Prologue
A warm, tropical breeze ran through the dim lighted streets. The full, bright moon stood proudly in the cloudless sky. Stars that sparkled like diamonds danced around it. A youngish looking boy, at the age of 17, walked the eerily silent streets. Most were in their beds for the night. After all, it was 11:59. He had bleach blonde hair; a scruffy look that went just below the ears. The ends curled out with a black beanie on top. A bill was attached to the end and was slightly tilled to the side. His pants were light and extremely faded looking jeans. Many holes were located all around. His shoes were worn as well; light blue KAV2s that looked as if holes would appear any second. There was a blue and red flannel shirt unbuttoned over a white muscle shirt.
His skin tone was a light, peachy white. It didn’t seem like he went out in the sun that much even though it was Florida. A place even the heat never slept. He was muscular yet slightly still on the chunky side. Most wouldn’t really want to get in a fight with him. A slightly darker blonde chin strap beard was on his face. Though, his eyes were the most striking feature. They were a beautiful, Neptune blue.
Mitch walked with a slight confidence surrounding him. School was to start tomorrow, and he was ready to finally confess his love to his long time friend.
I wonder what she’ll say. Mitch thought back to the day when he first met her in fourth grade. That, and almost every day since, were the best time of his life.
Through his reminiscing, his nerves started to kick in.
What if it goes bad? What if our friendship is ruined? What if sh-He stopped walking. “Whoa man, calm down. There are so many ‘what ifs’ out there. Don’t let something so pathetic affect you.” Mitch started to coach himself. He took a deep breath, then grinned. He punched the air for extra measures, almost as if he was punching the fear away. “Yeah… besides, you’ll still be friends. That’s just the kind of girl she is.” He reminded himself. His feet started to move forward again.
Moments after, a loud thud and the sound of bending metal was heard. A black cat came shooting out. Its fur bristled in all weird directions. Loud hissing could even be heard from Mitch’s distance; he was pretty far away as well. Something seemed to have frightened it.
What the…? He hesitated before creeping over. He pressed his back against the cool, brick wall. Slowly, he peered around the corner into the dark alley.
A person was lying on their back, on one of the black dumpsters. It was dented down where the guy was, as if done by a great force from above. If Mitch had to guess, it was probably two or so feet down.
Eyes wide, Mitch rushed over as fast as his legs could carry him. “Oh God! Are you okay?” Something stopped him from fully running up to the guy and helping him up. An unknown force it seemed. As if, it didn’t
want Mitch to go over and help.
The person laid there for a moment before slowly sitting up. He shook his head out, sliding off the dumpster slowly. He landed a bit unstable, confused almost, before regaining his balance. He didn’t seem to have heard the blonde speak. Though Mitch slightly caught what the other was muttering. “Damn, Lilith. Some help you are. Stupid witch.” Mitch didn’t catch the rest though he was pretty sure it was more cursing to the Lilith person he had mentioned.
Mitch cleared his throat, trying to obtain the other’s attention. “Hey, are you okay? Did you fall?” He glanced up. Both buildings on either side of the alley had to be at least five stories high. There was no way this guy should have lived if he fell from that distance.
The other finally looked over. His eyes were a bright crystal. No wait, now they were bright silver, an amused expression on his face.
Did his eyes just change color? No, maybe they’ve been silver the whole time. I must just be tired, that’s all. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” There was an easily detectable, cocky note to his voice, which slightly bugged Mitch. The other guy eyed him before adding, “You’re short.”
Short?! “I’m six feet for your information. That’s not short.” Mitch huffed.
“Ah, let me correct myself. You’re shorter than me. Sound better?’ Before the irritated blonde could respond, h e spoke again. “Name.” It was more of a command than a question.
“Mitch G-Bottom.” Mitch blurted out. He blinked confused. It was as if something had
made him say his name. The wind seemed to howl and the male before him narrowed his eyes at the place next to Mitch, almost as if someone was there. “Er anyways… Are you sure you’re okay?”
He peered at the male more closely. He had rusty red hair that was short. The bangs spiked into his face, while the rest spiked back and down the further down it traveled. Now that Mitch was looking more closely, he noticed that his eyes
were changing colors. Constantly. It was like a prism, or spectrum, of colors all at once. His skin was ivory white that made his eyes more visible and pop out. He had a lean yet muscular body. Baggy, black jeans wore loosely at his waist. Mitch, for unknown reasons even to himself, blushed at the sight. There were a few holes in the knee and around the foot areas. That was it.
No shoes.
No socks.
No shirt.
Just the pants.
Then, Mitch noticed the hole in the red head’s chest. It was located right above the area where the heart should be. It had claw marks at the edges of the hole as if something had clawed its way through the skin. A few milky white ribs could be seen inside of the hole. They almost looked crushed in as if something forced itself through. Around the hole was an orboros tattoo. The snake was an ash black to represent death and something else that Mitch didn’t know. Its one visible eye seemed to glow with a hellish fire color. It seemed to be eating its own tail.
How the Hell did I not notice that before?!“Oh God. Dude, you re-” Mitch was abruptly cut off.
“Stop saying that name.” The red head was frowning. “It is very annoying.” He seemed to have chosen his words carefully. Slowly, he opened his eyes, now a Halloween orange.
Mitch was trying to think back. “What name? G-”
“Yes, that one.” The male said in a snappy tone. His eyes had flashed from the orange to a bright gold color. The look in his eyes made Mitch stumble back, but the unknown force from before seemed to have helped him catch his balance. The wind howled again. The other seemed to ignore whatever it was saying, as if it really was talking to him. “Now then, what’s the date?’ His voice was a bit more calm but Mitch could tell he was still pretty angry.
“The date? Uh, July 31st, 2010. Tomorrow is the first day of school.” He eyed the other suspiciously. He looked old enough to still be in it. Perhaps soon to graduate but still to attend it. “I think you hit your head harder than you think.”
Not to mention the freaking hole! “You seriously need to see a doctor.” He looked down, patting his jean pockets to locate the illusive cell phone. “Do you remember your name? Where you live? How can I locate your parents?”
Complete silence, save for the wind, answered Mitch. He stopped his searching to look up at the other. His hand was on one of the brick walls, staring up curiously. He seemed to trail his fingers down it slowly, fascinated. “Did you even hear a word that I said?”
It’s probably worse than I first thought.He started to walk over to what seemed like the older boy. The wind seemed to scream in frustration and tried holding Mitch back. He glared at the air before him, seeming to “break through” something’s hold. He placed a hand on the ivory shoulder to obtain the red head’s attention; though he quickly pulled it back. The flesh of the other was extremely hot and now being this close, he smelt like sulfur.
“Who are you?” Mitch whispered. He was clutching the wrist of the burnt hand. The skin on his hand was completely scorched an was starting to blister up.
The boy looked over, a predatory smirk crawling its way across his face. “Names mean nothing when we’ll never meet again.” He stalked closer to Mitch, forcing him against the wall. Mitch’s eyes widened in complete fear. “Don’t you agree? I only asked for yours to see who I was taking out.” He lifted a pale hand, running a few finger tips against the peach jaw line. The skin scorched where his fingers brushed. It blistered and started to pop seconds later, making the skin there go raw.
Mitch screamed in pain. He tried shoving the other boy away, though only succeeded in burning, and then blister, both hands. One was much worse than the other, except Mitch didn’t really seem to notice. It did scare him that he hadn’t moved the other. Not even a lousy inch. “What the
Hell are you?!” He demanded while trying to move around the other, more stronger, male. Except, the red head seemed to have different plans than Mitch wanted.
He grabbed Mitch’s arm, burn the skin on contact. Mitch couldn’t help the scream that burst through his throat. Why didn’t anyone hear him? It just didn’t make any sense!
What’s going on?! He was positive that it had something to do with the smirking guy holding onto him. The wind them seemed to rush at the red head, knocking him down. Mitch thought he saw the shadow of a person, with wings on their back, on the wall on top of the other boy’s shadow.
Mitch didn’t stick around to find out.
He took off to be rid of the person behind him, seeming to struggle with something. Too soon after, he heard the sound of flesh ripping apart before a scream disturbed the silence. The sound was like nothing Mitch had ever heard before. It was musical yet gurgling at the same time. “Come back.” The male’s voice called annoyed after the screaming had finally stopped.
Mitch didn’t listen.
He continued running. He couldn’t believe, couldn’t
understand, what had actually happened.
I need to call the police. That guy is a total psycho! He had lost almost all of his breath from running away. He didn’t know where he even was and he didn’t care. He leaned against the wall before he searched his pockets more frantically than before. He quickly found the blue razor, pulling it out of his breast pocket. It burned against his blistered hands and he accidentally dropped it. “Dammit.” He muttered. His burned fingers fumbled in picking it back up. Quickly, as quickly as they could go, he dialed 911.
“Hello, this is Florida police department. How may we assist you?” A woman’s voice greeted Mitch.
“Hello? There’s this psycho who’s chasing after me. He already killed someone else, I think.” Mitch whispered into the phone with one single breath. He looked around frantically, checking to see if he was still safe.
“What? Sir, I can’t hear you. Please speak up.” The woman said in a soothing tone. “What is your name?”
“My name is Mitch G-Bottom.” He looked around again. Still no sign of him. While looking around, he noticed a certain house. He was more out towards the forest. The house right before him was her house. How he wanted to run inside though, he didn’t want her to face what he was going through.
I’ll be fine. It’s okay. You’ll get to see her tomorrow. He gulped. “There is a psycho trying to kill me. He’s already kill-”
“Now please don’t drag unwanted people into this. You don’t want their deaths’ on your hands, do you? Plus, I’m not in the mood to deal with them as well.” There was an annoyed ring to the voice.
Mitch dropped the phone in complete fear.
No! He jumped back. His terrified, Neptune eyes stared back into royal purple. There was a frustrated look upon the ivory face. Something the color of liquid gold was on his skin and a few feathers was sticking to it. A bit were in his hair as well. “Y-you!” Mitch stuttered lamely. He was unable to say anything more.
“Mr. G-Bottom? Mr. G-Bottom, are you still there?” There was muffled noises in the back ground. “I’m sending help right now. Just stay on the line with me. It’s all going to be okay.” Her voice promised.
The royal purple morphed into the Halloween orange again. “Now I have to do this job quickly. Too bad she’s lying to you,
Mitch.” Without warning, he struck out his hand against Mitch’s chest. His slender fingers dug deep into the soft, peach flesh. They easily ripped through his clothes. Muscles ripped and bones snapped under pressure, folding inwards. Mitch’s throat went raw from screaming in pain.
“Mr. G-Bottom?!” The voice sounded so distant, so frantic. Like there was nothing there.
He tried to claw at the ivory flesh, though it had no effect on him. “Now where is that little organ, hmm?” He wasn’t really talking to Mitch. Soon, too soon, the hand gripped the soft tissue of the heart.
NO! It can’t end like this! Not like this! I never got to tell her! Mitch choked back tears. He watched as a few lights went on from her house. “There you are…” He crooned, as if it was a little baby.
“S-stop… please…” Mitch begged as best as he could with blood starting to spill out of the corners of his mouth. Mitch’s grip started to loosen, so much of the thick, inky blood was squeezing out of the hole.
A sinister smile formed on the male’s face. “I don’t have the
heart to stop.” He sneered before adding, “Besides, the
real fun begins now. Too bad you don’t get to see it.” He yanked the weak beating organ out of its protective cage. Blood squirted all around the scene, going in odd directions. The boy wasn’t fazed when the blood splattered on his face and chest. “Poor heart. Running into me just wasn’t your lucky day. That idiot wasn’t any help either.” He kissed the red organ. “So sweet…” He then devoured it like it was any food item. It squirted as blood shot out in odd directions again. His eyes flashed different shadings of reds and blacks, though they didn’t seem like they were his eyes. “Hope that’s good enough. I don’t want to hunt down another.” He muttered to no one.
He was then gone.
Soft sounds of sirens echoed in the distance. Mitch slid to a sitting position on the ground. Eyes dulled and skin paled as the blood slowly started to pool around his body. A lonely tear slid down his cheek and stayed there.
The police finally pulled up to the scene. Two males, one with dusty gray hair and the other with light brown, stepped out of their care. Their guns were up and ready. The gray haired one shook his head. “We didn’t make it in time. Seems fresh though.” He put his gun away.
The younger one peered at the hole in Mitch’s chest. “What the Hell kind of person could do
that?” He asked, slightly disgusted by the sight.
“I don’t know…”
Then, a warm rain broke the sky, even though no clouds were out. It drizzled down slowly, seeming to clean the blood and “taint” off of Mitch’s dead body. The older cop looked up. “Do you know where rain comes from?”
“Um, the changes of moisture in the air?”
He shook his head sadly. “No, angels crying.”
