Reign Of Darkness

by E R Landron

  “I was looking between cases, for what happened to dad. It was in front of me the whole time! You piece of shit!”, I yell.

  I was going to pull the trigger when a few claps interrupted everybody in the room. Ripa is smiling and looks a bit buffer than before. He keeps clapping until it becomes annoying. Everyone stood in fighting stance quickly as they saw Ripa standing up moving better than before.

  “It is so human of you guys. I loved it. I…loved it! It almost looks like a Spanish telenovela. It is pathetic!”, he says.

  Everyone stood quietly as Ripa fixes his clothing. Hannah holds her breathe for a moment and looks spooked again. Ezequiel is attentive at him, and Kokolite got on fighting stance.

  “I am not much of a talker. I just get things done. However, I must say this new me, feels pretty wicked!”, Ripa says.

  “Guys! Is it me or it feels denser here?”, Kokolite screams.

  He was right. The atmosphere grew denser all of a sudden. Everyone is starting to feel a little bit nervous, some more than the others. Ripa moves smoothly and as he fixes his shirt he did it rather fast, but it looked like he was trying to do it slowly. I aim at Ripa and empty the magazine. A shadow hand stops all the bullets and are placed on the floor as if someone was putting their toys back to where they belonged. I cannot believe it. Kokolite raises his staff, Ezequiel his dagger and Hannah pulls the lever on her glove showing the commando saw. They all stare at him awaiting the time to draw like it was some western cowboy fight waiting to hit noon. Ripa smiles and without hesitation starts taking huge spikes to attack each of them. Everyone dodges at the same time. I roll and see that Oliver vanished. Shit!! I slam the floor with the palm of my hand. I quickly try to attend to the situation of meeting an attacking Ripa for the very first time. My guns and batons on the floor. Hope arrives. I sprint to get them. Ripa looks like a sea urchin with his shadow spikes coming out of him attacking everyone. The room little by little got more destroyed as spikes blasted through furniture, paintings, walls and electric wires that are being exposed each time a little more. He admires his hands and is seeing his backhand and changed it to his palms and did it a few more times. A creepy laugh comes from Ripa as besides attacking us, he uses one shadow hand to get it closer to a light bulb. It does not disappear. He looks mesmerized that his shadow hand is screwing and unscrewing back the light bulb. Kokolite's face became spooked to see this.

  “Lights don't work guys! Lights don't freaking work!”, he yells.

  Ripa laughs like a maniac and keeps attacking without even seeing. Ezequiel sprints towards Ripa, dodging spikes that come to his way. He gets close enough, jumps to stab him with his dagger but his dagger just hits a shadow shield that is forcing now with Ezequiel making Ripa slide back a little. Ripa sees the distance he slid and looks to an Ezequiel using all his strength to get to him but is failing to do so. A small smirk appears in Ripa's face.

  “Pathetic.”, he says.

  From the shield, a hand grabs Ezequiel’s neck and pulls his head and slams it to the shield and a spike forms and shoots out piercing Ezequiel's shoulder back to a wall. Ezequiel screams in agony as the spike grows a little bit more. Hannah dashes to Ripa and he sends several spikes to her, she changes to a cat, dodging the avalanche of spikes trying to make her a feline shish kabob. I jump and roll in front of the weapons and grab them. I put the batons in my left thigh and grab the machine gun. An alarm beeps across the room that for a second catches the attention of everyone including Ripa. Another spike tries to catch me and I roll to the side dodging the spike effectively. I unload the full machine gun at Ripa and he covers himself with another shadow shield. As that is going on, the spike that impales Ezequiel got smaller and smaller until it drops him, nonetheless braking more of his skin tissue. He is covered in blood but still is regenerating more or less quickly. Hannah's attacks also grew less effective and she manages to get closer to Ripa... As she is going to attack him a giant hand slams her against the wall, leaving the shield that was covering my bullets less effective and one of the bullets catching him just in the cheek. The cheek healed in no time. Hannah did slam to the wall but wasn't that much and managed to recuperate fast.

  Kokolite is attentive dodging the attacks who grew less aggressive for each attack they did as a group was going strong. He speaks to me telepathically. "His powers are beyond our reach if we fight separately, we would die in no time. However, since we are all scattered, I bet he cannot concentrate on all the attacks at the same time. This is new to him. He is like a kid with lots of new toys. He's still too powerful for me to read his mind though."

  “Hey Mieke, can you see I cannot reach him at the moment?”

  “How about you tell me some real news.”

  “I bet you if you shoot your gun I could get to him.”

  “Ok, whatever.”

  Kokolite prepares to sprint, I shoot , and Kokolite manages to get closer to Ripa as he is blocking all my bullets again. He notices a grunt close to him, as he turns his sight a flying staff passes close to him and quickly manages to grow a shadow punch and hit Kokolite. Kokolite retreats yet another bullet passes through Ripa’s shield.

  “Oh, that hurt.”

  “So you got punched.”

  “But I was close to almost hit him because we fought together.”

  That’s it. We are all scattered. I got an idea. "Cover me!", I say to him mentally. Kokolite tried to attack Ripa with his staff and dodging at the same time. I took out another magazine from the gun and cocked it.

  “When I go! All you attack him at the same time!”, I scream.

  Hannah and Ezequiel look confused until they saw my gun and nod between dodging Ripa's ongoing attacks. I’m running out of bullets fast, without guns I’m just a spectator on this fight. I took a deep breath and aim at Ripa screaming, “Now!!!”. Ripa went with the shield again stopping all the bullets coming to him. The attacks on the others grew less intensive. Ezequiel sprint to attack Ripa but he gets slap by a giant hand just as he got close. The hit backs Ezequiel but does not slam him elsewhere. Hannah still in cat form ran, and as soon as she gets to Ripa, she transforms and lands a punch in Ripa's chin and quickly a staff slams in his head as well. Hannah turns back into a cat. Ripa looks daze by a brief second as Ezequiel stabs him in his shoulder and soon after some bullets hit his torso and thighs. Ripa manages to move out everyone, yet he’s having trouble concentrating all the attacks at the same time.

  RIPA

  They got to me. I am supposed to be stronger. I am stronger. Everything slows down. I feel my body healing faster than ever. Blood drips from my head. I defend from their attacks. They look like birds protecting a little one. They still look like animals to me. Especially the human. I pat my shoulder and my hand gets blood from the penetration of the dagger. I caress my thumb with his middle and index finger. I’m still no God? Is that what Drake said, not be … the God? Fucking cunt! I clench my fist very fast and scream. Instead of little bits of air running through my body, the sensation is subtler. I press my fist into my waist. I feel tugs all over my body and a bunch of tentacles hit everyone including the detective whose gun keeps firing hitting walls and windows.

  MIEKE

  We got him. He keeps moving his attacks, and for the first time, he sees his blood drawn out. I think he’s not that powerful as he thought he was. His face changes and gets serious. He looks at all of us as if he was judging us. His fist goes into his waist, and a bunch of shadow tentacles burst from him. We all got hit. The sting from the tentacles embraces my hand. I left the finger in the trigger wasting bullets all over. I squint. The pain is worse than when my brace was stripped earlier. The bullets crack a window and one went through it. A little piece of sun emerges from the hole. It's morning? Something grabs my foot. A tentacle slams me to a wall. I hit the wall so hard. The air is taken out, and for a moment I cannot breathe. Cuts on arms and back appear from pieces that are incrusted on the wall from furniture and other equipment. I w
ant to give out. I land on the floor hard spitting a big portion of blood. I’m dizzy. Nauseous. I open my eyes fight to breathe.

  Hannah is taken and so is Kokolite and they get head smash together by another set of tentacles. The hit looks so hard that Hannah turns back to herself from cat form. Her eyes roll from the impact and both moan in agony. Ezequiel jumps behind Ripa, retrieves the dagger from his shoulder and proceeds to attack him again with his dagger, making him squint and show his fangs from the pain. Ripa then takes Ezequiel from his back and holds him in all his extremities with huge shadow tentacles and starts to land shadow punches and from time to time spikes, swords that were stabbing him all over. Ezequiel is bleeding all over the floor and his regeneration is slowing down quickly with each shot he takes. Ezequiel is let go and drops to the floor in his own pool of blood.

  “A few years with these new powers... and you all would have been dead in seconds. Both the Ahket and Seelish caused me lots of trouble... two third-class vampires.”, Ripa says.

  My vision is still blurry, but I know now whom the vampire world was referring to the kingpin of the city. I now see the why on top of the roof Hannah trembled in fear when told we had to face him. I see the extent of his powers and how I was so wrong thinking he was him because of his resources. He truly is walking as he owns the place. The shadows were returning to Ripa, for a moment he looks like a lost brother of Ursula with all the tentacles dangling. A single shadow caught my attention. It disappears momentarily when the sunbeam hit it. Lights do not work... sun does. Everyone is gasping for air and the vampires. Ripa tilts his head and starts to fix his cloth and hair.

  “You corrupted Drake's spell, so you must be an alsaahir almayit. I thought you guys were almost extinct. Not much of a guardian though.”, Ripa says.

  He turns to me with an upset demeanor. He makes a shadow hand and moves it across the room. The shadow grabs me by my neck. It presses my throat, making it difficult to breathe as he drags me all over the place. I felt the dirt, blood as I paint the office's floor. I reach Ripa still getting choked.

  “And you!”, he says.

  He lifts me in the air. I’m gasping for air. The horrible sensation of not getting any is frustrating and nerve-racking. I try to use my hands to get ahold of the shadow and breathe, but it is no use. My hands don’t grab the shadow. They just go through. For the first time, I am face to face to what evil incarnated looks like. His face is very pale and smooth, his eyes black as onyx. He is both laughing and angry at me.

  “A human. You are the reason why I'm doing this! Your kind does not deserve to be in this world with us. You are weak! You are pathetic! You are useless! You are just cattle!”, he says.

  My strength is leaving me. My hands are tired of struggling. Some footsteps. Ezequiel. He limps towards Ripa, making sounds with his feet as blood is all over them. Ripa turns for a moment while he keeps choking me. Everything… is fading. "Ripa!", Ezequiel screams. He gets Ripa's attention.

  “I am the guardian! I will protect the orb and its contents! I was the one who put this group! I will defeat you! Put her down you coward and face someone that is up to your level. I am the guardian!”, Ezequiel keeps yelling.

  Ezequiel bumps his chest with his fist. Ripa drops me to the floor as if I’m garbage. I gasp for air. I caress my neck that hurts. I feel something dragging me as Ripa walks to Ezequiel. Kokolite is the one dragging my feet. Hannah is still on the floor but putting her clothes again. Kokolite still is breathing heavily. I start to see some bruises on my arms. Kokolite mentions my neck is bruised as well. Hannah crawls to us as we see how Ezequiel keeps limping towards Ripa. We only see Ripa's back and a moving figure getting bigger as he gets closer to Ripa himself. The only change in scenario is behind Ezequiel a little beam of sunlight entering the room without asking permission. Ezequiel is taller than Ripa. Not like a David and Goliath fight yet it seems it was destined for the same ending.

  “Up to my level? Hah! After I am finish with all of you. Drake will be next. Tell me... before I kill you. How do you know him?”, Ripa asks.

  “He betrayed me years ago. Jealous of my position, of my powers...he…”

  Ripa grabs Ezequiel by the throat with another shadow hand. A gargled sound comes from Ezequiel who is trying to get a hold of the shadow hand but is unable to do so.

  “Oh shut it! You bore me. But it seems this is recurring on my dear old mate Drake!”

  Kokolite, Hannah and me begin to whisper.

  “It is useless. We barely got to do any damage on him. Just mess his perfect rich man’s outfit.”, she says.

  “I'll do whatever to finish this guy, but I'm playing on your field.”, I say.

  “There's something.”, Kokolite says.

  “What?”, I ask.

  Kokolite points at the end of the room to the sunbeam.

  “Are you nuts? You are really loco!”, Hannah says.

  “How so?”, I ask.

  “How so? How is that a question?”, she asks.

  “Sacrifice?”, he, says.

  “Sacrifice? How is that an answer?”, she says upset.

  “How?”, I ask.

  “I'll tackle him hard. Hopefully enough break the glass.”, he says.

  “You will die! You, crazy person.”, she says.

  “But...”

  “There's no buts... not even Ezequiel who is stronger than us can take on Ripa.”, he says interrupting me.

  We all see Ezequiel fighting for air, for his life, witnessing the inevitable as we watch powerless, hopeless and feeling useless at the same time. Hannah is upset at the conversation, and I worry this is the end for us. If I had powers like them, I could be a little more help. He is right. There's no other way. You break the glass you kill probably Ripa and with him Kokolite and probably Hannah if the sun enters the whole room. You tackle him you save one. At least and Ezequiel is a daywalker. If put on this positions he would have agreed to do it yet he is the one who needs saving. Ripa keeps on choking Ezequiel who is fading away. As I turn to Kokolite, he’s already sprinting towards Ripa. What if the glass needs more force? What if doesn't break? Hannah's eyes widen to see Kokolite half way to Ripa and me getting up to start running towards him as well. "Oh, stupid pig! What are you doing?", I hear Hannah say.

  Kokolite’s head lowers, and I can see him cringing, with his veins popping using his strength as one foot came forward the other. Ripa is distracted killing the one that is supposed to guard the orb. Kokolite waits for the last second to jump and extends his arms. He impacts him, but the hit only makes Ripa fall to the floor, close to the window, but not to hit the window or lose the grip on Ezequiel loosen up a bit. A huge gasp comes from Ezequiel. He turns to see a Kokolite hanging in his wait trying to use all his strength to move him farther closer to the window. "Pathetic" Ripa says. A high "Arghhh" comes from Kokolite, as Ripa grabs him and throws him to the ceiling smashing him and making him black out momentarily, then another shadow hand throws him away quickly sending him to crash on a wall. Ripa got on to his feet with the help of another shadow hand. Ezequiel drops to the floor like a plush toy. I push faster and cringe to use all my strength. I close my eyes awaiting impact. I tackle him second, not doing much but pinning his back to the glass.

  “Fucking human!”, he screams.

  We share a stare for a split second, one of complete fear I bet is on my face. Yet I’m determined. He has a face of complete anger. I take my handgun and empty the magazine very quickly. Some bullets hit his chest, thighs, and knees and a few hit the glass behind him. Blood starts to splatter all over. A huge grunt comes from him, and he screams "Fucking cunt!". Ripa grabs me with a shadow hand and swings me over the room with so much force. This is it. With this force, I am going to die. I close my eyes as I can’t bear the spinning sensation anymore. He lets go, and everything slows down. For a moment I see all. Hanging in the air, Ezequiel's body is on the floor. Kokolite is squinting grabbing his head and ribs as he was just feelin
g his pain nerves sound multiple alarms in his body and a pile of clothing with a cat sticking out of one of the shirts holes that are just jumping on me and running through my body. Little paws are passing by my head, hip, and legs. The cat is changing back to Hannah and lands on Ripa who is still moving his hands as he just threw me. Hannah makes contact with Ripa landing a punch and her whole body on him and both of them land on the crystal that cracked entirely but did not break. I feel how something slows me down momentarily, still, I land on the sofa. It tilts and falls atop of me. I hear something crack, my head shook hard, and my body is on the floor. Everything is black for a moment.

  KOKOLITE

  Mieke is in midair, and my body hurts like hell. I extend my hands, but I’m into much pain to save her. She crashes to a sofa… at least. Hannah and Ripa are almost outside of the building with a glass that looks like it's going to break. Ripa's face is of full rage as he met Hannah's eyes who is pulling her glove. He is going to say something to her when it breaks.

  “No!”, I yell.

  KOKOLITE

  Mieke is in midair, and my body hurts like hell. I extend my hands, but I’m into much pain to save her. She crashes to a sofa… at least. Hannah and Ripa are almost outside of the building with a glass that looks like it's going to break. Ripa's facer is of full rage as he met Hannah's eyes who is pulling her glove. He is going to say something to her when it breaks.

  “No!”, I yell.

  MIEKE

  My vision is still blurry. I’m trying to make sense of my surroundings. My head is spinning. A hand taps me. I panic to the unknown. Kokolite is still grabbing his ribs and using his strength to make me rise. I calm down when my eyes adjust. I give him a half hug. I’m still woozy from the hit. The whole room is spinning; my strength is almost gone, but I push like I could see the strip of the end of a marathon. My body aches. I’m sure I… must have hit something… everything ugh.