city of night part 2

7.
Rubble and body parts lay strewn about the basement, Adrian picks up the remnants of Warren’s right arm and casually tosses it aside, turning to Jericho he says, “So where do we have to go…I assume you know, that is why we’re here after all.” The dark half of his face grins malevolently almost as if it was aching for a fight. Jericho picks up a leg and tosses it amidst a pile of heads and arms, clean up is a bitch. Slowly he walks over to a small cabinet on the far wall, this is one of four that survived the battle only moments ago; opening it he removes a pair of car keys and throws them to me. “ Vash told you to travel to Dawns-veil but he failed to mention how dangerous this will really be, the first place you will pass through is the village of Embry, it is home to the Maw. Whatever you do, do not stop in this town, and do not go near the children. That is only a guise to fool travelers, they will kill you and this whole war will end in an instant.” He bends over and retrieves another body part from the floor examining it for a moment before detachedly heaving it into the pile. “Car is in the garage take it, weapons and ammo in the back, go.” He mutters, a look of sadness on his face.
The garage is a five minuet walk up a large hill behind the cathedral, its an old rundown looking building, inside is a pristine black hearse, a gleaming silver skull adorns the hood. I walk around to the back hatch and pop it open, inside is a cache of different weapons, swords, handguns, shotguns, Sub-machineguns, even a bundle of wooden stakes.

“Damn” I wheeze.
Adrian hops into the passenger side and yells, “Lets go already!”
I climb into the driver seat and start the engine. The drive is bleak, trees create odd silhouettes against the darkened skyline, no sign of life dots the countryside save the occasional deer or skunk. After roughly three hours a light blinks in the distance, we pass a sign that reads,
Embry four miles
Over which someone had spray-painted the words “welcome to hell”, we keep driving when from nowhere a young girl in a white dress appears in the middle of the road. I slow the car to a stop and sit there idling for what seems like an eternity, we cannot see her face, long black strands of hair hang down to her chin. “What should we do?” I ask glancing at Adrian, he remains silent as he opens the door and climbs out, his six gun gripped tightly in his hand, before he shuts the door he says, “ drive.”
I watch as he walks up to the child and places his hand on her shoulder, he asks her something I can’t quite hear, slowly her head begins to raise, the hair falls to the sides of her head revealing her face, if you could call it that. There are no eyes, just bloody empty holes but it is her mouth that is most disturbing, it make up more that half of her face, she opens this orifice revealing six rows of wickedly pointed yellow teeth. Adrian grabs her by the hair and shoves the barrel of his gun down her throat; before he can pull the trigger she unleashes a loud and guttural scream that resounds through the surrounding woodland. He pulls the trigger and her head comes apart like an overstuffed piñata, from the woods appear more “children” far too many to count, they all look the same, Adrian shouts “ drive!” at me, at first I cant move but my body acts before my mind has caught up to it, I put the car in gear and speed off toward Adrian, he jumps to the side and disappears into a shadow, only to reappear in the darkened seat next to me, “ now I know why they’re called the Maw, did you see that fucking mouth?” I yell.
The car makes a sickening crunching noise as it passes over the body. Streams of the Maw erupt from the woods and fall in behind the car. Somehow they match our fifty miles an hour and begin to leap on the roof, I can hear scratching and pounding above me. Tiny hands appear at the top of the windshield and begin to beat on it, cracks form at the seams when Adrian begins firing. Bullets rip through the roof; screams echo in our ears as these fresh corpses fall form our vehicle. Up ahead spot lights flash on, a row of trucks blocks the way, a small army stands in front, they appear mostly to be well armed farmers, sharpshooters begin picking maw off the car one by one. I push on the pedal even more and rocket the hearse toward the “troops”, a few of the casually step aside and allow the car to pass through the barricade. From behind us more gunfire erupts as the entire front line open up on the monsters behind us. Further up ahead a man in what could loosely be called a uniform steps in front of us bringing the car to a halt. Behind us the gunfire has died to random pops and bursts, screaming can be heard retreating into the distance. I roll the window down as the man walks up beside the car, “ follow us and don’t try anything funny.” He barks, with that he strides up to the biggest and toughest looking truck and drives off down the road.
“What the hell was that?” I ask as we follow the convoy down the road. Eventually we come to a small town; fort is more appropriate, small pillbox style buildings are clustered together surrounded by a large concrete wall almost fifteen feet high. A large wrought iron gate creaks open and lets us in before slamming shut behind us. The convoy comes to a halt and the man that met us appears at our door again. I roll the window down and light my last cigarette. “ Step out and follow me, we have some talking to do.” He growls. As we climb out of the vehicle I slide my gun-sword into my coat and follow the troops into the largest and most well fortified building in town. Inside it looks as if someone had remodeled a store, row upon row of shelves dominate the center of the room each one is a jumble of random weapons and half empty boxes of ammunition. At the back of the room is a long counter, an old register sits at one end, and the layer of dust on it suggests that it has been here since before the eclipse. The mysterious man sits in a large red leather chair behind this counter taking long pulls off a fat cigar.
“What are you doing in my town?” he asks, his voice is calm but a look of unmistakable fear glares from his eyes. He takes another long drag from the cigar before repeating the question, this time with more anger in his voice. “ I’ll ask you one last time, what the fuck are you doing in this town?” he snarls. I begin to answer him but Adrian cuts me off, “ we’re trying to get to Embry, there is a man there we need to find. If you have anymore questions you had better tell us just who the hell you are and why you’ve brought us here.” He snaps. The man takes yet another pull from the cigar; exhales then answers, “My name is Owen, we have brought you here to keep you safe and to get some answers of our own.”
“Keep us safe from what?” I ask
“You have come in contact with the Maw, you tried to kill one and then you ran, they will not stop hunting you now.” Owen replies.
“ What do you mean we tried to kill one, I shot the little bitch in the god damn mouth!” Adrian yells.
Owen stands up and walks to the far end of the counter and opens a hidden door, behind which is a flight of stairs leading down.
“Follow me, I’ll show you.” He says. And disappears down the stairs.
We follow him down into the basement into a small room; bars cover all of the windows. The only thing in this room is a tall box covered by a sheet, Owen walks over to it and withdraws the sheet. Underneath is a cage roughly six feet high and five feet across, inside is one of the maw, she stands still in the center of the cell with her head down. “Watch closely” Owen says, he draws a pistol from his side holster and aims it at the girls head, I close my eyes, the only thing I can think of is my daughter. The shot is deafening in the small room; I open my eyes. The child is lying on the floor the left half of her head is painted on the wall behind her. Slowly she begins to twitch, and then stand up. Her mouth opens exposing those same wicked yellow teeth. “ We do not yet know why but for some reason the only thing that puts these things down for good are wooden bullets.” He then draws another handgun from his shoulder holster and fires a round at the Maw’s head, this time the remaining half erupts in a shower of blood and bone, and splinters; her tiny form slumps to the floor.
“So now you know what I mean, I’ll ask again; who are you looking for?” he says.
Adrian walks over to the cage and places his hands on the bars, a thoughtful look on the human side of his face, “ We need to find a man named Recho, he’s in Embry but I have no idea where.” He mutters.
Owen holsters his sidearm and re-lights his cigar, “ no one goes to Embry for any reason other than to die, and the only thing there is the old Saints asylum. And for the record that’s where the Maw come from.” He replies. Adrian turns around and clears his throat, “ well we need to get there anyway, so if you would be so kind as to point the way, we’ll be out of your hair and you’ll never have to deal with us again.” He says.
“ I am afraid it isn’t that simple.” He replies, “ You see your timing couldn’t have been better, we happen to need something from there as well, it’s a small box. It should be locked in the main office. Get it for us and we’ll tell you everything we know about this man Recho.” He says.
“And if we don’t?” Adrian asks.
“I’ll kill you now.” Owen hisses. “Do we have a deal?” he asks.
“What’s in the box?” I ask.
“Nothing you need to worry about.” Owen barks; he seems a little disturbed by my inquiry.
“No deal, we have our own business to attend to. And we certainly don’t need any distractions. So if you could… kindly fuck off or tell us what we want to know.” Adrian says.
Owen points one of his guns at him and thinks for a minuet, then he lowers it and says “ fine… the box has charm in it. A small Christmas tree ornament actually, this small thing has the power to ward off the maw permanently.”
I look at Adrian, quietly wrapping my hand around the grip of my gun. Owen begins heading back upstairs and mutters over his shoulder, “ I’ll take your silence as agreement.” Then he disappears up the staircase.
“You and I both know that Recho isn’t in Embry, so why are we going there exactly?” I ask. Adrian smiles and says “ This doesn’t seem odd to you? Why would something that wards off the Maw be kept at the same place they come from? More importantly why does this man want two strangers to fetch it for him? And how could he know the man we’re looking for if the man we’re looking for is in a town almost six hundred miles from here?”
“ Good point, this could be a trap you know, we should go anyway.” I reply. A mischievous grin on my face, as we begin walking back upstairs new screaming and gunfire echoes down to us. With new fervor we rush up the stairs, I draw my gun and check to see if it’s loaded, then kick open the door to the storefront. The scene that greets us resembles a war zone; bodies lie strewn about. The walls are covered in blood; no living thing stirs in the room. Outside we can see town’s people running and firing at some unseen force, then the unmistakable call of the maw comes tearing through the night air. We rush outside and see Owen crouching behind an overturned truck; he waves for us to come to him and quickly fires a couple of rounds in the direction of the main gate. We reach him without incident, and crouch beside him.
“Your car is in the garage at the end of town, we have added a few boxes of wooden bullets to your supply, if your going to help us you had better move your asses now!” he yells. With that he throws the keys to the hearse to us and begins firing anew. We begin running to the back of the town when we hear Owen scream from behind us, I turn and see one of the maw leap from the top of the truck and land on him, her horrible mouth stretching for his neck, he puts his gun in her mouth up to his elbow and pulls the trigger, her back explodes and he tosses her still form to the ground. We keep running. Hordes of Maw fall to our useless bullets, they’ll get up but at least they stay out of our way long enough to reach our destination. Up ahead the garage looms dark and foreboding. I wrestle open the large bay door, inside is the hearse; and it never looked so beautiful, as we head inside the pounding of many footsteps alerts us to the threat from behind. I turn and begin firing anew.
Once…
Twice…
Click…
“Mother fucker! I am out of bullets!” I yell, Adrian steps in front of me and spreads his arms, “ Reload and get the car started, I’ll handle this.” He says.
His one blue eye flashes and a wall of shadow appears in the doorway, spreading from the floor to the ceiling in long black ropes that slowly knit together, becoming something solid; blocking the only way in or out. Behind it the Maw scream and pound, the strain on Adrian’s face is ever deepening, “Hurry the fuck up Jack, I can’t hold this forever!” he bellows.
I slam six rounds into the gun, wooden ones this time; then start the car. Adrian holds the barrier as long as he can, thick white blood pouring from the darkened half of his nose, red from the human half. Finally the wall gives way, shattering like a large pane of glass, the force of this throws Adrian back towards the car. For a moment he passes through a tiny shadow and seems to become transparent, weather by accident or design this ephemeral hic-up allows him to land safely in the seat next to me. Holding his forehead he mumbles “drive”, and begins coughing. I put the car in gear and step on the gas, that’s when I notice a bundle of small gray blocks plastered around the doorway. Behind us is an empty wall, throwing the car in reverse I yell over to Adrian, “ can you grab that light and break it against that C-4 near the door?” he wearily looks up and sees the hanging lamp that lights the garage, “ I can try.” He mumbles, closing his eyes he reaches into the dark part of the seat below his legs, opening the window he throws a whip of shadow out and snags the lamp, with a flick of his wrist he smashes it against the roof of the car, another flick and it flies at the C-4 striking it, although the light is gone the electric current still passes through what is left of the bulb, as soon as the circuit is completed the C-4 detonates, the car is thrown through the back wall with a loud crash. Any of the Maw that were inside are blown to bits… for now.
We spin the car around, plow through the back gate and head down the road. Flames grow behind us, for the time being the village is lost. Speeding down the bumpy dirt road we come to a fork, the left hand sign reads “ Dawns-Veil 650 mi.” the right “ Embry 5 mi. Saint Asylum 10 mi.”
We head right.
The road gets steadily worse as we speed down it. Each bump and pothole causes Adrian to unleash anew fit of coughing, blood is coming up from his lungs now.
“I thought you couldn’t get hurt?” I say, I cannot hide the concern on my face; not only have I started to believe in the cause this man is blindly fighting for, but I’ve begun to realize how much I need him. He finishes his latest bought of coughing and looks up at me weakly, “ I need to ask someone a question, you should find some place to pull over and get some rest, this could take some time.” Then before I can stop him he raises his revolver and puts a bullet in his forehead.
8.
Same motel room, same black and white pallet, same strange figure sitting on the bed, in here I get some relief from the pain. The only color in the room is my own skin and clothing as always. I begin pacing the floor trying to form my questions into words, but they’re coming too fast. Finally I blurt out,
“ What the hell is happening to me…?”
Dosh sits forward on the bed and sighs, “ you are beginning to awaken, the powers you’ve used so far, you’ve used them out of instinct; reflex. But each time you do you know how to use them from now on. It’s like Vash said; we cannot teach you, you must learn for yourself. What I can tell you is that you need to get some rest, and some food. There is a sandwich in the refrigerator, and some water, eat these things and sleep on the bed as long as it takes.” I walk over to the fridge; open it to find the biggest damn sandwich I’ve ever seen.
“ What about Jack?” I ask, hungrily eyeing the sandwich and bottled water.
“He’ll be fine, every hour in here is only a fifteen minuets on your side.” He replies. With my mind now at ease for the first time since this whole thing started I sit on the bed and eat, it’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted. Then with the meal complete I lie back on the bed and close my eyes. No dreams on the other side, nightmares either, just rest when I wake Dosh still sits on the foot of the bed, watching me.
“ You don’t sleep do you?” I ask.
“ I do, just only when your gone and don’t need me.” He replies
I stretch and climb out of bed feeling better rested than ever, I look at Dosh, then my body.
“Time to go.” He says
“ Yeah, wish there was a better way of getting here.” I mumble before climbing back into my body.
9.
It’s been almost thirty minuets since Adrian went to the other side, fucking messy way to do it; as soon as I have that thought I notice that his head as started to knit back together, within moments he sits up gasping.
“Switch sides with me, it’s your turn to get some rest, come on give me you-...” he is cut off when he looks down and sees a sandwich in his left hand,
“ I guess this is for you, I have no idea how it got here, but it came from the other side, eat it trust me its safe.” He says. Then he reaches over and grabs the keys, after we switch sides I wolf the sandwich down and fall asleep.
It’s been two hours when Adrian wakes me up, in front of us is a large barred gate, across the top is written “ Saints Asylum”, a sign hung just below that written in crude red spray-paint reads,
“ Death is only the beginning” a bloody handprint is stamped below that. I look over at Adrian and nod toward the gate; he closes his eyes and shuts the car off. We climb out and head around to the back of the car, the hatch pops open. The previous order of weapons has been destroyed by the townspeople throwing in box after box of ammunition. I grab a couple of bandoleers and fill them with wooden and silver bullets for the gun-sword; Adrian does the same for the double-barreled sawed-off he picked up. Loaded for bear we push the gate open and head inside.
The path to the main building is heavily overgrown, thick prickly weeds sprout from the path in wild clumps. The building looms ahead like some ancient tomb. The windows are either broken or boarded up, various bits of sheet and curtains flutter out the windows into the night. The entrance to the building is made up of two large double doors, one of which is ajar; the other lies in splinters on the lawn. So far no sign of life. We walk inside; a thick layer of dust covers everything in the main room. An old empty receptionist desk lies at the center of the room, behind it arc two large staircases; they stretch to the second floor before becoming one long catwalk. On either side of us are two long hallways, the one on the left is blocked by the mass of debris that used to be the second floor, and the one on the right is blocked only by a fire door. I walk to this door and try to open it. “ Locked.” I mumble.
“ Guess we head up stairs, although seems to me like the main office should be down here huh?” I say. Turning back to Adrian I find he’s already headed up stairs, taking them two, three at a time. I sprint after him. As I catch up to him I can hear him mumbling under his breath, “we’re not alone, have to find the office.”
We crest the stairs and come to a stop; a large poster hangs on the wall with the entire layout of the building printed on it. “ Looks like the office is on this floor just past ward C, wherever the hell that is.” I say, Adrian walks to the center of the hallway and looks down both ends.
“ That way.” He says pointing, I follow his gaze down the hall reading the remaining signs, and at the far end is ward B followed by another staircase.
“ You don’t know how to read an area map do you?” he asks me, chuckling slightly before hurriedly walking down the hall, pausing every so often to check around doorways and broken windows with the barrel of his shotgun. We reach the doorway to upstairs, when a low hiss sounds behind us, spinning around, there stands five Maw, teeth bared shuffling toward us. I draw the gun-sword and eject the blade; Adrian raises his revolver. They stop shuffling and break into a run all screaming that horrible shriek. We fire simultaneously dropping the first two, my second shot misses; Adrian’s does not. The remaining two dodge our next shots by climbing up the wall and clawing their way along the ceiling, Adrian drops the fourth one with a bullet to the chest. The second drops from the ceiling in a vain attempt to land on me, she is cleaved in half before she hits the ground. In all the commotion we failed to notice the ten plus Maw that have crested the stairs and have begun running toward us. The numbers game is no longer in our favor, we retreat behind the third floor fire door and head up the stairs, the door falls to pieces at the hands of the Maw. We reach the top and duck behind another door, an old bookcase stands off to the left, we slide that in front of the door to buy some time and begin rapidly checking our surroundings. Aside from old stacks of papers, an old desk and a few overturned chairs the room contains nothing useful. However a small door rests shut at the back left corner of the room, I walk over to it and try the knob, it turns and the door swings open into the next room. Inside the room looks the same, another desk, and more old moldy papers. But one difference, a small frail looking man sits at the desk rifling through the papers and tossing them to the floor.
“ Where is it?” he mumbles pushing more papers to the floor, he then stands up and runs to the bookcase. He begins tearing books from the shelves and flips through them.
“HEY!” Adrian yells. The man turns his head toward us and drops the book in his hand. Then he starts speaking to fast to understand.
“Doyouhaveit? Whereisit? Ineedit? Giveittome! Giveittome! Giveittome!
Giveittome! Giveittome!
GIVE…IT…TO…ME!” he yells. He draws a knife from his jacket and runs at us arms raised, Adrian raises his revolver and fires; the bullet passes through the man’s shoulder spraying the wall behind him with blood. The expression on his face changes from a sort of wistful madness to one of sheer surprise. His momentum takes him past us and into the window behind us, glass shatters and his screaming body falls from sight.
“Just who the hell was that?” I ask. Still shaking from the shock.
“I have no idea, but I am getting really tired of people and monsters just jumping out at us.” He says, nervously chuckling afterward. Almost as if on cue crashing and screaming floats through the door behind us.
“Time to move, we have to find that box and get the hell out of here.” Adrian says.
Moving like prisoners forced to work by being whipped, we move from room to room, killing any maw that cross our path. After nearly two hours we reach the main office, it’s in flames, behind us far down the hall a familiar voice calls out.
“ I really want to thank you for doing all the distracting for me!” he says.
“ Owen!” Adrian yells.
In his hand is a small wooden box, he laughs and opens it withdrawing from it a thin red string attached to a cross made of Popsicle sticks, raising it above his head he yells.
“TO ME!”
The loudest batch of screaming erupts from all around us; we can hear little footsteps rushing to us from all directions. Glass shatters all around us, the maw are tearing at any place where they might find entrance. Like a flood they pour into the hallway growing in number exponentially until the hall is full of them. However they do not move, once inside the simply stand still as death; their heads pointed toward the floor.
“ I didn’t lie to you, I just didn’t tell you the whole truth.” Owen says.
He slowly paces the far end of the hallway, admiring the bauble in his hands.
“ You see I really just needed a distraction, if the Maw were chasing you, I could find the box and gain control of them. The ornament has the power to drive them away, but it also has the power to summon them to you and force them to act on your will.” He says.
Adrian loads his revolver and snaps the cylinder closed. He points it at Owen and yells, “ Call them off… NOW!”
He comes to a halt mid step and faces us for the first time, “ No I don’t think I’ll do that, in fact; I think I’ll have them kill you.”
He raises the trinket and looks at the small army before him, “ kill them.” He grumbles.
The horde raises their collective head and opens their mouths. The following scream is deafening, without hesitation we open fire, the first row falls in an instant, blood and shards of wood from our bullets fly through the air, drenching and injuring few behind. The next row is almost too fast for us to shoot at; Adrian empties and re-loads twice before they’re on him, I manage to take down five myself before it’s time to use the sword. It might not kill them but it can slow them down. I hack and cleave my way to Adrian only to find him gone. Did they devour him? Did he escape if so where to and just why the hell did he leave me here? No sooner had those thoughts passed through my brain did he re-appear a scant ten feet from Owen. Adrian steps from the shadow as casually as a celebrity entering a nightclub.
“ Give me the ornament!” he bellows.
Owen wipes the shock from his face and draws a long knife from his sleeve; he plunges it into his chest and carves out a large hunk of flesh. Blood rains down on the floor. Wheezing Owen stuffs the trinket into the wound and runs off down the hall, still hacking at the Maw around me I shout, “ GO AFTER HIM… GET THE FUCKING THING!”
He nods and runs after Owen. I keep swinging.
10.
Two rights, a left and another right and I’ve caught up to Owen; he’s standing with his back to me, a large pool of blood spreads from his feet.
Any semblance of humanity has left the man, he turns around; his eyes are hanging from their sockets, dangling on his cheeks. His mouth creaks open as he spits out a wad of blood and teeth, I watch in horror as eight rows of razor sharp teeth grow from his now blackened gums, fresh blood spilling from his face.
I raise my revolver and fire my last round at his head, then the unbelievable happens, the son of a bitch grabs the bullet out of the air and tosses it aside. I drop the gun and run at him. We meet in the center of the hallway with such force that the walls around us explode with a series of cracks and shattered plaster. The force of our congregation throws us away from each other like improperly aligned magnets, I strike the far wall leaving and outline of my body in the plaster. Owen flips through the air and lands on his feet, crouched and ready to charge.
The hall is poorly lit; which helps, but Owen is fast, very fast. He darts back and forth across the hall rapidly closing the distance between us, I dive into a shadow next to me, as usual the view of the world around me changes; everything is black and white. Owens progress is slowed to a crawl while I survey the room, the problem with shadow sliding as I call it is that you can’t stay in one place for too long, since it’s a combination of both worlds, your body will make a decision as to where it wants to stay once you cross the barrier, and being stuck between both worlds fucking hurts. I follow the shadows to a place down the hall and behind Owen, and I step out.
He seems confused by my sudden disappearance but can’t stop his forward momentum; he slams into the wall opening a large hole into the next room. I race after him before the dust has settled, speeding my pursuit as I leap from shadow to shadow, just before I leap from the last shadow into the next room I scoop up a wad of the stuff, it quickly molds itself to my fist and hardens into a near diamond state. Owen lies on the floor in the next room struggling to regain some footing; I fly through the air and bring my fist down on his head with such strength we both fall into the room below, through the next floor and into the basement.
Dust, dirt and various pieces of furniture rain down on us, burying us in an avalanche of wood and mortar. It takes a minuet to even think of standing, but slowly I climb to my feet pushing boards and table legs off of me, I am seized by a sudden and violent bought of coughing, I try to cover my mouth but blood seeps through my finger tips and drips onto the pile of stuff beneath me. Next to me the mound of rubble begins to shift and churn, Owen rolls out of the debris and lies on the cold cement floor. A large piece of the upstairs floor pierces his chest, almost splitting him in two; the ornament hangs limply from his chest and rests on the board. Cautiously walking over to him I lean down and pick up a broken chair leg, and move closer. Wrapping my fingers around the trinket I tear it out of the cavity and hold it up into the little light there is. Owen screams one last time, he is cut off to a gargle as blood fills his throat. Finally he dies. The ornament is nothing spectacular, but the Polaroid fixed to its center is the most shocking thing I’ve seen so far.
11.
Adrian has been gone for almost an hour most of the Maw that were here are dead or at least incomplete enough that all they can do is bleed and scream. A loud crash wakes me from my examination; I reload my gun and eject the blade once more, three Maw rise to their feet and charge at me, one has lost an arm, the other has lost the top of it’s head, and the other has a gaping hole in its abdomen, intestines hang in long slippery ropes that touch the floor. I shoot the first in the face, erasing it from existence; the second takes a bullet to the heart and falls backward amidst the wreckage. The third is much faster; she leaps at me clawing the air in a vain attempt to tear out my eyes. She lands on my blade and slides down all the way to the grip; I cannot help smiling as I pull the trigger and my face is covered in thick dark blood. I tilt the gun-sword to the floor and watch with a certain morbid detachment as she glides off and hits the floor.
I raise my head and wipe the blood from my eyes; Adrian stands at the end of the hall looking at the ornament in his hands. He starts to walk toward me; one of the Maw leaps to her tiny feet and runs up behind him, without looking he grabs her by the throat and tears her head off.
“ What the fuck is going on here jack?” he growls.
I retract the blade and slide the gun into its holster. He hands me the ornament. “ Look at the picture.” He says.
I turn the curious thing over and peer at the Polaroid; my jaw would have hit the floor if I’d let it. The picture is one I’ve seen almost a hundred times. It’s an old family photo, Mary-Anne, Cindy, when she was only two years old and me. Mary-Anne made it for me as a Christmas present, she wrote “ I wuv u daddy” in big red and green letters at the bottom. My eyes start to well up with tears.
“ How…how is this possible?” I stammer. Adrian snatches it from me and slides it into his newly torn jacket.
“ I don’t know, but we need to find out, I think you might be more involved in this than you know.” He mutters, I can’t help but notice the distrust in his voice.
Wiping the tears from my eyes I walk past him and head down the stairs, the Maw have all either died or run off.
I climb back in the car; Adrian just barely steps out of the building when a large explosion removes the two floors above him. Owen comes flying from the debris and lands on Adrian; the force of this attack tosses the car into the woods and creates a large crater in the ground in front of the demolished asylum.
It feels like someone threw a truck at me, I can’t see through the dust but I can hear that son of a bitch moving around. I raise my arm and unleash a blast of raw shadow; it strikes the edge of the crater and carves a path into the woods. Finally the dust settles and I can see him, the flooring still protruding from his chest. He’s slower now but far more destructive. He shoves both hands into the ground and pulls up a large mass of rock, he cocks his arms back and lobs it at me, I fall back into a shadow and let loose another wave of darkness; it slams into the rock and stops it mid-air for just a second before ripping through it, in seconds the boulder disintegrates into nothing. The shadow hits Owen in the shoulder and pushes him back against the crater wall. He seems to hold it back for a moment, but he just isn’t strong enough; it tears through him and stretches off into the woods toppling trees and turning the forest into something resembling a war zone. I walk back out of the shadows and start climbing to the top of the crater, once there I look around, the car has slid back a few hundred feet but otherwise seems fine, jack lies on the ground unconscious, in moments I join him. Hopefully our forced rest is not disturbed by the Maw.
12.
Dreams are a funny thing, you never quite know when they’re going to happen, they just kind of do. They can be about anything; a girl you just met, a workday that you only wish would happen, or the death of a family member. Most of the time they’re just dreams, but sometimes, just sometimes they come true. Most people simply pass this off as déjà vu; but if it happens enough one might start to catch on. The last thing I remember was the car being pushed back as I climbed out to help Adrian. Now however I sit warm and confused in my living room. Mary-Anne is still six months pregnant with Sara; Cindy sits on the floor with a mountain of presents in front of her, a highly elated version of fear is plastered on her face as she tries in vain to decide which one to open first. Mary-Anne hands me a small red cardboard box topped with a white ribbon. A crude label reads “ to daddy, from Cindy” The i in her name is dotted with a little heart. I pull the top of the box off and take out my gift; it’s the small Popsicle stick ornament with the Polaroid. “I wuv u daddy.”
I smile at her and say, “ thank you honey, I love it.” She raises her head and looks at me, but it no longer is my daughter sitting on the floor, her large mouth and absence of eyes make a mockery of the memory I’ve been allowed to relive, I open my mouth to scream when the scene changes, it’s years later now, and I am watching the events of two nights ago, Mary-Anne lying on the floor and Cindy, beautiful little Cindy disappearing into her closet crying.
Awake now the air is cold, the woods around me are silent, and Adrian is rummaging through the back of the hearse tossing boxes of bullets on the ground amidst a pile of guns and swords. Cursing with each new discovery.
I groggily rise to my feet and stumble over to him, the rhythmic slosh of blood in my ears warns me of the horrible headache my brain promises to deliver in the next few hours.
“What the hell are you looking for?” I ask slowly rubbing my temples in small circles.
He looks up and grunts before renewing his search, finally with a triumphant cheer he holds up another revolver, then looks at it for a moment and tosses it into the pile.
“ You’re looking for the damn gun?” I blurt out.
“Gun is special, was my dads, cant loose it.” He barks, and then climbs the rest of the way into the hearse; I throw the pile of munitions in after him and slam the door.
“We have shit to do.” I mutter as I climb into the driver seat and start the car.
“What do you know about dawns-veil?” I ask.
Adrian looks up from the back briefly and says “ not much” before diving back into the chaos he created looking for his gun. Like he needs it.
“ They call it the great domed city, the city of sun. They do not under any circumstances allow nonhumans in there. So how do you propose the two of us are getting in?” I say, admittedly half to myself.
He throws something into the front seat and climbs up next to it, “ don’t care?” he says. He seems slightly more childish than usual.
“ What the hell is wrong with you, why are you acting like you’re twelve all of a sudden.” I demand.
He looks up at me meeting my eyes for the first time since we got into the car, the blue eye brightens for a moment and says, “ I think this is a side affect of using the shadows so much, it’s starting to pass. He says, and for now he seems to regain his usual stoic demeanor.
I place the car in gear and head back down the windy dirt road, it has started raining again, so I turn the wipers on.
Tick-thump…

13.
Draven is the type of man that would sacrifice any of his belongings or anyone he associated with to fulfill his desire, Sunday for instance you would most likely see him watching a man rape someone in an alley only to “save” the victim by tearing both of their heads off. Usually he has paid one of them in advance for their services. Today is Monday, with Warren coming back empty handed, and almost half of his coven killed in action, he has decided as director of the city of Duskhaven, all school students must report, without parents to Dusk haven memorial hospital for an “Examination” to determine the possible genetic and adaptive attributes of generations of humans after the eclipse. He will tell the public that it is a program paid for by the city’s branch of; “United Genetics and Human Wellness Coalition”, a company only three other people on the planet knows he owns. After the children, all of who range in ages from six to seventeen, arrive they will be sent to a large auditorium, locked in and turned. Think of what a school of piranha look like when they feed. This will in one way or another replenish the ranks, if his plan goes accordingly then after some minor rioting; the parents will humbly ask to join the fold, and his desire to have the first non-human populated city to exist, come to power under his control. And at long last he can wage open war on the humans and the shades. But Adrian who is half shade, and a former familiar is a dangerous rodent to have on the loose, someone with immense power and knowledge of vampire activities, could in point of fact ruin this plot. He knows this, so as an insurance policy of sorts he has paid to have Warren restored to full health, he has also paid to have his personal guard augmented. All at the hands of Dr. Adam Brixton.
Brix shares many of the same ideals as Draven; he would say; sadists who slay together stay together.
“The repair of Warren’s arm was rather intensive, but after nearly forty hours of work the patient is ready for active combat.” Brix slowly whispers into his personal tape recorder. The laboratory is dark save for a single desk lamp, all of the operating tables are currently occupied by the twelve members of Draven’s personal guard; he has asked that each be augmented with performance enhancing cybernetics as well as built in weapons. These “super soldiers” have cost a fortune but as they near completion the true magnitude of Dr. Brixton’s achievement becomes apparent. As does the danger of what he has done, each member of Draven’s guard belong to a clan of vampires known only as Reapers. “This particular breed is very similar to that of the Bender clan, they suffer from extreme schizophrenia as well as a mind bogglingly over developed case of paranoia. The major difference between the two clans lies primarily in their controllability.” Again Brix clicks off the taper recorder. He shambles over to one of the slabs and lifts up a long sheet, the white fibers have been dyed red with blood from beneath. The subject on the table looks like a young man in his twenties, a small chin- strap of facial hair runs from the sides of his head under his chin, creating a frame for his narrow face. Each arm has been replaced with a large black metal version of the joints previous inhabitant. His legs have also been replaced in the same fashion. Another click of the tape recorder and a brief clearing of the throat and Brix renews his commentary. “ The most fascinating attribute of the Reaper clan is their ability to absorb any mineral in the surrounding environment and manipulate it as they see fit, no other clan possess this ability. Subsequently this trait allows them to utilize their gift through prosthesis, provided that said attachment is comprised of natural materials. As an added side note, this ability also provides them with an immunity to silver.”
Click…