some vicous animal. As Vaugn prepared to deliver the killing blow, his would be prey brushed against a set of heavy black boots with rows of shining silver metal studs. The sheen of the studs drew Vaugn away from the slowly retreating punk he had been pursuing, and instead, Vaugn slowly moved his gaze upwards, revealing a person clad in black leather and metal studs.

For a moment, Vaugn stared into the face of the last standing harasser, who like his fallen friends, was more scared then he had ever been. His face was white and livid, and his eyes were bulging from his head. It seemed that everything that had happened, the last standing man was now to scared to move..

Vaugn’s friends were just as terrified at what they had seen as the people he had attacked. They had never seen Vaugn lose his temper like this, or at all for that matter. He had always been the peaceful kind of person who never raised his voice and was always smiling.

But yet now Vaugn had pulled a complete one-eighty. For something as small as some rowdy train riders, Vaugn had taken it upon himself to brutalise these people, showering unimaginable pain and suffering down upon them without so much as a second thought, and even the slightest hint of mercy.

Slowly the friends looked at one another. Their faces had blanched, their lips were trembling, and their eyes wide with fear. None of them seemed able to speak, yet none of them had to speak to know what they were all thinking: This wasn’t the Vaugn they knew.

Gradually motion returned to the final punk’s body, and he gradually began stumbling back, trying to put as much distant between he and Vaugn as possible. His lips were no longer trembling, but rather mouthing wordlessly towards Vaugn, as if pleading to some higher power to spare him..

"And now for dessert.", Vaugn snarled, raising his hand beside his hair and flexxing his fingers, readying himself for the killing blow

"Vaugn! Stop!", Shentin shouted, standing up in his seat, trying to distract Vaugn so he didn’t hurt anyone else.

Suddenly, the light that was flooding through the train windows died completely, and the train was bathed completely in darkness. Everything was black and no matter where the friends looked, all that met them was more darkness. The only signs of life in the car were the strained moans of the beaten harassers and the clacking of metal wheels on metal rails.

Just as suddenly as the lights had been extinquished, the train car was suddenly bathed once again in light. But it wasn’t the peaceful white light that it should have been. The light that was filling the car was deep, blood red.

The terror in the train car reached palpable levels. The air was ripe with the smell of fear, and all around Vaugn, terrified train riders looked desperately around for an exit from the moving train, yet no one moved for fear that Vaugn would attack them.

The friends watched Vaugn as he stood stalk still before them, hoping against hope that Vaugn had finally come to his sences and returned to his normal self. But what happened next made them all realize that what ever had come over Vaugn was just getting started.

Suddenly, as if Vaugn was merely a hologram, his shape began to flicker sporadically, like a malfunctioning neon sign. One second Vaugn would be standing before them, but then would momentarily be replaced by a figure atleast 7 feet tall, with wide shoulders, hands that seemed to have claws, and arms and legs bulging with muscle. The creature, what ever it was was standing on the balls of it’s feet. It seemed that the red light was revealing some sort of monster.

As if to answer their unasked question, Vaugn slowly turned his head to face his friends. And what they saw wasn’t Vaugn. It wasn’t anything close to Vaugn.

Though his face was the same, every inch was contorted with pure anger and rage. His teeth were bared like an animal’s, and his friends saw that his canines had grown 2 or 3 times their normal length, forming fangs that would shame a vampire.

As if to add to the bizzare and terrifying changes, Vaugn’s eyes had morphed aswell. They were no longer white, but pearly black. They had gone blacker then black, darker then darkness itself. His pupils were no longer round and human,, but instead had warped into cat-like slits. No longer were his eyes their usual warm, ash-blue, but had suddenly exploded into blazing red inferno’s that seemingly burned inside his head.

Whenever Vaugn would flicker, his face would mutate like the rest of his body. No longer it’s usual, gentle visage, every flicker would reveal something monsterous. The only thing that it remotely resembled was some sort dogs face, only worse, with it’s rows upon rows of jagged teeth. Rows of spikes sat atop it’s head like a crown and it’s eyes were the same cat-like slits of Vaugn’s.

"V-Vaugn?", Shentin asked, in a terrified voice, his body and the bodies of the other riders seemingly paralyzed by the fear they were feeling.

With a slight snarl, the creature suddenly exploded into a menacing roar that shook the windows of the car and echoed madly around, spit flying from it’s mouth and splattering the window. Inside the creatures fang filled mouth, the friends saw that it’s tongue had become much longer and forked-just like a snakes. This terrible sight froze them in their seats.

But just as suddenly as it had appeared, the creature flickered and Vaugn returned to his normal appearance, although still highly mutated.

Vaugn turned his face back to the punk, who was now rooted on spot. Smiling broadly, Vaugn slowly walked forward and stopped mere feet from the punk, who was unable to so much as utter a slight whimper of fear.

Slowly Vaugn leaned forward until his face was mere inches from the terrifed harasser. The punk watched, terrified, as Vaugn scanned his face with his vividly glowing eyes, the slits moving back and forth slightly, as if sizing him up. Quietly, Vaugn let out a low, rumbling growl that shook the bones of every single rider in the train car.

Slowly straightening up, a small smile played across Vaugn’s face. It looked like to Vaugn’s friends that he was finally done with his vicious rampage, and was going to spare the last standing harasser.

Faster then anyone could have expected, Vaugn hand shot upwards from his side and clasped around the punk’s head in an unescapable vice grip, and with terrifying strength, lifted the punk clearly off the ground, letting him hang by his head in midair. The punk suddenly seemed to come back to life, as he began shouting for help, and begging Vaugn to let him go. He truly sounded like a man pleading for his life, as if Vaugn was truly going to kill him.

Vaugn flickered once more, but instead of changing to the monster, and back again, as was the norm with every flicker, Vaugn transformed into the monster that was accompanied with ever flicker, and stayed like that.

Without an enormous explosion of power, the creature quickly swung the punk to it’s side- the punk’s body flailing like a ragdoll- and then vicously swung the punk’s body across it and slammed the punk, face first, into a window on the opposite side of the train. The attack was so vicous that not only did the window crack and almost shatter, but the entire car shook so violently, that it felt as if it was about to topple over.

The light filling the train flickered and sputttered and suddwenly died, bathing the entire train in darkness, but just as quick and sudden as Vaugn’s attack, the lights of the train turned back on and imersed the whole trrain in their usual warm, white glow..

With the red light gone, Vaugn was now back to normal, that is to say, his normal body. Yet with the erie red glow gone, Vaugn’s hand remained firmly gripped around the skull of the last of the harassers. Let go of the punk’s head, Vaugn let him slide down the window with a horrible scraping sound and leaving a trail of shining blood smeared down the window. Falling onto his knees on one of the empty seats whith his face still pressed against the class, the punks body went limp and he collapsed backwards, his face nothing more then a bloody mess.

Everything in the train car was silent, the passengers to scared to say or do anything

The five friends were terrified at what they had just seen. All they saw of Vaugn was his back. His shoulders were rising and falling as if breathing hard. For a half minute, Vaugn merely stood there, not moving, not saying not doing anything. Then as if he had come back to his normal self, Vaugn swayed on spot and stumbled to the side groggily before grabbing a hand bar to support himself, groaning as if he had just woken up from a deep sleep.

Raising a hand, Vaugn rubbed his head, which for some reason felt like someone had been beating his brain around inside his skull. His thoughts were all a blur and he couldn’t seem to beable to remember anything that had happened in the past two or so minutes.

Turning around and focusing the best he could, still rubbing his head, Vaugn took in the scene before him, and his heart seemed to skip a beat.

Everywhere he looked, people had looks of shear terror on their pale face, and Vaugn could see why. Looking around, Vaugn saw five people laying in an enormous pool of shimmering blood. Blood had been splattered onto the roof and a long smear of blood ran down a fully cracked window. Several men were laying on the ground, their noses and mouths bleeding profusely, their faces looking as if they had been in a terrible car accident. One man was laying on his back, holding his arm, which was bent the wrong way, his face a sickly green colour. As Vaugn looked around, he couldn’t help but notice that he was standing in the middle of the chaos and carnage

Hoping for an answer, Vaugn looked at his friends for some support. But a shive of fear ran through his body when they saw they were all looking at him as if they had just witnessed him murder someone..

"Guys, what happened here?", he asked, very confused why everyone else was sitting and he was standing.

His friends seemed unable to speak. Looking around, Vaugn searched the car hopefully for someone who might beable tot explain what had happened. But no matter where he looked, no one seemed able to answer. In reality, when he looked at anyone but his friends, everyone winced and cowarded at the sight of his face. It was so quiet in the car that nothing could be heard except the gentle hum of the lights above and the gentle clatter of the train wheels. Aswell as a gentle dripping patter.

Looking around, his confusion prominent once more, Vaugn searched for the sound of the drip. But yet he saw nothing. But suddenly, a memory exploded in his mind, of blood dripping from his hands in the washroom.

Vaugn’s heart skipped a beat and his breath caught in his throat. Slowly, Vaugn lowered his gaze down to his hands and his skin blanched. The dripping was coming from his hands. Slowly raising his hands up to face height, Vaugn saw that the backs of his hands were covered in blood. So much that it was dripping off of his fingers and raining down to the ground, splashing into the enormous pool of blood that was creeping along the floor.

"No.", Vaugn breathed, his face livid with fear, “I couldn’t…I wouldn’t…”

Searching desperately around for any explanation, Vaugn looked back to his friends, his eyes pleading for an answer.

“Did I do this?”, Vaugn asked, his voice shaking and cracking.

None of Vaugn’s friends answered, but merely stared. Their lower lips were trembling as if they were about to cry, yet none of them answered.

"Shentin, did I do this?", Vaugn desperately asked Shentin, who was the only train rider apart from himself that was standing, hoping he would tell him what he feared the most.

Slowly, and horribly, Shentin nodded.