Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker himself, took a pair of sunglasses out of his pockets and put them on, not wanting them to look into his eyes just yet, not wanting them to see his own. Carlos's eyes shone red and bright in the night, while Gabriel's body, still latching onto some small bit of humanity, was still its same humble brown.
The reptiles stared each other down, none moving, sizing each other up.
The silence was broken by the curiosity of the meatsuits .
Some well-meaning public citizens had reported a burglary of a historic site to the police, suggesting that a group of astrals was using their abilities to break into the Cecil Hotel. It was not the first time the San Andreas Shore Police Force had such a call, so they arrived at the scene, expecting a quick arrest and a citation or two.
When they arrived it was not the usual scene.
Standing in the safety of his police boat, Captain Peter Forthright watched as all the water surrounding the Cecil Hotel started to recede. He was the first to move into action, his training from the Air Force making him more than prepared to handle any situation. He told his two other officers to call for backup and prepare for the worst.
He tried not to show that he was terrified, but he wasn't doing a good job of it.
The boats started to sink along all with the water, pushing outwards, and Forthright couldn't believe what he was seeing. The water soaked through his brown uniform, and his black, gelled hair was now unkempt, trash sprawled all over the inside of their boat.
The waves came down to a halt, and the water was now circling the hotel, an empty canyon surrounding it, and the three officers that arrived on the scene nervously peered over the side of their boat, staring into the abyss.
It stared back.
Cecil opened his doors wide, and a swirling stream of spirits shot out into the air, cackling and screaming, and in the distance, Captain Forthright saw something peculiar flying along with them. At first, he thought there were tiny little missiles at the speed they were traveling, but the upward arc they went in made no sense.
Forthright got out his binoculars and saw that they were legs. The legs rolled onto the rooftop next to one of the men in a swimsuit, who had none, and they connected to his body. A strange taste was in his mouth as Forthright forced himself to watch the inhuman act of the man's lower half piece itself back together.
When the process was finally done, Forthright knew this was no simple burglary, and this wasn't a brawl between a bunch of hyped-up astrals. By the time back up had arrived Forthright was using every bit of his strength to keep his two officers alive.
Red streams of cackling spirits creating twisters made of water sprawled around the area, shredding the remaining boats like lettuce. As one of the evil vortexes made its way for Forthright's boat, his eyes pulsed an ethereal purple, and the boat lifted up into the air. All the other pieces of metal in the water floated up along with it, creating a shield, and the police boat soared over the water, making sharp turns and swerves.
His two charges, Charles and Nana screamed and held onto the railing as Forthright's flying ship made its way towards the rooftop of the Cecil Hotel, pieces of the hull being torn off by the hotel's attacks, the screeching metal echoing in the dark and crashing onto the rooftop.
It slid, crunching and scraping, tearing up what was left of the hull, and Forthright's entire body was shaking from adrenaline, mind pacing trying to figure out what to do next. The bright lights from the police helicopters burned his eyes, and it made it harder for him to discern what was happening, and he was trying to understand who he was supposed to arrest.
Gabriel and Carlos looked like the perpetrators. Covered in fish organs, blood, bits of trash in their hair, Forthright made a mistake that anyone in his situation would have made. Gabriel groaned when he saw the three police officers and believed his singular problem was now many. Nobody in the Defense Program took any police force seriously, believing them all to be dropouts or people who weren't smart enough to get into the Defense Program itself.
The officers standing behind Forthright got out their guns and pointed them at Carlos and Gabriel, then at the Night Stalker, back and forth, not sure who to arrest, or to shoot, or to run, and the wails of the damned didn't help either.
"You need to leave," Carlos pleaded. "This isn't a place for people like you!"
"Stay," the Night Stalker whispered. "This is exactly the place for people like us."
The Cecil Hotel laughed, the ghosts laughed, the Night Stalker laughed, Gabriel and Carlos laughed, not knowing what was so funny, their demonic curses somehow connecting them all to each other, the morbidity exciting instead of terrifying, welcoming, never frightful.
The air itself seemed like it was laughing, and Peter Forthright still did not want to admit that he had bit off more than he could chew, always being the first to rush off into battle. His other two officers weren't as brave, nor pretended to be brave, and started shooting.
They shot Gabriel in the chest, and he staggered, but the laughter continued. It was louder and louder, and Charles was terrified, crying, emptying his entire chamber into Gabriel's chest, watching the blood pour out of his body and spill all over the floor.
Carlos was enraged, but the laughter was still overcome, the power of the Night Stalker too strong, the hotel controlling them all. Carlos laughed through his tears as he frantically pulled the bullets out of his partner's chest, the laughter now painful, his vision blurry and the world spinning.
The Night Stalker looked at the officers and was not pleased.
"It's not your turn, but I guess you can go first," he shouted.
Peter Forthright watched because that was all he could do as large claws grabbed Charles and dragged him down through the rooftop, his body somehow not restrained by any physical matter with the monstrous hands on his legs.
They dragged him down, while he cried and laughed, and Charles was no more.
Forthright turned around to look for Nana, and all he saw was him choosing the pavement, stepping off into the abyss, walking into nothing as if it was the most natural choice in such a situation.
In horror, Forthright finally admitted that he was in trouble and that the warning was true. He was ashamed that he had let his chance at victory kill his officers, kill a young man, and endanger another. Forthright wouldn't let the monster in front of him leave alive.
Opaque red claws came from him as well, through the roof, and Forthright's eyes glowed again, this time going for the jugular. Blood dribbled down his nose and into his mouth as he looked the Night Stalker into his eyes, and he hated it.
He hated their defiant looks.
He hated that Peter Forthright was brave.
He was going to teach him a final lesson.
Forthright's head pounded as he had an internal battle with the Cecil Hotel itself. He planned to use all the metal inside of the structure to kill the criminal in front of him, but instead, he found himself pushing back against something far worse.
The claws released from his legs and receded back into the hotel, as Forthright was winning, mentally stronger than he was physical. All the spirits pushed out in one final movement, their chorus of death ending and to be replaced with the finishing piece. They permeated into the water, and helplessly Carlos saw another monster birth in front of him.
The water was tinted crimson from the angry spirits, and it rose high into the sky in one giant bulbous column behind Forthright. Forthright didn't budge, he didn't break, because he knew the moment he lost his focus he would die. His entire body was hot all over, with goosebumps, as the hotel tried to invade his mind, his very soul.
Carlos was happy that Gabriel was still unconscious to not see them die. He was happy that he couldn't see the strange bulbous wave grow and shrink, jump and jerk, and finally go still. Everything was silent except for the sounds of the whirling helicopter waves up above.
Slithering long tendrils came out of the bulbous figure, a large beak pushed out, and it opened its mouth, fish and the stray turtle pouring out, a screech breaking the quiet. It flailed its tentacles around, smacking down helicopters, their whizzing frames spinning out of control until they exploded in a fiery mass on the exposed and ancient pavement.
The Night Stalker took several paces and grabbed Forthright by the neck, choking him, and he finally lost his focus. The demon's breathing became erratic as his favorite part came, the only time he wanted them to look them in his eyes when he saw the light slowly burn out. Forthright wouldn't give up and he stopped focusing on the hotel, instead, the burning pieces of metal falling from the sky. Their arc in the sky stopped, and turned, right for the rooftop.
The helicopter blades were on fire, and tore through the rooftop like a pizza cutter, splitting the roof in half, the demon and Forthright on one side, Gabriel and Carlos on the other. Gabriel awoke to see the similar sight he saw five months ago. Dying monsters, pieces of fire, and death falling from the sky, surrounded by the starry night sky, and just as before there was no escape.
The glowing red Kraken had made good work of those who had come to help, and of the few that were still alive, all they could do was shoot at it. It did no good, the bullets passing right through, and it ignored them, making its way for the hotel.
The separation of the roof caused the demon to let go of Forthright, and he saw his chance. The bridge of his nose tingled as he focused on the boat that landed on the roof just minutes prior. It flung itself towards the two of them, and the Night Stalker panicked. Forthright stood still and resolute, as it crashed into his body, and then it curved around his own, the metal bending to his unbreakable will.
The demon's bones shattered, but it wasn't enough to kill him.
He cried out for his father, for the hotel to help, but they did not. He was expendable, a mere gatekeeper. The Cecil Hotel was more concerned about its own self-preservation and wanted to kill Forthright so it wouldn't tear off the rest of its fragile foundation.
The crimson Kraken swung all of its tendrils at once towards Forthright, and curled the metal of the ship around his body, praying that it was sturdy enough to survive the force of the water crashing into it.
Gabriel stumbled up and then ran off, towards Peter, and Carlos chased after him.
"Stop," Carlos screamed.
Gabriel jumped over the chasm that split the roof in half, and barely made it to the other side, rolling over and groaning. He got right up, not slowing down, and Carlos jumped after, lagging far behind.
Gabriel's hand's frosted at the tips, and black-blue flames sprouted forth. He ran right in front of Forthright's shield and stuck his hands out, blasting out cold energy, keeping his hands steady.
His knees started to buckle at the force, but he persevered, his spread going farther, the ice flowing out, freezing the tendrils, crawling up, spreading over the roof, down the sides of the building, extinguishing the flames and spreading inside the hotel.
The ice trickled down through the chasm, freezing Cecil from the inside out, and with a loud shudder, it died.
Carlos slipped on the sudden icy landscape that appeared before him, and fell on his back, gazing up at the gargantuan ice sculpture now over the horizon. Slowly, trying not to slip, he stood and turned to see the icy egg around Forthright break, giving birth to a very, very confused man.
Tentatively he walked out of the shield and was greeted by Gabriel, the young man his officers had shot and was now alive. Forthright opened his mouth and then closed it. He did it again, and then he stopped because nothing he would say would change what he had seen.
The gaze of the young man made him uncomfortable, and he couldn't place why.
His thoughts were interrupted by the bloody hands of the Night Stalker wrapped around his neck, and Forthright was lifted up into the air, his hands clawing at life. Carlos slid over and grabbed onto the both of them.
They fell over onto the ground, and quickly, Carlos grabbed the demon by his horns and pulled hard. Carlos was weak from blood loss, and he was not the sort of man who liked to fight. He did not put as much strength into it as he should have, and he struggled as the tendons and skin stretched.
Black blood dripped onto the sparkling ice, and the demon's hands went limp, releasing Forthright from his monstrous grip. Carlos still pulled, needing to make sure dead things stayed dead. He would not have a repeat of the massacre he lived through.
Straining and grunting, soft crackling noises went off, one by one, like small little fireworks, as Carlos pulled out Richard Ramirez's head and vertebrae from his body. He stumbled and slipped a few times until Gabriel helped him get up, and in one final act of defiance, Carlos threw his head over the roof, down to the pavement, and it exploded on impact, showering the ground in sin.
Carlos and Gabriel looked into each other's eyes and decided what to do about the nosy meatsuit.
He saved our lives, Carlos said.
Yeah, but he shot me, Gabriel replied.
It wasn't him, it was the other one.
Forthright shivered in the cold and laughed nervously as the man covered in black tar stared silently at the one whose appendages were covered in ice. They turned to look at him and Forthright was still not sure who was the victim and who was the perpetrator.
Peter Forthright said nothing as they warily eyed him and left.