10 July 2012
I kissed him back, hard, and gripped the pistol in my left hand, and my sword in my right as the first of the creatures came crawling on all fours, its wings hiding the others behind it. Its teeth lengthened, if possible, and some green slime began to slide down those grey decaying lengths. It stared us down, and I could hear behind us that they must be doing the same to Gabrieland Keary.
The mexican standoff shit was a ploy to keep us here longer. And it was getting old. I brought my pistol up and fired three rounds into the demons face. I had a feeling that a regular gun, with normal bullets, even my homemade ones, would have done nothing but piss it off. But steam rose from the remains of the demon and it dropped without a sound. Whatever the bullets were made of in the pistols Balthazar gave me were very very lethal, even in hell.
The demon collapsed, and hindered the way for the ones behind it, but it put a stop to the silent stand off and the ones behind it charged, clambering over their dead leader. I brought three more down before the first one got to us. I readied my sword hand, gripping the bone hilt hard in my hand as the demon ran on two legs at us, but Balthazar was there before me, slicing it down the middle in a single swing of his sword. I put three more rounds in the demon that was directly behind it, and Balthazar sliced the one behind him. But they continued to pour down that like water from a hose.
I could 'feel' those demons behind the bend, feel their lives like little beacons of red light in my head. It caught me off guard but I took it in stride as I shot another demon and the one right behind it slipped past Balthazar and was on me in seconds. I brought my sword up, slicing through its wing as it tried to lash be, but that was a ploy as well. The wing came off mid-joint and it howled in pain as its hands came up out of nowhere, huge and clawed, pinning my gun hand to the wall, and wrapping its other claws around my neck, lifting me bodily off the ground and slamming me against the rocks.
I could see its life like a red haze in my head, the brightest little beacon. I could 'feel' its blood flowing, its heart pumping, and the clover charm around my neck growing warm against my chest beneath my top. There was a tiny cut on its neck that I could see, and has it squeezed its hand around my throat I looked at that cut and thought, "Bleed". The charm flared hot, but it was a good hot, comforting, and I felt power rising up from somewhere deep and put away, like a trunk flying open in the dark. That tiny cut split, grew wider, like a necklace around its neck and blood poured. I stared at it, its claws loosening slightly and thought "BLEED" and blood rained from the wound in its neck wing. More cuts appeared on it out of nowhere, and began to pour blood like little holes in a bucket of water.
It released me, staggering backwards and falling to its knees. I felt the charm grow even hotter, its heat filling me as I looked at the demon. Its little red beacon was flickering as I looked him in the eye and just thought, "Die". It collapsed before me. I still felt the rest of them on our end of the tunnel in my head and looked towards balthazar who was fending them as best he could single handed. It helped that the tunnel was narrow, kept them from surrounding him, but they would overcome him, all of us. Maybe. I gripped my pistol and made my way to his side, tripping over the dead bodies of demons and as I got to him those beacons shone brighter with life. I had a notion, and I had a feeling it would have bad consequences, but I did it anyway. I concentrated on all those little lights, all those little demons, and just thought, 'die'.
They fell, one by one, just collapsed in place until there were only a handful left down our tunnel. My vision swimmer but I could still see Balthazar's blurry figure as he charged forward, and destroyed the stragglers before he was by my side again, helping me to my fight when i didn't remember falling. He dragged me up, hooking my arm around his neck "You have some explaining to do missy," he said. "You're telling me." my voice sounded somewhat weak, even to me. We could hear Keary and Gabriel ahead of us, gunshots and the clang of sword on rock, and the sickly sounds of flesh being ripped and shredded as they fought back against the demons pouring out of their end of the tunnel.
excerpt (Ava's Story) • Opuss № I