Now, Michigan
The woman with the small child had been fast. Impossibly so.
Their Skill, Slasher’s Stride, allowed them to stay close, but the stamina cost was too great at that speed.
They gave up and turned back for the others.
There were five possible targets to take and one bear.
They didn’t need them all.
Just a few for the strength to get away and hide.
That other man in the office…
They had realized back then that he was their problem.
Another of their Skills had allowed them to hide their very identity from discovery. However, something about the man had pushed it near to the breaking point. It had made them weak and threatened to reveal them to Skills and spells.
They cursed Cal Cruces.
Why had he come?
Did he know?
No.
He hadn’t given any indication when he had stood in front of them.
But… they could feel their anonymity slowly breaking.
They needed to kill to keep it strong.
The heavy tread of running people reached their ears through the soft breeze.
They slipped into a dark alley and hid behind a crumpled dumpster.
They stared at the wall and the bright red heart beats of the five people and one bear.
Close.
Out of the six, they didn’t care about one. They cared about the other five to varying degrees and would rather spare a few of them if there was a choice.
“Damn it Pooh! Slow down! Don’t get too far from me!” Val called out.
The bear rumbled past the alley mouth.
They let the beast go.
A long gap followed before the first person crossed.
A short compact woman, Ash.
Then a big man, Quinn.
They knew the next one was their priority target.
They darted from behind the dumpster with their knife aimed at Tia’s neck.
“Watch out!”
The warning came after a different knife struck them in the side.
“The fuck! My danger sense wasn’t—” Tia cursed. “Quick Cut!”
The blade darted for their face.
They stepped back to avoid it by the barest margin.
“Unerring Aim!”
Kamila’s second knife would’ve hit them in the chest had they not twisted their body and used their cloak in an attempt to wrap it up.
As it was, they had to settle for a gash across their collarbone.
They pulled the first knife out of their side.
The pain was a distant thing when they were in their true state.
They threw it back to the owner with supernatural strength and precision. They were already stronger and more precise than they had any right to be. Their class made them even deadlier all around when it came to killing.
Kamila threw another knife to knock the first out of the air. The young woman cursed and barely dodged her head to the side. Despite her skill and Skills the first knife still managed to cut the side of her face.
“Pooh! Get back here!” Val screamed.
The young man was last in the formation. He stood near the corner of the building at the intersection.
“Where’s Holly?”
A huge axe cleaved the air above their ducking head.
“Tell me or I’ll take your head,” Quinn growled.
They sighed.
The strongman had never been one to fully understand what he said sometimes.
Still, he hadn’t been a bad sort. Like a dumb, protective older brother.
They used their cloak to obscure his vision for the moment it took to sneak around to his side. His large frame made a good human shield as it forced Tia and Kamila to stop attacking.
They cut through the man’s hamstrings in a flash. Their mundane knife blade made impossibly lethal by their class.
Strength was useless when you couldn’t move.
Quinn roared as he fell to the ground. He twisted around threw himself forward to grab them around their waist.
The man’s immense strength threatened to pull them to the ground.
They overpowered him after a few seconds and ripped his ham-sized hands loose.
A few seconds in a fight was an eternity.
Crack!
Their head twisted to one side.
Ash stood in front of them with a hammer in hand.
They lashed out reflexively.
Ash flipped out of the way.
She blinked at them for a moment.
A thin red line appeared on Ash’s throat.
“Fuck!” Quinn snapped.
Meaty hands pulled him up their back. He didn’t have a large amount of distance to cover in order to reach their head.
They stared at Ash as the young woman toppled to the ground like a felled tree.
They snapped out of it and muttered a curse.
Ash had been okay to them.
She hadn’t been one of those that she had been willing to kill.
It wasn’t their fault. They didn’t know. They only reacted to the attack. It hadn’t been under their complete control.
The kill filled them with strength as it always did.
They grabbed Quinn’s fingers and twisted.
The man grunted but didn’t cry out.
He pulled at their hood with his other hand.
They fought him but the man popped a blood vessel in his forehead to fight back.
The hood came loose.
They— She stood revealed.
“Holly…” Quinn looked like someone had stabbed him in the back. “What—” he screamed as her knife traced a red line across his face from one cheek to the other across the tip of his nose.
He clutched his face and fell to the ground.
“You can’t see my face. You can’t know. No one can know!” She hated how high her voice sounded. Like a little girl’s not an apex predator.
“You’re the murderer?” Tia growled.
“What is this, Holly?” Kamila said.
It was too late now. None could live to reveal her secret. That would only weaken her to her core.
“No. Not a murderer… a Slasher.”
She dashed forward.
“Shit! We’ve got to retreat and get help!” Tia turned and ran.
Kamila’s throwing knives sparked against the ground as the Slasher zig-zagged her way forward.
“Pooh! Get her!” Val screamed.
The bear thundered out of the darkness forcing her to dodge out of the way of a clawed paw the size of her chest. She lashed out, but thick fur and dense skin and muscle were better protection than armor.
The trio escaped down the street. Quinn hobbled as Val struggled to support the big man.
She dodged another paw swipe and drew a small knife from her cloak and let it fly.
Two could play at knife throwing.
Kamila toppled without a word.
“Wait! Help me! She’s down!” Val said.
“She’s dead!” Tia jabbed at the knife sticking from the back of Kamila’s head.
They ran down the street and turned into an alley out of physical sight but not out of her sight.
Pooh roared and swiped again.
She slashed at the paw. The impact almost tore the knife from her hand.
Poor roared in pain.
“Go away, Pooh. I always liked you and I don’t have to kill you to keep you quiet. Go run away and be free. Live in the forest. You won’t have to put up with stupid Val after I kill him.”
The bear didn’t like that. She reared up to her full ten-foot-tall height to swipe with her uninjured paw.
Holly cut that too.
Then she disappeared from Pooh’s sight.
One step took her several dozen yards down the dark street and around the corner.
Another step with Slasher’s Stride took her farther down the alley.
Her targets were connected to her by a red string only she could see and each stride brought her that much closer. If they weren’t looking at her she could get up to a few arm’s lengths behind them.
She reached them quickly.
She thrust her knife toward the back of Tia’s neck.
An instant away from the kill—
She suddenly flew into a storefront window.
The air left her lungs in a rush. Her chest felt like it was in a vise.
What had hit her?
A car?
Those cultists had hit her with a car once. The fools had thought her dead and had gotten out to investigate her crumpled body. It had been a fatal mistake for the trio. She healed quickly especially when people thought her dead and lowered their guard.
Broken ribs and torn muscle re-knit even as she rose up from the ruin of broken chairs and tables.
She picked up a jagged shard of glass as she did so and threw it at the woman with the kid in her arms.
The woman dodged out of the way with a quickness that made even her wary.
Strong and quick.
She already knew the woman could run at speeds beyond what seemed possible even if you had a Skill.
Still… who went into the fight carrying a kid?
Tia and Val ran up to stand behind the woman.
She could see and hear the bear struggling to join from them several blocks away. A red thread connected her to Quinn several blocks away hobbling.
The woman handed the crying kid to Tia. “Stay back, but not too far away. I’ll keep her busy until Cal gets here,” she said.
“He won’t be joining us,” Holly said. “I left him with quite the mess to clean up.” She hoped that was true. She wasn’t sure how she’d handle a guy that could fly and wasn’t afraid to go down to the docks.
“Why are you doing this, Holly?” the woman’s voice was calm. “You are Holly, right? I’m not talking to someone… or something else.”
She laughed at that. High and unbridled. An exaltation of the truth that she had been hiding for so long. “It’s nice not having to pretend at being the small, frail waif for once. Sadly…” she pouted, “it can’t last. Sad for me and for you. Because I have to kill you all. Well… except the kid. He won’t be able to tell anyone about me.”
“What? He can talk. He’s like two,” Tia said.
“Shut up,” Val hissed.
The other woman’s gaze hardened.
“Let me kill you and I promise I’ll leave the little man alone. He’s young. It’s dark and scary out here. It’s not hard to think that all he’ll be able to tell anybody is that the shadow monster killed his mommy,” she spread her arms out wide angling her knife so that the stainless steel blade glinted off Val’s lantern light.
“Is it your class? Is it making you do this? You know that’s a thing, right?” the woman continued bleating.
Such a weak-willed soul for one with enviable physical ability.
She wondered how much stronger she’d get after killing the woman.
“I don’t know if it’s possible, but we can try to help you overcome it or control it so that you don’t hurt innocent people.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Innocence?
Only children were innocent.
“Slasher’s Domain: Blood Night,” she replied.
----------------------------------------
The little guy wailed in primal terror.
Tia and Val were right with him.
The three of them had fallen into a tight huddle behind Nila around the once bright lantern.
She felt her knees shake and sweat run down her back.
The night had already been dark despite the light from the lantern.
Now it was much worse.
Dark shadows tinged with blood red streaks seemed to press in on them from every direction.
Holly—
Was no longer a tiny, waif-ish blond girl in a dark cloak that was too big for her.
She loomed inside the bloody shadows of the store interior.
The cloak seemed to writhe as if it had a mind of its own.
It stretched and snapped hungrily toward Nila.
She had one thought.
How could she have been so stupid?
She should’ve gotten into her armor.
Should’ve waited for Cal.
Made sure the little guy was safe first.
Too late.
Holly attacked.
Too quick.
Nila barely managed to cup the sides of her neck.
She felt the sting on the back of her hands.
A flash of movement.
The same stinging pain cut across her forehead.
She lashed out with a fist.
Holly dipped low and slashed across her side. Thick jacket and clothing parted like silk. Hot liquid poured down her side.
The rush of the girl’s cloak obscured her vision as Holly continued around her— toward the others. Toward the little guy.
She grasped out in desperation and snatched Holly’s writhing cloak.
It felt like something alive.
Just touching it sent a paroxysm of sheer terror coursing through her body.
She almost released her hold and turned to run.
The little guy’s cries pierced through the blood-red darkness.
“Get him out of this thing!” she roared and yanked.
Tia and Val ignored her plea. Their eyes were round as saucers as they huddled together with the little guy.
Holly turned and leapt using Nila’s superhuman strength to her advantage.
She thrust her knife forward aiming for Nila’s heart.
The stainless steel blade carved through skin and muscle only stopping when it hit bone.
Nila shifted her grip from the cloak to Holly’s wrist.
It was the Slasher’s turn to be surprised by the other woman’s quickness.
Nila pulled her arm free from the knife with a sick squelch. She ground the bones in Holly’s arm. It was almost hard to believe that such thin arms contained such strength. Then again the same could be said of her. “Stop this. We can find a way to help you.” She wiped at her eyes. The cut on her forehead leaked blood over her face like a waterfall.
“I don’t want your help!” Holly hissed in a voice that reverberated from multiple directions. “I don’t need your help!”
A second knife flashed out of the cloak.
Nila hissed as it kissed the back of her fingers. She let go. Not by choice.
She reached for the cloak and earned more slashes on her hands and arms. Still, she caught it. Ignoring the knives, she spun and hurled Holly back into the storefront.
“Get up! Move!” Nila snatched the little guy from Tia. “We need to get out of this— whatever this is!” she pushed and pulled Tia and Val up urging them down the street.
Bloody darkness and shadows pressed in on them with a tangible weight.
It made their limbs feel heavy. It made them feel like they were submerged in deep, dark waters.
Nila half-dragged, half-carried the rest as she desperately sought an escape from the Slasher’s Domain.
There had to be a boundary.
That’s how these things were supposed to work.
A domain was a new thing, but experience had taught her that every spell and Skill had limits.
Half a hundred yards down the street.
She glanced back.
Saw Holly cloaked in bloody shadows walking after them.
Not running. Walking. As if she had all the time in the world to catch up.
Cal! Where are you! We’re in trouble! she thought.
Boots pounding on the pavement mixed with sobs and gasping breaths.
She felt it in her own chest.
She shouldn’t have been out of breath already. She had stamina to fight for hours.
Another glance.
Holly had halved the distance at a walk.
Another Skill.
It made sense.
Slasher.
Nila had seen movies.
That’s what slasher’s did.
The little guy clung to her neck. His wailing had petered out to hiccuping sobs.
She didn’t want to be the final girl.
The rustle of a flapping cloak tickled her ears just as a pair of blades touched her lower back.
She reacted with a kick.
A loud and satisfying crack greeted her.
Another glance behind her revealed Holly crashing to the ground a dozen yards away.
The knives hadn’t penetrated deeply.
“Hurry!” she urged Tia and Val.
She fought the urge to look back.
She had to believe that they were close to the edge of the domain. They must’ve covered several blocks already.
Unless the domain moved with Holly.
“Shit,” she muttered.
She considered trusting Tia and Val to get the little guy away while she tied Holly down until Cal finally showed up.
A quick glance to check and sure enough Holly was half a dozen yards behind.
Tia and Val were quivering messes barely able to keep running forward.
Without Nila’s forceful hands they’ve would’ve collapsed from terror.
It ended suddenly with a rush of air into her lungs.
The oppressive weight of unnatural fear vanished along with the blood-red darkness.
Instead, they ran in regular darkness.
Nila handed the little guy to a shaken but standing Tia. “Get him to safety.” She turned to face Holly.
Nila! Are you guys okay?”
Where were you?
I couldn’t find you.
The girl, Holly’s the murderer! Some kind of Slasher class! Scan my memories!
An instant.
Got it. Get to safety.
There was a rush of wind and she watched Cal descend into the blood-red domain.
----------------------------------------
Grasping shadows that smelled and felt like fresh-spilled blood seemed to drag him toward the ground as soon as he entered the Slasher’s Domain.
It was a powerful thing.
It took a moment of effort, of will to shift his perceptions until the oppressive weight of fear vanished from his shoulders.
“You said you were a clairvoyant, not a Clairvoyant. How’d you manage to fool me?” Cal said into the empty darkness.
“My real class shrouds the truth just the way I need.”
Despite scanning his surroundings he couldn’t locate where the voice had come from.
“Yeah… a class, huh? Kinda sucks what it’s made you do.” He kept a psychic watch on everything around him. Especially, Nila and the little guy as they continued to run away. “I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep—”
“People that say that never do. Disgusting! At least have the conviction to stand behind your claims.”
“I haven’t said—”
“Your wife already did. You think you can help me?”
Laughter echoed and sent a shiver up his spine.
“Why would I want your help? I’m better off now than I have ever been since the start of this. No one can hurt me now. I’m the predator not the prey… never again.”
“Your safety doesn’t have to be tied to murder.” He walked down the dark street. Clouds obscured the moon and stars. Not that he needed his eyes to see everything around him. However, Holly continued to evade him. “You don’t need that class to be safe. We can help you find another.”
“Oh come on,” she scoffed. “Just like that. I’ve killed a lot of people. You might be willing to overlook that since you probably want to control my power but the others won’t and you’re just an outsider. Like they’d just do what you tell them? They’ll want my blood and I wouldn’t blame them. Kill or be killed. The strong survive and remain safe. That is what the spires want.”
“You can atone.”
“I don’t want to.”
The voice came from just behind his right ear.
He spun, stunned that he hadn’t been able to read her thoughts, and found nothing.
Stinging pain slashed across the left side of his neck.
He sent a burst of telekinetic force in all directions.
The brief sense of a fluttering cloak flashed across his mind’s eye.
A quick touch confirmed that the cut was shallow.
“I can tell that you’re not used to being touched like that.”
“Actually… quite the opposite. Been cut, stabbed, burned, disintegrated. Lost body parts, so on and so forth. Although, getting cut with a regular kitchen knife is… unexpected.”
“I can cut anything. Kill anything. That is what you want me to give up with your asinine offer.”
“If that’s what you want then I’d say you can still keep killing. Just… not innocent people. What difference would it make if your targets were monsters and evil people?”
Once again he failed to catch her striking him like a viper.
A knife slashed across the front of his neck. While another stabbed into his lower spine.
Both struck his telekinetic shield.
“How—”
He reached out with his mind and grabbed Holly holding her in place.
He regarded her for a moment.
The image of a frail waif blurred warring with that of a lean predator in a cloak that seemed to writhe with a mind of its own.
“How are you doing this!” she screeched like a child in the throes of a tantrum. “This is my domain! Why aren’t you scared of me!”
He saw the monster.
Remembered another girl years ago.
Another one turned into a monster by a class. By his failure.
He desperately didn’t want another one’s blood on his hands. He sought for something, anything that would let Holly live.
Was it selfish?
He dived into her memories.
Unpleasant was an understatement.
A happy life turned into a nightmare by the appearance of the spires.
Violence and death.
Things done to her that no one should suffer.
Until she snapped one day.
The last bit of happy memories she owned opened the path to the class that gave her the strength to go from prey to predator.
“What are you doing! I can tell you’re doing something to me! Let me go! You can’t touch me! I didn’t say you could touch me! You’re not allowed to when I say that! Let me go! I’ll kill you! Mommy! Daddy! I’ll kill you for what you did to them! I’ll kill you for what you did to me!”
Holly frothed at the mouth. Her eyes burned with rage, hate and terror.
He was ashamed to look into them.
“I’m sorry. I won’t hurt you. Please go to sleep.”
“No!” she roared.
“I promise there won’t be any nightmares. Only dreams of better times.”
Holly sagged instantly.
Cal kept his word.
He soared into the sky with the sleeping Holly in tow.
He knew where she had stashed Sadiiq and Bailey. He needed to get them before it was too late.
----------------------------------------
They had secured Holly with what looked like every thing they could get their hands on. Thick chains, cuffs and multiple locks. The sleeping girl looked like Houdini getting ready to perform.
“Are you sure?” Sadiiq said.
The not-mayor looked down at Cal with dark-ringed eyes. The cuts on his face had just been bandaged.
“She won’t wake up anytime soon.”
“And if I ask how you can guarantee that…”
He gave the taller man a flat look.
“That’s what I thought.” Sadiiq regarded Holly from outside the ring of armed men and women surrounding the young woman with weapons and hands ready. “And you won’t say how you’re certain that she’s the murderer? About how you know that she’s got this… Slasher class that you claim is at least partially to blame for what she’s been doing to our community. To what is supposed to be her community.” He punctuated his words with a jabbing finger toward Cal then Holly. “It sounds like bullshit. That’s what I think.”
“You don’t have to rely on solely my word. Tia and Val—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Sadiiq swiped his arm with a violent motion. “I heard what they said. But Val’s friends with the murderer. It’s normal for him to want to mitigate the punishment.”
“Holly also killed two of their mutual friends and injured another.”
“I see what you’re trying to do. Don’t bother.”
“Why not? Doesn’t it suggest that there is something to Holly’s class influencing her if she murdered two people that, by all accounts, were her genuine friends.”
“Friends that were only in a position to be murdered because of their concern for their murderer. Ultimately, this isn’t your community. You don’t have a say.”
“That’s not what I’m trying to do.”
“Then why are you telling me that there are mitigating circumstances. Even if I accept your claims as factual you refuse to elaborate on how you know what you’re telling me. And to be honest even if you did spill why would I believe you?”
Cal shrugged.
“I recognize your power, whatever it is. I’ve seen it. I’m fairly certain that you could just do whatever you want and there’s nothing we could do to stop you. But I don’t think you’re that kind of person. So, I ask you to respect our decisions. Like I said. You aren’t a part of our community. Holly murdered people we care about. She’s a threat to us all. Justice has to be done.”
“I don’t disagree on that. I just think you shouldn’t rush things. Maybe justice can be served better than by simply executing a young woman that has been treated with great injustice in the past.”
“If what you say is true,” Sadiiq shrugged. “What people did to her in the past was wrong, but that doesn’t excuse her doing the same to my people.”
“She was a child when her community was attacked. She saw everyone she ever cared about abused and murdered in the vilest ways you can imagine. She spent three years suffering in their hands. Until one day she snapped—”
“Stop! You’ve already said all that. It’s tragic… but again, it doesn’t excuse anything she did after.”
“Yeah, but maybe it should mitigate it. If we can help her. Find a way for her to lose the class or point it away from the innocent.”
“So you’d turn her into a weapon. That’s not a better solution. It’d be better for everyone, even her, if we just ended it.”
Cal opened his mouth to argue further.
“No. I’m done with you. The decision’s been made. Holly pays for her crimes and we try to move on. You’ve found the information you needed, right? You said she killed those cultists you’re after? You can stay or go. I don’t care.”
Cal headed to the front lobby and was immediately accosted by Tia, Val and Quinn.
The big man hobbled with the help of a spear and placed a hand on Cal’s chest. “You aren’t leaving until you give us some answers.” Burning eyes glared from behind blood-soaked bandages.
Quinn was a Circus Strongman but Cal could’ve simply walked through. Instead he pointed to the chairs along the closest wall. “You should get healing for that.” He nodded at Quinn’s bandaged leg.
“It can wait,” Quinn scowled then winced in pain.
“Is it true?” Val said. “Nila said that Holly’s class was what made her do all this. Made her kill—”
Cal regarded the young man’s red-rimmed eyes. “Yes and no. I’m sure that there’s a level of influence that some classes exert. It’s just that I can’t tell if there’s a line that separates the person from the class. Classes are based on what people do and how they see themselves, right?”
“Slasher? Holly’s a Slasher. What does that mean?” Tia said.
“Old movies,” Quinn said. “They’re murderers might be human or not, but with maybe supernatural powers. Even if they’re supposed to be regular humans they don’t act like them. They can shrug off bullets and shit.” He laughed bitterly. “When they chase their victims they can always stay on their trail even if they’re just walking and the victim is sprinting all out.”
“That’s—”
Val interrupted Tia. “Sounds like what Holly was doing.”
“But you’re her friends why would she attack you?” Tia said.
Quinn thumped the back of his head against the wall and closed his eyes. “That’s usually in those movies too.”
“She loved those movies,” Cal said.
Val’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know that?”
“Her and her dad watched them. At least once a month for horror movie night. It was one of the last good memories she managed to cling to as those marauders abused her.”
Cal told them much of what he had experienced from Holly’s memories. He ended it on the day she finally broke and gained the class that allowed her to escape captivity. Her most favorite memories before her world was ruined by the spires and evil men. She had been the victim. The prey. A single moment had changed her perception of herself. She needed to be the predator. Like those in the movies. They were the ones that dealt pain and terror. Their victims could never truly hurt them and stop them. They never lost in the end. Holly would never lose again.
“You’re just making shit up!” Quinn snapped.
“Does it matter,” Val hissed. “This could be the only way she can live.”
Tia shook her head. “It won’t make a difference. Even if he’s right,” she scowled at Cal, “we can’t keep Holly in a jail cell. We don’t even have one. That room would be easy for her to escape. She’s way too strong. We’d need five to ten people on her at all times and even then it’d just take one moment for her— it doesn’t matter.”
“So that’s it? You’re just going to kill her?” Quinn said.
“She killed Ash and Kamila. She sliced you up and would’ve done the same had Nila not shown up,” Tia said.
“She’s our friend,” Val said in a soft voice.
“Was she? Was she ever really a friend? Real friends don’t kill friends,” Tia shot up from her chair and rushed away.
“Was she?” Quinn echoed.
“Yes. A part of her saw you as friends.”
“But you won’t say how you know that and why would we believe you?” Quinn snarled and almost lunged over if not for Val placing himself in the way. It wouldn’t have mattered had Quinn’s heart been in it. The big man slumped back into his chair. “Ash… Kamila,” he sobbed into his hands.
“Did we ever really know her? I mean, was the Holly we knew… real?” Val’s eyes searched Cal’s.
“She’s Holly and she’s the Slasher. I don’t know if a line exists and if it does, where,” he replied.