She stopped. Something wasn't right.
Muffled words from the distance came into focus as she sharpened her hearing. People were talking about her.
Jackie's voice oozed satisfaction. "She always sleeps in, lazy little thing. Not like me, I'm up at the crack of dawn. I think she's afraid of my puppies and you can’t trust someone who doesn't like puppies. I’m a good momma and I always put them away in the morning, so people don't get nosy enough to bother us."
"You’re sure she will be up soon?" A woman’s raspy voice said. The voice, like a heavy smoker's, seemed familiar. "I've wasted all the time I care to on her."
"Can I have my reward now? It's going to feed my babies for a long time. I'm all they have, and I just want to take care of them," Jackie said.
Slipping silently out the window and ducking low, she inched around the corner until Jackie's little shack came into view. A smaller woman was speaking, her back to Samantha. The pack of mongrels played around them.
Our Villain had grown used to betrayal, and Jackie's was far from a surprise. She just wished the woman had waited one more hour.
"Fine, it's here in the bag, but if she doesn't show up, I'm taking it back. Smaller bills like you asked for. Now get in your, uh, house, and stay out of this. Dogs too, or I cannot guarantee their safety."
"Oh! Yes Ma'am, I will keep my babies out of the way." Jackie whistled and her dogs followed her until a door shutting echoed back to Samantha’s hiding place.
Samantha darted silently back to her window and crawled inside. Everything she owned in the world was ready to go.
Snatching up her bags, she stepped lightly back to the window and dropped each one outside as quietly as she could. She was putting one foot out to leap free when the rough female voice spoke from next to her window.
"Hello Samantha."
"Holy hairballs!" Samantha teetered and fell through the window, leaving a few layers of skin on the windowsill as she crashed to the ground outside.
"That isn't the greeting I expected, though you keep surprising everyone who meets you." Detective Angela Miller gave her a wry look from a few feet away. She was barely recognizable, dressed in jeans, a tan shirt, and a thin black jacket. A dirty blonde wig completed the disguise.
Samantha scrambled to her feet, brushing off the dust and trying to ignore the blood she could feel trickling down her knees from her fall. My last pair of pants are a loss. Great " I don't know why everyone is chasing me, I just want to get my stuff and go. I won't bother anyone. You don’t have to arrest me."
"Heavens no, I'm not with the Department anymore." The woman laughed bitterly. "That was just my cover, though it might have gone the other way once. You can call me Screamdream now."
"If that’s true, then you are the one who's been sending people after me. Please stop." Samantha said. Is all this because I was rude when we first met? "I'm sorry I was mean to you before."
Screamdream laughed again, this time at Samantha. "I'm not here to get revenge. I'm here to offer you a job. Well, a career, to be more exact."
"Wait, what?" Indignant, Samantha waved at a couple of her fading bruises from the night before. "Then why are all those people trying to hurt me? Those guys who chased me out of my house, the store, all of them waving weapons in my face. Scorch? The fake security guys did this to me last night. Don't they all work for you?"
"No one was supposed to hurt you. I gave them strict orders, and the guys botched this completely. I'm sorry it's been so hard on you." Screamdream frowned in thought. "I want you to join us. You will be working directly under GG and I, taking orders and training for special projects. We treat our Primes extremely well—the loyal ones, at least."
The Heroes want loyalty, Jon wants loyalty, and so does Dr. Darkle. Samantha backed up a few steps, putting her bags between them. There has to be a way out of this, where my choices matter.
"Don't be like that. It's not often someone escapes so many teams sent to collect them, let alone gives Scorch himself the slip," Screamdream said. "I think you and GG will get along great. He's a good guy, and eager to meet you. We are talking a steady income, power, and freedom like you have never known—as long as you do as you are told."
"None of that was me though. Starstuff stopped Scorch and the rest was dumb luck." I could really use a Roy Mustang rescue about now, or maybe Lucky will get curious and save me if I stall long enough. She thought about it. No, I am not very good at doing what I am told, and this time I am rescuing myself.
"Luck is just timing and taking advantage of useful chance. Plenty of other people have been chased and cornered, but only you escaped the net. Hell, hunting you even blew my cover at the Department. Not that I’m torn up about it or anything." She winked. "You get to boast about making the great Screamdream work hard to catch you. Now, I have to bring you in, or GG and Alpha are going to literally skin me alive. Probably my whole leg this time." She tapped her thigh.
"A good guy but he skins people. Sounds like a psychopath to me." Samantha moved further away, nearly to the corner of the building. My memory card is in my belt pouch with my letters. Everything else is replaceable.
Following closely to maintain the distance between them, Screamdream gave Samantha a hard stare. "Incompetence shouldn't be tolerated. If I can't bring you in, then I deserve to be punished—and you deserve to be rewarded. Lucky for me, I don't fail twice." Her smile turned ice cold. "If you keep backing up, I am going to assume your answer is no. You won't like that."
Samantha whirled and dashed around the corner, angling for the basement of the mostly collapsed building where she'd first met Lucky. The broken staircase would get her to the bottom, and she'd be able to outmaneuver the slower Villain among the wreckage and escape out the far side.
She was halfway there when the sound hit her, a shrieking pulse of energy that quickly faded into the background. The energy had weight, like worms pushing and sliding into her mind through her ears.
Boulders as tall as a building burst up around her in sprays of dirt and gravel, surrounding Samantha in an impenetrable wall of rock in seconds.
"I had planned to make you think you had a choice, play games until you came willingly, but there is no need now that I have you under my power." A pleased grunt preceded Screamdream as she stepped through the bedrock in front of Samantha, as if the rock wasn't there. "Give it up, girl. I already had Starstuff for lunch, all of them, and they are still sorting their heads from a hole in the ground. You aren't even a snack."
The worms wiggled deeper into Samantha's head, only to be met by a wall of cold. Her power wavered, then surged into rapid cycles of first warmth and ice. The rocks lost substance with each pulse, fading to grey shadows in places and then turning solid again.
"You can't keep me like this forever. Someone will come looking for me." Samantha spun in a circle, but there was nowhere to go. Please let me go, I don’t want to hurt you.
Smiling now, Screamdream stalked towards her, stopping a few feet away. "You hid too well, Samantha. I am going to keep you like this until you agree to come with me. Your friends, if you have any left, won't know the difference between hiding and being nowhere to be found."
The rocks disappeared as the buzzing hum stopped, revealing the unchanged Pit beneath.
I'm not done yet. Samantha backed a few steps away from the other woman, moving closer to her goal, the edge of the broken foundation. "Everyone wants to control me; why won't they let me choose what I want?"
"The destiny of power is to be controlled by those who can harness that power. Someday, if you are skilled enough, you might rise up to be one of those exalted few. Until then, you will be working for me." Screamdream's eyes crinkled as her smile widened.
"That's stupid. What good is power if I can't use it how I want to?" She backed up another step.
Screamdream chuckled like gravel in a coffee can. "I've been researching you, girl. The world chewed you up and spit you out, just like it did me. My people found me, ju
st like I found you. Come with me willingly, and you will find you can be so much more than you were."
"Look, I just want to find a family of my own and live my life." Samantha said. "You'd know that if you really understood me." She made it four steps before the rocks burst out of the ground again. This time the buzzing didn't grow quiet and drop out of her awareness, it stayed loud, a keening shriek that made her thoughts slippery and confused.
But the scream didn't reach as deep, and the rocks stayed partially translucent, shadowy.
Screamdream split in two, a grayscale shadow and a washed-out simulacrum. They circled her in opposite directions.
Samantha’s headache pulsed in time with the shadow's movements, not the real-looking simulacra.
"Why do you want me so badly? You don't know anything about me. I'm lazy and I like to piss people off. You can even put that on my resume." Samantha glanced around, but the edge of the broken foundation was still tantalizingly out of reach, covered by the wavering image of boulders.
"I read a lot about you in your file." The simulacra smirked. "I know exactly what kind of person you are, Allen."
The name didn't hit her at first, it was alien and unfamiliar. Then it clicked, and Samantha staggered away from her tormentor. "That isn't my name!" She shrieked. "Don't you ever call me that again." She pushed razored talons out of her fingertips as she lunged towards Screamdream, the real Screamdream hiding behind the illusion of a shadow. She stopped herself after a few steps and clenched her hands into loose fists to hide her claws. She will drop me with her power, or shoot me, if I scare her too much.
The rocks wavered for a second as the shadow faltered, then caught its rhythm again after Samantha aborted her charge. "Then help me dammit. No one will reject you ever again, and together we can make them all suffer for how they treated us. GG doesn't matter, he's just a useful flunky. Soon Ouroboros will—"
"The terrorists?" Samantha interrupted. "You said you worked for the mob! You insult me, and then tell me to join the scariest terrorists on earth? They aren’t noble, they just want to kill everyone."
"If we were merely terrorists, the government wouldn't fear us like they do." The shadow shifted nervously, though it didn’t seem to have noticed Samantha’s clawed hands.
"Have you have lost your mind? You want the government to fear you?" Samantha growled, scanning the area and picking out details of the real world through the rocks. The open foundation was close, barely a dozen feet away.
"Terrorists are part of the status quo," Screamdream's scream wavered as her simulacra continued speaking, "No matter how hard they fight against it, all they do is justify the authority they hate."
"Funny story coming from a cop," Samantha panted and shook her head, trying to fight the Villain's power. Something sloshed between her ears as her brain adjusted itself again.
"I'm not a cop, you can ask the Chief about that, but I have so many friends, Samantha," the Villain said. "Friends who want to meet you and support you, like a family. What do you have to lose? Everyone else has abandoned you, but you can fix that by choosing to come with me."
The shadow continued its now-hesitant steps until it moved back into the same space as the simulacra. The keening and the apparitions faded away, leaving a panting Screamdream in their place.
Samantha's headache disappeared instantly.
Glaring at the younger woman, Screamdream struggled to catch her breath.
Samantha smirked. "Thank you for stopping by, but real family doesn’t threaten or hurt each other, and I kinda hate you now." She broke into a run directly for the foundation, aiming for a section that looked familiar. Ten more steps and she won't be able to catch me again.
A harsh new scream spun the world around her in a blurred rush of vertigo. Samantha felt something in her head slide loose. Some part of her brain splattered wetly against the inside of her skull before oozing back into place. That can't be good.
Samantha heaved herself back to her feet, wincing at the fresh blood leaking from new scrapes and cuts where she had landed on the shattered concrete poking out of the dirt.
Screamdream reverted back to the keening shriek, now unbearably loud. This time she stuttered and caught a ragged breath between each crescendo.
Larger bits of real rubble poked through the fake rocks now, but the overlaid and rotating images made it nearly impossible to separate the real from the illusionary. The Villain seemed to have given up on stopping her and decided to make her so confused she didn't know where to run.
Samantha stumbled to a stop and raised her hands to show her talons. "I don't want to hurt you."
"You can't hurt me kid, and I am tired of your crap." Screamdream’s simulacra said smoothly as it stopped a few feet away. Her shadow, the real woman, stumbled past Samantha, still circling like a predator despite her apparent exhaustion. "You've felt a civilian stun weapon, but you haven't experienced a police issue Taser yet. Stop trying to run, and let me cuff you, or so help me, I am going to make you puke your guts out for the next hour. I'm told it's unpleasant."
Freezing tendrils of her own power pushed outwards, through the last of the interference in her brain, to turn the partially translucent boulders into clear panes of glass. Thin outlines showed where the fake rocks were, while the simulacra itself wavered in and out of existence. Its shadow grew distinct, taking on features and filling out into a solid version of the Villain.
Samantha flexed her claws as she considered her options. The more my brain shifts, the less power she has over me, but I'm safe as long as she thinks she is in control.
The keening came from Screamdream's shadow, now more vibrantly colored than the mirage who was speaking, and it stared at her with its mouth wide open. It cycled quickly between loud to nearly silent, a gasping breath, repeat. The feeling of worms squeezing between her thoughts was gone.
I guess defeat is just a is transitory as anything else.
Each time it reached its highest point, a new spike of Samantha's power rammed coldly into the rush of warmth, and the keening faded more.
"How are you still standing?" The voice came from the shadow this time as two bright points of light shot out and stabbed into Samantha's chest.
One line struck the center of Samantha's chest, the other high against her collarbone. Blasts of electricity arced down the wires and dropped her to the ground where dirt and rocks crumbled beneath her claws as she spasmed from the power surges. Coppery blood filled her mouth where she'd bitten her tongue. She won’t let me go unless I force her to.
The shadow stopped keening and flashed into solid form, the real world popping back into focus at the same moment.
After two long seconds, Samantha's brain bled off the higher voltage, just like in the store. Her whole body relaxed. Pain, like defeat, is just a phase.
Screamdream poked her victim with the toe of her boot. The raspy catch in her voice was much worse now, "How did you see me? At first, I thought it was just a lucky guess, but you kept watching me like you knew where I was."
Samantha wiggled her head loosely as if still stunned. The edge of the foundation wasn't far away, directly behind the older woman.
"Talk to me, or I'll bury you here and take my chances with GG. No one sees through my power—how did you do it?" Spooked, Screamdream swung her head wildly to look in every direction. "Is someone helping you?"
Samantha lifted her head to look directly into the woman's eyes. She winked.
Screamdream gasped. "Oh God no. You. You're like him. You're just like Gobble." She triggered the useless Taser.
Chapter 33
Wednesday June 2nd, 2010
Samantha ignored the harmless bursts of electricity and rolled to her feet. "You know, you could have just let me go." She flexed her claws, considering her options.
Screamdream backed up, still triggering her weapon.
Who's in charge now? Samantha laughed.
The powerful Villain who had confidently admitted she was behind all
of Samantha's problems was gone. In her place was a stuttering and scared woman looking wildly for a way to escape. "No, no, you are too dangerous." Dropping the useless Taser, Screamdream ripped a pistol loose from the small of her back.
Samantha jumped forward and snap-kicked it to the side, then raked her claws across the surprised Villain's face.
They both stopped moving. Their eyes drawn to stare at Samantha's claws as the first drops of blood dripped into the dirt between them.
Screamdream touched her face. Her hand came away red. She pressed the same hand against the bleeding slashes, one of which had narrowly missed her right eye. She lifted her other shaking hand to point at Samantha. "You have to stop. You don’t know what you are doing."
What the hell is wrong with her. She tried to shoot me first, and it's not like I'm going to eat her. "You stop. Your people chased and harassed me for weeks. You chose to keep chasing me." Samantha stepped forward. "I won't work for you, ever, and I will hurt you more if you keep trying to make me. That is my choice."
Angela left a thin trail of blood in the dust as she backed away to the very edge of the jagged foundation. She wavered for a moment, then snatched up the pistol Samantha had kicked out of her hand. "You don’t control Daemons, you have to kill them."
Samantha's shoulder rush struck the Villain in the chest and knocked the gun wide.
The ex-detective was surprisingly light and stumbled back even after Samantha had stopped pushing. Arms pin wheeling wildly, Screamdream dropped out of sight over the edge.
I really fricken hope she's not dead. Samantha peeked over the edge.
Thin splashes of blood outlined a bouncing trail down fifteen feet of shattered concrete and broken rebar, right next to the broken stairwell. The crimson puddles ended at Screamdream's body, which was face down and held in place by a piece of rebar protruding from her back. Another chunk of metal held her head in place, jammed into an eye socket. She twitched every few seconds.
Bile bubbled in Samantha’s throat, sharp and acrid. No. Oh no. I'm so sorry.
Encrypted Page 28