The Star Eater

by Marco Antônio Loureiro

  Joseph's memoties are interrupted by the sad howl that washes over the crash site. Yura immediately falls into a battle stance, wielding her cursed axe.

  "Doctor! No matter what happens or what comes from the darkness. Don't move away from me." The Ukranian says, protecting Joseph's back.

  "My God." As he hears the wail, the doctor feels fear and sadness like he has never felt before. His first thoughts are of Andreas.

  "Stay with me, doctor! Don't let your mind be taken." Yura commands, noticing Joseph is allowing the fear to take over.

  Aaron burst forth from behind a car with his saber in hand, his back to the group, looking in the direction he came from. Eyes focused on the darkness. Yura knows that look, the threat is coming.

  It all happens too fast, the stepping sounds indicating the imminent arrival. The first one emerges from the dark followed by a crowd of dominated people, craving the flesh of the crash survivors.

  Aaron kills the first man with a precise cut to the throat and positions himself trategically, next to Yura, shoulder-to-shoulder with his battlefield partner, as the corpse falls lifeless by their feet. It still fails around while the agents wait for the next threat.

  Yura starts channeling her dark power. Her eyes become red and slit as the arcane words are uttered. "I summon the power of Gorynych! I, heir to tartarus, summon the power of Zmey, ancestral dragons of Earth!" When she finishes her skin is a little darker, as if it was singed by fire. Joseph watches her transformation, terrified.

  More of them burst forth from the shadows. One by one they attack whatever is in their way. The first five are drawn to Aaron and Yura. They defende themselves without moving from their positions, protecting Joseph and the girl hiden in the car.

  Aaron manages to avoid the first attack, dodging and letting the aggressor lose his balance after missing the target. As soon as he falls to the ground the rune sword finishes him.

  Yura is more aggressive, more savage, she holds her weapon with both hands, jumps vertically and eliminates her first target with an axe blow between the eyes.

  In another spot of the crash site, officer Augusto, Joseph's loyal nurse, shoots a woman who rushes towards him. Several bullets hit her body. She does not seem to feel pain and carries on her attack. The officer keeps shooting until one of the bullets hits her head and she falls to the ground.

  Before he has time to celebrate his victory, two man rush towards him. Augusto tries to reload his weapon unsuccessfully and becomes an easy target. As he is hit, he spits blood and drops his gun. His vision is blurry and he tries to identify his enemies. Others jump on his back and start biting his neck, he tries to scream for help, but falls to the ground. It doesn't take long until his desperate cries give room to silence as he starts being devoured.

  Joseph screams as he sees his poor friend's fate, drawing attention of another hungry group. The other patients are attacked in the same way as the cop and star being eaten. Screams of panic and despair echo throughout the med camp.

  Pleas are heard all around. Those capable of running venture forth into the dark; it's possibe to hear them being killed in the shadows.

  The mourning howl continues.

  Six of them approach the Blade agents, positioned side by side to protect Joseph and the broken-armed girl, who cries endlessly.

  Yura finishes off the quickest, ripping his jaw off with an upwards blow.

  A huched woman runs, dragging a club on the floor. Her hair hides some of her face, but Yura recognizes the same jetset eyes, with black webbed strains moving as if they were life.

  The attacked prepares to attack as soon as she gets close enough. Yura is feeling the combat's adrenaline. She smiles, enjoying the heat of battle. The Ukranian parries the club with her axe haft, using the strength summoned from the ancied spirits of her land, but does not notice the attacker to her right, who manages to stab his knife between her ribs.

  Yura howls with pain but keeps the club parried. Her how resounds in bass note, as if there were two people screaming at the same time.

  Aaron sheathes his saber and takes on a iaijutsu stance, a samurai technique of quick and precise movements, and empties his mind, trying to be one with the environment. He perceives Yura and those that attack her. He feels her partner's pain as she is hit by the knife. To her back are Joseph and the girl, who are not threats. To his front, two attackers rushing towards him. The couple's clothes are as ragged as those of the other cannibals. In their faces, hunger and killer instinct. As he notices them, the runes in his sword activate.

  Blue flames run along the ancient inscriptions in his weapon and also escape through his closed eyelids. Both enemies attack at the same time. Their mouths open, craving for the taste of human flesh. Aaron lets them get very close. One step away. He draws his weapon and deals a precise blow, hitting his two opponents with the same swing. Their heads roll on the ground while he gets ready for the next cannibal.

  Yura, still reeling with pain, manages to knock the knife-wielding attacker down with an elbow strike. The bloodied weapon falls to the ground. The wound bleeds profusely, drenching her clothes quickly. Anyone would have fainted after being on the receiving end of such a strike, but her body is charged by the ancient powers of her land and can withstand even greater punishment. But she needs to pull herself together before the man with the knife can strike again.

  Yura then tries a risky maneuver; she shifts her body around, blocking the club with her shoulder instead of her axe, therefore freeing the weapon and allowing her to finish the enemy with a side strike to his face.

  The strategy works, but allows another enemy to taget her back. The thick piece of wood hits Yura in her back. She hunches down with the strength of the blow, falling to her knees, still wielding her axe.

  "Damn!" She spits blood. Aaron is still busy with another enemy. She needs to deal with this alone.

  Aaron finishes another opponent, with a steady step and another precise blow. Joseph opens the car's door, looking for his patient. "Let's go, kid! We need to get out of here!"

  "I don't want to die! Please..." The poor teenager is in panic. But she takes Joseph's hand and starts getting out of the car.

  "Watch out, Yura!" The girl screams, seeingthe Ukranian on her knees and bleeding. The attacker who almost knocked her out raises her weapon again. Yura knows she can't take another blow. But something unexpected happend and, despite the being hit, she sees Joseph irrationally grabbing the aggressor by her waist, throwing her to the ground. The club falls far away.

  This distraction is perfet for Yura, who manages to get up. She looks at her fallen opponeng and sees the doctor grappling with her. Joseph screams as his arm is bitten. His pain does't last long, Yura jumps and splits the woman's skull in two with a violent axe strike.

  Only Yura, Joseph, Aaron and the girl are alive. The remaining survivors are dead and being devoured. The last enemy facing them has been killed by Aaron. Yura holds Joseph's hands and helps him stand up. She is bleeding a lot, she misculated the enemies' strength.

  "We have to get out of here now. Before they finish eating." Aaron commands, pointing towards the closest motorcycles, his and Yura's and the recently deceased officers'.

  All four walk stealthily, trying not to draw the attention of the cannibal hord feasting at the crash site. As she gets to the closest motorcycle, which belonged to the deceased officer Augusto, Yura searched it and finds an automatic pistol. "Can you shoot, doctor?" She aks Joseph, showing him the gun.

  "Yes, I had to train with the army before I joined Doctors With Borders." Joseph answers flatly. The doctor checks the weapon like a professional, verifying ammunition and cocking it.

  He aims the pistol towards the monster that still feeds on his friend, , Augusto. He coldly calculates the bullet's trajectory. Aaron nnotices the doctor's eyes and comes over, lowering the gun. "This is not the time, brother. You will have a chance for your revenge. Right now, we have others to protect." — Aaron speaks camly, pointing towards
the girl hugging Yura. Without saying anything, Joseph nods in agreement and holsters the gun.

  They find another gun in the other cop's motorcyle. Yura keeps this one.

  "Yura and I are driving. We have to start the engines at the same time. Get ready!"

  The moment the engined rev up, an inhuman spider-like creature jumps from the shadows and grabs the injuted girl, dropping her to the ground. The cannibal horde closes in.

  "Stop the bike!" Joseph tells Yura.

  Yura and Aaron look at each other. They know the girl is already dead. "It's too late, doctor!"

  They can't risk it. Even under the doctor's protests, both agents go forth at high speed, showcasing their skill as pilots, blazing through the highway, heading north.

  Aaron still wondered who or what sang that sad wail that compelled those poor bastards.

  Chapter 12

  The Invader

  Angiolina is sitting at her dinner table, drumming her fingers. In front of her, a cup of hot coffee ready to be drunk. The Sicilian's thoughts are far away, closer to the girl who is in danger. Someone she does not know personally, but that she feels compelled to help. And worse, her dear friend and best client Victor Carlyle is involved.

  Angiolina tries, for a few minutes, to get any useful information from the radio. Most stations are offline, she loses count of how many different noises she heard; frustrated, she turns the dial at random. She is used to having answers when she uses her intuition to solve things. That's how she is.

  When she tunes to 976.0 AM, she gets her first piece of information. It sounds like a religious radio, because the host is praying.

  "Mathew 10:21, a sign of the end times. The lion of Judah will come back! 'Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.'" The host pauses dramatically and continues his sermon. "In the streets, brothers! Those who do not believe in Christ became mindless cannibals, become INSANE! Devouring their like! Tribulation is upon us! Take up arms, then, for the "Real Church of Zealot Christ" summons its soldiers."

  Angiolina gets up to pick another cup of coffee. It's the third or fourth this evening, she is not sure. Maybe it's the effect of so much coffee, but the preacher's words catch her attention.

  "Today, brothers, I have me one of these monsters! And they ran away when they saw my faith!"

  "It's a lie...", a voice inside Angio's head says. "He hid inside a closet while his mother was being devoured...", Angiolina takes a few steps back, handos on her face.

  The preacher gives a life or death ultimatum on the radio.

  "Those that believe in Christ should take up weapons against the sons of the Beast. Be reborn as God's zealots, modern crusaders in search of redemption."

  "My God...", Angiolina says, frightened by what she hears.

  "Today, my brothers, I've met the cannibals! And I used the Lord's faith to protect me! The shield of shields!" The preacher keeps screaming on the radio.

  "And he cried inside the closet, like a little girl." The voice inside Angiolina's head is sarcastic, evil. It keeps seeding her thoughts with doubt.

  When she least expects it, she feels a chill up her spine. He eye caught a glimpse of a shade int he room's corner, she decides to look. Her cousin Giovanna appears, she waves wistfully. She is a ghost. While she tries to keep her hands from shaking, she looks around the room, her relatives and restaurant employees wave her goodbyeand walk out of the house. Through the wall. Angiolina immediately understands, they have perished by the insane's hands and came back to say goodbye.

  The last to appear are her sister and her sister's husband. Angio tries to reach her sister and hold her. But she only manages to touch the room's cold air. In a last warning, her sister points to her necklace's pendant, shaped as a girl wearing a dress. A message: Rafaellais not dead.

  Angiolina sits down on an armchair, still shaking. She can feel the souls saying goodbye and the fear grows in her chest. She doesn't know how to get Rafaella. If everyone died it's because the insane can only be true. The sarcastic voice that had talked to her earlier speaks again.

  "I can do this for you, I can get her for you." The voice now comes from a direction, from an armachair in the room. The humanoid shadow with a sinister aura takes shape. A Dark soul.

  A noise by her gate interrupts Angiolina's terror.

  "Stay here, cursed sou! And do nothing!" Angiolina affirms her control over the Dark firmly and runsto the house's window, to see the back gate.

  Angiolina turns off the lights and rushes to one of the kitchen's drawers. She eyes it quickly until she finds a knife and positions herself by the entrance door, leaning on the wall. Meanwhile, the preacher continues her divine curse in search of soldiers for his cause. She is sweating, nervous and afraid.

  She can hear steps approaching her house's entrance. The intruded forces the lock several times.

  The intruded breaks the door's glass. Angiolina can see, in the semi-darkness, an arm going though the hole and trying to reach the lock. She wavers for a second and stabs it with the tip of the knife. The invader screams in pain.

  When he moves back to nurse the pierced arm, she looks through the hole and notices it's the driver who works for her friend Victor Carlyle.

  "Nathan?!" Angio asks, scared.

  "Yes, ma'am. ARGH! I came to fetch you!" The bodyguard answers, still nursing the wound.

  "And why the hell didn't you ring the bell? Or clap?" The Sicilian asks as she opens the door. "Come, let me see that cut."

  Nathan accepts the invitation and comes in.

  "We need to get out of here. The city is in chaos and Carlyle is waiting for you."

  "And where is he?" Angiolina asks, after turning off the radio and turning on the lights.

  Nathan is a tall muscular man, with short cropped hair and a stern face. In Angio's opinion, he looks like an action movie star.

  "Master Carlyle is in a building downtown waiting for two agents and you. He wants to find out what is happening and how to prevent it. And he knows your mediumship might come in handy."

  "Find out, prevent? I knew he was hiding something, but I have no idea what it is."

  "It's a secret order, maybe he'll tell you more about it. What is happening can be an effect of something bigger and darker. I don't know exactly why, but I know it might have to do with the disappearance of some scientists from Nix Observatory, that institute at Serra da Bruma." Nathan tells what he knows as Angiolina bandages his wound.

  She remembers the visions and the lady she saw in her dreams. The missing scientists and the observatory might be connected to her. Angiolina ponders, despite her hands still being shaking for the loss of her family, that she can do something for the woman taken hostage.

  "Alright , I'll go to the hotel with you. But we have a problem..."

  Then, suddenly,Angiolina stands up. A child's cry echoes outside the house.

  Through the window, Angiolina sees Rafaella going up the stairs, slowly, using her hands to climb the steep steps. A sinister creature follows her, a few yards away.

  "Don't go over there, Sovereign." The Shadow announces. "If you go outside and meet that, there will be nothing of you left."

  Chapter 13

  Rafaella, the Niece

  The rough voice that talks to Angiolina is a Shadow. Of all the entities classified in professor Malaquias R. L. Sobek's paranormal research guide, this is one of the worst. In the book, it is said that the sould who walk the shadows can be the most evil, cruel and dangerous. The psychic has already relied on one of these entities for help in the past... and paid costly for that.

  Angiolina, beyond her mediumship, has the gift of bending the will of spirits. Since she was a child, she was taught by her nonna that she made part of a great Sicilian line of psychics and, at each generation of her family, individuals with special gifts were born. Her grandma, for example, had the ability to read a corpse's guts, as is done with bones or coffee grounds
. And there was a great aunt who could say how many days were left before a person died.

  She was a Sovereign. Because her will and wishes were above the wishes of souls around her. But she did not have full control of that. She did not like to 'practice'.

  But she was in a desperate plight, Rafaella was trying to go up the stairs, slowly. Followed by a horrendous creature.

  It is like a giant shapeless slug. Always moving, but slowly. Bones sprout from pustules in its skin, vomiting blots of clotted blood. The maladorous stench fills the house in minutes.

  Angiolina's despair is bigger when she notices she has already seen the creature. In one of ther astral trips throughout the planes. She knew its name, Vorta'hu, one of the many hungry spirits, a terrible creature that would swallow any living thing in its way. She saw several of there creatures absorbing whole populations and becoming ever bigger.