Beauty and the Buterhanz
Time in Hell doesn’t pass as concisely as it does on Earth. A creature birthed in the pits, such as the demon Tessura, may’ve come into existence only a few centuries passed, but Hell’s equivalent would be closer to several thousand. When she’s not bound to this reality collecting souls for a human summoner, she’s scouring the Black Shadow Mountains – her home in Hades – where wandering spirits who’ve escaped their cages find themselves adrift, tirelessly lost in a hell between hells. Her actual age is impossible to guess since no entity could be held accountable for her existence. She was simply conjured into being through a type of demented, evolutionary process like any creature with a symbiotic relationship to its natural habitat. It’s possible her primordial consciousness was the darkness itself, finding that it could feed on the essence of the human soul and use its sustenance to develop a shape: one beneficial to traveling up and down the steep terrain of her homeland. There are no trees or plants on these mountains in Hell. Only tall, sharp, crystalline, black rocks and thin paths creating a dark labyrinth stretching for hundreds of miles, with red, molten lava running in rivers throughout.
Tessura is the only one of her kind. There’s never been a need for another like her since she’s existed. But her days on Earth are months passed in Hell and her Shadow Mountains left unattended for too long may give rise to something that might not want to share in its spoiled fruits when she returns. The expediency of her mission on this plane grew more pressing with each passing hour.
This little girl she hunts has a strength about her she’s never known in a human before and it vexes her to see it in her eyes as she drives by. She and Alex lock stares like two opposite forces that attract, and for once she sees very little fear in her prey – the green shimmer in Alex’s retinas coaxing a low grumble from the demon’s throat. The more-than-worthless scrap of foreskin wrapped around human bones taking the shape of the cab driver was a simple creature, like most humans. But even his aura has changed since being so close to the other for a time. The watery, yellow glow describing his souls worth had deepened in color, almost discovering a hint of orange, revealing an increase in strength and courage. It wouldn’t be long before he might even develop a conscience and try something heroic…but he’d always lack the will to succeed. He will die in his attempt to save the girl and prove his worth and will have taken too long to work up the courage to do so. By the time a significant amount of her strength rubs off on him, they’ll already be close enough to the Queen that she’ll be able to will Alex into submission. This girl may be stronger than most, but she was still a human… And a human is no match for the demon Imala has become.
Although most that walk the Earth were relatively insignificant, they could pose as a nuisance by adding unforeseen elements to a well-thought-out scheme, such as the involvement of the LAPD, who would no doubt be combing the area in search of the escort that Tessura provided her prey. As if a bright yellow cab didn’t stand out enough on its own, it being sought after by a squad of black-and-whites wouldn’t make things any easier for her. Her projections could only work if she knew who was watching and when, so if a cop were to randomly pull around a corner, that officer might catch a glimpse of the vehicle before Tessura could cover it with the illusion of empty space. But…if she were to lessen the chance of that happening by eliminating those who were hot on Alex’s trail…
After Alex passed and her stare finally uncoupled from the demon’s eyes, Tessura melted back into the darkness she lurked. She reemerged in a shadow on a rooftop and used the strength of the dark to prepare her for her task to come. She stepped out of the almost pitch-blackness cast by a taller building and trotted to the opposite side, leaning over the edge to watch two of the four cop cars go their separate ways. One of them went north, the other south, just outside the fog-line that stood unnaturally fixed in its position. The blood-clouds above stretched their corruption further than the eye could see, but the crimson mists remained within ten miles of the cemetery almost as if awaiting orders to march forth when their ranks’ numbers were great enough to spread.
The third and fourth cop cars headed straight for the sanguine fog-wall, entirely unaware they were right behind Alex and her cabby. These two, Tessura decided, were more of an immediate threat to her cause. The others would no doubt make their way into the city soon and would just as quickly wish they hadn’t, but until then, they’d find themselves safe from the consequences their future would hold.
The two cars followed closely until a block in, just past the fog, when the rear car broke away to the right to patrol the next street over. It would be easy enough to fool the lead car, Tessura figured, trailing from the building-tops. Her illusion was simple: She made it appear to the car in front that the officer behind them never broke off, but that he instead flipped on his lights and chirped his sirens, requesting his fellow patrolmen pull aside.
The portly white man, Officer Gibbons, and his Latina partner were both caught by surprise when the car behind them tried getting their attention.
“What the hell?” Gibbons wondered why he didn’t just use the radio, but he pulled over anyway to humor the trailing young go-getter.
“He probably wants to take the lead… That asshole’s way too eager to make the rest of us look bad.”
“No shit, right?” He sighed. “Let’s see what ‘Sergeant Super-cop’ wants.”
He waved his hand out his window, signaling for the rear car to pull up beside him but Tessura left the illusion where it was, oddly brooding behind with its red and blue lights swirling.
“What the hell’s he doing?”
Officer Delgado sighed forcefully and pulled her radio handset from her shoulder. “Parkman, what the hell are you doing? …Pull up to the goddamn car.”
Parkman responded to her question, but not how she expected since he was actually a block away, doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing.
“What car? What the hell are you talking about, Delgado?”
Gibbons quickly grew frustrated, grabbing his partner’s radio from her hands.
“This car, you pretentious prick! What the hell car do you think?”
“Gibbs, you fat bastard, is that you? Your voice sounds strange…like you got a fucking ham stuck in your throat or somethin’… What the hell are you two idiots goin’ on about?”
Delgado snapped the radio back from her partner’s paws and gave him an annoyed glare.
“This isn’t a good time for games, asshole. Why the hell’d you pull us over?”
“Pull you over? You two get into the evidence lockers again? What the fuck’re you talking about? I’m at least a block and a half away from you right now…”
Gibbons tried grabbing his partner’s radio again but this time she was ready, alertly jerking it from his reach, forcing him to use his to respond. He snatched it off his shoulder and hollered into it.
“Then who the fuck—?!” He looked into his mirror when he spoke as if yelling directly in Parkman’s face, but when he did, found nothing there. No squad car. No Parkman… Just an empty, hazy city block.
He whipped his head around to pry with his own two eyes and Delgado followed his stare.
“What the hell?” She quickly felt her throat closing in, a lump of nervous tension rising from her chest. “Where the hell’d he go?”
“Parkman!” Gibbons yelled back into his radio, ready to tear the overachiever a new one. “Parkman, goddamn it, what game are you playing?!”
It didn’t occur to him right away, but if Parkman was telling the truth, then he’d be just about out of range of their radios by now.
“Parkman!”
No response.
“Shit… I don’t like this, Gibbs…”
He reattached the handset to his shoulder and reached for the door’s handle.
“What’re you doing?” She wasn’t comfor
table with the way things were unfolding. Something didn’t feel right.
“I’m just gonna take a look…” He opened his door, but was halted by Delgado’s reach.
“Wait… Don’t… don’t go out there.” She wanted to say she had a bad feeling, but knew he wouldn’t take her seriously. When did a man ever trust a woman’s natural instincts?
He looked back to see the unease in her eyes. If she wasn’t with him, he probably would have ignored his own gut feeling entirely and just taken a look around. But seeing his subconscious fears reflect through her stare made him think twice, so he deliberately put his foot back into the car and closed the door.
“Yeah…” he nodded distantly, “maybe you’re right…”
She let loose a breath then almost smiled. “Smartest words ever to come out of your mouth.”
He cocked his head. “Did you just call me smart?”
“God…I hope not…” She gave him a friendly whack with the back of her hand. “Let’s get back on the job. Sooner we find this cab ‘Butter-Nuts’ lost, the sooner we can get the hell out of this mess.”
“…I’m…pretty sure you just called me smart…”
She finally let what could pass as a smile sneak over her lips as Gibbons buckled his seatbelt, reaching for the parking break. She might’ve gone as far as to laugh if she would’ve known that that smile would be her last. But as it has it, half a smile was all her time left alive would allow…
From a three-story rooftop of an industrial building, Tessura watched as the hefty officer nearly exited his car before he thought twice. As he closed the door, assuming he’d be safer inside, she leapt from the ledge and began transforming in midair—
Canine legs stretched downward to grow into horrific trunks of demonic muscle, excited hairs standing erect on her thighs. Her feet sprouted claws like the talons of a dragon, and her hips and spine straightened until she could stand dominantly on two feet. When she crashed on the hood, Gibbons’ hand had nearly taken the car out of park but was a split-second shy. The sound of the impact was almost more terrifying than the beast herself until her still-growing arm broke through the windshield and grabbed the corpulent policeman by his soggy neck. Her paws molded into the claws of a creature that looked like it could choke the life out of a god, tenaciously lifting Gibbons from his seat, her snout and head reconstructing into that of a monster’s face to match.
It took three or four seconds for Delgado to snap out of her utter shock and think to pull her weapon, but when she did, Tessura’s demon eyes and piercing stare alone was enough to petrify the her. That second of hesitation was all the demon needed to conjure an illusion in Delgado’s mind. She made her think that instead of holding her weapon, she was holding her own severed head with maggots and worms squirming from the holes in its face, mouth drooling demonic ooze.
She was too frightened to even scream until the feel of the insects writhing out of the ears and onto her hands sharpened the illusion – the smell like old meat in a hot dumpster – and she let loose a murderous shriek tearing through the air for blocks. She dropped her gun to the floor and curled in terror while Tessura turned her attention back to the first of her police victims.
Gibbons’ eyes rolled into his skull – his face blue from a lack of oxygen being the least of his problems. Tessura focused her stare and opened her jaws to dawn a gaping entrance for the consummation of his soul. She pierced deep into his subconscious and inhaled his life’s energy, sucking out all of who he was through his wide eyes and throat. The flesh in his face sunk inward, and his large body withered into half of what it had been.
While Tessura indulged herself in the flavor of her prey, she was distracted just long enough for Delgado to regain her courage and reach down for the gun which no longer held the illusion of her own head.
She clumsily went for the weapon and lifted its sites on the creature who stood murdering her partner and friend. Her first squeeze only reminded her that the safety was still on, but the second was a continuous volley of pulls that unleashed an entire clip. She watched as the bullets flew directly into the demon’s body without it even flinching at the hot metal’s touch. She thought, at first, she wasn’t aiming steady. But when she concentrated harder on her target, she realized the monster’s body was not of a flesh that could be affected by bullets.
Tessura was an extradimensional being. Those beasts who could walk in two worlds weren’t made of a substance that was easily neutralized. Her flesh to the threats of a gun was like those of a sword’s to a mountain. The only significant thing Officer Delgado accomplished was making a heap of noise that caught the ear of her patrolling comrades in the distance as well as sixty some-odd California Guardsmen holed up at the nearby, military checkpoint.
2
“Captain! …Gun shots.” The young California Guardsmen looked back at his CO as if to suggest they should do something about it.
“We hold here, Corporal. We already lost two squads in that demented hell-soup…” The captain shook his head, disappointed by his own command. “Let the Black an’ Whites do their job. We wait for the Calvary: Twenty-thousand US ground troops, a hundred or more M1 tanks, and a multitude of ass-kicking, low-flying, attack choppers are just under two hours away. …The Hell that awaits us has no idea how bad we want a piece…”
“Yes, sir, Captain. Just a little eager to wage some righteous warfare, is all.”
A cloud of white smoke rudely barged in on the conversation, insisting on both their attentions.
“You two assholes have seen ten too many war movies.” The older gentleman seated at the map table behind the standing captain took a puff of his cigarette and blew another plume of smoke into the air. Half the man’s face was scared by war – a terrifying tapestry of mauled tissue culminating at the point of his one dead, white eye. “There’s nothing heroic about the death that awaits us inside that fog-line.”
“You don’t sound too optimistic about our chances, Colonel…”
“There isn’t any place for optimism in war, Captain… And there’s never been a war like this fought in the history of civilized man.” He inhaled another drag that burnt his Marlborough Red down to the filter, then snuffed it out in the ashtray in front of him. “This sort of predicament is only supposed to exist in the imaginations of the socially recluse, Trekkies, and H.P. Lovecraft. …Yet, here we all are, in the real fucking world, staring into a city covered by blood-mists that’re infected with the walking dead… And you two dipshits think you’re going to be ‘heroes’…” He scoffed under his breath then looked up at his XO and the rest of the nearby men who he’d caught the ears of.
“Hear this now: we are all going to die in that hellhole you call Los Angles, and it isn’t going to be pretty. So, wipe those smug expressions off your ignorant faces and get your craniums in the game. Tonight’s the night we give our lives for our country.
“……Cherish these last few hours on Earth you have left.”
3
“Parkman, you hear those shots?” Officer Bowman had made his way into the city behind the fog-line a block north of Parkman, and if they were both on track, they should still be within radio-range. “Sounded like they were coming from your direction.”
“Affirmed, Bowman. And I just lost radio contact with Gibbs an’ Delgado about two minutes ago…”
“Why the fuck didn’t you say somethin’, man? You know the protocol.”
“I don’t know… I thought they were fuckin’ with me. It’s…a long story… Let’s just head their way; try an’ reestablish contact.”
“No shit, Obi Wan. I thought the force was supposed to be strong with you…”
“Yeah, yeah… Blow me from the back, dickhead, and tell me how my ass tastes…”
“You’re real fuckin’ tough over the radio, aren’t you, Putz-man?”
“Boys!” Bowman’s partner, Officer Ca
rlyle, felt it necessary to play the part of Schoolyard Regulator. “Neither of you two children are gonna get in my panties with this obnoxious male posturing, so save it for a girl who isn’t a total lesbian, capisce?”
“I didn’t—”
“Capisce?!”
Bowman nodded obediently. “Alright, alright… Don’t get your bull-horns in a bluster…” He sighed. “Parkman, just wait for us at the next block. We’ll be over there in three.”
“Will do. Hey, Carlyle…”
“What, Parkman?”
“Wanna trade naked pictures of our girlfriends?”
“Your girlfriend is a cow, Parkman. I know about your weekends at your dad’s farm.”
“Ha, ha. Yeah, laugh it up, Carlyle… Wait ’til you actually meet her. You’ll be creaming in your little granny-panties at the sight of her.”
“You sure that’s a good idea?” She gave her partner a glance to be sure he was ready for her punchline. “…She’ll take one look at me and realize you were never man enough.”
“Not if you do us all a favor and wax that clit-tickler off your upper lip.”
Bowman laughed under his breath but tried to hold it in.
Carlyle shot him a look. She thought about adding a retort but was interrupted when Parkman spoke up and beat her to it.
“Whoa…hold on… I got something up ahead…” Bowman and his partner both fell silent, waiting for him to go on. “…What the hell?”
“Talk to me, Putz-man. What’s goin’ on?”
“There’s someone…looks like a woman walking down the middle of the street…”
Blood Magik- A Cold Day In Hell Page 41
