Chapter Two

1

 

      "I thought it was over," Heather said dully as she staggered into the corridor and sank to her knees. Her fingers curled and disappeared into a pile of gore.  Emerging  between skulls and spilled intestines a carbon pillar rotated on a unseen axis and as she scurried back a voice hissed with an everlasting echo that pounded in her ears.

 

      "it's never over!"

 

     2

 

     Embedded in ruins treasures glinted as ruby eyes widened at the beauty of their sparkle. Fixed in a scarred and disfigured face they shifted to again focus on Destra and it was then Dyne stiffened.

 

     "Dagger," he began slowly, "is the least of your concerns."

 

     Her thin black lips tightened as she hissed, "Is there someone more intrusive than she?"

 

     Dyne looked up. "Well, Krosnos."

 

     She swiveled around on her tail and narrowed her vision. With a black sliver of tongue she licked her pitted chin. As thin pearls of spit slithered down her throat she let out a low moan. It rippled into a wet grunt. Then as she hunkered down she replied in a hiss, "Enemies will never cease."

 

     "By the light of hate I think that is true," Dyne said.

 

     "Hate has nothing to do with it. Humans are the true enemy! You are still young and may not understand that they are a doomed species with no real purpose. They hold such crude ideas. Little do they know their brains are far too puny to fully grasp the true concept of life, death and reasoning behind it." She paused as her webbed fingers clawed at murky soil mixed with meat. "You see this?"

 

     Dyne nodded as he glided to one side. It was a lovely length of skinless wonder. He slowly followed the drip of blood and smiled.

 

     "This is what makes them believe they are truly something special, but they are pathetic for assuming this. Their arrogance is the only thing that makes them truly unique," Destra continued.

 

     "We have no right to judge them," Dyne said as he continued to eye the goo mingling with dirt. "I think that maybe we are the arrogant ones."

 

     "Only a traitor will say something like that," she hissed.

 

    Dyne squatted as he tapped his elongated nose. It dipped to one side as though made from wax, bubbled and fell away. Now a gaping hole remained. He casually prodded it with a razor finger and peered skyward.

 

     "I am not a traitor. I just do not want to waste my eternity hating something that really won't last long anyway. Why don't you just let well enough alone?"

 

     Destra straightened. Her arms coiled against her chest, glistened as slime beaded to the surface of her skin and lathered every blotchy section. A shiver coursed up the underside of her tail and divided its meat. From the chasm whipped emerald tentacles spitting putrid fluid that discolored everything it touched.

 

     "How dare you suggest such a thing," she roared.

 

     Dyne grimaced as he flashed backward out of her reach. Like a hot electric streak he shot down a fog consumed avenue.  He came to a halt just before a sharp turn in the road and closed his eyes.  It was then her sweet fragrance filled his nostrils and as he followed it's trail the richness of it overwhelmed him.

 

     "None of this is real," she said, her brown eyes wide as she raised quaking hands to cover her mouth. "Where am I? What are you?"

 

     "I rather not answer that straight away," he answered softly. Then he scrunched up his lips and sighed. The pained look on her face tugged at something he never thought existed within him.

 

     She receded, stumbled and nearly lost her footing until she grabbed hold of a railing to her left. Holding herself up she sobbed and held her hand out in front her like a shield.

 

     He flashed forward to appear behind her and she whirled around with a scream. His razor fingers tapped on the rail. They clanged as he tilted his head and smiled.

 

     "Let's play, Lisa" he seethed.

 

3

 

     Tilting a pink plastic cup to his lips he pretended to drink. As he slurped down the imaginary liquid he looked at her. He set aside his cup and asked, "Would you like more tea?"

 

     Across from him seated in a dirty little chair the woman sobbed. Her cup and plate remained untouched. She looked left and then right as tears coursed down her cheeks.

 

     "Please don't hurt me," she whimpered.

 

     Dyne smiled. He smoothed a wrinkle in the table cloth dressing the small table and proceeded to reach for a taller synthetic cup in the center. He tilted the mouth carefully over her cup and then sat it up. Though nothing came out of it he dabbed with a soiled handkerchief at a spot next to her spoon.

 

     "This is just divine," Dyne said after another long sip. He was about to take another sip when a wall of dust rushed in. It molded into a shape of split head atrocity that oozed thick glops and Dyne's lips instantly sagged. Like a balloon they blew out air with a rude noise.

 

     "What are you doing," Krosnos barked.

 

     Dyne's eyes rounded twice their normal size, looked like they might pop. Slowly he put down his cup on a saucer plate and turned in his chair to look at his sibling.

 

     The woman cringed, tears springing from her eyes like waterfalls as she gripped the table and stared.

 

     "I am just having a tea party," Dyne replied simply. "Did you want to join us?"

 

     "You pathetic fool," Krosnos bellowed. "You do not play such idiotic games, especially with humans! Kill her! Kill her now!"

 

    Dyne sniffed noisily. He looked over at the woman then frowned. In a blinding flash he seized her by the wrist and yanked her out of her chair. Pulling her along he broke into a run she could easily follow and together they bolted into a corridor with Krosnos close behind.  He glanced over his shoulder and flicked a finger as though flicking a bug and quickly the walls slammed into one another, sealing off Krosnos' pursuit.

 

4

 

     Destra whipped her tongue at a lamp post. Instantly its corroded metal steamed and imploded. Its glass popped and dissolved into the endless rolling fog that swelled over her as she slithered forward.  She paused a moment as a skinless wonder shuffled by. From a yawning wound in its chest, acid streamed in uneven strips across broken pavement. It hissed and sizzled, tore festering sores open that burrowed deep beneath the surface.

 

     "Such wonders are a treasure," Destra moaned.

 

     "But not nearly hellish enough," Krosnos seethed.

 

     Destra whipped around to face him. "What is it now?"

 

     Beady black eyes emerged within a gray mass before her. Its base generated bouts of crimson lightning that followed thunder and the stench of decay.

 

     "Perhaps it is best we set aside our differences," he said.

 

     "And why would I agree to such an absurd thing?"

 

     The shape contorted, pressed outward as features slowly began to evolve. "Because our vision of hell cannot come forth without our unique touch. Dagger and that fool Dyne are working together. They will save whoever stumbles into our realm."

 

     "And such a vision is hopeless with those two meddling in our affairs," Destra spat.

 

    "Why is it that we meet under these circumstances," Krosnos asked.

 

     Destra blew out a gastric cloud that browned instantly and tore bouts of fog apart. In its wake orange strings curled and faded.  "Does it really matter anymore? The story won't change," Destra hissed. "Whether horrors continue or they cease these days are neglected. I feel it. Don't you feel it?"

 

     He skated a few inches to his left and tilted his inky silhouette skyward. "Then maybe we should forget existence altogether."

 

     "I think existence would forget one way or another. Some while ago I think it turned into a lousy game that plays by only mortal rules. They abide by their lust and need for carnal satisfaction. They drown their sorrows with poison."

 

     "No," he growled. "It must go on. Just because eyes do not see doesn't mean sight is worthless."

 

     Destra bared fangs as they jetted from her swollen black gums. She arched her back and sent venom high into the air. As she watched it fall she added, "Then no more talk."

 

     "Then let's unleash the berserkers."

 

     "And so is that it," Dagger said. She strode forward from a whipping black sea that churned from nowhere. "You condemn humans just like that? Where is the right?"

 

     Instantly they rounded on her.

 

     "You have no business here," Destra countered. "Haven't you taken a good look lately? Their essence stains the idea of life."

 

     Dagger shifted her focus to Krosnos as he interjected, "You are distracting us. What the hell for? Why are you choosing them instead of us?"

 

     As she took a step back and shoved her hands deep in her canary pants pockets she answered, "Because I can."