Rhapsody

4: Strings

<Translated from French>
[Translate into Russian]

Something slammed against the door as Racine backed away from the beast standing before her, wings rustling and oversized talons twitching as he advanced on her, chuckling.

"<Your eyes>," he muttered, continuing to advance, "<My God, you have her eyes>."

"<I know you>?" she whispered, clutching the shotgun.

"<We've met>," he glanced over at the wall as another thump sounded accompanied by a pained scream, "<Your body guard seems to be having a tough time>."

"<I can take care of myself>," she insisted, raising the shotgun.

"Awwww," he cooed, rushing forward he knocked the gun aside, throwing a stray shot into the wall, his cloak unraveled, revealed to be a pair of huge leathery wings tucked about his neck, he closed in, pushing next to her, "<It's so cute, how you actually believe that>."

He caressed the cusp of her face with a single over large claw from a three fingered hand while gazing deeply into her eyes. With a horrid shriek, the door exploded inwards launching a gust of smoke and a spray of blood. A few seconds later a creature with obsidian black skin, seven eyes and red veins running all across his body, he looked on as the cloud slowly dissipated, the creature let out an exhausted sigh.

"Christ, what the Hell was that thing?" the creature wondered, it's voice an unearthly echo as it cleaned some stray blood from its eyes.

Racine quirked her head to the side, watching in stunned awe as skin crept over the creature, it covered the veins, the seven eyes, black hair grew over its head as he languidly rolled his shoulders under the tattered black shirt, nearly all that remained of his wardrobe.

"Collin?" Racine wondered, the man pushing against her scowled and moved away.

"<Your bodyguard is more durable than I gave him credit>," the large man leered at him hatefully, then smiled, "Congratulations, you've managed to kill one of my shadows."

"You're shadow?" Collin scoffed, "What are you like some dime store Peter Pan? His evil twin? Oh God, oh God," he paced the floor, "Please tell me I'm not in a SyFy movie, that would just be death."

"No," the man spread his wings and the light in the room seemed to split casting multiple shades from him, he smiled, "This is Death!"

Doppelgangers rose from these shadows, black mirrors of the large man, they shot across the floor aiming directly at Collin. As the neared, the boy reached out and grabbed two of them by their skulls, stopping them dead. Two others circled around only for the American to swing his captives into them. As the shadows collided they all turned to smoke and faded away. Collin smirked as he walked through the dust.

"Well if I was gonna offer a critique," he chuckled, "These things are fuckin' glass cannons, I mean," he dusted off his hands, "Yeah, they're fast and all, they'll grind off a pound of flesh if they hit, but when ya hit 'em they pop like water balloons," the man sent another set of shades to attack, Collin tore through them, standing as the smoke cleared with a long curved blade coming out of his wrist, he sneered, pressing the scythe against the man's throat, "The one in the hallway was tougher," Collin sighed, moving away, "Then again, eh, it was dark out there," the scythe withered back into his arm, "So you're the guy in charge around here huh?"

"And who might you be?" the man glared.

"What's in a name," he shrugged, he made eye contact with Racine who only blinked, "Oh, here we go," he walked past them to a group of vehicles parked around the corner, "Don't suppose you'd be willin' to toss me the keys would ya?"