P.O.V. DAMION
The street was filled with the symphony of cars honking their horns in traffic, all with immense urgency as they rushed to work. The line to the coffee shop I worked at straggled past the sliding doors and wrapped well past the shop. It being Christmas time and us having a Christmas special on the menu probably played a huge role in why that was.
"My drink man, come on," a customer called out to me. His voice sounded like he'd been suffering from a cold these last few days, and his face was covered in dust and bits of rock.
"Coming right up, I'm sorry," I told him. He merely shook his head and looked back towards the other customers as if asking them, can you see this?
"Damion, hurry up!" my manager's eyes bulged out as he snuck up behind me, nuzzling his nose. Even while yelling, I could tell he was sick, either from a cold or me.
"Yes sir!" I told him scurrying past the wall of bodies that made the shop function.
The steam from the freshly brewed coffee mog crawled up my arm and burned the straying hair. I was wondering how the man from the front would be able to drink such a drink without waiting for it to cool off first.
"Excuse me!," I said as I maneuvered through the rest of my employees. I think I bumped into one of them because I heard them tell me to go fuck myself as I made my way to the counter.
"Here you- AH!" Hot coffee leaped from the cup as I set it down and splattered on my arm. I yanked my arm back, attempting to keep my professional demeanor but the man only scuffed as he tossed the cash over the counter.
I heard him whisper, "Idiot," as he walked away.
I looked down at my burned hand and sighed as I bent down to collect the spilled cash. Touching the burn sent a sharp spike through my body so I tried my best to avoid doing that.
"That looks like it hurts." The voice sounded passionate and soft like it had dealt with injured souls all its life. But when I looked up, I saw a girl of sixteen, like me. Strands of her long silky hair brushed over her shoulders, while the rest cascaded down, just above her tailbone. A red and yellow flower adorned her hair.
Her white button-up t-shirt clung to her figure while her coat slouched over her. The white tea was tucked away into her navy blue box pleats skirt that rested over her knees, while her pumps were of a clean and elegant brown leather. In contrast, my black sneakers felt out of place next to her elegant attire.
Her eyes were brown and round like a grape with small freckles beneath them. Her nose was turned up with a small blush on the tip.
I wanted to answer her but the aroma she emitted distracted me, as if removing the weight of my body off of me.
"Damion?" She asked again, her voice underlined with concern.
"Oh, sup' Ashely," I smiled, "It's fine, thank you. What can I get you?"
She tilted her head and made a kiss with her lips as her eyes scanned me up and down, "Just plain black coffee please."
I obliged her request. She was the first customer of the day to be nice about ordering, so I was more than happy to help her.
"How come you aren't at school?" she asked as I placed the cup of coffee in front of her. The person behind her sneezed on her by accident. He quickly apologized to her profusely, but Ashely paid no care for it and handed the man a tissue and reassured him.
She was so perfect and ideal. She was the smartest student in our school and easily among the most beautiful women I've ever seen. However, I couldn't even stay in school without risking getting kicked out of my apartment. Even the bright gleam her character emitted was elegant.
I averted my eyes from hers as she turned to face me again, "I can't. I have bills to pay."
"What? Why?"
"Can you hurry it up already?!" A voice hollered from the back.
Ashley shot a glare in the direction of the voice. Her soft demeanor would fool most into thinking she had no fire within her, but she definitely did if my previous experiences at school taught me anything.
"Write me your address on this paper, I'll come visit you after school, ok?"
"What? Why?" I asked as I hurried to write down my address.
"We'll talk later, k? Bye-bye," she said as she scurried out of line.
For the rest of my shift, I couldn't take my mind off what would happen once she came to my apartment. Me and a pretty girl alone in a room. But that's when it hit me, my apartment was infested with clothes and trash all over.
Foggy face after foggy face I counted down the hours till my shift was over and I could finally head home. Eventually, that time came. As soon as the clock struck three pm I grabbed my bag from the employees room and ran out the door.
When I stepped out of that warm coffee shop and felt the chilling breeze of winter pass up my nostrils and enter my body, I tasted freedom. I felt like I could relate to prisoners being released for the first time in years. Even the sun shun down on me like I was the one emitting sunlight. Its warm touch soothed me into a sense of serene.
Quickly, I skipped down the sidewalk humming a melody as I thought about the possible situations that may occur when she arrived. Most weren't PG but those were just my imagination running wild.
I crossed Burken Street and took a left on Franco Blv where the traffic really kicked in. As most people began heading home from work the noise of the busy city streets kicked into overdrive making it difficult to hear even my own thoughts.
The street itself was two busses wide from one sidewalk to the other and a row of small trees and bushes lined the edge of the pavement as far the as the eye could. The neighborhood was renowned for its poverty as the buildings were clearly in need of fresh brown and red paint.
Despite the busy streets and the occasional stranger mean-mugging me, my cheeks began to hurt from the immense grin that crept up to my face.
Unfortunately, my loss of thought made me blind to the twenty-foot demon that lunged out from the alleyway next to me.
My head twisted in the direction of the beast to see its gaping jaws with a hundred teeth emerge from the darkness of the alleyway and hovering over me.
Time slowed as the beast approached. It's horns spiraled back to its black fur at the top of its skull. Its eyes shone like red rubies and the glimmer moved depending on which way you looked at it.
Its skin was purple and scaly with fur on its elbows and heels. Its arms were wider than a door placed horizontally and the claws on both its arm and feet were as long as a cat.
Joy fled me like the crowd of pedestrians around me and that's when I knew it. I couldn't believe I thought something good was finally gonna happen to me. All the hardship and the suffering I've gone through these last few months would only culminate in me being another statistic of people killed by demons.
My mother didn't die for this. I promised her I'd be ok. I promised her that I'd make something out of myself and yet I was about to die. Thinking about it wouldn't change my fate anymore though.
From its jaws a second mouth shot out from deep within the demon's glowing red throat with sets of teeth numbering in the hundreds as well. Its tongue reached out to me as if unable to resist the tempting taste of my flesh.
I wanted to close my eyes and let it happen. The pain would surely be over quickly if I just accepted it. However, I wasn't able to close them. No matter how much I tried it was like soft hands kept them open for me.
The dread that clung to my heart for that brief moment was outed and in its place was a will. It felt like a hand had gripped my heart without causing any pain and screamed for me to move. I began hearing my mother's voice urging me to live.
"MOVE DAMION!" it kept going and going until eventually the creature closed its jaws but I wasn't there. I was inches away from death but my legs somehow moved on their own and I was able to evade the creature's dagger-like teeth at speeds I never knew I could reach.
I was in disbelief that my body was able to move with such quickness that even the people around stared as the creature raised its large hands in the air and clasped them together.
Fire exploded from its palms and set its claws a flame. The towering demon sniggered down at me. I felt a pit forming in my stomach as I looked into its blood-red eyes.
Suddenly, the creature slammed its fiery palm down at me. The speed was immense, normally I wouldn't be able to react to anything like it at all but now I was able to. More surprisingly, the attack slammed to the ground and created a small crater as my back crashed into the street floor, but I was alive. I was in pain but alive.
My mind was racing trying to catch up with all that was happening. My sudden strength and speed, the demon attack, the sharp stabs from the fire burning and charring my skin as the demon continued to press down on me with hopes of turning my body to ash.
I attempted to push back but the creature pushed harder and slowly my arms began to give out from the immense pressure being shot down on me. I gritted my teeth and even began using my head to help my arms push back the demon's palm but it was no use. Soon I'd either be crushed or burned alive.
A loud boom sounded off to the right of me as the weight was lifted off of me. The demon stumbled dozens of feet back creating a trail of debris on the street and crushing the pile of cars beneath its weight as it fell to the ground.
I caught my breath as my arms tensed trying to reduce the stabbing from the burn on my forearms. The screaming of the crowd around me slowly began to dim out the more they ran away. Soon I'd be alone with this thing with no one to help.
"Hey, are you gonna lay there and wait to die? Stand."
What? Wait, how'd the demon go flying just now? And who the hell is that? I asked myself.
A man's shadow cast over me as his figure shielded the sun. His voice was gruff and commanding and void of personality. I felt like the man was a long-dead commander watching as his soldier coward and accepted his fate on the floor.
I turned over and forced myself to stand, though even that felt like lifting a thousand pounds off of me. Finally, I got a good look at the man.
He was a few inches taller than I and his hair was charcoal black with a red top and his left eye was sealed by a large gash running down to his cheek. His beard was frizzy and short. His coat was long and brown and beneath it, he wore a black and white suit like a businessman.
"What are you?" He asked as he removed the cigar from his mouth, blowing smoke on my face.
"I'm just some coffee shop worker man," I said through my coughs.
"A coffee shop worker huh? And you just so happen to have the strength and speed to slither past death from a demon?"
I had no answer for him. The man walked past me as if indifferent to my well-being and he stood between me and the demon. He was small compared to the beast but for some reason, he seemed larger than the demon itself. I felt safe standing behind this man's large stature as he faced the demon head-on.
"You're a hunter."
"No." He replied without turning to look at me.
"Unless you wanna die I'd suggest moving. That thing looks like it's ready to attack." the man said as he pulled out a large cleave from his back. The blade was as dark as a pit and reflected off a faint glow when the sun hit it.
A roar sounded off through the streets of Losmian City shaking the very ground we stood on and shattering the windows of nearby vehicles. Their alarms began blaring as the creature opened its mouth, the crimson glow from its throat began to glow even brighter and heat waves began to appear.
With a quick zip, the light and heat vanished and burst from the creature's mouth like a giant flamethrower. I wanted to run but before I could the flame halted as the smoke from the man's cigar ran to meet the ranging flames. The smoke from the cigar blew up in a massive show of fire with heat so immense I could feel it attempting to burn my skin.
With a single step, the man vanished, and the smoke left from the explosion parted as the man appeared over the demon's head with his cleave well above his head.
The demon spotted him and readied another fire blast but the man threw his cleaver and it embedded into the demon's nose causing it to shriek and roar in pain. The man landed on the demon's nose and yanked his cleaver out. He continued to rain blow after blow on the demon's face causing blood to shoot out in all directions staining the streets.
With sheer luck, the demon grabbed the man with its enormous claws and threw him to one of the buildings nearby. The man broke through the skyscraper's walls as if it were made of paper.
With the man out of the way, the demon turned to me once more and began charging at me like a bull with steam shooting out of its nose.
The demon began creeping closer and I could feel the heat emanating from his body grow stronger as its rage increased. I turned and ran knowing I was no match for this demon's power and a chase ensued as I ran down Franko Blv and turned to Mc. Deen Street.
I ran and ran till my legs spent more time in the air than they did on the ground. Even my heart was pumping faster than it ever had before.
The people scattered as soon as they spotted me like I was plagued with all sorts of diseases. When I turned back I saw the demon leap over me and take a swing, but just then the man emerged from a window nearby and kicked the demon in the jaw, staggering it enough for me to bolt behind a car and pray.
I heard bangs and fists collide as I hid behind the car. My heart felt like it ran faster than my legs could and sweat-drenched my clothes. The hair in my arms stood up and my mind scrambled to process all that was happening.
Just a few moments ago I was a boy excited to be in a room alone with a beautiful girl but now I was fighting for my life as a demon and a man were fighting in the middle of the street. I wanted to run. I needed to run. Whatever display of strength I showed is nothing. I'll die in mere moments.
I placed my hand on the hard cement and began lifting myself back onto my two feet. The run from here to the corner of the street seemed to stretch further away from me as I siked myself up.
"Help me..." A faint voice cried out.
I was so caught up with myself and my own self-preservation that I completely forgot about the people living in this area. The poor souls whose apartments were being destroyed were stuck in them with no one to help.
Where the fuck are the other hunters?! I asked myself.
I turned to face the withering voice and saw a girl no older than eight stretching her arm out to me. I could feel the heat rising behind me as the sweat dripped from the little girl's forehead and fell towards the concrete. She was bleeding from her head and a pile of rubble kept her leg in place. She was crying and her mouth was filled with siliva and snot that ran down her nose and into her mouth.
This poor girl was in a hell of a lot more trouble than I was and yet I was the one wanting to run.
"Please, help me!" She cried out. Just then a loud boom came from behind followed by a loud crash. I quickly turned to see the demon looming over me with drool and blood dripping from its wounds all over. The car I was heading behind was crushed.
I turned back to look at the little girl trapped beneath the rubble. The ground began to move beneath me and my legs began to wobble as if I'd forgotten how to stand.
"Boy," A shrilled demonic voice began to speak. My heart stopped as I realized the demon was communicating with me telepathically.
"Leave the girl to me and run away. Cowar in fear of my power while I devour this brat's soul." It had no emotion in its voice as if the idea of murdering a little girl meant nothing to it. I wanted to throw up at the realization that such evil creatures existed.
I wanted to scream at the demon but my lips shivered each time I opened my mouth and the words that flowed out were poor attempts at communicating.
"leave now or join her in eternal suffering," the demon growled.
"Go fuck yourself," I muttered.
The demon roared at my defense and lifted its hand high above its head, getting ready to bring its fist down upon me.
I was ready this time. My noodle-like legs were able to muster the strength to move past the demon's hand as it slammed into the ground behind me. I leaped on top of the car and propelled myself forward striking the demon on the jaw.
The rough and hot sensation of my fist making contact with its scales sent a stream of adrenaline, unlike anything I experienced before through my body.
My attack didn't have nearly as much power as that man's, but it was enough to stagger the demon temporarily. However, it didn't last long. Before my feet could even touch the ground the demon slammed its second hand on top of me, only this time I was ready for it, I brought both of my arms over my head before it could crush me, though the force of the impact brought me down on one knee as I struggled to hold it in place. It felt like my knees would burst out of my skin from the pressure being exerted on them.
I will not lose, I told myself as I began shouting. A scream from deep within my soul emerged from me. The battle cry empowered me so much that I began pushing the beast's hand back. For a moment it seemed shocked, like bewilderment entered its eyes for the first time as I began pushing its arm back.
Unfortunately, it didn't waste a second and used its second arm to smack me away. I crashed into a semi-truck with the force of what felt like a dozen elephants.
Soon my back was beginning to go numb, but I had no chance to pay it any mind as the demon rushed in for the kill. Luckily I rolled out of the way of its charge and swung my hand instinctively at the demon, shooting out multipole shards of glass from my fingertips that pierced the demon's scales.
The demon grunted as the shards ripped through its chest. The demon opened its jaws and prepared another blast, but before it could be unleashed the man appeared once more and delivered a powerful kick to the bottom of the demon's jaw, shutting it.
The man took one deep breath of his cigar and unleashed a large cloud of smoke that moved as if it had a mind of its own. The smoke trailed up the demon's body and began surrounding its head from the neck up.
The man turned toward me and snatched me by my collar. He leaped away as he made a clicking sound with his mouth and the smoke surrounding the demon combusted in a massive ball of fire, larger than the collision from earlier.
The blast was so large that it covered the comically large street entirely, even going as far as catching the surrounding buildings in its radius. Glass flew and debris scattered as it happened. Pedestrians ran in all directions attempting to avoid the blast and the projectiles that followed.
The man dropped me off next to the little girl and he easily lifted the large piece of rock that trapped the little girl.
"Don't look like you can walk, can you?" he asked her.
I think even the little girl felt intimidated by the man. She didn't speak, she only shook her head when the man asked her that question.
I looked back toward the large black ball of darkness that now surrounded the area, waiting in anticipation for the demon to attack, but it never came. When the smoke settled, all that was left was the corpse of a once towering demon but no head, only smoky demon flesh, boiling blood, and charred surroundings.
I squinted rapidly as the smoke reached my eyes and began stinging them.
"Get up," the man ordered, "Let's go."
The man grabbed the little girl by her waist and lifted her over his shoulder. The little girl's eyes closed and her cheeks slouched on the man's shoulders, grateful for his rescue. A slight smile formed on my face as we walked over to the now-surrounding police.
I could see from the remaining windows that my face was covered in dust and blood. I most likely stank too as the demon had a rotting fish-like scent. The dread from earlier began dwindling away as more policemen arrived at the scene.
"Take her to the nearest hospital and find her family," the man ordered the police officer and he listened without hesitating. He took the girl by her waist and quickly ran off to get her treatment.
"Boss, there are several casualties and injuries around the area, we've set up a perimeter one mile wide and began searching through the debris for survivors," an officer told him. The man's facial expressions didn't change though. He didn't flinch, scoff, or so much as blink at the mention of all the dead people around the area.
"Very well, I'll be giving my report of the incident shortly and I expect the same for your findings, do you understand?"
"Yes sir," and with that the cop was off, merging with the red and blue light that blared in the background.
"So, who are you?" The man asked lighting another cigar.
No sir, who are YOU?! I asked myself.
"No one," I replied.
"No one? You held your own against a category four demon. You aren't a hunter?"
That thing was only a category four and it caused that much destruction.
"I'm not."
"And yet here you are, alive and well, for the most part."
"Look, I don't know what just happened alright. I've never done anything even remotely close to what I did just now. I'm just as lost as you."
"You've never used your abilities prior to this? Not even once?"
"Like I said I didn't even know I had them."
"Impossible. What family are you from?"
I looked away from the man as he asked me that question. "I don't have one," I blurted.
"well you're obviously from a family if abilities manifested, a low family most likely. Are they all dead?"
"Yes," I mumbled staring at the floor.
"Like me then," the man claimed. I felt a sense of connection with him in that area at least. Enough to make me want to look him in his expressionless eyes again.
"Well, since you're an individual with abilities but aren't a registered hunter, that makes you a rouge. That's illegal, you know that? I can get you up to thirty years in jail for that."
"What?!" I looked at him confused.
"Don't worry, I'm not a monster. Tell you what," he continues blowing smoke into the air. I made sure to tuck my head down when the smoke fell a little too low for my comfort.
"Currently, my department has only two other registered hunters among us. Bryan of the Bulken family and Maycy of the Bowers family. I want you to go down to the station over at Manlor and Crawls Blv to register yourself as a hunter and to register your family into our system."
"But I'm not a hunter," I interrupted. Before I could even get another word, the man approached me with his towering figure only a few inches away.
"It don't matter what you want kid. You're an ability holder now which means you're part of a family. And if your whole family's dead like you claim that means you were most likely written out of our files as deceased. We need to fix that unless you want the Armadakins' son and heir to come looking for you wondering why your family was hiding. I promise you he is the last man on this plannet you want breathing down your throat."
"You mean Kaltigar Armadakin?" I let out a nervous laugh. "I'm a nobody, there's no way he'll make time for me."
"He will." the man stated, his gaze colder than ever.
He then handed me a note with the address of his station and ordered one of his officers to escort me to the station.
"Kid, what's your last name?"
"I turned to face him as the cop escorted me hastily to the car.
"Miles," I told him as the man shoved me into the car. Through the cop car's barred windows I could see the man's face stare off into the distance as if lost in thought.
When the cop slammed the door behind him I asked, "Who is that guy?"
The cop turned his rearview mirror to look at me, "That's Rick, the last surviving member of the McGolden Family. Sit back, kid." The man ordered.
As he began driving I looked back toward the man who hadn't budged from his spot. The police siren began ringing as the man's silhouette disappeared into the distance. As the drive went on I sat there still processing all that had happened.
If I am truly a part of a family, that means my future is far different from what I had expected. It means my mom lied to me all my life. In truth, this meant I had no idea who I truly was. So many thoughts appeared and disappeared only to reappear in my mind as the cop drove me through the station. So many thoughts ran through my head that I had completely forgotten about meeting Ashley in my apartment. All I could do now was pray I'd get an opportunity to be alone with her once more and hope she wouldn't hate me for ditching her the next time we met if there is a next time that is.