Danny let his mind run. What was his game plan here? He had been told to kill 13 people, who were allegedly practising magic related to demons.
What did he know?
Smith had been doing a lot of this work since the start of the year, so groups were popping up often. This meant they likely were connected and could be expecting that someone would be coming to take care of them. Should he just go in guns blazing? He could probably blow the whole building up, now that he thought about it.
Something didn’t feel right about that though. Even with all of Smith’s efforts to dehumanise the group, Danny still couldn’t bring himself to kill 13 people he’d never met. You’ve already killed three people. The thought intrusively entered his mind. No, they had kidnapped me, they were going to kill me. That was self-defense. This? This is preplanned murder.
Danny’s feet trudged up the run-down road that slowly brought him into the view of a large building. It looked to be the former commercial front of the winery. Light shone from within the building, but no sounds left the large building. There were a couple of cars sitting out the front of the building, looking like they hadn’t been used in a while.
Danny took a deep breath and stopped walking. What am I going to do? Danny assessed his options, finding that there realistically only appeared to be two. If he didn’t kill this group of people, he was going to be killed. So, it was kill or be killed.
Danny frowned. He wasn’t one of Madley’s goons, at least not yet. He wasn’t going to kill just because he had been told to. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances. Danny had no idea where he had heard that quote, or who it was from, but it had always stuck with him since he had heard it. So, what was Danny going to choose?
** – ** – ** – **
Danny knocked on the front door of the building. There was the sound of footsteps and chatter, but Danny couldn’t make out what was being said.
Eventually, the door was opened a crack. “Who’s there?” A raspy voice asked.
“G’day, sorry for such a late visit, it’s been a very busy day. I’m from the local council, I take it you got our letters?”
“No. I didn’t. What do you want?”
“-Who is it?” a female voice whispered harshly.
“Shut up, I don’t know yet.” The raspy voice admonished.
“Oh, that is a shame. We have been trying to reach you for a while now, my visit was deemed a last resort before we had to get the police involved.” Danny continued.
The door opened abruptly, revealing a young man with greasy hair and oily skin. “Police? What for?” The young man clocked Danny’s imposing frame and immediately looked more on guard.
“Well, your council rates have not been paid. We have sent at least a dozen letters but have yet to receive a reply. Other members of the council want to resolve this in the courts, but I insisted that we gave you a chance. Perhaps there had just been a mistake in with the delivery of the mail.”
The young man looked confused. “I don’t think we got any-”
“-who is it!?” the female voice hissed. Danny looked over the shoulder of the young man and saw a chubby female with bright red hair standing half-hidden behind a corner.
The young man turned on his heel, his face scrunching in anger. “Shut up! It’s someone from the local council!”
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
Well, that would have been a good time to attack him. Danny thought as he looked at the man’s exposed back. The greasy guy turned back around. “Look, this isn’t my property-”
“Is the owner here then?” Danny interrupted. “This is quite an important matter.”
The man frowned. “It’s my uncle's property. Me and some friends have been staying here since the winery closed down.”
“Oh, that could be a problem. This property has been licensed for commercial use, there really shouldn’t be people living here.” Danny threw out some terms he had heard his sister use when talking about work. He had no idea if they applied here, but he hoped the young man wouldn’t either.
The deepening frown on his face told Danny he didn’t. “Well..”
“How about I come in and we can discuss the situation? Unlike some of the other people at the council, I do not want to get the police or lawyers involved here.”
“I don’t know-” the young man looked over his shoulder at the woman. She appeared just as confused by what I was saying as him.
“Please, it’s been a long day, it’s,” Danny pulled out his phone and checked the time, “Christ, it’s already 8PM. Where has the day gone? Anyway, I’d like to be at home, so if we could get this sorted out quickly I’d appreciate it.” Danny pressed the young man, who was clearly not very experienced at dealing with people.
“Uh sure. Follow me.” The young man led Danny into the building. They walked past a few hallways that Danny snuck glances at before making it to a large open space that was probably a restaurant previously. The tables and chairs had been pushed to the walls, with some old sofas littering the space now. There was a large TV with a playstation in the middle of the room. The scattered snacks and bongs really painted a picture for Danny. It felt more like the pad of a couple of dropkicks that demonic worshipers.
Danny began to doubt that these might be the evil people he had been led to believe. There were other people in the room, 11 once he counted them. They all looked at him with wide eyes. With the greasy young man and the chubby woman that made 13. At least that information appeared to be correct. The group was a right motley crew, no single member looked normal, they were all just a bit too thin or a bit too overweight. They all had piercings, tattoos, dyed hair, or a combination of them. They all appeared to be in their early twenties. A bonafide group of dropkicks, if Danny was to say anything about it.
The greasy man, who seemed to be the leader of the group led Danny to a table and sat down. Danny took control of the conversation. “Could you reach your uncle by phone? Having him involved would likely make this process a lot easier. We could probably arrange a future meeting with all parties as well.”
“Uh sure.” the man started fumbling with his phone.
The group of youths gathered behind their rag-tag leader, watching Danny. He kept an eye on them while he scanned the rest of the large room. It was a mess, clearly this group weren’t very hygienic. He noticed a few stained mattresses in the corner and remembered that this group apparently hadn’t left the property in two weeks.
Whatever is going on here, it’s certainly not healthy. Danny’s gears churned. His dodgy plan had landed him inside the building and now he’d met the group of people he had been sent to kill. While they were an alternative bunch, they weren’t giving any subhuman vibes. Awkward, yes. Demonic? No.
That was until.
One of the women in the group started moaning. Everyone’s eyes snapped to her and Danny immediately stood. The young woman’s eyes rolled into the back of her head, revealing the stark whites of her eyes. The air around her literally cackled, a red mist materialising.
Danny readied a projectile of mana, set to blow whatever was in front of him to kingdom come.
The woman’s eyes rolled back, entirely black. “Oh my. What do we have here?” A sultry voice spoke from the young woman’s mouth. The voice was far older than you’d expect from the purple hair and pierced face.
The other members of the group began shaking and dropped to their knees, their heads bowing as they did. “Your Highness…” the greasy man croaked.
“Hush, child.” The woman said before locking her eyes on Danny. She strode forward closing the distance between them. Danny’s skin crawled at her very presence. There was definitely something demonic about her.
Danny took a step back, forgetting about his mana projectile.
“Are you human?” The woman asked.
“Shouldn’t I be asking that?” Danny blurted back.
The woman smiled. “We both know the answer to your question. But, I have the feeling only I know the answer to mine, isn’t that right?”
She reached out and stroked Danny’s arm. He grabbed her arm and pulled it off him. “What are you saying? Of course I’m human.” As he said it, Danny realised he wasn’t as confident as he would have hoped.
The woman grinned. “This little planet is proving to be more and more filled with intrigue.” Her eyes turned predatory and she began chanting in a language that was entirely unrecognisable to him. He definitely felt the mana respond to her chant though and it didn’t take a genius to realise what she was about to do.