by Sean Shake
Or tried, anyway.
He mowed down a few, but eventually the vehicle got caught up on the downed bodies, its tires spinning in the air as it tried to get free.
I flew toward them, my hatred for these things boiling over into blinding rage that I had to force down lest I be consumed by it.
Action, not reaction.
Don’t let your enemy control you, Gage.
I decapitated a hellspawn that had been about to pound one large distorted lump of a fist into the rear passenger window—the one Emma was sitting next to.
Then I pulled up briefly before diving again, this time taking out two more.
There were still so many, and they were focusing all their attention on the vehicle.
That’s when I heard the slap.
Even over all the cacophony, over the frightened screaming coming from inside the vehicle. All my mind could focus on was that wet slapping of reptilian-alien flesh on asphalt.
Watch out! Hunter cried, but even now he was controlling me, manipulating me, and we were grabbed by our wings and slammed to the ground.
As I pushed myself up I heard the foot again, growing closer, and looked up, and saw the eyeless guard. He stopped, standing in the middle of the road, a mass of his minions—because I saw now that’s what they were—gathering around him like a shield.
He had a hundred demons, and all I had was this stupid disc.
We stared each other down as I got to my feet, surrounded on all sides by the hideous monsters.
They had stopped beating on the vehicle for now, and all was silent. Eerily so.
And as I looked into those blank sockets, those vertical gashes where eyes and other features should have been, I knew that I had been tricked.
I hadn’t been following him, setting him up for a trap, ambushing him.
He’d been the one luring me, making me doubt, making me think that I was the one chasing him. That I was the one in control.
That I was the one acting.
But instead, I was the one who was ambushed, who was controlled, who was reacting.
It had all been a trap.
And I’d fallen for it
Even when I thought I had taken control, it turned out all I’d been doing was reacting to my enemy, letting him control me.
You are neither warrior nor great.
Tell me about it.
58
I leapt into the air and started flapping our wings, but I wasn’t fast enough, and a hand reached out and grabbed my ankle.
I clenched my fists, forming my blade, and slashed it down across the arm that held me.
The alien creature screamed, then I was free, beating into the air, the severed demonic hand still wrapped around my ankle.
I kicked it off with my other foot, and it fell into the crowd below.
If I could just take them out one by—
My nascent plan stopped forming in my mind as I saw them go for the SUV with Emma, Abigail, and her parents again.
No, I thought, and dove at the horde.
Do not let yourself be controlled by the actions of others. You must stay in control, Gage. Act, don’t react.
I pushed aside the memory, the lesson. I wish he’d stay out of my head. I already had—
Gage, Hunter said calmly in my mind.
Right.
Don’t sit—or hover—around daydreaming.
I dove and slashed my blade across the monsters mobbing Abigail’s parents’ SUV, then opened our wings to soar back up into the sky, but two beasts leapt and before I could get out of range, they latched onto me.
I flapped our wings hard, but the things were heavy, and my assent was slowed greatly. Then something ran up onto the SUV and jumped for me, that extra height just enough for it to clutch onto me, wrap its cold slimy hands around my waist, and try to bite into my abdomen.
I stabbed through its skull, but instead of dying and falling to the ground like I expected, another head formed next to it.
I stabbed this one too, and then another head formed on its back.
Instead of stabbing this one, I sliced it off at the neck, and the beast went limp, sliding from me and colliding with the two holding onto my legs.
It didn’t knock them free however, and—
Look out!
Something else collided into me, and I felt Hunter’s scream as it dug its claw into our back.
I guess Hunter wasn’t as resilient as I was.
Before I could even react, another creature launched itself at us.
I got my shield up and it slammed into it, tried to grip on, but was unable to get purchase and went falling to the ground.
My eyes brushed over the eyeless one, and despite having no mouth with which to do so, I could’ve sworn it smiled at me.
Then the claws were digging deeper into our back, and I had bigger things to worry about then a sick sense of humor.
59
I beat our wings hard, feeling Hunter’s agony, but didn’t seem to be gaining altitude, only maintaining it.
We now had three creatures on us, and another one was running toward us, again using the vehicle with my friends—my lover—inside as extra height.
We need to get away from that car, I thought. But we also needed to protect it.
Inside, to their credit, Emma and the rest remained quiet, not screaming as the beasts swarmed their vehicle.
For the moment they were more interested in getting at me, but if they turned their attention back to getting in, it wouldn’t take them—
Suddenly one of the monsters turned away from me and punched the roof of the car.
Shit, could that thing read my thoughts? Had I somehow broadcast the idea unintentionally?
Then Hunter screamed in agony as one of the things clinging to us somehow managed to get its claw between us and rip us apart.
As I fell to the ground in what seemed like slow motion, I saw Hunter falling as well, her wings beating wildly, but in the wrong direction, the beast atop her biting into her flesh.
No, I thought. This was just like the house. But now there were so many more. And these weren’t dumb animals.
Not with my eyeless adversary controlling them.
Then I slammed to the ground, breaking one of the demonic creatures in half, and sending a gout of green gaseous fluid onto the SUV’s side windows, an SUV which had everyone I still cared about in this world inside of it, other than Hunter, and which was now shaking from the impact as the beast atop the roof slammed its claw into it.
Then it broke through, and reached in for its prize.
60
Before I could be swarmed, I leapt to my feet, and I was barely fast enough as something collided into me.
I swung my blade without looking and felt it connect, felt some body part dismember.
Then I charged at the SUV and jumped for the roof—that green fluid turning to thick vapor and flowing into me, increasing my power—stabbing my blade down before I even landed.
The monster that had been digging around in the car went limp. Green smoke poured off and entered me, revealing a human corpse as I grabbed it by its leg and threw it into the crowd.
Then one of them grabbed my ankles and pulled my feet from under me—my face slamming into the wrecked roof—dragging me into the mass of hellish beings
I tried to hold onto the vehicle, refusing to let myself be buried under this horde, but there were too many, and they dragged me away, into their midst, farther and farther away from the SUV.
Then I heard a window break, and now someone inside did scream.
No, I couldn’t let them die.
Action, Gage. Not reaction.
“Shut up!” I shouted.
I swung my blade wildly, kicking as I did, then roaring as I forced my way to my feet and put my shield before me to push through the crowd.
I screamed sounds that were almost words as I slashed my blade, colliding with hellish flesh and causing bodies to fall before me.
&nbs
p; But for every one I took down, another filled its place.
I couldn’t feel Hunter anymore, and I was torn about which way to go. To where I saw Hunter fall, or to the SUV.
But then Emma screamed my name, and thought left me. I charged through the horde, slicing my way through them and back toward my friends.
They stopped falling however, started growing new limbs instead.
I pushed on anyway.
I made it to the front of the SUV and rolled onto the hood. From there I leapt once more onto the roof, which had a large hole in it from where the beast had reached in and tried to pull out one of my friends.
I lay flat on my stomach as another of the monsters reached in through the broken rear side-window, grabbing for Emma, who was pressed against the opposite door, far away as she could get without leaving the vehicle. Abigail and her parents huddled together in the front seat, not in immediate danger.
I didn’t let my mind think the inevitable thought that it wanted to, resisted giving these monsters—giving the eyeless one—any ideas, if that’s what I had done before.
Instead, I let my mind blank and slashed down at the beast reaching in.
I severed its arm at the shoulder, then backhanded it with my blade, sending its body stumbling backward, green gaseous fluid shooting out of the stump.
Then the other window broke, my fear, the thought—idea—I had tried to keep hidden, coming true.
Now Abigail, or perhaps her mother, screamed.
No! I thought in anger.
Emotions are useful, Gage, but never let them control you. Remember, they are simply the reactions of your primitive brain. Those primitive reactions can be useful, can even sometimes save your life. But they can also get you into trouble. You are much smarter than they are. Don’t let them control you, don’t allow someone else to dictate your actions.
Act, Gage. Don’t react.
Lying here on the roof in the midst of these monsters, I breathed out, let go of tension. I listened to the screams of my friends, letting them register, letting the emotions arise, but not feeling them.
I got to my feet atop the SUV, monsters around me trying to claw their way up. Soon they would be on the roof with me.
I saw Hunter, bloodied and disemboweled on the ground, her wings torn, her body a gruesome mess.
I didn’t know if she was dead, though I thought it might be worse if she were alive—for anyone to live through what had been done to her.
Then I turned my attention to the eyeless guard.
He was standing there, a ways back, in the middle of the road. Watching.
Controlling.
What was it that I had thought? That these were his minions?
Yes. They were minions. Puppets.
And he was the puppetmaster.
Action, not reaction.
And so I acted.
61
I dashed over the SUV’s roof, onto the hood and then leapt into the air, soaring higher than I thought possible over the heads of the hellspawns.
Still, I couldn’t fly—at least not without Hunter—and landed in the midst of them.
They clawed and bit at me, tried to pull me down, but I made fists, using my shield to push them away and my blade to slice them down, and made my steady way forward, not reacting to them, implacably pushing forward.
I felt something in my mind, a piercing pain, pushing me back.
But pain was just another emotion.
I ignored it. I didn’t feel it.
Panic arose in me, and in my detached state, I saw it for what was.
Saw that it wasn’t my own.
Saw that it was the eyeless guard’s.
Perhaps he’d had some mentor as well, some demonic lord that imbued in him with torture much worse than anything I’d been through to never let fear control him. To never react.
For when I made my way through this crowd of hellspawns, I found the eyeless guard standing there, waiting for me, one foot much larger than the other, as it oozed out of his shoe. A reptilian tumor.
The wound I had made in his right eye slit had grown, and that burning corona was even brighter and more visible. And somehow the darkness behind it, which the brightness tried to hide, was intensified as well, and stared back at me, tried to pull me in to despair, to agony. To an endless void to which I would be but a passenger.
But I wouldn’t let it.
He had bits of flesh missing from bites, claw marks, and other slashes—perhaps inflicted by the other aliens, the beasts and terminators, as nothing of this earth seemed to be able to harm the aliens.
And here too, like his eye, like that one overly large reptilian foot, something was revealed.
Something out of focus, dark, like a shadow you see from the corner of your eye at night. But when you turn to look, there’s nothing. Yet in your heart, in that deep place of your mind where all rational thought goes to die, you know what you saw, and you get out of wherever you are as quick as you can and go somewhere safe, with people, and light.
Away from the dark, away from the shadows, away from things you don’t want to believe can possibly exist.
But the only people I had were back there, behind me, and who would die soon, or be consumed and transformed by these hellspawns, which was maybe even worse. And there was no light out tonight.
What once had been a clear evening had clouded over, and if there were any moon or stars out, they were gone now, obscured by the black clouds filling the sky.
But I could still see. I could see my adversary, see that burning corona in the wounded eye, and that wound gave me strength.
Because I did that before I even knew what I was capable of. I did it with a splintered piece of wood.
Now I held my shadow blade up before me, and wondered what I could do with this.
62
I dashed forward and brought my blade down in an arc at the eyeless guard.
To both our surprises I hit him. Perhaps he hadn’t expected me to attack so suddenly.
I know I hadn’t.
Other than leaping back, faster than I’d ever seen him move, he made no reaction. Made no sound, no face of pain.
Just continued to wear that blank mask.
Yes, I thought. A mask. That’s what it was. Hiding whatever he truly was behind it.
And with a sinking feeling, I knew that whatever that mask hid, was much worse than the mask itself.
And I also knew, that I had to reveal it if I wanted any chance of saving my friends.
I went for him again but he dodged, causing me to slash through empty air and stumble.
I managed to keep my feet and turn and face him.
The hordes that had been attacking the SUV stopped and now charged at me.
I ignored them.
I would not let him control me.
My goal was to end him, and nothing would get in my way.
I ran at him, wishing I had wings, and made to slash, but then when he dodged, I spun my arm out and felt it connect with him, just barely.
I let the spin pull me all the way through until I was facing him again then ran, and instead of slicing at him I leapt, my arms out, and wrapped them around him.
We went to the ground with me on top, and his body made a repulsive squish as we landed on the cold blacktop.
Just the feel of him, even through his guard’s uniform, made me want to release him.
But I held on, like I had with that very first alien I’d fought back at Abigail’s parents’ house, and rolled us over as his minions tried to pull us apart, forming my shield over us and blocking them. Then I let go with my right hand, pressed my fist against his skull, and released my blade into his brain, or into whatever was behind that mask.
He thrashed, trying to get free, and I withdrew the blade and stabbed again and again into him.
His minions were still trying to pull us apart, trying to save him, but I wouldn’t let go, and the shield on my left hand was above us, preventing them from getti
ng a good grip.
A shield, I thought, and forced energy into my left arm.
With no surprise at all, the shield expanded into a dome surrounding us, pushing his minions away.
Then it was just him and me in the dome.
I stabbed him repeatedly, something in the back my mind yelling at me, telling me I was making a mistake.
But it was just him, trying to stop me.
I pushed it away and kept stabbing, cutting away at the monster, cutting away at the façade, trying to get to what was under—
I stopped, frozen.
What had been trying to get through, finally broke through and in a voice so powerful I swear my head shook, said, The greatest deception is to make you think you’re in control. It’s to make you think you’ve won, checkmated your opponent, when he’s the one who’s checkmated you.
It wasn’t the eyeless guard, it wasn’t this demon I was fighting, but the voice of the man who’d made me who I was. His words on the last day I’d seen him.
His final lesson.
I thought back to that day, when I was barely even a man. Standing over that bloodied corpse, my fists red with blood; mine, and its.
Then the soldiers storming the room, taking me down.
The man—the one who had set me up, the one who the old man had warned me about—standing back, watching it all, a barely concealed smile on his face.
I wanted to punch that smiling, satisfied face.
He had set me up, had planned all of it.
And he had won.
And now, here I was again, years later, playing into someone else's hand, doing just what they wanted me to do, not realizing the sacrifices they were willing to make to win.
Not realizing who they were willing to sacrifice.
I looked up at the bloodied, inhuman face, its missing features, the flesh hanging off, its skull distorted.
Had I been controlled again?
Is this what it had wanted all along?
Because as I stared up at my adversary, I saw this flesh wasn’t a mask, wasn’t a façade.
