Down End Road

That awful cloying smell stuffed my senses so full it gave me a headache. I fired round after round, always aiming for another shadowy figure. To my right, Alex carved a path through the Shifters. What was originally ten Shifters had escalated to twenty.

It was strange, I thought, how we weren’t all dead by now. The empty click of my gun reached my ears through the chaotic screams. Attempting to shove it in the holster strapped to my back, I made the mistake of leaving my body unprotected.

In a flash of black, A shifter passed by me, its long clawed hand tore through the soft flesh unprotected by a gap in the armour on the side of my suit. It came at me from behind, digging its claws under the armour clipped to the tight suit.

A scream barely tore through me, before the roar of a motorcycle engine purred behind me. Drawing my sword from its sheath I swung blindly, almost collapsing in relief as I felt the thwump vibrate up my arm.

Turning my head, an army of people stood behind us, either standing or astride a motorcycle. They all wore the same black leathers with the same symbol of dragon wings pinned to their breast pockets.

My lips parted in shock. Blue eyes not entirely my own scanned the crowd behind me, before that overwhelming power turned my body, sword raised, back to the front. My arm swung and green vapour rose from the decapitated neck of the Shifter.

More Shifters ran from the tree line, their numbers growing rapidly. Looking behind me again, I saw Miss Wilson step to the forefront, a strange smile playing on her lips as her gaze connected with mine.

She nodded and the group of uniform people behind her surged forward, on foot and motor. Miss Wilson turned her gaze to the left where Ally sprinted round, an almost empty bag of Abdsconditum sand in her tight fisted grip. She ran, not daring to loose focus by looking up.

Her shoulder visibly relaxed, as her sprint reached the end. A trickle of pure white sand filtering into the gap between the two lines. We were now officially invisible to the outside world.

Looking up she jolted at the sight of so many people, then almost collapsed in fright when she saw Miss Wilson, standing silently on the sidelines.

A piercing screech alerted me of another creature, before I swung round and unseamed the unsightly Shifter. My sword twirled this way and that as I continued my massacre. A flood of guilt almost froze my being, before my vision turned more blue and my control over my own body lessened.

I lunged before my sword followed the ark of my arm, slicing the demon eyed Shifter in half. A thin sheen of sweat coated the entirety of my skin, my perspiration dripping off my forehead. Wiping my hairline on my wrist, the tan skin came back, smeared in green blood.

The wounds on my side and back had stopped hurting, what felt like years ago, the power rocketing through me had numbed them. Another clawed hand swiped at my thigh, my knees buckled in agony, I saw a flash of white bone before my adrenaline kicked in again, and I swivelled on my knees swinging my blade into the Shifter. Its torso toppling onto me.

I screamed rolling it off me, before puking out the bile in my mouth. Black soulless eyes stared at me, their burning dead stare the only thing I could feel. I stared back at the head of the Shifter I had just killed.

That strange power residing in my soul gave me the strength to get up and continue forward. My body twisted from side to side, contorting into painful bends I had never done before as I sliced at every shadowed monster in my line of sight.

Abruptly, five shadowy monsters surrounded me, malicious fangs dripping acidic saliva. Their collective snarls filled my head with cotton as my gifts enhanced my brain power and tried to think up a solution.

Go for the leader, that was what we had been taught in battle preparations class, without their leader the group was useless.

Swinging my gaze around the circle of beasts, all steadily inching forward, I finally eyed the biggest of them all. A tall spindly thing, whose freakishly white, bony arms jutted our of its shadowy cloak at the slightest of movements. It hissed when I stared at it for more than a while, its think pink tongue swiping into open air. Darting around as if it had a mind of its own.

I shuddered in disgust, before plunging my sword into its unsuspecting heart, my legs split in a lunge. I pulled back, green vapour oozing from the fatal slit in its chest.

The Shifters screeched and lunged for me, they climbed on top of my body, dragging my down with them. Thwack.

My hearing filled with static as nausea suddenly rolled through me, the vile stench of shifters now not as bothersome as the splitting ache in my head. My head was held down by a viciously clawed hand, pressing my head into the hard, gravelly earth beneath me.

The manor was in my fuzzy sights. I felt spindly limbs pound against my body, their claws tearing at any exposed parts of my suit, the back of my leg was cut not once, not twice, not even thrice, but four times.

I felt them tear at the soft flesh of my under arms. The pain in my head dulled all other bodily sensations of pain. My tongue felt dry as sandpaper, my muffled cries sounded too weak to my ears. In my peripheral, I saw a white claw poised for my artery, before the light, suffocating weight of the Shifters were abruptly removed from me.

My ears still felt like they were stuffed to the brim with cotton. Muffled shouts reached my delicate senses, but I felt too weak to do anything but roll off of my side. I coughed up something onto the ground. Something that tasted remarkably rancid.

Bringing my hand up to my head, my fingers came back coated in sticky red warmth. I grimaced, then looked around. My hazy vision was impaired but clear enough to see Men and Women battling against the Shifters.

“Myra1” A staticky noise, muffled by my impaired hearing, called. “Myra!”

A large hand wrapped around my arm and hauled me to my feet. I gasped, the world suddenly rushing back to me in full focus. My hearing recited the cries of war and the roars of the sea surrounding the island.

I looked down at the hand connected to my torn arm. Following the trail until my eyes landed on Alex.

They are each others strengths, and greatest weakness’.

My mind recited in a whisper. Eyes filled with fright stared at Alex as he too seemed confused, glancing down at his arm. A cut on his head, once gaping was now slowly stitching itself together so it no longer revealed a flash of white bone. My legs, once covered in scrapes and bruises were now improved, only mild injuries -apart from the deepest cuts oozing blood- remained on my battered skin.

My mind fled to thoughts of that old leather book, sitting at the bottom of my duffel. “Um...” Alex was so unsure of himself, his words died on his tongue as he stared at me so intensely I felt fire wherever his eyes touched upon my skin. “I think we need to talk later,” he announced.

Just as I was about to respond we both looked up over the others shoulder. I snarled at the oncoming monster. It was on all fours tearing at the earth as it ran.

We moved behind each other and swung our blades. We both missed. Heart beating in my mouth, I watched in horror as the beast in front of me lunged with a clawed hand for my throat. I swung wildly, my sword slicing through its middle while another pierced its skull, the tip of it gleaming silver.

Withdrawing my blade I stood back as the tall creature lumbered down into a crumpled heap of juxtaposed limbs. “Care for a dance?” My head swung round to meet cocky gleaming eyes. His lips curved into a mischievous smirk.

I gave him a hard stare but nodded my thanks all the same. Henry’s face softened a touch before nodding back. A hardness settled over his features as he watched Alex come up behind me.

“Agatha wants to see you.” Henry informed, his voice cold and detached. I nodded, my mouth not quite able to form proper words yet. I never could speak when the power flooded my veins.

The blue light filtering my vision was more prominent than ever as we looked over the battle, my feelings organised into tiny boxes for my proper self, to discover and agonise over later.

My feet moved of their own accord, guiding my body to Agatha Wilson. She stood nearest to the manor, a small smile playing on her wide lips as she looked me over.

“Well well well, the Queen has found her rightful place.” Agatha said, I pursed my lips, urging her to move on.

“Have we got eyes on the victims?” Alex asked from behind me. Agatha’s eyes snapped to him, eyeing him scrupulously.

"I wonder." She muttered, tapping her chin with a long red finger nail. "I wonder." Her unnerving stare was broken as she pointed her hand toward the manor."They're in the foyer." She said.

I nodded and moved to trek to the odd looking building. I paused remembering my friends. Looking back to the battlefield, I saw its once green grass now littered with luminous white limbs and rolling heads.

My blue vision spotted Maverick, Ally just behind him. Both were swinging their swords in wild arcs, weapons slicing through skin and bone with lethal blows.

What a grim sight.

Turning my focus back on the Manor I began to run.