by Lee Taylor
One thing Mike had to learn quickly was. To hold his tongue, not necessarily from nasty retorts, but in the sense that every time Mike had a thought, no matter how vapid he would air it, it got him in a lot of trouble whilst at school, and now, well, things could get progressively worse for him.
“Well then, what do you say we make a move?” Kitty asked, her voice sounding strained, Ivan groaned in reply and cracked a few of his joints as he stretched and limbered up, brushing himself off. All things considered, he looked like he was doing okay, especially considering he had just had his home destroyed. To Mike’s annoyance, Ivan was a little too quiet for his likings, giving off an odd vibe, but Mike was willing to let that go as it could have been down to the eerie surroundings, and so tried to start up a conversation with him.
“Ivan, I am sorry about your estate...” Mike scratched his scalp, trying to look as natural as possible... for the good it done, he might as well of whistled casually.
“Do not worry it was new to me, too, and only bricks and mortar... easily replaced. It is my friends who I will miss.” Ivan sounded remorseful, which only helped to make Mike feel worse as he was the one who had tried to bring it up as a topic of conversation. He thought on it for a moment, thinking of starting up a new topic, recalling faintly a conversation that Mike had heard between Ivan and Kitty. It was something about shrouds or clouds, it could even been circus clowns. Unfortunately, Mike suffered from ADHD. This was according to his doctor and guidance counsellor... which meant that sometimes, it was difficult for Mike to concentrate on one thing as his mind wanted to wonder off on others.
“So uh, how did you and Kitty meet? It seems like you know each other?” Ivan raised an eyebrow, looking to the side at Mike as they carried on, crunching through the ashen canyon.
“I did not know her, as you say... I knew of her.”
“Oh... So... are you going to say how you knew of her?” Mike asked. The corner of Ivan’s mouth twitched up into a smile.
“You know, Mike, you really should keep your nose out of my bloody business... After all, what’s a woman without her mystique?” Kitty said, and winked. Mike flushed with embarrassment.
A beat of thunder shook through the air and ground like it had been on top of the three, without a flash to be seen. Kitty turned to look over her shoulder and hung her head with a bout of weariness.
“Oh bollocks, Mike... you might want to stand back over here, mate,” Kitty said, patting her thigh; he had to fight with himself not to blush again. Slowly Mike shuffled over to her, tripping on a skull in the process and landed face first on the ground.
“Ouch, shit that hurt!” Mike cursed, spitting out a mouthful of ash.
“Ivan do you think they know were here?” Kitty asked, ignoring Mike’s little tantrum as he argued incoherently with the ground, the skull and finally his foot. Slowly she put her arms to her back and drew two daggers. Mike found himself back to his usual frame of mind, admiring Kitty. Ivan was grumbling something with his head tilted down, but eyes piercing forward.
“My god she is freaking hot... Like smoking...” Kitty gave Mike a disapproving grimace. Mike bowed his head, glowing as dark as a beet root.
“J’es they are aware,” Ivan finally said, apparently finished with his monologue. He stroked his beard briefly squinting at Mike.
“You know the hormones that you are giving off are very bad.” Ivan added, pointing a bony finger up and down at Mike.
“You are like a beacon to them, a bleeding wound in a sea of sharks.” Ivan shook his head in apparent disdain. Mike squirmed and cocked his head to the side, considering replying harshly but didn’t. Ivan was stating a fact, and so with a defeated sigh, Mike hung his head.
“Kat, are you able to open another way?”
“No... I think if I tried right now it would probably kill me...” Kitty said, her voice barely above a whisper, she looked ashamed. Ivan calmly nodded and said.
“Well then, you had better give the boy a dagger.” Kitty sighed and threw one of the blades to his feet; Mike glanced at it, wide-eyed for moment before moving to pick it up.
The dagger itself seemed ordinary enough, a solid wooden hilt and a steel blade, sharpened to a hairs width maybe finer. Mike tutted to himself; he was expecting something more... Flashy.
“Stop staring at the sodding thing, and get ready to use it already!” Kitty growled, loud enough to make Mike jump and nearly cut a finger off.
“Yeah... Yeah okay, no problem.” Mike nodded, he hadn’t really been in too many fights, and if he did, Ursine would be there to calm the situation... Looking at the dagger and the whole surreal situation that they were in was enough to give him a headache, and Mike’s favourite way of dealing with a headache, or toothache, or back ache... Or if he was just too stressed was to smoke.
“Michael, stop daydreaming,” Kitty said, nodding her head and widening her eyes over Mike’s shoulders.
Mike froze in place and almost dropped the knife as the cold morbid feeling took over, draining the blood out of his complexion as he turned around to see what was a rotting corpse standing in front of him. Its skin had mostly rotted away; exposed parts of bone clear on its face, gnaw marks etched into its bone in places, and where its eyes should have been were empty sockets. A repugnant odour was coming from its body like rotted-meat being cooked on a barbecue. Mike let out a shrill scream and fell flat on his butt, scrambling backwards as he kicked up furls of dust.
“WHAT THE HELL!?”Mike gasped, his breathing was hard and stretched, and his voice became a couple of octaves higher than it was normally as he tried to flounder away.
“WHAT THE HELL IS IT? W-WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO...” Mike began to hyperventilate, drawing in jagged breaths as he tried to find his footing.
“What do you think, you eejit, give it a hug and tell it you feel its pain.” Kitty practically spat the words as it shuffled towards Mike. Its teeth stood out a faded-yellow amongst its charcoal skin. Its dried and cracked lips were shredded and pulled back to its darkened withered gums. Its head inclined and ash drifted from its eye socket as a shrill hiss pressed forth, stunning Mike into silence. It sounded like, at one point, it could have been construed as a blood thirsty shriek, but had deteriorated with the rest of its body.
“Dispatch it and quickly before it gains strength!” Ivan shouted, making Mike wince at his powerful voice. Swallowing hard, Mike was too scared to even approach. So he threw the dagger at it. The hilt bounced off shoulder, and it sucked in a rasping breath. Organs had begun swelling through the exposed parts of its skeleton, colour gradually returning to it. In a rush Ivan was in front of him with Kitty’s other dagger in his hand. It lifted its arms to grab hold of Ivan and bring his teeth down into him, but Ivan braced it, grabbing hold of its shoulder, squeezing dried flesh, bone and growing muscle and sinew, and plunged the dagger into its skull. With a twist and jerk, he removed it, and the creature’s arms fell limply to its side one again, and Ivan let it drop to the floor, stooping to pick up the other knife and turned with a satisfied grunt.
“Honestly, boy... If that had regenerated any more it could have called for others,” Ivan spoke bitterly; with a frown of clear displeasure. Mike’s jaw was slack as he looked at the corpse lying in the ash. The ground consumed it, and its dark eye socket was the last thing in view as it dissolved back into the ground.
“Th-thanks Ivan... I... I’m sorry,” Mike pined.
“There isn’t time to be sorry here, pet, where we are now... If you’re sorry, you’re going to die pretty quickly,” Kitty added. Mike let out a deep sigh and searched the surroundings nervously.
“It’s not like I had any idea what that thing was...” Mike groaned, Ivan couldn’t help but smirk and patted Mike on the shoulder.
“Michael, that was a ghoul, and let me tell you, when they are at even half-strength they are bothersome. Ask your friend Ursine when next you see him.” Ivan looked back toward Kitty; she was staring intently at the two, and gave a slight nod
in agreement.
“Right, were going to have to move.” Kitty pointed to the where the ghoul had lay. Mike looked at Kitty, for a moment, taking in her full form, and with adrenaline now coursing through his system, he suddenly felt his trousers tightening, and was overcome with the feeling to stay perfectly still...
“Children and their hormones,” Ivan muttered calmly, walking forward, he seemed to almost glide over the ash, each footstep barely touching the ground. Kitty was coping well too, but now that Mike was trudging along, he had to put more effort in, it seemed so that he wasn’t sinking into the ground. A gust of wind howled through the canyon, throwing up ash in its wake. The trio had to shield their eyes so not to be blinded.
“Good, I am glad it wasn’t a wasted effort... Ursine, your friends are here... Ursine? Aww shit.” The voice made Mike’s face blanch; it was familiar. Mike turned to look and was shocked at what he saw. Hastily he raised his arm, holding the dagger pointed out in front of him and ran forward in a flat-out sprint. The figure was only a few feet from Kitty; the form itself was monstrous and horrifying, and yet uncontrollably beautiful at the same time.
“Tessa?” Kitty asked, her eyes widening in awe.
“Who did you think I was the fucking tooth fairy?” Tessa looked like she was near eight-feet tall. Her long, slender body perfectly proportioned for her size, and her skin was a silky looking pale grey that matched the ash in the surroundings. Her eyes blazed a deep radiant violet, undulating with torrents of power. She had horns protruding her forehead, so bestial and yet, elegant. They curved up over her head almost intertwining with her long ebony hairdo. It was neatly slicked back over her scalp, draping down to her back somewhere. Most of her flesh was bare, though parts had been covered in what looked like velvet. She really was a demon, and Mike could see how people had been tempted by demons in the past. She didn’t look anything like she did in her human form and so Mike was stunned by her unnatural beauty. Right then if she demanded Mike to worship her, he would without a drop of hesitation. And then there were her wings; they arched out and ruffled like a raven’s. The same colour as her hair; they had bones protruding in parts, shaped into what looked like talons. She even had on long, black boots that stretched up above her knees. Her stiletto heels coated with silver... Suddenly, Mike had reconsidered Ursine’s choice in women and felt insanely jealous. Even though Mike new how malicious Tessa could be, he didn’t care.
Tessa’s face was set in an expression of frustration, looking around, her wings flapping in irritation. Grimacing she turned back to Kitty and Ivan, and finally Mike who was nearly dribbling like idiot.
“Yes, of course it’s me... Oh, right sorry, I didn’t realise that my host was left back with the idiots... Ivan, what the hell did you do? I tried to open a way, and now I am here without my body.” Tessa said, her wings kicked up a gale, and she moved forward her inhuman beauty was bedazzling.
“I do not know of what you speak my friend. Katherine opened the way for us; I was caught unprepared.” Ivan shook his head and sighed. “Humans, why must they be so easy to corrupt?”
“Because they are easily self-deluded, Ivan. They all lust for similar things, money, sex, power... I don’t have time to continue this philosophical debate. I just got Ursine back, and it won’t be long before he makes another bad decision,” Tessa drawled. It was funny how when Tessa spoke of Ursine, her dark obsidian lips curved slightly at the corners; he had to be doing something right.
Mike elbowed Ivan and winked. Ivan swung his head around with a confused expression on his face, letting Mike know what he was thinking, and it wasn’t the eight feet tall S’N’M fanatic’s wet dream. There was a sharp movement to Mike’s right, and before he knew it, Kitty slapped him on the head hard enough that he nearly cartwheeled into the canyon wall.
“Aw come on, it’s not my fault! I am a freaking teenager you know!” Tessa narrowed her eyes at Mike. Her eyes were scalding hot, and the heat of her gaze made his face light up with embarrassment.
“It might have something to do with the temporal fold that I have sensed, but that power is beyond mortal means,” Ivan said.
“Great, someone sets up an elaborate trap; they force us here and then slow things down.” Tessa grunted her wings twitched in a state of agitation.
“How long has it been, Tessa?” Ivan asked.
“It has been hours since you numpties disappeared. Lycaon even thought that you were dead...”
“That means, whoever is affecting this place is nearby to keep the temporal fold intact, which also explains why it is so quiet.” Ivan began to groom his beard again with his forefinger and thumb before patting his pocket and pulling out a cigarette from a now empty carton. With an expulsion of air the end fizzled to life.
“Let’s go already, Ivan; I don’t fancy waiting around here to see what shows up.” Tessa’s voice carried with it a sense of urgency, but the chiming quality of it in her demon form, was entrancing to Mike. He found himself more slack-jawed and relaxed than normal.
“I can’t open another way,” Kitty grunted; she was breathing heavily as if she had been holding her breath for some time.
“Tessa, are you able to open another way? I can sense beings approaching, and I am confident it is the Zhizni Pozhirateli.” Ivan shook his head in frustration and cast a glance around, drawing deeply on his cigarette for comfort.
Tessa rolled her head on her neck and began to spread her gigantic and darkly beautiful form out, impatiently stretching her wings to their full span. They were over two metres each at their longest points. Mike found himself wanting to reach out and touch the feathers. They shimmered in the dull glow of the light. Tessa held a smirk on her face, as if what Ivan was asking was as simple as tying a shoe lace... A moment went by as the air around her seemed to grow thicker with rippling energy.
Tessa’s eyebrows arched, pinching together her grey skin on the ridge of her brow, her mouth partly askew, and the cocky glint turned into a dark glowering snarl.
Mike took a step backwards at the look of malice that she contained and almost fell onto the ash beneath. Her head drooped forward, and a cry ripped out of her chest.
“SHIT!” Tessa screamed, correcting her posture she turned to face Ivan, casually flicking loose tendrils of her hair back into place, and pursed her lips, apparently deep in thought.
“Ivan... I...” Tessa was seething with rage, turning to punch the nearby rock face, a crater the size of a minivan impacted the stones, dust and rubble crumbled to the ground at her feet.
“It seems that we must wait here until whoever is holding the temporal fold in place is done pacifying our power,” Ivan spoke sombrely, clearing a patch on the ground so that he could sit. He patted his chest pocket, then in turn one of his inside pockets and smiled, pulling out another packet of cigarettes.
“Tessa do you have any idea who has the power to...” Kitty asked, getting cut off mid-sentence.
“Look, witch, I know many that can... But it doesn’t mean I can do anything about it... The fool over there is right; we are going to have to wait and see.”
“Alright fine, so you are even more useless than I thought you were,” Kitty drawled, turning her head disdainfully.
“And what hell does that mean?” Tessa bellowed, her eyes flamed with fury, embers of red and green flicked from her gaze, settling snugly into the ground beneath.
“You know exactly what I mean, you can use blood magic and make a way, but you’re not so you are obviously fucking useless.” Kitty glared at Tessa, standing in front of her, her hands clenched into fists on her hips defiantly.
“Wow that is such a smart idea, witch! Use blood-magic in this place... a place where it is prohibited. Where I could risk unravelling all the energy around here, channelling the spirits into the mortal realm...” Tessa’s argument had Kitty looking ashamed of what she mentioned... So when Tessa’s eyes widened at something in the distance, and she swooped forward, snatching the knife in Mike’s hand and slit
across her palm, even Ivan was startled enough to drop his cigarette from its perch on his lips. Tessa then continued to grab a hold of Mike and lifted him in her scorching bloody palm. She showed no sign of pain as her blood began to flow; seeming to run off of Mike, opposed to seeping through his clothes and gathering in her empty hand. A sphere of thick gelatinous blood formed in her hand, hovering just above her palm, shimmering as it seemed to constantly rotate to keep its form. Tessa then threw it at a canyon wall, where she had previously made a crater, and almost instantly, energy ebbed and flowed cracking the rock face until it seemed to make a smooth, polished mirrored surface inverted inwards thanks to her violent outburst.
Frost collected on the mirror pane. Mike was desperately searching around, kicking and flailing. Tessa’s eyes were locked on something else, and as Mike finally noticed. It seemed like a harmless old man calmly walking toward them, gliding over the ash with no visible effort.
“George, what the hell are you doing here?” Tessa snarled, her eyes gleamed and sparkled out incandescent energy that burned Mike as they pocked him.
“Necromancers aren’t permitted in this plain,” Tessa cried in outrage, gingerly edging toward the frosted mirror. Mike looked desperately to Ivan, and he was still sitting, but now with his head bowed. It was impossible to tell if he was conscious or not. Mike found Kitty, who was crying out some incomprehensible words, holding her hand out in front of her with a dome of energy surrounding the Brit. Mike felt like he was in the wake of an ocean; all the power and energy began to get sucked in from around him into a tremendous wave as the elderly gentleman approached, a cowl shrouding most of his face, apart from his pearly white grin. Suddenly with the built up undulations of energy there was an eruption, which made the laws of physics subside, and Tessa’s grip on Mike seemed to diminish as weightlessness seeped in. The apparent necromancer licked his lips with anticipation, which was enough to make Mike’s blood run cold. As the elderly man lifted his arm and sent forward a wave of energy, it leapt from his hand, flowing in what seemed like every direction, smothering Mike as he remained suspended in the air.