Song to listen to: Emperor's New Clothes
TW: Gore
My body quickly fills the room, my back pressed against the ceiling, my wings to either wall and my tail lashing into the far wall behind me. A few millenia in a sword was more difficult than I'd planned! Argh it was so boring those last couple centuries, no one had used me, thus no one had become a puppet of my will. But now, I've cheated death! Everyone of my kind that had wanted me dead, has died by now! I laugh, exuberant, who knew to cheat death, I had to die?
I take air into my lungs, this body, it feels so new! And healthy! What a change! My eyes meet two, tiny human eyes, wide with fear. Now who it this? I smile, letting all my teeth show.
The human flits out the door, closing it behind her. I frown, if she'd been bracing herself to run, why take so long to do so? Whatever, I'll just catch her anyways. Where I'm at, I can feel the kilometers of earth and concrete between me and free air. It'd take me at least half a day to dig myself out. I sigh in resignation. Human it is. I shove myself into a human shape. Wait, something isnt right. Like a nat buzzing in my ear, where is it coming from? I look at my person, ah, there, on my wrist. Ripping off the bracelet i examin it closely. I remember this, and worse, who gave it to me. Igniting the intricate spellwork, I huff.
A lesser dragon would forget about that trivial thing. Even though it was quite competent work, a camouflage spell written into the circlet and special herbs to cover the burning smell my kind has. Does he really think homself so clever? Was it some ploy to get me to lower my guard around him? He forgets who owns his soul, I know everything he does. I know he's the one that helped overthrow our race, letting the lesser dragons of our kind theoretically take over. Theoretical only because I wasn't there to see it.
I shake off the memories of my last days and take off after the girl and rip the door off by it's hinges. A silent alarm screams imperceptiblyto any residents on my floor but, some guards fucking on the ground level freeze in their actions.
I catch up the woman and grab her by her hair, pulling her in close.
"Where do you think your going?" I whisper into her ear, before throwing her into the lockers. A moment later and I have her by her throat, and raise her to my eyeline. "Who might you be?"
Her eyes burn with a hatred that is all to familiar to me. I think, I should know her name. Leaning in close to her, I examin her features and take in the scent. She does have a resemblance to Nemüir, but that doesn't mean their related. On the other hand, she is here of all places. I push into her mind, sifting through her memories. Ah, she'd known that boy, that other me I was before.
And more to it, she is some sort of decendant! How marvelous, I wonder where he's wandered off to?..
"It seems we've met," I smile at her, "But I promise to be a little more honest, yes?"
She claws at my hand, I am being careful not to crush her windpipe. This position serves me better, she's more focused on breathing right, than she is running away.
"Let me go." She orders.
I quirk my head,
"Mm, I don't think so. You had planned on killing me, yes? I prefer to converse this way."
"Kind of difficult to talk with your hand around my throat!" She mentally screams in frustration.
"But you're doing so well at talking to me without said throat." I chuckle and tighten my grip ever so slightly.
Her eyes start to roll to the back of her head, ugh, her hyperventilating is keeping her from getting enough oxygen. I roll my eyes and release her. She collapses to the ground and heaves. After watching her struggle for breath for far to long, I crouch down next to her.
"Now, you're doing that wrong," I explain, pushe her shoulder back against the wall, reposition her knees to be against her chest and place her hands on said knees. I stand up again after, "There, now isn't that better." I mutter.
She takes a few more breaths in, now with her chest cavity open to recieve air, she starts to calm down.
"What do you want?" She complains.
"A great many things," I reply, "But don't you worry, you can't give me any of them." I smile at her again.
"That's creepier than I thought it would be." She thinks derisively.
"Me smiling is creepy?" I lean down over her, meeting her eyes.
Her heart jumps in her throat, but not because I've scared her. I brush her cheek, grinning, "Keep telling yourself that." Her heart races in response. She shuts her eyes, refusing to look at me.
"Would you please put some clothes on?" She begs.
Oh yes, clothes. Human's are weird about their coverings. I crouch down again and feeling around for the materials available to me so far underground. Not alot of fiber, unless I use the clothes on display... I whisper the words to to call the material to myself and construct a modern outfit, black shirt, jeans, and nondescript casual shoes.
"Sorry about the clothes I shredded, I know you gave those to the boy."
Cops are arriving outside the museum, the guards are being wrung out by their supervisor as boots approach the doors upstairs. We won't be alone for very much longer, I'll be able to see what this body can really do.
"I don't care about the damn clothes."
"Suit yourself." I shrug, "We're going to have company, I'd like you to follow behind me, yeah? Don't want you getting into the line of fire."
"Why-" She coughs, and swallows painfully, "Do you care what happens to me?"
"Oh sweet child," I murmur looking at her, "How do you think he found you, so fast, when the behemoth attacked."
Her eyes squint at me, lost.
I grab her arm and stand her up, she huffs in disapproval and wrenches her arm free from me.
"I don't know what you mean, get to the point." She growls.
Like Great Uncle time to the however many generations like great grand niece, the way she talks, it's so nostalgic.
"Your family tried to have you killed." I explained, "You do remember, don't you?"
Tears well up in her eyes, she starts hyperventilating. Not this again.
"Even though he's not me, he..." I pause, thinking, I don't want her passing out now, the elevator is almost full. "Saved you, in a way. Now we're-" I grab her forearm and hold up the scars for her to see,
"Connected, your pain is my pain, and so forth." I drop her arm, "And I'd rather not feel myself as well as you, getting shot."
Her bottom lip trembles, the tears falling free from her eyes now. She traces the scars thoughtlessly, her shoulders caving in on her. Finally, she nods,
"Okay," she croaks, "I'll follow behind you."
Good, with that settled, I carve open my wrist, and ignite the blood flowing from it. This would be easier in my form, humans can't breath fire I mourn. The fire sets off the smoke detectors, the lights turn off and the emergency ones flicker on. A gas with fire choking elements is released into the air, it's tougher to breath than regular earth air, but still easier than mine. Limited visibility for both of us, but while they have heat vision goggles, I have a few more things than they up my sleeve.
Oh to hunt again! And humans no less! A pang pulls at my heart. I shake it off, must be side effects of being that kid for so long, they'll wear off eventually. The elevator lands, the swat team files out, and sends it back up for reinforcements. They saw the footage of what was inside the gym and their supervisers aren't taking any chances of letting me escape. I scoff, as if they have a choice.
The first squad finds me and opens fire, leaping forward I plunge my fist into the beariest ones chest, I can feel air on it on the other side and with my other hand, I rip him in half. Holing up his screaming flailing torso, I use it to block the next shots from his squad mate. Their tactics seep into my mind as his soul adds itself to mine. I throw his body at his fried to my side and crush the throat of the cop directly infront of me, he drops his gun to feel at the gaping hole my hand left in his throat. Grabbing his leg, I hold onto it and swing him like a bat at the terrified cop holding half his friend. He neck breaks on impact.
I reach the last two, one of them bonking, horrified and frozen to the spot. Still holding the leg of the tracheal cop, I bring his body down on the stationary cop, causing his spine to crumple in a few places and forcing him to the ground. Letting go of the leg, I stomp down on the cop's head, crushing his head with a sickening squelch. Now the sergeant. He'd held back, hoping his men would "take care" of me. I palm his face and ram his body into the ground, smaching the back of his head open. Taking his gun, I kick open the next door. Why are there so many hallways?
The next squad opens fire on me, I return the favor but to my dismay, all the bullets are tranq darts. Don't know how I missed that the first time. I change my grip on the gun and hurl it like a spear, the cop it hits lifts off the ground and gets pinned to a locker, their feet dangling in the air. Who's next? Any volunteers?
A radio call is being made, I run at the cop making it. Putting one hand on his shoulder, I grip the underside of his rib cage and rip it xlean off his body. His eyes focus in on me, then look down to see his organs piling onto the floor. Distracted, he kneels down, trying to scoop them back into his body. I frisbee his ribcage into his sergeants neck, freeing her head from the rest of her body. Passing the gibbering inside out cop, I knife hand the back of his neck, breaking the spine there.
Without someone to take their cues to, the final two of this squad bump into each other. It doesn't help them that the tranqs I shot them with are taking effect now. They open fire on each other and before they can effectively take each other out, I get ahold of each of them and smash their bodies together, their faces crushing into one hamburger meat mess. Mmm, all this slaughter is making me hungry.
I aquire the fake gun the student shooter on display was holding, it's made of wax, but I think I have an idea on how to use it. Hiding behind the a corner, I can hear more coming. With the mistake of coming in, too close to the corner I'm at, I pull her face mask off and shove the wax gun down the cop's throat. With her now choking and unbalanced I kick her back into her colleague. They grab her automatically and scream at her bulging neck, throwing her away from them self. Before they can further react, I push my fingers, claws extended into the soft part of their bottom jaw, and rip it off. I spin them to face their comrades their blood spraying onto the goggles of their superior. Another radio call is being made, thus one more coherent than the last.
"Permission for future units to use deadly force, the subject cannot-" the cop's cuts off with a scream as I combine their hand with their mouthpiec, crunching both into a mass of flesh and metal.
"Oh sorry!" I feign shock, "Let me just," and I rip their arm from their body,
"Is that better?" I say holding up their mutilated arm, free from their body.
Without giving him a chance to react, I toss his arm to his choking co-worker and snap his neck. The female cop pulls out a knife, intending to cut open her own throat to breath. I walk back to her and kick her spine in, her body spasms on the floor. But she's already dead, her body succumbing to the shock of the last blow. Their sergeant finally gets enough blood off their goggles to see, just in time for me to free their head and spine from their body.
I listen to the cop's still above ground, everyone that'd come down has been dealt with and the ones above were discussing the last two transmissions. A debate has broken out, knowing humans, that can take awhile. The woman has been following me, to her credit, but she's slowed with every corpse she's come accross and is now standing with her mouth open, in front of the impaled cop who was trying to hard to beg her for help. With his diaphragm collapsed by the gun in his gut, he's not getting any intelligible sounds out.
Going back through, I make sure each cop is dead, cant let them come back to haunt me. Reaching the pleading guard in front of the woman, I look between the two.
"Are you going to get that?" I tease.
She looks at me, horror and terror creasing her face. "No?" I ask again.
Her metal legs are shaking so hard beneath her, I think she's going to rattle the bolts loose in them!
"Well alright then." I turn his head completely around so he was nolonger looking at her. "Come on, we're leaving, remember?"
She doesn't move, aside from trembling. Maybe she can't move? In one swift motion I lift her onto my shoulder, pinning her arms to her sides but leaving my other arm free. The movement causes her to let out shocked breathless shrieks. I roll my eyes, she needs to get over whatever is going on in her troubled little brain. Hm, I might be able to help with that? It'd take too much of my attention to do it now though. Better when I'm not on a timer.
There's a commotion going on above ground. They're discussing filling the museum with cement. Protecting humanity versus keeping their history alive. It could go either way, but knowing humans, they're going to choose to save themselves eventually. I make it to the elevator doors, the stairs themselves are too many obstacles, but the elevator shift is just that, a shaft. With so many people gathering to greet me above ground, it'd be ride to show my human face right? I also know I can't kill everyone in a timely manner with these tiny hands.
I set the women on her feet, she grabs at my shirt automatically, steadying herself. What's this? Even though she'd given the gesture with barely a thought, no, maybe because she didn't have to think about it? I don't know how I feel about her touching me so casually. I grab her elbow and pull her away from me far enough that I can look into her eyes. She needs to understand what I'm saying, and take it seriously.
"I am going to put you in my mouth, okay?"
She starts shaking violently, fresh tears form in her eyes. "I am not eating you,"
I clarify,
"You are going to hold on to one of my teeth, I will do my best not to swallow you whole, but you need to hold on."
There's not a shred of trust in her, I need to switch tactics. "It would give me an upset stomach if you made it there, okay? Not to mention, I can't cough you up until I can get us out of this, you will spend a long time being digested, without dying." My voice is firm, I speak each word slowly, watching them dink in to her fazzled mind.
"D-d-d-digested?" Her eyes are wide, she swallows hard.
I nod.
"Oh goddesses." She starts to hyperventilate.
"You will hold on?" I maintain eye contact, holding her face so she's forces to look at me.
"Y-ee-yes." She stampers out, shaking uncontrollably.
"Good." I release her.
My full frame fills the space infront of the elevator door, the clothes I'd been wearing tearing off into shreds, and returning to their base components I'd weaved them from. It's a tight fit, I have to crouch still, and my tail is looped out into another hallway, my wings pressed to my back and sides.
Fai holds onto herself, staring with fresh horror at me. As I'd promised, I pick her up in my mouth. She frantically scrambles over to one of my molars, and clutches onto it for dear life, avoiding thinking about the painful existence just behind her. Once I feel she's situated, I claw the door open, and push the platform down. I feel a cable break, and the box meant for traveling plummets to the unseen depths of this museum.
With the shaft clear, I muscle my way in. Again, very tight. I change my claws to a lava dragons, large and scouped in nature and use them to dimulatiously widen and climb out of the ground. Without having to worry about a human keeping up with me, I can really move through the space. Human above can feel the earth vibrating from my ascension and the ones on the front line take defensive positions while their leadership continue to argue on whether or not to flood the space with concrete to keep me contained. It's not long until I break through the surface.
I lick eyes with the first soldier I see and lurch forward grabbing him in my mouth and bite him in half. A large offensive weapon discharges in my face, forcing my head to turn away. What a peculiar contraption. Spitting his corpse at the bickering officers, he impacts with one, causing them to fly back a few feet. I crush the machine in one blow, the crushed remains erupting in flame. What I assume are bullets hail me anywhere I have flesh not still in the ground. So many people! Even the villages I'd destroyed, they'd never grouped like this before! I have to admit, I'm impressed with what humanity has accomplished these last few thousands of years.
It's a shame the only way out is through. My lip curls back in a sneer, the bullets *plinking* off my teeth now. How stupid do you have to be to keep doing something you can cleary see doesn't work. I unfurl my wings from my sides, I'm still inside the building, so they don't go fat. But it's far enough gor what I need. I beat my wings, sending every human in the room flying, their bodies breaking on the walls around us. The ones that survive, I pull apart by gingerly holding their bodies down and ripping their heads off. With a mouth full of severed heads, Fai is shrieking in horror.
Bringing down my hands onto the front of the building, I'm able to break out of this concrete prison. The humans outside start to flee, what press had gathered, stays. A story worth dying for hm? I let the heads drip from my mouth and laugh. Raising my wings high above my head, I finally let myself fully unfurl. With so many people watching, I'm going to need to help the government of this city cover up my existence. All these humans, they never stood a chance. I pump my heart faster, taking in deep breaths, oxygenation my blood, letting myself heat up. The news crews have zeroed in on the heads, catching the face of some of the people who had moments before given speeches on how "controlled" the "situation" was.
When people panick, they make mistakes. With their attention divided, I carve the right symbols in a crescent in front of me, both protecting the humans in front of me from the heat I'm about to give off, as well as focusing the heat. I need this to look like a bomb went off. What tools humans have made, I'm glad the police from underground the museum knew so much about their modern death dealing toys.
It takes them a moment to hear my intake of breath, theirs freezes in response, faces turn to look at me and the world is still for a moment. I unleash he'll on the humans, my breath igniting, burning into blossoms of heat, a Shockwave knocking those far enough from the heat over. A vaccume fills the space, bringing in dust and covering my escape. Raising my wings high, tips reach above the dust cloud. With a practiced combined thrust of my back muscles and legs, I launch myself clear of the museum.
Before the humans far below me have time to react, I extend my wings and coast down a few blocks. This flight must be short by nesecity, I ache to keep going, but I know even now, satellites are being honed in on my position. As carefully as I can be, I pluck Fai out of my mouth and shove myself back into the shape of a human. While we fall, she screams, and I weave a quick invisibility spell around me, writing my blood in the right shapes accross my chest. I grab hold of Fai again, letting my wings back out from my back and slow our decent.
We arrive on the ground safely, Fai scrambles out of my arms, falls to her knees and wretches. Her mind is a scrambled mess of everything that's happened. I pull the necessary components from the ground and clothe myself again. No need to add to the noise in her head, as well as drawing too much attention to myself. Time to see what's broken in her, still not alot of time, but now there isn't the imminent threat of being buried in concrete out here. With all the chaos I caused half a mile away, anyone that would've been put is either cowering at home or ran to see the carnage first hand.
I grab Fai's face in both hands, and force her to look into my eyes. Eye to eye contact isn't needed, but it does help, I can watch her face closely for any clues, and find the right thought to untangle. Her eyes are brimming over with fear, they want to look away, but like the thrill seekers that ran to witness gore, they stay locked in.
"Fai," I watch her face cycle through recognition, denial, rage, and return to fear. Rage huh? I grab the remnants of rage, use it to lead me deeper. Betrayal, she felt betrayed by the clone me, A lesser version. I implant a sentence after that repeated thought. 'He betrayed me." was her record, I tack on "But now he's gone." Onto the end of it. There's more, why feel so hurt by a kid you barely know?
A second chance, he'd been a second chance for her to grow and be better than she was. She felt betrayed that he was hiding his awful past, making him awful and her in return. She doesn't like feeling awful, but she's only projecting onto him that he's made her an awful person by association. Association, like the family she grew up in. There! Perfect, her mother, made her feel awful. Nothing she did was good enough, and now she's befriended the very thing her mother tortured her into being an effective killing machine to destroy. She'd proven her mother right, she was deranged and evil, afterall, she'd personally brought me back from the dead.
Goddesses that's alot. Everything ties back into the childhood she spent with her mother. Maybe I have just the thing. Fuck. That. Bitch. I weld the words deep into her psychi. That woman wasn't a mom, she was barely a person.
Every place I found the ramifications of her mother's abuse, I replaced with apathy and self deserved anger. Diminishing the figure that had guided her every move since birth. Fai's breathing slows, her thoughts starting to clear and form cohesive sentences. The fear of disappointment that had ravaged her mind to the point of breaking it when she'd discovered the cause and effect of her actions ebbs away. She at last looks at me with clear eyes.
"Better?" I ask, apathetic.
"What did you do?" There's still fear in her voice, but no hysteria, good.
"I changed your perspective, so to speak." I shrug. "And please, stop answering my questions with questions, a few times is fine, but really." I shake my head in disapproval.
"I think I've heard someone say that... before." Fai pulls her face out of my hands, a blush tinting her cheeks. 'What is wrong with me?'
I stand away from her, her attraction to this face is... worrying. She should know better. Although toying with her emotions could be entertaining, I don't think I'm in the mood.
"We should head back," I keep my eyes in the middle distance. Goddesses, memories of this place are one thing, but to see how egregiously tall humans have made these buildings? Their incredible size almost has me awestruck! But now isn't the time for taking in scenery, we need to be seen far away from the crime we just committed. And once we're seen entering the residence, I can work on sabatoging everything that recorded what went on in the museum. This city's finest don't know alot about electronics, but I'm sure I can manipulate someone that does into rectifying the records. Mass hysteria over my existence won't help me being able to move around in this age. Whoever knows about me though, they won't very very soon.
I glance down at Fai, automatically offering her a hand. My surprise at being courteous lasts long enough for her to take it. I could always rip my hand away and let her fall... no, no I don't think I'll do that. Fai pulls herself to her feet again, avoiding my eyes. Smart, knowing how conflicted she feels right now, it'd be too tempting not to manipulate her right now. What am I even saying? Has living as a sword really made me this soft?
YOU ARE READING
Inside the Fire
General FictionAn ancient evil reborn, the answers he seeks to faded memories may unknowingly awaken old (genocidal) habits.
