by Con Template
Although I was relieved that San’s call was “disconnected” before he found out I was a Source (and that Eclipse was a Prince of Hell), it still did not make me feel entirely better because these Demons had found me nevertheless.
Clearly sensing my distress, Eclipse stood protectively in front of me. With or without his powers, he was not going to allow them to hurt me.
Eclipse’s exhibition of defense did not deter them. They kept advancing along the train’s aisle, their pace slow and certain. They were getting closer when Red Tie reached his pale hand out and motioned for me to come to him.
“Do not make this harder than it has to be,” he said to me. “Come with us and perhaps we’ll go easy on your boyfriend.”
Eclipse locked hands with me. Even as a Demon who was 99% human, he wasn’t going to allow these Demons to get to me without a good hard fight.
“Let’s make this harder than it has to be, Gracie,” Eclipse said boldly, his vigilant eyes on them as his grip on my hand tightened. “We can probably outrun these bastards.”
“I wouldn’t advise it, boy,” Red Tie admonished, his stoic eyes trained on our interlocking hands. “If you run, then we would have to forcefully reel you back to us. And let me tell you, the two of you would not stand a chance against us. Don’t bother running. It would only piss us off and spell more trouble for you.”
“I’m pretty sure I can outrun, outplay, and outwit all of you bald eagles,” Eclipse mocked coolly.
I had to give it to him. Even as a Dimmed Demon who had lost his powers, his arrogance knew no bounds.
A sneer met their lips. With a menacing smirk aim at Eclipse, all six lifted their hands and whispered an incantation that had me holding my breath in dread. I just knew it. They were going to send us flying into captivity at any moment . . .
We waited for the inevitable, our hearts racing without signs of slowing down.
Creak.
Creak.
Creak.
The train kept running at full speed, now moving past a few houses and even a cathedral in the distance. Everything in our immediate world remained the same, including how we were standing.
Eclipse and I blinked at one another in confusion.
Uh, why weren’t we being pulled towards them?
It was only after a few stupid seconds of us staring expectantly at them that Eclipse and I realized that these Demons, for whatever reason, had no powers at their disposal.
The Demons exchanged bewildered looks.
The mystification splayed across their faces corroborated our assumptions that there was something wrong with their powers. The next thing they voiced further confirmed that perhaps we weren’t as powerless as we once thought.
“Why don’t our powers work?!”
This was our opportunity.
“Gracie!” Eclipse shouted, tugging me with him as we ran for our lives. “Let’s go!”
“For there is no greater honor than to die for their sun and moon.”
07: 99% Human
Eclipse’s grip on me tightened as we stormed into the next section of the train. Upon entering, we were greeted with the sight of six businessmen lying dead in their seats. Several workers were also sprawled on the floor. Their eyes were burned out, hollowed with nothing but darkness.
“Oh God . . .”
To keep from gagging at the horrendous sight, I turned away and skittered like a cockroach from them. Aware of the nausea that was engulfing me, Eclipse picked up the pace and bulldozed me out of that godforsaken room and brought me to the emptier sections of the train.
As Eclipse and I ran, I could see the six Demons from a distance, screaming about why their powers did not work.
“Damn it! My powers won’t work!”
“Shut up! Worry about that later!”
“Hurry and get them!”
The entire time that we bolted through the train, all I could think about was how on earth did those Demons track me down? Wasn’t there supposed to be a veil over me, preventing them from being able to find me? How did they bypass the veil?
No answers came—just more questions and more reasons to panic.
We continued to run and although we were losing them, I knew, just as Eclipse knew, that being on a train only meant that we were only delaying our encounter with them. We were never going to lose them until the train officially came to its stop. If it were up to me, I would keep running for as long as I could to hold them off. However, I could discern that Eclipse’s pride was getting aggravated.
“I’m going to fight them,” Eclipse abruptly announced, bringing outrage to my face.
“Are you crazy?” I blurted out in disbelief. “Aren’t you human right now?”
“So are they,” he promptly responded. “They have lost all their powers. Right now they are humans, just like us. If I fight them, it wouldn’t be a suicide mission. We’d actually have a chance.”
“You’re injured!” I reminded, pointing at his arm wound. I would rather keep running than force a confrontation with those Demons. “There are six of them and one of you. Demons or not, they still outnumber you!”
“Have some faith, Teacup,” was all Eclipse said before he let go of my hand and pushed me behind him.
I tripped through the dividing door into the next section of the train, nearly smacking my head against the wall.
“Eclipse, don’t!” I shouted.
But it was too late.
Once he saw that I was safely in the next area of the train, he wasted no time in sprinting down the aisle. He flew across the columns of chairs and ran back in the opposite direction. The dividing door to the further wing of the train slid open, revealing the six Demons running through it. They were given the perfect view of me on the opposite wing, standing dumbly by myself. Unaware that Eclipse was waiting off to the side and running atop the seats, the Demons were defenseless when they picked up pace through the aisle.
Bam!
Without warning, Eclipse utilized the momentum of his sprint and jumped off a window as support. Soaring over them like a rocket, he performed a spin kick in mid-air that sent three Demons plummeting to the floor.
“Augh!”
Upon landing back onto the floor of the moving train, Eclipse swiftly took his silk blue tie off and held each end with his hands.
Eclipse smirked as the remaining three Demons hopped over their fallen comrades and rushed towards him.
“Let’s have some fun,” he uttered.
With the precision of a skilled warrior, he charged at the remaining Demons with his peculiar weapon. At first the three Demons, who were being led by Red Tie, gave an entertained laugh at Eclipse. However, when he began to school them on the skills of improvisation, their expressions changed drastically.
His face stoic and focused, Eclipse ducked when the fourth and fifth Demons swung their fists at him. He swooped below them with ease before rising back up and snaking his tie around the fourth Demon’s neck.
“Oh shi—”
A stunned gasp escaped from the Demon as Eclipse tightened the tie, crouched down, and sent the guy flying over his shoulder. The Demon sailed into the air and banged into the windows with an earsplitting crash. I could hear bones vibrate when that Demon fell back against the gilded tables.
Without slowing the momentum of his attacks, Eclipse repositioned the ends of his tie back around his hands.
He eyed the fifth Demon with a predatory glint. “Your turn, buddy.”
He roughly jabbed the back of his elbow across the jugular of the Demon’s throat and wrapped the tie around that Demon’s neck. Looping the tie into a tight knot, Eclipse jumped onto the seats and threw the ends of the tie through the slit of the metal railing hanging overhead. After it swam obediently through the hollow space, he caught the ends. Using his full weight as leverage, he dragged the tie down, causing the fifth Demon, who still had the tie wrapped stringently around his neck, to fly up towards the ceiling like he was a puppet on strings.
A snap of the neck resonated before Eclipse released the tie, allowing that Demon to fall back to the ground with another unconscious thud.
Standing back on the ground, Eclipse reached down to retrieve his tie from the unconscious Demon before facing the last Demon standing—Red Tie.
Eclipse flashed him an arrogant smile.
“Whatever happened to me not standing a chance against you?” he mocked.
Red Tie observed his men groaning on the floor. Anger boiled in his eyes. He wasn’t happy that a human was able to perform such damage on them.
“Are you a gang leader or something?” one of the fallen Demons asked, painfully clutching onto his neck.
“Or something,” was all Eclipse deigned to answer before Red Tie, whose fury was at its apex, gritted his teeth and said, “You’re going to pay for this, boy.”
As he charged at Eclipse, Eclipse jumped onto the armchair of a train seat and gripped a metal railing that hung overhead. Utilizing the full length of his powerful body, he swung his legs in the air and kicked Red Tie hard against the chest.
Bam!
Just as Red Tie dropped to the ground, Eclipse looped his tie around the Demon’s neck in mid-fall. He pulled so hard that Red Tie was sent flying into the air, only to land face-first on the ground. When Eclipse saw that the other five Demons were beginning to stir from their fallen state, he easily pulled Red Tie up. As they began to attack him from all corners, Eclipse used their leader as a shield against all the assaults. It was so effective that the rest of the Demons slowly backed off, afraid of hurting one of their own. Eclipse did not hesitate to use this reluctance against them.
“Time to go night, night,” he said to Red Tie.
With a loud grunt, Eclipse stampeded forward with Red Tie as his bulldozer. He rammed into all five Demons at the same time, mowing all of them to the floor. As his final assault, Eclipse yanked his tie tighter, pulled Red Tie back, and then sent the Demon soaring across the room and into the rest of his Demons like he was a bowling ball.
Boom!
“Augh . . .”
By the time Eclipse was done, all of the Demons were laying motionless on the floor.
Behaving as though all of that was nothing but an everyday workout, Eclipse tugged his tie from Red Tie’s bruised neck. He tossed his silk blue tie back over his own neck and allowed the two ends to hang loosely over his chest. With much satisfaction that he wasn’t entirely useless in his human state, Eclipse ran back to me, locked his hand with mine, and pulled me out of my stupefied state as we ran down the aisle.
“I thought you’re almost entirely human now!” I exclaimed, not believing that his fighting abilities were so exceptionally skilled for a 99% human.
Eclipse beamed with pride. He was immensely proud that he was able to show off in front of me.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t know how to defend myself,” he replied as we bolted through the dividing doors and into the next section of the train.
“The two of you didn’t think it was going to be that easy, did you?”
Oh no.
We thought we had lost the Demons, but when we ran into the next section of the train and saw six more Demons appear, this time looking tougher and more ruthless than the last six, we knew we were far from freedom. Unlike the last set of Demons, these Demons came ready to fight. They were not going to underestimate Eclipse as the last group did.
“Hah!”
They were on the attack before we could even double back.
Eclipse carefully pushed me onto the seats in the back corner of the train and with the same agility he showed in the previous fight, he jumped off the window and kicked the first Demon in mid-air. Before landing on his feet, he hung his hands off a railing and proceeded to wrap his ankles around the second Demon’s neck. With a roll to the ground, he sent the guy flying in my direction. I hopped out of the way in time, still gaping at everything in shock.
Though Eclipse’s fighting abilities were impressive, it didn’t appear that it would remotely be enough with this group. This new set of Demons looked smarter, stronger, and more ruthless than the last Demons we encountered. Whereas the last six Demons were more rash, these Demons were more logical. With the methodic actions of sharks on the verge of an attack, the remaining four Demons slowly formed a lethal circle around Eclipse.
“Save yourself the pain and surrender yourself now, boy,” one of them warned, his accent undecipherable. He sounded worldly, like he had seen the centuries pass and lost the origin of where he came from. “You may have caught a break with our associates, but you should know that it only gets harder from here on out.”
Eclipse smirked, his gaze fearless. He stood alone, but he was not about to back down. “It is not in my blood to surrender to anyone, especially not when I’ve put up a good hard fight.”
One of the other Demons chuckled, nodding in approval. Eclipse had given them the answer they wanted to hear. “Good. I’m eager to see what you are made of.”
“Bring it on,” Eclipse incited, inclining his head.
An anticipatory silence prevailed over them. After a full minute of assessing one another, a small draft entered the train and then . . . mayhem ensued.
In a fluid and strategic action, the four Demons commenced their attacks by snaking around Eclipse in perfect synchronization.
Bam!
Two distracted Eclipse by throwing punches at him, strategically using his need for deflection against him. The one in front kicked him in the stomach while the one in the back executed a sidekick that had Eclipse falling to the side. Eclipse did not get a chance to defend himself when he was brutally kneed across the face by the third Demon and then kicked in the neck by the fourth.
Bam!
Soon, sounds of flesh hitting flesh and bones hitting bones could be heard, and Eclipse was at the center of it all. Every attack they threw, he would counterattack with equal, if not surpassing strength. No matter how skilled Eclipse was at fighting though, he, just like the rest of us humans, could not beat the odds that were stacked against him. He may have been strong enough to fight, but he was never going to win this battle—not unless I intervened somehow.
I snapped out of my frightened trance when I saw that blood had spouted from his mouth. The wheels in my head began to turn. Shit. I ran over everything that I could do to logically save him. One idea came to me as the best one. I had no clue if it would work, but it was the best one I could come up with.
With a whispered prayer, I did something that I hoped would save Eclipse: I ran.
I ran because I knew that it was the only way to keep all four of them from ganging up on Eclipse. I couldn’t fight them—there was no possible way that I could. This wasn’t like the movies where I could garner martial arts skills out of thin air. The reality was that I wasn’t physically strong enough to save Eclipse, but I could be strategically cunning enough to use myself as the bait. Between the two of us, I was the one they wanted the most. If I ran, then they’d have no choice but to run after me. They would never choose beating Eclipse to death over apprehending me. And fortunately for us, my strategy worked.
“Shit! She’s running!”
“Go after her!”
“What about the guy?”
“Leave him! She’s the one we came for!”
I picked up the pace once I heard their footsteps stampede after mine.
Huff . . . Huff.
The only thing I could give myself credit for was my ability to run. I ran like the wind, exhibiting extraordinary alacrity by jumping on seats and hopping over armchairs as one after the other, the four Demons lunged for me, only to miss me by whispers of an inch.
Huff . . . Huff.
I dashed past our old room and sped towards an area where more corpses lined the floor.
“Run! Don’t stop,” I whispered to myself as nausea overcame me. I was thankful that I was able to snake around these dead bodies without fainting from horror.
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br /> My good luck ended once we made it into the dining area of the train. My eyes widened when I saw that one of the Demons had broken away from the pack. Keeping his eyes on me, he quickened his pace and proceeded to leap onto the nearby tables in an effort to get closer to me. I barely made it across the dining bar when he caught up from behind and knocked me down.
Thud!
Pain exploded through my nerves after I plummeted to the floor with vicious force. The Demon’s big arms wrapped around me, nearly cutting off my circulation as he pinned me to the carpet and rendered me motionless. I was trapped, but my instinctual desire to survive was too great. I couldn’t lie there and let anyone win without attempting to free myself. I recalled all the action moves from my favorite movies, and with a shriek to rival banshees, I went berserk.
“Get off me!”
I blindly reached for something to attack him with. As the graces of fate would have it, I was able to latch onto a discarded glass bottle of sparkling water. I gripped my hand over the handle, raised it up, and slammed it over his skull.
Crack!
“Ugh!” he screamed, immediately releasing me. “Fuck!”
I crawled into an upright position and swung the broken glass bottle wildly, attempting to rally my strength together while holding off any other Demon trying to apprehend me. With my heart ready to jump out of my chest, I leapt onto a barstool and slid over the bar counter in hopes of finding a sharper weapon. I had barely commenced my search when one of the Demons hopped over the counter, grabbed me by the neck, and hauled me backwards with him.
“Ahhh!”
Although his hold on me was strong, I deduced from how much control he was exerting that he was trying very hard not to hurt me. I was a prized human soul to them. The last thing they wanted to do was physically harm me.
I inhaled sharply, ready to use this against them.
Realizing that I still had the broken bottle in my hand, I stabbed it backwards and managed to scrape the flesh of his forehead.
“Fuck!”
A howl of pain poured from the Demon before he pushed me off and began cradling his forehead.
I lunged for the ground and crawled as fast as I could. During the chaos, I spotted a fire extinguisher pinned on the wall across from me. With panic riding my senses, I instinctively went for it. I barely managed to pull it out of the glass case when one of the Demons wrapped his arms around me and jerked me back.