Bleed Away the Sky

by Brian Fatah Steele

  So much had changed.

  Thousands upon thousands of dead, mutilated, and missing in towns across America. The authorities had tried to piece it all together, but it hadn’t made much sense. Terrorists were blamed, of course. The Promethean Wall was behind the scenes ensuring that. Eventually new tragedies had taken over the media’s attention and only the conspiracy theorist still anguished over what had happened last summer.

  Audrey was one of the few who knew the truth and it haunted her still. She agonized over her choices that led up to the standoff at the hotel in Eldridge. A lot of that was what led her to now.

  It wasn’t time yet, so they sat in the car a while longer. She knew the game plan, so there was no reason to go over it with Roma again. She liked that Roma didn’t need to talk all the time, didn’t need to be talked to. Oh, they could definitely babble when the time came, but it wasn’t a necessity. Audrey had realized a few months back that the other woman was her best friend and it had almost made her cry. She’d never had one before. She wondered if that made them better partners or if it was more of a liability.

  After the events at Eldridge, Ohio, she had joined the Promethean Wall. She had seen what was possible, of what the darkness was capable. It was time to give back, to do something more than just for herself. At first, she figured the people in charge would just laugh at her, some girl with no skills who had once been the kind of thing they hunted. But the Council had been intrigued by her story, though they had never actually met. Roma spoke on her behalf, telling them how she no longer was the Crimsonata but had seen the threat firsthand. The Council had believed in her and her intentions, giving Roma a year to train her and get her up to speed on everything.

  They lived in a house in Cleveland, not far from Eldridge, so they could observe the site in case there were any lingering effects. Roma trained her in martial arts and weaponry. Krav Maga, Silat, Kung Fu. Throwing daggers, long blades, and marksmanship with handguns, rifles, and shotguns. It was hard training during long days, but Audrey found herself growing more proficient in all of it. The Wall had been the ones to pay for her prescriptions, too.

  The women traveled, went on simple missions. They killed a Chupacabra that had strayed too far north and managed to take down an Aswang lurking in a graveyard. Audrey began to feel confident in her new role. She began to actually believe she might belong standing next to Roma.

  A lot had come to light over the past year. It turned out that Hayden had been engaged in a lot of unsanctioned missions, killing things off the books that he wasn’t supposed to. The Council had wanted to bring in two other teams to assist on “The Crimsonata event,” but he had played down the importance. Had he survived, he would have likely lost his cell, if not been struck from the Wall entirely. The women never did find out what had happened to him to make him the way he was, but in the end, it didn’t matter. Perhaps even stranger was what Audrey discovered about Emily Binici. The old woman had left everything in her will to Audrey. She had a house in California just waiting for her. She still didn’t know what to do about that.

  Elliot wasn’t pleased with her decision, to put it mildly. He felt like, after escaping certain doom, why jump willingly back into it? It’s not that he didn’t trust Roma, he just didn’t trust the Wall as a whole. Didn’t get why Audrey would want to risk her life. She tried to explain it to him in Eldridge that day and had tried on the phone countless times since then. She eventually had to tell him that she’d stop taking his calls if he didn’t drop the subject. That had shut him up.

  Soon Roma and she would be set up as another cell. Possibly still in Cleveland, probably in another city. She’d even thought about offering to base it out of Binici’s house. They’d stay together and take on a third, and likely a fourth person. Tonight was Audrey’s last training mission.

  “So, werewolves, huh,” said Audrey. “Who knew?”

  Roma snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, I was surprised, too. But these aren’t the romance novel type werewolves, more like the baby-eating type. Savage beasts that only want to hunt and gorge on human flesh.”

  “Lovely. You really know how to make graduation day memorable.”

  “You’ll do fine, Audrey. You’re prepared for this. You’re more skilled at one year in than I was by far.”

  Audrey smiled. “Thanks, Allison.”

  “C’mon, sun is down,” said Roma, draining the last of her coffee. “Let’s check weapons and go.”

  Audrey climbed out and walked to the trunk. Popping it open, she began to retrieve her gear. Handguns, shotgun, knives, collapsible baton, handcuffs, machete, she looked ready to go to war. She was in a way. War against those things that slipped through the cracks, that disappeared into the shadows. War against the things that ruined lives and got away with it.

  Audrey checked her gun and looked up at Roma. “Let’s go bag some werewolves.”

  CHAPTER 45

  They moved into the woods, separating, but staying within sight of each other. A lot of preparation and research had gone into this mission. There was a lot of disinformation about werewolves out there.

  They only hunted on the nights before, during, and directly after a full moon. The rest of the time they were normal people. But they couldn’t control the beast within them, couldn’t control the ravenous hunger and need to slaughter. A werewolf would kill animals, but it preferred humans, and any human that survived a bite was forever transformed. Any weapon could injure it, but like the legends said, they were deathly allergic to silver, so that helped with putting them down for good. That or magic.

  Weapons hadn’t been a problem. As soon as they had been tapped for this case, they had requisitioned the appropriate supplies. The Wall’s armory had sent specialized bullets and blades, all field tested against this particular threat. The biggest problem had been tracking the creatures. They were already into their second month, second night. Roma felt confident that the werewolves were lurking in the park, it was just a matter of finding them. However, their failure from last month to even engage the creatures ate away at both of them. It was time to be done with this.

  Sweeping the landscape with a flashlight in one hand, a gun braced in the other, Audrey looked for any signs of movement. There had been a murder not far from here last night, a trucker pulled from his cab and butchered. Examining the map and pinpointing the other kill sites, all bets were on the park. Audrey ducked under a low branch and swung her light back behind her. She was on a narrow trail, following its meandering path as she took it deeper into the forest. So far there wasn’t a sign.

  Roma was about twenty yards off in the trees, moving almost silently through the brush. She had a smaller light, one more to help Audrey keep track of her than to detect any clues. They needed to stay close, but not too close. Kill patterns and drag marks led Roma to speculate that there were three of the creatures out here. They might not attack if they viewed the women as a united threat.

  Despite the situation, Audrey felt good. She felt alive. Something about tonight made her feel vibrant and energetic. She believed in the Promethean Wall, the group that Roma had unveiled to her as opposed to the one Hayden wanted it to be. She knew she could do good, protect people. She was glad that Roma was far enough away that she couldn’t see the smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. Audrey couldn’t figure out why she was feeling like this.

  “Get it together,” she whispered to herself.

  The trail sloped down, and Audrey took the few feet without trouble. The trees here were sparse, the underbrush thick. Thin oaks rose up to create a partial canopy, the basin full of vines, saplings, and shrubs. Some small critter scurried off as her light passed over it. The trail all but vanished and remerged on the other side where the ground rose again.

  “Audrey, let’s…” began Roma.

  A werewolf burst out from the underbrush.

  Without hesitation, Roma raised her gun and began firing. Three shots, four. It didn’t want to go down and it was still moving. Audrey
aimed her own gun and fired. Her bullets spun the creature, Roma putting a final bullet in its head when it came to fall at her feet.

  Audrey heard a sound behind her. Turning, she pulled the shotgun off her back. The Werewolf rose up above her, a full seven feet tall. It was covered in greasy dark brown fur and reeked of musk. Walking on padded feet, with long clawed hands, its head sat squat on it shoulders with long ears and a pointed snout. Sickly, yellow eyes peered down at her and drool dripped from its muzzle.

  She regarded it for a full three seconds before squeezing the trigger on her shotgun and blowing out its stomach. The creature howled and stumbled back. She racked the gun and fired again. Its abdomen was obliterated. The werewolf lay there twitching and bleeding out. She heard a blast behind her. Spinning, she saw Roma taking out the third one.

  “Hand guns are shit,” called Roma. “Give them a shot to the head to be sure.”

  Audrey stepped up to the werewolf. It was already changing back to human form. She didn’t want to see that; didn’t want to see who it was the rest of the time when it wasn’t a monster. She put the barrel to its face and pulled the trigger. The gore splattered back onto her legs.

  Handguns nearly useless and shotguns spent, she began walking back over to Roma. She didn’t feel bad about what she had to do. These people had been infected with something they couldn’t control, and they were killing innocent people. There was no cure, no containment. There was only the Wall.

  Audrey was a few paces away from Roma, watching the woman wipe blood from her face with her arm, when the fourth werewolf attacked. It had sprung out of nowhere, soundless until it was upon Roma. It hurled her to the ground, holding her down. Claws dug into her left shoulder, she screamed as it reared back. To maim, to kill.

  Audrey saw all of this in a span of a few seconds.

  And Audrey reacted.

  She screamed with all the rage of thousands of women, all the strength of her lineage. She hurled out her hands and the blood went as she commanded it. Sharp and black, the eternal ichor. It tore through the werewolf, dozens of knives propelled by willpower. Not only did her flechettes mutilate, her blood was a greater poison than the silver ever could be. Because she had willed it so. The werewolf was dead before it toppled off Roma to the ground.

  Roma fumbled back away from the corpse, gawking up at Audrey. “What… What?”

  Audrey, tears running down her face, watched as the blood of the Crimsonata settled back down into her skin.

  CHAPTER 46

  Back at the motel, Audrey sat on the bed while Roma went and got a shower. Audrey thought her partner was being extraordinarily calm about all of this. She lifted her hand and let the blood drift up, solidifying into the shape of an orb. Audrey had no idea how she knew how to do this. It was like she had suddenly tapped into the memories of all the past Crimsonata. A lot of it was still hazy, but the basics were there.

  The thing that bothered her was why. Why now? Was it just because Roma had been in danger? She hoped so. But what would that mean for her in the Wall. This was her life now.

  Roma came out of the bathroom in shorts and a bra, holding a towel to her shoulder. She was wincing, and the towel was turning red. She swayed a bit getting to the bed.

  “I think we might need more than the regular med kit,” she said.

  “Let me see,” said Audrey.

  Roma grimaced as she pulled away the towel. It was bad. The werewolf had dug his claw in pretty deep, it would require more than just stitches.

  “Do you trust me?” Audrey asked.

  “What?”

  “Do you trust me?”

  Roma nodded, biting her lip.

  Audrey brought up her hands and called forth the blood. She willed it smooth and gentle, soft and loving. The blood of the matron, the blood of the nurse. It slipped inside Roma and began to reshape her wound, to bind it back together. Roma’s eyes fluttered as the black blood healed her, making her warm.

  Then it was done.

  “Okay,” said Audrey.

  Roma moved her arm, staring at it. “How did you do that?”

  “I don’t know, I just knew how to. Just like at the park.”

  “So you’re the Crimsonata again?”

  “I guess. Maybe I have been this whole time.”

  “But why now?”

  “You’re my best friend, Allison,” whispered Audrey.

  Roma put her arm around Audrey. “You are truly the most remarkable person I’ve ever met, Audrey Darrow. I mean that. You’re not going to lose me.”

  “You can’t promise that. And I might lose everything once the Wall finds out I’m the Crimsonata again.”

  ‘They knew you were before and didn’t care. Hell, that was a selling point to them. You just finished all of your training without any special powers. Now you have them again. You might fit in more than you think.”

  Audrey flopped back onto the bed. “The Wall aside, why did I get my powers back? Was it just being scared for you? Are the Outer Gods back for me? Did the Ovessa break free again? Some other unknown scenario?”

  Roma went across the room to her suitcase and slipped on a T-shirt. She stood there for a second, with her long dark hair still damp, and considered Audrey’s words. A look crossed her face, but she shook her head.

  “What?” asked Audrey.

  “Well, you used to dream stuff, right? Maybe some answers will come to you that way again?”

  “Maybe,” said Audrey, looking unconvinced.

  “You weren’t in control before. You are now.”

  Audrey sat up in the bed. “Actually, you’re right. Hold on a sec.”

  “Wait, what are you…”

  Audrey crossed her legs on the bed and closed her eyes.

  The endless desert. Warm and humid, smelling of incense. The sky isn’t blue, more a purple, or reddish-brown. Faint wisps of clouds, but no sun in the sky. The illumination comes from elsewhere here. The always twilight of stars almost visible, perhaps, twinkling too large in their heavens.

  The orb is always flowing, never ending, a galactic droplet. It casts no shadow, for it has no weight, no gravity, nothing but a presence which envelops this entire realm. This world was built for it. To house it, to care for it. What is seen is merely a construct for the eyes to understand, its full majesty is beyond comprehension. It is not just an orb, it is an algorithm that equals so much more.

  The women understand this. They understand that much of the universe is illusory. It is pointless and cruel, but that is the joke of cosmic nihilism. Some would seek to impose order, but it is a child’s pursuit. And children wearing the flesh of elders are the biggest jokes of all.

  Audrey was rocketed back to her place on the bed, her head throbbing.

  “What the fuck was that?” asked Roma.

  “Huh?” tried Audrey.

  “You went all Zen and your skin turned black, like your Crimsonata blood.”

  “I went to, I don’t know, the source? The place my blood comes from and where Crimsonata spirits retire to,” she said. “It’s hard to explain. I think it tried to tell me something, but I’m not sure.”

  Roma crossed her arms. “So you have throwing knives, healing powers, and a magic trance. Any other abilities I should know about?”

  “Um, not that I know of at the moment. Oh, except this one, which kinda doesn’t count.”

  Audrey formed the ball of blood in her hand and held it there for a moment before absorbing it back in.

  “Yeah, that one’s kind of lame.”

  “Agreed,” said Audrey.

  Roma sighed. “I know I’m supposed to call this in, but I’m going to wait. I need to call in our success on the werewolf hunt anyhow, but we’ll do it later tomorrow. How about we explore your powers first?”

  Audrey nodded. “That sounds good, I guess. You really think they won’t just… you know?”

  “They’re not going to kill you. Honestly, after everything, they’re liable to want to put you in an Ade
pt cell.”

  “With other magical people?”

  “Yeah,” said Roma walking away from her.

  “You’re mad. I’m sorry! I didn’t mean for this to happen, really?”

  “I’m not mad, Audrey,” said Roma. “I like working with you, okay? I don’t want to get split up. In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t have a lot of friends.”

  “Oh,” said Audrey.

  “So yeah, BFF’s and all that shit. Now let’s get some sleep, okay?”

  Audrey smiled.

  CHAPTER 47

  Across the street from the motel was a dive bar called the Country Clink. It was an establishment known for watered down beer, fights in the parking lot, and a honky-tonk jukebox. Most of the patrons were of the good ‘ol boy variety, those who drove pickup trucks and spit chewing tobacco. Far from the South here in Utah, a good number of them still thought it was appropriate to have confederate flags emblazoned upon their vehicles or shirts, more for the racist statement than anything else. The few women haunting the bar were seen as little more than decorative ornaments.

  Tommy Ray was one of the average patrons of the Country Clink, a regular who showed up most nights to whittle away his meager paycheck on piss warm beer and handfuls of peanuts. He knew no other life and had found a certain contentment in it. But even the Clink had rules, so he had to step outside to smoke. Another way those damn liberals were taking away all his rights. Going to light up, he paused with the lighter half way to his mouth when he saw the… person… step around the corner of the building.

  Tommy Ray turned and threw the door open. “Jim Buck, Scully, Deano, everybody get the fuck out here! Now!”

  He looked back to the figure crossing the lot and scowled. “Hold it right there, freak!”

  The person stopped. Tommy Ray stormed across the gravel lot, hearing the others hoot and holler as they followed behind him. He couldn’t believe his eyes.

  Was it a chick or a dude? Tommy Ray couldn’t tell. It was nearly as tall as him, and Tommy Ray was over six feet. Skinny little shit, what his mom would’ve called willowy. Wearing some kind of skin-tight white jumpsuit. Bare feet, albino pale. Its white hair looked weird in the night, too. Like milk or some shit. It blinked its beady red eyes at Tommy Ray.