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You are further prohibited from copying, distributing or in any way using the written materials of the author without his prior written consent to do so.
All that aside! Please enjoy! Feedback is always appreciated. The author can be reached at corporeal09@yahoo.com
A muted neon light flickered on and off unexpectedly just behind a dimly lit bar. Patrons were strewn about the pub randomly. Some had even already fallen over. Behind the counter, an older man was stooped, slowly cleaning pint glasses with a black oily dish rag. Above his head, many different kinds of glasses were hung in rungs from the roof, each one spotted with dust and the dull sheen of muck and grime.
An old tv strapped to the ceiling at the corner of the bar fuzzed with silent static. The nearby grizzled old men sat stock-still and gaped at the television with broken teeth.
At the far corner of the room was a door. No one looked at the door. No one noticed it. Even the long time patrons would look at you funny if you mentioned the door. Even if you went so far as to point out the door to them they'd hardly notice you much less the door so when a dim light flickered just under the door, the gap between the door and floor, no one so much as blinked.
A click sounded through the quiet bar as the door opened on its own and swung ever so slowly open. Just behind the door, from the deep recesses of the room beyond, came a rolling bank of fog. Or was it smoke? Who could tell?
Who noticed?
Through the fog, a figure moved; the shape of a person clearly visible through the thick veil of mist. Finally, the figure broke through the vapors, his red eyes gleaming brightly even in the faded light of the bar. Quickly, and as if on cue, the fog curled backwards into the forgotten room like some sort of ethereal hand recoiling into a fist; the door shutting closed when the gas was fully inside.
The man walked to the bar and sat down.
The old man behind the bar didn't so much move an inch; instead, he glanced over at the dark stranger through the corner of his eye.
After a moment's hesitation, the old man's body tensed to turn, to address the other man, only to vanish in a pouf of vapor much like the mist only moments before. The man with the flashing red eyes turned and surveyed the bar; his eyes were heavy, tired.
Just as quickly as the old man vanished, swirls of color began to form behind the bar as if someone had suddenly poured colored misty liquid into some invisible shape. It took only moments, but soon the liquid stabilized and a woman came into view.
She was leaning over the bar, her ample chest resting on the bar itself, "Matty!" she cried once she had solidified, clasping her hands together and resting them under her chin. "You're baack!"
The man's eyes were still roaming the quiet bar. He didn't look up.
The woman stood back up and crossed her arms. "Hmph!" she said, crossing her arms, "You've been gone so long and now what? You ignore me? You sure know how to make a girl feel like a whore. Or is it a whore feel like a woman?" she asked herself absently.
The man looked at her from the corner of his eye, "Don't call me Matty Felicia."
She scowled, twisting away from him. Her features blurred as she moved. "Whatever," she said. "The usual Matty?" she asked.
He kept watching the crowd.
Felicia sighed, her features swirling like the misty vapors from dry ice as she bent down to pick up something under the bar. When Felicia reappeared, her features were harder, stronger until finally they re-formed into something more masculine.
"Your favorite," Felicia said, her breasts now entirely gone yet her clothing remained the same, just shrinking in the chest before filling out more broadly to fit the new contours. He uncorked a completely empty dusty old bottle with some effort. Snapping his fingers, a glass formed from the shadows.
Matthias looked back at the now male Felicia.
"What?" he said.
Matthias' eyes darted up to the many glasses hung from the rack his overhead.
Felician scowled at him and rolled his eyes, "Honey, you have no flare at all" With a toss of his now shorter hair Felicia made as if to pour the empty bottle but nothing came out. Soon clear iridescent liquid formed at the bottom of the glass and swirled upwards.
Felicia re-corked the empty bottle and put it back under the bar. When she reappeared, her features were not exactly feminine but somehow halfway there. She smiled brightly and passed him the glass, "Corpse liquor," she said, "your favorite Mathias."
He took the glass and drank it back in big, full gulps. Felicia watched in rapt attention at the motion of the man's Adam's apple bounced up and down as he swallowed the strange clear liquid which now swirled with bright blue and green color.
Finally, he set the glass back down on the bar hard, making a short, sharp clinking sound that echoed through the silent bar. After a moment Mathias raised his chin up and slowly exhaled through his mouth. Silver wisps flecked with shiny specs of green and blue escaped his blood red lips. The swirls of dust cascaded through the air of the bar catching the light as it moved.
Slowly at first, then one at time, the awe-struck patrons collapsed onto the tables, the floor or the two dingy pool tables.
Matthias lowered his head.
"I love it when you do that," Felicia breathed a heavy sigh as she stared at him deeply; her breasts had now returned and were once again resting on the countertop.
The man looked up at her through heavy black eyelashes. "I need to borrow the dog."
The rumble of metal crunching, screeching and grinding to a halt was preceded by a loud, pinging noise. After two beeps a sharp female voice filled the platform, announcing the coming train. Faces moved to look down into the distance as people filed up anxiously awaiting the metal beast's arrival.
"Filthy," a deep rumbling voice spat.
As the people filed into the train, a lone figure in a large black trench coat glided from the darkness and stood watching the train.
"The people I mean," the deep masculine voice rumbled, "Dirt."
Mathias, who was now a few steps out of the shadow, turned back to look at the shadows. His eyes were fixed and unflinching.
"Don't make me whistle."
Finally, a deep gravelly sigh rumbled as the darkness stirred. After another moment a tiny shape popped from the darkness and ran to catch up to the man, its tiny legs flailing to keep pace.
"I hate the human world," he grumbled, his voice shrill and high pitched like what a run over chipmunk's dying breath must sound like.
"I'll make a note Ajax," Matthias replied, walking briskly forward, hands jammed in his pockets and blood red scarf trailing far behind.
"What are we looking for anyway?" the dog squeaked; he was all black, with beady black eyes.
"What a cute pug!" a nearby girl squealed bending down, "Here boy."
The dog stopped and looked at the girl for a second.
"We're here to find someone," Matthias replied into his upturned collar.
The dog looked at the girl for another second or more before starting to cough.
"Oohh!" she turned back to her friends, "He's choking!" she cried pointing to the dog. Her friends tried to look around her to the platform below.
"Where?" one of them asked, "I don't see a dog."
Matthias was stopped now, looking back at the scene with one palm pressed against his forehead.
"But..."the girl turned back to the black dog, "he's in trouble."
"Brrap!" the little dog squeaked as it barfed up a shiny black hairball that was almost half the size of the pug itself. The furry black lump rolled over to her feet.
She squealed and jumped back, knocking into her friends in the process who all fell in a heap of tiny flamboyant purses and hair extensions.
The little dog looked up at her and brought up a paw to point in her direction, "I fucked your mother last night you nasty little bitch!" it said in the same high pitched squeaky voice.
The girl sat for a count of five before starting to scream. The little dog bounded over to Matthias who was now standing on the tracks, concealed in the deep shadows of the tunnels beyond; only his flashing eyes were visible.
The man just looked at the dog as it scampered past.
"What?" it squeaked. The dog stopped to urinate against the side of the concrete wall; giggling to itself. Finished, the dog moved into the darkness its tiny laugh boomed out into a deep, maniacal manly cackle.
Everyone on the train platforms turned to stare down the tunnel, every except for a group of girls one of whom was sobbing.
It was dark and the world had a kind of fuzz on it, like skin on an old pudding. Shayne couldn't feel anything except a kind of inertia like he was stuck in that same pudding skin; unable to move or breathe.
His mind was stirred, twisting out of unconsciousness and abruptly wrenched back into his body.
Shayne's head snapped forward, his limbs shook, "Wha?" he gasped, his vision still blurred. Something was not right.
A strange rhythmic noise reached his ears, further pulling his brain into gear. It took him a few more moments to realize it must have been a laugh. Shayne tried to shake his head, to clear the dust and crushed velvet from his senses but his head caught on something as if he was being held.
He could feel the panic rising in his gut.
There was that same laugh again, only this time it was much closer. Shayne could feel breath against his neck. "Struggling won't help," a voice said, moving up to his ear. The speaker was close.
Too close.
The man stepped back and Shayne could now see him clearly. "You," Shayne said, struggling to push the air from his lungs. "You're not..."
"The man you once knew?" his friend asked staring at him. "The partner you once trusted!?" the man almost screamed; his voice oddly distorted like someone or something else was talking at the same time, echoing his words; like something was living just under his skin. Shayne had to look away; his eyes. The man's eyes were wrong somehow and it made Shayne's mind hurt just to see them. For a second, Shayne could see they were in a dark, disheveled room. There were things scattered around the floor, cluttering the corners like an infection. He thought he could see melted candles, strange twisted metal and oddly distorted shapes drawn in white and dark red/black on the floor.
A cold hand snatched out and grasped Shayne's hair, pulling his head back. The breath went out of his lungs and Shayne clenched his eyes in pain. He tried to struggle, to move away but...
"Don't bother," the man wearing his partner's skin said, this time he was just inches from Shayne's ear. He could feel the warm breath on his ear lobe as his hair stood on end. "You're mine," the man said, releasing all of his breath as he spoke.
Without warning, Shayne's hair was free and his head slumped forward staring at the cement floor. Something was wrong; his arms and legs were bound. He tried to struggle once more, looking down he could only see pieces of his body here and there. His mind froze and a panicked tightness crept into his chest.
"Wha...What have you done?"
The man had walked away, was standing by a nearby table of some sort with his back to Shayne as he continued to struggle. "No no," the man said, waving a finger, "that's not the right question."
Shayne's eyes grew wide as a flush of cold sweat swept over his body. White viscous plaster-like material erupted from every pore and orifice of the other man's body. Shayne looked away but couldn't help but see the man's grotesque shadow as the white fluid formed and twisted, making a shell that didn't touch, but sat somehow inches in front of the frail human body; the shell.
"The real question Shayne," the creature looked back as blaring yellow eyes that sat at cross angles rolled forward in their white sockets to stare at the other man, "Is what I'm going to do to you now."
Shayne's entire body was frozen as he watched the creature's impossibly long white tongue snake it way across a row of razor sharp teeth. The tongue was punctured with rips and holes from the teeth that distorted briefly before fusing back together with the whole moments later.
The creature took a step forward. It laughed.
That laugh echoed and echoed inside his brain...
The tunnels stretched forward dark and black like deep, long dead entrails. Matthias kept his hands inside his pockets as he walked, his glowing ruby red eyes flashing back and forth in the darkness.
The tiny dog scampered nearby as the man walked. Even in the darkness, somehow the dog's outline was clearly visible; his panting frozen breaths followed closely behind as they walked despite the warm fetid air.
"Why go after this one?" the dog asked in its deep baritone.
Both figures stopped and the dog turned to look up at the man. "It's complicated," Matthias said.
"What is?" Ajax replied, "It's obviously a trap."
"There was a mistake."
"What mistake?" the dog asked, "I think that the trap was pulled off without a hitch!"
"They made a mistake."
The dog sat back on his rump. "They!?" he asked. Matthias just nodded. "The Ministry?" Another nod. After a few moments the pooch cocked his head to the side and belched a loud, "HUH?"
Silence.
Matthias had already started walking before the stunned little dog caught up; his tiny black legs still failing to keep up completely. "But...but the Ministry. I mean, THE Ministry screwed up? How? What? When?"
"Now's not the time Jax," he replied.
"This is big. BIG news Matt," the dog said with his head looking down deep in thought as he walked. "I mean they never-"
"Jax."
"They NEVER make a mistake you know. It's like everyone else and stuff but not, like not them and-"
"Ajax!"
"WHAAT?"
Matthias Knor turned and smirked back at the still stunned little pug. "They're here," he said slowly.
Blurs at first. Then, shapes started forming on both ends of the tunnel. Small first, then as more came into view the little dog started to step slowly back until he butted up against Matthias' black and silver boots.
"What are they?" Ajax asked.
"Does it matter?"
The little dog grunted in response. Then coughed. Once. It was a wet, hacking cough. Then another. And another. Until the hacking cough had built to a din.
Matthias looked down at the little dog out of the corner of his eye as the creatures started to creep closer.
Let...me ...take...care...em...the little thing hacked. As it kept coughing, the silver mist of its breath began to grow and grow until it reached up and seemed to pull the little dog inside. The cloud and the noise built and built until Ajax was no longer visible and nothing could be heard over his hacking cough. First slowly, then quickly a twisting shape could be seen from inside the fog. Then, first one limb, then another and another formed and burst through from the swirling silver mist and smashed into the gravelled floor.
As quickly as the coughing started, it was gone and a new creature stood where the little black dog once was. It was much larger now; it unfurled into the size of a small pony. All of its outline was etched in what looked like a bad colouring job of silver lines done by a small child. It's eyes were wide and solid white/silver, making it almost look dead. Its silver breath came in great panting gasps and leaked cold air out into the chamber. The canine creature opened its massive jaws and howled. The entire chamber resonated with the din as the mass of creatures began to pace back and forth.
The creatures were once human, in fact the pieces of humanity and human body parts could be seen encased within the white mucous that made up each creature like a mask slipping briefly to reveal the skinny pathetic actor behind. Except this was reversed, Matthias could tell that the white slime creatures were very much in control of their hosts and very very hungry.
A deep rumbling growl came from Ajax's throat as he began to speak, "Leave," the dog said, still growling, "Leave us and let me play..."
Matthias looked down at the dog-like creature for only a second, "No scenes Jax," he said. A split second later he lunged forward at the creatures, planting first his right leg, then his right palm on the gravel before springing high into the air over the twisted white, creatures. Before they could react, the man was already behind them in a crouch, his bright red scarf was ruffled now, billowing out in his wake and tracing the path he had just jumped.
Matthias' blood red eyes looked back at the creatures as one lunged for him only to collapse back from some kind of invisible barrier; each creature writhing in flames.
As the flames ate at the creatures, Ajax started to laugh. It was an odd, rumbling noise that slowly caused each creature to turn and look at him in fascination; their sickly yellow eyes flicking back and forth at odd angles and their heads cocked to the side. "It's just us now," Ajax spat as the creatures made their move.
Ajax hit the first humanoid creature square in the chest and pinned it to the ground. His shadowy fangs bit into the putrid white froth as the entire group descended on the lone dog, covering the entire area in white pus. Slowly but surely the mass of white creatures clung to the dog, grasping, sticking and clinging to him. The dog struggled and surged against the white tide of mucous before he was finally overcome.
The large mass of white quivered for moments before growing still. The mass was covered in white tendrils and twitching yellow eyes. The dog was nowhere to be seen. The eyes themselves slowly began to settle, to quiet, to close. An eerie stillness filled the chamber.
The eyes abruptly bolted open all at once, wide and searching. Back. Forth. The eyes twitched for a second, just a second, before the mass of white exploded in spatters of white and globs of darkness.
In the middle of the explosion stood Ajax, standing low to the ground, fangs bared. His entire body was boiling in the silver gas that started at his mouth and rolled off his body. Ajax' eyes were now hollow and filled with black and flecks of white.
The white creatures were regrouping. Reforming around bits and pieces of once-human flesh and belongings, articles of clothing and equipment.
Ready for one final push, both sides charged forward eager to taste blood.
Everything felt heavy.
Everything.
Shayne tried to open his eyes, tried to focus his mind but it was useless. He felt himself somehow trapped between the waking world and what lay beyond.
"Just..."
"Just... Let"
He was aware that there was something else nearby. Something that didn't belong but it seemed somehow insignificant now. Like nothing else mattered.
"...Me go," he said through wet, caked lips. He could taste the iron in his mouth and felt a cold grip moving up his body.
He was so tired right now and so, so desperately cold. He could feel what strength he had left bleeding out of his body, being taken.
It felt like eternity, like only this ever existed, like this pain was all he ever knew.
`Who?' he wondered. It no longer seemed to matter.
Maybe this is ok.
Maybe I should...
"Shayne!" a strong voice cut through the blackness pushing everything away and forcing clarity into his mind.
He pulled away, resisting. He couldn't face that pain again. He wouldn't.
It was better this way.
"Shayne!" the voice ripped him forward and back into himself. His eyes focused for a second.
A man was close, impossibly close. An actual man. He was holding Shayne, cradling his chin and speaking so very close to his ear.
"Shayne I need you to hold on."
I can't.
"Just another second Shayne."
"You can do this Shayne."
"Please. I need you."
And suddenly, he could feel it. Someone was tracing his fingers across Shayne's chest. Where the man's finger traced, Shayne's chest burned.
`Please don't pull away,' he thought. Don't leave me.
He clung to that feeling, to that voice.
To that closeness.
Shayne opened his eyes and fell to his feet. He blinked and blinked and blinked.
He was staring at the floor and he could hear laughter. Not the nice, happy kind, the kind that was filled with madness.
The man that had once been his partner was laughing. "You!" he cackled, "You would sacrifice yourself for someone so useless. Someone so pathetic. And for what? I'll just do it all over again!"
Shayne looked up and caught his breath as the man from the train, the man with the flashing eyes, was suspended halfway in and halfway out of a wall. The wall was made of white, writhing plaster that flexed up and out and over the man's features and clothing.
`My clothing?' he thought.
Shayne looked down to find himself wearing unfamiliar black clothes, a midnight black trench coat, an impossibly red scarf and black and silver boots.
His mind was still reeling as he looked up in time to see the man's body get fully pulled into the wall.
He was gone. The wall rippled once and was solid once again.
Shayne was on his feet and hitting the wall before his mind could register what had happened. His fists beat again and again on the now-flat panel of whitewashed wall.
He's gone...
Shayne slid slowly down the wall, collapsing to his knees and trying to tune out the laughter behind him.
He can't be gone...
"I..." he choked back his words finding instead that he could not speak through the tears. Shayne touched the tears, not quite aware of them and at the same time not understanding why he was crying.
The other man finally stopped laughing. "Ready for round two Shayne?" he asked.
Shayne didn't even hear him. His mind was once again going numb; searching for that other place where he had just been.
He couldn't face that kind of pain again.
He felt it before he looked up to see, a man's hand reached out from the wall and rested on the crown of his head. Shayne looked up, he could hear the creature behind him start yelling but it didn't matter as the strange man stepped through the wall.
The grotesque white wall rippled outward to let him pass before rotting rapidly away. The man was naked, the creature behind Shayne was screaming, but Shayne did not care.
Matthias bent down to Shayne's level and hooked his thumbs under the collar of Shayne's coat and leaned in close. "I need this back big guy," he whispered slowly. Shayne could feel the hot breath against his neck as goose bumps raced along where the man nearly touched. Shayne could feel himself flush as Matthias picked up the coat somehow sending Shayne falling into darkness.
`Wha?'
Matthias brought the trench coat up in an arc and around his body. As the coat passed over, it left Matthias' clothes back on his body as if nothing had changed. Except of course Shayne was nowhere to be found.
"Amusing little trick," the creature sighed, shaking his head. The man's body was now two steps behind the creature but connected via slime trails.
A small smirk played across Matthias' features as he calmly began to loosen his blood red scarf.
The creature cocked both heads and looked at the other man with a mixture of emotions. "Are you so confident that you'll win?" it asked, both voices rising in cadence as it spoke.
"It has nothing to do with confidence," Matthias replied as he slowly looked up at the creature. "It has everything to do with reality." He had now unwrapped the scarf and it was wafting in a breeze that only it could feel.
"You can't beat me," the creature started to snicker. It was a horrible sound that echoed of both madness and the grating screech of metal. "My master won't allow it."
The breeze somehow wrapped the scarf once around both of Matthias' arms loosely and left a large expanse of fabric spread out behind his back that somehow stayed suspended over his head. Matthias spread both arms, allowing his chest to expand and his black coat to float open revealing an expanse of stars and strange glittering specks reflected inside the coat as if the coat itself was a cut out of reality, leaving stars and universes exposed behind. Inside the coat, a man's naked form could be seen. Shayne looked back out into the world from the weightless expanse of space; his eyes were wide and his arms braced against the invisible barrier.
"This will all be over soon Shayne," Matthias whispered without looking back, "Don't look at the stars for too long."
Matthias muttered a few words under his breath and, for a moment his eyes seemed to glow, the length of scarf ignited in a blaze of fire.
The creature too was muttering under its breath. All at once, it's arms grew large and it smashed them into the concrete floor in unison; the crack and rubble from the floor obscured the creatures white slimy hands. It's voice rose in volume, it's words grew guttural and almost sharp before fire ignited all over it's body.
By now a ring of fire had encircled Matthias' feet. His arms were still wide, his coat and blazing scarf were billowing. His eyes blazed with the same light that now engulfed the other figure. Shayne could barely see the man's face from the strange universe within the coat's inner lining; Matthias should have been pleased but he looked lost in concerntration.
Why?
"Gwoooosh!" The creature exhaled a large gulp of air that came out a green mass of dust and gas. Its mouth stayed open, but its human voice spoke as the flames died and the loop of scarf behind Matthias' back fluttered back to earth. "Your tricks will not work demon," it spoke, it's once white skin looked cracked and gray like the concrete under its palms. "It's our turn now."
Shayne could still see the man that was once his co-worker. He tried to call out, but his voice couldn't even reach his own ears. He tried to scream as the creature filled its invisible lungs and belched out a torrent of murky green brown bile from an invisible stomach that filled and swirled over the entire room and splashed against the coat causing Shayne to flinch away.
Shayne hesitated but it seemed that the liquid could not reach inside the coat. By the time that Shayne unshielded his face, he could see the strange liquid being torn away by some invisible force like torn and shredded tissue paper. Hadn't it just been liquid?
The creature sat back on its heels, looking at the man with the flashing eyes. "Stalemate, demon. It seems that we are evenly matched."
Matthias smirked, shaking his heads. The man reached up and grasped the collar of his coat with both hands and pulled slightly. Shayne's perspective shattered in that same second. The coat itself broke into a dozen or so shadowy, star-filled crow shapes that flew up into the room as if the coat were crows who merely thought that they were a coat all along. Matthias held up his now extinguished scarf as three crows bent down to pick up the briliant red fabric.
With a hand gesture, the crows dispersed through the room and out into the subway in a soundless flock carrying the scarf and Shayne's shattered image amongst them. It was all too much for Shayne to handle, it was like having thirteen eyes. Some of his body parts were reflected in different crows as they flew through tunnels, past trains, openings and by unaware subway patrons. The crows flew by Ajax as the dog continued to fight and struggle against the horde of white creatures. The dog looked up as the crows flew past and, without hesitation, he shook off the last creature and followed quickly behind the starry black murder of birds.
Even as splintered as he was, something deep in Shayne's unconsciousness screamed terror and his skin bristled with bumps.
Something was coming. But what?
Back in the room, in the long forgotten depths of the underground the two beings faced off.
"You've given away all of your tools, foolish creature," the monster said with a smirk. "Let's end this game; I'm getting bored."
Matthias closed his eyes as the white creature leapt forward. His' lips moved but no sound could be heard. In fact in that exact moment all the sound died as if it were being eaten up by the silence; the silence that echoed through his song.
The shock wave spread outward fast; far too fast. Shayne could feel the oncoming wave of energy quickly approaching, he could feel it lapping at his heels like some kind of invisible monster under the bed hell-bent on devouring all that it could reach.
But somehow, the crows stayed just ahead of the silence, just barely managing to get outside of its radius, to escape.
Back, deep in subway, far away from the crows, the dog, Shayne, Matthias collapsed to his knees in an empty room; all other signs of life had been snuffed out; even the candles no longer burned. Sweat poured from the man's face, dripping on the floor. Slowly, the sound of his panting breaths could be heard as the deafening silence receded.
************************************************************************ Author's Note:
I'm sorry for the HUGE delay! If anyone's still reading I really do want to apologize. I lost all interest in writing after I lost this chapter the first time. I'm only now getting back into writing and I happen to have time on my hands again so expect some more in the next while :).
A lot of people said that the story doesn't make sense. I promise that the next chapter will explain a few of your questions and hopefully give you a bit of a framework.
I hope that you're enjoying the story so far!
As always comments, questions, constructive and not-so-constructive criticism is always welcome. Feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think corporeal09@yahoo.com.
As always a big thank you to my editor!
Cheers,
-Gene