Hello one and all. Here's a post of nothing but teasers for you; excerpts from my main epic project spanning just over half a decade. All of these excerpts are from the book series I am writing (PROJECT 8-13)
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Excerpt from P8-13: ORIGINS
The Academy
"Hey! Hurry up or you’ll be late!" she called down the hallway.
"Just a minute!"
She looked down at her watch and turned on her heel, her brown pleated skirt spinning around her to catch up. She started to quickly walk down the hall towards the gymnasium at the end.
"I said in a minute!" the young man cried, slamming his locker closed and chasing after her. His dark brown sneakers squeaked on the tiles when he caught up with her. He slid some, nearly losing his balance as he tried to stop.
"If you keep it up, the sargent will have you running laps after classes for a month."
"Don’t be so uptight! I was just-"
"Whatever," she said with a sigh, reaching out an arm to push open the double doors of the gymnasium.
"Hey, we still on for tonight?"
"Ash, I told you, I’ve got to study for my calculus final. If I fail that, I’ll never make first rank," she said. He gave her a mock-sad look and she laughed some. "Alright, fine. But I’m bringing my books. I can’t afford another F."
He leaned in to give her a kiss, but she turned her face so he could only find his mark on her cheek.
"Delgado! Hembrooke! This isn’t playtime! Change out!" boomed a voice.
"Later," she said, running off to one of the side doors. He lingered there a moment, and moved only as he had been barked at a second time.
When he opened the shower room door, a lanky red head was on the other side. "Watch it, kid!" Ash snapped, pushing past him into the locker room. The boy looked over his shoulder at the blond one briefly before crossing the gym to stand beside the instructor.
"What do you want?"
"Sir! Private first class Pike, sir!" he said, standing at attention and giving a brief salute.
"Impressive," the old sargent said, stroking his chin and glancing down at his clipboard. "Where did you transfer in from, private?"
"Sir, I transferred from the KMAA, sir!" he replied, staring straight ahead.
"Kicklighter Memorial, eh?" the sargent said, giving a small nod and marking off on his clipboard. "I am Drill Sargent Van Ingen. I will be your physical education instructor. You will call me Sir, is that clear private?"
"Sir, yes sir!" he barked back, his eyes wandering some to glance at some of his new fellow students. He cracked a small smile when he saw some of their reactions to what was transpiring.
"Wow..." one of the students said, leaning to whisper into Delgado’s ear. "KMAA, isn’t that where you wanted to go next year?"
"Yeah," she hissed back, straightening up when two-toned orbs locked on her for a second before passing her on. "He looks so young though. And what’s he doing in a place like this?"
"Maybe his family moved, and he had to come with."
"But they have dorms. He could have stayed in one of those, couldn’t he?" she asked. But she couldn’t wait for an answer as Sgt. Van Ingen made his way closer to the class to check off the roll.
"Hembrooke!" he barked.
There was no response.
"Hembrooke! I know your scrawny ass is here! Speak up boy!"
"Right back here old man!" Ash barked back, raising a hand.
Pike narrowed his eyes, glancing back at the other boy before turning back to look ahead. This was going to be a rather... interesting experience.
---
"Hey, wait up!" she called, chasing after him down the hall.
He stopped, and waited for her to catch up with him. "What do you want?" he asked when she slowed to a stop.
"What? I just wanted to talk, that’s all," she said, smiling at him despite the suspicious look he tossed her way before he started walking again.
"I have nothing to talk about," he replied coldly.
"Well," she said, never giving up her cheerful disposition. "I overheard you talking with the sargent in gym. You’re from Kicklighter Memorial right?"
"Yeah," he mumbled.
"I’ve heard it’s a pretty rough place. Only the best of the best can get in. I’ve been trying to get into that school for over a year."
"You wouldn’t be able to handle it," he said, tugging on the strap of his bag. "It’s not like this pansy place."
Her smile started to fade a little, but she wouldn’t give up. "What’s KMAA like? What should I do to prepare for the entrance exams?"
His pace started to slow a little, until he came to a stop in front of a chemistry lab. "It’s kill or be killed in that school," he said, a note of sadness to his voice.
"Oh? You mean the curriculum is really challenging, right?"
"Yeah... right," he said. "This is me."
She looked up at the door, and nodded. "Sorry to keep you," she said, turning a little pink. "I’m Christina, by the way," she said when he started to turn away from her. "What’s your name? Or should I just call you Pike then?"
"Temmothy," he said, a brief smile breaking through his stone cold face before he went into the laboratory.
She stared after him a moment longer, nearly jumping in suprise when the bell rang for the next period. She glanced at her watch, then turned on her heel quickly. Her skirt billowed out behind her as she ran to try and beat the late bell.
---
"He’s so strange," she said, popping a french fry in her mouth. "I mean, in Chem lab today, he almost blew up our station! Everyone knows you don’t mix sulfur with-"
"That’s nothing!" another exclaimed, talking over the dark haired girl. "In Algebra, he actually tried to explain to Prof. Kingsley that the book was wrong, and he could prove it using nothing but addition and subtraction!"
"What a show off!"
"I bet all the cadets at Kicklighter are like him. Fucking bastards, think they’re better than us because they go to a private school."
She listened to them closely, glancing up when Ashton slammed his tray on the table beside her. He dropped down on the bench and wrapped his arm around her waist with a growl. "What’s wrong Ash?"
"Fucking twat!" he growled again. "Just wait. Tonight, we’ll fucking get his ass. Give him a real Tokugawa welcome."
"Ashton, you’re not saying what I think you’re saying..."
"Damn right I am! Nobody humiliates me like that and gets away with it!" he snapped, slamming his fist on the table so hard it knocked over a few bottles of water further down.
She sighed. "Ash, he’s probably just trying to prove himself, that’s all. Remember when you transferred in and didn’t know anybody. You and Mike used to go around trying to be the best at everything because you thought people would like you."
"Hey," he said. "I am the best at everything. And everybody knows it."
She laughed a little, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. "Well, obviously not everyone if he’s got you this bent out of shape about it."
"Knock it off Chris!" he barked. The chattering at the table suddenly went silent as a boy walked by with his head down.
A girl stuck out her leg to trip him only to be surprised when he merely hopped over it without so much as a glance up. Christina turned her head to see red hair settle back down as he picked up his pace and dissapeared near the table of nerds.
---
Days had passed since the arrival of the new student. Rumors flew this way and that about the boy from Kicklighter Memorial and how his mere presence infuriated the school’s top students. The fact did not escape the faculty, who had decided to stand back and let the situation play out.
It was no surprise then what had happened in the boy’s dormitory late one night when the lights went out.
Boys and some girls who had snuck out of their rooms were gathering up outside the dorm.
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EXCERPT FROM P8-13 BOOK 4- CHAPTER 17
note: this is in the "raw" form, meaning it's the original version before edits and rewrites.
Act Three; Session Seventeen: Dance of the Dragon (Body and Soul)
Place of silence, moving shadows
Crimson eyes are strangely gleaming in the darkness
I stood still, the wind billowing in my cloak, blowing it off kilter, to the side so that it flapped in the direction I held my bow ready. He stood there, across the shadowed field from me. Dressed mockingly in white with those large, grotesque leathery wings outstetched behind him. blood drenched hands turned claws. That long blue hair matted down with sweat and grime and gore. Those gaping black eyes so deep, I could see why his now dead lover had lost himself in them. They reminded me sharply of the bitch Naomi I had fucked and then killed with my own hands.
"You come boy? I'd thought you would turn tail and try to run... just like your mother had..." he said. His voice, a mixture of growl and screams of pain. The souls he'd taken. That was what I heard in his voice... the screams of many angels who'd once guarded this monstrosity's sleep. The screams of his lover.
"Genki!" I shouted above the howling of the wind, pulling an arrow from the quiver at my back; my arm still outstetched in the direction of the wind, bow clentched tightly in my fist. "Today, what I warned shall come to pass! I only pray my father is looking down on us now from Heaven to see you to your end!"
Even from here, I could see those blood caked lips smile that sinister smirk. He reached into the air, pulling an all to familar sword from nothingness. Dark was the blade, forged in secret by its maker, though blackened by the twisted mind of its former weilder. He spread his wings, dragons's wings, and seemed to skim over the very ground.
The brittle grass making a soft swish sound at his feet as I leapt to the side, pulling back the bowstring as instinctively as I hunger.
Spill blood on me... 'till it fills my body
I watched it fly, and bounce from his thick skin as he pivoted left, holding the sword so tightly in his fists I could see his white knuckles as he swung at me. I leaped into the air, high. My cloak flaring up behind me as if my own set of secret wings. Again I pulled an arrow from my quiver and put it to the string, even as he tore the air after me.
He held the sword out from his body, baring those many sharp teeth. "I hope you scream, just like your whore of a mother!" he shouted as I released another arrow, this one catching in his shoulder.
He swung wide as I fell back down to my feet. "My mother, how dare you speak of her in such a way demon!"
"Stupid little boy..." he said, that ever sinister smile. He landed on his feet, his wings flapping twice, large gusts of gray powder, dust, filling the air. He rached up and jerked my arrow from his shoulder and tossed it to the side. "That's all your mother was good for... And she fit so well on me too, much better than that slut friend of her's. You know the one... red hair, about your height..."
He had raped her. The realization hit me full in the face with his laughs. He'd not only killed her... but he'd had her in ways only my father was entitled. Ways that none but him should ever know... My heart felt heavy, my mind a frenzy.
Madness starting to awake
Playful desire starving of blood
Get down limitless night
I hated him. I demanded nothing short of his blood on my hands; the scent of his death on this bitter wind; the red river that the brittle grass demanded flow this day. I placed my father's bow on the grass, followed by my quiver. These were useless now against this beast.
'Choices Damien, that's all it ever really is. A series of thoughts, that all lead to one choice of fate.'
My father's voice from that long ago day i'd first laid eyes on him.... and the moment just before his own demise... echoed in my head even now. Even while this creature shouted his useless taunts. "You're not going home now are you boy? Now when we're having so much fun!"
I unfastened the brooch that held my cloak in place, tossing it aside to lay over my father's bow and quiver. "Choices..." I said to myself, closing my eyes slowly as I felt my arm burn with that power. Every particle of my whole felt alive, electrified as that mark, the same mark my father before me bore for so long, rose to the surface.
I looked to him, my fists clenched so tightly that I felt my nails digging into the sensitive skin of my palm. The wind shifted, and I with it. "I am going to beat it out of you one way or another!" I screamed, the stench of him rising in my face as my fist met jaw, like that night so long ago on the roof, like that night he'd still had his human soul. He staggered back, then came at me with sword raised in one hand and his claw coming at my throat.
I pulled back just in time, or so I thought. The butt of the sword came crashing down on my head, sending my mind for a jolt as I greeted the dirt up close and personal. Something that rarely, if ever, happens to me.
He grabbed me by my hair and jerked me up. "Look boy. Look and see what's left of your little family," that scream growl voice said to me, turning my head.
Slowly my eyes focused. Horror struck my heart. Three crucifixes, all covered with thorns and wires and vines, the wood jagged and splintered, faded with age. Three bodies. Three victims... far left a small child. I could even see from this distance the stuffed rabbit torn and its stuffing scattered at her feet. That innocent face twisted in an eternal mask of pain.
The last I had seen her, she was smiling up at me, those big blue eyes wide with the warmth of safety once the fighting was over that day I gave this monster a second chance.
That scream growl taunted me again, turning my head slowly to the right. There, his wrists pinned to the wood by what I knew to be his own twin blades. Blood dried and crusted over his nude body. Feet driven through with nails. Black hair with blood red roots a tange as those once lavender blue eyes now gaped open as black and as dark as the demon who made me look upon him. His neck chaffed with a long forgotten rope burn, wrighted down by the large rock on the other end of that hemp length.
"He loved you..." I whispered as he jerked me up, though not to my feet. My scalp felt as if it were about to be torn clean from my skull.
"He was nothing but a free and easy fuck," he snarled, his breath stank of old blood, vodka, and dog shit.
"That's not true... Joe loved him... still loves him..."
He pulled tighter and forced me to look at the one I'd been trying to avoid, not wanting to see her this way. Not wanting the face of my memory to bare the marks of his violent desire, his own personal touch to her perfection...
Her face to the sky, two scarlet tears, freshly made. Her arms gashed and bleeding profusely still. Wings, now little more than stubs at her back. Her body, heavily bruised and held tightly by invisible strings; strings so fine that should they be pulled just right, her naked form would fall to the ground in pieces.
My tourtured senses.
Beast of blood
The desire gushing out of the cold body is wet with red blood.
"I'll kill you..." I whispered, my arm burning again. He released me, pounding his boot into my side. I rolled, and he came at me again. And again I rolled through the brittle gray grass.
"You'll what boy! You'll what! I didn't quite hear what you said!"
I picked myself up, teetering on the brink of falling back down again. "I said..." I spat; blood on the grass, which drank it up eagerly. "I said I'LL KILL YOU!" I screamed, throwing my head back, my face to the sky in an uncontrollable howl of rage. That back of my tunic burst, the remainder falling to my feet as for the first time I felt the wings of my minor angelic heratige tearing their way out of my skin. White feathers slicked with blood, my blood. "I'LL KILL YOU!" I repeated, as I watched him ascend, then perch himself above my mother's cross, the center cross.
He bent down and licked the side of her face before poising his hand above her eyes, claws just inches above her soft eyelids, ready to dig in.
I grabbed my father's bow once more, and another arrow. The third from my quiver during this deathmatch of sorts.
"So the baby bird finally learned to fly. Nice trick Damien... now what will you do with them?" he laughed, standing to his feet on the top of that crooked crucifix.
Beast of blood
Along with the scream from the death throes
Sharp claws are shining brighter
He took to the air, and I after him; bowstring pulled taut and ready to fire again. He came at me, brandishing that sword once more. I dove beneath him, the dragon now full on my arm. It seemed to slither down my wrist, each claw at one of my fingers, the head at my thumb as tail curled around and dug into my wrist.
He came again, screaming his rage even as the dragon slithered into the arrow I held, it's tail tipped with blood, my blood, the same blood that ran through my father's veins, my mother's veins.
"Little boy... it's time to die!" his mouth was wide open, all those rows of needle fine teeth gnashing at the air as I felt the sword skewer me, driving into my shoulder and through the otherside...and I released the arrow at that same moment.
We fell together, his claws tearing at my skin, my leather clad feet kicking at his thick skinned body to push him away, to end his ceaseless tearing of my flesh.
No fear, no sadness
Lofty life is tasting loneliness and eternity
I snaked my arm down carefully, pulling that small stunted blade from my boot. The arrow in his neck, deep in that leathery flesh, contorted and rotting around the shaft. "I said I'd kill you..." I looked deep into those black eyes, and for a moment I thought I saw in them the man he had been; a spark of old Joe the bartender with the fast car and the never ending thirst for sex.
He snarled at me again, still trying to claw the meat from my bones. "You killed and raped my mother... hell... I'll just toss Temmothy in there as a bonus since again he was the first victim."
I'd lowered the blade to one of his wrists, slicing that putrid rotting skin with ease. A blue claw rose from it before burrying itself back in again. I tossed the knife to the ground and spat on him. There was no need to bleed him dry now... let the dragon take him to his end.
And near by the target with no more life
Red drops on my greedy lips
Falls down on the freezing ground
Get down limitless night
Beast of blood
I'd managed to move from him, and stagger to where the three crucifixes stood. The last sight I saw before my eyes closed, battle weary, was my mother looking down on me with the smile I'd longed to have shine on me for so long.
"Damien," she said softly, as if paying her own wounds no heed. "My beautiful little boy..."
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EXCERPT FROM P8-13 SEQUEL RECLAIMATION - BOOK 2, CHAPTER 16
note: this is still in it's "raw" form, before edits and re-writes
Part Sixteen: Pain Taker
[dream]
Obscurity. Emptyness. Oblivion.
They are the shadows that plague humanity. The darkness that clouds the future, preventing the light of Hope from shining in.
But she had Faith. In herself. In her dreams.
She was alone, yet surrounded by nameless faces. So many... so many to count. All speaking at once. All hurting. All crying.
But she had enough Faith for all. Her light, though dim, would never be cast out.
To cure humanity of its pain, of its sorrow, of its regret.
Her warmth spread to all she touched, but still so many faces, so many prayers still unanswered.
But she touched them all. She watched them, and kissed them, and held them.
She was a child of Pandora, collecting the evils and returning them to the box opened long ago. Each face that faded replaced with another, and another, until now there was an ocean.
But she would take her time. She would get to them all, even if it took eternity to reach them. A creature of neither light nor shadow.
This face. This face she held now between her hands. Its pain was her pain.
This face, like so many others, was full of memory. Memories of joy and memories of fear. It was the fear she took, and no other.
The next, a man of worry. Next, a woman of hate. Another, a babe in the arms of death.
She is Dream Devil. She is Angel of Mercy. A Child of Pandora.
She is the Pain Taker, the last of the four great tribes.
She looked across the ocean of eyes, of hair, or noses and lips and tears. She looked across into the abyss. She would reach him, even it it took eternity.
---
[Falco's Journal]
I waited.
But he never came.
He promised he would come.
"Wait for me by the river" he said.
I waited.
But he never came.
I've searched for so long. I waited there, at our place, hoping he would come. Once, I thought I'd seen him. But it was nothing.
I thought if I was a good boy, if I got into a good position, I could find him. Once, I thought I'd found him. But it was no one.
Maybe I was wrong? Maybe it was just make-believe. But it felt so real. What we had. Sometimes, I think it's useless. But when I think of his eyes. The way he used to look at me, I can't forget. The constant fights. The late night shouting matches. His hateful words. His tears, his quiet submission. It felt so real...
I used to think he only thought about himself. That he never had any time for the people around him. I was wrong. He never thought about himself. He never had any time because he was doing everything for everyone. Even when he started his career, and took those long trips across the globe without us, it wasn't for him.
I found his file when I took the case. There was so much I never knew. So much he never said. I understand why he did those things now. He gave up everything he had, and poured himself into his work to make everyone happy, a self imposed sentence for his crimes. Like any parent, he didn't want his child to know the hardships he was forced to face.
I guess I never gave it any thought. I'd always seen him as the happy-go-lucky guy. Usually smiling, making life a party, most of the time. He didn't tell me, so I know he didn't want to know.
I should not have read it. I should have just passed the case on.
I never had any respect for him. Still don't. It's just not in me to.
But now I understand.
And the kid?... She's so much like him, taking in everyone else's burdens. She wants mine too. But she's not him... only he can pry it from my cold dead fingers.
---
There was a light knock on the door. He lifted his head as the door opened.
"It's time," the young man said, a string of buddhist monk beads hanging from his right hand. They were made of crude dried mud balls put on a string.
He stood, closing the notebook he had found at the 51 raid. The cover was orange, the pages near full. Only a few were in his own handwriting.
With a nod, and a crack of his knuckles, he followed the wiccan hacker Kellog down the hall, through the common room, into the bowels of the base. Down the rickety iron staircase to the lower level where the command station called it home.
He took his place at one of the terminals, a proper computer, built from scratch.
"We've got a signal. Patching it through," Dag said, a wire sticking out of the back of his head.
Ty leaned forward, speaking into a small microphone. "Ready when you are Shadowline."
The machine-man's voice was staticy at first, but cleared. "Okay, we're almost ready. Load up the software."
"One minute to dive," Dag said. Desperado's hands went into a frenzy, his dark hair hanging in front of his face, hiding his eyes.
Falco grabbed the joystick in front of him. "All set here," he said.
"Thirty seconds to dive."
"Alright," Shadowline's voice came again. "Start the logs. I want as much data as we can cram in this time."
"Yes sir," Ty said.
"Ten."
"Here goes nothin," Falco said as the windows began to open on his screen.
"Dive," Dag said.
Across the building, up on the ground floor, Frankie's eyes closed, her body settling into relaxation, then, sleep.
Shadowline stood beside the bed, setting the controls on her hardware. When he was through, he sat on the rocky stool he pulled out from beneath the brass frame.
He sat, one hand holding her's as the other brushed back her orange hair from her peaceful face.
Feet ran across the floor, taking the screeching stairs two at a time.
"Boys! We have a problem!" she shouted when she could see them.
"I'm picking up a second signal!" Dag shouted, raising his head. "I can't hold back the-"
"CBI?!" Kellog shouted.
"No... Oh god..." Dag whispered.
"Kel, take over! I'm goin topside!" Falco shouted, jumping from his chair. Desperado's interpreter took over his station as well. The two men followed the yellow haired tracker back up the stairs.
When they came up, Falco had to pull her back down as the man she called Kura was thrown over their heads.
"What the fuck!" Falco shouted, turning his head.
Standing on the other side of the hole in the wall was a man with bright green eyes, his fingers wrapped around the hilt of a gleaming sword...
---
[dream]
She felt him before she saw him. She can always feel him. It was hard not to.
"Why do you come back?" he sneered.
She smiled, offering her hand. "Why do you?" she asked, stealing a glance around. She had found this in his empty head, the only piece of him left. "It is nice here."
"The flowers die when I try to touch them," he replied, turning his back to her.
Her gaze softened. She could already see the damage his choice had wrought on him. The spines pierced his skin, though only small she could feel the pain of the flesh-breaking.
She averted her eyes, looking up into the clear night sky. "Someday, I'm going to see what's between the stars."
"There's only blackness," he said, standing up straight. They had their backs to one another now. "Cold, lonely blackness."
"There are people out there, you know," she said, smiling. "And planets. There is something new between every star. You just have to open your eyes and look up."
"There is nothing."
"If that were true, we would not exist. We're in the space between the stars. Even if we are the only ones, that's still something."
He bit his lip, turning his head. He watched her, the girl that would not leave him alone. Would not look him in the eye. "What do you know," he mumbled, watching as her smile faded. His starving eyes followed the curves of her form, outlining the two twisted shapes that ran down her spine.
"I know because I choose to know."
"And I don't choose to," he replied.
At last, she turned her eyes on him, her deep pools of ocean blue. "You made your choice, and now you suffer more for it. What happens now is out of your hands."
"Don't tell me what I can and cannot do!" he shouted angrily.
She frowned. She had struck a nerve... it was a start. "Once you choose to forget, you lose what little you have gained."
"Enough!" he snapped, holding his blade to her throat in the span of a single heartbeat.
She looked up at him, tilting her head to give him better access to her neck. Her warm eyes were now cold, unfeeling. "Kill me, and She will win. If She wins, you will never be free from the burden you have placed upon your own shoulders."
"You know nothing!" He pressed the blade into her flesh, her warm crimson life spilling out onto his hands. She made no sound, no intent to stop him. "You don't know anything about what I am!"
She raised a hand to pull the blade from her neck. "You are Black Steel," she said, wrapping her hand around the two sided blade. The tip snapped off in her hand, and when she opened her fingers, there rested in her palm a small hilt of the newly fashioned dagger. "So am I. And that is enough."
He took a few steps back from her, his sword fading into unform. "You chose darkness," she said, "So now I am your guide through it. I go where the other cannot, and where Faceless dare not tread."
"What are you?..."
She held his gaze steady. "Like She who forever wilts, I am frozen in mid-bloom. I am the Pain Taker, that which is the end result of Project Black Rose." She turned from him, and began to pass through the field.
"Wait!" he called after her. "Where are you going!"
She, like the stars, became hidden to the shadows that kept him in the dark.
---
He was pinned, the monster forcing his arms to the floor.
Splatter, hot, sticky, dark, foul. He looked up to see a blade skewering the beast that held him.
It howled, it's green eyes twisted in pain as it whirled its head around. The creature holding the hilt in one hand smiled, needles piercing through the flesh that had once served to hide them.
The sword was pulled from the monster, and the other stepped back, the scales that had replaced black brows came together in deep concentration.
He was freed, showing the beast from him and scrambling to his feet. But he collapsed beside the girl out cold on the floor, her fingers still wrapped around the butt of the nine millimeter.
"Black Steel!"the monster shouted, getting to its feet. "Have you betrayed our Lady."
"B... blue," he began, then shook his head in confusion. "Blue-sama will not be touched."
"You have your orders!"the other snapped.
"We take the girl,"he replied, his voice thick with malice.
"We kill all."
"You will not touch him."
He pulled the girl with him when he dragged his body to the wall. He watched as the two monsters exchange words that sounded like hellish growls to his ears. The other came between him and the green eyed beast.
"Get out of my way!"he shouted.
Black Steel raised his sword as the other came at him. He gave a mighty howl as he swung.
"Betrayer!"
"YOU WILL NOT TOUCH HIM!" Black Steel's screams came like banshees on the wind as he thrust forward, forcing the other back.
"You stink of human."
"I... I am human," he replied before giving a swing thrust.
Falco's eyes grew wider by the second as the body fell to the floor, the top half of the head rolling on its rim before spinning out like a coin that just lost its momentum.
A large, heavy foot came down suddenly, crushing the skull with a grotesque snap.
Falco got one look at those horrible eyes as the remaining beast turned away.
"It can't... no..." he whispered when it dissapeared through the massive hole in the wall, shaking the sticky black goo from the blade.
---
"Traitor!"
"Emptyness disobeyed orders. It was my duty to-"
"Duty my rotting ass!" Oblivion shouted, pacing before him. He came to a stop in front of the nonchalant killer.
"Emptyness disobeyed orders. He then must be eliminated."
"Oh? So you think you're a bigshot now! I'm on to your game. You think you can-"
"Enough!"
The two turned to the door where their keeper stood. "Black Steel, you will come forward to receive your punishment!"
He did not move until Oblivion took him by the wrist and dragged him. His arms were brought up over his head and shackled to the steel beam above. His ankles were pulled apart and fastened to the ground.
His keeper let the end of the whip fall loose as he came around behind him. He stood fifteen paces back.
His flesh felt the first sting of the leather straps. He howled.
A second. A third.
The metal buckles that held him could easily be broken. He could turn on them all in an instant. But he remained, taking the lashes in silence.
---
She clenched her fists, biting her lips to keep from screaming.
"What's happening to her!" Falco shouted as her body writhed beneath Kellog's touch. The wiccan herbalist tried to keep up with the marks, spreading a yellow looking paste over the fresh gashes in her skin.
Her face was a mask of agony, and Falco's reflected his own anger. It took Shadowline, the bartender, and four others to hold him back.
"What the hell are you doing to her!"
"He is only trying to help her," Shadowline said. "Blue, calm down."
"Fuck that shit!" he shouted, almost escaping their grasp.
"You're not helping her any by acting this way!" the only woman of them shouted, squeezing his arm.
"Let go of me! Let go or I'll kill every last one of y-"
He fell forward, Shadowline's fist giving him a good hard blow to the stomach. "Get him out of here. Have him restrained if you must!"
"Yes sir!" they replied, pulling the man from the room.
Shadowline slammed closed the door and sat in the floor, his back pressed firmly against the aged wood.
Frankie's head thrashed about as at last she could not hold in her screams.
"This is the worst yet. I can't-"
"Keep trying! You've got to get her to break her trance!"
"I... I... She should have woken when the dive ended! Why isn't she-"
"Blue-sama!" she screamed, her body giving one final jolt before she fell on her stomach, tears streaming down her cheeks. She lay unmoving, almost as if she were dead.
Kellog cautiously placed his fingers to her neck, then her wrist. "She's still alive. It's weak, but she's hangin in there."
---
She held her hands at the sides of her head. Voices... voices haunted her dark sleep. A chorus of misery and pain.
Her sleep had been pierced by the shrill howl of voices... so many voices... all calling out one name.
She beat her hands on the glass as she screamed, the wires holding her body together twisted and knotted.
When at last she could not bear the noise, it was silenced as suddenly as it had come.
What was that, there, deep in her mind...
That small voice... singing... singing her sweet and wicked tune.
Again she screamed, but this was rage. She beat her hands against the glass once more, but stopped when she saw her own reflection begin to crack. She watched, her black eyes following the lines as they came into being.
They were shaping a spiderweb.
---
[dream]
"Do you remember the first time you saw him?"
"...No..."
She smiled, resting her hand on his armored shoulder. "Can you remember the first thing you said?"
"Dr. Pepper on the rocks," he said as she covered his eyes.
When her hand came away, the two were standing in a room. It wasn't a large room, but it was crowded. She handed him a glass with a straw. "Dr. Pepper on the rocks," she said with a kind smile.
"Why are you doing this?"
She didn't answer. Instead she grabbed his hand and pulled him behind her. He didn't resist. She stopped in a corner, pulling out a chair for him. "I find it is much easier to work in familiar surroundings," she said, sitting across from him. She leaned forward, propping herself up with her elbows. Her hands were folded together under her chin. She was smiling.
He liked it when she smiled.
"Is this-"
"Only an echo. Just a looping snippet I found floating in your head."
He took a sip quietly, the carbonated drink dribbling down his chin.
"You did the right thing," she said.
"I did nothing."
"You destroyed the Emptyness in the world. I am happy."
He stared at her a long moment, then smiled. He couldn't help it. It was as if her own smile tempted him, somehow spread to himself. "What is your name?"
She put her hands on the table, folding them one over the other. "Pain Taker," she replied.
"No. Your real name."
"I'll tell you mine when you tell me your's."
"I have no name."
In the background, music started to play. There was no stage. There were no musicians. Just music, soft and faint. She smiled again. "This is a nice tune."
He tapped his fingers on the table to the beat. "What is it called?" he asked.
"Your name is Temmothy, isn't it?" she asked suddenly before the scene faded, and they were standing once more in the field.
"I have no name," he repeated , his voice harboring a sudden twinge of unwanted anger.
She put a hand on his cheek, and could feel the ridges that were forming below the soft skin. "Your pain runs so deep... you thought you could escape it if you let her take you. But she is only amplifying your sorrow."
He pulled away suddenly in anger. "Do not touch me!"
"You won't let it go, even now. You can't, because you're still looking for him. I can see it in your eyes. You won't give up your search, even though you no longer know what or why."
"Leave me be!"
"You are still a Truth Seeker!" she shouted back. "Though your memories have gone, you still chase after your dreams of white sands and saltwater swims. If you will not open your eyes and look at what you have let happen to yourself, then I will open them for you!"
"Why do you haunt me!"
"Because like you, I am searching. What if you could get it all back? I can give you what you have lost, if you would only open your heart to me."
"I have no heart," he spat.
"If you will not listen to reason, then I will have to use force!" she shouted, taking a fighting stance.
He laughed out loud as they both drew their swords of Black Steel. "You are nothing!" he laughed, and she could see she had lost him again. Lost him to the darkness that was the abyss of Black Rose's power.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
EXCERPT FROM P-18 SEQUEL RECLAIMATION - BOOK 4, INTERLUDE
note: this is in it's "raw" form before edits and revisions.
Interlude Three: The Doll
"Are you sure this is wise?"
"I'm not sure of anything anymore," he said, lifting his tired eyes up to meet her cold gaze. "Layla, I need you to promise me something."
"What is your request."
"No, not request. Promise."
"What is promise?"
He sighed, wiping his blood spattered hands on the front of his white labcoat. "A promise is an oral contract between humans. It is very strong, and can never be broken, do you understand?"
"Promise is an-"
"Do you understand?" he repeated.
She nodded, though her understanding of such a concept was limited. She added the assimilation of all data that explained a 'promise' to her top priorities list. "What is this promise?"
"First, I want you to copy this program into your hidden files."
She nodded, and took the small square case. She opened it, and inside was a small, round disk about 1 inch in diameter. She opened her rubber lips, and pressed the disk against the roof of her steel mouth. Her eyelids flitted a moment before she spat the disk back out.
"Destroy it."
"As you wish," she said, easily crushing it in her latex palm.
"Now, I want you to take this," he said, holding out a plastic bag.
"But this is Monsieur Pike's wedding-"
"I know what it is!" he snapped. "Take it! Keep it safe. It must not fall into the wrong hands."
"I am not able to process your request. Your command refutes my primary programming. I am not able to process your re-"
"For heaven's sakes..." he mumbled. "Voice override. You 'will' complete creator's request!"
Her eyes went blank, and she held out her hand. He dropped the bag into it before reaching down into the back of the cadaver's skull. "Now, you must keep that safe, even from me." She shook her head, blinked once, then placed the bag into the bodice of her Lollita maid uniform. Her eyes had cleared, and had changed in color to a soft orange.
"What are you doing now?"
"I am transferring the original NES unit into the replacement shell," he said. "This is the one we will bury."
"What will happen to the real body?" she asked, looking down at the cadaver he had just been working on. He had moved from this one to the other, laying flat on its bare stomach, the back of the skull opened up and a mechanical replica of a human brain was exposed.
"I will burn it."
"Why?"
"Because no one outside this room must know what I have done." He wiped his brow with the back of his arm. For a moment, she thought he looked old, nay, ancient, hunched over his work like a mad scientist.
Perhaps that is what he truly was. The abstract she experienced was called gladness. She was glad he was not evil, or rather, evil as the dead man soon to be burnned, had defined it for her.
"That is why I have changed your operation codes. I have told Joeseph what I have done, and he has agreed to this."
"But you said no one outside this room must-"
"He's hiding under the table here," he said, shifting his foot to move the white cloth that covered the body aside just enough for her to see.
"Why is he hiding?"
"My brother has the security systems tapped. This is just for extra measure, just in case he manages to get around my looping image of an empty room." He at last put down the pair of pliars he had been using and picked up a screwdriver. "Layla, do you remember my father's dying wish?"
She nodded. "I have recalled the requested information."
"Then you understand that once I put the final screws to Miguel, there is no turning back. Once this body is burried, we must never speak of my father or the project again."
Again, she nodded.
"Encoded onto that ring is the answer to the equation my father created. If Miguel were to get his hands on it, the world as we know it will cease to exist, and we will all die horrible merciless deaths... even you."
"I understand," she said, then smiled. "I will protect this ring, your secret, and the equation, until I cease to function properly."
---
"Sir!"
He stood, wiping his brow as sweat rolled down his boyish torso. "What now Cindy Lue Hoo?"
The woman ran, jumping over the fallen beam that seperated the main excavation from the chamber she had been digging in. "Sir, we've found something."
He handed his shovel off to another and followed her back. She cracked a light stick over her leg and handed it to him before cracking another. "What is it?"
A young man heaved a large shelving unit out of the way before stumbling backwards into them. "All clear," he said as he swallowed mouthfuls of the rancid air.
"It's amazing," the woman said in awe as the boy crouched in the corner. He waved his light stick over the broken form. Latex hanging off the metal skull. Some sort of black material clung to arm-like limbs.
"What is it?" the young man asked.
"Android," the boy said finally, rising to his feet.
"What should we do with it?"
"Might have valuable information. We take it with us."
"Are you sure that's wise? I mean, the power cells look like they've run dry, and the condition it's-"
"Have Lomax hook her up to the extractor. If ther's anything in that head of her's, he'll find it."
"Her, sir?"
He laughed. "Duh. Can't you see her dress?" He left them to ponder this, returning to the main excavation site. "Give me somethin people. We don't have much time before the jarheads sweep back again!"
A fat girl wiped her face with a towel. "Grinch, we've found all we're gonna get. We were lucky this place didn't collapse all around us by now."
"Ham's right," a tall, scrawny boy said. "I mean, most of this crap didn't even survive the Big One!"
"Just a little bit longer, then we'll head up for some air," he said, grabbing his shovel back.
---
"Wakey wakey," a girl said.
"Are you sure she'll function?"
"Positive," a man said.
He looked down into the metal face, then, it turned. "Bonjour," it said.
"What the fuck did that thing just say!" he shouted, jumping back to press himself against the wall.
The girl and the man both shrugged. "Perhaps I should put that through the translator."
The boy edged closer to the table.
"Primary programming damaged. Power status minimal. Assessing situation for proper response."
"....What now?"
"I believe she is telling us she is in need of a tune-up."
"That's not funny Lomax!"
"Initiating secondary protocol."
The boy looked at the girl. "One fish... you better tell me that's a good thing."
She shrugged, pushing up her glasses. "Lomax?"
He stroked his chin before turning his back to them. "I'll see if I can access the data ban- holy shit!"
"What!" One Fish and Grinch both exclaimed.
"I dunno..." he said, his voice trailing off. "This system is ancient. I may not be able to make a full system repair."
"Konnichi-wa. Name-wa Layla desu. Hajimemashite gozaimasu."
The boy turned around to see the andriod sitting up, it's head tilted to the side, it's steel jaw rising and falling. "Did that thing just...."
"Talk?" One Fish finished for him.