Chapter I

Meet the Noir brothers who're on a mission to find their mother's killer and learn why she was killed. Learn about the world they live in and the uh... "love" they share with each other and the world.

“You got the money?” Bald head and bright red eyes that could be seen from across the lot, he stood with arms cross, menacing, fear inducing, a classic bad guy.

“You got the goods?” Blonde hair, violet eyes, six-foot something, a stark contrast to the chuckling demon he was facing.

“I like you,” the demon said. “For a human, you’re alright.”

The blonde didn’t reply, just looked at the much shorter, younger man beside him. Blazing, dyed red hair, identical violet eyes and a chocker necklace with more holes in his head than any normal person should have.

“They’re in the warehouse,” the demon said after a moment of silence. “This way.”

He was followed by his two demonic henchmen and his guests. The warehouse was old, the concrete walls cracked with age and it was located in an abandoned city. They stopped at a table in the first room of the warehouse and the two lackeys turned to the guests.

“You understand, of course,” the demon said. “It’s all business.”

“Of course,” the blonde sighed and held his arms up so the demons could frisk him for weapons. They pulled out a gun and sword.

Finally they reached the red head and he held up his arms with a look of displeasure. They felt his red jacket and immediately pulled out five guns, six daggers, two swords, a mace, nun-chucks, holy water and more strange looking weapons.

“Is there a war going on that I don’t know about?” The red eyed demon asked.

“No,” the blonde sighed. “He’s just obsessed and paranoid.”

“With every right to be,” the shorter man replied with a glare towards the demon.

“You’re not partial to demons, eh boy?” The bald demon stood face to face with the red-head.

“Not many humans are,” the boy said.

“Tell me then, why are you here? Isn’t it against your Homo sapiens’ code to deal with a demon?” The demon said and grinned.

“It’s all business,” a cruel and distasteful quirk of the lips from the boy with a satisfied nod as the reply.

“Alright then, the goods are back this way,” again they were on the move into an empty make-shift back room.

No goods, no boxes, nothing. They demon stood there for a minute, not saying or doing anything, leaving his guests confused but ready.

“You know, demons have their own code,” the bald demon said. “Humans are terrible with business.”

And just like that weapons were pulled and the fight was on. The bald demon ran off as soon as he discovered the humans had weapons. The bigger henchmen, a tall, broad, monstrous creature faced the blonde. His face was covered in wild hair and his eyes blood shot but the blonde stood firm, confident as he took on the demon. He ducked as the beastly foe threw a heavy fist, bigger than his own head, his way.

The blonde had a knife that was attached to his wrist band, perfectly hidden from the two henchmen during the search, and now it was poised and deadly. He didn’t have much time to energize the weapon, only defend himself and scratch his opponent. He then touched the sphere to channel his spirit energy into the weapon and thrust upward, the demon’s head dropping to the floor.

The red-head faced the other demon, it was smaller than the other but still toward over him. It was quick but so was he. He blew the bangs of his short red hair out of his face and spun as a claw came at him. Unexpected, leaving a tiny scratch on his cheek, but not deadly, not to him at least. He fell to his back as the demon charged and kicked up with his black leather boot, sending the demon hurtling to the ground, its neck cracking in a deadly way. The human inside would be gone, if he wasn’t already, but the demon was still alive and lunged again.

A gun appeared in the young man’s hand, seeming to materialize into thin air right before the stunned demon’s eyes. One shot was all it took.

“Cut him off,” the blonde said as he looked over to the ringleader and they split.

The demon climbed a ladder to the upper level of the warehouse, knowing that he was being followed from below and behind. He pulled down crates, barricading the way and sped up. He thought he was in the clear, a window stood between him and his freedom; he was almost there…until he tripped. Well, until I tripped him.

“Got him!” I called and held the gun under his chin, charged and ready to go. It was the only way to kill or injure a demon, with your spirit energy and the guns allowed you to “channel” your energy to do it.

“Good job, Ozzie!” Logan smiled and ran a hand through his red hair to keep the bangs out of his eyes. He walked past me and looked down at the demon. “This is why you shouldn’t underestimate humans, because these humans are sending you back to where you belong.”

“You’re going to regret this,” the demon spat and glared up at Logan.

“Yeah, yeah,” Logan sighed with annoyance. “’Murder and mayhem, the end for all you pitiful sheep is nigh, I will rip open your belly to hear you squeal like a swine and strangle you with your own intestines.’ I’ve heard it all before.”

Logan took out his own gun and aimed, shooting the demon directly between the bright red eyes that dimmed to a glassy volcanic ash as soon as the shot hit. He returned the gun to his jacket, the bottomless pit of weapons, and looked over at Keno as he climbed a ladder.

“They really need to get new material,” Logan said and Keno gave him his condescending look of authority.

“I thought I told you to bring only one or two decoy weapons,” Keno crossed his arms and looked down at Logan disapprovingly.

“Please,” Logan scoffed. “I never leave without at least twenty weapons.”

“How do you even hide that many?” I asked and stood up, wiping the black blood off my jeans only to leave a gray smudge. Possessions were strange, but not uncommon, occurrences. The demons took on the body of the human they’re possessing but there are differences. Eye and blood color are different, demon blood always being a black sludge, and yet people were always fooled.

“It’s a secret,” Logan grinned.

“Alight,” Keno sighed and readjusted his pony tail so every blonde strand was in its place. “Let’s step aside and let the CCOR recovery take over.”

The Coalition Combatants of the Regime, or CCOR, were a military funded group specially designed for the protection of the two countries that hosted the Regime, our home country of Itaraea and another country to the south known as Caeld.  There were many subdivisions of the CCOR, not only did they protect from intruding countries such as the one to the east, Sa’hariel, but also from dangers within. Criminals, both petty and serial, demons and monsters, we did it all. We had joined the Supernatural division three years ago, when I was only thirteen. A last ditch effort on our part, they’d been trying to recruit us for years but we liked to do our own thing, but soon one dead end led to another and we had no other choice. Now, we were CCOR property.

Fancy that.

Logan and Keno were my older brothers, my only family after mom died. Keno was the oldest, six years older than I, he’d basically raised me after the raid ten years ago and the verdict still out on whether he’d done a good job, Logan wasn’t a very good role model. Logan was four years older than me though he looked to be younger, my growth spurt more effective than his, and I still wasn’t sure if the red hair and piercings were out of  true desire or just to get on Keno’s nerves. I was betting on a mix between the two.

I slid down the ladder, letting them work out their domestic issues on Logan’s obsession over weaponry while I grabbed our rucksack. It was the same one mom had stuffed in a hurry; I’d made sure we kept it all these years. If we had to make a dash escape, so did the bag.

“When are you going to get rid of that crusty, old thing?” Logan said with disgust as I slung it across a shoulder. It was true, I was probably a little too attached to the bag, but I was okay with that. You got to find home somewhere.

“Logan, you shouldn’t talk about Keno like that!” I said loudly, enough so Keno could hear as he talked to another CCOR soldier.

“Shut up!” Logan covered my mouth but it was too late. Keno cuffed him on the side of the head.

“Guys, dead guys all over the place?” He reminded us. “Try to keep the quarreling to a minimum.”

“When are we leaving?” Logan sighed with impatience.

“Soon,” Keno replied. “They’re getting the train ready now.”

I was surprised we hadn’t had to find our own transportation to the abandoned city. We may have been the best hunters the CCOR had but we were still kids and they never let us forget that. They were always testing us, as if the initial exam and interview weren’t enough, seeing how far they could push us until we did everything their way.

Too bad for them, our will was stronger.

“Where are we going next?” I asked and watched as they took the bald demon away. I hadn’t killed him or the human soul trapped inside, but I still felt guilt and wondered who he’d been. I’ve never had to kill a demon before, Logan and Keno had always done it. My conscience was unwilling to let me kill a human, demon possession or no.

“I just got a message from the case General,” Keno sighed. “He wants us to head north at the next station.”

“Slave driver,” Logan muttered bitterly as he returned his weapons to his jacket. “What’s up north?”

“Not much,” Keno said and went back to singing papers and speaking with officials.

We were on our way to the train and I looked up at the gray sky, clouded over as usual. I wondered what the sun looked like, what it felt like to have sunshine hit my face. No one remembered what it meant to have blue skies, or what the twinkle of the stars were like, they were only legends, but I’d always enjoyed hearing about them.

Suddenly I felt a chill run through my spine and turned around quickly. We weren’t alone, we were being watched and it wasn’t by a human. I grabbed Keno’s wrist and looked at his radar to see if it picked up any demonic entities we may have missed but it remained blank.

“Do you feel something?” Keno asked with concern. One of the reasons the CCOR had been so persistent in recruiting us was because I had a few abilities. I didn’t need a radar like most of the CCOR because I knew what was a demon or a monster and what was not just by looking at them.

I couldn’t tell what exactly was watching us, some kind of creature or demon; I’d never sensed something like it before. It almost felt human but it was strong, very strong, and different. Wrong. Unnatural. I continued to scan the old, cracked rooftops and empty alleyways.

“It’s nothing,” I said. “It’s probably just the wind.”

Alright, so there was no wind, and he understood what I was doing. People treated me different because of these abilities so I, being the teen that I am, was always in denial and trying to be normal. He turned to look back and scan the rooftops while Logan continued to speed ahead, only stopping when he realized we had.

“Why’d you stop?” He asked. “Let’s go!”

“Why are you in such a hurry?” Keno asked. “We may have missed something.”

“No, we didn’t!” Logan came and started pushing me towards the train. “Ozzie’s just over tired and over worked, the scanners aren’t picking anything up, let’s go!”

Keno and I looked at each other, suspicious, but followed Logan as he rushed towards the old train station. Suddenly, he began chuckling which soon turned to a maniacal laugh. Again, Keno and I gave each other wary looks and stopped.

“I hate it when he laughs like that,” I said. “It never ends well.”

“Logan,” Keno said. “What did you do?”

“Oh, you know, I may have left a stick or five of dynamite in the warehouse and I may have dropped a lit match onto them.” Logan snickered and as if on cue there was a loud boom. We both turned and watched as a building crumpled to the ground. A large plume of dust and rubble spread out in a cloud from the building, the shock of air nearly knocking me over. My arm covered my face as the dust blew over the three of us like a wave, I could still hear Logan laughing.

The cloud cleared and I blinked a few times to get the dust off my long eyelashes. I picked up my long, black pony tail and saw that it was now brown. I looked different from my brothers, they were both natural blondes like my father while my hair was a thick obsidian like our mothers. The only similarity we had was our violet eyes, a trademark of the Noir family. I looked over to see Logan wiping a happy tear from his eye and Keno glaring at him, his ivory skin now tan with dirt. I bit my lip, trying not to laugh because, as Keno always told me: “it’ll only encourage him.”

“I told you no dynamite!” Keno shouted. He was frozen with anger and unable to wipe the dirt off his face.

“Yeah,” Logan said, trying to sound innocent. He wasn’t. “But, you see-“

“No!” Keno sighed. “No ‘but, you sees’! Someone could have gotten hurt!”

“I made sure everyone was evacuated,” Logan shrugged.

“Yeah, our people, what if there was someone else?” Keno asked.

“Well what are they doing in a ghost town? Well, more of a demon town, but you catch my drift.” Logan crossed his arms.

“Listen all I’m saying is-” There was a deep rumble, resulting in another boom. Keno didn’t bother to turn around, already knowing what was happening. Logan and I both watched as another building came tumbling down, the shock wave of the first explosion causing a domino effect on the unstable buildings nearby.

Needless to say, we ran the rest of the way.

Logan, being the shortest and fastest was the first to the train, catapulting himself into the box car and moving to the side to allow Keno and I in. We dodged to the side as dust clouds rolled in, engulfing the train. We sat for about a minute, one building collapsing after another. I looked over to see Keno still glaring at Logan,  who was now realizing the error in his actions.

“Okay, so maybe five sticks were a little excessive,” Logan said and Keno rested his forehead in his palm with frustration.

It was a hard life, especially since we'd been doing it since we were young, but we were determined and stubborn. A demon had killed our mother and we had to find it. Keno said that mom told him that the demons wanted something from us and he wanted to know what. But while the life was hard, even though my nights were filled with nightmares, you learned a lot about the world.

Darkness lurks in every truth, and evil in every shadow, it was a hard lesson but in this life, it was the most essential. Without it, you might not survive and for us, survival was everything.

 

Author's Note

Alright... FINALLY got an update, I'm not sure if it's long enough but I guess it's okay for the first chapter. Let me know what you think!
I'm going to try and set up an updating schedule, I was thinking maybe once a month but I'm not sure. Chapter II will be up soon.

Reviews

[Willow's Sky]

Very well done! The humor in it was very funny, and the descriptions were very well done! My favorite line was: "Darkness lurks in every truth, and evil in every shadow, it was a hard lesson but in this life, it was the most essential. Without it, you might not survive and for us, survival was everything." It has a very mysterious feel to it that fit the chapter very well. This plot is growing on me. :-)

[Century]

I think it's a good length, and I lurve it. My favorite part is when Logan said "'Murder and mayhem, the end for all you pitiful sheep is nigh, I will rip open your belly to hear you squeal like a swine and strangle you with your own intestines.' I've heard it all before." That was pretty funny. Why did we both think up the purple eyes without any communication whatsoever?

[RunsWithCats]

I thought this chapter was really cool. The action was interesting, the characters were unique and fun, and the humor in there was hilarious. Great job! God Bless and have a great Christmas XD