“Gross,” I said, keeping strong. It wasn’t real, but it fucking stank like it. Not gonna lie, seeing so many dead G’s had the power to rattle me big time—real or not. Slimy dread ran through my veins, a desire to scream in grief at what I saw. But I held on tight to the understanding that this was fakery. “Got any more?”
For my next round, the doll appeared and danced across the bodies.
“Hop, skip, hop, skip,” the doll sung in Colin’s voice.
“Don’t get your dress dirty.” Couldn’t help myself.
A dancing dead Zach came to join the party, along with my dad and Sarah, who was holding my new brother, Riku. Each one of them was a half-rotted horror, but none of them real.
Deep breaths.
My hands were shaking, my breaths trembling.
You can get through this.
I heard the hound growl.
The fun times just kept on coming. I was forced to watch teenage me having the shit kicked out of me. When that failed, I was made to watch Colin fucking me when we were together. One of the rougher moments when he’d slap me as he pounded me, making me beg him to go harder.
“Already lived it,” I said, going for unbothered as best I could. “You think it’s not already in here?” I tapped my head. “But, yeah. Hang out with me. This is fun.”
I’d be puking my guts up when this was over. Maybe pass out.
G was having his intestines pulled out by my dad, feeding them to Sarah. I looked through it all, even when Zach joined in and waved the intestines in my face.
Hold the line…
Mama Rita kissing my dad, taking him onto a bed of G bodies to—
Hold the motherfucking line…
“There is only one way to make this stop, Akira.” Colin’s voice still. Seriously? The hound was keeping that little nugget in play?
The doll had a knife, stabbing G, turning on Sarah and the baby.
No one who had even the tiniest bit of a soul would be able to truly withstand the onslaught without feeling something. I mean, I wasn’t giving in, but holy shit, all this was triggering the switch to make me crumble. But I had to resist. This wanker wouldn’t win, wouldn’t make me go outside. I’d go out when I was ready—a.k.a. when it pissed off!
I was planning. Had myself some mud monsters in my katanas. They’d get messy with the hound. But then, it’d beaten the wolf and the mazoku cloud in no time.
Wanker was one tough cookie.
I wanted a cookie.
Okay, to hell with the planning. Right now, it was about the wait. I had all the hound’s attention. It wasn’t near G. That was the most important thing. End of. Let it stay here and then disappear emptyhanded in a few hours.
Could I resist that long?
The doll skipped over to me, tiptoeing on the head of one of the dead Gs.
“Gabriel.” Still Colin’s voice coming out of her mouth. “Gabriel.” She titled her head back. “He is here.”
“What?” The bottom dropped out of everything. “Oi, dolly. Come chat with me.”
She’d turned her back on me. “Gabriel.”
“No more. Please.” I tried for suddenly being affected. “I’ll come outside. I’ll—”
She vanished along with all the horror scenery. Then I heard the heavy footsteps of the hound running away.
Running for G.
Chapter Eight
Gabriel
“You see?” Jessie said, beginning her closing argument. “It makes no sense for you to say you’re protecting me by keeping me in my room. If that was true, why did you even let this guy in?” She gestured at me.
Gerald huffed. “I was thinking of you.”
“By taking in a stranger.”
“I can throw him out!”
I saw Jessie roll her eyes. “Don’t be daft, Dad. You took him in because you’re a good man. I get you’re trying to, like, be some sort of bridge between looking after me and not turning a newbie away, but it’s silly. You know I can handle myself. And anyway, he seems nice.”
It was great being talked about while in the room, and Jessie was making a lot of sense. But I held my tongue because it was their business, their fight. If it came to it, I’d leave and find somewhere else to wait out this hound. I wasn’t going to be the catalyst for a father-daughter falling out.
“You’re right,” Gerald conceded. “I’m sorry, luv. I’m overprotective.”
“You’re a dad,” she countered and gave him a hug. “I love you for always having my back.”
Gerald looked at me. “Sorry, Gabriel. Didn’t mean to put you in the middle.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that.”
The pair of them came over to sit with me.
“So,” Gerald said, “you now know we’re sensors.” He had that same cloth in his hands he’d been wiping the counter with, giving the table a half-hearted stroke. “You probably don’t want to hear me go on.”
“You can talk,” I said. “It’s absolutely fine.”
His stern aura was softening. I didn’t blame him for any of his ways. He seemed to be a good man struggling, as Jessie had said, to be a bridge.
“Do you want some more coffee?” he asked.
It always worked to be polite to a host, no matter how bad their coffee. “Yes, please.”
“Jessie, luv? Would you put on a fresh pot?”
“Yep.” She went away happily.
“It’s my fault we’re here,” Gerald said, keeping his voice to a whisper. “I killed her dreams. I killed her. All because of my need for blood.” He sighed. “I wanted that warlock dead. I still do. One day I hope he might turn up here, though he could have already been here and died again. Opportunity missed.”
“There is that possibility.” Apparently.
The sounds of the coffee pot drifted from the kitchen.
“She thinks I don’t know,” he said, leaning closer to me. “But I know all about this quest of hers.”
“Quest?” Is that the thing Jessie was going to tell me about?
He nodded, glancing at the kitchen door. “She’ll want to tell you about it, get you to help her. And I want you to. I know I’ve been gruff, but that’s just me. I know my flaws, and I apologize.”
“It’s fine. Tell me more about this quest.”
“There’s a way out of here.”
“The city?”
“Yes, Gabriel. I want you to help her find it.”
“But where does it go?”
“To paradise, an alternative route that doesn’t include being subjected to the Paradise Games. When she comes back with the coffee, you let her tell you. I don’t want to spoil her fun.”
“I will. Listen, I want to ask you something.”
“About my wife?”
Perceptive. “Do you know if she’s here?”
Gerald shook his head. “There is no trace of her. She may have died the second death or is living somewhere in the farthest reaches of the city.” He sighed. “I wish I could talk to her again.”
At that moment, the kitchen door opened, Jessie brandishing a tray loaded with a coffee pot, mugs, and a plate of chocolate biscuits.
Those biscuits reminded me of Aki and his wonderful chocolate and raisin cookies he’d made not long after I’d started watching out for him by order of his father. One of many peace offerings in the tumultuous early days of our friendship.
Complicated Aki…
I couldn’t get him out of my head. Not that I wanted to, even if the sadness of being apart from him was enough to kill me again.
A way to paradise. Not for me. I’d gladly help Jessie if this was actually a possibility, but I wasn’t going anywhere without Aki. I’d need to talk to them about him before we were free to leave, to find out if he was here or not. It was a possibility I didn’t want to consider, but there it was all the same—being considered. If he wasn’t here, I would be waiting, searching the streets every day, hoping I wouldn’t see his face for a long, long time because he needed to liv
e, to be brilliant, to be free from the things that’d broken him so badly. To live, to find love, to find some sort of peace.
Love…
“What were you talking about?” Jessie asked.
“Nothing much,” Gerald replied. “Great choice in bringing out the biscuits.”
“A hot drink always calls for biccies,” she said. “For dunking.”
Gerald pulled a face. “Not these. Only rich tea for dunking. That’s what they’re made for.”
Jessie rolled her eyes at me. “Here we go again. Big debate in the Field house.”
“Isn’t this coffee?” I added.
“Thank you,” Jessie added.
“That’s not the point,” Gerald protested.
“But it’s a technicality,” I added.
“You can’t argue on a technicality.”
“You can when they’re called rich tea,” I countered.
Jessie giggled. “I love this man.”
Gerald frowned, but smiled. “Fine. Dunk away.”
“I’m not into dunking.” I picked up a biscuit, taking a bite. “These are good.”
Jessie giggled again.
“I’ll always maintain my position on this,” Gerald said. “A hot drink requires a rich tea and rich tea alone.” He gave a curt nod and sipped his coffee. “Bleurgh! Forgot to sugar it!”
“My dad, everyone,” Jessie said.
“Excuse me,” Gerald announced, “I need the—”
Sniffing at the café door, a sudden chill rippling through the room.
“No,” Gerald. “Please, tenshi. No.”
“Gabriel…” A whisper, a voice of cruelty that had my flesh breaking out into goosebumps.
All of the light was sucked out of the room.
“Don’t go near the door,” Gerald commanded.
The Butcher Hound was here.
Chapter Nine
“Not Gabriel, you piece of shit!” I yelled as I ran through the streets like a nutcase, full of fury. “Come back for me! Come back for me!”
I stopped, grabbing my knees, puking up nothing but bile for the umpteenth time since I’d charged out of the garage.
“No…” Tears again. So many fucking tears I’d shed recently. “You’re not…” retch… “…having him.”
Fuck! My babies were on the hound’s tail. It was fast. Too fast and already at that place G was hiding in. How the hell was I gonna get there?
“I’ll burn the fucking city down if you hurt him!” I cried.
My voice bounced off the houses around me.
“I will,” I whispered with a hoarse throat.
I ran on, turning the corner to come to a Tunnelrail station called Oak Station. It was like a large hut made of wood, with a lit-up green sign glowing the station name at me in white letters. An oak tree was growing out of the concrete next to it.
The whole place was quiet, not a soul in sight. Still no sign of the Crimson Army. Good. Maybe they needed to avoid the hound too.
Whatever.
Fuck ‘em.
I hurried over to the station.
No trains.
Shit. Why was I even looking? For a map? To see the ticket barriers, the closed ticket booth, and the flashing ticket machines? Oh yeah, admire the dirty white tiles on the floor, and the green ones covering the walls. Who actually gave a crap? If this place couldn’t help me, it was useless.
On an adjacent street were loads of parked cars. I’d passed a few but not thought much about them, brain not functioning with the rational shit.
Kind of was now, facing this residential street that looked nicer than the others I’d been down. Proper clean posh with a few trees for some greenery vibes. None of the vehicles seemed to have a spec of dirt on them.
Blimey.
Was that a bike I saw between the cars? Not a motorbike, but a blue bicycle chained to a post. Boom. I could work with that.
I jogged over and took a katana. I’d lost the keycard my uncle had given me. It could open any door or lock. Annoying it wasn’t in my pocket. Only thing I had was my blades, and the lock looked pretty flimsy. Few hard strikes should do it.
It did. Awesome precision there, no striking the tires to cause maximum ball ache. Tossing the chain aside and wiping away my tears on the back of my hand, I got to peddling, gathering speed quickly.
“I’m coming, G.”
A figure ran out into the road. I slammed the brakes too hard and went up and over but recovered with a forward roll before my brains were scrambled eggs on the pavement—though I did scrap my knees, tearing open the jeans.
The bike clattered to the ground behind me.
“We meet again, Akira.”
Colin. He was here with a face full of hate, fists clenched by his sides.
My heart was about to burst out of my chest from surprise.
Colin was dead.
He could die again.
I drew my katanas.
Chapter Ten
Gabriel
“Gabriel Dawson,” the hound hissed through the door.
“Don’t listen to it!” Gerald cried. “Quickly. Come with us.”
“There is no escape. Nowhere to hide.”
“Gabriel!” Jessie yelled.
“I see the hybrid holds a place in your heart.”
The light returned, only the café had gone. In its place was a bed of red silk sitting in a meadow of lush green grass swaying in a breeze, the skies blue and clear, sunshine kissing every inch of my naked body.
It was also illuminating a nude Aki spread out on the bed.
“Hey,” he breathed, touching himself.
“You’re not real.”
He mock-pouted. “No? Oh. That’s a shame.” He stroked his cock, pulling the foreskin back and forth in a slow, tantalizing rhythm.
The Butcher Hound’s tricks. Gerald had told me it would do things to entice folk out of buildings as it couldn’t enter them. But this wasn’t exactly luring me outside. If I were falling for this, I’d be staying right here, touching Aki where I’d touched him before, spreading my body across his, kissing him, taking in that wonderful scent of caramel and citrus. It was an odd blend, but uniquely Aki’s. This thing on the bed didn’t have it. Yes, it was just like him in every other way, but not that way.
“Wanna fuck me, G?” The gold flecks in his dark eyes glistened with lust. “Come on, beta. Flip me over and stick it in. You know you wanna. Come on, bruv. Split me in half, fuck me to the moon.”
Akira rolled onto his front, lifting his hips to bare himself to me.
“Go on,” his voice was suddenly infected with a strange reverb, “stick it in.”
His ass swelled up, comically at first, two balloons with a canyon down the middle.
Then the comedy stopped.
Things were moving in the swollen buttocks, dark things beneath the surface of the skin. Eels in water, rippling under the flesh.
“This isn’t working,” I said. “You won’t have me.”
The eels burst through the skin, cascading to the floor in a waterfall of blood and pus. Akira screamed as the eels kept coming, plopping onto the bed, squirming, jaws snapping at one another as the slimy pile grew.
“Help me!” Aki roared. “Help me, G!”
From the base of his neck, black fissures spread downward, zigzagging across his spine. The flesh tore open, revealing his shuddering spinal cord. It curved and pulled itself out of him as he screamed a bloody scream, tearing at the sheets.
“Help me!”
“You’re not real.” It was hard to tell myself that.
“Save me! Save me!”
The spinal cord ripped free, spinning into the air. Aki twitched, and blood pooled beneath him. His corpse was a torn mess of contorted flesh and bone.
“You didn’t save me.”
The one eye I could see was dead, unblinking, and his mouth was unmoving.
“This way,” Aki’s voice said from the direction of the spinal cord that was floating in the ai
r. It began to swell as the lie of Aki’s laugh rang through the meadow—still a green and pleasant place with so much sunshine.
“Whatever you want to throw at me, carry on. This isn’t working.”
“That’s what they all say,” Aki said.
The spinal cord was now in the shape of Aki’s head—a white, gelatinous thing with a grin on its morbid face.
“Surprise,” it said, leaking spinal fluid from its swollen lips.
“It’s not really,” I countered. “I understand what you’re trying to do to me.”
“I know you do. Everyone does.”
“Then why are you wasting your time?”
The Butcher Hound laughed. “Ask yourself how anyone would fall to me if they all understood the mechanics of the hunt. Because they do, Gabriel Dawson. They do. Every morning the shutters go down, the doors are locked, every single creature within this city battening down the hatches.” Laughter. Aki’s. “It is true I cannot enter the domain a soul occupies, but everything else I harbor within me can. All it takes is for me to find the right fit to lure you to my jaws. I do not often fail, Gabriel. If I choose you, the chances are I will claim you.”
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
“You don’t have a one-hundred percent success rate?”
“I do not.”
“At least you’re honest.”
More laughter. “Do you believe you can fall into that small percentage who escape me?”
“Depends on the percentage.”
“A small margin, Gabriel.”
“If you say so.” The more I talked, the more the image around me faded, became nothing more than the smoke and mirrors it was. Behind the meadow and the bed and azure skies was the café. A shadow of the café with two shadows moving within it.
Was this the way to break the hound’s spell? Through talking?
“I know what you’re doing,” the hound said.
“You do?”
“Distracting me from bombarding you with horrors.”
“They’re fake. Intensely vile, but false.”
“Which one fits? How about this?”
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