Chapter 75: Under Burning Skies.

The staircase hadn't been there before. Not the part leading down, anyway.

I had searched the mansion half a dozen times already and, in every instance, the structure hadn't possessed a basement.

'Though I suppose expecting consistency in this place is the height of stupidity.'

Indeed, the physics, or what passed for physics in Pandemonium were a jumbled mess of contradictions and irregularities.

I sighed and resigned myself to keep going. Gripping the handrail as I descended into the darkness.

I kept going and going. Past two flights of stairs. Then three. Then four.

All without finding a doorway or an end.

That's when I slapped myself over the head. Angry and frustrated at the slow way I was adapting, despite knowing most of the rules in the back of my head.

"I am the master of this place." I stated bluntly. "I want a door in front of me. Obey."

No words answered me back, yet I knew the message had been received. Sure enough, there was a door waiting for me as I descended another flight.

Opening it was, quite literally, a blast from the past. Memories coming unbidden as I took in all the screaming faces. They were surrounded by a miasma of impenetrable darkness. The only light coming from my own figure as I stepped past the doorframe.

Belatedly, I wondered how long it had been since the last time they saw anything. A thought that was closely followed by questions regarding whether or not any of them deserved this fate.

I squinted as I walked forward. Trying to recall where each one had come from. Who they had been whilst they were alive.

"You, ah. I remember you. You were the one who beat my mother and stole her purse when I was eight. You had a mask on, but I know it was you. I had heard the cops never caught you. Now I can see why."

The face I pointed at did not stop screaming. On the contrary, its despair redoubled the second it saw my face. Its eyes bulging outwards as the veins within them reddened to the point where I feared that they might burst.

"Kill me! Please kill me! Please let me die! Please! Please! Please!"

I shuddered, but kept going.

Noticing more and more familiar faces as I moved. Despite not having seen some of them with my own eyes.

There were the gang members who had tried to turn our street into their territory and had vanished shortly thereafter. I hadn't actually met any of them in person. Only learning of their existence due to dad complaining about the police's lack of progress on the case. I couldn't say how I knew it was them. But I knew. I knew them all.

Next to them were the two theme park employees who'd kidnapped one of my friends back in elementary school.

Leroy. His name had been Leroy. I couldn't remember his face anymore. Only that their body had been found some weeks later in a shallow grave beside a creek. He had gone missing during a school trip while one of our teachers was getting smashed on tequila. She had lost her job and the school had to pay out a settlement. The killer or killers had never been caught. Probably because the Tall Man had gotten to them first.

Oddly enough, I didn't feel particularly bad about any of them being here.

These had all been vile, violent people who had wronged me or people close to me in some way. Yes, this was awful, but in some regards, this was the only justice they would have seen without the Tall Man's interference.

'I guess I can take some solace in that. Though perhaps a few years in here was a bit overkill. Maybe I should release them.'

Their original bodies would have most certainly died by this point, but perhaps a final death was preferable to what they were going through.

Sure enough, a few seemed completely out of it, even as I passed. The sad remains of their minds too broken to comprehend what was happening.

'It will have to wait till later. After I have enough free time to sit down and make sense of all of this.'

I kept moving through the chamber. Trying to ignore the pleas and the begging and the apologies.

Until I saw a familiar face among the prisoners. That of an alien resembling a capybara.

I approached the Seeking Drake. Keeping a healthy distance between us.

"Hey." I began. Not sure of what else to say.

For once, he didn't change his shape. He didn't berate me or talk down to me. No, this version of the Drake only wept and pleaded as the rest did.

"Please." He managed in between bouts of hysterical sobbing. "Please let me die. Let it end. I don't want to be here anymore. I don't want it to hurt anymore. Please Sully. I'm begging you."

I heard the distinctive clattering of metallic legs on stone coming from the side. Not bothering to turn my head as the Sarcophagus made his way to us.

"The time has come." He said. His voice as flat and emotionless as always.

"I know."

"This will be a mercy." He said.

"I know."

"For both of us."

I turned to him. Taking his meaning at once.

"You want me to absorb you too?"

He made a hissing noise through his speakers that might have been laughter.

"Of course. We both saw it'll take you a good few months to get back to our old strength otherwise. Your predicted failure to deal with the future Anezka's nanomachines is proof of that. Yet it doesn't have to be that way. Destroy what little is left of me and you'll be back to where you were before. Your body will be able to handle it, now that you're about to absorb the Drake's shard."

"But you'll be gone." I insisted. "Forever. Is that truly what you want?"

"Do you even need to ask? After all you've seen of me? Of my own suffering?" He made that hiss again.

"I watched as my body was torn asunder. I watched as my parent's killer strutted about during the tournament. I watched as my world burned. And then, I spent decades in an inescapable cycle of killing and running and hating. Pushing back against the denizens of the Labyrinth and other humans alike. The only reason I didn't end things on my own terms was spite."

He paused. Savouring the word as his speaker kept buzzing.

"Mmm. Yes. Spite. Such a delicacy, for someone who has lost everything. It was all that kept me going for decades. All that convinced me to cling to whatever scraps of life I had left. I would dream of it. Fantasizing each morning and each night. About how much spite I still had. How much hurting I still had to do. How much suffering I had yet to inflict. It was an unending font of desire. The desire to hurt everyone who had hurt me. To exterminate all the gnomes I could wrap inside my fog. To torture the minds of those who had killed my loved ones for all time."

The hissing grew louder.

"You are a fool if you think I want to keep existing. You are an even bigger fool if you think any words could convince me otherwise. I have achieved all my goals simply by the fact that you stand here before me. Believe me when I say, I would have it no other way."

I didn't say anything for a few minutes after that. Simply standing there, staring at the way his organs floated in the goo.

"A mercy then." I said quietly. "For both of you."

"Please." He confirmed. "Let it end."

I nodded. Moving one hand to him and one hand to the sad remains of the Drake.

Allowing all my presences to merge into [Suppression] as he had done before me.

"Become me and suffer no more."

----------------------------------------

The rain was coming down hard now. The sounds of heavy droplets threatening to drown out the wail of the sirens. The water was painful as it struck me. Falling with such force that each individual mote felt like a kick in the stomach. Add in the fact that my clothes were drenched, and one arrived at a singularly miserable night.

Still, I was running. As fast as my legs could take me. Trying to outrun the few fishes that were still hunting humans. There weren't a lot of them left, but that didn't mean all of the were gone.

Professor Lee had found that out the hard way, when she'd had the bright idea to open the shelter doors early.

"Because I need to film this historic moment! It might be the subject of my next doctoral thesis!" She'd said.

'Stupid, vapid cow! Lost my brother because of you! How are you going to make up for it huh? How are you going to fix this!?'

I kept cursing her in my heart. Despite knowing there was nothing she could possibly do. The dead couldn't help us, after all.

'I have to make it. I have to live. For my brother. For all those people that couldn't stay alive. I have to live for them!'

If I died, there'd be no one left to mourn my brother or our parents. There would be no one left to put flowers on their graves. There would be no one left to pray for them and to relish the times when they were alive.

It would be as if they had never existed in the first place.

The mere thought of it was worse than the idea of me dying.

I could feel the fish getting closer. Hearing its wings beating nearer and nearer as I sprinted.

I felt a chill dashing up my spine and threw myself down to the ground in one fluid motion. Dodging the closing jaws by mere inches as they tore at empty air.

I collapsed afterwards. Struggling to crawl away on all fours and to get back on my feet as the thing blitzed past me and started to turn in order to get me properly.

In my mind, all my movements were as swift as a running river. In reality, I stumbled forwards more than once and it seemed like that was all it took.

My eyes tracked the monster's unnaturally swift movements as it shot through the air. Seeing it open its vicious jaws wide and....

It stopped.

As if frozen in time.

'No. It didn't stop. It's still coming at me. But slowly. Much too slowly.'

I tried to move, but found that my limbs were still as stone. My heart refusing to beat as I desperately struggled to live.

Then the wave hit. Like an invisible punch to the gut and my face landing at the exact same time.

All while I could feel the rain drumming against the awning above me, even as my eyes could make out individual raindrops hanging motionless in the air.

'What is going on?' I wondered with mounting dread. 'Am I dead? Is it possible that the monster killed me and this is just the last gasps of my consciousness before it all goes dark?'

"No." A disembodied voice answered me.

Its melodious pitch seeming to come from above and below, from my right and my left and from within my own lips. All at once. Carrying an authority that bound me tightly to its every note.

"I will not let any harm come to you. I will protect and save and comfort you. I will be your hero and your protector."

I would have gasped if the world wasn't frozen. Each word carrying the weight of entire mountains, as well as a loving promise that warmed every single cell in my body. Touching part of myself I did not know existed before this point.

Just the mere act of hearing it, of bearing witness to it, was enough to make my mind spasm. To make me melt like ice-cream under the hot summer sun. My core forgetting about my brother and my parents and the monster before me. All so that I could fill my empty shell with more of the voice. More of its sweet, delicious temptations.

That was when the world began to change. The very atmosphere gaining a golden hue that dyed the monster and the street and the crumbling buildings out in the distance together with an almost divine glow.

I tried to blink. To try and dispel the fantasy, but my eyes would not move.

"Do not struggle against me, friend. I am here to aid you."

There it was again. Like a chorus made up of millions upon millions of cherubs. Infiltrating every single one of my cells and scouring them clean of fatigue. Of sin.

It was the best, most wonderful music I had ever heard in my entire life and I felt each and every part embedding itself beneath my skin. Pulling me in a thousand different directions, but without the presence of pain or fear ort hunger.

No. On the contrary. Those hooks and that voice brought a calming surety that resonated with my very soul. Beating with fervor while my heart refused to move.

I felt my pupils dilating, as a figure popped into existence between me and the monster. A sublime meld of flesh and feather and bone.

It.

He.

Was perfect.

Utterly and incomprehensibly perfect.

Tall and muscular and fair. Easily three meters or more, dressed in a pristine white suit and with a physique that could only be described as statuesque. Indeed, the best works of Greek sculptors would have looked like piles of steaming dung when placed next to him. His head was full of flowing black hair that reached his shoulders and he had a shaven face that almost glowed against the backdrop of mundane reality.

His face also had three eyes. Two in their regular sockets and one on his forehead. They were pale, like chips of dirty ice. Yet they too shone like diamonds. Scattering the darkness with their very presence.

Those eyes. Those beautiful, terrible eyes.

They bore down on me like the very will of the heavens. Seeing right through me and all my fears and shames and imperfections. All while retaining a deep, indescribable kindness that blew all those ill feelings away.

Two pairs of resplendent white wings erupted from his back. Easily two dozen metres in length when stretched out to their fullest extent. Billowing out in such a way that they threatened to engulf the entire island.

More creatures popped into existence behind him. Child-like copies that wore similar outfits. Each one bearing a gleeful countenance and smiles so wide that they threatened to damage their little faces.

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But they did not matter.

Only the winged giant mattered.

Those eyes.

Those spectacular, amazing eyes.

I couldn't have looked away, even if my body hadn't been frozen. My memories were being overwritten. Each vestige of my being suffused with his splendor and changing the weak, ugly person that I was into someone who was worthy of his attention.

He started moving forward then. His hand reached out and touching, actually touching, my face. His thick, calloused fingers caressing my cheeks and twirling a few locks of dirty hair.

"Do not put yourself down like this, friend. You are wonderful the way you are. You are a caring, loving person. You do not deserve what has happened to you this day."

A sad smile crossed that perfect face and my insides twisted in agony upon seeing it there.

'No! Don't be sad! Don't be sad for my sake! I couldn't bear it!'

The corners of his lips twitched. Ever so slightly. The gesture sending tongues of fire down my veins and warming up my very being with an ecstasy that I could not put into words.

I had never done any kind of drug before this point, but there was no doubt in my mind that this was a high beyond any earthly concoction. I didn't want this moment to end. Could not bear the idea of this moment ever ending.

'This must be what love at first sight is. My brother always made fun of me for being single, for not giving boys the time of day, but it was all predestined. How could I possibly love anyone else, when such perfection existed? No. This moment shouldn't end. It couldn't end.'

"But it must end. Friend. Your brother needs you. Your community needs you. You have a life to live and people to care for. You have others to help and others to love you in my stead. You must be brave and strong and fierce. For yourself, as well as them."

'My brother is dead.' I thought. My heart twisting as I realized that I had disagreed with something the perfect one said.

"No." He said. "Your brother was damaged. His heart was silent. But his brain, his mind, was still alive. And that was more than enough for the current me. I healed him and comforted him. Just as I am doing with you and many, many others. He will live. I promise you that."

I would have broken out in hysterical sobs, if my body was still able to move.

'How? How did you reach him in time?'

"The same way I am reaching you. Friend. Time has not stopped. It is only your perceptions that have changed to match mine own. This, is the way I saw things as a child, and the way I see things once again. Endless moments stretched unto eternity that bleed into the next and the next and the next after that. For all time and beyond the concept you believe to be time."

'Who are you!? Why did you come for me? What did I do to deserve your presence? What can I possibly do to make you stay?'

His smile turned sad once more. The change ripping out chunks of myself that I didn't know were there.

"I am the one who controls. That is who I am. Who I will always be. I. Control."

He said it with such surety, that it must have been true.

"As for the other questions, friend. I have been with you for some time. I was sitting on your shoulder when you brought your first puppy home, all those years ago. I was standing behind you, when the Hydra leapt from the waterfront during that long, cold winter. I was comforting you and your parents, when the skies were blotted out by radioactive ash and you gathered around the heater with bowls of soup in your hands. You did not see me and you did not remember me, but it makes no matter. I was there."

The sadness in his face grew more severe.

My intestines twisted into knots. Starving serpents that cannibalized each other the longer this travesty was allowed to continue.

'Stop! Stop it! I can't bear it anymore! I don't want you to be sad! I want to please you and comfort you and make you happy! Please don't be sad!'

"I won't be sad. Friend. So long as you care for yourself. So long as you are safe and warm and happy. That is what I want. For you, for your brother, for everyone."

He stepped closer and placed both hands on my shoulders.

The action sending concussive blasts up and down my spine. It felt as though my head was a volcano and all my nerves streams of white-hot magma.

Even though my eyes couldn't move, I could have sworn that they had rolled up into the back of my skull. My teeth struggled against the frozen, never-ending moment. Wanting to chatter and clatter uncontrollably as the sublime sensation overpowered me.

I tasted blood within my mouth, briefly wondering if this was what a stroke felt like.

And then there was no body. No me.

All there was and all that there had ever been was this man. This perfect being.

A divine creature made to be worshiped.

"Be strong, friend. Be brave. Keep your heart steady. I want you to remember that, always. I want you to feel good about yourself. I want you to be the very best person you can be. I want you to seek pleasure in the little things you come across during every second of every day. I want you to relish the chirps of birds. I want you to delight in the presence of those you hold dear. I want you to savour the food you eat and the songs you sing. The ground you step on and the air you breathe. I want you to love every dance and every kiss. I want you to live in every single moment and I want you drown in the happiness they bring. I could help you. I could make this your life. Your eternity, forever and ever."

His whispers were corroding me. Melting me down into hot slag and remaking me into something better. More beautiful.

"And in return, all I ask is that you help others do so as well."

'Yes. I could do that.'

"No. you mistake me. You must do that. Just, think about it. All those selfish, unhappy people that always grasp for more. Not through hard work and sacrifice, but through wrongdoings. Those that exploit the ones that work earnestly and honestly. That take things by force and violence and vile, twisted threats. Think of the burglar. Of the cutpurse. Of the car thief and the murderer. Think of the corrupt politician, of the knowing polluter, or the scammer, the trafficker, the predator. Think of all those selfish people that step on others to get what they want."

Hatred blossomed in my heart then. Consuming me.

"I want a world without them. Without villains. Without crime. Without sin. I want a world without war and without pestilence. A world where all children have a roof over their heads and food in their belly. A world where no child has to see their loved ones torn apart by monsters. One where everyone treats each other with the respect they deserve. I want a world where everyone has the same opportunity to live freely and with happiness. I want a world without the stain of gnomes. I want a world of perfect order. A summer that never ends."

I paused. My mind failing to process that last bit.

'Gnomes?'

"Yes friend. A world without gnomes. Ah, what a lovely dream. But, there will be time for that later. For now, focus on the monster. Focus on the fish."

His hands went lower. Grasping my forearms and massaging my weary muscles.

As they did so, my body began to change. My own biceps growing thicker and more defined. My wounds closing and my old scars vanishing as if they'd never bee there in the first place.

"Remember this feeling, friend. It is one of many you must become accustomed to. I will not remove anyone’s free will. Instead, I will give you power, but it is up to you to use it for good. I believe in you."

He looked down at me then. Really looked.

And his stare re-forged me. From the tips of my toes to the strands of my hair.

I saw the Labyrinth and the bugs and the gnomes.

I saw the truth.

All of it within a fraction of a heartbeat.

Before the lovely moment ended and time resumed as normal.

My hands turned into razor-sharp claws before I could blink. My body moving with a level of coordination that would have been unthinkable half a second earlier. At the same time, my muscles exploded with newfound might. Launching me forward as my mind roiled with the sensation of the fog and the gathering bolt behind my eyes.

Yes, these new eyes. They took in so much more, so much faster than before.

I saw that the fish had a few rapidly-healing wounds of its own. I saw the way it favoured its left side over its right. I saw the moment it realized I was different, panic overtaking its own brain as it tried to beat its wings into a hasty retreat.

Then my digits were cleaving through its flesh and it saw no more.

I whirled, searching for the perfect man with an all consuming-desperation, but he was gone.

All that remained were the winged children, in those same white suits. Laughing merrily as they downed fish of their very own. Their voices formed a hallowed chorus that travelled for miles and miles. Infiltrating the very concrete below my feet so that the music permeated from all sides at all times.

It was so wonderful.

Making me feel so uniquely incandescent.

And yet, I felt, empty.

Indeed, within me lay an emptiness so vast that it beggared belief. My body started shivering then. The withdrawal hitting me like a truck as I tried to recall how unbelievably good his mere presence had felt.

I wanted to be near him again. I wanted him to look at me. I wanted to be the center of his attention for one moment longer.

"I need to do more." I mumbled. "I need to save people. I need to be a hero. I need to prepare for the gnomes and rend their flesh from their bones."

Yes. He would look at me then. He would have to look at me again.

Lighting flashed and struck the ground next to me. The heat and light blinding me for an instant before the sound washed over me. Yet I did not fear it, for it carried a hint of his divine, perfect influence.

‘I. Control.’

Trumpets blared in all directions. Announcing his coming.

My eyes snapped to the skies. Not caring that the falling rain had a reddish hue or that it clung to my skin as if congealing together.

The whole sky was painted a deep crimson. Flashes of light breaking through the burning clouds like brilliant rubies hidden amidst a flowing river.

‘I. Control.’

More lighting fell and the music redoubled. My eyes watching as more monsters exploded in showers of gore. Releasing more messengers that carried his gospel to the four corners of the earth.

"They are eyes." I breathed out. Laughing softly to myself. "They are his eyes and he is watching."

I began to laugh. Even as sickening, pulping sounds echoed all around me. The telltale signs of dying monsters and revelling angels.

"Ha! Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! AH! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"

I drew in a breath and allowed it to escape through my teeth. Savouring the way it steamed upon re-entering the atmosphere.

‘I. Control.’

More angels were flying overhead now. Dancing around the arcs of purple lighting that lacerated down from the heavens. Bathing in the golden flames that had slowly replaced the clouds.

Some wore long, flowing robes that resembles yellow or red suits whilst others were clothed in ragged strips of black leather. Yet all carried themselves with his blessing. His surety of purpose. His eternal, undying love.

‘I. Control.’

"They are his chanters. His pilgrims. His flagellants. They are the fateful lightning of his terrible, swift sword."

And they were dancing.

A wide smile blossomed on my face.

"My brother has been healed. He must have been."

Which meant I had to hurry. It would not do for him to earn more of the perfect one's favour, after all.

So, I grew wings of my own and leapt up into the sky. Passing the falling corpses of monstrous fish as they careened down towards the earth and searching for live ones of my own. Worthy offerings that I may lay before him. So that I could bask in his love once more.

‘I. Control.’

But there were others flying overhead as well. Competing for his attention. His loving presence.

Hundreds, then thousands of people growing wings of their own and breathing fire and ice and arcs of electricity that mimicked a fraction of his own.

All writhing as they flew and killed and slew.

‘I. Control.’

So, I kept beating my own wings. Drowning in the sounds of the trumpets and the explosive crack of thunder falling all over the city.

Adding their sounds to the chorus.

THOOOM!

THOOOOM!!!

THOOOOOMMMM!!!

Shard of concrete rose up high into the air. My wings dancing around them as they disintegrated in mid-air. My claws rending flesh from bone and my bolts escaping as fast as I could make them. My soul revelling as the volume rose to a fever pitch.

‘I. Control.’

‘I. Control.’

‘I. Control.’

----------------------------------------

I allowed my head to drift from left to right. Taking in the now empty situation room. I had given the others a heads up about the decisions I had taken, as well as my reasons. I had also implored everyone here to leave, after outlining the likely response from general Lemay's office.

Three had chosen to remain, against my express wishes.

It was an utterly insane, asinine thing to do. A decision that would undoubtedly result in all of them mysteriously disappearing alongside me.

I couldn't have been prouder.

"Director Carter?"

"Yes Ron?"

"The cleaners are here."

I sighed.

"Well, that was faster than I would have liked."

Ron shrugged.

"I can only deduce that general Lemay's priorities demanded swift and decisive action. After all, its not as if millions of people are dying as we speak or anything. He has plenty of time to spare on rounding up malcontents."

I had to laugh. To the point where my stomach started hurting.

All while the three dozen men made their way over to us. Rifles and diamond-tipped blades held at the ready.

Ron's eyebrows rose as he noticed the latter. A slight chuckle escaping his lips.

"Jeez. They even brought out the Shadowcats for this. We must be very scary."

I laughed harder.

"Ron, my boy. You have no idea how scary I can be when properly motivated. This, this was a lapse in judgement."

"I don't think so sir." Ron countered. "Communication from Hong Kong has been sporadic, but I have no doubt that your actions will have saved a couple million people at least. Those are major war numbers. If there was ever a time to act out. It would have been this one."

I stopped laughing. Suddenly feeling a lot more sober about the whole ordeal.

"I sure hope so Ronald. I sure hope...."

I keeled over. My hands barely catching the edge of my desk before my skull banged on the table. Unable to tell what happened. Unable to discern left from right or up from down.

My first thought was one of dread. That the other side had a pet Telepath. That we were in for far slower deaths than I had first surmised.

That was, until I noticed the outside monitors turning red, and something wet leaking from the ceiling.

My second thought was that such a thing was impossible. This place was built to take several nukes in quick succession. There was no way anything was getting through that many floors.

My third thought came when I touched my shoulder and saw the red, sticky juices clinging to them.

'Is this, blood?'

Then the air became thick and heavy. A sense of horrible anticipation washing over me. Chills crawling up my spine as all my hairs stood on end. It felt like I was hanging at the end of a precipice. Holding on by the tips of my fingers. Waiting for the guillotine to finally drop.

When it did, it came as a loud pop. One that travelled through all the walls. So that it was picked up by every camera on site.

‘I. Control.’

Lemay's men heard it too and they stopped in their tracks just long enough to hear the sharp, ringing sound that followed.

Before the voice spoke up. A faint whisper in the darkness.

"Mittens is here."

The axe popped into existence. Alongside the thing that held it. Three forked tongues wagging outwards from a rictus smile plastered on Desmond's face. Paralyzed in a picture of furious jubilation.

‘I. Control.’

And then, the ceiling imploded, rising and vanishing as if sucked up by a vacuum.

And all hell broke loose.

Portals rose up from the ground on either side of the group, disgorging things that crawled out of the deepest pits of the abyss. Showers of gore drenched us and them both. The floor between us rapidly disintegrating so that they started to fall in between the gaps.

‘I. Control.’

Things made of torn-up flesh bound in black leather with buzz saws for hands leapt at the soldiers. The sounds of slicing and tearing echoing like a hundred woodchippers singing in concert. Almost drowning out the screams as the things flailed their limbs about.

Almost.

‘I. Control.’

Worse, the laughter was ringing in our very cores. Seeming to come from above and below. From right in front of us and just behind our ears.

"Mittens does swear! Mittens will tear! Mittens is here!"

Then there were the others. The children, the toad-faced angel, the sultry ladies regaling and entrancing us with their very presence.

One of them gripped Ron’s arm, eroding all his panic and attention until there was nothing else in his eyes. Nothing but her.

I saw her. Looking closer. At the long, flowing robes that barely covered anything. At the exposed skin that glistened with sweet-smelling perfumes.

She was so entrancing that I barely noticed the growing horns and claws and tentacles sprouting from the walls. Nor the slobbering, mewling mouths that sang in unison.

‘I. Control.’

She planted a kiss on his cheek. Moving preternaturally fast. So much so that I couldn’t even conceive of the act before it happened. Ron was paralyzed. Turned to stone. Unable to fight or even summon the will to fight it.

‘I. Control.’

I gasped. Moving backwards in surprise as I realized I hadn’t been breathing this whole time. My lungs had forgotten how.

I coughed. Trying to breathe through an atmosphere saturated with perfume and other tender aromas, when someone, or something, held my arm.

It was the toad-faced angel. A thing with long flowing robes that grew out of a suit, with a visibly toned body and a face that was decidedly not human in the expressions it made.

“Greetings, honored one.” He said.

His voice echoing over the sounds of carnage coming from above. So, intoxicating that it distracted me from the bits of intestines and shattered jaw that rained atop me.

“I come to spread the good news. To enlighten his flock. Come with me and stay a while. We have everything you could possibly want and more.”

His hands gripped my own suit and pulled. Hard.

Taking me off my feet and drawing me into the salivating walls. I fell through a hole that hadn’t been there. Through legions of flaming passages as my clothes disintegrated.

I tried to scream, but the only thing that came out, was more music. Far more terrible than before.

‘I. Control.’

‘I. Control.’

‘I. Control.’

I was slamming my hands against the gun safe. Just as more bloodied abominations were smashing against the reinforced windows. Their attempts to get in leaving bright red stains that led all the way down towards the pool below.

Thunder cracked like a whip. Making the music rise again as tongues of fire picked up trees from the gardens outside. Twisting more of them until they had hands and legs and wings of their own.

‘I. Control.’

One of the pig-things broke through at that. Its misshapen corpse squealing like a new-born as its body writhed on the ground with malformed wings and human hands.

It squeezed out a pathetic:

“Squeeeeeee!” As it tried to snuggle into the rug.

But my brain pushed out the noise. Replacing it with more music.

‘I. Control.’

I re-focused on the safe. Trying to distract myself from the warmth in my pants and from the monster dying in my solar. Cursing as the display kept blinking in and out.

“Come on you bastard! Open up! Open up!”

The screen sputtered and then displayed two, singular words.

‘I. Control.’

“Shit! Shitshitshitshitshit! SHIIIIIIIIITT!!!”

I slapped it. Over and over and over. Bringing my foot up to kick and coming up shot.

Another crack of lighting erupted behind me then. Undoing the roof and the three floors above with the greatest of ease.

I turned.

My eyes blinking as things started rising from the crater.

They were like the bleeding pig, but bigger. More complete. Two of them picked up the fallen thing and….

Absorbed it. Their flesh wriggling like millions of worms crawling over each other and making noises more akin to millions of crawling spiders than anything a normal pig might have made.

‘I. Control.’

They brayed.

I launched myself sideways towards one of the swords mounted on the wall. A decorative thing that was nonetheless sharp enough to be dangerous.

I wielded it in self-defence. Slashing the air in a futile attempt to keep the horror from coming closer.

But it did anyway.

Lashing out with tooth-filled tentacles that scarred my arms and torso.

I screamed. Trying to give voice to the torrents of agony lancing up my limbs and into my brain as more lightning fell outside and inside. Destroying my desk and the expensive rugs in three piercing blows that sent shockwaves of fire all around.

‘I. Control.’

I fell backwards crying.

“Why? Why is this happening to me!? What did I do to deserve this!?”

“Murder.” A voice answered. Stepping through a veil of crackling nothingness with a shining sword in hand.

“Muuuuurdeerrr tiiimeeee!” The sword sang. Before the giant slapped it.

“No slasher. Not murder. Not for us. This man will be judged by his peers. By his victims. Many of them are on their way.”

I looked up at him from the floor.

At his massive size, his muscles, his flowing hair.

At the sheer, impossible perfection of all his features and the way his three eyes took in the room.

“Good evening, General.” The giant said. “I have come to see the world put to rights. To, change up its current leadership. The innocent will be allowed to continue. After I have explained the new standards they will follow going forward. As for you…”

He paused and only then did I realize that I hadn’t been breathing. Enraptured as I was by his beauty.

“Well, I believe the girls are making their way here, even now. If you have something to say, say it to them.”

“Girls?” I stammered.

“How do you know about the girls? How? Wait. You! You’re the one that sent Mason and his goons to me! To us!”

The giant nodded. Yet, despite him being the cause of all this trouble, despite him holding the keys to so many mysteries and so many opportunities, I couldn’t even fathom becoming aggressive. Nor could I imagine defying him in any way.

It was as if the idea was as impossible as breathing underwater or raising the dead.

Unthinkable.

Yet the door opened anyway and I turned to see five of the girls walking in. Calm as I had never seen them before.

They were wearing clothes now. Long, flowing robes that concealed their figures.

And that wasn’t all.

They were also on fire, but the scorching heat did not seem to hurt them. On the contrary, the sputtering flames were wiping away the wounds on their bodies. Leaving them as pristine as they had been when they first arrived.

I gasped as I saw the bloody wings that erupted from their backs. Crimson coloured feathers twitching as they dripped congealing blood over the carpets.

Their eyes…

Those eyes that had so recently been bereft of resistance, were now glowing with expectation and ecstasy. Enraptured by the giant as I was.

And in their hands…

The daggers.