Private Daniel Founders
“So, I guess we are going looking for that Doppelganger thing again? I hope we find it and manage to kill it this time. We need to get revenge for Johny and Nathan.” Says Jake.
I simply nod my head in agreement as Sam speaks up, “Speaking of, did you guys hear about what happened last night with Nathan and Lain. Apparently, she did something to him. Some sort of blood magic ritual or something with monster meat. Brought him back from the dead.”
“Bullshit, the medics probably just managed to keep him alive. As long as they can keep him stable, they should be able to get him back to base so the surgeons can fix him up.”
“Na man, my buddy Jason was there and saw everything. He was part of the night watch and checking in on Nathan was part of his patrol. The medics gave up on saving him, said he would be dead by morning and that he couldn’t be saved. He told me that she stayed by his side the entire night until she suddenly went running off into the night. They found Nathan’s face covered in black blood and he was suddenly doing better. Then, she comes back carrying a giant leg from some monster and fed it to him in his sleep. You could see his wounds healing man! Then the Lieutenant Colonel came in and kicked everyone out and she started having a breakdown or something. He could hear her screaming and breaking stuff.”
“Sooo, what? She can do some strange Voodoo and bring people back from the dead or something? Bullshit, you know magic isn’t real.”
“You weren’t there man.” Says Sam.
Jake counters, “Neither were you, dumbass. Your friend was, and from the sound of it, Jason is talking out his ass. You can’t bring people back from the dead.”
“Why not? She’s like a demon or something, isn’t she? Is it really so weird that she could use magic and do voodoo or whatever?”
“She’s not a demon and she’s not magic. She mutated! Just because she looks like a little demon, it doesn’t mean that she actually is one. Don’t be a dumbass, use your brain.”
Sam just frowns, “Come on man. Would it really be that weird? I mean like… We’re out here fighting monsters and stuff, right? Would magic and demons really be that hard of a stretch to believe? Use your imagination some man. I mean… Hell, we're hunting some monster thing with acid for blood that can mess with people’s heads and make them see shit? Doesn’t that sound like magic?”
I pipe in, “Sounds like the plot to a shitty Sci-fi movie…”
Jake just nods to me and gives Sam a look, saying, “Exactly, I’m sure that there is a perfectly scientific explanation for how it works. Probably hypnosis or something like that.”
Sam retorts and the two of them start to get into it. I just try and tune them out, the two of them going back and forth and refusing to give ground. “Come on man…”, “Stop calling me ‘man.’ What are you, a hippy or something?”
Ahh, why did I have to share the same bunkroom with these idiots? Just a bit longer and then Lieutenant Dole can tell them to shut the hell up…
A short walk later and a bunch of bickering from behind me, we finally arrive at the norther wing and find quite the scene. The guards guarding the hallway are all on edge and shaking, throwing glances down the hall and tightly holding their rifles.
Behind me I can hear as Sam asks, “What’s going on with them? They look like they saw a ghost…”
I ignore him and step forward to the guards, “Privates Founders, Grand, and Ford here to report to Lieutenant Dole. Is he present?”
The soldier looks back to me, a bit startled, his gaze darting back to down the hall a couple of times before finally settling on us. “Uh, yes, yes, he is. He is further in with the others… and the Imp girl… He’s expecting you.”
“Thank you.” I tell him, looking him over as he shivers. What the hell is up with him?
Walking past, we make our way down the hall, Sam and Jake talking amongst themselves about what just happened. As we round the corner I am forced to a stop as if I had just hit a wall, the two behind me promptly running into me and stopping dead in their tracks, curses dying on their tongues as they look past me.
Up ahead, standing next to a very nervous looking Lieutenant Dole, is Lain. The Imp girl. She’s just standing there with a smile on her face as she plays with a giant pitch-black snake that is wrapped around her body. She is holding its head in her hands as she pets it, a black tongue darting out of its mouth as it tastes the air. The snake is easily large enough to swallow a full-grown man whole, but it just lets her pet it as it lazily drapes itself over and around her.
Noticing our arrival, the other soldiers and teams turn towards us, and she follows suit, turning to look at us from where we stand dumbfounded. Our breaths catch in our chests as her eyes and those of the snake fall on us. For a split second it feels as if I am about to be killed, that if I don’t fall to my knees and kneel immediately, I will lose my head.
I can’t help but shake under her gaze, a cold sweat running down my back.
She smiles at us, and the feeling passes like a cold breeze, the only thing left is an inexplicable pressure that seems to push down on us from above. Swallowing back some saliva, I try to shift my shoulders to drop the weight, but it stubbornly remains. Dangerous. Predator.
Finally, after what feels like hours, she looks away from us and goes back to playing with her snake, petting its head and scratching it under the chin.
The pressure abates a little and we finally find our nerves again. With careful steps we walk forward, stopping a short distance away and saluting to Lieutenant Dole, “Sir… We, we are here to report for duty.”
I can’t keep my eyes from occasionally darting back over to her, some part of me screaming that if I lose sight of her, that she will kill me. She completely ignores me, just happily playing with her snake and whispering to herself as she pokes at it. Looking closer, I can see how some of the scales on its pitch-black body start to come into more detail, how its eyes become a bit more defined, how it slowly starts to look more and more life-like as she pokes and plays with it. Details that I could only start to notice now that I am standing closer.
It’s not a real snake… How the hell is she doing that!?
Lieutenant Dole clears his throat and gets everyone’s attention, looking back to him I can see that he is covered in a cold sweat. “Good, everyone is here. Today we will be…” He stops and adjusts his collar, slowly turning to Lain and seemingly working up the courage to say something to her. “Uh… Lain. Could I ask that you stop whatever it is you are doing…?”
She stops playing with her snake and looks up to him, he suddenly flinches, somehow managing to stop himself from taking a step backwards.
“Stop what I’m doing…?” She looks to the snake and seems to realize something, letting out an “Oh!” and looking a bit embarrassed. “Sorry! I shouldn’t be playing around, it’s time for work.”
With a slight gesture, the snake quickly falls apart and disappears into her clothing as if it was never there.
Lieutenant Dole shakes his head, “No, no… I don’t mean whatever that was… This pressure, it’s you that is doing it right. Please… make it stop…”
She tilts her head and gives him a look, “Pressure?” Looking to the rest of us, she seems to finally realize that everyone is slightly shaking and sweating.
“What the heck…? Uhm, hold on… just uhh, give me a sec…” She says, closing her eyes for little while. When she opens them again, she starts looking around like she is trying to find something. A few seconds later she says, “Oh… Oh, OK. I think I know what it is… uhm… I think I can make it stop…”
Placing a hand over her stomach, she focuses on her breathing, and after a few breaths, she lets out a long breath and exhales. Along with the motion the world around us seems to settle and the weight on all our shoulders suddenly disappears.
Looking around, she slowly nods her head, “Ok… Ya, I think I got it under control… Sorry about that. I’m still learning to control this stuff. I’ve only had a couple of hours to practice with it so far. I didn’t even realize that I was doing that…”
Lieutenant Dole, looking much more relaxed now, adjusts his collar and tells her, “I’m not going to waste our time with asking you about what just happened. Once we are done here, I want you to write up a full report. You are going to need to give us a full explanation about what is going on with you later. Understood?”
She grimaces, “Eh… Yes Sir…”
Turning back to us, he calls us to order, “Alright, today we are killing the Doppelganger that got away. Our search indicates that it is most likely still somewhere here in the building. Luckily, we have managed to close it off from accessing the rest of the building. We are going to flush it out and kill it.”
He kicks at a crate by his feet and the lid opens, showing a bunch of teargas grenades.
“Each team is to head to their designated point and set off the grenades in the vents, moving from point to point. We are going to gas this thing out of the vents and drive it towards the center of this area. Remain in radio contact and give regular check-ins as we move. Whoever finds its first, radio for Lain and she will come running to kill the damn thing. Avoid contact with the Doppelganger at all costs. We do not want to risk anyone falling under its control.”
He finishes, looking over everyone gathered, “Any questions?”
One man from another team raises his hand, “Sir, are we sure it is safe to use the radios. Wouldn’t we risk drawing more monsters towards us from outside?”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Yes, that is a risk. But right now, our top priority is to get this thing out of our base. Keep all radio communications to short bursts, necessary information only. If any monsters do arrive to cause problems, we will simply have to push them back.”
Lain raises her hand by his side, “Just leave that to me. I need something to beat up…”
Her words end up sounding a bit cold and a little of that pressure ends up leaking through again. It vanishes as quickly as it comes.
Lieutenant Dole clears his throat, “Right… Worse comes to worse, we will simply sick Lain at it…”
He continues after collecting himself, “You have your orders, everyone stock up on grenades and put your gas masks on. Once everyone is in position we will begin.”
Everyone snaps a salute and gets themselves prepped. Even Lain ends up putting on a gas mask, which for some reason I find to be weird. Does she even need to wear it? Would tear gas even work on her…? Or does she just want to wear one for fun…
She ends up tying her hair back into a ponytail using a black string that she seemingly pulls out of thin air. With her gas mask on and her horns, dressed in army camo and no boots, she makes for quite the interesting picture. Sort of like a little demonic soldier.
Giggling to herself, she starts breathing heavily in the gasmask, making it go ‘Shiii, Shuuu’ as she breaths in and out. Looking up she says, “Lieutenant Dole, ‘Shiii, Shuuu’ I am your father!”
He just looks down at her, looking utterly unamused. Securing his own mask he says, “No, you’re not.”
She deflates a bit at getting her joke deflected, and I feel myself relaxing a bit, watching her screw around. It makes me start to forget the fear that I was feeling because of her a short while ago. If but only a little bit.
With everyone prepped and armed, the order is given, and we all set out to start the operation, heading to our designated starting locations. Behind me as we walk, I hear Sam tell Jake, “I told you she was magic.”
“Don’t even start.” He retorts.
“Oh, come on man! You felt that didn’t you? That was some anime shit back there. You can’t honestly say that she isn’t magic!”
“Magic isn’t real, you dumbass!”
“Then explain what you just saw! Try and tell me that wasn’t magic, man!”
They go back and forth until our Sergeant gets pissed and yells at them to shut the hell up and focus. He ends up telling them, “I don’t give two flying fucks what she is. She could be an abomination of science or a fucking Magical Girl for all I care. All that matters is that she kills monsters, and she follows orders!”
Magical Girl!? The image of her wearing a frilly pink skirt and launching heart shaped magic attacks from a cute little wand at monsters fills my mind and I have to fight to hold back a laugh. Luckily, I am wearing a gas mask, so the Sergeant can’t see me fighting to hold back my laughter as he looks us over.
Satisfied, he turns and gets us back to the mission.
Once we arrive, Sam sets up a ladder and then goes up with a crowbar to wrench off the air vent. With it out of the way, he trades it for a grenade and pulls the pin after getting the OK from the Sarge. With a nod, he chucks the thing in, and it quickly pops, the vents quickly filling with the gas. We all wait and listen, but nothing happens. Pulling up the radio, the Sergeant say, “Point 12C, clear.” He immediately cuts the frequency, and we move on to the next point.
We move from point to point, filling the vents with gas as we move. The reports from other teams continue to come in over the radio, “Clear, clear, clear…”
We keep moving forward.
Climbing up the latter, it is my turn to do it. Getting the vent open, I trade the crowbar for a grenade and look for permission. The Sergeant nods and I pull the pin, tossing the grenade into the vents. Quickly, I climb back down, and we wait as we watch the gas come pouring out. After a while the Sergeant pulls up the radio to call in clear, but stops as the vents start to shake and something screams, letting out a gurgling cry.
As the vents shake, he calls it in, “Point 6C, Contact!”
The response is quick, “She’s on her way, keep an eye on it and don’t lose it.”
We move to follow as the creature flees through the vents, black blood falling from openings in the vents where it passes and falling to the floor, burning away at the ruined carpet. Despite only having so much space to move up there, it can move surprisingly fast, we have to run to keep up with it.
As we continue the chase, the Sergeant calls into the radio, “Point 5C, target is moving fast!”
We keep chasing and the Sergeant goes to call into the radio again, but stops as a figure rounds the corner up ahead. She doesn’t stop as she hits the corner, running in at incredible speed and jumping to hit the wall before launching herself off and down the hall towards us. She barely touches the floor before launching herself down the hall and clearing the distance between us. Looking up at the vents she sees them shaking and calls out to us as she runs, “Back off and grab some cover!”
We have barely a second to get behind something before she explodes off of the floor and jumps towards the vents. Reaching the ceiling, she swings for the vents with her hammer as a pair of void-black tentacles manifest behind her, swinging wildly and destroy large swaths of the ceiling and the ventilation system.
The ceiling falls in great heaps as we are forced to hide, great plumes of dust falling over everything and our ears ringing with the noise of destruction. The building shakes as the ceiling hits the floor and it takes a few moments for everything to settle.
Peeking out from cover, I find her standing on top of the pile of rubble, shadowed limbs hovering defensively behind her as she scans over the destruction and looks for her target.
The Sergeant calls out to us, “Get your asses up and start searching! If that thing is still alive, I want you flushing it out! Get to it!”
We move to work, climbing the pile of rubble and kicking away debris as we search. From down the hall more soldiers come running and are quick to help us search. As everyone digs, they hold their knives at the ready. Ready to sink it into the damn thing and kill it for harming two of our own.
As I pick up and toss aside a metal pipe, I notice as some ceiling tiles in the pile moves. Just as I go to point it out and call for aid, the tiles get thrown aside by a massive arm and a figure quickly darts out from the mess, heading straight for me. I don’t get the chance to make a sound as the thing’s hand tries to grab me. Its form flickering between that of a beautiful woman and that of a horrible, sacrilegious, rendition of the naked female figure.
I pull up my knife and swing with everything I have, only to end up missing as the entire thing gets swatted aside by a massive black tendril.
There is a scream, one so full of rage and wrath that it sets every bone in my body instantly on edge. As if a lion had just roared right in my face. I turn and find Lain standing atop the pile of rubble, her gasmask discarded and cast aside, her hammer lying beside her. She screams like a banshee, arms spread wide and claws on full display, all around her the shadows on the walls writhe and dance, growing in reflection to her anger. All across her body, void-black material spikes and sharpens, forming blades and moving about before promptly disappearing and reappearing elsewhere on her body. From her hands, her claws grow to monstrous length, jagged and serrated like some hellish implements of dismemberment.
“You bitch! I’ll fucking kill you!!!!”
She launches herself down the pile of rubble like a bullet, the Doppelganger only just barely managing to move out of the way and backpedal as she slams into the ground and makes a crater, the hallway shakes. With another scream she rips her claws out of the floor and explodes forward to chase the thing. It barely manages to take three steps away from her before she is on top of it. With a swipe from one of her clawed hands, she removes the fleeing monster's legs, and it falls to the ground with a gurgled scream and a spray of black blood.
It desperately tries to crawl away, dragging itself down the hall with its one arm as it leaves a trail of black smoking blood on the carpet.
Lain isn’t screaming anymore. She is quiet. Simply walking and following as the thing drags itself away.
She looks it over like a wolf examining an injured deer. Thinking about how she wants to best pull the creature apart before it dies.
With a smile and a manic laugh, she kicks the thing in the side, and it goes flying against a wall, smacking into it hard enough to crack the wall. It falls to the floor with a splat, a weak gurgled scream escaping its pit of a mouth.
Grabbing it by the arm she drags it behind her and throws it to the floor. Slowly, she walks up and straddles its chest, the smile on her face just barely hiding the ice-cold wrath in her eyes. The thing beneath her struggles and wiggles. It tries to get out from beneath her, but she won't budge. Full of desperation, it tries to take a swipe at her with it’s one remaining limb, but a shadowed tendril is quick to appear, stabbing through it and pinning it to the floor. Another follows and pins it by the other shoulder.
It desperately fights back and screams, but it just can’t escape.
More soldiers arrive, stopping to watch as the events unfold, no one daring to say a word. Everyone is shivering as the pressure is back in full and bearing down on everyone in full force. I have to fight to not collapse under the pressure as I continue to watch. Unable to remove my eyes from the scene.
Ever so slowly, her hand goes to the monster face and gently caresses it, her claws leaving streaks of blood in their wake.
She opens her mouth, and everyone is made to listen, even the monster being compelled to silence, “You have intelligence in that empty skull of yours, don’t you?”
It’s screaming has stopped, nothing but a desperate gurgle escaping it as it shakes. I can feel as a presence tries to enter my mind, but the pressure pushing down on all of us simply shoves it aside like an unruly child.
“No, no. I won’t be allowing you in my head. I don’t want to hear your words.” She pets it again, leaving more bloody trails on its face.
“You hurt someone that is very important to me. You almost killed someone that is under my protection. You tried to take something that is mine.” She says calmly, a deep rage boiling just under her voice.
The monster gurgles in response, but she simply shakes her head, refusing to listen. Denying it its words.
She pets the creatures face one last time and then without warning, slaps it across the face. She screams, “You rotten worm fleshed, saggy tit having, shit smelling, blood sucking, WHORE! YOU TRIED TO TAKE WHAT IS MINE!!!!!”
She loses her mind and starts to savage the Doppelganger’s body, ripping into it with her claws and shredding its blood and flesh all around in a complete and utter mess. The monster screams in pain, blood spitting up from its face hole and coating everything in its mess, but she just keeps savaging its body, digging into it and tearing it apart piece by piece. Ripping away malformed bones and withered organs. Throwing aside chunks of rotten black meat and staining the carpets and walls black with burning, steaming blood.
None of us can look away.
After some time, the thing is left bloody and torn, yet somehow still alive and weakly gurgling. She stands and grabs it by its chest, lifting it up before her. With a scream she digs her claws in and pulls. The Doppelganger lets out one last pitiful gurgle before it is torn in half down the middle. From her back a shadowed limb manifests and removes its head with a quick swipe.
Tossing aside the pieces of the brutalized monster, she lets out a long breath; her shadows slowly retreating back under her clothes, burning and steaming with black acidic blood. With another breath the pressure that was bearing down on everyone disappears, leaving those that forgot to breath gasping for air.
Bending over, she picks up the severed head of the Doppelganger and smiles a sweet little smile. A relaxed look on her face. I have to strain my ears to hear her, but I catch it as she says, “Much better…”
She turns back to us and smiles, practically beaming with satisfaction. With a skip in her step and covered in black steaming blood, she comes over to us and presents the monster's head to Lieutenant Dole. She tells him, “The Lieutenant Colonel said he wanted this. Could you give it to him for me, please?”
Carefully, he reaches out and takes the head from her.
“Thanks!” She tells him with a big smile as she turns to walk away.
She stops as she goes to move past me, turning to look me in the eyes. Seemingly not caring about the gas mask keeping her from actually seeing them through the tinted glass. She blinks once as she takes me in and I can’t help but to stare back. With a tilt of her head she takes a half-step towards me but seems to reconsider and stops herself. I can’t move under her gaze; the golden halos of her eyes boring into me, judging me.
“Interesting…” She says. Giving me a smile, she backs away and resumes happily walking away from us.
Waving back to us she says, “I’m going to go outside and patrol for a bit, gonna kill anything that got drawn in by the radios! I’ll be back later!”
She doesn’t seem to notice that everyone in the area had been holding their rifles in a death grip, scared for their lives. Either that or she just didn’t care…
Close by, Jake is leaning against a wall, his legs shaking as he fights to keep himself standing. I can’t stop watching her as she skips away, her hair tied up in a ponytail and bouncing with her every step. I refuse to look away from her until the moment that she finally disappears around the corner. I hardly even register the orders being barked out by our superiors as my body moves on autopilot, helping to clean up some of the mess that she made.
A single thought and a question goes through my mind as she vanishes from sight. Ah, so that’s what power looks like. Could I have power like that one day? Could she… Could she give it to me?