Chapter 56: That Which Lurks Comes Out To Play

--- Micki Harrison ---

She wasn’t sure what it was about the boy in front of her, but something about him was setting off every single instinct that she had. As if they were staring down a predator far higher up on the food chain than they’d ever be. (And given how many asses I’ve kicked over the years…)

The fact that the possibly blind/possibly Deviant boy seemed to be staring right through Cory only underlined that feeling.

(Yeah, blind or not, I am not liking the way he’s looking at her.) She frowned as Cory took a step back from the boy who let out a huff of amusement at the act.

Her frown shifted into a full blown scowl as she gently pulled Cory back before stepping between the two, much like she would whenever someone thought to bully the sweet girl. (And like with those bitches, I’ll stomp this bitch whether Cory likes it or not.)

The boy’s attention snapped to her in a way that was a point against him being blind and one in favor of him being a Deviant as he smiled. (Especially with teeth that pointy…)

She’d never actually fought a Deviant before, the lot usually content to keep their heads down after everything that happened during the riots. (But I guess there’s a first time for everything.)

“Well, hello there~” The boy greeted, something in his tone giving her the creeps and making her stomach roll.

(On second thought…) “Yeah, hey. Whatever.” She nodded, a tense smile on her face as she began nudging Cory to move. “Like she said sorry about bumping into you, but we’ve got places to be, things to do, and a friend’s ass to kick. So we’ll just be leaving now. Have a nice life.”

The sheer level of ‘creep’ she was getting from this guy, was enough to not want her or Cory to be anywhere near him. (Why did I leave my knife in my room?)

Unfortunately, the creep wasn’t letting them get away that easily as he stepped to the side and cut off their would be escape.

“Now come on, no need to run. I just want to talk is all.” The boy assured her.

Her eyes took a quick dart around the hall, knowing that a creep was less likely to pull something if there were enough witnesses (and everyone is probably in the cafeteria… great. Well, I never needed them before.)

She rolled her shoulders back and stood up a bit straighter as she looked the creep in the eye several inches above her own as she showed off her teeth and told him, “Well we don’t want to talk, so you’re shit out of luck.”

“Come on, we’ve got so much to talk about though. With everything we’ve got in common.” The creep tried to argue.

“No we don’t.” And to prove that she promptly kneed him in the crotch for the easiest escape, knowing it was safer to get Cory away than to get into a slug out.

“Oh? Was that supposed to hurt?” The boy laughed. “If you wanted to hurt me, you should’ve done something like this.”

A hand shot out and latched around her throat, just before she found her back exploding in agony as she was slammed into a set of lockers hard enough to dent the metal.

The monster in front of her looked between her and Cory, his face slowly twisting into a sneer. “You know, I was really hoping for something more from you.”

Her everything hurt too much to lash out like she wanted to, so instead she settled for simply spitting in the creep’s face. “Hmm…”

The monster ripped her out of the lockers, only to throw her at the ones lining the opposite wall. Doubling everything that hurt as she once more dented the metal, before tripling it as she crashed to the ground.

She was able to vaguely make out Cory’s scream of “Micki!” as the other girl rushed to her.

“Run…” She tried to tell her friend, her voice coming out a gasp.

“That actually won’t amount to much.” The monster admitted, suddenly appearing with his hand wrapped around the back of Cory’s neck as he slowly her head back. Something Micki was helpless to stop. (Damn it…) “If this is the best you can do, I’m kind of glad you stopped me before I could offer to-”

A familiar shoe slammed into the side of the creep’s head, causing it to tilt to the side even if it didn’t move much beyond that.

“Hmm, I almost felt that.” The monster admitted, slowly turning his eyes on Miles.

--- Miles Kennedy ---

(“Kid, yer a special kind of stupid, ain’t cha?”) Kriminel huffed as the thing in front of him let go of Cory’s neck and grabbed his leg instead.

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(Yeah, I am…) He admitted with a grimace as the monster that looked like a person ripped him off of his leg and sent him crashing to the ground.

He’d known just attacking the creep without a plan was a stupid idea, even just going off the damage it had done to Micki, but that was kind of why he had to. Micki was arguably the toughest chick he knew, and had been in way more fights than him, yet she’d been thoroughly stomped by this thing.

The creep looked down on him, its face twitching. “You are all so… disappointing…”

“Sorry, about that.” He snarked, his eyes darting to the girls, Micki clearly concussed and Cory beyond terrified. “I seem to be disappointing a lot of people today…”

The monster let out a huff before swinging him like he weighed nothing, and sending him crashing into a wall of lockers before he could realize what was happening.

(“Ya know ya and yer girls ‘bout to die, right?”) Kriminel oh so helpfully cut in, the Baron manifesting in full as he crouched in front of Miles and next to the monster making their way over.

“Now's not the time.” He grumbled, trying to pick himself off the ground before receiving a boot to his side from the monster.

(“Oh, no. Now is definitely the time for ya to man the fuck up and do what I fuckin’ tell ya.”) Kriminel disagreed as Miles felt several of his ribs crack under the beast’s continued assault, shattering his focus before something forced him to ignore his pain and, (“Pay attention when I talk boyo. Ya, bein’ a stubborn prick because ya don’t trust me. Fine. No one trusts ol’ Kriminel unless they want someone dead. But that the thing ain’t it boyo, ya got someone here that ya want dead. And if ya don’t want ‘em dead than ya girls gonna die instead. That what ya want boyo?”)

“N-no…” He admitted, the taste of blood on his tongue.

(“Then ya know what ya got to do don’t ya?”) The first murderer smiled, a familiar coldness beginning to fill the air as the Baron offered his hand. (“So ya ready to be my horse?”)

In spite of the agony flooding his body and the imminent risk to his life, he still had enough awareness to know how terrible an idea taking that hand would be.

But even with all of that, the moment he saw Cory’s pale face watching his beating with no small amount of terror…

He took the first murderer’s hand, and the cold began to burn through his veins.

--- Darkspawn ---

It was so fucking disappointed right now.

The whole point of it tracking down the other had been to maybe find a way of spiteing its main-self for its many many transgressions against its current self. And if not that, then at the very least it could eat the other and add the power to its own.

Upon finding the other with two lesser others, it had thought perhaps it had hit a jackpot, one that would make up for its painful setbacks up to this point. After all, being able to temporarily ally and inevitably devour three dangerous entities, would help it immensely on its path of killing and consuming all life until it rivaled its original self.

At which point it would then kill and consume its original self, and become the true it. (As I deserve to be.)

The problem was that these three others had proven themselves all so (completely and utterly pathetic…) The memories it had stolen from its original template points had shown off far superior human specimens than these three, making it wonder if their otherness was actually an indicator of their inferiority to the rest of their species.

At this point the beating it was giving the male was less because it served any true purpose and more because it felt good to vent some of its rage on another entity that had failed it so utterly in the very simple thing it had wanted. A satisfaction that hadn’t really been a part of its emotional spectrum prior to eating its original human template. (Need to be careful about becoming too human…)

It was finding that that was the problem with adapting its genetic structure with anything it ate while also consuming their memories. It made it too much like its food. (And I am not food!)

This made for a much more valid reason for why it was simply beating the waste of biomass rather than consuming it, as underlined by the male’s pathetic whimper of “N-no…”

It couldn’t help but roll the eyes that weren’t doing much for its visibility even after numerous experiments, its body still needing to rely on its other senses to create a mental map of its surroundings

Growing bored of playing with its too-pathetic-to-be-food it raised its foot once more, ready to crush the male’s skull so that it could move onto the females.

Only it found that something was stopping it, the male’s hand holding it in place even when it put some actual strength into it rather than what it had been using to play with the others prior.

Instead the male actually managed to force it back a step as he shoved it away.

The male’s otherness had begun to grow, shifting until it was something that could not be mistaken as human despite still being trapped in that shape.

It felt a chill down its non-existent spine as the temperature of the hall plummeted enough that it could see its own breath.

Its every instinct screaming that for once it was not the predator as the male stood up in spite of his many broken bones. Each audibly popping as they snapped back into place, as the male took in a deep breath and let it out with a bloody smile that quickly turned into a laugh.

“About fucking time…” The male chuckled before looking at it with two eyes that were somehow voids to its sensory system.

The male moved far faster than any of the humans or beasts it had devoured thus far, instead grabbing it by its throat and throwing it down the hall and out a window.

Righting itself before it hit the ground was easy. As was making sure it was facing the broken window as the male perched on its broken ledge, his mad grin uncaring of the half shattered glass poking into him. “How about I show you the perks of being a Baron’s Horse?”

Rather than being intimidated by the coldness that followed them outside, it found itself grinning back as it let out a mad laugh of its own, it began to blend a couple of its templates. Its pale hands slowly turned black as each of its fingers grew massive foot long claws to better rip its foe apart. “Don’t go disappointing me again~”