He tried to move, but his strength had deserted him. He tried to breathe, but every breath pushed more blood into his throat. The world around him blurred to gray, and Jin felt his mind begin to float away from his body. Jin’s last coherent thought was that if this was what it was like to die, it wasn’t as bad as everyone feared it to be. He wished though that Leah were with him. Her face briefly shimmered to life in his mind, and then a flash of memory followed it. Her promise to be there when he woke up, Will’s mutilated body staked to the wall, and Dorigan’s high, cruel laughter.
Dorigan!
Jin’s mind snapped back to his body and then a torrent of memories flooded Jin’s consciousness as his full and complete hatred of everything that concerned that man swelled up within his heart. It shoved aside all other thought and feeling and Jin realized, far too late, that his hate had suddenly grown beyond his control. He fought with all he had to restrain it, but the harder he fought, the more enraged he became. It was Dorigan’s fault that he had to fight so hard against himself, Dorigan’s fault that all peace and happiness in his life had been torn away from him; all of it was Dorigan’s fault!
Jin’s hate exploded throughout his entire being, and he could feel the very essence of his mind begin to crack.
He briefly wondered if this is what going truly, psychotically, insane felt like.
And then his mind shattered completely.
There was a moment, no longer than a single heartbeat, where nothing happened. Suddenly, Jin leapt into the air and released an unearthly, monstrous roar from deep within his core, and next second he felt his body explode.
But it hadn’t exploded, not truly. For when awareness returned to him, he knew he was no longer the same. His mind was filled with such an overwhelming cold that it felt as if it were frozen. Power, pure, raw power filled his body utterly, and his very bones seemed to hum with its energy. He looked himself over and saw that his body had changed. As with Dorigan’s transformation, his clothing had simply vanished and his now reddish-black skin had the same rough, lizard-like texture. His eyes had narrowed to something only marginally larger that slits and glowed a poisonous yellow. They lacked pupils of any kind. The structure of his face remained the same, though his hair now stood straight up and was the same yellow as his eyes. But perhaps the most disconcerting features of Jin’s demonic body were the large, leathery wings that now protruded from his back.
Impressed with his new form, Jin gazed around him and found that the blast of energy released by his transformation had completely demolished over half of the house. Jin closed his eyes and ground his teeth in anger. Would nothing remain sacred? Growling, Jin threw his head back and roared his fury to the heavens, his power surging in response to the intensity of his emotions.
“Mark my words, Dorigan, I WILL FIND YOU!”
As the last of the air rushed out of his lungs, Jin found himself suddenly exhausted. He pitched forward onto his hands and knees and felt almost all of his energy evaporate. So too did his demon form, leaving Jin once more in his human body, now completely naked. Breathing heavily, Jin forced himself back to his feet and began digging through the rubble to find his sword, ignoring his lack of clothing. He found it within moments, and to his immense relief, he found that it had not been damaged in the slightest. Holding his sword tightly in his right hand, Jin clambered up what little remained of the main staircase and into the master bedroom. Once there, he retrieved his sword’s sheath, as well as new clothes. He first retrieved some underwear, and then he snagged a dark gray T-shirt and his black leather coat out of the closet. Next, Jin walked over to a dresser that had been thrown across the room by the explosion and pulled out a pair of his black slacks. Jin threw on all the clothes in quick succession and left his pajama bottoms on the floor. Sword in hand, Jin removed himself from the wreckage of his home and walked toward the garage.
Under different circumstances, Jin would have been praising his decision to have the garage built separate from the main house, but now the thought didn’t even form. With a few swift button presses, Jin entered the door code and stood back as the doors themselves slowly rose. Once he had enough room to squeeze through, he did so, and swiftly entered his jet black Mustang. Turning the key in the ignition, Jin’s expression remained hard as the car’s engine roared to life. Paying no mind to restraint and moderation, Jin shifted into reverse and floored the gas, shooting his Mustang out of the garage and only barely missing the still opening door. Turning around, he shifted into gear and sped off.
Jin did not know where Dorigan had gone, or where he had taken Leah – there was no other explanation for her disappearance – but he had always used the mansion as a base of operations, and to Jin, that was as good a place to start as any.
Table of Contents
Part One: Revenge, Everything is Nothing
Chapter 20: Blitz
Chronicles of the Apocalypse: Revenge, Everything is Nothing Page 28