The Cellar City Chronicles

The flashing lights and crying hookers were the first sign of trouble Renee noticed as she and David pulled up to Vixen’s. With all the hustle, no one took any note of the beat up car that slowly drove by. Surprisingly enough, the emergency services had already arrived, and there was a line of covered bodies on stretchers waiting to be carried away.

She heard David shudder beside her, and she moved to turn off the road.

“Fuck. Fuck where could she be.” David muttered, tapping the dashboard.

Renee shook her head. Her eyes narrowed at the street before her and she gripped the wheel.

“You don’t... you don’t think that she -” David started.

“No. No she’s fine. She called us after this mess. You heard her voice.” Renee snapped.

They drove in silence. Renee peered out of one side as David peered out the other, both scouring the streets they passed for signs of Lenora’s passing.

“Damnit!” Renee finally curses, slamming the steering wheel. “Where is she? Where would she go?”

“Home.” David murmured. “Where else would she feel safe?”

They exchanged glances. Another siren blew by them and they both grimaced. Renee was certain David was remembering exactly the same things she was; the hospital in district 8 where they had been called. Renee and David were listed as her In Case of Emergency contacts in her official records. Renee had been pulled out of a night shift. David had met her there still in his Gilda’s uniform.

They had both seen – albeit from a distance -Lenora, small and fragile looking in the hospital bed. Apparently she had already undergone major surgery and was awaiting a second trip to a specialist’s exacting blade.

They had been informed immediately as to the nature of Lenora’s injuries. Maybe that was what had made the experience so surreal. Renee was ashamed to count herself in the crowd that discounted those horrible things from happening to her or people she knew. They seemed to visceral, too horrible to really happen to anyone. And when it did…

Renee turned off the side street and hooked a few more turns. In the silence that ensued, she could see David fidgeting in the passenger seat. She fixed him with a sidelong glare.

“What else?”

“What?” David started, gripping his door handle.

“There’s something else, something you aren’t telling me.” Renee persisted.

David was silent a moment, looking out the window into the dark, murky streets. Renee pressed no further. Ever since the ride home weeks ago, after Lenora found that injured guy and brought him home, she’d had the nagging suspicion. Granted, recently she’d ignored it. Why bring it up? If it was important, David would tell her. Wouldn’t he?

But now, with Lenora in trouble, and everything going crazy she had to know. She had to make sure that it WAS nothing important.

“Its... about that guy. From Crank.” David started. He focused on the backs of his hands now, splayed on his knees.

Renee nodded. “All right. What about him?”

“...He’s... not what you think he is. She made me not tell, asked me to keep it from everyone. Which is, well you. I don’t think she wanted you to worry, but now...” He shook his head. She heard the shutter on his ocular clicking as he blinked. “God I don’t know Renee, I feel like an idiot.”

“David... what about that guy?” Renee felt her blood run cold. Any and all horrible scenarios flashed through her head. Had he hit her? Had he done something terrible?

“...I think he was the guy you saw in her apartment that time. The guy... you think is her boyfriend.” He grumbled awkwardly.

Renee sighed. Her grip loosened on the steering wheel and she glanced over at David. “Well, then. That’s not to bad...”

“That’s not it.” He quickly added. “He’s the guy. The guy who shot everyone up at Crank. He killed all the bouncers with his bare hands, I saw him, and she beat one of them over the head with some bottle or something -”

Renee swerved as she looked over at David. She nearly hit a parked motorbike before righting herself. “What the fuck are you saying, David? That … Lenora... that what, she has a thing for a psycho killer?”

David shrugged helplessly, gripping the handle of the door and pointing forward. “God, Renee, watch the road!”

“David!” She nearly shouted.

“I don’t know! All I know is that she told me he had saved her …. you know like I told you, he was the one who brought her to the hospital, AND that I saw him ripping people to pieces. She promised me that he would be out of the house, that she owed him one, but when you said you saw some guy there, I could tell just … from how she looked at me that it had to be him, that GUY....”

Renee slammed the steering wheel again and again, and pumped the gas. These bottom streets were emptier due to the hour, and she didn’t really think the police would be too concerned about ticketing people with the massacre they were leaving behind them.

“Fuck. Fuck Lenora, what are you doing!?” Renee muttered.

She had trusted Lenora. But why did it matter what SHE thought? She was just a friend. She and David were just there for her through everything. So what she couldn’t possibly understand everything Lenora had gone through? Renee could accept that! But it did not excuse Lenora from being an irresponsible…

OH My God Lenora, please be ok, please be ok.....

“What are we going to do?” David gazed back at her with one wide eye ,and one shutter wide open.

Renee took a deep calming breath, swinging easily into a right turn.

“We’re going to make sure she’s alright. Then we are going to make sure she stays that way.”

X felt like he was asleep and dreaming. The familiarity of this brought him pain, an aching hurt between his temples, making everything fuzzy around the edges of his crimson tinted vision. He felt adrenaline running through his veins like he felt the chiMera energy running through the building.

The way she moved, this woman, she looked... He couldn’t think. Her legs were smooth. The lace around her hips was blue, and he ran his fingers just underneath it.

His hands – he couldn’t seem to control them. They ran along the blue lace at the front, and as he passed the spot where their pelvises met, the sounds she made…

It was almost too much. Almost. He felt like he was going to burst into flame, or explode like he did in the club, but this was different. It felt bad.

Well that’s what you are. You are bad. Why the hell not be worse? It feels bad? Good. Oh God, yes, very good.

His hands moved up her sides, the satin bodice almost as smooth as her skin, and the lace around her breasts, well he felt that too. He felt them, cupped them in his hands and kneaded, and more sounds.

More, more more…

“Lenora....” He moaned. Her hips gyrated rhythmically against him in all the right places. When he said the name she didn’t even hesitate. She let out another sound.

“Oh X... Lucas, Oh yes.” She had her head back and her black hair was tumbled down her spine. He ran his hands down her front again and let them do what seemed familiar.

He was surprised that they moved into an automatic rhythm of their own. She seemed surprised too, and looked down at him with a grin.

“Coming back to you?” She purred. She leaned down and traced her tongue over his chest again. He gripped her from behind and pulled her, he wanted her closer, he wanted more.

I want to be part of this.

She grasped one of his hands and clicked something around it – a handcuff. He stopped moving, and she didn’t.

“You are going to love this.” She groaned into his ear. The sounds, the movements, he decided he didn’t care. He let her handcuff him to the radiator beside the bed. Once his right hand was out of the way, she trailed her hands down his chest and started undoing the button and zipper of his pants.

X Panted.

He actually panted. He found something humorous in it and let out a strangled sort of chuckle. The woman giggled, tossing her hair over one shoulder and pulling him out of his constraining outerwear.

“Commando.” He muttered.

Lenora.

Once skin touched skin though he found that even the voice in his head didn’t care. His free hand touched whatever part of her he could, even as she played with him. Smiling wickedly, she pressed herself against him and began to move again.

The fact that she was wet against was the point of no return. X shut his eyes.

The blinding pain in his head was only making this worse. Or better. He couldn’t tell anymore. Some sense of danger wasn’t letting him surrender, but he wasn’t about to stop this either. He wanted it. Or rather, he wanted something. He wanted something desperately, and at the moment... well it seemed very much like this was it.

X was vaguely aware that she’d tucked him back into his pants, but she was making such noises, and calling his name that in a few moments that really wouldn’t matter.

“L...Lenora. Lenora.” He repeated, both of hims, in his head and without. He reached up and found the woman’s arm, grasping her wrist as an absolutely unprecedented sensation started to build at the base of his spine.

The ChiMera energy bubbled around him, he could see it with his eyes closed, and he felt tingles of it washing down his arms.

He felt a light bulb burst somewhere, was vaguely aware that the lights turned on and then died, and he heard her gasp in surprise.

A spark flitted from his hand to her wrist and over the delicate bracelet looped there. He opened his eyes as the moment approached -

And saw someone else. Long brown red hair, like... like something he had no name for. She was... Oh fuck.

As he registered who she was, his eyes widened as the foot-long blade drove into his chest. At the last second, something came out of his peripherals and a metallic clunk drove into the woman’s skull, flinging her right off of him and into the wall beside.

The blade wriggled in his skin and X watched it in a state of surprise. It bobbed back and forth a moment as something moved past his vision.

Again and again, as the red bled out of his vision and onto the sheets, he heard a metallic thunking, and a wet squelching from where the red haired woman had fallen. Something rose and fell, and then sprayed the wall with X’s anger, and when the sounds stopped, X was aware that there was still a dark haired girl in the room, staring down at the red headed woman.

X wasn’t sure how to take it. For a moment the voice in his head laughed in defeat.

Well fuck.

X tried to take a breath and it caught on the blade. His one hand moved towards it and just as he tried to pull, a spark flew from his fingertips, down the blade and that was all he remembered before he turned into a shadow and disappeared into darkness.