It’s a dark, cold and windy night in the middle of December, in the back alleys of some backwater town in the middle of nowhere. Two hooded figures stalk behind a woman walking alone. She looks around, feeling that she is being watched, but doesn’t look behind her, and she remains oblivious to their presence.
The elder of the two figures reveals a kitchen knife, stolen, much like the clothes they are wearing. He steadily approaches her from behind, and in one motion, he grabs her and places the blade against her throat.
“Make one move, and you’re dead!” He exclaims.
“You will regret this…” The woman replies with a level voice.
“Oh, ok, we’ll see about that, bitch.” He remarked, trying to maintain his authority in the situation.
“John, I don’t have such a good feeling about this…” Before he could finish protesting, the younger man was cut off.
“Dammit kid! I TOLD you, don’t use my name when we do this!” John yelled, frustrated at the younger man.
“I know, but this really don’t think this is a good idea, summat don’t feel right about this.” There was a tremble in his voice.
The woman tries to struggle free, elbowing John in the gut, but the blade of the knife glides gracefully across her neck as he stumbles backward, she slumps to the ground.
“Oh shit, John, what have you done? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?” The young man had a very distraught tone to his voice.
John grabs her handbag and then grabs the kid by the arm.
“Gotten us money for some fucking food, that’s what I’ve done, now bloody move, before we get spotted!!!” Barked John.
A while later, once they got back to a derelict house, where they have been sheltering, John proceeds to empty the woman’s handbag and purse. The kid paces up and down the room, with a worried look upon his brow.
“John, please man, I don’t wanna haveta do this anymore, one of us is gonna get hurt, and it’s gonna be me, I just know it.” He said urgently.
“Listen, Reese, you’ve got nowt to worry about, as long as we don’t get caught, we’ll be fi…”
There is a sudden whooshing noise outside the window behind John; he turns around, readying his knife, the blood of the woman still drying on it. Another whoosh, this time, outside the window behind Reese. But he does not dare turn around, his flesh as white as the snow falling all around.
John picks up a piece of rubble and throws it out of the already broken window, screaming after it. “Stay away you greasy bastard’s, we got here first!”
Crouching down, Reese stares at the ground intently, trying to comfort himself. In the corner of his vision, he sees John step past him.
“Get up, you worthless piece of shit, it’s a wonder I bother to waste any of my time on…”
Hearing John putting him down triggers a memory from two years previous. He never knew his real father, he had died in a car accident before he was born, his mother had done the best she could to raise Reese, but having no siblings, or a steady father figure, he kept getting into trouble with gangs at school.
His mother fell in with a bad crowd too, she hooked up with a drug dealer, hoping he could support her and Reese, but, instead, she wound up getting abused, as did Reese. She wound up getting married to the dealer, which only made things worse; he treated them both like his property. But he made sure to never let Reese’s mother see what he did to her son.
The abuse drove them both mad, and one day, getting home from school, he found his stepfather at the front door.
“She’s dead, it’s all yer fault, ye little shit, she fuckin’ O.D.ed, didn’ she! Yer not welcome at this house no more, go on, get the fuck away from here!”
Since then, Reese had dropped out of school and had been living rough on the streets. One of his gang friend’s older brothers, John, took him under his wing, to help himself mainly, as he was homeless too and often resorted to crime to get by.
Snapping him back to the here and now, Reese hears the knife fall to the floor with a dull clatter, then, there’s a soft crumple. With a bewildered look, Reese looks to where the second sound came from, only to see John’s body on ground near the window, minus his head, just a spouting crimson fountain where it was.
“John? John! JOHN!” Screams Reese.
Reese scrambles to his feet in time to see someone hastily climb out of the Window in front of him. He grabs the knife and backs away. He makes for the other window.
Suddenly, he feels a coldness pass right through his chest, he gasps for air, slowly, he looks down to see a large black spike protruding out of him, he drops the knife in disbelief and feels his strength seeping away.
He feels the spike move him forwards and then turn him around, he is face to face with a black demon, the spike is attached to it's tail, it’s wings stretch as long as a car, small and large horns decorate its head, its scaly body and limbs look armoured and well protected, and the scarlet light emanating from its eyes burn with venom, but its form is distinctly feminine.
“I told you, you would regret this.” It hissed, scorning his very existence.
“Bu-but, it was, it was him, no-not, not m-m-me…” His voice trails off as he is loosing the battle to stay alive.
“You mortals are all the same, ‘It wasn’t me, it’s never me’. You might try accepting some responsibility once in a while. But, seek solace that I shall not waste your bodies, I shall dine tonight.”
The demon brings Reese closer to her, and with that, Reese slips into deaths welcoming and cold embrace and the demon begins to feast upon Reese’s corpse…
The End