Red Lineage

by Ozias Goldman

  “You have my son!”

  “And so fuckin’ what. Without me, you wouldn’t have him. DJ is every bit mines as he is yours.”

  My anger flared, and a rush of adrenaline shot through my body. Then DJ’s heel stomped down on my temple, bouncing my head off the soft carpet that absorbed most—but not all—of the impact, ending my attack even before it started.

  Red’s voice grew coarse, returning to the raspy tone I’d heard when it first revealed its true form to me. “They always told me this would happen eventually. For generations, my brethren considered me weak, foolish, for choosing to coexist with you humans instead of,” Red hammered DJ’s fist against his tiny chest, "replacing you outright. But for years, I thought I was smarter than the rest of my brethren, and it appeared I was because they were hunted and banished from this realm by the scores. But I was the first to try a different approach, to not only allow my host to remain present but to help them flourish, to be thankful for my presence, even after I eventually revealed who and what I was.”

  I rolled onto my back and tried to sit up, but the world was still spinning. Instead, I skidded backward, using my heels and elbows to gain some separation from the demon. Red didn’t bother following; he watched me with his flat expression under the weight of his cold eyes.

  "Four generations with your family alone, D. Your great-grandfather, then your grandmother, then mother, then brother—all hand-picked by me.

  I tensed. “My mother…” My eyes widened. “…my brother…”

  DJ’s tone became somber. “Your mother was my greatest failure. Her sacrifice is both the reason I am still in this realm and the reason I did not kill you outright when you betrayed me. Your brother was another failure, of sorts. He was sick, but the illness didn’t manifest until his teen years. My influence did nothing but fully realize the eventuality that was already there.” DJ shrugged. “It was unfortunate, but I couldn’t invest the time and effort into someone so fragile.”

  “So you killed him…”

  “Of course not.”

  “But you chose not to save him!”

  Red shrugged. “Maybe I should’ve. Things may have turned out better than this had I did.” Red shook his head. “My gift was never supposed to come to you, but you are now part of my lineage, for better or worse. For that reason, and the debt I owed your mother, I still allow you to live.”

  “But you killed DJ instead.”

  Red shook his head and raised DJ’s hand. “I did what needed to be done. And besides, Fatima was not my choice for you—that means the boy was not either.”

  “Motherfucker.” I lunged at Red, but it was a sloppy attempt that was effortlessly sidestepped, resulting in me stumbling back to the carpeted floor.

  Pain exploded in my lower back as DJ’s foot connected flush with a shockingly powerful kick that sent me skidding across the carpet, face burning from the friction, and crashing into the far wall hard enough to splinter the wooden baseboard and drive the air from my body once again.

  “I won’t kill you, no.” DJ was back in front of me in an instant, lifting me off the ground by the back of my shirt as I clutched my side. “But I will punish you, make you remember your betrayal.” Red brought DJ’s tiny fist up into my gut with three strong uppercuts, grunting to emphasize each hit as he brought the full weight of my son’s slender body into each blow, then tossed me back across the floor in a roll.

  Face down on the carpet; my body felt like a broken wreck as I struggled to roll over onto my side. As if the beating was bad enough, I'd landed atop something hard that pressed into the very spot on my upper abdomen Red had just hit. I began pushing myself up with my hands, but Red was there again, slamming me back down the ground under the heel of his boot, causing a flare of pain to blossom from the same spot on my upper abdomen.

  When Red lifted DJ's foot from my back again, I slid a hand under me and felt the handle of the bone dagger touch my fingers. Before Red could stomp down on me again, I spun around up under him, catching him off-guard with his foot held high in the air, and slashed out at his midsection.

  Red was fast, jumping back as the dagger closed the distance in a shocking display of speed and reflexes, but he wasn't fast enough to clear the weapon this time. The blade opened a deep gash along the full length of DJ's thigh, raining down a shower of blood as Red landed clear across the other side of the large room, near the door.

  For the briefest moment, just at the point of impact, I felt the bone drink a touch of the demon’s essence. I looked up to see thick jets of crimson energy vent from the wound, bright even to my dulled ethereal vision. Sensing an opening as Red's attention was focused down at the cut, looking every bit as shocked as me, I leapt to my feet and sprinted forward—then a blinding flash filled my head and my vision swam as I watched twin images of the world float before me as I fell to the ground, seemingly in slow motion.

  The impact of my head crashing against the floor jolted me back to clarity. I pushed myself back up to my knees, focusing on the ground as my vision came together and settled. Fati was shrieking just behind my back, and when I looked over my shoulder, I saw her trembling hands clutching a bent golf club.

  Fati raised the golf club high over her head. "I said don't move!" She swung the club down, and I barely got my arm up in time to accept the hit on my forearm instead of my head, numbing everything from my elbow down to my fingertips.

  “Fati!" I shouted, and then flinched as waves of pain washed down the back of my head. I brought my hand to the back of my head and felt it slick with wetness. I tried to stand, but couldn't support my weight and ended up flat on my back, looking up at Fati as she raised the weapon again. “What are you doing?”

  “You will not harm my son. I don’t care what’s wrong with him.”

  I shook my head. “That is not our DJ.”

  "Say one more thing, and I'll beat you until you don't get back up."

  "This shit is over now, D," Red said, bringing my attention back around to him. Red was standing straight up now, and while the wound at his leg no longer vented its crimson essence in billowing plumes, there was still a steady stream of loss. “I tried sparing you, but this last act of disloyalty is beyond forgiveness.”

  Red took a step toward me, and then the door behind it exploded open, slamming into DJ’s slender frame and sending him tumbling into the room. As I watched DJ roll to a stop just an arms-length in front of me, a glint of metal flashed into my periphery from the door and buried deep into DJ’s back, sending another rent of crimson essence billowing out from my son’s small body.

  The pale man stepped through the shattered doorway. “I have been hunting you for far, far, too long, demon, but She has led me here, for the hour of deliverance is nigh.” The pale man caressed the hilt of another knife he held before him, with a brilliant ethereal aura of gold swirling around him like a raging storm.

  Red reached for the knife in DJ's back, but couldn't reach it. DJ's innocent eyes watched the pale man as he slowly rose his feet. Red must have tried lulling the pale man into a false sense of comfort because he exploded towards the large man in a sudden rush of speed.

  But the pale man was ready, flicking his wrist and sending the knife end over end across the room to meet DJ, burying deep inside his belly with another vent of crimson essence.

  I glanced over at Fati, expecting to see her foolishly interfere, but she was motionless on the floor with a large part of the doorframe resting beside her. My heart sank, but then I noticed the gentle rise and fall of her chest and knew, whatever her injury, she would be ok.

  I turned back in time to see Red rip the blade from DJ's belly in a spurt of blood, then tossed the weapon to the floor, streaking another line of blood across the carpet. There was no humor on Red's demeanor now, no casual confidence. DJ's face was stone serious as he straightened, then sprinted forward with another supernatural burst of speed, faster than before.

  The pale man flicked his wrist as he leapt to the side
in a roll, and instead of the knife traveling straight at Red, it flew in a line about a foot to the side, precisely in the path of where Red leapt as he thought to dodge a head-on throw, burying into DJ's shoulder and sending another vent of crimson into the ether realm.

  The pale man moved only at the speed of an average person, but his uncanny anticipation was an equalizing force. “You cannot do me harm.” The pale man said as he rolled back to his feet and spun around, already with another pair of knives at the ready, waiting for another attack. “I am armored in Her ever-glorious light.”

  “I'm getting tired of this. I should have killed you a long time ago.” Red spat a mouthful of blood, some of which landed on Patricia’s body, then ripped the blade from DJ’s shoulder and looked it over. “Yes, this will indeed be a reckoning. No more running and hiding from filth like you, hunter. You die tonight.”

  Red threw the knife with savage force, but the pale man was already pivoting his torso to the side, seemingly before Red even release the blade. It missed the pale man’s face by inches and slammed into the wall with a thud, sending a web of cracks snaking out along the surface.

  I blinked, and Red had already halved the distance to the pale man, rushing at him in a full sprint. With Red fully engaged, I turned and hurried to Fati, who was still lying on the ground but had begun stirring. Crouching down beside her, I turned her face to mine. “Are you alright? Can you stand?” The look in her eyes seemed alert enough, so I didn’t wait for a response as I pulled her to her feet. “We gotta hurry. It’s distracted.”

  We only made it a few steps towards the door when Fati dug her heels, straining against me. “No! I will not leave my son, Darien.”

  I whirled on her. “That is not DJ. DJ is gone.” My voice cracked as I said it, but I sucked in my emotion and held it down with all my effort. “Right now we need to get you to safety.”

  “Let go of me!”

  "Goddammit. That is not, DJ!" I turned her around to face the battle. "Look at what it is you're seeing. Look!"

  The fight had devolved into a rolling grappling match that looked absurd; a grown man over six feet in height, easily two hundred pounds of lean muscle, getting all he could handle from a nine-year-old's slight frame. Red had managed to roll the pale man over onto his back and straddle him and was currently muscling the large man’s arms, each of which held a pair of knives, slowly down to the carpet. Red slammed his head down into the pale man’s nose, opening a faucet of blood that ran down the side of his face.

  The pale man's body went limp, and one of the knives slipped from his hand. Red released that arm and grabbed his throat. His aura flared like it did with Patricia, but this time the pale man's golden aura flared in turn, and the large man surged back awake, grabbing Red by the throat and pushing back to his feet with a growl of effort.

  "Come on," I said, wrapping both arms around Fati's waist and lifting her off the ground. "I'm not losing you too," I said as I tucked my cheek behind her head to avoid her flailing limbs.

  "I said nobody leaves…" DJ's voice came from behind.

  We were nearly to the door, but I stole a glance over my shoulder and was shocked to see the pale man bracing himself against the wall and Red sprinting to intercept us. The pale man threw a knife at Red's back, but Red leaped high into the air, clearing the blade that missed Fati and me by less than a foot, and somehow landed on the—I blinked—ceiling. He straightened to a stand, upside down, grinning at me as I tried to understand the impossible.

  That seemed to catch the pale man by surprise as well, because he simply stood, looking up at Red almost in awe. After everything she had seen, it was this that finally clicked something in Fati’s head. She turned away, and I let her go. She took off towards the door, and Red sprinted after.

  "Fati, look out!" I shouted. Red moved impossibly fast, but when he closed the distance and leaped down at her, I was close enough to intercept him, catching DJ's body and slamming him into the ground with my shoulder planted in his chest, driving the air from him and snapping the handle off the blade still in his back.

  He was stronger than any nine-year-old ought to be, stronger than me for sure, but it wasn't the impossible gap that was his speed advantage. I was able to at least wrap my legs around his waist and my arms around his body, keeping him immobile enough while I somehow avoided his biting at my arms and clawing fingers raking at my eyes.

  We were at a stalemate, and I should have waited for the pale man to rejoin the fight, but hindsight is twenty-twenty, and I was desperate to get Fati to safety. I chanced releasing my grip to fish my car keys from my pocket, but it took me a hair longer than it should have in our struggle, and it costed me. I barely got the keys out in time, ripping my pant pocket in the process, and tossed them in Fati's general direction. "The car is out front," I said, scrambling to reestablish my hug. "Drive as far away as you ca—ack!"

  Red’s tiny hand closed tight around my throat in a shocking grip. My eyes bulged, then pale man collided with Red in a bull rush, toppling them both over in a tangle of limbs, Red growling and snarling like a feral beast.

  By the time I looked over, Red had gained the upper hand, and was atop the pale man, savagely tearing flesh out of his face, neck, and chest with his fingers, while mixing in hard, clubbing blows. The pale man did as best he could to cover up, but enough were finding the mark to cause him to begin to slow.

  I pushed myself up to my feet and dove onto Red’s back. An elbow smashed my nose, clogging it and making it throb before I had a chance to process the pain entirely.

  Red leaped to his feet with a grunt, throwing me off of him, several feet away. I tested my nose as I lay back, staring up at the ceiling, and confirmed what I already knew. It broke. When I tried to blow it clear to breathe more comfortable, the air got trapped, and the area around my nose and eyes doubled in size from an almost instant swelling.

  “Fuck…” I said as I slowly climbed back to my feet. The pale man had just gotten back to his feet as well, taking off his long leather coat and tossing it aside. He then pulled the last two knives from his vest and glanced over the handle of each. Red stood between us.

  The pale man and I glanced at each other for a moment, and then rushed in at the same time. Red waited for us, not even raising his fists in defense as we closed. I pulled back just a hair, allowing the pale man to make contact first, both arms a blur as he struck with precise slashes and jabs, searching for an opening for his twin knives. Red slipped those without even giving the man his full attention, and at the same time turned to meet me as I closed with my crisp three punch combination. He slipped the first but had to block the second and third blows to avoid taking damage from the pale man’s more lethal attack.

  We gave Red all he could handle until one of the pale man's blades came close enough to open a small cut just under DJ's eye. Red turned away from me, allowing me to land powerful unanswered blows to his ribs, kidneys, back of his head, doing enough damage to cause him to wince and flinch several times.

  Meanwhile Red pressed the pale man with an assault the man did not have the speed, agility, or footwork to defend. The pale man tried slashing out at Red, this time off-balanced, with little of the flawless technique he had displayed with his knives to this point, and Red caught the limb and limb with one hand and hyperextended the arm and letting the blade hit the carpet.

  I reached for the weapon, and Red kicked me away, tumbling to my back in a sprawl as he then kicked that knife across the carpet to the other side of the room. The pale man tried to slash out with his remaining knife, but with only one weapon to worry about and me scrambling back to my feet, Red was quickly able to evade the strike and grab that limb while it was still outstretched, hyperextending it to disarm the large man like he had just done. Red would have likely broken the arm had I not ran back in then, forcing him to release the hold and return his attention to the both of us.

  The pale man came close to landing a punch of his own, but Red turned and smashed his fa
ce with a back elbow, and at the same time Red tried to sneak me with an uppercut off DJ's back leg, expecting to catch me off guard. But I stepped back, clear of DJ's short arm, and countered with a hook to the gut, at the very spot of the wound, that drove the air from his lungs and sparked a flash of guilt as I watched my son's face contort in pain. But I quickly followed it up with a blistering combo of five punches, switching from head to body, and putting a final exclamation on it with a sharp uppercut that snapped his chin up and brought him to the tip of his toes, staggering backward, directly into a two-handed clubbing blow to the back of the head from the pale man that sent him reeling to the side.

  Just like that, my years of training had reawakened, and I pressed the attack, firing off an ever-quickening blister of combinations. The pale man seemed to feed off of my energy, pressing in hard in turn with is own savage clubbing blows.

  We battered DJ’s slight body with powerful punches that would have put a grown man down dozens of times over, but Red endured it all, grunting, trying to find an opening to counter my more punishing attacks. Then the inevitable happened, and slowly, the pale man and I began to tire, our punches no longer landing with regularity. Soon, Red was holding us both at bay, spinning, ducking, blocking, parrying every single attack as he held his ground, and even managed to sneak in a few counters to keep us honest.

  The pale man faltered first as Red landed a punch that brought the large man to a knee for a moment. That gave Red the chance to concentrate on me alone and fired back a blistering combination of his own that left me staggering backward, hearing the familiar sound of DJ’s laughter.

  The pale man rushed in again. But try as I might to steady myself, my body wouldn't respond. I could do nothing but watch as Red bobbed and weaved, hands down to his sides, avoiding every one of the pale man's attacks with minimal effort until he finally grew tired of the game. He leaped into the air, rising above the pale man's head, and then brought the full weight of DJ’s body down in a crushing elbow to the temple that left the large man in a crumple on the ground.