Take Me With You

by Ash Masters

  *

  Yamato tumbled a few meters, sliding to a stop at Junichi’s feet, shakily dragging himself onto his feet. Junichi fired a burst of bullets at the towering monster who was quickly reducing the space between the them.

  ‘It’s no use, Junichi! Are you listening to me!?’ Cried Yamato, pulling Junichi’s shoulder and causing him to misfire. ‘We have to get the hell out of here!’

  ‘And hide where, Yamato!? That thing can find us anywhere – all it has to do is look over the freaking rooftops!’ He pulled his shoulder out of Yamato’s gloved grip.

  ‘We need to gain some distance so I can teleport us out of this place! We need to regroup and plan because with this thing guarding the hotel we won’t get anywhere near Akira!’

  The Nightmare groaned; a creature seven stories tall and built like a gorilla with arms each the width of a car from grill to the bumper. Its body looked to be made completely out of grey muscles that leaked a black, inky liquid from multiple places on its body that glistened in the light.

  ‘I hate to interrupt! But there are Nightmares EVERYWHERE!’ Exclaimed Radar, turning everyone’s attention to the horde of Nightmares closing in on the other end of the road, looming between and under the cars and circling the air like animals stalking their prey. Though all with the same wet, grey, muscle look, the Nightmares came in varying shapes. Junichi spotted one that resembling a lion but with a mane made of thick, black thorns, a rhino with horns coving most of its body and snakes that were covered in scales as lethal as razor blades. Some however were bipedal and bore no resemblance to any known animal but were deathly and monstrous in appearance none-the-less

  ‘Shit!’ Uttered Junichi through gritted teeth, firing accurate shots that didn’t stop them from advancing. ‘Damn bullet sponges!’

  Yamato turned Junichi around, handing him the shortsword that he kept hand on his back. ‘Take this.’

  ‘I’ve got my own.’ Junichi tugged at the strap on his chest.

  ‘You can use two can’t you?’ Yamato looked back at the massive Nightmare who had torn his house from of its foundations with ease then at the Nightmares blocking the other side of the road. ‘You don’t have enough ammo.’

  ‘So you want us to what? Run away to a dark alley where we will still be eaten!? Great plan!’

  ‘Well it’s better than staying here and dying! I can at least hold the big guy off.’ Damnit, if the group weren’t so large then teleportation wouldn’t take long. But with four people to carry someone is bound to get hurt during the process.

  ‘ARGH!’ Ayumi screamed, getting between both of them. ‘Stop arguing you two! Look, you take Radar and go – he can’t fight.’

  ‘It’s true!’ Panicked Radar.

  ‘Yamato and I will fend these people off.’

  ‘You can’t fight!’ Yamato interjected.

  ‘Well I can try to control these Nightmares. Besides... This is my home. I can’t leave here. While we’re here they have a chance to go get Rika!’

  ‘Watch out!’ Radar pointed at the giant Nightmare as it drew a fist.

  The two groups jumped out of the way in opposite directions as a clawed fist came down.

  ‘GO!’ Ayumi threw her hand, signalling Junichi and Radar to get away. ‘And if you see Kioshi, tell him I’m sorry!’

  The Nightmare was quick, dragging its fist across to swipe at Ayumi. Her eyes widened, not fast enough to react but luckily Yamato jumped in the way to hold the hand at bay. ‘Get going, Junichi!’ He ordered.

  ‘Let’s go!’ Junichi took Radar by the arm, dragging him into a nearby alley, Nightmares following in their stead.

  ‘Do you really think that you can control these Nightmares, girl?’ Yamato threw the arm away, sending the Nightmare toppling.

  ‘I can try.’ Ayumi wiped her forehead but before she could lower her hand she was jumped not by a Nightmare but by a girl.

  ‘Ayumi!’

  ‘Never mind me! Rip that thing’s head off!’ The girl pinned Ayumi down by the arms, face so close to hers that combined with the lack of light she could make out her features. ‘Not on the first date you psycho-bitch!’ She hissed, throwing the girl to the side.

  The Nightmare was on its feet again, pounding the ground with the length of its wide arms in rage, crushing cars but not Yamato who leapt onto a store front then sprung off using his momentum to boost the force of his Advanced Strength, throwing a fist into the over-sized Nightmare’s face. In quick succession he threw all of his weight into a spin, extending his leg to deliver a powerful kick.

  Yamato felt the air around him tremble as the Nightmare raised its arm to swipe him. However, Yamato’s ability taken from Sixteen allowed him to read the signs in the creature’s body, anticipating the attack and prepared himself for the impact, grabbing onto its thumb then jumped off, thumb still in-hand, to land graceful and with a mighty roar, flip the Nightmare onto its back.

  The world shook as if struck by an earthquake, and if it wasn’t for the fact that she was already on the ground, Ayumi would have been knocked over by the impact. Both girls got to their feet at the same time and Ayumi finally got a good look at her; a girl in her late-teens with silver hair, sporting a black and emerald lolita dress.

  The girl smiled.

  ‘What are you supposed to be?’ Ayumi put up her fists. ‘Satan’s doll?’

  As the girl advanced, she jumped from side-to-side, attempting to tackle Ayumi again but, Ayumi in the same motion spun and raised her leg, bringing her heel down on the girl’s crown to bring her to the ground. At the same time, the Nightmare who with the support of a building had managed to get back onto its feet stumbled.

  Ayumi spotted this. ‘You’re the one controlling the Nightmare, aren’t you?’

  The girl stood up, her mind not being her own allowing her to ignore the pain experienced by her body. Once again she grabbed Ayumi by the arms, pinning her to the building so roughly that Ayumi was winded. A hand quickly left an arm, holding her instead by the throat with strength disproportionate to her slim physique. Ayumi stopped resisting, eyeing the girl with malice instead.

  Her grey irises transformed into their broken glass pattern, meeting the girl’s green pair. Their gazes locked, matching intensities and causing the atmosphere to thicken with supernatural energy. However, Ayumi could feel herself losing, slipping out of consciousness and being taken over by whatever ability this girl possessed. ‘No! I won’t lose twice in a row!’ She stared harder, feeling like her eyes were on the verge of popping out of her skull.

  Ayumi’s vision blurred until nothing was recognisable. The girl and the world mixed together until the world was grey and she didn’t even feel a hand on her throat. Shit.

  She faced her father who was a she saw him in her brief trip to the past, wrapped in robes and sporting his walking cane. Looking at herself, Ayumi discovered that she was dressed in tattered clothes; a short dress that was once white but now brown with dirt and red with blood coupled with a black, sleeveless hoodie that had also seen better days.

  ‘You dare go against your father!?’ He slammed his cane into the ground. ‘You come into my kingdom and bring intruders! How dare you! I am your father!’

  ‘No!’ Ayumi shook her head in ‘You’re a monster!’ The anxiety she felt when she was with Kioshi was returning; she didn’t want to be back with him, forced to endure his punishments. ‘You raised me like I was an experiment to you! Not a daughter! This is my home and you turned it into hell!’

  ‘And yet you return.’

  ‘This is the only world I know! This is the only place I can call home!’

  ‘Yet you bring rebels! Revolutionists! When will they learn!?’

  ‘They’re fighting because what you’re doing is wrong! You’re so twisted by your demented, politics-fuelled fantasy of Paradise that you’re blind to the people you’re hurting!’

  ‘My father died defending this country!’ Akira argued. ‘He died tr
ying to ensure that this would be the best world for his son – me, to live in. And I’m doing this so the world is a good place for you to live in and then your children! And your children’s children! Why can’t you see this!? You talk about people I’m hurting!? In my Paradise no-one feels pain!’

  ‘Look around you! Look at what you’ve done to get here and the lengths you go to maintain order! Look at what you made me do! So long as you continue to rule there will always be pain!’

  ‘SILENCE!’ Akira bellowed, slamming his cane into the ground again. ‘You have failed me, Ayumi.’

  ‘I might have failed you but at least I realised that what you taught me was wrong! I killed innocent people in your name thinking that was I was doing was right!’

  ‘I am your King in this world, Ayumi! You have betrayed your king and you will be punished for your transgressions!’

  ‘NO!’ Her courage instantly gone, Ayumi took several, fear-induced steps back. ‘NO! No more pain! NO MORE!’ She stopped, opening her eyelids as wide as they could.

  ‘That won’t work here Ayumi, you are in my world!’ With another slam of his cane he disappeared, replaced by a mob of four-legged Nightmares who encircled her and snarled hungrily with the ferocity of wolves ready to tear their prey apart. Simultaneously they drew in closer.

  ‘No...’ Ayumi breathed.

  Closer they drew.

  ‘NO!’

  The snarling stopped and then they swarmed.