Blue Words - Part I

by M.C. Edwards

Kyran. Well...it was.”

  “That’s where your story falls apart.” Her voice was becoming agitated. “If what you say is true he must be well over a hundred years old or something.”

  Gudrik hardened his tone in response, “Believe what you will, but he is the monster who killed my kind and survived the following generations as a parasite, and it’s well over a hundred years.”

  George had no idea what to say. The story was a lie, it had to be, yet there was so much passion in his statement. Then, wasn’t that exactly what one would expect from an evil Warlock, a master deceiver? George’s evaluation was soon cut short as a distraction rang. The sound of sirens closed in around them, stealing their attention. George ran to the window to see a mix of flashing squad cars and unmarked black sedans crowding the building. “Thank you Edna.”

  “Damn, I thought we would have had more time before they identified me from the footage. It’s time to hand ourselves in and sort this out Gudrik,” suggested George, praying he would take her advice and end this.

  “No we must leave,” he growled franticly. “These men are not to be trusted, Kyran has turned them.” George rolled her eyes.

  “Gudrik, things are different now. They are police out there, not his men. If you are innocent the system will protect you.” Gudrik glared out the window watching the authorities surrounding the building, his doubts festered. He had seen firsthand the misinformed hysteria which mankind was capable of. Fear drives people to react without guidance. It was only out of respect for George and what she had done for him that he even considered what she was suggesting. Just as he was ready to reconcile himself with trusting her advice, a gunshot rang out down the hall of the building. George and Gudrik both sprang to alarm.

  “Tabitha!” George screamed. Gudrik accepted her distress as permission to do things his way. He snatched the blue handled kitchen knife from her.

  “Karniu!” he cried as he slashed its blade down his arm.

  The blood glowed. Gudrik twitched and his body mass exploded, instantly shredding yet another set of clothes. Bones cracked, skin tore and muscles stretched as he shifted agonisingly into a large, black beast. The groans of pain changed into a feral growl as his vocal pipes grew. When the process had run its course, Gudrik dwarfed George and had an appearance which sat somewhere between that of a man and a bear. The beast snapped and salivated, leaving George to wonder whether or not Gudrik was even in charge of the gruesome monster. If she truly had any idea how tenuously Gudrik clung to his humanity, George would have fled in terror. The snarling monstrosity leant forward slamming its hands on the ground with a heavy thud. The wooden floor crunched as it dug its claws in twitching and coiling its thick muscles. Then without any warning the beast launched itself straight through the closed door.

  Splinters sprayed out in all directions as the beast tore down the hallway toward the open door of Edna’s apartment. It burst into the room. Through the sharpened, yellow hue of the beast’s vision Gudrik saw two policemen and several of Kyran’s grey men standing over Edna’s lifeless body. One was holding Tabitha by the arm. She was screaming and blubbering in a confused terror. The men, whom had obviously by then noticed the hulking bear-human hybrid growling in the doorway, frantically drew their weapons and began firing. Gudrik leapt around the room with blurring speed. The shadows seemed to swarm to the creature as it moved, shrouding it. He avoided most of the initial shots and sprung from the wall onto the ceiling as if he had cast free the laws of gravity. The long talon like claws ripped through the brick and plasterboard as if they were butter, casting shrapnel and dust about the room as he scurried. Focusing on his targets he crawled along the ceiling on all fours, faster than the men could follow.

  Spurred by the feral instincts of the beast, yet controlled by the Warlock’s concern for the child, he launched into the group of men. With bloody grace he tore through them in a rabid flurry of claws and teeth, all the while desperately avoiding the delicate prize which stood amongst them.

  Tabitha clenched her eyes tightly closed. Still she heard the screams, the snarls, the shots, the tearing of flesh and she felt the warmth of blood.

  George entered to a scene of utter devastation. Her stomach turned, but she fought it back. Gudrik stood once again in his human form, naked and dripping with blood. He was surrounded by the mangled signs of carnage. Metallic taps rang out as bullet wounds spat their projectiles with puffs of blue spray and seeped closed. In his arms Gudrik delicately cradled a blood spattered Tabitha.

  George screamed. The bodies panicked her, especially the ones with badges. Her protective instincts crept in. She shut the door to hide the crime and ran over to Gudrik, snatching her daughter from his blood soaked arms; they still quivered with the adrenaline of battle.

  “She is unharmed,” he growled drawing deep laboured breaths. George furiously wiped her distraught daughter clean and slathered her in cuddles and comfort. Holding Tabitha close to her chest George surveyed the mess of blood and distorted bodies on the ground, all the while still fighting to keep the contents of her stomach down.

  “You can’t just kill people Gudrik, there are consequences. These men have families.......well, had families.”

  Visibly annoyed at being scolded by a woman a millennia his younger, Gudrik bit back.

  “These men, killed her,” he pointed at Edna lifelessly slumped in her chair, “and they would have killed the child too had I not interfered. The lawmen may have been honourable under normal circumstances, but you do not understand the power of his rhetoric,” he shouted, slamming his fist on a nearby cabinet. “He convinces the ruling powers of my evil and sells them on his heroism and piety. The soldiers simply follow their misguided orders without question, as any good soldier must. That’s how it happened then and it’s how it will happen today. I am not pleased you were dragged into this, but it seems that the fates have chosen us to fight this battle together. You gave me my freedom and in honour of that I will keep the both of you alive as long as I can keep my head on my shoulders.” George was taken aback by that comment. She had never had anyone dedicate their life to her. “But never question my methods of doing so again. Any hesitation on my part could end in your death, or even more tragically, the child’s.”

  The fire was suddenly back in George’s eyes. “I may not have been through all of...well...whatever this is before,” George screamed, waving her free hand dramatically, “but I understand the time we are in much better than you. People’s beliefs are not so easily warped and controlled by fear as they were in your time. We are more intelligent, more civilised, more free thinking and more capable of making our own decisions.”

  Gudrik’s patience had worn through by this stage. He didn’t have time to waste. “You only demonstrate ignorance and arrogance with what you say. People are no more or less gullible than they have ever been. It seems they simply have a more inflated opinion of themselves today. If you cannot cope with what I will, and must do then walk away now and I will happily wash my hands and conscience of your deaths, which will come swiftly, believe me.”

  “Fine!” George yelled storming toward the door, child in hand. “Julian Drake was right about you, you are a monster!”

  She furiously ripped the door open, nearly tearing it off its hinges. Abruptly a large, dark man loomed in the doorway and effortlessly bundled her back into the apartment where he clasped her and Tabitha tightly captive. Instinct moved Gudrik as he glanced for something, anything sharp. On the small table beside Edna’s chair he spied her sewing scissors. In one swift motion he snatched them up and slashed their blade deeply across his bare chest. “Spirtis-fawn.” A long flurry of black tentacles burst from his chest, twisting and reaching their way across the room straight at the mysterious intruder. The dark appendages wrapped tightly around his arms, coiling and clenching, until with a vice like grip they pried his grasp off George and Tabitha. They leapt free and took refuge in a corner of the room.

  “Histfush,” the strange
r whispered. His entire form collapsed in on itself, distorting to a puff of hazy, blue mist. The tentacles flopped to the ground with a dull, moist thud. The cloud drifted across the room as the tentacles lashed at it. Blue swirls broke off with every strike. Suddenly it pulsed back into human form and the stranger once again stood before them. The twisted mass of tentacles snapped quickly back into Gudrik’s chest. George still huddled in the corner, doing her best to shield Tabitha. She shot glances between the door and the stranger, wondering if she could make a break for it. The stranger was still too close.

  Gudrik shouted at the stranger in tones which were foreign to George, all hisses and grunts. The stranger then replied in turn using the same obscure gibberish. The defiant shouting back and forth continued, until gradually their demeanour began to relax and an air of peace took the violence ravaged room.

  “You must leave now Gudrik of The Twelve. There are more. Many more,” said the mysterious stranger, switching his speech to thickly accented English.

  “Who are you?” Gudrik rumbled sternly.

  “Time is of the essence Varth-lokkr. There will be an explanation later, but right now I have a promise to keep, a promise to Scurt of The