>> Beautiful Bait

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Madness blurs around us in a waking nightmare. Grand grey walls rising from nothing to tower, endlessly, up into utterly nothing. Layer upon layer. Staircases and balconies strung without reason or sense. Morbid plinths jutting from every surface, as if space itself is twisted.

Feels like a dream. Or a memory....

And, like a dream - every blink, every glance, every movement of my head shifts the art and the walls. Images flickering. Morphing from one into the other. One moment, a disturbing, torturous, mess - like a madman's scribble. Then a lady with a scratched off face in a blue silk dress..... A tweedy man, with a rigid stare - all melted dogs and mangled monsters dripping from his legs.... A tortured young angel, with a thousand hands of boiling tar ripping at his endless golden wings....

They're everywhere....

But still I feel the touch of grit and bump of brick beneath my soles. The wind of the cliff. The waft of fried food, beer, and rust. All of it undercut by the endless, thrumming, rumble of Demon’s growl - humming in the tips of my ears. The stomp of boots as Kami materialises - arms folding with a crisp snap of steel. Burning with tiny halos of gold.

The reality behind the fiction Moon is planting in our minds.

But still… I feel it. Like a little voice: ‘This is where Moon keeps its secrets….’

I turn to stare down a roped off hall, but it floods with dark. Hiding its interior, as a shadow of the monster steps - firmly - in my way. "There." Moon breathes. "And now we're all alone at last..... So..... gather round, sweet little children. Gather round, and listen well to the plan….. To the Deal your leader created with me.....” It raises spindle-thin arms, wide, beneath the blood-soaked drapes. Like some tyrant king before its puppets. “For tonight we weave a grand old tale of Power and Vengeance…..” A grim silver grin in the dark, as it embraces the room. “Your own….”

“Vengeance? With you…..?" Kami whispers in shaky bravado, as it slips those long and delicate fingers into the folds of its coat. "Or against you?"

"But surely you've realised, sweet beautiful angel...." Moon's fingers reach for her rough, pinched, face as she staggers away. "....we're all on the same side? That's why I'm being so very Nice to you all. So very friendly and full of good cheer....."

She twists away, in utter disgust. "You actually bloody are. That's the sick part."

"You see?" It whirls around her like a poison smoke. "Everybody has all their little limbs, and we're all having a jolly good time...."

"I don't trust you. None of us should." Her bionic eyes twitch across the shifting gallery. Wary. Doubtful. But sharp. "What…. even is this? More VR bullshit? Holos?"

"Nothing you need concern your delicious little head about." The shadow-thing purrs, as that hand slips deeper.... deeper.... into its coat. Down and down. Further than's possible. As if the arm is endless, and the pocket is too….. "Merely my little way avoiding.... prying eyes..... What should concern you is our Deal. And all its..... benefits." I sense its fingers close, the grin twisting wider. "But yes. We are very much on the same side...."

Kami’s eyes settle on me. “I really doubt that.”

"Doubt away." Moon murmurs, as the the hand withdraws with a sudden snap. Pulling with it a gleaming slab of ice-black glass, finely graven into the shape of a gun. Oily. Charred. Roiling and rattling with violence and mayhem - like it’s almost alive. Runic cracks splitting and sealing along its length - flickering with scraps of Red, Red, radiance.

Not ‘red’ as in light. Red as in blood. Red as in the echo of what I….

"I know that gun...." Kami breathes. "Holy shit..... That's...."

“The Red Right Hand…..” I breathe, and all my insides curl up into a knot as it calls to me. My fingers twitching with shadows of the deeper past. The weight of it, pressing deep into my palm. Like an echo of touch. An echo of when I pulled that trigger, and the barrel splayed wide into-

My skull thuds from the inside as all the memories try to beat their way out.

Memories of…. Of screaming. Of madness. Of things I can’t even tell you - at least, not yet. Of that thing in my grip. Blasting, pure, violent-

Killing the monsters that-

Ripping apart the-

I grip my chest. Heaving. Shivering. Cold and hot inside - all at once. Looking away.

“Yes. You remember. Don't you.....? Like a little..... addiction...." The gun hangs loose on its finger, daring me to grab it. "What a fun little rampage you had through The School with it, when I helped you escape….." The monster chuckles at some dark little thought. "Pity you didn't flay any of your little friends by mistake..... But still.... You caused such.... a fun little mess.... it really blew me away....” The gun snaps, snug, into its palm. Quivering. Ready to massacre entire nations, at a whim. "If only you knew how this wonderous Beauty really worked.... You could have killed me! And your Lovely Mummy! And Daddy dearest, too....!" A sigh of desire. "It would have been.... electric....."

My fists clench. My teeth too - sharp and violent. "They! Ain't! Our! Parents!" A shudder, deeper than bone. "We got parents of our own....."

I'm going to burn this bastard.....

It needs us. I know it does. We can use that.....

"Oh. If you say so....." It purrs, but my eyes are utterly locked on that.... that thing in its hand. That gun that isn't a gun..... Even now, I feel the RAGE burning the flesh of my fingers. The sheer, freakish, POWER of it. And-

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It's more than memory. I can feel it. It's like it's almost-

If I could just get hold of it for-

I tear my eyes away, and the Right Hand carves a streak of bloody Red across my vision. Twisting toward the paintings, and the hallway that it hides. Focusing on that instead.

"....don't you want it....?" Moon breathes. "Vengeance? For all they've done? To take this Power for yourself, and use it? With my help, we could shove that Wicked Old Witch in her own oven....."

Its words fade to noise as I focus on the utter black of that hidden hall. There's a shadow. A glimmer of a painting, right at the end. A six-winged serpent, astride a Hellish hilltop. Crowned with glorious light - all legions of the damned falling, prostrate, before it. Tearing the very flesh off their bones, as an offering, and hurling it upon the jagged rocks before them.

No. Not rocks...... Contorted, bloodied, flesh....

The image vanishes, with a snap, as the hall fills with bricks.

As if I saw something I really, really wasn't meant to.....

Or maybe I was.....? Maybe it was bait.....?

“I nearly got you with that damn gun.” I hiss, in sheer denial. "I had you."

“Yet here we both are.” Moon murmurs. Low and giddy and mad. Because we both know what I saw, in that depths-dark void..... I just don't know what it means. Something hidden deep within its lurid mind? Whispering to us in twisted metaphors? Can we use it?

Or just Moon trying to twist us in circles? Like back when it trained us.....

We can't trust it, either way.

"So? W-what..... And you're just going to..... to give it to us?" Kami stutters in abject scepticism. Fighting to fix the cracks in her cold, hard, guise. "Are you serious? You think we'll believe you?"

"Give? You? This?" The thing mocks as it slips its masked face right into hers - forcing the barrel of that weapon to the side of her head. "Are you absolutely mad?"

"PISS OFF!" Kami screams as she ducks away - smooth and fast. Fire exploding from her guns to blast holes through Moon - at me. I scream as I hurl myself into a skidding roll. Rocket-bullets ripping right past my face. Paintings bleeding with holes as their subjects die.

"Kam! Stop!"

"Shit!! Oh shit! Spook! I thought you were over-" Our heads snap to the dissolving echo of my shape, on the other side of the gallery.

"Consider that a free lesson on.... situational awareness, lets say." Moon sneers, shamelessly. Reforming behind me. "But, no. To answer your little question of ownership..... This...." The Red Right Hand BURNS BEFORE ME. RIGHTIOUS WITH FURY AND- "This is mine. Consider it a little bit of insurance in case of...." Its eyes settle on Kami. "....accidents."

"Then what? Why show us the damn thing?" I force through razor-edged teeth. Shaking with adrenaline. Burning with vengeance. But for all its games, threats, and casual attempts to murder us, I know Moon needs us. And if it wants us to free it, it's going to feed us intel.

Which might give us the tools to destroy it....

My eyes narrow as the gallery shifts with shadow. As all Moon's many eyes flick to all its many corners..... As if.... even now.... it fears whatever it thinks might hear us....

And then it draws a second gun from its coat. Identical - except for the terrible, vibrant, soul-burning Blue that shudders up through the seams…. "But this....." A low smile, twisted with cunning. "This I could lend you.... for the price of your assistance."

“The Left Hand of The Devil….” I breathe.

“Oh yes….. Kiddy…. Oh yes….. Or…. at least….. a memory of it…. Oh, how long it's been since I saw it burn worlds…..” A flicker in its eye - as if it said far, far, too much.... Or was simply lying. “But now….? Now it lies broken. Scattered…. Lost, but never destroyed….. It's perfect, really...."

My inhuman eyes follow every twist of the dangling weapons. Fixated on that dark, dark, weapon with a hunger I can’t even describe. Tracing the shadow-smoke trails that hiss from those bright cracks of Blue….

"And that... these things.... can kill Mother.....?" Kami falters.

“Bring these weapons together, we could kill Death itself." It smiles that goading smile. As if it knows a little secret. "So what hope has your little Mummy or Daddy?”

“Or you?” She almost crows. Fixating more of its stare.

The monstrous smile never flickers. “Oh…. Hypothetically….” Moon breathes in goading delight, wrapping fingers around the plinths and crushing them to dust. “But why-ever would you want to die my sweet, precocious, bestie? I’m giving you…. everything…. Your freedom! Your heart’s desire! Surely that’s better than…. horrific suicide…..?”

“Well….. Gotta test it on somethin’.” I try to jibe, to keep its focus split.

But the thing above stares me down. Its slow smile ripping wide, and spiky. “Oh. We’ll see about that, my scowling pet…. But, for now…..” It raises its left hand, burning with Blue. “This is the only currency I have. So, I’m afraid you’ll be competing for it with all the other escapee teams. That's the Deal. I give you all a mission. The first to carry it out gets a reward….."

"Competing?" My eyes widen, breaking away. “The others…. They got away!? They really-”

Moon’s gaze is bored. “Oh yes. A few of your little friends are on the wind…. Though I’m afraid Mummy had to liquidize some of the…. slower…. teams….”

I swallow the chill. “Y’mean liquidate? Right?”

Spiky lips twitch upward. “No.”

I swallow beneath its cold and terrible stare.

"This stinks of a con.” Kami snaps. “Too many teams, not enough prizes.”

"Zhas." Demon nods. "Zis all smells of trickery."

“Damn right it does." She turns. Snarling. "I don't know how you're faking this, but I won't let you control us any more. I won’t let you.”

“Oh, kiddy….. I don’t have to control you so long as you do exactly what I say…..” The monster chuckles at its own gentle mockery. But then it raises its searing Left Hand. “But perhaps…. a compromise. A little consideration for past….” The eyes shine. “….and future…. playtimes….” The gun burns away, like smoke. Leaving only a tiny shard leaking Blue like paint that stains the air. “If I can’t appeal to your honourless little hearts, I’ll appeal to something baser. Greed.” It tosses the shard at my face, and it embeds in my virtual map. The image expanding to show precise coordinates. “A taste of success. Of working for me. A shard of The Left Hand, free for you to take….. At not cost at all….”

And there it is..... If we can get it.

The death of Moon, given by its own left hand.

I glance at Kami, who doesn’t so much as unfold her arms. Her thoughts painted all over her flinty face. “Obvious trap. No deal.”

“No Deal…..” Moon whispers. Its smile somehow even wider. “Oh, my poor ~sweet~ little thing. My innocent little child. Oh, how nice it must be to be so very naivé….” A thousand fingers jab at her heart. “I don’t need your consent. Your leader already took the Deal. I’m just sweetening the pot by giving you a taste of the rewards...." It turns away, and the shadows roar up again. "I'll leave you all to stew on what I've said. And taste my generosity.... But remember….” It slips in tight to my tight-flat ear. “My benevolence is beautiful, and my kindness beyond compare….. For those who keep their Deals….. ” It almost kisses my face. Close as breath. “But the more effort I expend on you. The more resources I plough into you. The deeper you wrap yourself in my affairs…. before you try to screw me….” Foul mouths lick my face with vile little tongues. My legs hurling me away, into a roll. “The more fun I’ll have with you…. and your little friends….. before I wring the blood out of your bones…..” It bows, sweeping off its creepy hat like a performer. “Goodbye….. Children….. For now…..” And, with an utterly hideous snap, the monster and its gallery implode. Taking all its mad illusions with it.

Silence rushes in. The storm wild and deep outside our little hollow. I shiver and hug my arms. Kami turning to me with rage and hurt in her eyes. “Spook….. What have you done....” But she falters as my ears prick suddenly sharp. Demon leaping down, and rushing to my side…. I spin about. I hunt. And….

There.

Right between the wrecks of two old cars….

A single, piercingly, green eye….

…..slitted, like a cat’s….

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