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Almost done with chapter 6 so... Next chapter coming soon!

The Walk Home

This is not a Jack Spade story but I wrote it and need a place to stick it (insert joke here). It was a spur of the moment type of impromptu thing. Hope somebody enjoys it. 

A chilled wind rustled through the trees accompanied by the sounds of wind chimes hung from the multiple apartment balconies. He was alone on his way home from a friend’s house. A shiver cascaded down his spine; he could feel eyes upon him, multiple eyes peeping through blinds, watching his every step as he passed by their windows. The chimes gave off a feeling of being in another world, a place where realities merged. He walked the hundred or so yards back to his apartment lost in his own thoughts, wondering if his middle child was asleep yet, if his wife was still up with the baby? Hopefully the two youngest were asleep then maybe if his wife was willing he'd get her to fool around a bit.

The odds were never in his favor.

He passed by the apartments pool that had been locked up for the winter and thought about just jumping the fence, stripping down in the cool air and diving in but, that was only a fleeting thought. He wasn’t that spontaneous. He always tried to play by the rules and besides it would take a lot more alcohol than what he had left in his glass to spur him to such reckless abandon.

The wind picked up with a heavy gust then sustained itself at a constant speed causing a cacophony of tones to ring out from the multitude of wind chimes hanging from the porches and balconies around him. He was startled from the sound and made a quick look around to see where the noises were coming from but, it was pointless. The chimes were everywhere. How come he had never noticed them before. He squeezed his eyes shut tying to focus on the concrete walkway in front of him but, it wasn't his eyes that were the problem it was the environment. Everything around him shifted, wobbled and rippled outward from the wind chimes. It was as if he could see the sound waves being admitted from the chimes as the wind caused them to strike together.

And that's when he felt it, teeth like needles pierce his shoulder through his cotton t-shirt. Something had bit him but, when he turned around there was nothing there, just a distorted, wobbly landscape; with the cool, still waters of the pool. "What the Hell just happened he thought to himself". The wind continued to blow but, the pool water was calm, glassy. 

"That can't be right, the wind is to strong not to at least cause some ripples in the water?"

Then the water started to move but not in a way that it should have. Multiple thin columns of water arched into the air like tentacles from an octopus. They wrapped around the metal bars in the fence and pulled a clear jelly like creature up onto the textured concrete that surrounded the pool.

His brain screamed run but his legs didn't speak the same language anymore. Tentacles shot forth like whips from the creature trying to grab at him but, at the last moment his legs decided that it would be a good idea to run. He could still see and hear the sounds rippling outward from the chimes. The sound along with his distorted vision caused a wave of nausea to roll over him and he fought back the urge to vomit but, it still made his throat burn and his eyes water. He ran. He ran through the tunnel between the buildings, past the laundry room and mailboxes that were built into the wall. He ran the sixty or so feet left towards the front door of his apartment as he got there he threw what was left of his rum and coke he was drinking ,before this all started over his shoulder as he fumbled for his keys. Thanking God he didn't drop them in his haste. He drove the key home feeling the mechanism inside the lock click free he shoulder the door open and then dove inside locking it back as quickly as he could. 

Exhaustion washed over him and he passed out right there at the base of the stairs.

Early the next morning his wife found him curled into a fetal position with his head resting on the first step of the staircase, concerned he may have fallen down the stairs during the night she rushed to his side and tried to wake him. His eyes popped open and he immediately grasped his head with both hands. The hangover had already started. He relayed the events of his walk home to his wife who laughed it off saying," I told you not to drink too much, it would give you nightmares".

Was it all a dream? Did he stumble in drunk as Hell and just pass out on the floor? Reluctantly he went back to the door and turned the thumb latch to unlock it and peered out the crack it made as he slightly opened the door. The sun hadn't raised above the roof of the courtyard buildings but he could see it. 

There on the sidewalk layer the glass he had been drinking from, turned on its side, empty. He felt like a fool. It was all some drunken induced dream. He went to pick up the plastic glass when the sunlight peaked over the roof of the adjoining building and that's when he saw it, a trail that sparkled like a billion diamonds that stopped only feet from his over turned glass. 

He stared for a moment then, closed the door, turned the thumb latch that locked the door and started up the stairs. Shock had set in, his mind raced, and then his vision blurred, dizzied he reached out his hand to catch the stair rail to balance himself. His shoulder hurt, searing pain brought him down to his knees right there and his hand slipped from the rail. Through the pain his mind told him something else felt off, felt wrong. The rail, it felt slimy, why? He looked at it and what he saw made what little sanity he still possessed shatter. His hand and most of his arm was a clear gelatinous tentacle. 

He screamed!

His wife ran back into the room to see what was going on and the last sounds she heard were that of her own here own screams joining in unison with his.

Spade 10:5

OK, everything takes me longer than I expect it to these days. Sorry for making everyone wait for the next chapter, By "everyone" I mean, the only one that reads this stuff. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it at least a little. It's still a rough draft but I'm going to go with it anyway, at least for now.

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I followed Kitua around the back of the barn, "Guess you know where you’re going?" I say to her as she leads me down a trail into a sparsely wooded area. From over my left shoulder flew the crow that had been following us. He landed on the branch of a fallen dead tree and started to squawk that irritating gwah-gwah at me.

"I wish that bird would shut up", came that ever so familiar voice in my head.

"Oh, so you have decided to grace me with your abysmal commentary again. I was hoping I was done with you since you've been quiet for the last couple hours." I say out loud, which makes Kitua turn back and look at me with a look that was both quizzical and irritated all at the same time.

She sure has made me feel uneasy since I met her.

"Ive had a bit of a headache since you used up all of that creatures essence I absorbed through our touch.”

"Essence?” I ask aloud with a twinge of confusion in my voice but, this time Kitua didn't pay me any notice as she made her way further down the trail in front of me. 

 

"It's life-force, spirit energy, soul; whatever you want to call it. Do you not remember anything from before?" His voice thunders through my headache making me stumble a little.

"Not much, most things seem so clear until I try to concentrate on them but, then they blur like an old chalk painting. I remember how Jessica died and the pact I made with you, there was blood... lots of blood, some kind of prison then the collar those demons put on me."

He laughs, "Your pathetic human brain. He wasted so much time in creating you only to leave you broken, unfinished... This might hurt a little."

I can feel him grinning as memories come flooding back to me ripping my brain apart. I put both my hands to each side of my head in an effort to keep it from exploding. The pain was so intense I scream. My vision starts to darken into a long tunnel and this time when I stumble I'm unable to stop myself from falling face first into the hard dirt of the trail.

"Pathetic...” is the last thing I hear as I fade off into unconsciousness yet again.

I feel a hard slap against my cheek as I start to come back to reality, my face stings and I jerk open my eyes. Kitua is sitting there on her haunches watching me, her head cocked to one side. As I start to stand back up she turns and trots back down the trail again turning only once to give me a short bark to hurry up.

I guess some time passed while I was out cause the sun seemed like it had changed position slightly. Now it was more in my eyes than it was before. Images of horrible things flashed before my eyes, all the things I had done since this nightmare began. My stomach heaved, "Oh God how could I have done those things and not remember." I choke down the bile that is eating away at my throat and try to breathe though my lungs feel like they are constricting.

"You were a monster. In your grief I didn't have to push hard to bring out the darkness you harbor inside. You were a sight to behold, it didn't matter if they were demon or human you killed, just ripped the life right out of them. That one family; slowly killing the parents while the kids watched was one thing but, how you killed that little girl and made her older brother watch with his hands literally nailed to the floor. Truly priceless."

"That wasn’t me!” I scream. "It was you; it was all because of you!"

At that instant Kitua darts past in a blur and collides with a dark mass behind me. Growls and screeches come from the tangled mess of coyote and...

"It's a Hellcat and they always travel in packs", he chimes in. "Your little girl screams must have attracted them."

"Them? I only see the one!", the words rush out of me as I draw my gun and try to look for a clear shot but, there's no way I wouldn't hit Kitua if I fired now. Besides all I could see was Kitua rolling around with what looked like a black ball of wispy gas.

"They are there. Use the power you stole from the hunter, look hard shift your sight out of phase and you will see them." His voice sounds old, commanding so I try.

I stare into the mass of darkness entangled with Kitua and try to recall what it felt like when the hunter had lifted me up by my throat. How the wind had stopped battering me and it happened. I could see it now. The wispy black smoke gave way to what looked like a giant house cat, but all scary looking with matted, blood stained fur and glossy grayish white eyes. They are the eyes of something that has been dead for a while.

Now that I can see it, I bring my gun to bier, aim, pull the trigger and I can see the bullet leave the barrel and travel down it's invisible path right into the head of the Hellcat splitting it open with a sickening pop.

I start to move towards Kitua as she pushes herself from under it and shakes some of the blood away from her jaws but, she looks hurt. And now I've got a new problem. I hadn't seen them until it was too late. Two more shot out from the brush, one on each side of me. The left one bit down on my pants leg near my boot and started to pull while the other lunged and bit into my right wrist pulling me off balance. If that wasn't bad enough I felt another one jump onto my back, digging its claws into my shoulder.

Down I went again into the dirt. The first one must have just been a distraction while the rest of the pack circled around to get a better position on me. "What is it with everything trying to kill me", I think.

"Well maybe if you didn’t scream like a little girl all the time you wouldn’t attract so much attention. Were you always this helpless."

"Helpless!” I retort. "I'm being attacked by three demon kitty cats. Never mind, that sounds pathetic."

The one on the right shakes my wrist so violently it seems it's trying to rip it off.  The pains caused by its teeth send sharp spasms through my hand that force me to release my grip on my pistol. "Great, now I'm unarmed."

"You will be soon if you don't listen to me and stop this now.  Grab hold of that one’s fur and pull."

With no other option I could think of in the heat of the moment I wrap my hand into the chest fur of the Hellcat that is latched onto my wrist and the runes burnt into my forearm start to glow. A shadowy outline of the creature starts to immerge from its body as I wrench my arm from its jaws. Fear lights the Hellcat's eyes as it releases its grip from me it turns and tries to run only to have its physical body collapse to the ground a few feet away.

In my hand I now held the ghostly shape of the beast, its writhing mass trying desperately to escape my grip. I watch as it is slowly drawn into the flesh of my hand like smoke trying to escape a vacuum.

 Dirt is pressing into my left eye from the weight of the one still on my back now, it's trying to clamp it's teeth around my throat from behind so I try my best to roll my shoulders up to protect it. Then, I hear a sigh from inside my mind.

"Ahh...that's so much better."

Now with both hands free I stabilize myself with my left and reach behind my head and grab the fur of the one clamping its teeth into the back of my neck and pull. The same thing that happened only moments before does again. I feel the dead weight of the beast collapse onto my back and I watch the remnants of another Hellcat disappear into my hand.

Looks like Kitua has recovered because when I turned my attention towards her, she was nose to nose with the remaining Hellcat. It had let go of me to focus its attention on its own safety now. I could feel new energy coursing through me but I could tell Kitua was hurt enough that the Hellcat might get the best of her.

"Use your gun, stupid!" rasped that familiar voice. So I dove toward my pistol and felt its familiar wooden grip caress my hand. Rolling onto my left side I raised my right arm and fired. The Hellcat never knew what hit him. The .45 caliber bullet knocked him into spin that left him in a lumpy pile a couple feet to the right of Kitua.

She never even flinched when the report from the gunshot went off or when the bullet truck, she stood her ground still poised to take on her next opponent, she's quite an animal.

"Yep, she's one tough bitch", cackles my inner demon. His comment makes me smirk just a little and Kitua looks at me with that look of disapproval again. What's up with this bitch!?!

Staggering my way towards her, Kitua reluctantly falls into my arms and I head back towards the dilapidated old barn I had met her in only hours before.

Chapter 5

Ok I'm trying to write at least a little every day so hopefully I can bang out chapter 5 pretty soon. Thanks to whoever might be reading any of it. Please take the time to leave a comment.

Spade 10:4

Spade 10:4

The sun had risen high in the eastern sky by the time I came to. Seems the hurricane had decided to move on while I was passed out. Ow, it hurts to move. All the muscles in my body feel like I haven't used them in weeks.

I push myself up into a seated position and look around but, nothing seems right. Where am I? An old barn? That's not right. I should be lying in the middle of the street. How did I get here? I wince away the pain as I make my way to my feet to get a better view of the place I'm in.

Dried out hay bales are scattered around the place, most so old their yellow color had faded to a dingy gray. The wood framing also had the same coloring but the graying gave it an appearance of stone and the wood siding the builder had used had lost so much of its moister over the years that the planks had gasp between them so wide you could stick a finger through.
“I’m amazed this place is still standing”, I chuckle to myself.

"I see you have finally woken up", a baritone voice from behind me bellows. I spin around as quickly as my muscles will allow me too, and draw my pistol… wait where's my pistol?

The voice came from the shadows made by the open barn doors."It's on the table over there but you won't need it while you are here. If I meant you any harm I'd have left you lying in the street where I found you." He then stepped into the light and I could now see who was talking to me. Before me stood the largest, oldest looking Indian, er… Native American, that I've ever seen. He stood at least 6'10" and had more cracks, bumps and lines in his features than a dried up river bed. A worn leather eye patch covered his left eye. Something emanated from him that gave me a since of peace but, set me on edge all at the same time. He must be where they got the idea for the wooden Indian statues. "I'm not that old kid-o, but I'm close." He chuckled in that deep voice.

"How… do you… know what I'm thinking?", I stammer.

"Ancient Chinese secret", he chuckled again. "You've been unconscious for almost three weeks. We've been taking care of you as best we could with the limited resources we have with us."

"We?”

"Gawh-gawh", came from the rafters above me. A crow sat high on a cross beam near a large hole in the wooden shingled roof to the left of me. Even from that far away I could see an unmistakable intelligence in its eyes.

The old Indian started coughing heavily as he made his way across the floor to a brick stove with a cook pot on it that I swear, wasn't there moments ago. My head started to hurt and I needed to sit down so I turned toward the table were my gun lay and I was shocked to see a golden brown coyote sitting in one of the chairs. Its eyes starred into me and for a moment I felt connected to… her. I stumbled and the connection broke like a door slamming in my face.

Man I've got to sit down. As I did she continued to study me with her eyes, I looked back into them but nothing happened this time. I feel like I'm losing my mind… more.

"Kitua can have that effect on people from time to time." He said as he sat down to my left and dropped a bowl of what looked like chili in front of me. "Eat up kid, you need to put some meat back on those bones."

" I guess I need to be saying thanks for finding me out there, if you hadn't I'd have died by now, which might have been a good thing if I had." The last part I let slip out so quietly that I didn't think he could of heard me but he did. "That would have been a shame" was all he said just as quietly as I had as he shoveled a bite of chili into his maw of a mouth.

My pistol sat in the middle of the table just a foot and half in front of me and I started to reach for it. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the old man flick a quick glance at me and then the gun. I'm not sure why but I changed the target of my reach to grab the spoon sticking out of the bowl and awkwardly took a bite of the chili. "Wow, this is good!"I mumble.

"Not my best," he responded.

"Well it's the best I've had in a long, long time." My unease was waning with reach bite and I was getting that feeling of being home. Heh, home that would be something; to just go back to the way things were before the war fucked everything up.

"Who says you can't go home… who says you can't go back…" I hear Him sing from the back of my mind.

I almost jumped out of my seat, my heart skipped and I started to choke on the last bit of chili I had taken. He had been quiet for so long this time I had forgotten he was there slipping through the creases of my mind like a venomous snake in a still pond. He laughed at me but went quiet again.

"Yep, it can get to you every once in a while", he said as he looked at me from his empty bowl. "You want some more?"

"Maybe something to drink would be nice", I choked out.

"Well, there's water in the barrel out back if you want but, I've got this right here." He pulled his left hand up from underneath the table holding a weather beaten bottle of rum so old the label was etched in the glass, my mouth began to water. How long had it been since I'd had a drink, almost ten years? Has she been gone that long?

He poured three fingers worth into two tall glasses that he had produced with the bottle. They had sat upside down on top of the bottle like a crystal bell and chimed as he sat the bottle on the table.

"To new friends and past loves" he said raising his glass to his mouth. I hesitated only for a moment then took the glass in hand and put down half of it in one shot. It might as well have been water with how smooth it went down but the old man started coughing, doubling himself over where he sat at the table.

The coyote just sat there and watched us from her chair across from me.

"I'm getting too old and I'm too tired these days to do anything about it", he spat out between the coughing. "This world's gone to Hell and there used to be a day when I would have stepped out that door and stopped it but, I don't have the strength anymore, Jack. War is a young man's game. I tried to steer events to a more favorable outcome but, that old road to Hell is paved with good intentions isn't it?" his coughing cut him off again.

I looked at him with a skeptical eye and blurted out, "How long you been out here on your own like this old man? And how'd you know my name?"

He stopped coughing, sat up straight, poured himself half a glass of rum, shot it down in one gulp, looked me right in the eye with his one good one and said, "Too long and you talk in your sleep." He slammed the glass back down on the table and got up. "I'm going to take a nap. Try to make yourself useful since you're awake now and go get some wood for a fire tonight." With that he slowly made his way from the table to one of the hay beds in the corner. He groaned as he lay down and I swear the ground groaned with him. I looked at the rum bottle to see if the rum inside was rippling from the vibrations in the ground but the bottle was full. I know we drank at least half the rum. My head started to hurt again.

"Take Kit-", he started to cough, "Kitua with you." Then he started to snore.

I looked from him to the coyote and she jumped down from the chair and headed out the door. When I didn't immediately follow her she stepped back in the doorway and barked once at me then turned and headed further outside.

"Great another female telling me what to do", I grabbed my pistol, slipped it back in my holster and headed out the door to go get some wood for a fire but, I was startled as that crow swooped past me out the door with the ringing of “Gawh-gawh” left in its wake.

My head ached from all the weirdness of the last hour.

Spade 10:3

Through the blur the body of a woman lying on the ground covered in blood flickers into existence right in front of me like single frames out of an old movie reel. "Jessica, I'm sorry", I whisper as her image flickers a few more times and then is gone.

I shake my head from side to side, squeezing my eyes shut as I try to bring the world back into focus. The pain seems to be fading away as I reopen my eyes but that can't be right, I'm losing too much blood. I'm going into shock; that must be the reason.

My right hand starts to burn and I can feel him pushing at the back of my mind. The scars left by the deal I made with him, my 'branding' as he refers to it, ache. I can feel the warm, smooth wood of that phantom pistol in my hand once again and it comforts.

He pushes me closer to the edge.

My resistance isn't what it was a few weeks ago. Hell not even fifteen minutes ago. Was that really her or is he making me see ghosts? Well, it wouldn't be the first time.

I push myself up on to just my knees and what is left of the blood still in my body rushes away from my brain. Light headed, dizzy… wee!

Heh, almost passed out there, I have to stay focused.

A lack of energy causes my head to roll forward and through the top of my field of vision I can see it making its way closer to me. Gracefully lumbering forward like a cat confident it has cornered its prey.

He pushes…

I can sense the other one behind me as the one that kicked me stops almost within arm’s reach. It's holding one of the restraint collars in its clawed hand, my old one it looks like. With those glowing runes etched in its stone surface, yeah it must be.

I can't go back…

He can feel my desperation, it's feeding him and he pushes harder this time… so I jump.

With an energy and speed I didn't think I had left in me I lung towards its legs. It is startled, but not fast enough to move away and I clamp my right hand around what should be its ankle. The scars on that hand and arm start to glow white with increasing intensity, etching out arcane symbols that burn my skin, and in my mind I feel him revel in his victory over me. It tries to pull away but my grip seems to be fuzzed in place. I can feel its life draining away, into me, its very soul being stolen away by my touch. The sensation is intoxicating and he bathes in it. Then the white hot fire that burned only from my scars seconds before spreads out through my hand and engulfs the creature in a flash of bluish-white fire. I can release my grip now, so I do and push myself as far away from the thing as I can but, with the car right behind me it was pointless. The creature lets loose a howl so horrific that my stomach starts to convulse and images of maggot covered corpses flood my brain. Then the fire blinks out and the creature is gone, only ashes blown away by the driving winds of the hurricane still ragging.

I can see the wind blowing the trees and power lines around but, I can't feel it anymore. Just like when it picked me up. How’s this possible?

"You've absorbed some of its power by consuming its soul. Now, you will see what can be done with it."

I feel a clawed hand grab me by the hair and throw me like a ragdoll over a truck ten feet to my left.

Man, I'm really tired of being tossed around like some old toy a three year old thinks can fly. As I drag myself up I can see the remaining creature in all its horror. Still ten feet away and on the other side of the truck it tossed me over. I guess it is because I absorbed the other ones soul but, now I can see the true form of the creatures that were chasing me.

What I thought was a cloak or duster of some sort was, in reality, wings. Like those of an enormous bat. It had folded them around itself like a cloak. Well not anymore. They were spread wide and must be twenty feet from tip to tip. It was humanoid, bipedal, but its head and face looked like an octopus had sat on its shoulders and let its tentacles hang down the thing's chest. Black orb eyes protruded from the sides of the bulbous head and I swear you could see it’s hatred for me in them. Its fingers were like bird talons, gnarled and tipped with a sharp claw at the end. The tentacles on its chest spread apart from the middle as a large bird like beak pushed forward from where its throat should have been. The beak like mouth opened and a horrid wail pierced through the sounds of the hurricane.

My knees went weak and fear gripped me. It charged with its beak open, clawed hands extended forward and its wings curling back.

I felt a familiar weight on my right hip. I reach down to find my pistol, the pistol that ruined my life. And I drew. It was almost like instinct, a trained skill the years in the military honed into me.

I fired…

Energy drained from me as the bullet left the barrel in a blaze of blue Hellfire. The bullet struck the creature in the mass of tentacles that covered its chest, surprise registering in those cold black eyes. I staggered slightly from the feeling of the energy drained by firing the gun itself. The creature screamed in what could only be pain and fell to a knee.

"Shit, if I have to do that again there is no way I'm not going to pass out right where I stand", I thought to myself as it rose back to its feet.

It started for me again and I raised the barrel of my pistol, fired and felt the energy pass from me into the bullet. This bullet struck it in the stomach, or at least what would be the stomach of a normal man. God only knows what this thing has there, but it must have been enough because it turned and ran the other direction flapping its wings and lifted off into the night sky.

"That's good", I thought to myself as my vision dimmed and my knees gave out to my weight. My last thought as my body crumpled on to the asphalt was, "How did I get my gun and belt back?"

Spade 10:2

I try to run but the wind picks up with a fury that matches my desperation.

Damn, even the elements are against me.

I feel the wind clawing at me trying to get a grip, like thousands of ghostly hands frantically pulling me away from my shelter. And then it does. Like a rag doll I am lifted off my feet and pushed by the sheer power of Mother Nature some thirty feet through the air into the side of an abandoned car.

Pain shoots through my body and I hear his snake-like voice slithering its way through, "I can make it stop. Just release me and you can walk out of here. You don't have to do this alone."

I shove his goading aside and through the howling wind I can hear the faint sound of wood splintering and the cry of steel bending as I watch a massive billboard sign that says "Jesus Saves" come crashing down on the very spot that I was standing at only a moment before the wind decided to relocate me.

I look at the billboard. Where were you the last time I needed you? I think to myself.

"Where, indeed?"

His mocking tone makes my stomach turn.

CRACK!
Lightning flashes and lights up the entire area and I can see one of them standing between me and the collapsed billboard. His leathery cloak looking almost untouched by the gusting winds.

There were two of them. There are always two of them, they travel in pairs. I look around in a panic. Where is the other one? Then, I feel a clawed hand come from behind me, tighten around my throat and squeeze the breath from it.

Now I know! It lifts me off the ground and turns me to face it. The nails of its leathery hand dig into my neck and I can feel a searing pain spread outward from them. Poison? It must be seeping into my skin from its grip.

Some things different, I can no longer feel the wind or hear the raging storm like I could only moments ago. I know it's still there though, the trees are still whipping around and the street lights are swinging violently. Tons of lose debris swirls around us as it lifts me closer, to a face so distorted and grotesque I suppress the urge to wretch.

My spine straightens with small cracks and pops that reverberate through my body as my full weight is lifted from the ground. Should I tell it how much I needed to have my back popped?

It speaks with a voice that sounds like someone continuously crumpling paper. Its breath carries on it the stench of decay and molded dirt.

"You will come back with us to finish what was started"

"I am finished", I proclaim as defiantly as I can muster but, with its hand around my throat I sounded rather pathetic.

But still. He didn't like that, I laugh to myself as my body slams down on the pavement and once again I can hear and feel the full force of the storm. Ow, pain... when... I breathe. I must have cracked a rib when I landed.

I look up to see the creature step down from the hood of the car is was perched on, the same one that the wind had thrown me into only minutes before. It's massive body blocking out the maelstrom behind it.

Moving quicker than I could imagine for its size, it steps forward and kicks me in the chest. I go flailing into the air only to be caught by the wind and slammed back down on the asphalt.

My ribs are defiantly broken now. Pain spreads out from almost every nerve ending in my body at once. I feel my mental antagonist recoil to the back of my mind, he must have felt it too…

I can taste that familiar coppery flavor flooding my mouth as I cough up too much blood for there not to be something seriously wrong with my insides. I've got to get up, they can't take me back. They'll just use me, or rather you, like a weapon again if they put that suppression collar back around my neck.

“Good times again!”

I press myself up on all fours and see that my hands are in a pool of my own blood.

Not again. Not like last time, I think as my concentration starts slipping. My vision blurs.

“You have no choice. You’ll have to fight them if you want to live. Why don’t you loosen my bonds or just set me free. There’s no need to burden yourself with all this worry and guilt, Its not your fault what happened back then, you had no control over your situation. I can make the pain go away. ”

Spade 10:1

Lightning streaked across the sky like skeletal hands reaching out for anything they could wrap their electrifying grip around. The rain came down hard in transparent sheets that resembled curtains blowing in a light breeze. The wind, however, was a different story. A hurricane rolled in off the Gulf and took both them and me by surprise. It just might have saved my life though. Assuming it doesn't decide to kill me now after all.

They have been following me for days, some sort of demonic bloodhounds. If they catch up to me they’ll drag me back so I've got to keep moving, even in this mess. I'm too tired and worn out to fight them right now and if they catch me it will all happen again. And I will never let any of it happen again.

"Yes. You will ."

I push the voice to the back of my mind and lock it up as best I can.

"So Weak…"

Was that my thought or his?

I'm slowly going mad and he knows it, I can feel him relish every little slip of my psyche as I gradually fall prey to his will.

Another bolt snakes across the sky and I can vaguely see one of them slip behind a building a couple hundred yards away. They are closer than I thought. I've got to move. I'll wait till the next lightning strike, hopefully the bright flash of light will blind them long enough for me to make a break for that building down the street. So I cover my eyes with my hands and wait.

CRACK! Run. 

Staying low I move from car to car trying to stay out of site. I'm almost there. My legs buckle as I make it to the door. I'm so tired. 

Shit! The doors locked and the wind is picking up again. I look back, through the hundreds of mostly abandoned cars, some still with there passengers starring lifelessly out the shattered windows. Burned shells that now litter the streets in every direction.

FLASH!

I shielded my eyes almost to late from the lightning but I can still see them. Two massive cloaked figures that remind me of wraiths in some old horror movie. They're just standing there in the rain; still a couple hundred yards away.

Have they seen me?

"Yes…"

No, not yet I've still got time. I've got to hurry, I dive around the corner of the building and I hear their gut wrenching wail, my skin crawls. They did see me.

"Of Course they did...," He laughs at me.

I feel my right hand instinctively grope at my upper right thigh for my revolver and instantly remember that I hadn’t had time to get it when my chance to escape came. I only had time to run.

“How Pathetic…”

His banter is slowly making me crazy and really angry.

Shut up, I mentally scream at him, just shut up!

"You will have to fight. You will have to kill them if you don't want to go back and be used again. I'm… more than willing to go back but, I’m stuck with you. Trapped in you till I can find a way out, and when I do you’ll wish you never made that deal with me."

I wish all the time I never made that deal with you. After seeing what you used me to do while I was trapped only able to watch, kinda like you are now. I’ll never let you out as long as I still breathe.

“Well that might be a long hard road boy; cause, as long as I’m a part of you… You’ll never die!”

A Little Rewrite

Well, I kinda wasn't happy with a few things I had written so far so I figured with the new blog I'd do a little rewriting before I re-posted everything. I tweaked a few things here and there and added a little more description to some parts, over all I just tried to tighten the story up a little. So here are chapters 1 through 3 as I have them right now. Four will be up some time tomorrow, I hope, and a new chapter by the end of next week. Anyway hope you like'em.