I

Braran was irritated when he shimmered back into the abandoned theater, where that slob was holding up with his merry band of corpses. However, when he arrived, there was no one to be seen, not even those ridiculous thralls. Instead, a large space had been cleared in the center of the lobby and a large white pentagram had been painted. No bodies, no nothing.

“Come on, what's taking so long?” Braran’s voice echoed within the deserted space making it feel even emptier, “Necromancer?”

When Braran stepped forward, the lights went out. An electric guitar squealed as a lone spotlight hit the center of the room. The display was accompanied by a fast paced, sloppily played guitar riff. Braran sighed and rubbed his forehead, he already knew where this was going.

“For one night only!” Glen’s voice rung throughout the room, followed by that same irritating riff.

Braran scanned the lobby, up to the walkway and mezzanine, but Glen was nowhere in sight. Suddenly a pale, flabby arm covered in gingery hair popped out under the spotlight and a purple cloak sleeve was pulled onto it.

“The man you've all been waiting for…” a second arm appeared and was again dressed theatrically by a cloak sleeve.

A second spotlight illuminated the mezzanine where Carolyn was strapped up with an electric guitar, her arm swinging with insane speed, as the guitar squealed again, joined by a kick drum and a flashing cymbal that seemed to emanate from a far corner somewhere in the darkness.

“The incredible… the sexual and powerful–” There was a puff of smoke as Glen materialized in the center of the spotlight, power posed with one knee on the ground and one arm punching up into the air. He was draped in a purple cloak that was several inches too long for him.

“Glen the magnificent!” he paused for applause that never came, Glen glanced up with an uncertain smile on this face.

Braran silently stared at him for a long moment, “...is this part of the ritual?”

Glen immediately raised his hand to shush Braran, as he stepped into the middle of the pentagram. Where he stripped off the cloak he’d pointlessly dressed himself. He was completely naked apart from a pair of too tight Y-front underpants and there were white runes painted all over his pasty white body.

With a dramatic flair, Glen swung his cloak and it fluttered onto the ground nearby, as he sat down with crossed legs at the center of the pentagram. Glen placed his hands onto his knees, palms facing upward, and closed his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he let out a low guttural hum that filled the air and vibrated through the theater, rattling the thin windows.

The humming grew louder, causing the very ground to shake and Carolyn began stumbling around on the walkway struggling to maintain her footing in the disturbance, as Glen began to levitate off the ground. He opened his eyes to reveal two brilliant white orbs burning in his sockets.

The white runic symbols curled away as they too lifted off his body and fluttered away into the air before vanishing into dust. The humming grew stronger and louder until building dust began to rain down on them and the metal rivets began to whine against the pressure. As immediately as it started, the humming stopped and Glen floated gently back onto the ground. He sat there for a long moment with his eyes closed.

Cautiously, Braran approached him, “Well?”

Glen opened his eyes, which had returned to their insipid, sickly gray, and he smiled with malevolent glee, “Take your seats ladies and gentlemen, the show’s about to begin”.

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II

Dr Rees put down her suture kit for the final time that day and removed her gloves, rubbing her temples in exhaustion. She’d finally finished stitching up the torso of Mr Morrigan with those ugly sutures that left a big black Y on his chest. The doctor was eager to get home and wash the long day off, but there were still notes to transfer onto the computer, so she was forced to toil on.

Sitting down at her computer, it grumbled as the ancient hard disk whirled to life, firing up the sheriff’s department intranet. The computer was so slow, and her coffee was cold, but when she went to the pot to pour a fresh cup she found it empty.

“Could my night get any worse?” she said with a sigh.

There was a gust of wind through the open window that rustled some of the papers on her desk, the breeze carrying with it a white powder that tickled the doctor’s nose, causing her to sneeze. She walked over to gaze upon Mr Morrigan one last time. He looked peaceful there on her medical slab. Pale, certainly, but if you ignored everything from the neck down he could be sleeping.

“Sleep well, Steven”, she said with a gentle smile, reaching down to touch his forehead.

Steve’s eyes opened wide as he grabbed Dr Rees by the throat and squeezed tight. The doctor grabbed him by the wrist but she was no match for the vice-like grip he had on her neck. The corpse sat up, raising Dr Rees off the ground, as she struggled against him until she eventually fell still.

Steve hopped up off the bench and dropped the doctor onto the ground, where she landed in a heap, dead. Without a second look, Steve walked out of the pathology lab and into the night.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

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III

It was cold by the time Norah made it back to civilization after wandering around in the woods for a few hours, once she realized she’d been walking around in circles. She figured that if she was planning to meander about aimlessly it might be safer to do it where there were streetlights.

Although, wherever she’d decided to emerge didn’t look to be the most savory part of town. It looked to be an industrial park that was closed down for the evening, but it was extremely lifeless and eery with the lights off. Not that Norah particularly cared. She was by no doubt the most dangerous thing walking those streets, she just prayed she wouldn’t run into any unsuspecting person.

A tin can rattled against the ground followed by a cat squalling that caused Norah to flinch in surprise. Okay, maybe she was the teensiest bit afraid to be out and about alone with only her thoughts. She couldn’t believe how cracked things had gotten back at home. She’d used to powers on her mother before but never so violently. She really wanted to hurt her.

Norah would give anything for things to go back to how they were before. When she was simply a normal girl and a bad case of acne was the biggest of her worries. Norah couldn’t remember exactly when the powers first presented themselves, although it was roughly around the time of her sixteenth birthday.

She and Susan had been hanging out at the local arcade when they’d been interrupted by some oversized tenth-grader with an attitude problem. The boy took offense to the way they played Miss Pac-Man and decided it was enough to bend Norah backwards over a pinball table. The next thing she knew, he was flying across the room, and she didn’t even raise her hands.

Similar incidents kept occurring, particularly at times when Norah was especially upset, until she eventually realized that she was the common denominator. By the time she was almost seventeen they’d completely taken hold and day-by-day she struggled to control them, particularly once the mind-reading began. That was the worst part, and the one she was least able to avoid.

Though Norah wasn’t sure the extent of her powers, from what she’d witnessed they consisted of telekinesis, mind-reading, extraordinary strength, and the occasional fireball. There was also this weird thing with sensing auras but she didn’t particularly know how to describe that and it made her sound like one of those new age crystal enthusiasts. All it really boiled down to was being a black-eyed freak.

A streetlight flickered on above Norah’s head and when she glanced up she saw a sign that pointed to East Hill Cannery up ahead, her heart fluttered, “Josh”.

Norah began running in the direction of the sign, only to find herself trapped in an alley that was blocked by a six foot chain link fence. There was a gate but it was locked. She could see the Cannery up ahead like some kind of cosmic joke. Norah checked the other roads, but other than the direction she’d came from, they were all similarly blocked off.

Norah linked her fingers through the wire mesh and tugged, contemplating whether she should attempt to climb over. The hair on the back of her neck prickled up, as footsteps approached from behind.

“Forgot something?”

Norah turned to find herself boxed in by a man with sandy blonde hair, he was dressed bicycle leathers and had a smug grin on his face. She realized she’d seen him before, thrown him actually, back at the crime scene house.

“It’s a little late for a girl your age to be out alone, don’t you think?” Paul placed his hands on his hips.

Norah grimaced at him, trying to keep her distance. Paul wasn’t exactly intimidating, there was something a bit try-hard about his whole demeanor, but he still wasn’t someone she wanted to be trapped in a dark alley with.

“I've gotta say – the school girl geddup, it's a good look”, he was sauntering back and forth like a peacock, drawing out his sentences gleefully, “Not cliche at all”.

Norah looked down at her clothes with a furrowed brow, “Can I help you?”

Paul’s smile deepened as he sauntered towards her, clearly with intention to trap her there, “So what is it? A glamour? Rubber suit and scotch tape?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Don't play coy now.”

Norah rolled her eyes, concluding he was simply a creep, “Is this how you usually pick up girls?”

“Don't have much time for dating in my line of work.”

“Sure… that’s why…”

He smirked, “And you’re not exactly a girl, either”.

“Excuse me?”, Norah was running out of patience with this idiot, plus she didn’t like how he kept moving towards her. He had a freakish look on his face, like he was getting some kind of sick enjoyment from trying to scare her.

“Come on, why so shy? Show me that pretty face of yours”, he said, coming in too close for comfort.

“Look, creep, back off”, Norah raised her arm to shove him away but he blocked her with alarming speed, Norah paled and backed away, where she became wedged against the fence, “Who are you?”

“Name’s Paul”, he smiled, he raised up on the balls of his feet like he was preparing to box, “But enough about me, I want to know about you. What kind of demon are you?”

This hit Norah’s ear wrong, “I’m human”.

Paul laughed, “Oh yeah, and I’m a Luke Cage action figure”.

He kept moving forward and finally Norah had enough, she threw another punch but Paul grabbed her arm, swinging her around and slamming her into the nearby wall. Smacking her teeth on the bricks, Norah yelped, swinging her head back so that it clocked Paul directly in the face. He roared in pain, grabbing at his nose as he stumbled backward.

He looked at her with excitement in his eyes, wiping blood that was gushing from his nose with a laugh, “Finally, the claws come out!”

“Are you enjoying this?

Paul didn’t reply, instead he began shifting back and forth with his fists raised ready to fight. He was ducking and feinting with a huge smile on his face. It looked a bit ridiculous from Norah’s perspective, but he was clearly angling for a brawl.

Norah's lip curled at the spectacle, “So… what is it? You’re crazy, high, you’ve got a death wish? What’s happening here?”

Paul laughed in that annoying way, “I’m doing my sacred duty”.

A laugh escaped her, “Your sacred what?”

“It's fate. The ultimate battle”, he pointed between them, “Good vs evil. It’s my birthright to cut evil things off at the knees”, he swooshed his arm to demonstrate his point.

Norah wasn’t sure if it was the skipping back and forth, or his sincerity, but she couldn’t help but burst into hysterics, almost doubling over with the intensity of her laughter.

Paul stopped bouncing and his face drooped in disappointment, “I’m serious, this is my job”.

This made Norah laugh even harder, until she could barely breathe or stand upright and had to use the wall to lean against. Paul’s face darkened with annoyance as he unzipped his jacket and pulled out a long curved knife that was covered in unfamiliar symbols.

Fear ripped up Norah’s spine as the blood drained from her face, “Okay, no need to get crazy, I didn’t mean to offend you”.

Paul slowly unsheathed the knife, waving it before her so that the light glimmered off its surface, “You know what this is?”

Norah tried to back away but ended up pushed up against the wire fence again. Paul kept moving closer, twisting the blade and swishing it back and forth, “It's anointed steel – it's deadly to your kind”.

“What kind, I told you I’m human!”

“And I said, try it on someone else”, Paul swished the knife past Norah’s face and grinned.

Paul raised the knife in the air ready to strike just as two thick arms wrapped around his chest and squeezed…