“I search for a woman,” it said in a reedy, high-pitched voice.
“Think the only woman here is you,” said Scully with a laugh.
“I am a pure being, beyond the need for gender and sex.”
Tommy Ray scowled deeper. More hippie-dippie bullshit. He didn’t know who this freak was, but they had wandered their skinny ass into the wrong parking lot. A woman should know her place, and a man should be a man. Anything different was wrong and needed that nonsense beaten straight.
“So you ain’t a woman then, that what you’re saying?” asked Tommy Ray.
“I am non-binary. I am unified unlike you primates. Now, tell me where the woman is.”
“The only bitch gonna be here is you,” said Tommy Ray, taking a swing.
The slender individual dodged, then stepped out of the way of the second swing. Tommy Ray kept swinging wildly, kept missing. Finally the stranger reached out and grabbed him by the face. He went rigid at the touch.
“You are an animal, a low beast. You grunt and bleat and thrash about. I would see you lower.”
Particles of light burst out from the hand gripping Tommy Ray’s face and infused his body. Dropping to the ground, he began to shake, his body racked with convulsions. His friends called out to him but were all too cowardly to rush to his aid. Flesh began to burst through his clothing, muscles ripping out upon muscles, bones shattering and reforming in new patterns. Mutating, devolving. Organs slipping out in sacks and lying on the ground, skin folding over their vacancies. Teeth sprouting out in new mouths, salivating, then sealing shut. Vestigial appendages, some without a skeletal structure, wobbling and flailing. The whole bulbous form had doubled Tommy Ray’s original size, excreting fluids and emitting hideous wails.
The whole transformation had taken a little over a single minute.
Some of Tommy Ray’s friends had fled. Others had stayed, transfixed by terror.
“I search for a woman,” said the individual in white. “You may know her as the Crimsonata. You may know her as Audrey Lyn Darrow. She is here, she is near. Bring her to me and I will kill you. I will kill you as opposed to this.”
Deano pulled out his piece and shot the stranger three times in the chest.
They watched in horror as the stranger stumbled back, the white hair that wasn’t hair, but something liquid, something more like milk, flowed down the body. It filled the holes, healing the wounds. Even the jumpsuit repaired itself.
“I am a superior being,” it said. “I am physical matter transcendent. Here on a glorious mission of retribution, your feeble attempts at aggression cannot harm me. You cannot protect her. I will see the Crimsonata erased from this universe.”
“We don’t know who the fuck you’re talking about!” said Scully.
The pale face split into a smile. “I will test the veracity of that.”
Particles of light exploded out, showering most of the men. Even those hit with only a few shimmering specks of illumination went down screaming. Their bodies began to turn on them, betray them, churning and shifting. Those who had been mercifully unaffected now ran, and they were allowed. Those less in the grips of the mutagenic properties screamed and begged for death. The white clad individual strode up to the nearest one of them and knelt down.
“The Crimsonata. Small in stature, yellow of hair. Twenty-five of your years. Where is she?”
“Please! Oh god, ahhhhh… no!”
“She may have a man with her, a brother. Tall, brown of hair. Where?”
“The pain, please! It huuurts!”
With a frown, more particles were released onto the man’s face, turning it into what looked like a mass of tumors. He was still alive, but silent.
Kneeling down at the next screaming man, the questions began again.
“The Crimsonata, where is she?”
CHAPTER 48
“What the hell was that?” asked Roma.
Audrey was about to get in the shower, but turned around instead, listening. They sounded like screams. Not fun screams but screams of agony.
“Sounds close,” said Roma, getting up from the bed and crossing the room to look out of the window. “More than one person, too.”
“You don’t think we missed a werewolf, do you?”
“I don’t know, but we better gear up.”
Audrey raced over and pulled her socks and shoes back on. Most of her equipment was still laying in a pile where she had dropped it. She slid the belt back on and buckled it, adjusting the holsters. Two handguns slid into them and she filled the other waiting spaces with easy release extra clips. She slipped on the shoulder harness that housed her shotgun and machete along her back, the shells stored in a string along the left of her torso. Various sized knives went back in place at her wrists, ankles, thighs, and lower back.
Finally, she flexed her fingers and called up the blood. It flowed up from her fingertips and moved in tendrils. In her mind she saw those thin ropes extending, whipping out and severing through flesh. She had her own weapon if she needed it.
Roma finished getting all of her things in order and headed to the door. She paused and grabbed the keys, looking around. The screams had gotten louder.
“Let’s go.”
Audrey nodded and followed her out.
They stalked across the parking lot, hands on their weapons. The screams were coming from across the street. There was a shithole bar there, one Roma had remarked upon when they pulled in, a place that was the very definition of a redneck hovel. The women moved down along the motel toward it, passing doors.
Roma peeked out from around the corner and scoped out the scene across the street. “People are laying all over the parking lot, naked. I think there’s something wrong with them. They look… out of proportion.”
“What?”
“Look for yourself.”
Audrey peered around the edge of the motel and took in the scene. The people did indeed look wrong, misshaped. Half undressed, too? Easily a dozen of them rolled around in the gravel, wailing. A single person, dressed all in white, strolled among them, saying something she couldn’t make out.
“We’ve got what looks to be one perp in white over there,” said Audrey.
“I caught that. Could be anything, too. How do you want to play this?”
Audrey eyed the parking lot from where they were. There was no way to sneak over there, the area wide and open. Darkness wouldn’t give them that much cover, especially with the lights from the motel and the bar. Trying to make their way around to the back of the bar would take too long.
“Unfortunately, I’m thinking straight up.”
Roma smiled. “My thoughts exactly. I’ve got the shotgun, you come in with the handguns. Feel free to jump in with your powers if need be.”
Audrey nodded and pulled out her Glocks. The women held eyes for a moment and then moved. Not quite running, but moving fast enough, they closed the gap between the motel and the parking lot. As soon as they hit gravel, they were issuing demands.
“Lay down on the ground, on the ground now!”
“Put your hands behind your head!”
“Get down and…”
Both women began to see exactly what had happened to the people flailing and seeping around them, the human monstrosities sculpted out of skin and muscle, bone and fluid. Audrey fought to keep her vomit down as one reached out with something like a flippered hand and patted at her shoe, spitting up pus all over itself. The creatures howled in a cacophony.
“You!” proclaimed the figure in white, a slender finger pointed at Audrey.
“Me?”
“The Adversary, The Nemesis, The Celestial Whore!”
“What the fuck?” asked Roma.
Audrey stared at the androgynous figure and sighed. It was albino skinned, with red eyes, and wore a skintight white jumpsuit. The white outfit would have been enough, but the liquid hair that cascaded over its shoulders like milk gave it away. Something from the Ovessa, something sent back up.
“I was birthed for one glorious reason,” it said. “To restore honor to the Ovessa! To slay the Crimsonata who dared turn the Outer Gods against the Most Holy and then subjugate this world in its name. All in the honor of the Ovessa, all in the honor of my maker!”
“Okay,” said Roma, who fired the shotgun twice straight into its chest.
The Ovessa’s child stumbled back, but the liquid from its hair flowed down and reworked its wounds, sealing them and healing them. Within only seconds, the figure was standing straight again and smiling at them.
“I am a perfect physical being, crafted by the Ovessa as its only true offspring. It’s avatar. Every atom of me is me, held together by the inextinguishable light of the Ovessa’s realm. I am unified, eternal, and I am going to lay waste to this planet once I show you torment on a cosmic scale.”
Particles of light began to dance from its hands as a smile broke wide along its pale face.
Audrey backed up, calling up the blood, ready to act.
Then the night sky broke open.
A solid column of black lightning rocketed down from the heavens and impacted the figure in white directly, obliterating it to nothingness. The air burned with celestial intent, the psychic aftermath like thunder in your skull. Audrey couldn’t even move enough to fall, paralyzed by the physical manifestation of divine will.
The dark electricity began to disperse, reform, and crackle into shape. Where the child of the Ovessa once stood, Mr. Inanis now stepped out.
He looked at both women. “So, how have we been?”
CHAPTER 49
Audrey stared at Inanis.
“Not that I’m not thankful for your help, but what the hell?”
“Yeah, that was our fault. The Ovessa found a loophole. It created a true separate entity, one that could move independently beyond its realm. The Ovessite. It was looking for some payback, I guess.”
Roma narrowed her eyes. “And you saved us out of the kindness of your heart?”
Inanis laughed. “Oh, of course not. The Ovessa belongs to us and everything it creates is ours. We just wanted to make sure.”
“And all these people?” shouted Audrey, gesturing to all the mutated folks lying in the parking lot.
“What about them?” asked Inanis, looking mystified.
Audrey shook her head. Nothing changed. She had joined the Promethean Wall to protect people from Inanis just as much as from things like The Ovessite. Things with too much power and no idea how to wield it over humans.
“Audrey has her powers back,” said Roma. “Why is that?”
“How would I know?”
“I thought you said I wouldn’t be the Crimsonata anymore. Are the Outer Gods coming back after me?” asked Audrey.
“Did I specifically say that? I don’t recall. I guess through millennia of breeding, it’s become part of you. Maybe the Ovessite’s arrival kick started something. Maybe it was something else.”
Audrey peered at him. “How did you know it was recently?”
Inanis smiled. “Oh Audrey, you know you’re one of my favorite mortals. I keep an eye on you. Hell, I might have saved you even if it hadn’t been in our own interests.”
Audrey didn’t know how she felt about that. Inanis had orchestrated her entire life, even the killing of her mother. He gave moral relativism a whole new definition. At the same time, having something so unbelievably powerful on your side probably wasn’t a bad idea.
“Well, I should go. I get to go down and tell the Ovessa I just killed its kid. That’ll be fun. You two don’t die now.”
And he was gone.
Roma looked at Audrey. “Have you ever stopped and considered what a really weird life we have?”
“Yes. Often.”
“We’re going to need to drag all these bodies into the bar and set it on fire.”
“I’m surprised no one has driven past yet.”
“Don’t jinx it, Audrey. Don’t jinx it.”
It took two hours, but they got it done. A bullet to the head of each victim, a blaze that would cover up a lot of the madness. Oh, there would be questions, but the town was too small to afford to look too deeply into it all. The families would not have answers, but it was better that way.
Roma had thought it best if they hacked up the mutated bodies. At first, they used machetes, but then Audrey thought to use her powers. Utilizing the blood, she created long, twisting blades that sliced right through the bodies with ease. All mental and no muscle, it took her twenty minutes to dispatch fourteen bodies. They scattered the pieces around the bar haphazardly.
It was nearing dawn by the time the two women made their way back to the motel. Audrey was exhausted and felt disgusting. At the same time, she felt like she had truly finished a chapter in her life. The woman from two years ago wouldn’t have been able to do the things she had done today. Killed werewolves, faced down an extra-dimensional monster, chopped up dead bodies, and hung out with a god. She’d become someone strong, someone she was proud of being.
She was still that short, weird blonde girl from Cali who liked sci-fi and comics, but now she got to be the heroine. Now she got to make a difference and protect people. That mattered to her.
Roma let her shower first, so she went and stripped down in the bathroom. She stared at her face in the mirror, noticing that she had got some blood in her blonde locks. Once that would’ve bothered her, now it was just an occupational hazard.
She stepped into the shower, the water hot and steaming. Hopefully the Wall would still want her now that she had her powers, but even if they didn’t, Audrey decided she would keep helping people in some way no matter what. She’d figure out a way. It had taken her twenty-five years, but she’d found her path.
It was about choice.
She had chosen to take control of her existence instead of just letting life happen to her. Instead of just being a participant, a passenger. You always have choices, regardless of how distasteful your options are, and those choices can lead to better things. Change can be frightening, but stagnation is deadly. She’d learned that firsthand.
She’d made a lot of choices, a lot of changes. More were coming. But while she was still Audrey, she was a better Audrey. She would handle whatever came. She would have to.
She was the Crimsonata.
EPILOGUE
THREE MONTHS LATER
Audrey Darrow stood before the Council and nodded. The Promethean Wall had been surprised to learn that she had regained her abilities as The Crimsonata but were not immediately dismissive. After displaying her powers to them through a series of tests, they had become more accepting. Over the last few months, Audrey had grown proficient in over a dozen different ways to manipulate the blood, both offensively and defensively, as well as ways more esoteric. The Council marveled at the versatility of her abilities and the control she had over them. She did her best to explain the connection she had with her lineage and how that informed her skills.
She also explained that the Crimsonata had always been a protector, a leader, a healer. She felt it was in her best interest, as the latest incarnation of the Crimsonata, to be with the Wall, that she could do the most good with them.
Audrey liked to think her little speech was what sold them.
Now she was being told that she was going to be assembled into a new Adept cell, something the Council had been wanting to put together for a year. Allison Roma would be joining since she had proved herself in the field and had the specific background they were looking for. Her sister had died under the machinations of a spell caster, making her wary of magic – which was why she was being entrusted with an e-grimoire containing over one thousand arcane texts. She wasn’t terribly pleased about the assignment, but knew she was suited for the position.
A third member of the cell would be reporting to them when they got to Cleveland. Audrey didn’t know much about him, only that he was psychically gifted. Telepathy, psychometry, some minor telekinesis. That could come in handy.
“Do you have any other questions, Ms. Darrow?” asked one of the Council members.
“Yes,” said Audrey. “When do we begin?”
END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brian Fatah Steele has been writing various types of dark fiction for over ten years, from horror to urban fantasy and science fiction. Growing up hooked on comic books and monster movies, his work gravitates towards anything imaginative and dynamic. Steele originally went to school for fine arts but finds himself far more fulfilled now by storytelling.
His work has appeared in such places as 4POCALYPSE, BLOOD TYPE, CTHULHU LIES DREAMING, 4RCHETYPES, DEATH'S REALM, THE IDOLATERS OF CTHULHU, PAYING THE FERRYMAN, and the Bram Stoker Award-nominated DARK VISIONS, VOL.1. His own titles include the sci-fi horror novel THERE IS DARKNESS IN EVERY ROOM, the urban fantasy novel IN BLEED COUNTRY, the post-mythic novella collection FURTHER THAN FATE, and the dark sci-fi collection BRUTAL STARLIGHT.
Steele lives in Ohio with a few cats and survives on a diet of coffee and cigarettes. He spends his time still dabbling in visual art, vowing to fix up his house, acting as a part-time chaos entity, spending too many hours watching television, and probably working on his next writing project.
https://www.amazon.com/Brian-Fatah-Steele/e/B002V7OJR0/
https://twitter.com/brian_f_steele
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