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Awakened Sight
Chapter 5: The Den

Chapter 5: The Den

Alikur

  “Finally!” the tall, smiling kid exclaimed as they reached the front. He lost his smile when he saw the doorman, or in this case door girl. “Where’s Adam? He said he was working the door tonight,” Alikur silently began planning, the bacchant at the door had probably sniffed him out already, and would reveal that to the ones inside, a perfect lure.

  “Oh, he’s here, just on an extended break, don’t worry about me I can handle myself,” the bacchant licked her lips. She was beautiful, light brown hair, luscious lips, and an hourglass figure that would not look out of place on a supermodel. But he knew that those nails of hers could extend into knife-like claws, and her eyes were as red as wine, of course most people, especially the type to come here, would assume that they are just contacts.

  “Well,” the tall kid continued, “some of us aren’t exactly… you know…”

  The bacchant waved at them to go on in, “Go on, you’re here because you want to be, that’s all that matters,” her voice mixed with her scent, and the group was immediately enthralled and accepted her words. Except for…

  “Crystal what’s up? Want me to… warm you up?” the dark-skinned boy said, approaching the girl who had noticed that there was something off, and had taken a step back, shivering.

  “No Jon, not gonna happen,” the boy, Jon, looked disappointed, but wasn’t completely far gone to go any further. Maybe I can get her to reason with a few of these kids, Alikur thought to himself.

   “Hey, if you need help, get your friends and whomever you want out, no need for any dangerous activities inside now,” He said, directing his words at the girl, and the bacchant. For the girl, it was a way out if she went inside and kept enough of her mind to realize that everyone was acting weird; for the bacchant, it was a challenge. She knew he wasn’t human by his scent. However, the curiosity for unknown exploits would drive her and her sisters to accept the challenge, as is their nature.

  “Sir, don’t you worry, we can be quite… amenable.” She directed her soft, sweet voice onto him at full force. Closing his eyes, Alikur calmed his rising emotions and urges, quelling the darker voices rising to take over. Opening his eyes, he gave a small smile to the now wide-eyed bacchant, who obviously felt it when he resisted the manipulations.

   “I’m sure I’ll find what I need, don’t you worry, small one,” the bacchants face flushed. She wouldn’t be out here if she were strong or important, so he touched a nerve with that comment on her stature.

  “Go on in, sir,” the group in front of him, including Crystal, had already moved on, and the look the bacchant gave him now was one of bloodlust.   

  “I’ll be in shortly, maybe a friend could help you out.” Her face red, the bacchant held in her desires, and Alikur went inside, leaving the bacchant to deal with the still growing line of people.

Crystal

  “Seriously, do none of you see that there is anything weird going on? You guys seem out of it, and normally it’s just Jon being lewd but you guys too?” Crystal said to her friends as the music rang in their ears, a vibe was in the air, stronger than before. Jon was trying to grind on her but she pushed him away and he immediately began grinding on someone else, which… honestly was just like him. However Max was grinding on May, but was openly groping other girls who reciprocated and kissed him, while May, who would normally be freezing everyone in place who tried to make a move on her or Max with a death glare, was reaching down other guys' pants! It wasn’t just them, everyone seemed to be in a sweaty, groping trance, and she found herself pushing guys off her with every step.

  “Damn it, what the hell is wrong with everyone?!” Someone grabbed her from behind, but this time she couldn’t break free. Petite hands, a girls’ hands, had her by the waist and chest, groping her and stroking her now exposed belly. The music switched to a techno beat, and the lights began to strobe to the rhythm, and in her view the world became like a stop motion film as her head swam with the scent of strawberries and… fuck, smells like pussy.

  “Shhh, don’t struggle, it’s just pleasure, let go and enjoy yourself,” the voice was like that of the girl at the door. Crystal turned her head and saw the same creepy red eyes and the strobing, time-stopping quality of the world dragged her into those eyes… The girl purred like a cat and nibbled on her neck, Crystal could feel something trying to break her down, and she found herself about to comply, wanting to, NEEDING TO, when the girl let go, hissing. Crystal found herself being pushed away, her head clearing slightly, she looked back to see what was going on. The man who had been behind them in line was there behind the woman, the crowd giving him a wide berth. The girl was staring daggers at him.

  “Do you really want to do this here? All your prey would freak out at the very least, at worst the police or even FBI would be called and that would just be bad for everyone,” he said to her, in a calm, low voice that called attention with minimal effort. “It’s not like you alone could… handle what I’ve got, so how about you and your sisters come with me for a little… business trip.” As he said this, Crystal could feel the eyes staring at him, and one by one more red-eyed girls waded through the crowd, and followed as the man led them towards the exit.

I… I need to get out of here… but....

Alikur

  A total of fourteen bacchants followed him outside, the one guarding the door tried to follow, but one of the stronger ones hissed at her and she slunk back, clearly miffed. He sighed, politics were a bitch. He’ll deal with her later, the others are now starting to show their nature, nails becoming claws, teeth elongating into needles, yet they still had the beauty though which was annoying. In the strobe lights, that beauty had been exaggerated even further, and worked to disorient those inside making them even more susceptible to their stench. When they arrived at an opening in the parking lot with not many cars around, and visibility being blocked by a hideous limo SUV only pompous asses rent, the bacchant surrounded him.

  “This place reeks of your stench, did you mark it as your grave?” the oldest one asked, although oldest was relative to the fact that they all looked to be in their early to late twenties. He gave a quick look around as he pretended to stretch, making sure no one would be able to see anything clearly before putting a hand back into his pocket.

  “Nah, that’s a friend of mine, and unlike you guys, she doesn’t carry every sexually transmitted disease known to both man and monster. She’ll, mercifully, show you a good time,” He face planted, pressing the smoke bombs trigger which he had been fiddling with since they walked out. White smoke erupted all around them from under the nearby cars, covering him and the bacchants inside, while the earth clones disguised as him reared up from their hiding spots behind the far-off cars all around them and released hardened wood arrows at the bacchants. As the smoke cleared, all but three bacchants were dead.

  The three that were alive had the brains to faceplant when he did. “You DARE?!” one of them yelled, but stopped as Alikur wasn’t where she remembered him being. He had moved quickly while there was still enough smoke and took out his bow from underneath the car he had hidden it under, he now looked and smelled exactly like the five clones. “CHEATER!” the bacchant yelled again, her eyes swinging from one clone to the next, trying to decide which one to target.

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  “Ruby, fire when I do,” Alikur whispered to the ground. Before the three could decide on which ones to target, he loosed an arrow into the farthest one who was looking away from him. The other two saw him fire, but couldn’t do anything about it when one took an arrow to the gut and another in the shoulder. The second was actually able to dodge one of the arrows, but that led to her taking the last two to the chest. He calmly knocked a second arrow, the first having cleanly pierced the last one's skull, and aimed at the one with the gut wound. She was screaming her head off on the ground, making it an easy target. He loosed, and the parking lot was silent once more.

  “Ruby, the dolls, and no, before you ask, we don’t have to worry about camera footage. Already had a look, apparently these gals are decent with looping footage.” he began to remove the arrows, waste not want not and all that.

  He sighed with this, the only one left would be the weakest one, back at the…

  As he got up and turned around he caught sight of the girl with the good senses, Crystal, and the last bacchants hand on her throat, using her like a shield at the end of the parking lot. “Fucking-” he inhaled deeply, this was not going to end well.

  “You got that right, although I do have to thank you. They were all conniving bitches, and despite being one of them, I~ was always~ on the out~skirts~,” the bacchant singsonged as her grim expression turned into a happy grin, “But you seemed to be the type to finish something that he starts, and since I found this one following after you and my sisters, I thought, hey, free~ meat~shield!” The fear in the girls’ eyes grew as the bacchant laughed. “But there is one question I have, and that’s what are you? You can use magic, but you clearly have the physical strength that most mages lack. You’re not a vampire, I can smell your pulse, so tell me and I’ll give you and this girl a clean death.” She spoke as if it was certain, Alikur could see the youthful impulse of inexperience.

  “I’ll say this,” he said calmly, “Ruby, rock and a hard place.” I am so sorry for the mess.

  The bacchant frowned in confusion, “What’s that sup-” the ground on either side of her came up and smashed together with her in between, she had held the girl at an arm's-length away so she came out uninjured, albeit with a fresh coat of blood and a severed arm laying on the ground beside her. Ruby put the pieces of the parking lot back into place, revealing the bloody mess in between. The now blood-soaked girl did what any rational person would do. She vomited.

Crystal

  She followed the strange man and group of attractive women as they left Forsaken out of sheer curiosity. Plus, she couldn’t be around what was possibly becoming a massive orgy fest. She was adventurous, but not shameless. The girls were obviously fuming as they stormed out. She followed about thirty feet away, what she thought was a safe distance. Until she felt a soft hand with an iron grip on the back of her neck. Shit, not again! Crystal thought to herself as she was violently dragged towards muffled screams and a rapidly dissipating cloud of smoke.

………………

  Used as a human shield, and then covered in blood. The stench of iron filled her nostrils, and she made the mistake of looking down and behind her. Bile came and she couldn’t hold it back, she was barely able to make it to the island of bushes that encumber all large parking lots. “Let it out, you’ll feel better afterwards,” the man said, patting her on the back and causing her to spasm and spew.

  “Heya! I’m done burying the bodies and the dirt puppets, so when are you going to erase her memories? Ooh! Can I replace them?! Please?” a little girl’s much too enthusiastic voice reached her ears, and Crystal couldn’t ignore the contents.

  “What the… hell are you… talking… ab-bout?!” She said between dry heaves. She looked up to where she had heard the little girl's voice. Sitting on the curb separating the island from the pavement, was a small girl in a green dress that went down to her knees. She was barefoot, but didn’t seem to mind, she had a cute face with dark brown eyes and… literal ruby hair. When light caught the dark rock that was the little girl's bob, it shone with an apple red brilliance.

  Crystal was awestruck, the little girl smiled when she saw her staring. “I think she likes me, can we keep her instead? Like a cat!”

  Crystal blinked for a moment. “Wait, what?! NO! You can’t keep a person as a pet an-” her vision swam and she had to steady herself. She heard sirens in the distance.

  The little girl wore a concerned look, “isn’t that bad Al?” The strange man, Al apparently, who had somehow wiped off the blood and cleaned her up while Crystal had been distracted by the little girl, finally spoke up.

   “Yep, and don’t worry,” he got up and began walking away towards the downtown area, turning his head one last time and somehow gave a look that was both annoyed and wistful, “There isn’t enough time to wipe and replace her memories before they get here, but even if she told anyone, which I doubt she will, they would never believe her.” With that bit of truth laid out, he disappeared down the road as the police arrived at the Forsaken Den.

  Shocked, shaking, and with an urgent instinct to find a bed, get under the covers and curl up into a ball, Crystal couldn’t move. “Ma’am?” Crystal jumped, a grey-haired police officer looked at her with worry. “Ma’am, I’m sorry for startling you, but I would like to ask you a few questions, since you are the only person outside of this mess.”

  His face took on a grim expression, Crystal, voice shaking, “W-What happened?” the officer raised an eyebrow, but nodded towards Forsaken.

  “Everyone inside is screaming on the ground trying to cover themselves from what looks to be a mass orgy. Not pretty to look at, but everyone’s cooperative. I blame alcohol and drugs, since everyone is saying that they don’t know what happened or why they were naked.” He looked her in the eyes, “Ma’am, could I see some ID?” Shit…

  As the cop looked over her license, Crystal scanned the emerging group of people from Forsaken, looking for her friends. She saw them, half-naked, looking as if they had walked in on their parents doing weird kinky shit. “Crane?” The cop looked at her with concern, “Jen’s little girl?” Jen was her mother; this officer must have been close to know her by her first name. She prepared for the worst. “I don’t know what’s going on, let’s just say that I give you a warning. You can give me a statement later, I’ll give your house a call, names Officer Drake, now get going.” Surprised, Crystal stammered a thank you, shot her friends a look of pity as they were still shell shocked, and walked away. When she reached the police barrier, she looked back one last time before turning towards her home.

…………………….

  Crystal considered being let off with a warning a stroke of luck. However, the fact that Officer Drake was going to call her house was a problem if her step-dad picked up. They didn’t always see eye-to-eye and ever since her mom lost her life in the field, he lost his trust in the police. There was also the issue of the strange man. Who was he? How could he… kill… those people so quickly? And how did that little girl with the red hair get rid of so many bodies and blood? She didn’t see what happened to the girl using her as a shield, but the loud smashing of what sounded like a landslide and the mess of gore leftover… bile threatened to come back up at the memory. Part of Crystal did not want to know, but the fact of the matter was, those two had brutally murdered fifteen people.

  Sure, the last one was threatening her but that was because she was stupid enough to follow them. It’s not like anything bad would have happened to her if she had stayed behind, right? As soon as she thought about it, Crystal knew she was wrong. She knew that somehow, she would have become like her friends if she had stayed inside Forsaken much longer. Now that she thought about it, it was almost as if those red-eyed girls were the cause of her friends and other patrons acting like they did. After all, it wasn’t until after those girls were… killed, that they seemed to have regained their sense of self.

  She was almost home, and by the looks of it only her half-brother, Luke, was home. Today Lady Luck decided to favor her, aside from being used as a meat shield for a clearly psychopathic and abnormally strong girl, she mused.

  The small single-floor house that Crystal called home was not currently occupied by her step-father, Frank, as predicted. Luke was watching the last season of Game of Thrones when she walked in the door, hands shaking slightly as the twenty-minute walk did nothing to help her compose herself. “Sup,” Luke said, too engrossed in the show to glance over the couch. “So, I heard from a buddy that some weird shit went down at Forsaken, seeing as you weren’t escorted home by cops, you either got away or they let you go.” Crystal took a breath, composing herself as best she could.

  “I was outside when all the weird shit happened, a cop did talk to me, but he’ll be calling the house to get a statement from me later,” she paused, looking to see if he cared in any way. Seeing none, she continued, “I would appreciate it if Frank never found out.” There was a creak as Luke shifted on the couch, pausing a gruesome scene.

  He finally looked over the couch at Crystal, “You covered for me when I was out with Zack last month, I do this, we're even.”

She let out a sigh of relief, “Deal, now please tell me the vodka has been restocked? I need a pick-me-up.”