S.H.A.D.E. [{ Completed }]✔ (#Wattys2018)

Becoming Ebony

4.

"Ebony, the fear you are feeling is being induced by a pheromone the Demon is releasing. I am going to dull your sensory receptors, this will help."

..... Did he just say Demon?

" My, my. This was unexpected," the woman who is actually a Demon says, a smile playing on her lips. "Some do wake up, but to escape like that? I thought you were a mere human. What is that ability of yours? Telekinesis?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" I demand. The fear she had frozen me with is subsiding, and I feel much braver.

She cocks her head at me, the smile fully flourishing across her face. Her eyes glow with some sort of delight. "What a curious little creature you are."

"She is readying to attack. You are not stronger than her, she will rip your head off if you give her the chance. You need to find a way to get to the vent and outside."

"How do I get around her?"

"We're gonna up your speed and strength levels. You are both flexible, balanced, and strong. This won't be easy, but your chances of escaping are good."

I wonder at how he can tell those things about me, and I wonder if he is even right. I feel weak as hell, not prepared to do anything but collapse where I stand.

Too bad for me, I can't allow myself to do that.

So instead I think, "Well, hurry up and boost me, then."

"Gotcha."

I feel the surge, this time accepting its running through my body, because this is how I will survive.

The Demon seems to sense something, because her hands clench up into fists, even as the smile stays planted on her face, " Who are you, kid? You aren't a Psychic, but here you are, unaffected by my presence. I find that very insulting."

Answers, that is the only reason she hasn't attacked me yet. She doesn't know what to make of me. Well neither do I, really.

I move slowly, as if I am sizing her up, but what I'm really doing is moving away from the stack that is poking into my back so that I have a clear path to the back wall. She moves with me so that we are circling each other. "I have issues," I say. "I wouldn't take it personally."

"You really think you are a match for me?" she asks, but her eyes skim me over, a flicker of uncertainty. She has no clue what I am, and that is a scary thought, because logically I shouldn't be anything except human. Her hesitance implies that there are all sorts of things that I can be-- things that should only be fiction.

"Copper, I'm going to play this up."

"No, you do what I say," he says firmly, "You're hopped up on adreniline now. Make a dash for it."

I ignore him, the Demon and I still circling each other. I want to intimidate her into thinking I'm some big-bad so that I can simply walk out of here. Perhaps it's the adrenaline that gives me this bravado, but I go with it anyway. "Not only am I a match for you, I can take you out without even breaking a sweat."

"Ebony! Never provoke a Demon!"

I barely hear Copper's angry snarl because the Demon let's out a laugh at the same time that has me instantly regretting my words. I cannot let her see that I am frightened.

"You are a fool! I am a Demoness, a top agent of the Necro Proxy!" Her face twitches inhumanly as she says this, like she will self-destruct from anger.  "I'll grind you up like the meat you are!"

... I realize that I should have listened to Copper.

I turn and run, sprinting around the rows of countless stacks, throwing planks behind me as I go to slow her down, but she cuts through them like butter and catches up to me quickly.

"Copper!"

I hear him sigh heavily, then say "Keep running, don't let her grab you," but she grabs the hem of my Johnny shirt in that moment, and I am caught. " Fuck! Tear out of it!"

And even though I am stark naked underneath it, I do as he says and rip out of the thin fabric, feeling my adrenaline spike with my fear.

The Demon is not expecting me to do this, and flies back with the freed fabric in her hand.

Completely nude, I run to the back wall, spot the vent and race towards it, bending down and wrenching it out of its screws in one giant pull. I feel the brisk air of the outside against my bare skin and crawl through without another thought.

When my hands sink into the prickle of grass and earth, I stall for a second, looking out into the night to see if the lookout is present. The coast is clear, so I move to my feet and continue my crazed bolt for the dark woods I see just ahead of me.

"Ebony, slow down, it's okay now!"

But I don't listen, because now that I am free from that place and its monsters, I have no intention of letting whoever Copper is control my actions any longer, even if I cannot remember who I am or why I was ever in that place to begin with.

I hear the screech of tires, and then two bright lights come hurling at me from out of nowhere, causing me to skid to a stop and leap out of the way onto the ground. A black SUV pulls up in front of me, the doors flying open and two men in hats and suits jump out.

I scream as they both reach for me and drag me into the car despite my struggling.

"Copper! Help, help! Make me stronger!" I beg, because I am sickeningly vulnerable, naked and weak and in the back of a strange car with two strange men.

Copper says nothing.

I scratch and kick, but the only fight I receive in return is a warm blanket being wrapped around me, arms restraining me.

"Settle down, settle down," the man holding me still laughs, the one with glasses, whose lenses are flashing at me like a lighthouse on a dark port.

"She was the best yet, that was only about fifteen minutes," the other one said, looking down at a stop watch in apparent awe. "In fact, it seems the rest who woke up are all dead now. She's the only one."

The car starts speeding away from the building, which appears to be on the outskirts of some urban area. I cannot remember if I know this place, I cannot remember anything that can ease my panic in this situation.

I am overcome with shaking, my teeth chattering uncontrollably. Cold tears fall down my cheeks. I have no idea what they are going to do with me.

"Of course she is, this is Copper's Black, after all," the one in the front who is driving nods.

The man holding me realizes that I am practically convulsing in my fear, and turns his attention back to me, a look of realization passing over his weathered face.

"Oh. Oh no, no, no," he says, an uncomfortable smile on his face as he mercifully releases me and puts his hands up. "You're safe, you're safe."

"As safe as a Black can be, sweetheart," the other one, up front in the passenger's seat, says in a gravelly voice.

"W-what's happening?" I say around sobs of mortification and anxiety, wrapping the blanket more tightly around myself.

Glasses smiles at me in a way that doesn't make me feel any better before saying softly, "What is happening is that you are becoming Ebony. Congratulations."