The City of Monsters

by Matthew McCollum

But she could deal with Lizzy's endless parade of forced blind dates. There were always a few diamonds in the rough, and she did need a social life. As long as she didn't run away again, she'd be fine. As long as she didn't have to deal with—

  “Laura?”

  She looked around. She was only a few feet away from the linens store on Abigail and Limbo, and a plain looking man was coming out of the toy shop next door. But next to him, the man who had called her name...

  “Derek.”

  Chapter 6: AMICUS

  ADAM

  Adam came out of the toy shop feeling dejected. How the hell else was he supposed to feel? He didn't know people could be immune to the toy maker. That was like being immune to organ donation. He adjusted the empty cage in his grip and turned to ask Derek about it. But before he could say anything, Derek stopped dead in his tracks, looking at someone else.

  “Laura?”

  Adam followed his gaze. He was staring at a girl standing a few yards away, a thin young woman with shoulder-length black hair and pale skin, wearing a diamond ring on a chain around her neck. She was pretty, but she wasn't Adam's type. She was sharp like a knife, in every way. In the way her jaw was set, in the way her eyes narrowed, in the clothes she wore, in—

  In the gun on her thigh.

  “Derek,” she said. Her response was cold as ice, like an experienced soldier told that she was being ambushed. Her hand went to the gun in its holster, but she passed over it with only the barest hint of hesitation.

  “Laura! It is you!” Derek rushed forward to give the girl a hug. She stepped back, and this time her hand did go to her gun.

  “It's been a while, Derek.”

  He looked hurt. “Laura, don't be like that...”

  “Derek, don't antagonize her,” Adam said, while his brain worked to find the nearest escape route. Yeah, piss off the crazy girl with the gun. Nothing could possibly go wrong with that plan.

  She looked at him, frowning. “Who's this?”

  Derek glanced at Adam before turning back to her. “This is Adam, my new roommate over at AU. But never mind that—what are you doing back in South Central?”

  She eyed him warily, clearly weighing whether she should tell him the truth or not. “I'm going to AU for school. So I had to come back.”

  He grinned. “That's great! I barely even recognized you. If d—your father hadn't shown me some pictures from last Christmas, I think I would have walked right by.”

  Her eyes showed no compromise. “A pity, that.”

  “Laura and I grew up together,” Derek said to Adam. “But she left the district seven years ago for school. I never really knew why.”

  “It was your fault,” she said icily. She wasn't angry, just harsh. “That's why I left.”

  Derek crossed his arms and frowned. “I can't apologize if you don't tell me what I did wrong, Laura.”

  “No, you can't.” She sighed and took another step back. “We done here? I don't need this today.”

  “Yeah... yeah, I guess we are.” Poor Derek looked like he had lost his best friend. Maybe he had. “We'll... see you around, Laura.” He started off, while Laura waited for him to leave, but Adam glanced around first.

  “Oh, hey, a linens place,” he said. With a name like “Linens and Things,” it was hard to miss. “I need sheets and a pillow. Let's go in here.”

  Laura glared at him.

  Derek shrugged. “Works for me.” He headed inside... and Laura followed without a word. Adam blinked, sighed, and followed as well.

  It looked pretty much the same as the other stores he had seen. One big room with the products displayed, and a single register to the left of the door. In this case, different sheet designs hung on the walls like curtains, with pillows and blanket samples on shelves in the center. Laura headed straight for the clerk, and Adam cautiously followed, with Derek staying by the door.

  The clerk was another demon girl, younger than Lily. Adam was already getting used to the toys, but he was still... twitchy about Laura's gun. No one else was commenting on it, however, so he tried to ignore it.

  “I need a set of sheets for a single-size bed. And some pillows.” She turned to Adam. “I'm guessing you need the same?”

  “Uh... yeah.” That gun was really bothering him, and some part of him wanted to take it from her before she had a chance to use it. He resisted the impulse. “The cheapest you've got.”

  “Same for me,” Laura told the clerk. The demon scurried off to the back of the store to plunder the storeroom.

  “So, Laura...”

  Derek was trying to sound nonchalant, but Laura wouldn't have any of it. “What.”

  Whatever he had been planning to say, he seemed to change his mind before speaking. “I've been meaning to ask... where'd you get the gun?”

  Finally. Maybe she'd stop wearing it if she knew it bothered people.

  “Dad gave it to me for my fifteenth birthday,” she said curtly. If there was more of a story behind it, she didn't elaborate.

  But Derek started. “You too? He gave me one, but he didn't mention that you got one. Can I see it?”

  Laura popped off the buckle on the holster, made sure the gun had its safety on, and handed it off without so much as looking at it. Derek, Adam noted, was much more careful, and didn't let his fingers anywhere near the trigger.

  “Occisor Mk. 2.” He turned it over in his hand. “To my beautiful daughter, may you never need this, and always have it. It's the same model he gave me.” He chuckled. “My inscription is a little different, though.” He handed it back and she took it without a word.

  Before Adam got the chance to put a word in—maybe recommend not carrying loaded guns around, just a thought—the clerk came back with two sets of sheets and a pair of pressed pillows, all wrapped in plastic.

  “Sixteen ninety-six,” she said, plopping out purchases down on the counter. She started ringing them up.

  “Isn't that a bit expensive for sheets and a pillow?” Laura asked. Adam hadn't been sure, but it did sound high.

  “The sheets are five ninety-nine, and the pillows two forty-nine.” The demon stopped. “Did you still want them?”

  “We're buying them separately,” Adam said.

  The clerk fixed her mistake without complaint, and Laura and Adam paid separately. They walked out, and when they reached the street she glared at him again. “You can stop following me now.”

  Adam glared right back. “We're going the same way. Unless you feel like sitting on a bench holding your sheets just to avoid us.”

  She scowled. “Fine. Whatever.” She crossed the street with us beside her.

  “I'm sorry about the thing at the toy store,” Derek said to Adam after a moment. “I didn't realize there would be a problem.”

  “It's not your fault,” he said. “How were you supposed to know I'm... uh... what'd he say?”

  “Lutum informis, I'm guessing?”

  Adam glanced at Laura and shifted the load in him arms. The sheets weren't much, but the cage was annoying. “Yeah, I think that's right. The clerk said it means I can't use toys.”

  She scoffed. “He's a moron, then. You can still use them, it just makes things more complicated. It's going to be ten times harder and cost fifteen times as much to do anything.”

  Adam sighed. “Well, then I guess I don't get vampire eyes. Not that I really wanted them.” He frowned. “But hang on, I thought the toy maker worked on everyone?”

  “Approximately one person in a hundred million is lutum informis. For all intents and purposes, it works on everyone.” She smiled a bit sadly. “Congratulations, you have one of the rarest physiological defects in the world.”

  Adam rolled his eyes. “Thanks.” He started across the next street. “Always nice to be unique.” He sighed again. “I know I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up, but I was really looking forward...” He glanced around. Laura and Derek had stopped walking, and were standing at the curb with quizzical looks on their faces.

  �
�Do you hear that?” he asked Adam.

  He didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. He shook his head.

  Suddenly, Laura's eyes bulged. “TRUCK!” she roared.

  That was when Adam realized he was standing in the middle of the road, with a sixteen-wheeler bearing down on him.

  It had a tall undercarriage—he might be able to dive under it. But no, if the driver swerved, he'd get crushed by the wheels, and even if he kept going straight, it was a long shot. With no other choice, he jumped to the right, away from the curb, but the driver swerved in that direction as well, probably trying to avoid Derek and Laura on the sidewalk. It ran over his sheets and the cage, which he had dropped in his panic.

  Adam was going to die. Run over just like his stupid sheets.

  He felt...

  Nothing.

  He looked back at the curb for some reason, he wasn't really sure why. Just some last reflex.

  And he saw Derek running forward, an iron look in his eyes.

  He tackled Adam at full speed, trying to throw them both further out of the path of the truck. Luckily, it was the only vehicle on the road, so they didn't have to worry about jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

  It almost worked. Almost. But the driver didn't have time to swerve away again. It was going to hit them. Not head on and not at full speed, but a truck that size would kill them at pretty much any speed.

  Derek put his body between Adam and the truck and braced himself, while Adam kept his eyes open and glued on their impending doom. It edged ever closer, and then...

  It crashed into a force field.

  A dome of blue light, dripping azure mist, enveloped them both. The truck stopped with a huge crash like it had hit a wall, but the barrier held. After another moment, it disappeared, leaving only a massive dent in the truck's grill to mark its existence.

  Adam couldn't stop staring. What?

  Laura ran up as fast as she could. “Derek! You all right?” She glanced at the truck. “Silver and gold, what was that light?”

  He swallowed slowly. “I... think that was me.”

  Chapter 7: IGNIS

  AKANE

  Akane Akiyama, daughter of Akio, son of Yoshrou, was the last of the honorable samurai house Akiyama, founded in the first days of the Edo period. Of course, when the Tokugawa family fell into decline, the house fell with them, and it eventually became easier to leave Japan than it was to stay. That was two generations ago. Akane had never been to Japan, and had little interest in doing so.

  After meeting her new roommate, Akane felt, for the first time in her life, that she was connected to modern Japanese culture.

  She did not mean that as a compliment.

  “So what's your favorite anime?”

  Ling Yu was a little Chinese girl, clocking in at about five feet tall. She had a wide smile plastered on her soft face, and her dyed dirty blonde hair was put up in odango style—two spherical buns worn at about forty-five degree angles at the side of the head. She looked like the most stereotypical Chinese girl in existence. At least she wasn't wearing a Chinese dress. She had chosen a simple set of blue jeans and a white t-shirt instead. Small mercies.

  “Akane, are you even listening to me?” she said.

  “Uh-huh.” Akane glanced around the street, then crossed with Ling following only a step behind. Akane had left the room to get away from all the stupid anime posters Ling had on the wall, but with Ling sticking to her like glue, it hadn't done much good. Now she was pretty much just wandering aimlessly.

  “I'm just trying to connect with you a bit. Find some shared interests.”

  “Of course.” There was a pack of lupes ahead, led by a fully anthropomorphic wolf. Akane headed down an alley to avoid them.

  “It doesn't have to be anime. Do you play video games?”

  “I can imagine.” A couple rats were swarming a dumpster, but they ignored us as they walked past. Good thing, too. Akane didn't think Ling would be useful in a fight.

  “...you're really not listening to me at all, are you?”

  “Not really.”

  Ling glared at her. “Fine. Well, if you had been listening, you'd know I want to go into directing and writing for television—probably animated.”

  Akane started walking again. “Should have seen that coming.”

  Ling huffed impatiently. “Yes, you should have. Where are we going, anyway?”

  Akane shrugged without stopping. “Nowhere. Go back to the room if you like.”

  There was a moment of silence. Akane wasn't looking in Ling's direction, so she couldn't tell what she was thinking, but she didn't really care. They came out of the alley to a mostly empty street. On a whim, Akane headed right.

  “Were you avoiding that anthro?”

  Akane frowned. “Anthro... the full-animal kemos?”

  “Yeah, I've heard that's what they're called.”

  “Well, yeah, I guess. Nothing against lupes, but...” Akane stopped and sighed, forcing herself with a conscious effort to articulate more clearly. “The daybreakers and nightstalkers and such... they're a little crazy. I just avoid them all as a general rule.”

  “I know what you mean, I guess. I...”

  Akane never found out what she was going to say next, because that was when the screaming started.

  It wasn't like someone screaming for help. It was just a voiceless, toneless cry, droning on like an alarm. There was no emotion in it, nothing but the ceaseless scream. And it was nearby.

  Akane glanced at Ling. She was in what looked like a fighting stance—although it wasn't one Akane recognized—and was coiled like a spring. There wasn't even a question of whether or not they were going to investigate.

  “Any weapons?”

  Ling shook her head, so Akane handed her a gun. It was a stupid little Colt revolver with five shots and a safety. Akane didn't know anything else about it. She had bought it mostly because she was promised it wouldn't need serious maintenance.

  Ling took the gun without comment and quickly checked that it was loaded. It was—Akane always made sure of that. She nodded at Akane's bag. “You gonna be fine with just that?”

  Akane took the long, thin zippered bag off her shoulder and opened it, pulling out the katana she had been given for kendo class in middle school. It wasn't anything special, it didn't have any deep meaning other than as a gift. It wasn't even very high quality. But it was steel and it was sharp, and she knew how to use it.

  “I'll be fine,” she said. “Don't shoot me.” They ran towards the source of the screams.

  “If they have a gun, hang back,” Ling said. “I don't want to see you test your sword against bullets. But hopefully this will just be monsters.”

  Akane nodded.

  They finally found the source after ten minutes of searching. It was farther than Akane had thought, two streets away. She didn't have time to wonder how they were able to hear the screaming that far away. The noise remained throbbing in their ears the entire time, though it faded in volume every minute or so and came back moments later, as though the screamer was taking a breath. It led they to an abandoned skyscraper just a block and a half from the dorms.

  Akane wasn't sure what the place used to be. Something small, with only one register and a back room she could see from the door. The shop itself was nothing special, and looked pretty much untouched from when it had been emptied. Next to the stairs there were a few small piles of dust and trash someone had forgotten to empty into a trash can, and some screwdrivers abandoned from when they had been removing shelving, but otherwise it was downright boring.

  The doorway, however, was not.

  The shop was covered in a big steel folding gate, the kind they typically used in malls. Since this block was basically an outdoor mall, most of the shops had similar devices, and when this store closed down they just locked it up.

  Something had torn through the steel gate like it was tissue paper, leaving a hole we could easily walk through. The glass door beh
ind it was also shattered inward, but that was less surprising. The only good news was that whatever had done this clearly wasn't very smart. If you were strong enough to rip metal like that, the padlock would have been a much easier target.

  Akane gingerly stepped over the threshold, walking around the broken glass and the claws of the ruined gate. Ling followed carefully behind. The screams had lulled again, for a bit longer than before. She began to think they may have stopped entirely, when they started again—from the secondary room she had seen before, not ten feet in front of them. A few spots of blood led that way. Maybe the thing was injured.

  From this distance, it sounded infinitely louder, like a banshee wailing while dragging its nails on a chalkboard. Akane rushed forward, resisting the urge to cover her ears, and found the source in the old employee office.

  It was... a girl.

  She was average height, as best as Akane could tell—she was crouched in an animal stance, ready to pounce. She was white, probably, but she was so dirty it was hard to be sure. Her hair was a bit past shoulder-length, and strewn about her head like a stringy mop. Akane didn't even try to guess what the natural color was. Her hands were bloodied, probably from ripping open the metal gate. She looked baseline, with no obvious toys.

  Her jaw was... unhinged. That was the only way to describe it. Her mouth was open so wide it looked like she could swallow an apple whole. The second she saw them, her head swiveled in their direction, and she continued screaming without shifting her jaw at all.

  Akane did the first thing she could think of: She ran forward, drew her sword, and slashed the woman. It wasn't exactly a complicated maneuver. She had done it a hundred thousand times before.

  But that was not quite what happened.

  When Akane tried to move forward, time... slowed. It was so surprising she nearly tripped over her own feet. The screaming girl's eyes suddenly weren't tracking her as quickly, and her screams were far deeper. Akane glanced back at Ling and found her staring with wide eyes. She blinked, slowly.

  Oh.

  Time returned to normal, with Ling still staring at her. “What was that? You were moving so fast...”