He turned his head to gaze up at the man who had demanded his death. A grinning visage reminiscent of a Cheshire cat adorned the man’s square face. Bright eyes gleamed within the darkness, reflecting the strobe lights like iridescent balls, easily visible even from a distance. Standing by this unknown yōkai’s side was the woman they’d been chasing.
Kevin looked at the people around them again.
“I think I’ve got a plan,” Kevin said.
Iris’s tails twitched against his back. “Do tell.”
“On my signal, I want you to cast an illusion. I don’t care what it is, just so long as it can affect all of the people surrounding us.”
“You’re asking for a tall order.” Iris didn’t sound particularly confident. “I’m not sure I can create an illusion that powerful. Not in my current state at least.”
“Just do your best.”
“I hope you cool cats are ready to entertain me,” the yōkai above them said. “Now go and do my bidding, meow.”
The horde surged forward like zombies in a horror movie. Feet were driven into the ground, a stampede that nearly made the floor rumble. They closed the distance with their awkward, crowding gait, moving with a mindless tenacity that bordered on fanaticism.
Kevin raised his guns, not at the people threatening to run them over, but at the yōkai standing on the second floor. He unleashed a load of youki bullets, blue and white projectiles that nearly put a hole through the man’s face. They were avoided when the man twisted his head, the bullets continuing on to smash against the ceiling. The blue bolt drilled into the surface like water from a fire hydrant, denting the concrete, creating abrasions that spread from the point of impact. The white bolt left a scorch mark like someone had hurled a fireball. A perfect circle of black left where it hit.
“Now, Iris!”
Kevin didn’t know what illusion Iris cast. The illusion itself did not matter. All he cared about were the results.
The people surrounding them gripped their heads in their hands. They fell onto their knees. Pained screams tore from throats, gurgled and rasping, reminiscent to the undead wails of misbegotten souls being consumed in fire. Whatever illusion Iris had cast, it was highly effective.
Swiveling around, Kevin aimed the gun in his left hand. More bolts of blue youki, water-natured bullets, lanced out and struck the many light fixtures overhead.
Water did not conduct electricity, but the many impurities found in water did. Anyone who had ever taken a basic science course knew this. It was one of the first lessons students learned about electricity, and one of the easiest. When the blue projectiles of water-natured youki struck the lights, penetrating the glass, which then rained down and showered the floor, lightning lanced out. Tendrils of electrical energy shot from the light fixtures, causing those near them to stumble away.
“What are you doing, meow?!” The shout came from above. “Stop that right meow!”
Kevin didn’t stop; he continued to fire. Bolt after bolt of blue bullets hit lights with pinpoint precision. His gun roared within his hand. Light flashed from the nozzle like sparks from a sparkler. Luminous blue energy emitted from deep within the barrel, like the coalescing of fire from a dragon’s mouth before it was expelled in furious bursts. All of the lights were soon reduced to sparking protrusions of broken metal, casting the room in darkness.
“Come on!”
He grabbed Iris’s hand and rushed out of the circle of confused people. He knocked bodies aside, shoved them out of the way. They ignored him, still screaming, still on their knees. A part of him, the part that knew these people, innocent citizens who were being manipulated by the yōkai above them, felt guilty. The other part, a side of him ruled by logic, knew that there was no other choice. He couldn’t allow these people to kill him, couldn’t allow Iris to be captured, not if he wanted to rescue Lilian. He pushed the side containing human sentiments away, shoved it into the back of his mind and continued moving.
They soon reached the exit. He saw the double doors, haloed by lights that he hadn’t destroyed. They opened and in walked three familiar faces that he recognized from the other day. He even saw the bruises that he and Iris had inflicted upon them the day before, so he guessed they couldn’t heal from a beating that badly in just a few hours.
“You two aren’t getting away this time!” the one with slicked-back hair shouted. “This time we’re going to—”
“Out of our way!”
Kevin stuck out his arm and slammed it into Slick’s—the guy with slicked-back hair—neck, clotheslining him. The akaname flipped end over end, crashing onto his back with oxygen-stealing force.
“Bro!”
“Big bro!”
The other two tried to help their “brother,” but they both received a tail to the face when Iris used extension to great effect. They were struck with the force of an agitated kitsune using enchantment, sailing backwards, their bodies flipping around, cartwheeling like ragdolls as they slammed into the ground and tumbled along. Kevin didn’t pay attention to them anymore. He raced out of the club with Iris right behind him.
Empty streets greeted them. Lit by overhead lamps, large shadows were cast on the buildings, while the street itself only had a few circles that were illuminated like spots on a dog. The sound of their rushing footsteps bounced across the deserted street.
Running beside him, Iris flashed Kevin a fanged grin.
“Well,” she said, her breathing only slightly labored, “that was fun. Got any more excitement lined up for today?”
Kevin didn’t even deign her with an eyeroll.
“I hope to the gods not. I’ve had more than enough excitement for one night.”
“That’s too bad.” Her ears drooped in what seemed like genuine disappointment. “I was kind of hoping you planned on celebrating our successful escape with a little S&M.”
Kevin nearly tripped as they ran.
“Why would I want to do something like that with you?!”
“I even brought a whip and some chains.”
“Put those away right now!”
“Put what away? The whips or the chains?”
“BOTH!” Kevin’s shout echoed across the city.
***
Kevin believed that Iris calling their escape successful was a bit premature. While they had indeed escaped the club, that didn’t mean they had escaped from the people chasing after them.
A quick turn of his head revealed the surging tide of bodies racing after them, a massive swell of humanity reminiscent of a tidal wave, or perhaps a rushing tide. They crowded the streets behind him and Iris, chasing after them with dogged determination, running at them like pit bulls chasing a cat that had encroached on their territory.
He and Iris ran through the streets, taking random turns and leaping over fences. They even traveled through random buildings in an effort to escape the horde.
***
The hot water soothed her aches. It rid her of the pains from a long day’s work, and that work had been hard. Few things were better than soaking in the tub after exerting oneself while on the job.
She leaned back and closed her eyes. Her arms rested against the lip of her bath. Steam rose all around her as she soaked in the peaceful atmosphere.
That peace was suddenly shattered as the window in her bathroom broke into thousands of fragments. Her eyes flew wide open just in time to see two people rushing into her restroom: a boy with blond hair and blue eyes, and a girl with black hair and red eyes. She watched, too shocked to even speak, as the two ran toward the door, opened it, and then left.
… A moment of silence passed. The door opened again, and a head poked back in.
“Sorry for ruining your window,” the boy apologized. “And for barging in like this. Have a good night.”
The door slammed shut again. She blinked several times, not quite sure what to make of what just happened.
She then decided that she must have been hallucinating. Yes, that was the only reas
onable explanation she had. She’d been in the bath for too long and the heat was getting to her. And on that note, she decided that she should probably get out. Who knew what else she’d see if she stayed in the tub any longer.
A loud rumbling filled the room just as she was standing up. The wall with the shattered window suddenly exploded like a wrecking ball had slammed into it. She ducked and screamed in terror as large fragments of concrete, tiles, and plaster flew everywhere, showering the room with dust and debris.
And that’s when the horde came through. She stared, flabbergasted, as the massive group of people rushed through her bathroom and slammed into the door, which also exploded, unable to contain the crushing weight of so many bodies. The walls around the door also detonated like fireworks at a festival—only without the fire and nowhere near as pretty.
The horde soon left, and she was alone once again. Her bathroom was in ruins. Two walls were destroyed. Debris littered the floor like trash littering the streets after a riot. Sitting in her tub, she blinked several times, trying to come to terms with what just happened. She couldn’t, and so she expressed her astonishment the only way she knew how.
She fainted.
***
All he had wanted was to get a late-night snack.
Stumbling like a drunkard, his mind half-asleep, he crossed the living room toward the kitchen, where the fridge awaited him. He opened the fridge and grabbed the first thing he could get his sleepy hands on. It didn’t really matter what he was eating, just so long as he ate something.
The food turned out to be cheese. At least, he thought it was cheese. It had the sharp taste of cheese, but he wasn’t fully awake to appreciate what his tongue’s senses were telling him.
He leaned against the wall and munched on his food. Sleepy eyes blinked and eyed their surroundings, while his mind remained incognizant of anything happening around him. Everything appeared blurry to his sleep-addled mind.
Just then, the door to his living room slammed open. He blinked. Two people, a boy and a girl, rushed into the room and closed the door behind them before running further into the room. It took them a second, but they soon realized that they weren’t alone.
Eyes of cobalt and carmine stared at him. He stared back, and then raised a hand.
“Yo,” he said.
“Yo,” they said in unison.
A loud rumbling caused the floor to shake. The boy and girl looked at each other, wide eyed. Then, together, and with surprising swiftness, they bolted to the other side of the room and leapt out of the closed window, which shattered. He stared at the glass shards that now littered the floor. Then he looked at the two who were now standing on the window’s other side.
“Sorry about your window!” the boy shouted before he and the girl ran off.
He blinked several times as he munched on his food.
And that’s when the horde came.
The wall with the door through which the boy and girl had entered shattered. It broke like Legos being kicked apart by a child. It was destroyed with impunity.
They burst into the room, a large group of people. Dozens, maybe hundreds of individuals, all wearing the same blank eyes, the same drone-like expressions. They ran through his living room, rushing to the other side, toward the now broken window, which they smashed against and busted through. Then they ran out of his living room. He watched as a few last-minute stragglers lagged behind, his eyes trailing after the butt of a stiletto-heeled young woman before she disappeared from his sight.
He looked down at the cheese in his hand—or at least, what he thought was cheese.
“Maybe I should lay off the dairy,” he mused absently, and then went back to eating.
***
“Do you think we lost them?”
Kevin took several deep, calming breaths before answering Iris.
“It looks like it.”
They had run around for quite a long time. He didn’t know how much time had passed since they’d started getting chased, but it must have been at least an hour or two. Sweat caked his clothes to his skin. His lungs burned mildly from running so much. If not for his training on the track team and with Heather and Kiara, then he would have probably been laid flat by now.
After having run across what felt like half the city, he and Iris found themselves in a park. Green grass cushioned their feet. A sparse sprinkling of trees littered an open field. The sandlot stood a few feet away, along with a swing set and some monkey bars. To their left was a rundown old building, covered in graffiti, with restroom signs taped onto the doors.
“What do you think we should do now?” Iris wondered out loud. “Should we go back to the hotel?”
Kevin shook his head. “I don’t even know where we are, much less where the hotel is.”
“Then what should we do?”
Kevin needed a moment to think about what their next step should be. There wasn’t much they could do, not at this time of night. The buses were closed. He didn’t even know if this place had a taxi service. He was tired, cold, and more than a little hungry. Really, the only thing he could think of doing was finding some other hotel they could stay at for the night—what night there was left, at least.
“How about you become my slave, meow,” a voice spoke up. “I promise I’ll treat you right.”
Kevin groaned upon hearing the dreaded catchphrase. He and Iris turned to see the yōkai whom they had escaped from standing about a dozen feet to their right, the ogreish yōkai right next to him.
“You have done well to evade my slaves, meow,” the yōkai purred. “However, this chase has gone on long enough. You might have escaped those held under my meow, but now you two are in the cat’s paws, meow, and Kağan never lets his prey escape.”
Kevin and Iris stared at the yōkai for a few seconds longer, and then turned to each other.
“This guy says ‘meow’ way too much,” Kevin said.
“I agree.” Iris nodded her concurrence. “Some people just don’t know when a catchphrase is being overused.”
“This coming from the girl whose mom says ‘hawa’ every other sentence.”
Iris actually winced at that. “Low blow, Stud. Low blow.”
“Quit ignoring me, meow dammit!” Kağan shouted. When Kevin and Iris continued ignoring the man in favor of bantering back and forth, Kağan gritted his teeth and turned to Dіlara. “Show these two what happens when you ignore the cat’s meow.”
“Yes, Rabbim!”
Dіlara burst forward, dust scattering in her wake. Iris and Kevin barely had enough time to turn before she was upon them. She whipped her head around like it was a tornado. Hair lashed out like a dozen whips, each tendril slicing at the pair like blades—or so it seemed. What really happened, and what he and Iris saw as they stood further away, was the woman’s hair cutting through thin air.
An illusion.
“What?!” Dilara squawked.
Two handguns the size of Desert Eagles roared in the night. Bolts of energy were vomited from silver and black barrels in flashes of white and blue. Dіlara tried to run away. Her muscles tensed, her knees bent, yet nothing happened. She was trapped within another illusion, one that made her think her legs were entangled in dozens of vines that were sapping her strength. It was what Kevin had requested of Iris, after all.
Seemingly left with no other option, Dіlara crossed her arms in front of her face and took the projectiles head on. They pounded against her youki-reinforced body like a meteor shower of tiny pebbles. Burn marks appeared where the celestial projectiles hit. Arterial fluids sprayed out of wounds hit by the bullets composed of water-natured youki, the craterous holes akin to miniature drills digging into flesh. By the time Kevin was finished, the woman’s arms, legs, and torso looked a lot like the surface of the moon.
Silence reigned. He and Iris stared at Dіlara, who remained standing in place. The yōkai with blue skin and a hideous visage lowered her hands. Her eyes were glazed over. Mouth slack, gaping like the entrance
of a cavern. Rotted yellow teeth stained with grime and fungus added to the creature’s gruesome appearance.
Slowly, almost casually, the yōkai’s body teetered. As if that was some kind of silent cue, the blue-skinned being fell backwards, hitting the ground with a dull thump, where she remained still.
“Well,” Iris crossed her arms under her chest, “that was anticlimactic.”
“Agreed,” Kevin muttered.
Kağan stared at Dіlara’s still form. Several seconds of tense silence passed before he raised his eyes to glare at Kevin and Iris.
“Dіlara was my most trusted and loyal guard, meow.” His voice had gone feral, like a stray cat guarding its territory from other strays. “She has stayed by my side for nearly one hundred years, meow. And you hurt her, meow.”
“Is it just me or has he started saying ‘meow’ a lot more?” Kevin asked.
“I’d like to say it’s just you,” Iris stated. “But I can’t.” She sighed. “That’s going to get really annoying.”
“I thought about making you into my cat’s meow.” Kağan’s clenched fists began to shake. “But I can see now that this was a mistake.”
“Cat’s meow?” Iris blinked. “Don’t you mean cat’s nya? And why the hell would I want to be… whatever that means? That just sounds freaky. Besides, there are only two people in this world who I would ever let fuck me six ways to Sunday, and I’m gonna tell you right now, those people ain’t you.”
“What eloquence you speak with,” Kevin muttered.
“You two are both MEOW!”
“Meow?” Kevin and Iris blinked at the same time.
“Don’t you mean dead?” Iris added, right before she was stunned into silence.
Kağan’s body creaked and groaned as it slowly changed. Fur sprouted from millions of pores as his hot pink shirt ripped. Midnight black, it shone with a brilliant luster in the moonlit night as it covered his muscular chest, thick legs, and masculine arms. He grew larger, his already hulking form becoming massive, towering over Kevin and Iris by a good foot or two. Legs that once looked human shifted, knees inverting like a cat’s. Two cat ears twitched on his head and a tail that split into two toward the base sprouted behind him. Fire sprouted all over his body. The hellish flames that burned brightly within the night caused his stretch pants to disintegrate.
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