Defiant Guardians Anthology

by Jacob Peppers

  I walked back into the chapel and sat in one of the pews. In only an hour, this place would be filled and I would be the center of attention. Should I just cancel the sermon? No, better not to do that. These good people needed the Almighty, especially in light of all the murders that had been happening in our kingdom. They needed a source of good to look to. They needed the Almighty. I could be their medium. I needed to stay strong.

  But what was with the little ones? Why did they run away from me?

  I snapped my fingers and sat up straight. "Aha! They must have seen the lumps underneath the hood! Yes! That's it." I patted myself on the back and let out a breath. I was getting worked up for nothing.

  I stood up and walked over to the ancient altar that held the teachings of the Almighty. I'd already practiced today's sermons the evening before but felt it would be good to get one last rehearsal in.

  For the next hour, I lost myself in the words of the text only to be brought back to reality when the good people of the kingdom of Auracle began to spill into the chapel. A good mixture of elves, humans, and even a few dwarves made their way into their respective pews. Each race usually kept to themselves even though I had always preached that all races should work together happily rather than just tolerating one another. Apparently, my teachings had gone through one ear and out the other.

  The city's guards were the last to arrive, un-equipping their swords and sheaths and hanging them on the hooks my mother had installed years ago. They nodded at me from the entrance and made their way to the pews.

  Once everyone had taken their seats, I grabbed my notes from the altar and walked up to the podium. I felt the hood over my ears and was satisfied that the lumps were hidden beneath it. I cleared my throat to speak.

  No words came out.

  A minute passed, and the people of the Almighty started to whisper. I tried to open my mouth again to say something, to preach the sermon I had practiced, but still could say nothing. I felt a drop of sweat drip from the nape of my neck and down to the small of my back. My right hand was trembling but my left remained calm.

  Then, foreign thoughts entered my head. Thoughts that were not my own.

  What has gotten into the pastor today? He looks ill...

  Oh, look at the tits on that one. I'd love to get between those thighs.

  I wonder if he knows I've been cheating on him. Son of a bitch, serves him right for giving me that black eye last week.

  Can't wait to get outta here.

  This fuckin' place looks like it's been to hell and back. The pastors should have more respect for their place of worship.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to remain calm. The chapel room spun above my head and I could feel the trembling in my right hand intensify. So much so that my wrist was aching from the tension. My breathing grew faster, my heart beating at an unreasonable tempo. Dark thoughts filled my head. Ideas. I wanted to kill all of these fuckers. Make them see the Almighty before their time was due... or send them down to the depths of hell.

  An elderly woman, perhaps eighty-five years old, stood on shaking legs. She raised a finger and asked in a concerned tone, "Pastor, are you alri-"

  My head raised so rapidly that the hood covering my lumps flew backward. I let my eyes burn into the old hag and I could see her heart, her lungs, her veins... I could feel her pulse from here. I extended my hand in her direction and... and...

  BOOM

  The old woman exploded into a cloud of gore that covered the absoluteness of the chapel. The violence was so sudden, so unbelievably quiet, that no one believed it had just happened. Not even myself.

  My heart rate was back to normal and it felt as though I had just relieved myself sexually. I looked down at my hand. It was charred to a crisp.

  A soldier stood up in the back, his silver armor now a shiny red. What he yelled out next would flip my world upside down. It would scar me with an ancient title that I would be plagued with for the rest of my life.

  "Demon!"

  3

  I was frozen where I stood, my heart hammering in my chest. What the hell was going on? Did… Did I? Was that me? Did I kill that old woman? No, no… I don’t understand!

  The guards pushed each other out of their pews and ran towards their weapons, all of them shouting “Demon!” “There’s a demon amongst us!” “Kill it with fire!”

  What should I do? What was there to do? Should I let them take me? No, they would surely kill me. Should I run? Yes, that seemed the best option. I picked up the scriptures I had just held moments ago and…

  “AHHH!” I screamed, smoke floating from between my fingers as I held my hand out in front of me. The Almighty’s words had burned me. A flake of black skin drifted from the back of my hand revealing fresh pink skin. I shook my hand and more of the flakes fell off leaving only more healthy skin.

  Before I could even ask myself what was going on, the clinking of metal armor caught my attention and I looked up to see the guards charging towards me, their mouths open whilst screaming out their rage towards me. As if by instinct, I lifted my hand towards them but quickly pulled it back down by the wrist. What, was I mad? Was I trying to kill more people?!?

  Forgetting the scripture, I took off to the right and out through the side door. I ran past the chickens, past their coup, and jumped over the rickety fence. My arms pumped up and down as I ran as fast as I could. Small shops, homes, and a few taverns whizzed by me as I ran at an unnatural speed. At some point, my mind told me to take to all fours and run like an animal, and somehow I knew I would be able to escape at an even faster pace. But I refused.

  There would be no more of this sorcery. Not today. Not ever.

  I was still in the poor districts of the kingdom but was quickly heading towards the rich district. I thought better of this. There would be more guards there than here and so with quick thinking I made for the river.

  I was just about to cross the last alleyway, the river only a few feet away now, when a guard ran right in front of me, hitting me hard with his shoulder and sending us both off the side of the street and into the murky water. We flailed and kicked at each other and I was able to catch a glimpse of the shine of his sword as it fell to the bottom of the river. Anger filled me once more as my lungs tightened from lack of air.

  The guard, seeing this emotion in my eyes as they glowered through the muddiness of the water, opened his mouth to scream but the sound was lost in the water. I clasped my hands around his throat and tightened. My grasp was so strong around his soft flesh that I felt his spinal cord underneath my fingers, reminding me of the time I had helped pull the neck out of a turkey I was stuffing with Mother.

  This happy thought brought me back to reality, my anger fading as quickly as it had come and I let go of the poor soul. The guard’s mouth was stuck in a permanent scream, his neck collapsed in on itself. I swam from his lifeless husk covered in armor and watched as it floated away, drifting lower and lower into the depths of the river, most likely never to be seen again.

  My lower lip trembled as I said a small prayer for the man I had just killed. I couldn’t help but think I had just robbed a family of a husband. A father.

  I pulled myself out of the water and into the shadows of a bridge. My robes were drenched, heavy, and cold. I huddled my back against the wall hoping the structure above my head would suffice as protection from the eyes of the guards. I held my knees close to my chest and let myself fall onto my side. That’s when I started to cry.

  In one day I had gone against the Almighty’s teaching in the worst possible way. I had murdered two of his followers. The worst part was, it had been easy. So easy. Why was this happening to me? Never before had I felt myself pulled to such evil tendencies. Has the Almighty forsaken me? Have I not completed His will in the most suitable of manners? I had dedicated my life to him and now… it seemed he had abandoned me.

  I let myself out of my own embrace and crawled over to the water’s edge. Peering into it, I used the light of
the moon to gaze at my own reflection. A gasp escaped my mouth as I ran a hand across my head.

  The lumps had grown.

  I pulled my hand back in fear that there would be pain like the last time, but there wasn’t any. And my hand was no longer charred or crispy, but fresh and pink. As if nothing had happened.

  Suddenly, I felt eyes on me. I quickly sprawled back to the wall under the bridge. There was nobody there, but there was something.

  Two red eyes stared at me from the dark alleyways. Gazing at me hungrily from its shadows. Then, they blinked themselves shut and were gone.

  4

  The eyes would reveal themselves every now and then making it impossible for sleep to come. I couldn’t keep my eyes from staring at that alleyway. I was afraid that if I did fall asleep then whatever that beast was would surely make its way over to me.

  The city of Taberah was known for its pestilences and I was getting the very worst of it. Mosquitoes made their way to the open flesh of my arms, legs, neck and any open spot they could find to nurse the blood from me. After a while, I got tired of swatting at them and let them come. It wasn’t long before I had a pile of tiny black dead corpses encircling my body. Something in my blood didn’t quite sit right with them.

  All of these things, these horrible occurrences that were happening to me could have been so much worse, but to my mind… it had seen too many extreme scenes this day and so had become numb to anything else. That was most likely the reason why I stood and made my way towards the red eyes in the alleyway. I was no longer thinking straight.

  I crossed the bridge, the cold wind whipping up the ends of my robe. My teeth did not chatter and my mind was clear of thought. What my goal was I had no idea. Not until I turned the corner and into the darkness of the alley did fear yet again set its teeth in me.

  The red eyes stared at me from low off the ground. They grew as the beast came closer and closer. Soon it had made its way into the light of the moon and there I was forced to muffle a cry from my mouth. It took everything in me not to run away. Not because I wanted to hold my ground, but because I was afraid patrolling guards would see me.

  The sight before me was the definition of horror. A spawn of Satan. It was poor little Jonni’s head, bloated to two times its normal size and situated upside down. As it looked up at me, drool poured from his mouth and oozed downward to his forehead. Two massive arms protruded from either side of his jaw and held the head up a few inches from the ground. The only reason I had recognized this as being Jonni’s head was that one of his elvish ears had been partly chewed off by a street rat when he was a baby.

  “I… imagine your day hasn’t been going well?” said Jonni’s head in a guttural speech. “Has it?”

  I opened my mouth to speak but there were no words.

  “You must have so many questions. Yes, I can feel them! You are very lucky then, for I! Yes, I! Hold the answers.”

  “What… are you?” I asked it.

  “The same as you, I suppose. Just not nearly as powerful.” One of the eyes in the upside-down head grew tired and drifted to the side. “No, such power is reserved only for his offspring.”

  “Offspring?” I asked, my eyes shifting left and right, looking around the alley for any sort of weapon to strike this fiendish beast with. “Make sense you demon!”

  The head rolled left and its grin widened to reveal brown gums with only a few rotten teeth. “Call me what you will but that will not change what and who you are. Your life has been a lie!” It lifted itself with one arm and pointed at me with the other. “You’ve been led far, far from your destiny. It is now that your father has come to reclaim you and place you back on track!”

  At the corner of my eye, I found exactly what I was looking for. A wooden beam had come loose from where it had been nailed shut to a window. I ran towards it and plucked it easily from the wall.

  I pointed my weapon at the demon, and draining the last bit of courage I said, “I cannot allow you to live, demon! You can’t fool me with your lies!”

  “Your eyes,” it said, dropping its pointing hand and placing it back on the ground. “You are your father’s son. Take your rightful place by his side in the heated kingdom of hell.”

  I tried to bring down the wooden beam but only made it halfway before changing its trajectory and smacking the ground instead. I couldn’t do it. It was still Jonni’s head for the Almighty’s sake!

  “Hmm,” it said, “we will have to work on that atrocious conscious of yours. How else will you serve your father, the King of Darkness?”

  This time the words were adhesive in my mind and I finally understood what this evil thing was getting at.

  I dropped the beam and backed away, no longer afraid of a guard spotting me. “No,” I said, “You’re wrong.” I pointed at it. “You’re wrong!”

  Jonni’s eyes widened to an inhuman range now, both pupils going lazy in opposite directions. It started to laugh and began bouncing higher and higher until there were cracking sounds from Jonni’s skull being smashed bit by bit.

  “Stop that!” I yelled, now backing away more. “Stop!”

  There was power in this demon’s gaze and I felt drunk off of it. Suddenly, I felt good. Very good. I’d only felt like this once when I was younger and had found myself stealing from the chapel and drinking the wine we used for offerings. However, this time it felt much better, much sweeter.

  I wanted to listen to it. I wanted to go with it. I desired more of this feeling.

  I barely noticed the shadow fall from atop the building and half a second later the sorcery that had blinded me disappeared. A gleaming sword protruded from the top of Jonni’s head, and the bearer shifted it left and right, making sure the brain had been skewered. The person, with awesome agility and strength, pulled the sword out and swatted it, slinging blood across the nearest wall.

  Jonni’s head shrank back to normal size, his eyes straightening themselves and the lids falling halfway shut. The demon slayer stepped out from the shadows and took the shape of a young girl very close to my own age. She looked neither excited by this kill nor did she look thrilled.

  “Come with me,” she said. She turned back towards the alley and ran into the darkness.

  Not knowing what else to do or where to go, I gently picked up Jonni’s head, wrapped it in my cloak, and followed the stranger.

  5

  The mysterious girl walked at a fast pace ahead of me. I wasn’t sure why I followed her. Maybe it was because I had nowhere else to go. Maybe it was because I was genuinely curious as to where she was leading me. However, she never turned around to make sure I was still following. She took turn after turn, each seeming more random than the last. At some point, I started to wonder if she had gotten lost until she came to a sudden stop.

  I didn’t walk right up to her but kept my distance. I looked behind me and planned ahead on where I would run if this turned out to be a trap. When I turned back around I jumped. A large hooded person stood in front of the girl who was now on one knee with her head bowed. The person lifted his hand and the girl raised with it.

  “Is this the one?” the person asked with a voice so deep it was hard to comprehend what he had just said.

  “It is,” responded the girl.

  “Good.”

  The hooded man walked past the girl and up to me. I took a step back and the man stopped. I watched his head drift down to Jonni's ruined head wrapped in my robe.

  “What is that?” he asked.

  “I, uh. I don’t know,” I stammered.

  “You don’t know?”

  “I, uh, do. Yes. It’s the um.”

  “That’s the head of the demon I killed,” said the girl. “He was talking to it when I arrived. The devil nearly got him, my Lord.”

  “Is this true?” asked the man.

  I didn’t say another word but unraveled the head out of my robe. One of poor Jonni's eyes had come open and I gently shut it once more.

  “I am sorry for your l
oss,” said the man. He extended his hand out to me. “I can see to it that this boy’s head is taken care of.”

  Something about the deep voice was calming and trustworthy. I assumed what he meant was that he would give Jonni a proper burial and so I did hand him the head. Without realizing it, I said a prayer in my head asking the Almighty to open his gates for the orphan child. My little friend. But would the Almighty listen to a murderer like me?

  The man gestured with his hand for me to follow, “Come, this way, Ira,” he said.

  I did not follow but did the opposite. I took another step back. “How did you know my name?”

  The man hid both of his hands in the arms of his large sleeves. I could only see his chin and his crooked bottom teeth as he spoke. His skin was black which meant he was probably from the faraway Kingdom of Roth. “We know much of you, Ira. Your mother has told us a lot about you. Now please,” he again gestured for me to follow, “follow me and all will be explained.” Seeing as I wasn’t moving he added, “Or don’t. I’ve grown impatient and there is work to do this night.”

  The large man turned and started to walk off. The girl looked back at me for half a second before taking the black man’s side. Together they walked to the end of the alley, turned right, and disappeared. I stood there for a moment deciding whether it was best to go back to my bridge or to follow the strangers. In my heart, I knew what I was going to do. They had brought up my mother. The man knew my name. I had to know more.

  As I started my first steps in their direction, I damned my insatiable curiosity.

  A crow cawed above, making me jump badly. I covered my body with my hands, the smell of the disgusting dried river water drifting into my nose. My stomach growled, reminding me I hadn’t eaten in a very long time.