Habeas Corpus: Black Womb (Black Womb Collection Book 1)

by Matthew LeDrew

  There was a slight hesitation in its posture, as the moment seemed to hang in the air. Then, with unbelievable speed, the creature slashed down across the man’s face, tearing at his tender facial skin. It stuck one of its claws in its mouth and sucked a bit of blood off. The creature smiled sinisterly as the medical assistant clutched his burning face, screaming loudly. His screams were followed by those of the other workers as they realized what had happened to their fallen partner.

  It sprung at them again, this time landing a few feet in front of its female target. It clenched its hand into a fist and punched her in the side of the head. She flew across the room, smashing her head against the concrete wall, leaving a trail of blood in her wake.

  He turned his attention to a third victim. This one was male, somewhere in his early twenties, and was slightly overweight.

  Black Womb jumped onto him. Pressing against the man’s chest with his feet, it forced him forward into a wall. It wrapped its hands around to the back of the man’s head, inserted its claws into his skull and pulled.

  Looking around at the dead bodies of all the medical assistants, the creature was satisfied that it had slaughtered them all... until he heard it.

  The soft rhythmic whimpering, like the gentle coo of a pigeon on a warm summer’s day.

  Then the monster remembered the nurse. It walked over to the metallic table that had once held the doctor’s tools, flipping it aside. There, curled into a little ball, was the nurse. Her blonde hair was matted over her face, her eyes peering from between the strands in cold fright.

  It looked at her and appeared sympathetic. She looked up into its aqua eyes, and seemed almost... comforted. It sheathed its claws and extended its hand, gently brushing a stray piece of hair from her face to behind her ear. Then its eyes suddenly took on an evil, triangular slant. It grabbed her head and forced it to the side, exposing her slender neck. Opening its mouth wide, it bit down on the tender flesh. Blood flowed freely as the second row of teeth sliced through her jugular vein. It sucked in hard, drinking the life giving liquid. The nurse attempted to scream in pain, but her throat had been too damaged in the attack. Her body convulsed. It grabbed her to stop it, then finally flung her aside, hurling her against the wall. It growled long and loud, tossing its blood soaked head up toward the ceiling.

  The metal door slid open, and the black suited man stepped into the room. The door hissed to a close behind him. He walked over to Black Womb and smiled.

  Black Womb turned its head to one side and started to claw at its own face in pain as red liquid pumped and swirled its way into its eyes. The aqua colouring was forced out, melding and conforming to the new colour with a sickening squish, looking like dye placed in water as it churned about. It took a deep breath, looking around as if confused.

  Inside of it, Xander Drew gasped. He looked around at the bodies surrounding him then up at the killer standing before him, his eyes widening with fear and his mouth going slack. The Womb’s face on the outside mimicked the motion, but it looked more like a hungry animal spotting a slab of meat, its mouth salivating when he opened it.

  How did I get here? Xander thought feverishly, looking down at his hands and seeing the claws for the first time. What the hell is this?

  He tried to remember how he even got off the operating table and how all these people had died. As he stared at the body of the young blonde nurse, he felt a sick memory come over him, then forgot it instantly. It reminded him of when he tried to access corrupt files on his computer. They would try to open, then fail. An ache from his head made him think that if he tried too hard, his brain might lock up.

  He looked up at the killer, hatred in his glowing eyes.“You killed Jamie.”

  The murderer nodded silently.

  “Who are you?” he demanded in the Black Womb’s voice, struggling to get the words out, as if training its own throat how to utter each new syllable. The corners of his eyes began to glow aqua, then returned to red.

  The killer threw away his hat and whipped off his trench coat, revealing a skintight jumpsuit. The suit was black and leather, with pointy white triangles showing along the waist and shoulders. There were two blades crossing at his back, each one double sided, curved and glinting in the dim light. The killer removed one of the blades, gripping the rubber handles. He flipped the blade in his fingers, then held it in place diagonally at his side. When he finally spoke, the words were cold and unforgiving. In a voice sick and raspy, he said:

  “Call me Genblade.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT:

  GENBLADE

  “Call me Genblade.”

  The words hung in the air for a moment. Xander looked up into the dark eyes of the killer, staring silently into his inner soul. He saw nothing but a blackness that rivaled even his own. There was a deep pain building in his side and he could feel the Black Womb’s heart convulse wildly, fighting against the rib cage.

  Genblade took out a small device, pressing his thumb against the switch.

  “Waddaya know. This thing really does detect the Darkness,” he chuckled, throwing it onto the floor next to them. “This shouldn’t take too long.” He was confident, and rightfully so. His muscles bulged against the black spandex as they tightened and shifted.

  Then Xander realized why.

  Genblade leaped almost five feet into the air from a standing position and flipped over his opponent, landing on the other side and slashing at the Womb’s backside. Blackness spiraled in long slithering strands in the direction of the blade, the wounded human flesh underneath visible through the gap in the oil. The slashed strands slithered their way back, rejoining Black Womb at the hand. Within seconds the wound had closed and was followed by the gap in the blackness closing up as the strands flowed back into place.

  The Womb stood up and tilted its head to one side until the calcium popped, then turned to face its attacker.“No. It shouldn’t.”

  Genblade gritted his teeth. His eyes narrowed into little slits on either side of his pointed nose and his fingers stretched along the grip of his sword. The blade hung by his side loosely until he let it fall until it almost hit the floor, then caught it. Extending his arm slightly, he let the metal touch against the metal of the tile, creating a small sound.

  -shink-

  -shink-. Again.

  He did it over and over, all the while keeping his eyes locked on the Black Womb’s opaque pupils. The Womb stared back at Genblade, but with each -shink- the urge not to look down at the blade became unbearable. It strained, forcing itself not to comply with its reflexes. Genblade paused for a moment, the blade rising as he finished scraping the floor.

  -shunk-.

  Genblade had let the blade drop again. It created a louder, more intense scratch. The Womb’s pupil moved down to the corner of its eye as it glanced, only briefly, at the blade. When it looked back up, Genblade was already bearing down upon it. The spiked blade ripped across Black Womb’s face, briefly revealing the guise of Xander Drew underneath, writhing in agony.

  Black Womb reeled backward in pain, gripping at its face with its hands. It howled as it remembered the claws too late, ripping them away and taking a large chunk of its own cheek with it. The sliver of meat dropped from the talon as it retracted and fell to the floor with a plop.

  “Gah!” it hissed, staggering as it tried to steady itself on its feet.

  As the brute’s arms flailed, Genblade kicked it in the side and sent it teetering even more off balance. More specifically, its right side. The creature’s mouth opened wide as it forced back a scream of pain. It looked up at its opponent standing over it, as it crashed to the ground.

  Inside it, Xander’s pulse began to beat so loud that it was all he could hear thumping at the base of his skull.

  I’m done, he thought, gasping for air and getting a mouthful of the dark bile that covered him instead. I may have power, but I have no idea what I’m doing. This guy has skill. He knows what he’s doing and I don’t. He’s better than me. He growled as he
got up again, clutching at his side. Don’t know what’s going on, but if I’ve got power I’ve got to use it now. Use so much of it that it won’t matter how hard this guy’s trained himself. None of it matters. I’ve got to get out of here, Cathy still needs me.

  The Womb raised its hands, palms open. It gritted its teeth as its talons unsheathed from their holding places inside of its fingers again, each one accompanied by a tiny spurt of arterial blood. It lunged at Genblade, mouth open and arms reaching out toward the murderer, aching to repay him for the flesh it had lost.

  Genblade shifted his weight to the right foot casually, letting the Womb pass harmlessly by.

  “This is really starting to get sad,” he tisked, reaching out and grabbing the creature by the back of the throat. Bringing him up to eye level, Genblade looked at the monster and laughed, slamming its head into the hard metal floor, then raising it up again.

  “Guh... tit... gug,” the Womb mumbled as both red and black blood spewed from its lips, its head bobbing around on its neck as if one of the joints which held it there had come loose.

  “You know what the difference is between you and me?” Genblade taunted, forcing it to crash into the floor once more, then bringing it back to eye level again.

  Black Womb merely stared at his assaulter in a cold response. Xander’s bruised and cut face was visible through the small gap in the oily substance, before it swallowed into itself.

  “No, not about a hundred I.Q. points,” he quipped, smashing his rival into the now bending metal once again, then brought it up to answer the question himself. “It’s just like I whispered to that dumb blonde before I cut her.”

  Xander’s eyes went as wide as they could while still bruised, and the Womb’s followed.

  “You can knock ‘em down, drive skates through their hearts or shoot ‘em, but one thing always stays the same.”

  SLAM.

  “...death ALWAYS has a face.”

  SLAM.

  “ALWAYS has a name.”

  SLAM.

  “And today, that name is Genblade.”

  SLAM.

  Genblade looked at his adversary for the first time since beginning his little speech. The Black Womb’s healing process had obviously slowed, the blackness now looking as though it were painted on and barely clinging to the flesh beneath. About half of Xander’s face was visible now, and it was in bad shape. The wounds looked to be closing, but not as fast as before. His vision was impaired by large, swollen bruises and his cheek and forehead were cut deep with gashes.

  Xander’s pupil turned to look at Genblade, his voice somewhere in between the Black Womb and his own.“Sara?”

  “Bit the dirt like a starving earthworm.”

  SLAM.

  SLAM.

  SLAM.

  Suddenly, Black Womb’s eyes began to glow bright aqua again. It reached behind itself, grabbing Genblade by the wrist and digging the claws in deep to hold it there. With a quick pull of his arm, Black Womb flipped Genblade over its back, slamming him onto the blood stained floor. Black strands flew off of the Womb everywhere, healing his wounds quickly. It picked Genblade up by the neck and pushed him against the cold metal wall.

  Blood ran from Genblade’s nose, flowing down his chin. He smiled, licking his lips of the red liquid.

  “There you are. Was wondering when you’d come back out to play,” he teased.

  Black Womb stared at Genblade, looking as if it wanted to say something. It opened its mouth to speak, but nothing came. After a moment it managed three words, each one sounding as though it were vomited up rather than spoken.“Black Womb lives!”

  “Had a feeling you were going to say that,” Genblade snickered as he started to rise to his feet.

  The Womb grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him straight across the room as if he were a rag doll. He slammed into another wall, smacking into a light hanging from the ceiling as he went. The light swung around for a moment, making shadows dance and jump everywhere. It blinked several times from the impact, creating a strobe effect and made it hard to focus on anything in the room. It couldn’t even focus on Genblade or where he was in the room, or even on its own hands.

  When the light finally flickered out, Black Womb stared into the darkness and saw nothing. It put its clawed hands in front of it, preparing for the moment that Genblade came out of the shadows.

  Suddenly, it felt an extreme rush of pain in its right side. It looked down and to its shock, he saw the end of Genblade’s blade sticking out of it. It crumpled over, straining its neck to look behind him.

  “It’s all about skill.” Genblade smiled as he withdrew the blade, flicking it toward a nearby wall to clean the blood off of it.

  He picked up Black Womb, elevating him and propping him up against the wall. He took out a small, sharp blade and jammed it into Black Womb’s right side. It sliced directly through the cancerous blob that the doctor had been so concerned with, and a small -shink- sound indicated that it went clean through the wall as well. Genblade let go of the Womb, letting the blade prop him up, its flesh tugging around it.

  “This was absolutely pathetic. If you’re gonna keep going with power over skill, there’s a couple of things you should be made aware of. Number one...”

  Shunk. Genblade stabbed Black Womb in the arm. The creature’s head raised, fully awake for the first time in several moments and really listening now, wanting to scream but unable to make the right sound.

  “...your right side is your weak spot. It’s where your true self, the real Black Womb, resides. But you probably figured that out. Number two...”

  Shunk. He stabbed it through the other arm.

  “...That healing factor of yours’ll only go so far. If you tax it too much, or if I do, it’ll simply cut out. Number three...”

  Shunk. He stabbed it through both feet, pinning them to each other and the wall.

  “...Nobody, I repeat, NOBODY escapes death.”

  Genblade stepped back and admired his work. Black Womb stood there, his body pinned into a cross position.

  Black Womb’s mind reeled. He couldn’t focus on anything, his vision was blurry, and black around the edges. He felt the healing factor cut out. He lifted his head to face his attacker.

  “A crucifixion,” Genblade sneered, stroking his chin as he admired his work. “It’d almost be poetic, if it wasn’t so damn funny.”

  A voice crackled to life over a nearby intercom, just out of sight. “Excellent work, Adam... Excellent work.”

  Black Womb stared down at the cold metal floor, now wishing that he could merely stand on it. It glared at its reflection in the blood, distorted and obtuse. It reflected how the creature felt, beaten both physically and psychologically.

  Its blood mingled with that of the doctor’s assistants, splattered all over the walls and the floor, making it look like a scene from a B-list horror movie. As it stared down at the reflection, its eyes swelled in shock. Its body began to convulse and throb. Slowly and painfully, it began to transform into Xander Drew again. The dark liquid that had been clinging to him ever since this nightmare began finally let go as if it had just lost its grip. It splashed to the floor, revealing his flesh starting with his feet and working its way up to its eyes where it disappeared.

  All that was left was Xander, naked and pinned to the wall, blood hemorrhaging from his wounds.

  His eyes remained black for a moment, but when it passed they returned to normal. His skin was still covered with a thin layer of blood, a film left over from the change. He gasped for air as sweat and blood rolled down his face. He screamed long and loud, as if he was feeling the crucifix for the first time. Blood began to flow liberally from his hands, feet and side. As the floor around him began to fill with it, he noticed a small drain under him which it was all flowing into. His body began to shake as it ran out of fluids, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.

  Genblade stepped into the Womb’s field of vision again, bending down and placing his hand fl
at into the puddle of tar-like blood. When he brought it around to look at it, it was covered completely in the shiny black liquid, and he found himself staring at it intently.

  “That should be enough, Adam. I believe it time to begin phase two,” came the voice behind the intercom.

  Genblade stepped out of the darkness, a corrupt smile on his face.

  “Engen.com. Huh.”

  “What is it?” Mike demanded. They had been waiting for a background check on the web site for several hours, and the exhaustion had long since started to fray at him. It was all he could do not to think about the events of the previous night. “What have you found?”

  “Nothing,” Tim answered, turning his screen a little. “It’s just someone’s home page. Aside from the animation, it’s a poorly done home page. There’s nothing unusual here.”

  Mike sighed, then turned the computer screen so that he could see. The Engen symbol danced around the window to the tune of Minority by Green Day. He examined it carefully, and after a second, he noticed something in the corner. “What’s that?”

  “What?” Cathy and Tim said simultaneously, each shifting a little in their seats.

  “That spider symbol in the corner,” he said, even as he clicked on it. Automatically, a single message came up onto the screen: Black Womb Lives.

  “That’s it? That’s what you have to tell me?” Tim growled, as much at the web site as at Mike.

  “Black Womb. That was written on the wall where Jamie...” Mike stopped, looking at the floor. “Where the first murder took place.”

  Tim frowned reluctantly. “There could be something, I guess. But it doesn’t give us any leads.”

  Cathy sighed, turning his laptop toward her so that she could finally get a look, mouthing the words ‘Black Womb lives’ to herself over and over again.

  “We’ve got nothing,” Mike agreed, clenching his fist and almost punching the wall, stopping himself right before he did so.