Nox stepped into the train. Funny, how most people in Sectors 1 and 2 had flying cars while the only transportation through all 4 Sectors was a partly-rundown train system. Although soul-tech improved the efficiency of the trains, they still had problems every now and then.
Nox wasn’t carrying much - a few burnt pictures he had dug up, and 500 credits. He went into one of the sitting cubicles. XERO had bought him a first-class seat, which, supposedly, offered him some privacy. A man followed him soon after he sat down. Not that he really minded.
He thought about his family. All gone. In an instant. Just because of a stupid demon raid. What was the point, anyway? They always got pushed back after slaughtering their way through a outskirts town. The more he thought about it, the less sense it made.
He decided to turn his attention to the man sitting opposite him. He was wearing a black, heavy artificial leather coat, and was currently looking… At him? No, just at the seat beside him. He was wearing a cap, and the shirt he was wearing read ‘YOU HAVE NO IDEA’. [More like you.] Nox thought. He looked out the window. The train was pulling out of the station, now, and the black landscape outside was changing to a larger, blacker landscape of slums.
[Is this a cruel joke? Why couldn’t Mort just take me to the academy using his flying car? If those damned demons didn’t attack, then I would be travelling to Sector 2 with my family.]
As he looked out the window, something strange caught his eye… Reddish. He looked closer. It wasn’t outside. It was the reflection on the glass.
He adjusted his eyes to look at the man in front of him. It was no man. His skin was red.
Nox slowly turned his head. By the time he could see the thing, the skin discolouration was gone.
His mind overclocked. [What? A shapeshifting demon? Why here? Is he following me? No, I’m insignificant.] He pretended to look at the photos in his bag. Now that he knew he was being watched, it felt as if every movement he made was being judged. Almost like his skin was on fire. [I need to get out of here.]
He slowly put his photos back into his bag, and swung it on his back. But just as he stood up, the man said, “Well, you’re a sharp one, aren’t you?”
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Nox turned around? “W-What do you mean?”
The thing hesitated for a second, before asking, “You can understand me?”
“...Can’t everyone?”
The thing stopped pretending to be human, and returned to, what Nox assumed was, its natural form. A long pair of horns pierced through the cap the demon was wearing as its skin turned a bright shade of red. The whites of its eye turned red, and as it stood up towering over Nox, its hands turned into horrifyingly long claws. “Now I see why he told me to kill you. I was wondering why such a skilled spy like me would be wasted on such an insignificant figure.”
Nox knew that fighting wasn’t an option. If he shouted, he would be dead within seconds. [There has to be a way out! Think, think, think… The conductor!]
Though tickets were confirmed via holopad in most cases, conductors still came through to check any physical tickets. All he had to do was hold out until they came.
“...What’s so special about me?” He asked. He forced the stammer out of his speech. “I’m just a nobody from the outskirts.” Not a really engaging question, but it would have to do.
“Hmph, I was wondering the same thing. But now that I’m looking… You have a hybrid soul?” The demon cocked its head. “How peculiar.”
“A… Hybrid soul?” Nox knew next to nothing about souls, or how they worked. “What’s so special about them?”
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“Hah! What’s the point in telling a dead human?” He walked towards Nox as he backed up into a corner. “Stay still, and I promise, I will make it quick.” His claws seemed to grow even longer.
“M-My family was killed in a demon raid, just a while ago. Don’t you have pity?” It was a stupid question to ask a demon, but he was running out of ideas.
“A demon raid? No point in lying.”
“What? There was a demon raid that killed my family!”
“Hmph! There was no such raid. I would know if something like that came up. Unless they didn’t tell me… No, they would have.” The demon snarled. “Enough. I’ve wasted enough time on you.” It raised its claws up high and…
“Tickets, please! If you have any. Christ, everybody uses holopads these days. I wonder when I’m gonna be out of a job. Eh, whatever.” The conductor walked into the cubicle. “Do you have tickets? Or do you also use holopads like everyone else?”
The demon had already shapeshifted back into its human form. “I used holopad.” It snarls. It deliberately tried to get in the way of Nox.
“U-Um, here!” Nox pulled out his tickets and pushed past the demon. “Also, I need to go to the toilet, so, um, yeah.” He rushed out the door.
“Hum. Strange kid. Don’t you think, young ma- Woah!” The conductor exclaimed, as the demon pushed past the conductor in pursuit of Nox.
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[Crap, crap crap crap!] Nox sped through the train’s carriages, his bag jumping along with him. [No doubt he would kill me in front of an audience if he had to. I need to get out!]
Nox was rapidly approaching the front of the train. No doubt, the train driver’s door would be locked, but maybe there would be an alarm button he could press.
He looked behind him. He saw the figure of the shapeshifter rapidly approaching behind him. He thought he saw glowing-red eyes, but maybe it was just his imagination.
He pushed past another set of doors. People gave him strange looks, but he ignored them. They always gave him strange looks, whether he was being chased by an actual freaking demon or not. As he went to push against the next set of doors, but instead he slammed straight into them.
Nox looked up. ‘NO ENTRY’ read the sign in glowing letters above him. He banged on the windowless door. No answer. He banged on the door again. No answer. He looked around, searching for a button, a lever, anything. There was nothing. Over the sound of the essence engine, he shouted for help at the top of his lungs…
…But nobody came.
The demon was quickly catching up to him. Where else could he go?
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Marbas broke through the next swivelling wooden walls. Why did humans build so many, anyway? Not like they would stop any attackers for more than a few seconds, anyway. Even the annoying human could get past them in a few moments.
He broke through the last set and came across a room larger than those before - a glowing light reading a few letters of the human’s language. “N, O, E, N, T, R, Y…” […No entry? The human couldn’t have gotten past these.] He looked around the room, tearing open a few panels, searching. Nothing. He searched for any hidden panels. Still, nothing. Then he looked up.
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Nox crawled towards the next set of bars - good thing they were there, because if they weren’t he would have been thrown off a long time ago.
Being on the top of a train wasn’t like the movies - the wind blowing almost knocked him off when he first tried to get up. [Stupid me. The train’s travelling at 90mph, so that means 90mph winds up here. Simple physics, really.]
He clung to the next set of bars, careful to always have at least one set of bars in his hands at all times. Behind him, the hatch he had come through burst open.
“Oh, just stop trying, human!” The demon roared into the wind. “It’s pointless, anyway!” It seemed to ignore the wind as it stepped up onto the roof of the train, casually walking towards Nox. It was only 30 feet away. 25 feet. 20 feet. “I’m sure the angels will take you in, being killed by a demon like me. Or have you sinned?” He laughed. “Oh, either way, I’ll destroy your soul before it can even reach Limbo!”
Nox couldn’t see any way out - Jumping over the edge would mean certain death, especially at these speeds, and no one would hear him, even if he banged on the ceiling. He kept crawling forward, desperately looking for something, anything, to turn up. There was nothing. “I won’t let you get away again. Die!” Nox closed his eyes as the demon lunged towards him, claws flashing in the red light of Sector 3.
But instead of the sound of flesh tearing, there was a gunshot.
Nox opened his eyes.
There was a figure in front of him, clad in sleek, black armour. There was a Jetpack on their back, and in their hands, an essence-powered rifle. On a plate of their Exosuit, a text read ‘SECTOR 3 DEFENCE’.
The demon had a shocked expression on its face as it fell to the ground, unmoving. Nox looked up at his saviour - but before long, they were already flying away. Before Nox could even say thanks, they had disappeared in the smog, leaving Nox alone on top of the train.