Ben and Joey are called to an abandoned warehouse where shades, one of evil's many consorts, are presumed to be reeking havoc. They must find and destroy them, no matter the cost. What they find lurking scares them so badly, they aren't sure if it was actually real.
***Includes adult language***
THE WAREHOUSE
The old abandoned
warehouse stood like a shadow against the light of the dock. It creaked and
groaned with the blowing wind, warning those who dared to enter. But there were
a few who were chosen to walk with darkness. At first glance, they looked like
everyone else, but if you looked close enough the small tattoo-like marks would
glow a faint red, and that’s how you’d know. They are hunters of a sort. More
specifically, they are chasers.
“You’re sure the
coordinates are right?” Ben wiped the sweat from his forehead. He hated old
warehouses. Any other type of building and he was golden. Nothing good happened
in warehouses- ever.
Joey glanced at Ben from
the corner of his eye and smirked, “What’s the matter, cuz? I thought you liked
your job?”
Ben shook his head, “I
do like my job, cuz, but I hate warehouses. Remember the one we had in
Boston? We barely made it out of there alive. These things find holes within
holes to hide in. If we’re lucky enough, we’ll find them all and the place
won’t collapse with us inside.”
“That’s the general
idea,” Joey quipped as he strapped on the holster for his handgun. One of his
favorite parts of hunting was the prep; when they gathered their weapons and
supplies before going in balls-to-the-wall. The cool metal would press lightly
into his naturally hot skin, sending chills throughout his body. He could almost
compare it to sex; almost.
“What’s the story? Do we
know how many are in there?” Ben pulled his brother’s old leather riding gloves
over his hands, cracking his knuckles so they wouldn’t slip off. Ethan used to
wear them when they chased together, but Ethan was dead. All Ben could think
about was killing all of the slimy freaks he could get his hands on.
Joey pulled a roughly
drawn map from his vest pocket, “The radar pinged where each of the X’s are
drawn. With a place this big, there could be layers of these suckers underneath
each other. If all else fails, we blow the place. I don’t feel like repeating
Boston tonight, either.”
Ben and Joey are no
different from the other chasers except that they are blood related. Cousins by
blood, brothers by rite, they are inseparable. Years earlier, Ben’s older
brother Ethan made sure to bang it into their heads that it was rare for blood
to fight together and how important it was to stay together. The Guard didn’t
like pairing blood family together in case something happened, which usually
meant they didn’t want to kill the bloodline because of someone’s mistake. Ben
watched Ethan leave camp without him only one time in his entire life, and Ethan
never came back. That’s when Ben knew that he couldn’t let Joey make the same
mistake. Blood stuck together, end of story.
“Do we have a point of
entry? If the wind blows too hard this place is gonna cave. Fucking
warehouses,” Ben popped a piece of gum into his mouth.
Joey slipped the last
holster up his leg and synched it tight. He pulled the dip can from his back
pocket and stuffed the minty tobacco into his cheek. “Are you gonna bitch the
whole time? Jeez, anyone else would swear you were a Rook.”
“I might. Just remember
this conversation the next time we have to go to a mausoleum. Who’ll be the Rook
then?” Ben threw Joey his pack and shrugged into the rest of his gear. It was
almost time to go and they were both tense.
Ever since Ethan’s death,
Ben was more anxious than normal. He was a little too cautious for Joey’s
taste, but he couldn’t blame the kid. Joey might have been his cousin, but he
grew up with Ethan and Ben, spending so much time with them he considered
himself more of a brother. With Ethan gone, he couldn’t lose Ben, too. Then
he’d really be alone and there wouldn’t be anyone left. Chasers weren’t easy to
come by these days.
Joey eyed the map of the
warehouse, “It looks like we’ll go in through the south-side door, here, and
work our way around. There’s no tellin’ where these bastards are hiding. This
place is at least fifty years old. The walls have more holes than Swiss cheese.”
“Yeah, lots of places
for things to hide. You ready?” Ben checked the safety on his handgun before
holstering it. Joey sheathed his crossbow between his shoulders, “I’m good.
Let’s go get it before they realize we’re here.”
Chasers were supposed to
rely on stealth and the element of surprise, but Ben and Joey were the polar
opposite. Their weapons were loud, as were their mouths, and they didn’t care
if they blew up the place as long as everything evil inside was dead. They used
more human weapons than traditional chasing weapons. Ben was especially gifted
in adapting them to meet their needs.
He could take a normal
handgun and modify the ammunition to radiate light before exploding and
eradicating the shades or other demons. The crossbow he made was Joey’s
favorite by far. The arrows were blessed and dipped in holy water before being
run through black fire, thus making black arrows. No matter what Joey shoots,
they disintegrate and so does everything else in the vicinity. There was
something about exploding force fields and black arrows that could make a guy
go weak in the knees. No doubt, Ben was a bad-ass at forging.
Joey took the lead,
following the lines he memorized from the map. Ben followed closely, keeping an
eye on the dark spots the night created around them. The knot in his stomach
tightened with each step. He swallowed down the anxiety before Joey could
notice how bad it really was. Ethan’s death haunted him more when they were
working.
Once they reached the
dilapidated doors, Ben took the grenade from his vest and pulled the pin before
tossing it into the pitch black room. It took mere seconds for the flash-bang
to go off and that was their queue.
Joey kicked the door in,
shooting any and every thing that moved with the black arrows. Ben aimed for
the larger masses as they began to retreat into the darker parts of the
warehouse. He launched another flash-bang into the air above them, shooting as
many lighted bullets into the giant coagulation of darkness as it writhed in
pain. The room exploded in light, causing the shrieking demons and black souls
to explode to dust.
Joey wiped the ash from
his face and looked at Ben. He was standing in the middle of the room as the
light faded, ash raining down on him from above and glowing red with the sigils
of a true chaser. Ethan would have been proud, he thought. As Joey pivoted his
foot on the worn wood, something grabbed his ankle and pulled hard. “Ben!” He
yelped before falling into pitch blackness.
“Joey!” Ben ran to the edge
of the hole and looked down. His stomach hit the floor. All he could see was
black with no sign of Joey at all. He snapped a few flares and chucked them
into the hole. The hissing and shrieking began immediately as the most
terrifyingly large shade he’d ever laid eyes on moved beneath the opening like
a massive wave.
That’s exactly what it
was; an ocean of darkness. “Joey!” Ben yelled again, praying for some type of
response. It was hard to hear anything above the hissing and popping of the
shades and demons around him, but he couldn’t wait any longer. Reaching into
his pack, he found the grappling gun and searched for a steady place to anchor
it. The warehouse was barely standing on its own, especially after the grenades
and gunfire, but the cross-beams would have to do.
“I’m coming, Joey. Just
hang on,” Ben said. He shot the inky mass full of lighted bullets before taking
the plunge into the hole. He probably should have been afraid, but he wasn’t.
All he could think of what saving Joey; how he couldn’t save Ethan. That was
his job. Joey was somewhere in the basement and, with any luck, he was still
alive.
The hissing noises
filled the room and Joey pulled himself up slowly from the damp floor. He had
no idea where he’d falled, but the room was much too dark. The hair on the back
of his neck stood up as the cloud of evil scaled the walls around him. He’d
never seen a shade so big. Light flashed above him like a heat storm and he
knew it was Ben. The crazy son of a bitch was actually trying to rescue him. A
low growl from the shade was all the warning Joey needed to realize what was
about to happen; it was about to take the warehouse down with them inside.
“Joey! Where are you?
Joey!” Ben dangled from the rope, suspended above the floor, and scanned the
room. The knot in his gut grew at the sight of the basement. The shade took up
the entire room, even spilling over as it hugged the ceiling. Most shades were
the size of humans; this one could fill almost the entire building. “Joey!” Ben
called again, hoping he wasn’t too late.
“Ben, over here! Hurry
up, this sucker’s about to take this place down,” Ben turned to his left and
saw Joey’s gloved hand sticking up above the misty darkness. “Alright, hang
on,” Ben swung himself over and dropped down a few inches to meet Joey’s
outstretched hand.
Ben’s fingers formed a
death grip around Joey’s wrist and he hit the automatic reel, pulling them both
out of the hole with lightening fast quickness. Joey was scratched up and
bruised, but was already healing. They looked at each other for a brief moment,
silently thanking God that they were still alive. Ben unlatched the grappling
hook and set about unpacking the grenades.
“Have you ever seen
anything that big?” Joey asked over his shoulder, shooting anything that was
left floating around them.
Ben shook his head, “No.
I don’t think that’s a regular shade. It’s not acting like one. It should have
disintegrated when I used the lighted bullets and it’s still down there like I
never touched the damned thing. Fucking warehouses.”
Ben dropped the charges
into the hole and he and Joey took off for the exit. Their increased speed was
always a plus, especially when blowing things up. The only thing lighting the
way through the increasingly darkening warehouse was the faint glow of red from
their skin as they jumped through the doors and rolled down the hill to their
truck.
They didn’t stop. The
grenades exploded and the green flames were so bright it hurt their eyes in the
rearview mirrors while they sped away. Ben had deep gashes on his cheek where
the brush cut into him during the downhill roll. Joey popped his left shoulder
back into place and pulled a nail out of the back of his hand. Normally, they
would celebrate their victory, but they were still unsure of what they actually
witnessed.
Ben spoke first, “Do we
tell them? What if others are walking into this and have no idea. How many are
going to die? Or have already?” What he didn’t say out loud was that Ethan
could have suffered at the hands of whatever type of shade they just saw. Of
course, Joey was already thinking it.
“I honestly don’t know.
Do we have any proof? You know we can’t just waltz in there without something
to show for it or they’ll think we’re nuts. I’m surprised they’ve let us go so
soon after Ethan. Are we one hundred percent sure we saw what we think we saw?”
Joey spit out the old dip and stuffed his cheek with another.
“I know what I saw and I
know what it looked like. The best we can hope is that it was picked up on our
energy drives. Next time we’ll need to bring some thermals just in case.
Something feels off about this, doesn’t it? Why would that thing have just been
hanging out in an empty basement?” They shrugged, both fighting the same gut
feeling that something big was stirring right under their noses. The truth was,
they had no idea what it was, just that it was even more abnormal than normal
and it scared the hell out of them.
The truck raced down the
highway, putting as much distance between them and the warehouse as possible.
The green flames eventually turned to the normal orangish-yellow color and the
structure collapsed in on itself. It took a long time for firemen and rescue
teams to get there, not leaving much for them to do except churn the ashes in an
attempt to figure out how the fire started. Lucky for the boys, Ben’s grenades
left no traces so there wasn’t anything linking them to the fire.
Eventually, the
authorities left and the fire turned to low smoldering embers. The embers
eventually began to bubble. Thick tar-like blobs formed and grew, clinging to
each other like hot glue. The gooey mass poured from the wreckage and down the
hill, following the trail the boys had made during their escape. As it reached
the road, the massive goo began to mold itself into something else.
A face appeared in the
center. It was that of a woman. Her eyes were almost black and her lips red as
blood. She emerged from the mass, standing naked near the shoulder of the
highway. The skin she wore was lightly tanned and everything about her was
petite. Even her face resembled a teenager’s, sweet and innocent. If not for
her imposing glare and jet black hair, one might even think she was a normal
human girl.
A car skidded to a stop
as its headlights spotted the naked woman. The man behind the wheel jumped out,
blanket in tow, and urged the strange girl out of the cold and into the warmth
of his SUV. She smiled and nodded, making herself comfortable on the seat
beside the human man. She could smell his reluctance and fear, but she wouldn’t
kill him yet. She needed information first and he was going to be easy to
manipulate.
“What’s your name,
sweetie?” He asked in a hushed voice. She guessed he was afraid of scaring her.
If only he knew what he had ushered into his car.
“Name?” She answered
quizzically. She didn’t have a human name that she knew of. She hadn’t walked
on the surface for thousands of years. Her true name wasn’t one even
pronounceable in the human tongue.
The man gave her a
strange look, “Sure. My name is Hank. I don’t want you to be afraid of me, I
won’t hurt you.”
She smiled again, “Not
afraid.” Clearly, her human tongue was not yet available to her. Still, she had
a start. The human Hank was going to be very helpful. “Mara. My name is Mara.”
Hank smiled, “Nice to
meet you Mara. Is there somewhere I can take you? Do you have family nearby?
What on Earth were you doing out here by yourself?” He asked many questions,
but Mara reined in her impatience.
“No family. I cannot
remember why, just that I am. Can you help?” Mara struggled with the words.
Hank smiled again and patted her shoulder, “Sure, Mara. We’ll figure it out.
You can stay at my house for now until we figure out what happened. Will that
be alright? I have a guest room over my garage. You will have privacy there.”
Mara nodded and a
sinister smile spread across her face. Yes, the human Hank would be very
useful. Stupid humans. It was no wonder they had to be protected by the angel
bile who called themselves chasers. Soon,
she thought, soon.
© 2013 Lisa Logue
All Rights Reserved.
Great start to an Urban Fantasy!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Paula!
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