Half of What I Could Be

Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Mae

The first thing I registered was the pain in my back upon impact with the ground. The monster stomped its way into our room. Jacin jumped over the bed. He was in a fighting position, ready to pounce on the monster. I quickly got to my feet. Once I did, I was able to take the monster in.

It was huge. The head just missed the ceiling. A whiff of sewer entered my nostrils. I could not tell if the skin was green or blue, as every step it took, the pigment morphed. There was no sclera in Its eyes. They were pitch black and reflective. Every strobe of the fire-alarm light shined back into my eyes. Corpsey had mediocre teeth compared to these shark sized incisors. Protuberances, like that of a rhino, jutted from its head in an unorganized fashion. One ram, and we would be impaled.

An Aeternae: a major Demon.

I've learned about this species throughout school. How Alexander the Great foretold about its appalling presence, and how it killed most of his men. He was the only one to describe it, and the little passage in his journal did not do him justice. How did a major demon, whose presence was illegal on Middle Earth, stand in front of me? And how was this not my first encounter...In this week alone?

"Mae, stay behind me!" Jacin screamed as the Aeternae took several steps toward us. Jacin's arm outstretched behind him, as if trying to motion me to get closer to him. The monster had not attacked yet. It was inspecting us for our weak points. Its ebony pits were pointed at Jacin. The only way I could tell the eyes were moving was based on the change in the reflecting light.

"Come with me," commanded a groggily, deep voice. The Aeternae could speak? Why did Alexander the Great not talk about that? Its eyes flicked toward me. Its eye lids blinked for half a second. It was similar to a snake: Just a small membrane that extended from the side. Did he want me to come with him?

"I am not going anywhere with you," claimed Jacin. This caused the creature to turn toward Jacin, as if forgetting Jacin was there in the first place.

"Not you. The girl," It said, as it brought its orbs back to mine, "Come with me, and there will be no bloodshed." Why would it break so many laws to just get me?

I saw Jacin's back muscles tense. It was obvious he was built for combat. A Beta's training started right after they took their first steps. With the obscene amount of sparring, six hundred pound dead-lifting, and puke-inducing cardio, they mastered combat more than any other pack member could dream of. Even the Alpha. But, these techniques were used against other Wolves or maybe a Witch. He had no training on how to take down a Major Demon.

"Over my dead body," Jacin said as he tilted his head back slightly. The ligaments under his skin started to move in response to his transition. His bones, the ones that held together his perfect facial structure, cracked and reformed. My least favorite part was when the jaw came unhinged. You could hear the pop it made when it came out of the socket. My teeth would clench together at the sound of teeth emerging from the gums, ripping away at the skin. Hair follicles jutted out over his face. The transition was one giant movement. One act did not finish without the other already underway. Within seconds, Jacin was partially changed into a wolf.

"And so it will be," dictated the monster as it lunged.

I quickly rolled over the bed to the opposite side. It didn't matter. The room was too small. The next thing I knew, the bed was thrown in the air and slammed against the wall. I was able to evacuate the scene before its demolition. Jacin ran toward the beast with his claws angled at its jugular.

If the room wasn't so small, we would have had a better chance. Right when Jacin was about to make contact, the monster swung its beefy arm at Jacin's face. He ducked in response, and slid under the Aeternae's legs. When clear on the other side, he stood up and landed a few jabs onto its back, leaving five large cuts that bore black blood.