Chapter 6
They fell - for an aching moment that was both a fleeting second and an eternity of anticipation they seemed to fall forever.
The ground rose up out of the darkness and hit them with a soft thump, the wet grass cushioning their undignified fall.
Wil/Elizabeth lay on the grass, gasping - pain lancing through their shared body. The frigid night air and moist dew ripped their twin minds from their stupor and shock, clarifying perceptions with an electric charge - sweeping the clouds from their mind. They lay there for a moment, on their side, breathing. Sounds of violence and destruction began again in the room upstairs. Cries of alarm could be heard nearby as people awakened to the angry sounds of the conflict.
Wil let out an agonized moan that was half pain, and half denial. "Nooooooo! Oh, God - nooo!"
The haunting, pained exclamation died away as the silence-filled night air returned, as if to smother the unnatural noise they had emitted. They lay there for a few moments more.
"We must run." The voice that came out her mouth was soft, whimpering.
"Yes." Now the voice was calm, flat - almost lifeless.
After another short pause their bruised and naked body rose - ghostly in the moonlight. Surveying the backyard of the Inn they discerned the escape - an open gateway that lead to the back street. Staggering slightly, they began to run.
Azrael faced Flin and snarled, exposing savage canine incisors. Flin screamed back, stuck somewhere between a human voice and something else, something...primal. Flin's body was bigger now, misshapen under the remains of his clothes, his face distorted as the bone structure continued to change to an almost Neanderthal physiognomy. The room was a shattered wreck, the furniture largely turned to matchsticks, two of the walls with huge holes smashed in them.
"The sow is mine!" bellowed Azrael.
"No - you have no right to her! Your species is unworthy!"
"We will see who is unworthy, filth!!"
Flin made to close with Azrael at exactly the same time as the door to the room opened and the proprietor of the Inn burst in. Smoothly Azrael grasped him by the lapels of his coat and, with one arm, hurled the fully-grown man at his enemy, as easily as a child might toss a rag doll. The helpless man caught Flin across the chest as he was stepping forward, knocking him backwards and demolishing what was left of the bed. The tragic body of the Innkeeper fell to the floor lifeless - his back broken.
Azrael loomed over Flin's body as the prostrate figure struggled with the shaft of wood that protruded from his chest.
"You got lucky, animal," Flin gurgled as blood poured from his mouth, unable to lift himself off the impaling spike.
Azrael smiled his toothy smile and lent forward, taloned hands outstretched. There was movement behind him. Azrael dropped the smile, straightened and turned around.
Marcus stood up - his body bloody and ripped. He stared coldly at Azrael.
"Your species is weak and pathetic." Marcus' words spat controlled venom at the mighty creature before him. "How do you possibly hope to stand before our power?"
"Soon you and your kind will flee screaming back to the extra-dimensional hole you crawled from. I have the weapon to destroy you," the diabolic entity spat back.
"Oh, no. No, no, no." Marcus looked at him from under his eyebrows, "We know who it is now - what it is - and soon we shall possess it. Then we shall conquer this miserable dimension and pursue you into yours. And then your kind will be erased from time and space - for all eternity."
"Yeearrrgghhh!!!" The demonic beast emitted a howl of rage and stepped forward, huge fist raised.
Marcus blocked the blow aimed at his head and, binding his opponent's arm with his own, he smashed his forehead into the demon's face four times. Azrael staggered and then screamed again as Marcus grabbed his testicles, squeezing tightly. With his other hand round Azrael's throat, Marcus lifted him up like a doll and hurled him head first into the damaged wall. The huge red-skinned body smashed clean through it and disappeared into the darkness.
An eerie silence settled upon the room, broken only by the excited cries of people closing in on the scene of the disturbance.
"Excuse me," it was Flin, still struggling to rise, "could you take a moment to give me a hand."
Marcus dragged his gaze away from the hole Azrael he disappeared through and looked down upon him, breathing heavily.
"You are such a loser," he said, shaking his head slightly. He reached down, grasped his outstretched hand and pulled him up and off the spike.
"Aaaah!!" Flin, now on his feet, staggered slightly. "It was bad luck. The red-skinned freak was fortunate."
"Only losers believe in fortune."
"Please fuck yourself. We must go."
"Yes, we will retire somewhere to repair damage, equip ourselves with weapons and then pursue them. The animal will not take us by surprise next time."
"Excellent. Let's us proceed."
They moved to leave the room.
"And next time, Flin, please do not let yourself be disbled by a human. I can not perform all the tasks on this mission."
"Of course, Marcus. Pardon me for asking, but how long do you think it'll take to get those teeth marks out of your penis?"
"Shut up."
As they left the room, still sniping at each other, a large chunk of the ceiling caved in, burying the scene in timber and dust.
Neither Wil nor Elizabeth could have determined how long they had been moving. They staggered along in the darkness, feeling the chill of the night and the lancing pains from their abused abdomen. It was becoming too much for Elizabeth and Wil hid them in the backyard of a darkened house. It took several minutes of stillness and listening to the sounds around them before Wil spoke.
"We need'a get our hands untied and get some clothes before hypothermia sets in."
"Quite. And before we freeze to death! It's bloody cold out here!"
"Yeh, that too."
"How are we going to get my hands free?"
"Don't fuckin' know. And they're my hands too right now."
The sound of voices caused them to freeze.
"We gotta wait here."
"Too bloody fucking right! If I'm discovered in this...condition, well, the consequences would be too horrible to imagine!"
"Yeh, your social position an' all that shit. I was also thinking of those two fuckin' psycho's and their desire to fuck us up beyond recognition."
"Oh, yes. Them."
"I couldn't believe these two assholes fell for that old Briar Rabbit 'Don't throw me in the briar patch, Massuh' line. Those fuckers were too dumb! Which is good, if they're all that dumb they can be beaten."
They fell silent, listening once more to the sounds of people disappearing down the street, in the direction they had come.
"Wilhelmina?" Elizabeth whispered.
"Wil."
"Wil?"
"What?"
"Who are you and how can you be in my mind? This is all very confusing."
"No shit it's confusing. I have an idea how this went down though. Just for now you'll have to put up with me. OK? Right now we gotta concentrate on getting to safety."
"Ummm...OK."
"Wil?"
"Yes?"
"My stomach hurts. It's all cut and it hurts. It hurts lots."
"It's my stomach too, baby."
"I'm not a baby."
"Shut up while I think."
It seemed forever had passed as they lay there, listening to the sounds of excited voices and footsteps. There had been movement in the house they were sheltering behind but thankfully the occupants had chosen to go out the front door not the back.
They were shivering uncontrollably by now, and Wil knew they had to move soon or start to freeze. But they would find it hard to move covertly while naked - white skin tended to glow under moonlight.
A figure dropped in front of them, large and powerfully built.
They managed to both scream simultaneously through the same mouth.
"Woah," said Azrael, "do I detect some stress here?" His handsome face broke into a smile.
"You bastard, " Wil hissed, "you just about gave us a heart attack!"
"Azrael!" Elizabeth said with their next breath, trying to stand up despite the pain it caused them, "you've come to save us!"
"As always, my love!" Azrael beamed, arms outstretched as he stepped forward to give them a hug.
"Oh make me puke! And get the fuck away from me." The sweet expression on Elizabeth's face immediately changed to sour as Wil pushed him away. It was a bit disconcerting for Azrael. "You piece of shit, I just got sliced up and raped!! Why the fuck did it take so long?!"
"Hey, I can't be everywhere at once!" He spread his hands in a gesture of appeasement.
"Oh yeah? I know what the fuck you were up to, you sick fuck!" Wil glared at him.
"What ever does she mean, Azrael?"
"I dunno. I think she's a bit stressed, that's all. Here let me help you with that." He grasped the leather strap binding their wrists and broke it like it was tissue paper.
"You. Were. Watching it!" Wil ground out the words, furious. "An' you enjoyed watching them do that to me. You! Sick! Fuck!"
Her faced changed to a confused expression.
"Watching? That's ridiculous, Wil. Why Azrael wouldn't do that, would you?"
"No sweetie, that's crazy talk. I jus' took a while to find you that's all."
"Crap. The timing was too perfect. People only turn up in the nick of time in badly written adventure stories. Though what kind of sick fuck would write what just happened to us I don't know!"
There was a short silence.
"You were doing your ol' sit-on-the-balcony-and-check-out-the-show-through-the-window routine. Have you experienced that by any chance, Elizabeth?"
"Uhhhh..."
"Yeh, exactly. And stop massaging my wrists you gorilla, I can do that myself!"
Azrael snatched his hands away.
"Tell her how you managed to find us hiding away in the dark here," Wil continued.
"I can smell your beautiful personality, my sweet Wilhelmina."
"Something like that anyway." Wil stared at him, eyes narrowed.
Azrael leaned a bit closer.
"I swear to both of you that I would never, ever allow that to happen to you if I could have stopped it."
"I believe you," Elizabeth intoned.
"What. Ever." Wil sounded less convinced. "Now, I need damage control and some clothes. We'll break into that house and secure some supplies from the locals. Then I can work out a plan. Maggot - the door."
He smiled sweetly. It was fascinating watching them speak - apart from the sudden and dramatic changes in tone and accent, they talked as though they were standing next to each other. When Wil spoke to Elizabeth she turned her head slightly to the right, and vice versa for Elizabeth.
"Yes, my dears."
Azrael moved to the back door, grasped the door handle and twisted it. There was an audible metallic crunching sound. The handle turned and the door opened.
"What do you know? It was open!" He smiled - they could see the flash of his perfect white teeth in the moonlight.
"Ah huh," said Wil dubiously.
"Oh, what luck!" exclaimed Elizabeth.
"Now get back here and help us up."
Azrael dutifully ran over to them and help Elizabeth/Wil up. There was a sharp intake of breath from them as the cuts on their stomach opened up again. Azrael took the small body in his powerful arms and carried them inside the darkened house.
The interior of the house was gloomily light by the moon and smelt of the strange odors that one always notices when entering a stranger's house - somehow mundane and alien and the same time. It was the smell of a history of human life and activity within these walls. They made their way to the kitchen.
"So, you two know each other then I take it?" Elizabeth inquired.
"Intimately," Azrael grinned.
"Shut up."
Azrael deposited Elizabeth/Wil on the table.
"Gently, you fuck!"
"Sorry."
"You took those sacks of shit out?"
"Oh yeh, your old pal Azrael took 'em out good."
"Oh super - I'm glad those rotten swine got what was coming to them! Thanks, Azrael!"
Azrael beamed. Wil stared at him, thinking.
"Sure," Wil said slowly, "I'm willing to believe you if you fix these cuts."
"Of course, baby." He looked at her stomach in a concerned fashion. "Oooh, nasty."
"What? They aren't deep."
"No, the symbol they carved into you. It's," he flicked a glance at them, obviously it was directed at Elizabeth, "a bit insulting." Azrael tut-tutted. "Some people have no breeding."
"Rather," concurred Elizabeth.
"Just do it."
"Are you ready to receive me?"
"Lizzie is - it's her body and she accepted the collar." Wil slipped one finger under the leather band and gave it a gentle flick.
"My name is Elizabeth and half an hour ago it was our body!"
"Times change, Honey."
Azrael looked at them, an expression of slight discontent registering on his features. It left after a moment, to be replaced by his almost generic grin.
"Right you are then."
He laid his hands upon her stomach and concentrated. Even though his touch was gentle, they still started as his fingers touched their wounds. Nothing happened.
"Ummm, shouldn't we be trying bandages or something?" Elizabeth asked, somewhat confused by his actions.
A stab of sensation flowed through her. Her back arched and she gasped. Her body was instantly alive with the most intense, warm, pleasurable sensations. The room was illuminated with a dull light - from where she could not tell. Her tired muscles began to spasm. Much more of this and she was going to climax! After about a minute the sensation flowed out of her. Elizabeth felt that if her body hadn't been so battered and tired she would have embarrassed herself within that short minute, such was the intensity of the pleasure.
"How was that?" Azrael said, his voice bearing a trace of faintness.
"Didn't feel a thing," Wil smiled coldly.
"How was that what?" said Elizabeth, even more confused now. She looked down her body. The cuts were healed! She could see red lines where before there had been fresh slices! Dried blood still covered her torso.
"Oh! Oh! That's...Oh!"
"Don't thank me."
"Oh! Thank you! Thanks awfully!"
"Is that it? I can still see the wounds." It was Wil's voice now.
Azrael rolled his eyes at the ceiling in frustration. "Can you not throw me a frickin' bone here? I need to save energy if I'm gonna..."
"Gonna do what, Azrael? Gonna fight off those two assholes? The one's you claimed to have 'taken care of'?"
"Well," Azrael considered the phrasing of this one very carefully and spoke slowly. "I did kick their asses, but they may have survived. I dunno. I didn't check - I was too concerned for your safety and I rushed off to look for you."
"Finding you by blind luck," he added.
"Awww, what crap!" said Wil in disgust.
"Oh, that's so sweet, Azrael. And it was very thoughtful of you because we did need your help. Much longer sitting there, without any plan," Elizabeth put emphasis on those three words, "and we would have frozen to death."
"What's that supposed to mean?" countered Wil.
"It means I am getting a little tired of your attitude toward poor Azrael. You have done nothing but be spiteful every time he has tried to help us."
"What the fu...!"
"No! I won't hear another word against him. He's just trying his best."
Elizabeth beamed at Azrael. Azrael beamed at Elizabeth.
Wil transformed the expression on their face to stunned disbelief. Her mouth flapped, nothing coherent came out.
"You're speechless, Wil, baby." Azrael was enjoying the moment, "How often does that happen?"
"Awww," Wil cried in disgust, "this is too much - too fuckin' much! OK, get me...I mean us, some clothes. Wait, no, we don't want to impose on 'poor Azrael' anymore do we, Elizabeth? We'll get them ourselves."
"I'm glad you are being more polite now, Wilhelmina. We can indeed find our own clothes, Azrael. If you would be so good as to wait here?"
He inclined his head.
"Oh, I wish we had some illumination. Could we light that lamp by any chance?" She pointed to the lamp standing on the kitchen bench.
"Too dangerous" answered Wil, "we can't risk someone seeing the light through the windows and investigating."
"Oh, I think we might be able to produce some light for you, my sweet Elizabeth. Most people will be downtown by now, and besides, anyone who sees light coming from this house might just think it's from the owners - up at this early hour because of all the activity. I'll see if I can find a match for this lamp." He turned his back to them, fumbling with the lamp. Within two seconds it flared into life. Azrael turned, offering the glowing light to them.
"Whaddya know? I found a match straight away!"
Elizabeth took the lamp happily. "Oh, good. Aren't we having a lucky night then!"
"Lucky night!! We got tied down an'...well you know, you were there."
"I was speaking figuratively, Wil."
"What-ively?"
Elizabeth ignored her, carrying on, "And it mostly happened to you - you were in charge at the time. I was...hiding. I think." She paused. "And you were handling the situation frightfully well, after all. I didn't see the need to intervene."
"Oh, did she handle the situation frightfully well did she?" Azrael smiled sweetly.
"Oh yes! She wasn't at all perturbed when they did those...things to us."
"Isn't it nice to wonderful to be able to be raped and tortured and still," he paused for effect, "enjoy the experience." His eyes were on her, meaningful.
"I did what I had to do," She recited slowly, staring back at him.
"Of course you did, of course. As you always do."
"And then," Elizabeth plowed on, blissfully unaware of the exchange between Wil and Azrael, "she tricked them into untying our legs and wrenched one of the chaps necks - frightfully hard too." Elizabeth voice held enthusiasm and she recalled the events as best she could; it was clear they were taking on the characteristics of an adventure, rather than a horror.
"Did she really? And how did she manage to convince them to do that, I wonder?"
"A double bluff! She made them think that she didn't want them to stick their...thing...in our bottom, but really she did!"
"Did she now?" Azrael's eyes were fixed upon her, something about them held a mocking tone. "How very, very exciting." For the first time Wil could not maintain eye contact with him. She looked to the side and down. Her jaw tightened for a moment. Then Elizabeth's expression returned.
"I suppose it was really - though not at the time. It was rather scary then! It's all a bit more exciting now though. Anyway, I'm so cold - aren't you Wil? Let us find some apparel."
As Elizabeth turned her body toward the bedrooms Wil flashed Azrael a glare would have surely killed a mortal man. Azrael smiled, watching her naked ass as it disappeared from sight.
The smile fell from his face like it had never been there.
Wil/Elizabeth found the master bedroom and began to rifle through the wardrobe.
"Ah, here we are," said Elizabeth, looking at the range of dresses, "The look a touch big but..."
"No. We'll try these."
"But that's a man's clothes! We can't get dressed as a man - it's simply not proper!"
"Hullo!? We need to be running here, got it? And we ain't gonna be getting' far wearing three hundred pounds of dress an' shit. Am I clear?"
Elizabeth considered for a moment, wondering why anyone would dress oneself in shit. She mentally shrugged - who knows what poor people got up to?
"Well, I suppose..."
"Good. Now hurry up."
They tried on a pair of trousers and a shirt - both far too large for them. A belt around their waist held the baggy, rolled up pants up. The shirt hung off them. There was no underwear and the rough material rubbed against their skin in a way the Elizabeth had never experienced before, used as she was to the finest of feminine fabrics. The sensation of the shirt against her nipples was...disconcerting.
"Concentrate, Elizabeth. Stop getting off over a bit of rough." Wil had felt their nipples hardening.
"Sorry," murmured Elizabeth, embarrassed.
"Now," Wil sat them down at the dresser staring at her reflection in the mirror, "we gotta talk, and quickly, we don't have much time."
Elizabeth looked up, gasped and put her hand to her mouth.
"What?!" cried Wil.
"My hair! It's an absolute disaster!"
Wil noticed the reflection - Elizabeth's long, blonde hair was stuck up and splayed about at bizarre angles.
"Where I come from, some women spend hours trying to get their hair to look this stupid."
"Where is that exactly? Bulgaria?"
"Not exactly. It's...ahhh, not that far away. Now - us, talking, quickly."
It was Wil's turn to stare at the mirror as she saw how their face changed expression as they took turns to speak. The effect was strange indeed - they would look like split-personality on acid to any passer-by. Must be careful when speaking in public, she made a mental note.
"Yes, I do have one or two questions," Elizabeth agreed, trying to restore some semblance of order to her tumultuous golden locks. The blonde strands furiously resisted her manipulations, as though they had become addicted to their newfound freedom.
"We don't got time for the big background thing right now - he'll poke his head round the corner any second. But you gotta believe me when I say you cannot trust Azrael - he's not what he appears to be."
Wil watched as the face in the mirror huffed and looked away.
"I realize you two have a bit of a...history behind you, but really I have found him to be a perfectly charming and...stimulating gentleman."
"He ain't a man, sweetie, much less a gentleman."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Did you see what happened in the Inn, when he 'rescued' us?"
"Ahhh, well not clearly, I was sort of trying not to watch what went on. I just realized that we had a chance to escape and you weren't moving, so I sort of...panicked and screamed at you. But I remember someone bursting in - Azrael it turned out - and a fight starting. Then we ran and I only really opened my eyes, as it were, once we were outside, away from...them."
"Ah-huh. So you didn't see him clearly."
"No, but it definitely was him. I recognized his derring-do manner," she smiled. "What is it about him that you find so distasteful?"
"Where do I start? You won't believe me right now if I told you."
"If you say so. How is it, Wil, that you came to be, ummm, here, with me, in this manner?"
"Can't give the specifics but believe me it was Azrael's fault."
"Why can you not 'give the specifics'?"
"I was tricked, got it? Don't trust him or next morning you'll wake up in someone else's head."
"Oh. Well, I expect he'll put it right then. It was most likely an accident."
"Yeh, sure it was. Hey, I can't read your thoughts. Can you read mine?"
"No, it's like there's just this dark lump in half my brain. It is a very singular sensation - but I think I am getting accustomed to it. A bit anyway."
"Yeh, me too. That's all I got." Wil sounded almost relieved.
"Wil, are you from around this area?"
"Kinda sorta."
That wasn't a very satisfactory answer for Elizabeth.
"What does that mean?"
"It means I am from here but not here - as in the year 2006 not here.
Elizabeth was quiet.
"Yeh, that's right," Wil continued, "that's why I didn't wanna tell you, 'cause I knew you'd freak. I'm from, uhhh..."
"Two hundred and forty one years."
"Thanks. Two-hundred-and-forty-one years in the future."
"I see," Elizabeth said, her tone subdued. She immediately changed to a different subject, as though she didn't want to acknowledge what Wil had just said.
"Is Azrael's name really Azrael then? I thought he said his name was Wil when I first met him, but I must have gotten all confused, as now I realize he was trying to say hello to you."
"I have no idea what his name is, if he even has one. I just decided to call him Azrael."
"Why?"
"It's the name of Gargamel's cat. I'm trying to say he's a pussy. Without actually telling him that."
"A, ahhh, pussy?"
"Yeh. Forget it."
"Is this Gargamel a friend of yours then?"
"No, he's a loser that spends his time hunting down the Smurfs, and failing miserably. Another good reason to associate him with," Wil jerked their head in the direction of the kitchen, "him."
"Look," Wil continued, "I'm really loving this girl-talk thing but we gotta..." She froze, staring into the mirror, but past the eyes that reflected back at her.
"What? What is it!?" Elizabeth squeaked.
"I thought there was a movement at the window behind me. If that piece of crap has been spying again I'll..." She rose, moved to the window and peered out. They examined the shadows for some seconds. There was only inky blackness and their own startled visage reflected back at them in the window glass.
Wil relaxed. "Must'a been my... aaahh!" A distorted, malevolent face pressed itself close to the glass, inches from theirs.
It was Flin.
They staggered back in shock, turned and leapt for the door.
"Oh golly fuck!" cried Elizabeth in panic. They reached the door and grabbed the handle.
"Stay cool, I've got the situation under control," snapped Wil, twisting the handle and pulling the door open.
The broad, towering figure of Marcus stood in the doorway.
"OK, now you can panic."
Marcus grabbed her around the throat before she could move. He squeezed just enough to begin choking her. Gratifyingly, she began to make gagging noise and turn red. He pushed her backwards, still holding her by the throat.
The window shattered as Flin put his fist through it.
"Any sign of it?" he asked.
"No," replied Marcus, "the domicile was empty - apart from the energy." He grinned sadistically and squeezed a fraction tighter. Pathetically, she tugged at the hand around her throat but Marcus' grip was like an iron band.
He reached down and ripped her shirt open, exposing her to him. His hand roughly fondled a breast as he examined her.
"The wounds are healed - it has been here. Be on your guard, it may be lurking outside."
"Noted. I will search for it," Flin replied and moved off into the darkness.
Marcus felt the her knees buckle and continued to support her entire weight with his arm as she began to fade, enjoying the sensation of power that flowed through him with the simple act of control. He now let her slump to her knees and changed his grip to the back of her skull. She sucked in huge lungfuls of air and choked simultaneously.
"Now, where were we?" Marcus appeared to think. "Ahhh, yes. I had my cock down your throat and was about to ejaculate into you. Let us resume our interaction where we left off shall we?"
She looked up at him, still gasping.
"And do not forget - even though one of you in that flesh suit is valuable to me and I can't afford to let you expire - just yet - I can still make your existence one of pure agony should you refuse to cooperate. Do you understand?"
"Awfully sorry ... I don't speak ... vulgarian," she said between gulps of air, "Could you ... write that down, perhaps? I can have it ... translated from lower-class."
He slapped her. "Allows me to demonstrate."
Marcus fumbled with his trouser and took his member out, it was growing rapidly as he removed it and quickly reached full size after a few seconds of stroking.
"Now open your mouth and relax your throat." He guided his penis forward while holding his victim's head still.
Her eyes remained fixed up it as it approached her, mesmerized with horror. Marcus brought himself to her slowly, enjoying her fear. He placed the tip upon her full red lips, and paused for a moment, listening to the squeal the female emitted. Then worked the head past her lip to rest upon her clenched teeth.
"Open up or I'll rip your fingers off - one by one."
Elizabeth/Wil's jaw began to relax, her teeth parted slightly.
Then it was gone, ripped backwards by some unseen force. The grip on the back of their head vanished with it. They looked up, their eyes leaving waist height for the first time in what seemed a terror-filled eternity. It was Marcus' turn to choke - Azrael had him around the neck with a wire garotte. Azrael's neck muscles strained with the effort of the struggle, working the wire tighter and tighter round his enemy. Blood flowed from both Marcus' neck and Azrael's hands as the wire bit through flesh. Marcus was already bright red and turning purple.
Azrael flicked his eyes to them, lips drawn back in a snarl, teeth clenched. "Run, you fool - run!"
Stunned, they stared up at the scene for perhaps half a second more. But terror gave them strength and they leapt up and fled into the night, completing the escape from that horror-filled room on all fours, before gaining their feet and sprinting down the shadowy hall. The door to the house burst open as Elizabeth/Wil fled, running down the street with their open shirt flapping in the air and the stinging night air upon their chest.
As she escaped the room Azrael turned his attention back to Marcus.
"Hey, baby - enjoying the party?"
Marcus let out a long bubbling, rage-filled scream as he felt the wire sliding through tendon.
"Oh yeah, baby, oh yeah, baby, oh yeah, baby," Azrael repeated the mantra mindlessly, his eyes alight with excitement as he felt this powerful creature dying by his hand. The sensation was intoxicating.
The window frame exploded as Flin burst through it - he rolled and sprang to his feet in one smooth motion. The new entrant upon the homicidal dance thrust his hand forward, a smooth gray rock held within it.
"Die you freak," Flin snarled. Marcus' eyes somehow managed to grow even wider as he frantically gesticulated for Flin not to. But Flin fired anyway - at the exact moment that Azrael hauled Marcus' body around in front of him. An eerie grayish-green ray struck Marcus in the stomach, and he began to scream in the back of his constricted throat as his body started to disintegrate - turning powdery and falling away like sand. The effect spread through his flesh as Marcus continued his sickening, high-pitched keening. With the torso gone the limbs came away and flopped on the ground, still disintegrating. Azrael realized he still held the head of the corpse, the disintegrating effect climbing up towards his hands. Frightened at the thought of what would happened should it touch him, he yelped and dropped the head. Marcus' head fell upon the floorboards and crumbled into dust, its owner long dead.
A silence occupied the next few seconds.
Flin broke it.
"Hmmm, I don't think I will mention that bit in my report." He appeared to be thinking out loud.
His eye's flicked to Azrael.
"But first, the task at hand. I said die, freak." He fired again. Azrael leapt toward the door, feeling the beam on his flesh - the agony of its touch. It was Azrael's turn to scream.
They ran - Wil thought they were running blindly but after some minutes realized that Elizabeth was guiding them towards her home. The air was ripping through her throat and lungs already. Wil couldn't believe it - they had only been running for ten minutes or so.
"What's wrong ... with this body," she gasped, "are you ... ill?"
"There's nothing wrong," Elizabeth gasped back, "I'm ... just not used ... to running for ... my life. Unlike you ... it seems."
"You mean we're ... unfit? Why you flabby ... lazy-assed..."
"Do be quiet please. I'm ... trying to concentrate on ... fleeing ... in terror."
After another five minutes they could take no more and had to stop to rest against a tall wooden fence. They leaned there, head down, gasping.
"Thank you." Wil said when they had enough breath.
"What for?"
"You kept it ... together back there. I kinda panicked and ... lost it ... for a second. Couldn't think what to do. Embarrassing. Don't ... don't understand it."
Well ... I didn't do much. I think ... I think I was too scared to panic."
For the first time Wil began to laugh. The sound confused Elizabeth.
"What is it?"
"You said 'Sorry, I don't speak vulgarian'," Wil imitated her accent, "to that ... psychos face! You have to be fuckin' crazy!" She began to laugh harder.
"Oh, Oh, yes. I just sort of," Elizabeth groped, "well, it seemed the thing to do at the time." She giggled, and then began to laugh too. The sound of two people inside one body both laughing at the same time is difficult to imagine and the sound they made was certainly not very glamorous, but they did not care. The stress induced laughter continued on for several minutes and their sense of terror slipped away with it.
"Crikey," Elizabeth said, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Crikey," repeated Wil, and began giggling again. "It's so cute when you say that!"
"Oh, thank you," she said tentatively, not entirely sure if that was a compliment or not. She decided it was.
Wil's giggling continued on, piercing the night, carrying through the still air. Elizabeth did not join in this time, sensing that this was somehow different. She stood there, sharing her body with this woman, yet feeling separated from her by a vast chasm of history and experience. Elizabeth's intuition was confirmed as Wil's giggles adopted an increasingly high-pitched, manic quality, then changed into something that was strangely similar, yet very different.
Wil was crying.
The sound devolved into sobbing and their shared body shuddered with the anguish of one of them. Elizabeth's consciousness stood away from her body's actions, unaffected yet a prisoner of her physical responses. She felt as though she were a voyeur watching some intensely private act with a horrified fascination.
Wil was clearly trying to control herself but the tears continued to flow.
"Wil?" Elizabeth began after a few minutes. "Are you alright, Wil?"
"Yeh," Wil replied, "I just...well." Wil gulped, groping for words of explanation. They did not come.
Elizabeth tried to provide the words for her. "It's alright, you have been through so much tonight. And done all the work, faced that unpleasantness while I hid - shamefully I have to say. I'm so sorry I didn't help you."
"No, no. It's not that." The tears had all but ceased to flow. Wil tried to wipe them from her eyes, sniffing. "You did fine, kid. Real good - I'm proud of you. Remember - if someone has absolute power over you like that, give them what they want. Heroic defiance is for fairytales. In real life you get dirty if you wanna survive. Do what you have to do."
Wil straightened up and gave a faint smile. "OK, I'm sorry about that, it's just...there's so much happening...where I'm from, and things haven't gone quite as they should'a. An' it's all my fault, an'..." The tears began to flow again.
"No, I'm sure it's not all your fault. Whatever it is. It's never one person's fault. You seem to me to be the sort of person that can be frightfully hard on yourself for no good reason." Elizabeth hoped that was reassuring.
"I was tested and I failed. I was weak."
Elizabeth had no idea what that meant, but it was clearly significant to Wil.
"Wil, I've only known you for a few hours but you are by the toughest person I have ever met. Especially for a young lady."
Wil gave a short laugh at that last sentence.
Well, thanks," she said and gave another laugh. The tears had washed something inside of her away and she felt better. Purer somehow. "I don't usually break down and cry in the middle of a situation too. I can't remember the last time I had a good cry." Actually she could. It was eight years ago. "You must be having an effect on me."
"Is that a good thing, do you think?"
"I'll tell you later. Right now we gotta start running again."
"So soon? I've only just got my breath back."
Well, that guy down the end of the street there could be out for a very early morning jog, but I think it's a bit too much of a coincidence, don't you?"
Elizabeth focused her perceptions outward. A distant figure, illuminated in the moonlight, closed upon them relentlessly. If ever there was a moment in which impending doom literally approached her, this was it. Elizabeth was scared again.
"I...ahhh, take your point. You can be in charge of the running."
"Why?"
"Because you run like a man and I run like a girl."
"Good point."
Continued in Chapter 7
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