CHAPTER ONE | THE GREAT ENCOUNTER
ARKON
"Stop trying to run or we will kill you." A voice roars, forcing me to pause all my movements.
The voice sounded so close that for a moment, I thought I was the one being ordered. Looking around me and seeing no one made me realize the voice was coming from the building by the left side.
Curiosity gets the better of me and soon, I find my legs leading me into the shady looking building and going to the area the voices were coming from.
I crouch behind a gigantic pile of cartons, peeping through the side to have a glimpse of what is happening.
Five men are standing in front of a heavily bleeding man. The men are dressed in all black to the extent that their nails are also painted black.
A snicker finds its way to my throat but I suppress it by covering my mouth with my hands and repeating in my head that it's absolutely normal for people in Hell City to dress suspiciously weird all the time. No matter how hard I tried to get used to it, I could never get over the culture shock after moving to Hell city and seeing people dress like superheroes or hookers to their office jobs.
My amusement is short-lived as I watch one of the men taste the blood of the bleeding man, mumble some gibberish and gestures to one of his friends who brings an animal.
I almost scream out when I see the animal that was bought. I had to physically restrain myself by biting the back of my hands to keep the scream from escaping and officially ratting myself out.
The animal is one I've never seen or heard of before and I'm almost positive it hasn't been discovered by the world yet.
It has the body of a gigantic centipede but unlike a centipede, it has two heads. The first head is in the shape of a worm with razor shaped teeth that made it impossible to close its mouth. It lets out a shriek as it is shifted closer to the man, its mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. It has no eyes, nose or ears, but just a dangerous looking mouth.
On the other side of its body is a small human-like head…exactly the size of a newborn child but with one part of its face similar to the face of a hyena and the other part the face of a human. Its eyes are closed but a sinister smile rests on its lips.
The first head is placed on the face of the man who is desperately struggling to get away from it.
I don't see what it's doing to the man's face but I was sure about one thing. Whatever it's doing is evil.
The man's screams almost tears the building down and that was the cue I needed to get the hell out of there.
I take one last look at the man and regretted immediately. The animal was sucking the man's blood from his mouth and part of the blood pours out to the floor.
Unable to help it, I hurl out the contents of my stomach while still staring at the forbidden animal.
Like a horror movie in slow motion, the closed eyes of the other head snaps open immediately and its pitch black eyes stare straight into my scared ones.
I quickly look away, hiding fully so that they're out of my sight and I am out of theirs.
I hoped and prayed that the animal didn't see me but one screech from it was all I needed to know that it's coming for me next.
The resounding voice of one of the men speaks as the animal alerts it of my presence."Who the hell is there? Come out now."
I would rather dive into the deepest part of the ocean without knowing what's beneath it than come out of my hiding place.
In fear, I peep back, trying to see if I can successfully run out of the building alive only to come face to face with the animal's face.
I try to scream but it felt like my head was under water. Fear envelops me and I become paralyzed. My brain stops working and my fight or flight instincts are forgotten.
The face of the animal is even more terrifying up close. It scrutinizes my shaking form before sending me a smile that could make the bravest man piss in his pants. I'm shocked again to see that the second face of the animal is as toothless as an old woman.
Suddenly, my saving grace arrives as I see the building's emergency button. Saying a quick prayer that something miraculously happens, I pull it down as fast as my shaky hands would let me and the sound of sirens rings in the building.
Startled, the animal retreats and the man runs away with it. They probably thought the cops arrived.
I take a few months to recollect myself and regulate my breathing before coming out of my hiding place.
My guts tells me to get my ass out of the freaky building and erase everything that happened but I ignore it and move closer to the man on the flow.
A part of me wanted to help him and the other part wanted to check how his face looks after the demon such thing fed from his face.
His eyes are closed and his face looks like every other human's face when I see it. I move closer to him trying to place my ear on his chest to know if he's still breathing but his eyes snap open, startling me and almost making me fall on my butt.
I sigh, holding my chest in relief. "Fuck, you scared me. Are you alright? What was that thing on your face? Should I call an ambulance? Are those people human? Are you human?" I ramble, too curious to keep my mouth shut.
"Come…co…here…son." The man chokes out in a barely audible voice.
Hesitantly, I move closer to him and help him sit up.
The man hands me an emerald necklace with the shape of the sun as its pendant. "It will give you power. Never lose it."
A frown makes its way to my face as I stare at him, wondering if the animal had taken away his senses together with his blood.
"I'll just call the cops…" I trail off awkwardly, not wanting to help the nut job but also not going to leave him while he's injured.
"Do you have a phone with you? I would have called the cops earlier but my phone isn't here." I ask him after realizing that my phone is back home.
The man opens up his mouth to speak but instead of the sound of his voice coming, he begins to violently cough out dust.
"What the fucking hell!" I exclaim as I move back.
With wide terrified eyes, I watch the man turn into dust until a small heap of sand is lying on the floor.
As if I wasn't horrified enough, strong wind from heaven knows where blows in the fucking building and some of the dusts gets into my eyes.
I don't feel the usual sting anyone is supposed to feel when something gets into their eyes, instead, I'm hit with a soothing sensation that calms my terrified mind. The feeling is soon replaced by pain and my body begins to vibrate like I'm having an intense seizure. My eyes glaze over, the surroundings become blurry and my mind becomes blank. My ears ring like a huge bell is being rung directly in my ear.
I finally come out of the mini heart attack, got on my feet with the plan of running away and never looking back but my feet wouldn't move no matter how hard I tried to force it to.
"Are fucking kidding me." I yell out in frustration.
My voice echoes like the voice of a god in the ears of mortals and the strangeness of it makes me hyper aware of my surroundings again.
I almost lose my mind when I see myself lying on the ground, looking dead. In confusion, I slowly look at my hands only to see that they are transparent…my whole body is fucking transparent. "Holy shit! No! No! Hell fucking No! I'm dead? I can't die now. Please. Not now."
Like a miracle, I jerk off the floor, gasping like a dead person brought back to life.
"Freeze! It's the police. Put your hands up where I can see them." An officer says while pointing a gun at me.
Like a movie, I watch an officer cuff my hands behind my back while accusing me of murder. I plead innocent multiple times, telling them the event that went down but they don't believe me.
Everything suddenly stops with everyone and everything freezing in whatever weird positions they were in. Before I could blink, everything slowly goes backwards like a movie reversed and I'm dragged into my body by a force I can't fathom.
I suddenly gasp, coming back to life and breathing in a sign of relief. "It was all just a stupid dream."
My relief is short-lived as I look forward to seeing officers running towards me, just like in the dream I had. "Freeze! It's the police…"
I don't wait for him to complete his sentence before jumping on my feet and running out through another entrance.
I ran like my life depends on it…which it probably does and I don't stop running until I'm standing in front of the rundown apartment I share with my best friend, Kain.
I fumble to unlock the door hastily, turning around every second to make sure no one followed me.
I wasn't expecting Kain to be home since the door was locked so seeing him sitting on the couch with his face down, almost giving me a heart attack from fright. "What the hell, dude. You scared me." I hiss while holding my chest…again.
"Why was the door locked if you were there? Nevermind. You wouldn't believe what my I just fucking went…"
A cloth is placed over my mouth and nose, shutting me up and cutting off my air circulation. I'm dragged away while struggling to escape.