"In all honesty" Hella thought to herself as she hid inside the abandoned building, "I really shouldn't have picked up that glowing object" her thoughts were interrupted as something crashed into the building through the roof, allowing moonlight to stream into the dark warehouse and elicit a scream from her which echoed throughout the abandoned warehouse. The scream was followed by a silence that rather than comfort her sent fear coursing through her. Putting her hands over her mouth to block any other noise that she might make as her heart pounded in her chest, she strained her ears to either hear the footsteps of the creature or any other thing that would give away the location of the monster that had been chasing her.
After complete silence for several minutes, Hella emerged from her hiding spot behind a stack of crates after deeming it safe to come out. Spitting out a mouthful of blood on the floor, she wiped away the blood that ran over her eyes with her jacket sleeve before slowly creeping away towards the exit, her body protesting with aches from the brutal beating she had suffered at the hands of Jessica and her cronies. Making her way towards the exit, she felt something get sprayed on her left shoulder from above, the substance burning through her jacket before reaching her skin and burning the flesh. Letting out a shout which was a mixture of pain, shock and horror, she burst into a sprint away from the spot while hurriedly taking off her jacket and throwing it on the floor, revealing the dark grey tank top she had on as something large and heavy crashed into the stack of crates she was previously hiding behind, sending a spiderweb of cracks across the floor and sinking the area around it, not only bringing down the stack of crates, but also the entire section on it as the creature let out a roar of frustration and pain before being completely being buried under the avalanche of crates and their various contents. Hearing the commotion behind her, Hella spared a backwards glance and watched as the creature was buried. Coming to a complete stop, she felt a wave of relief and tiredness wash over her as the source of her terrifying five-minute chase of cat and mouse was buried. Unable to stay on her feet any longer due to exhaustion, she fell flat on her butt with her back to a wall as tears of relief fell from her eyes while she swore to herself to never again let her curiosity get the best of her.
Deciding to stay seated on the floor for a while in order to recuperate, her eyes scanned the warehouse for her jacket while the adrenalin that had been pumping through her veins for the past five minutes slowly began to fade, alerting her to the numbness and chill that was originating from her left shoulder and slowly travelling to her chest as well as down her arm. Looking at her arm in the moonlight, she saw dozens of pitch black and toxic green lines slowly travel down her arm leaving a feeling of numbness and cold in their wake. "Poison" she thought as her eyes frantically searched for something to use to stem the spread of the toxin while the realization of how bad her situation was slowly dawned on her, causing her to tremble in fear and despair as she grasped the fact that she was going to die here. She was so preoccupied with the thought of her approaching death that she failed to notice that the mountain of crates and other miscellaneous items that kept the creature buried began to shift and was soon followed by a loud roar of rage and pain that resounded throughout the warehouse which originated from underneath the pile.
The roar was loud enough to snap Hella out of her reverie and back to the present. Seeing the shaking pile of items, she quickly got up and raced towards the exit; or would have if not for the fact that the poison had rendered her entire left arm useless and had reached her left leg as well causing it to go numb. Getting up with a grunt of effort, she rested her numb side on the wall and hobbled towards the exit with as much energy as she could muster, she tried her best to tune out the roars coming from behind her and the sounds of the creature's makeshift prison collapsing; the only thing on her mind was closing the distance between her and the only exit in sight. Hobbling for what felt like hours, she felt her heart beat quicken as silence descended in the warehouse, "That can't be good" she thought as she increased her speed, trying her best to ignore the numbness and chill that was slowly spreading across her body. Her hunch was proved right as the creature broke free of its prison with a roar of rage, launching the mountain of items into the air; its hate filled toxic green pupils locking onto the retreating human that had caused it so much trouble. It briefly wondered if the prey was worth all this trouble, but then it remembered why it started the hunt and its eyes lost any and all hints of hesitation as crates and other items rained down. Letting out a hiss, it decided to annihilate the pest and claim the prize that had eluded it for far longer than necessary. Swiping one of its paws at a nearby crate on the floor, the beast sent it flying towards the retreating girl and slowly followed after it, letting instincts dictate its actions.
Hearing the roar of the creature as it broke free from its prison behind her, Hella felt fear grip her heart and nearly paralyze her, but she shook it off with thoughts of escape and increased her speed; the distance between her and the exit growing smaller and smaller, the hope of escape far outweighing the paralyzing effect brought about by her fear of the creature while the thought of what said creature would do to her if she got caught added a much needed second wind to her sails and kept her moving. However, her hope for escape was dashed as the crate that the creature sent flying at her crashed into her back and shattered, not only sending her sprawling to the floor as the sound of bones breaking filled the air but also several fragments of wood buried themselves into her back, causing spots of crimson liquid to bloom on her shirt. On her back and at the mercy of the approaching creature, she tried her best to fight off the black spots that had begun to fill her vision and crawl away, only to become painfully aware that she could now no longer feel either of her legs and her left arm or control any of them; the black and toxic green veins proudly displaying themselves on her brown skin.
"D. d. damn it" she croaked weakly as her body began to give out on her "T. t. this isn't how it was supposed to be" she continued as she heard the footsteps of the creature grow closer as her crimson life fluid drained from her body and ran across the concrete floor, shimmering in the moonlight that streamed into the warehouse through the door and hole in the ceiling. "No, n. n. not like this" she whimpered as she felt the creature's predatory gaze land on her as her figure began to grow dark. They say that when you're about to die, that your whole life flashes before your eyes and now she could personally attest to this; she knew her life wasn't the worst and it definitely wasn't the best, watching her life flash before her eyes, she felt a myriad of emotions flowed through her. She felt joy as she saw her parents, happiness as images of her friends in the role play center flashed before her and finally anger. Anger at her school for letting Jessica and her crew for picking on her, anger at her parents for always telling her how much of a disappointment she was and how much better others were when compared to her, anger at herself for failing to live up to the expectations that everyone had of her and most of all; anger at the world for making her
. She felt her rage deepen and turn to unbridled hatred as she remembered how much they bullied her. "Its all their fault. If they hadn't taken my stuff and beat me up, then I wouldn't have found the damn orb and I wouldn't be bleeding on the floor of a godforsaken warehouse with god knows what trying to kill me" she mentally screamed, unaware that her entire right arm and the right side of her face was suddenly covered by intricate multicolored symbols.
The creature drew closer to her, its eyes brimming with killing intent, unbridled hatred and greed. Hearing the footsteps of the creature drew closer, Hella felt something somewhere deep inside of her snap. Turning over to her back with her single arm which had begun to fail her, she stared at the creature with hatred in her eyes, blood leaking down the sides of her mouth as the shards of wood sticking out of her back were pushed into her when she turned over, while the symbols on her arm and face slowly turned blood red as time suddenly seemed to stand still. "Little girl" a voice that sounded just like hers, yet not hers spoke softly in her head. "Why do you cower when you can tear it apart?" it asked with concern. Hella didn't respond to the voice right away even though she knew it well, after all it had been her constant companion ever since she was twelve years old.
"What would you have me do? This thing isn't even normal, in case you haven't noticed" she chastised while noticing that her eyesight had begun to deteriorate.
Burn it, maim it, let out your rage and show this creature the price of its foolishness" the voice whispered to her with barely restrained rage.
"How can I?" she countered with a heated voice.
Encouraged by her response, the voice spoke again "All you have to do is let me in" and with that the voice became silent, patiently waiting for her answer.
"Last time I checked, you were just a voice, a disorder, one of the many things wrong with me"
"Last time you checked, monsters didn't exist and weird glowing orbs didn't melt into your skin whenever you touched them" the voice retorted.
"So what do I have to do" Hella asked as she realized that indulging the voice wasn't the worst thing she could do. That and she literally had nothing left to lose.
"Excellent. Just relax, watch the show and let me get to work" the voice chuckled before disappearing back to wherever it came from and time returned to normal as the symbols pulsated with an unholy blood red color.
With a roar of rage that sent blood spewing out of her mouth, she thrust her only functional arm forward with as much energy as she could muster, her fingers splayed as a jet of fire erupted from her palm and bathed the creature, causing it to scream in pain. Taking great pleasure at the creature's screams of pain, a savage grin appeared on her face "Burn! Burn you piece of shit!!" her voice rang out; raw from her previous scream and roar while the flames increased in size and intensity, the yellow flames beginning to take on a blue hue while the concrete floor began to melt from the heat.
"This is what we are capable of" the voice told her as it surrendered control to Hella, letting her bathe in the pleasure that having such power at her fingertips brought about. "There is so much we can do, so much pain we can dish out on those that wronged us"
"Especially Jessica" she finished for the voice as various ways to hurt Jessica and her friends filled her head, accompanied by the laughter of the voice. However, her musing was cut short when she felt something sharp, jagged and large force its way through her stomach, pinning her to the ground as the sounds of her choked screams filled the empty warehouse as pain flooded her very being despite her body being numb and killed the flames emerging from her palm. Glancing down at her stomach with her single barely functional eye, it widened in shock as she saw what appeared to be the creature's tail in her stomach, its stinger releasing a fluid that set her insides ablaze; adding the smell of burning flesh into the air which was already saturated with the coppery stench of blood. The symbols on her skin faded into oblivion as the creature slowly pulled its tail out of her, leaving a gaping hole in her stomach and its serrated stinger covered in blood; her blood. Roaring in triumph as it placed its stinger above its mouth, purring in relish as Hella's blood dripped from its stinger and into its mouth; the taste of her blood sending surges of power and pleasure rippling through it. Coughing up blood for the last time, Hella closed her eyes as oblivion claimed her, while the symbols on her skin returned once more but with a faint green color instead of the red of their first appearance.
With its prey on the floor and quite possibly dead, the monster licked its lips in anticipation as it approached its reward, saliva running down its elongated lower jaw and leaving scorch marks on the floor wherever they landed as it longed to sink its teeth into her. Stepping into the moonlight streaming in from one of the warehouse windows, the creature's appearance was finally revealed; it resembled a lanky wolf with grey fur, black eyes and toxic green slits for pupils. Its face was covered by a white bone mask which was currently steaming and black due to it being bathed by the flames from Hella. It stood at a height of three meters tall and a length of seven meters from snout to stinger with several parts of its body covered with pieces of several-inch-thick bleach white bones which had grown over its skin and served as armor while its four limbs were covered with spiked bones and a set of five serrated claws poked out of its paws. Its scorpion like tail curved above its body, the transparent venom sack above the bloody stinger glowing with a purple hue as the liquid inside bubbled violently, and the blood on the curved serrated stinger causing it to reflect the moonlight. Its body appeared to be charred in several places due to the fiery baptism that it had just undergone, but a second glance revealed the burnt flesh and charred bone falling away to reveal new skin and bone.
Seeing that its prey was most likely dead due to the combination of its venom and the large gaping hole in her stomach-courtesy of its tail, the creature lowered its head and with great gusto bit into her leg, its body trembling as her blood and flesh filled its mouth filling it with indescribable pleasure and power. Its body began to change as it fed; claws growing sharper and longer as its body began fill out. The bone plates on its body began to grow thicker while the venom in its stinger deepened into a dark purple-borderline black-color.
The monster was so engrossed in its meal that it didn't notice the figure walking into the warehouse from the door in front of it until it was too late. Reaching inside the left side of its trench coat with its right hand, the figure drew out a strange looking gun and took aim. It looked like a 500 S&W magnum revolver, but it had been heavily modified-if you could even call what had been done to it modification; the entire body was pitch black and had what appeared to be dozens of gold and crimson throbbing veins running all over its body, each one glowing with inhuman power. Taking careful aim at the creature's head, the figure pulled the trigger.
The sound of gunshot filled the air and a dim flash lit up the dark warehouse as the gun fired a single bullet which slammed into the monster's forehead, shattering the twelve-inch-thick bone helmet on the creature's head before emerging from the back of its head, spraying bone fragments and brain matter everywhere as it exited the creature's head, killing the monster instantly before slamming into the wall behind it, punching a large hole through it. The dead creature dropped on top of Hella, her chewed up leg hanging out of its mouth, its black blood mixing with her crimson blood on the floor.
"Well that was anticlimactic" the figure's masculine voice rang out before it inhaled the smoke that was slowly wafting out of the gun barrel, a soft moan escaping their lips as they shuddered in ecstasy. Pocketing the weapon in the holster hidden in their trench coat, their arm returned back to normal and they walked towards the girl and the beast.
"This is the target? Disappointing, but orders are orders" they said to themself before noticing the slowly growing puddle of mixed blood beneath the two. Grabbing the dead creature by the neck, the figure lifted the corpse in a great display of strength and threw the dead body to the side, revealing Hella's injuries. Crouching down next to her body in order to examine her wounds, the figure's eyes widened slightly as her burnt insides slowly peeled away revealing healthy pink flesh underneath as the gaping hole in her stomach began to slowly close up, leaving her stomach whole as if nothing happened. Or that's what would have happened if the venom from the stinger wasn't burning her insides as fast as she was healing. The figure's eyes trailed down to Hella's missing leg and widened slightly again as it watched bone emerge from her stump below her knee, soon followed by muscles, tendons, nerves and skin. However, the new leg was soon infested by the black and toxic green veins that now adorned every part of her body.
"I hate her already" the figure said as their entire body began to writhe and morph, taking on a more feminine appearance as their chest increased in size while their hands began to give off a light bluish green glow. Placing her now glowing hands on Hella's stomach while making circular motions with them, concern fin her eyes as she watched the venom detach itself from her internal organs in order to follow the motion of her hands. Raising them above the stomach, she watched as the purple liquid floated out of the stomach and into the space a few inches away from her palms. Moving her glowing hands away from Hella's stomach to the side, the figure dumped the venom on the floor, watching as it began to slowly melt the concrete beneath it. Without the venom to impede its healing, Hella's stomach closed up quickly, only to follow the same fate of her newly formed leg and sport the same black and toxic green veins that now decorated her body. Seeing the veins, the woman's hand was once again enveloped by a glow; a purple one this time. Placing her hands over Hella's mouth, she watched as the veins receded back to her shoulder before a black and green liquid oozed out of her shoulder and onto the floor, Hella's faint breathing returning back to normal and her pale skin regained its color as her lost blood was replenished while the faint green symbols on her body faded away.
Seeing that the girl was okay, the female's body writhed and twisted once more as she transformed into a deathly pale woman who was so skinny that the clothes and trench coat she wore seemed to drown her in their size. The new female walked towards the dead monster that had been tossed to the side and squatted next to it as she produced a dagger that looked too large for her to handle from her sleeve. Twirling it with grace and skill, she shoved the dagger into the beast's throat and in a display of strength that seemed beyond her frail body, split the creature from throat to groin in a single, clean, swift cut. Watching the intestines spill out, she placed the dagger on the floor and shoved her hands into the opening she had made, a look of concentration on her face as she rummaged around its insides for something. "This one is still a baby; it hasn't the organ yet" she said aloud as if talking to someone before pulling her blood-soaked hands out of the creature. Picking up the dagger, she cut open the base of the beast's tail and began to rummage around for a while before extracting a small sack which was filled with a crystal-clear liquid which she carefully put in a jar that she had taken out of her coat. Moving upwards, she set her eyes on the stinger, a glint of fascination passing through her dull grey eyes before it quickly disappeared. Carefully taking apart the tail with her dagger and the expertise of someone who had done this a thousand times, the woman separated the venom sack and stinger from the main tail before laying it down on the floor. "This won't fit in a jar" she thought to herself before letting out a sigh of frustration. Clenching her right hand to form a fist, she aimed it at the stinger and watched as the space around it distorted as a vortex formed which sucked the items into the ring on her hand. Satisfied with her work, she stood as her body writhed again and returned to the form of the man that had walked into the warehouse. Glancing at the corpse with a look of glee in his eyes, he snapped his fingers and created a blue spark that landed on the monster's body, engulfing it in azure flames, filling the warehouse with the stench of burning flesh. Watching the flames consume the creature's body, he inhaled the smoke with a pleasurable look on his face until there was nothing but ash left. Seeing that there was nothing left, the figure walked towards Hella body and searched her pockets before pulling out her wallet. Going through the wallet, he helped himself to the twenty-dollar bills inside it before pulling out her library card in order to check her house address.
"Helen Onen-Gie Autumn" he read out loud, "Age fifteen" he finished before coming across her home address. Memorizing it, he slid the card back into her wallet and placed it back into her pocket before carrying her out of the pool of blood and throwing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Walking out of the warehouse, he turned around and gave the warehouse a last glance before noticing the black puddle on the floor, Hella's and the creature's blood on the floor and walls, as well as the damage done to the place. "Can't leave any evidence behind" he thought before snapping his fingers, sending an azure spark into the building which gave rise to a roaring inferno of blue flames that engulfed the entire building a few seconds later. With barely hidden glee in his eyes, the man watched the warehouse get consumed in flames, a grin spreading across his face as everything inside was reduced to either a molten pool or turned to ash "Absolutely beautiful, someday the world will be beautiful like this" he said out loud as he watched the warehouse burn to the ground.
Staring at the smoldering pile for what seemed like hours, the man walked away with Hella over his shoulder as the sound of police sirens grew closer. "Thirty-three, thirty, twenty-nine, ahhh there it is, twenty-five" the man said as it stood outside a duplex around an hour or so later. Staring at the house that had the lights out, his eyes roamed across the building until they came across the open attic window; "I think I can throw her that far" he contemplated but decided against it as the orders of his superiors rang in his head. Leaping towards the window, he landed on the roof next to the attic window where he carefully opened the window fully and unceremoniously dumped Hella's body inside before leaping away, missing the mark running from her wrist to elbow which began to emit a deep purple glow.