Master of Darkness

by K T Kaye

  “Hey what are you doing here?” a man shouted in our direction.

  “I’m Captain Night of Lightning D…” before she could finish, Angel was rudely interrupted. The man pulled out a gun and started shooting at us.

  “Get down,” Angel shoved me behind a box.

  “Don’t any of them have manners!?” I exclaimed, “Why do they always start shooting at us?”

  “Because they’re not nice people Jason!”

  “Oh yeah.”

  “Cover me.”

  “What?” Angel didn’t answer instead she shapeshifted into an ant and clambered over the boxes until she was behind the shooter. She transformed back into Angel and pressed her hand against the man’s head. The man glowed yellow and then collapsed to the floor.

  “What did you just do?” I asked standing up from my hiding spot.

  “He’s unconscious and paralysed,” Angel explained briefly before she began to walk away. I swiftly followed. I could hear gunshots in other areas of the warehouse.

  Then I suddenly felt something heavy land on my shoulders and sharp claws dig into my skin.

  I yelled out in pain.

  Angel turned around and fired two shots at the creature on my shoulders. It screeched then leapt onto Angel. The creature was so ugly! It was small with thin arms and legs that twisted into disgusting shapes, and a face that looked like it had lost a fight with a cricket bat. I raised my gun and fired repeatedly. One of the bullets hit its mark. The lime green creature screamed and dropped to the floor. Angel pulled out her sword and cut off the creature’s head.

  “You alright?” I asked. But before Angel could answer, someone started shooting at us, again! This time the guy had a massive machine gun. We dropped to the floor as the bullets rained down on us.

  “Stay here,” Angel ordered. She glowed white and transformed into a bat. The bat flew above the towers of boxes unnoticed. I watched as bat Angel landed behind the mad guy with the machine gun. Angel transformed back into herself and once again placed her hand against the man’s head. The man dropped to the floor. I crawled out from behind the boxes and stood up, half expecting to be attacked again.

  “You alright?” Angel asked.

  “Fine,” I gasped.

  I was far from fine. I was an emotional wreck! Gunshots, strange creatures, more gunshots…this was too much for me to handle. I had never wanted to be a soldier. I didn’t like guns. I didn’t even like shooting computer games! I just liked being at home watching cute cat videos whilst eating ice-cream. I wanted to scream and run far away from this terrifying labyrinth of gunfire, but I didn’t dare. Whilst the gunmen scared me tremendously, the thought of Fern’s mocking if I ran away terrified me even more. My plan had been to just follow Angel and let her do all the scary fighting stuff whilst I watched and provided cheers of encouragement, but even that wasn’t going so well. I really wasn’t suited to all this fighting nonsense. I just wanted us all to sort out our differences over a nice hot cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit!

  “Clear,” came a yell, which sounded like Fern.

  “Clear,” someone else called.

  “Clear,” Angel shouted. The rest of the squad made their way over to us.

  “Let’s open one of these boxes and find out what they’re hiding,” Angel went over to one of the boxes and pulled out her knife. She prized the box open. Ethan and Roger held their noses.

  “There is something not right in there. It’s messing with the wolf senses,” Ethan complained as Angel pulled the box apart. Inside was a large silver bag which Angel cut open. Mixed in with a load of vegetables was a black eel like creature. It was fat yet long. Its black body was stretched and, almost lovingly, curled around the potatoes. Its sharp green eyes were clouded over, and its dead stare gazed at the miniature carrots in disgust. Its scales were shiny and covered in squashed tomatoes.

  “What is that?” I asked.

  “That’s a snake demon, one bite and you’re screaming in agony. It’s dead,” Angel muttered.

  “Just to make sure,” Fern kicked the demon’s belly. Its skin broke causing its insides to spread across the floor. It was gross. Its guts were pink and covered in thick black slime. It was sickening. For a brief moment I thought I was going to throw up, but the moment past and I was able to (somewhat) adjust to the disgusting sight before me.

  “Is it just me or are those guts moving?” I asked. As I had been trying not to vomit on the dead demon, I had noticed that its sticky fat guts were wriggling…this had made me want to throw up even more, so I quickly shut my eyes and covered my mouth.

  “They’re its babies,” Angel pulled out her gun and everyone, minus myself as I hadn’t realised what was happening, fired at the five baby demons. Only when all the demons were dead, did the squad stop shooting.

  “If that had got to the Polar Base,” Roxy said slowly, “The babies would have killed everyone there…How many demons are in here?”

  “I haven’t a clue,” Angel pulled out her phone and dialled the Colonel, “Sir, we were right. There are demons in with the food. We have no idea how many are contaminated. We need a hazard team down here. Yes sir,” Angel hung up.

  “What’s happening?” asked Roger.

  “The Colonel is sending a hazard team. He’s also coming to see for himself.”

  “What about us?”

  “We have to stay here and wait.”

  It took half an hour for the hazard team to arrive and then it took them another three hours to finish their examination. During that time myself and the rest of Lightning Squad were made to sit patiently in a corner. I rather enjoyed this peaceful time. It meant I had chance to have a nap and had time to stare distantly off into nowhere, an activity I rather enjoy doing. Fern, of course, was not happy about being left in a corner for three hours and she felt the need to let the head of the hazard team know of her feelings, which led to her being forcefully removed from the vicinity.

  “What even is the hazard team?” I asked Roger who had been dozing next to me.

  “The hazard team are another unit. They clean up after us most of the time, they make sure that infected areas are wiped down. We normally just call them the ‘clean-up crew’ as that’s basically all they do,” Roger smiled.

  “Well the hazard team is certainly less impressive then it sounds,” I muttered, “Why are they here?”

  “They’re here to clean up. Get rid of the bodies and disinfect the warehouse.”

  “It’s taking forever, why won’t they let us help with the whole demon disposing part, that’s kind of our job!” By us what I actually meant was the rest of the squad minus myself, there was no way I was going to go dispose of demons! I wanted to stay as far away from the demons as possible. It was bad enough that I had one inside me, I wasn’t about to go around hunting for more!

  “Because they don’t like us. They seem to think they do all the hard work, yet we get all the praise.”

  The Colonel, who had been talking to the head of the hazard team for what felt like forever, finally came over to us.

  “What’s the situation sir?” Angel asked, getting to her feet.

  After a slight pause the Colonel replied, “You’re going to the Polar Base.”

  24

  ‘Polar Base’

  JASON

  Despite its name, I hadn’t expected the Polar Base to be on the actual North Pole! Yeah, those stories of Santa living on the North Pole with cute elves and reindeer are all wrong! Instead there’s a miserable looking base full of paranormal beings who kill demons for a living…I know, it ruins your entire childhood! The Polar Base was a small grey building which was right next to the north ‘pole’ itself.

  We used a teleport to get there. This was the first time I had teleported properly, and I hated every second of it. It felt like I was riding a roller-coaster backwards while upside down and spinning. I wobbled as we landed in the gloomy base and ended up falling flat on my face. Everyone laughed at me which I thought was a b
it mean…it wasn’t my fault that I’d never properly teleported before! As I looked up, I came face-to-face with a giant rat head! I screamed and jumped, so did the giant rat.

  “I’m sorry to startle you,” it stuttered, “I’m Marvin McLean.”

  “Lieutenant Colonel McLean, it’s an honour to meet you,” Angel extended her hand, “I’m Captain Angel Night.”

  “Captain Night, yes,” McLean took Angel’s hand and shook it.

  “I’m sorry for our sudden arrival.”

  “Oh its fine. We don’t get many visitors. The last guest we had was the other Captain Night. Please follow me I’ll take you to the main building,” McLean stuttered. We followed him as he pattered down a corridor.

  The Polar Base was very grey.

  The floors were grey, the walls were grey, the ceiling was grey, in fact everything was grey! We followed the rat man until he pushed open a heavy metal door which led into a bright white room. This room was round with computer monitors covering the walls. There was a round black table in the middle of the room, around which sat four people.

  The first was a small Asian woman with black hair, body piercings and a metal robotic arm. The next was a skinny blonde-haired man whose extreme paleness made it obvious that he was a vampire. Sat with them was a pair of identical twin brothers. The brothers were tall, black, and muscular with long dark hair and miserable faces. I couldn’t work out what species the pair belonged to, I had initially thought werewolf, but Ethan had told me that wasn’t the case.

  “This is my science team, that’s Becks, Angus, Joel and Fredrick,” Mclean introduced.

  Angel nodded her greeting then asked, “Are any of you armed?”

  “Of course not!” Becks (the woman with robot arms) cried, “This is a peaceful base. We don’t carry guns. There are other ways to solve the world’s problems then through violence!”

  “Oh great, they’re hippies,” I heard Fern mutter under her breath.

  “Are you aware that demons have been smuggled on to your base?” Angel asked sharply. There was silence, “So you knew and none of you thought to report it?”

  “If we had reported it, we would have been shut down,” said Joel, I think, it could have been Fredrick. I couldn’t tell them apart!

  “What happened to the demon?”

  “We released the poor animal,” Beck said softly.

  “Released it!? Are you mad!?”

  “The animal had been locked up.”

  “It wasn’t a trapped hedgehog. It was a demon! Do you not know the difference?”

  “We’re scientists, don’t question our intellect,” Angus snapped.

  “You let a demon go. Have any of you been vaccinated against the demon plague? I’ll take your silence as a no. How can you not be!? I thought you were a Lieutenant Colonel!?” Angel snapped at McLean.

  “I’m the Lieutenant Colonel of the science division,” McLean shrugged.

  “Why would we be vaccinated?” asked Fredrick, I think, it might have been Joel, “Vaccinations only make our bodies weaker.”

  “I thought you were scientists!”

  “Now listen here you hippies!” Fern snapped, already bored of the conversation, “You’ll do whatever Cap here tells you to do otherwise I’ll lock you out in the freezing cold!”

  “How dare…” Becks started but Fern interrupted.

  “Metal arms here clearly wants to be the first person to freeze to death,” Fern went over to Becks, forced her to the floor before grabbing her hair and dragging her towards the door.

  “Get off me!” Becks yelled.

  “Are you going to be a good little hippy and do as Captain Night says?”

  “Fine!”

  Fern let go of Becks’ hair and smiled, “See that wasn’t that hard? Anyone else?” She turned to the others who quickly shook their heads, “There you go Cap.”

  “This is going well,” I whispered to Araminta, “We’ve only been here five minutes and Fern has already attacked one of the locals.”

  * * * * *

  “Hold still,” Rowan stabbed a needle into Becks’ neck.

  I turned away not wanting to look at the needle…I really hate needles…they give me shivers just thinking about them! We were in a small medical room. The room was grey with four white hospital beds. The room was too small; the shelves of medicines and the medical equipment overpowered the space, meaning that there was hardly any room for us (or any sick people) inside. Rowan had gotten to work straight away, vaccinating all of the base’s workers. They had protested (a lot!) but Fern’s terrifying stare had quickly silenced their complaints.

  “Done,” Rowan placed a piece of cotton wool over the needle puncture.

  “Thank you,” Becks hissed bitterly before walking off.

  “That ungrateful…Does she realise that I just saved her life?”

  “She’s one of those hippies,” Fern said as if that explained everything, “Do you think they really let that demon go? They might have kept it.”

  “Working with Mr Jet? That’s a possibility,” Rowan muttered packing up her medical equipment.

  “What would happen if Mr Jet took over this base?” I asked.

  “Nothing good,” Angel said walking into the room, “Which is why we won’t let that happen. I’ve sent the guys to the supply room to look through all the boxes. The others are doing a sweep of the base just to double check the security.”

  “What do you think Mr Jet is planning?” asked Rowan.

  “I’m not sure. He boxed the demons alive, he wanted them to get here, to do what?”

  “To kill everyone?” I suggested.

  “There are much easier ways to kill people. Also he could have done it by now. The workers are still alive. If Jet wanted the base, he could have taken it ages ago. There’s something else going on here.”

  “What do you want us to do Cap?” Fern asked.

  “Fern, I want you and Rowan to watch over the workers. Keep a close eye on them, see if anything seems strange. Jason, me and you are going to talk to McLean.”

  I followed Angel down a grey corridor to a small office which was filled with books. Angel knocked on the door. McLean jumped at the sound.

  “Captain Night, sorry I didn’t hear you. Please, please sit,” McLean stammered, as he gestured for me and Angel to sit opposite him.

  There was no sign of technology in the office. Shelves, covered in papers and tattered old books, towered high above McLean’s head. A large map of the paranormal world hung on the only shelf-free wall and a dusty candle lamp lit up the shadows. Boxes covered the ground making it almost impossible for Angel and me to walk through. Ink from a quill dripped over the edge of the desk into a puddle on the carpet. There were two old and unstable chairs on the opposite side of McLean’s desk that were also covered in books. Angel gently removed the books so that we could sit.

  “You seem busy,” Angel nodded her head towards the large pile of paperwork that littered McLean’s desk. I didn’t say anything. I was too busy staring at McLean’s rat head. I know it’s not polite to stare but it was really hard not to. It was a giant rat head! With massive whiskers and everything!

  McLean smiled, “Got to keep things up to date.”

  “Why didn’t you kill the demon?”

  “The reason me and my workers stay up here is because we don’t believe in the war against the demons. We believe that even they should be free to live their lives.”

  “They’ve killed thousands of our people!”

  “And we’ve killed thousands of theirs. It’s a vicious circle. Don’t get me wrong I don’t want them to take over. I just think that they should be allowed to live in their world.”

  “And we should be allowed to live in ours. Look I haven’t come here to argue, I’ve come for the incident file.”

  “The what?” McLean asked confused.

  “The incident file, you know, the official paperwork you have to fill out if there’s been a problem. You should have filled on
e out when you found that demon.”

  “Ah, I don’t use those. I have a logbook, just let me…” McLean rustled through some papers then pulled out a large brown book, “Here we go. Everything that has happened is written in there.”

  “How long have you been up here?” I asked staring at the book.

  The book was massive.

  It was really heavy too! Paper stuck out of it and its cover was almost falling off. It was tattered and broken, yet the joy in McLean’s eyes made it clear that the book was something to be treasured.

  “I came out here in 1764 to do research on the ice caps,” squeaked the rat man. My mouth dropped open. 1764!? That was nearly, nearly…that was a long time ago! A really long time ago! McLean didn’t look that old…but then again it was hard to tell. I had never met a rat-man before.

  “Lieutenant Colonel, what exactly is it that you and your workers do up here?” Angel asked.

  “We look after the portal. We make sure it’s stable and that nothing gets through that isn’t meant to.”

  “Your workers aren’t with the military, are they?”

  “No, they’re scientists. I handpicked them from the top universities.”

  “You guys have universities!? This is…this probably sounds very stupid,” I trailed off. Newspapers, universities, what else does the paranormal empire have? Do they have theme parks? Do they have movies? Do they have reality TV? A long list of questions popped into my mind.

  “The demon you found,” Angel gave me a sharp look, “They said you released it?”

  “Ah yes, I opened the portal and sent it back to the underworld.”

  “What size was the creature?”