Chapter One.
******
The alley was quiet now. The only sounds nearby came from a distant siren and the steady drip of blood pooling beneath the dead man. Demon stood over the body watching and waiting. He was so composed you'd think he was in a garden about to water his favorite plant. His work was done.
Richard Hale had been a scourge. A predator who thought the world had forgotten his sins. But Demon had not forgotten. Why should he forget? He had seen the fear in the victims' eyes and felt their silent pleas echo in his skull as he erased Richard from this plane of existence. Richard molested little boys and girls while staying just close enough to the lines of the law that made him considered an upstanding citizen.
They don't have to be afraid anymore.
The body lay across the damp concrete with the limbs twisted unnaturally and mouth slightly open as if surprised by his own death. Hale's chest had been neatly opened with his heart carefully removed. Demon had done it with killer precision just like a surgeon.
He was an artist after all.
"Not so hot now, is he? The fucker thought he was untouchable. He looks so small now," Jackson murmured beside him. His voice was laced with amusement. He squatted next to the body as he tilted his head to the side. "They always look small when they're dead."
Demon didn't answer.
He just watched, savoring the moment. To him, this was the quiet after the storm. He wanted to enjoy it.
The sirens grew louder. The first squad car screeched to a halt at the opening of the alley. Officers spilled out with their guns raised. The captain arrived barking orders to search the construction site nearby.
Demon stayed in the darkness watching them scurry like clueless children.
Jackson laughed. He leaned against the shoulder of one officer with his arms crossed. He was completely exposed yet none of them saw him. It was one of the perks of being a ghost. "Look at them, Demon. Clueless. They think they run this city but they have no idea."
One of the officers crouched by the body and then muttered something into his radio. Another scanned the alley with a flashlight. The beams passed within inches of Demon's face. He didn't flinch. He never had to. He had learned the act of staying calm in any situation.
He was a predator. Predators stayed calm and that was the defining factor separating them from prey.
They would never find him no matter how hard they tried. He was careful. He was precise. He was meant to do this. It was his destiny.
He turned and walked away feeling satisfied with what he had seen so far. The cops were still running around with their dicks in their hands. Jackson fell into step beside him as they reminisced about the murder together.
When he got home, his apartment was silent except for the whispers. He could hear the whispers even before he reached his door.
The hole in the center of his living room growled. It was open and it looked wider than it had been the previous night. Its rough edges were lined with something dark and wet. The voices rose as he entered the house. They were gruesome, overlapping in an inhuman guttural tone, and insistent.
Hungry. Always hungry.
Demon unwrapped the heart he had covered carefully in a bloodied fabric. It was still warm just as they liked it. He knelt at the edge of the hole and let his fingers brush the rough floor. He could feel the pain and agony below. The hungry creatures below quivered in anticipation.
He lowered the heart into the void.
There was a moment of silence. This was the part that always unnerved him. He knew what was going to happen next yet he wondered.
Then the whispers turned to shrieks. Something unseen moved in the depths. He could make out movements but they were shadows.
Jackson leaned in the doorway with his arms folded. "They love you, you know."
Demon wiped his hands on his jeans. "I know, J. I know."
Sleep never came. Not when the dreamscape was waiting. He knew the nightmares and monsters would consume him the moment he let himself slip into its cold embrace. The moment his eyes shut the walls would melt and the world he knew would shift. He would be trapped there in the endless corridors. He would be chased by faceless things through doors that led nowhere, haunted by voices that screamed his name. His real name.
He wouldn't go back. No way in hell I'm going back.
He left the apartment and went into town. The bright neon lights washed over him like a second skin. Gomorrah was a place for sinners to indulge their fantasies and it was one of the few places the dreamscape couldn't get to him.
Inside the club, the air was thick with cheap perfume and smoke. Sweaty bodies moved around and the sound of laughter and conversation filled the area. He paid for two girls and led them to the back room where the bed was clean but smelled like old sweat and ghosts. It was the best room they had and he knew that from experience.
The girls undressed slowly in a teasing way while touching each other but he paid no attention to them. His mind was elsewhere. There were still monsters out there. Filth that needed to be cleaned. His job was not yet done.
Then he looked up and saw it. One of the girls was blonde. His pulse spiked and his breath caught in his throat.
Blonde.
Maria had been blonde.
His fingers curled, turning his hands into fists and his body tensed.
Jackson's voice slithered into his ear. It was sweet and insistent. "Kill her."
His hand drifted to the knife carefully concealed at his hip. Maria's face flashed behind his eyes. She was laughing at him and then screaming in horror before going silent.
His grip tightened on the hilt. The girl was oblivious to what was about to happen. She let the other girl play with her exposed nipples and seemed to enjoy it.
Their moans made Demon furious and he was ready to go for the kill until the hair suddenly slipped off her head. It had been a wig.
A fucking wig?!
Dark hair spilled over her shoulders. The illusion shattered.
Demon exhaled as the tension left his body as quickly as it had come.
Jackson pouted beside him. "What a shame. It would've been fun."
Demon ignored him and settled back letting the girls work. His mind was already elsewhere. There were more out there. More monsters hiding in plain sight. There was more work to be done.
And he was their reckoning. He was the scale of justice and he was going to make sure they get their punishment.
He thought about his next target…
The girls moved closer to him. Their naked bodies aroused him and the thought of what he was going to do to both of them before the night was over made him harder. He knew Jackson was going to join them. It was always better with Jackson there.
"You've kept us waiting." One of the girls smiled, rolling her long finger across her erect nipples. "Let's see what you've got."
Demon grinned at her and her friend. "It's going to knock your breath away. Just try not to die."