1
“Amen.”
The sudden end of a prayer snaps me out of my momentary trance caused by staring dully at the dark road. We’ve been driving through the countryside for so long that I nearly fell asleep.
“You’re as diligent as ever, Cynthia.” I quickly shoot a glance at the only other passenger in the car.
“If only you were as diligent as I am.”
She doesn’t seem upset by my comment. Rather, she somehow manages to turn the topic back around on me. Even though she’s not exactly wrong, I wouldn’t say she’s right either.
“I do pray often, just not in the way that you do.”
It’s a bit hard to see, but it looks like she’s furrowing her brows.
“What good is prayer if you’re going to treat it like a joke? We need to set a better example, not only for our peers, but also for everyone around us.”
“I don’t treat it as a joke, though. I just have an unconventional way of going about it.”
She waves her hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah. Your casual relationship never fails to amuse me.”
I don’t know why, but her comment irks me a bit. It’s enough to make me keep my eyes forward for the rest of the ride.
The person beside me is Cynthia Marrowell. She’s the partner assigned to me by the Holy Church to hunt down heretical monsters around the region. Despite being a woman, she doesn’t seem to have any interest in wearing makeup.
Her brown hair is long enough to reach what I assume is the middle of her back. Of course, tattoos and piercings are forbidden, but she doesn’t seem to need any outside help to attract men wherever she goes.
Even I have to admit that her lips look especially captivating most of the time, despite not wearing lipstick either. To put it simply, she’s one of those people who are natural-born beauties.
What’s worse is that she knows it too.
Under the streetlamps, the golden cross on her neck sparkles like a star. Cynthia is wearing a nun outfit designed specifically for combat. To the naked eye, it doesn’t seem much different from what regular nuns would wear, but the fabric and undergarments are filled to the brim with defensive materials and magic.
Seeing the barely lit homes in the far distance, I turn the wheel toward the side of the road. As our car comes to a halt, I turn off the engine with a simple twist of the key.
A humid August night.
It should be hot, but for some reason, I keep feeling chills run down my spine.
During our last mission around this time of year, we had to deal with a downpour of snow, which made carrying out our executions much harder. But being in a somewhat tropical region this time, I guess there isn’t anything for us to worry about.
Opening the door and stepping out of the car, I catch a whiff of fresh air. On paper, there doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary. I peek my head back inside the car.
The time says it’s 9:00 PM.
Cynthia stretches her arms as high as she can into the air.
“Ahh~ I hope this one ends without a hitch.”
“The last one was too brutal, even for me.”
Keeping my eyes forward, I reply.
“It’s rare for you to say that. You’re always cheerful even when we’re up against a wall.”
“Rom,” she points at me, “just because I’m smiling doesn’t mean I’m happy. If you keep assuming things at face value like that, you won’t be popular with the ladies.”
I let out a lighthearted chuckle. “I’m nearly in my thirties. I think I’m way past worrying about wooing ladies, don’t you think?”
Cynthia’s face lights up. “Nobody’s too old to seek out love! That’s the beauty of life!”
“No thank you. I respectfully decline.”
Clicking her tongue, she crosses her arms and peers out the right-side window.
“Five years we’ve been working together, and you still piss me off,” she mumbles. I’m not sure if I was meant to hear that, but if her goal was to make me feel guilty, then she absolutely got what she wanted.
Trying to salvage the situation, I let out a half-hearted response.
“But let’s see. Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
Her stare into the world is dead set, one that not even my words are able to sway. Letting out a sigh of resignation, I return my focus on driving. The only thing that’ll fix her attitude now is a good cup of pudding.
But I doubt we’ll find any out here.
◇
On a night at the beginning of August, Zuki came into my office wearing a suit and tie without notice or announcement. Being the head of my department, there was little reason for her to do so, but it would have been nice.
Regardless, she claimed there was a town that needed to be investigated due to a strange amount of recent disappearances.
“We got word from the D.D.A. that this isn’t the result of dreams, so they won’t be able to handle it,” she said flatly.
“Then,” I replied, skimming at the piece of paper she handed me, “wouldn’t mages be the best way to investigate this? I highly doubt this is the work of a demon, so I don’t know if this is worth deploying the Testaments for.”
She shook her head. “Little reason for mages to interfere in this manner. If the Moonblades and the D.D.A. are unwilling to move, then we have no choice but to step up.”
“How annoying,” I mumbled under my breath.
When I scanned the document one last time, there was something that caught my attention. I couldn’t believe I missed it before.
“Why is this part redacted? Based on the context around it, I know it’s someone’s name.”
Zuki shook her head. “I don’t know anything about it either. This comes straight from the top brass. I tried asking about it as well, but all they told me was to give reports on everything that happens on this mission. Judging from their carefree nature, I doubt it’s anything important.”
“If you say so, Zuki,” I said in doubt, not of her, but of the top brass’ statements.
“Be careful then.” Zuki left the room with a wave. Just before her frame could leave my line of sight, her final words sent an ominous chill through me that stuck with me for the rest of the trip to the mission site.
“Be sure to take Cynthia. This’ll probably be an easy mission, but over three hundred people getting infected by some unknown virus isn’t exactly screaming confidence. You guys will probably be fine, I just want to add that seal of guarantee, if you know what I mean.”
“I do.”
◇
Our boots tap against the stone beneath us.
Despite it being quite early in the night, there are little to no lights scattered across the homes. Based on what little visibility we have from the streetlamps, it’s safe to say that this town hasn’t fully been infested yet, based on our reports.
Walking alongside me, Cynthia has her hands deep in her pockets. While normal habits don’t possess such luxuries, her battle-born holy habit was made an exception in order to fit her circumstantial needs.
As the wind howls, the world around me starts to settle back in, all thanks to a pestering voice calling out to me.
“Hey Rom, are you listening? I’m asking if you’re cold or not.”
Shaking my head, I reply, “It’s August.”
She seems less thrilled with my answer than I am, as a short smirk curls across my face.
“Would it hurt you to wear your uniform for once?”
I look down, pulling my shirt. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”
“I’m just saying! I feel like I’m the only one out of place here. You’re wearing a jacket and jeans while I’m here with a full nun’s outfit.”
Her words are utterly predictable at this point. I know she doesn’t mean any harm, but having to listen to this kind of talk for a few years gets old really fast.
“Nobody told you to wear that though.”
Naturally, my response gets a bit defensive and harsh as well. It’s only right after the words leave my mouth that I realize I probably should have been a bit more mindful of what I said.
After all, I don’t want to upset her any more than I already have. To my surprise, though, she doesn’t seem to be too bothered by it this time around.
“Fufufu…” she giggles to herself, placing a hand over her mouth.
“You’re cute when you’re tense.”
“Who said I’m tense?” I shoot back. Snapping my head to the left, I let out a deep sigh.
“Still…” her tone gets deeper, “we’ve been searching the town for half an hour now, and we still haven’t found anything. I expected to see at least one person wandering about late at night. Like a disobedient couple or something.”
“It reminds me of those zombie movies we used to watch back in Europe.”
Cynthia’s face brightens up. “Oh! The marathon we did while scouting out that one cultist? That was quite the grand old time.”
“You kept trying to hold back your screams the entire time. I’d like to never do that again,” I reply.
“Boo. I get scared easily, is that such a sin?”
“It’s not a sin, but you’re the first person I met who would ever get scared by B-list movies like that.”
She huffs. “Fine. I won’t ever watch anything with you ever again.”
I raise my hand. “Ah. No, I didn’t mean it in that way. For what it’s worth, it was really fun for me too.”
With a final chuckle between the two of us, we look around each nook and cranny for potential creatures lurking in the shadows. The movies we watched were low-tier for sure, but they still held a bit of realism.
But in this town, there seem to be absolutely no shattered windows or broken-down doors. Hell, there doesn’t even seem to have been a struggle of some kind. If I was a random person walking in, I’d just assume everyone was sleeping early tonight.
The buildings themselves look squeaky clean too. From the looks of it, they seem to be built fully out of stone, like most other Mexican households. There are metal bars on the windows and a metal door just in front of the typical wooden one.
“They’re certainly not lacking in security,” I say with slight curiosity in my breath.
Just as my words settle in the air, I feel a tug along my jacket.
“Look.”
Cynthia digs deeper into her pocket, ready to take out her weapon at any time. When I turn to see where she’s pointing, I’m met with a wooden door swinging open in rhythm with the wind.
It belongs to a rather long and rectangular house.
Swallowing hard, I take my hands out of my pockets and make my way towards the anomaly. Unlike the other homes, there doesn’t seem to be a first-layer metal door.
When we arrive at the doorframe, all that waits in front of us is an empty void filled with the unknown. I give Cynthia a quick glance, to which she nods in approval. I guess she wants me to take the lead on this one.
Extending my arm, I cast the holy incantation. As I speak the holy words of scripture, the air echoes my voice as if it belongs to a divine creature.
(and God saw the light )
et vidit Deus lucem
(that it was good)
quod esset bona
(and separated the light)
et divisit lucem
(and the darkness)
ac tenebras
From the palm of my hand, a glowing golden orb no bigger than the size of a golf ball materializes before me. Giving it a slight nudge, it begins to fly forward, illuminating the path in front of us like a guardian angel with a lamp.
“Ow!”
I hear a quick squeal coming from behind me. Spinning my body around, I ready myself for potential combat.
“Sorry. I think I got bit by a mosquito. Dang it, now it’s going to get all itchy.”
“Mosquitoes? They go through your uniform?”
“I don’t think so. If anything, they probably snuck in somewhere along the gaps. Anyways, I feel like I killed it, so we can keep going.”
The ball of light slowly hovers over the home, going places where I direct it. The interior is a simple, one-floor house, with everything connecting to the main living room. Further down, it seems to lead to the bathroom.
On our immediate right is the dining area, while the left is the kitchen. I’m not sure where the bedrooms are quite yet, but I’m sure we’ll find them soon.
Everything presented before us seems quite normal. The scent in the air is the same humid one I’ve been experiencing since I set foot in this town. Even so, my mind can’t help but loop back to one thought. It seems⸺
“Too quiet.” Cynthia finishes my thought.
“I’m getting a bad omen from this place.”
I say this while goosebumps start riddling across my arm. There’s nothing around us that should be sending shivers down my spine, but it feels like my entire back has been replaced with a pillar of ice.
“Did you notice?” I point at the kitchen, then at the dining area. “The cups and silverware, they seem a bit out of place, don’t they?”
Cynthia nods. “They look like they’re frozen in time. Some cups are half-full, while other bits of silverware still have saliva marks on them.”
All electronics seem to be off, but other than that, nothing inside the house should indicate there’s something sinister going on. In fact, if someone came out of the shadows claiming they were out of power, I would completely believe it.
Taking the initiative, we continue onward. When I peer slightly behind my shoulder, I can see Cynthia’s arm trembling ever so slightly. I know she’s scared of the dark, so I’m surprised she decided to come inside with me.
There’s no doubt that she’s probably clenching that weapon in her pocket for dear life.
Not that I blame her, though. I’d be doing the same.
Each step makes our shoes click even louder against the marble floors.
Upon making our way into the bedroom, the light shines upon the countless toys and pieces of furniture.
The drawers are open, and clothes seem like they were dropped midway through being taken out.
Children’s books remain open.
It’s like the world’s standing still.
Not to mention, the ceiling fan is still spinning faintly.
“W-We’re sure demons aren’t involved in this, right?” Cynthia’s shaky voice reverberates from the room and back into the main hall we came from.
As I guide the light away from the bedroom, something halts me.
A wooden cross hanging on the wall. Carved along the surface is the Lord’s Prayer.
Screech. Screech. Screech.
Cynthia stops dead in her tracks, raising her head as if trying to hear better. Crickets aren’t too rare during this time of the year, but something about this particular set of sounds makes it seem like my heart’s sinking into the ocean.
Screech. Screech. Screech.
There are more of them now. If I had to guess, probably over fifty.
My body freezes.
I want to cast an incantation, but since we don’t know what’s really going on in this town, I can’t afford to show my skills yet.
My breath hitches.
I instinctively reach into my jacket pocket as well. As the sound of crickets escalates rapidly, my hands grip onto the wooden-metallic cylindrical object that I call a weapon.
My eyes glance over to Cynthia’s back. Unlike me, she’s frozen solid. Swallowing hard, I slowly make my way towards her side.
Chirp Chirp Chirp
By the time I stand back-to-back with Cynthia, I notice that she’s not breathing.
Crap.
This happened to her once before, causing her to faint last time. If she faints on me now and something attacks us, then I won’t be able to defend us. Internally punching through my nerves, I muster up the courage to call out to her, making sure my voice doesn’t crack.
“Cyn—”
Before I can finish calling out to her…
“EEEEEEEEEKKKKKK⸺!!!”
A loud shriek invades my ears.
“GROSS! GROSS! GROSS!”
Like an Olympic athlete, she sprints out of the house at full speed. Her reaction to the entire situation snaps me out of my petrified state, as it gives me the strength to follow quickly behind her.
It doesn’t take us five seconds until we’re back outside.
“I CAN’T! WHAT THE HELL WAS ALL THAT?!”
She lunges towards me, gripping both my shoulders with her hands. Her face draws closer to mine. Eyes that once held grandiose amounts of life and energy now seem like they’re spiraling into madness.
I’ve never seen her like this before.
“GROSS! THOSE WERE CRICKETS, RIGHT?! I CAN’T HANDLE BUGS! WHY ARE THERE SO MANY BUGS HERE?!”
“They’re… cicadas…”
Her grip gets stronger, forcing me to let out pained grunts.
“Rom Sivongsa. That’s not what I care about right now.” she says in a tone that’s devoid of life and emotion. Her speech seems to get faster with each spoken word.
“Why did I come to this backwards country that still tolerates bugs? Why did you ask me to come with you? I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but you actually hate me, don’t you?”
I raise my hand, chuckling nervously.
“Cynthia… Let’s calm down for now. We’re fine for now.”
She raises her head, checking both left and right vigorously. If someone were to see her now, they’d think she had actually seen the world’s most horrific beast.
It takes me a second, but then I realize…
“Cynthia,” I call out to her in a whisper, which is more than enough to bring her back to the real world.
She loosens her grip, and I straighten my back.
“The cicadas are silent.”
The Testament who’s supposed to be my partner timidly hides behind my back. She probably thinks the bugs are going to attack her. Actually, I don’t think that’s an impossible assumption.
“W-Where are the people?!” she yelps, darting her head towards all the homes with lit interiors.
“You’re right,” I reply. “If this was anywhere else, people would have been flooding out of their homes in curiosity. But it’s too silent.”
There are only two sources of light giving us vision in this strange town. The first are the yellow streetlamps, which are scattered all throughout. The second is the gleaming moonlight coming from the sky.
And the latter is being blocked by something massive.
A shadow looms over us.
Before I see it, I smell it.
The scent of rotten meat that’s been burning under the sun.
Once my eyes settle on what’s watching over us atop the house we were just in, everything becomes clear.
Wolverine-like claws.
Half of its face resembles a deformed deer.
The other resembles a horse.
Its legs are long and hairy like a spider.
This creature is easily five times taller than a regular human.
Behind me, I hear the shuffling of metal. Come to think of it, I don’t feel Cynthia’s tremble anymore. Yeah, this is what we’re most used to.
Everything about this monster should scare me.
It’s the stuff of nightmares.
But amidst this chaos, amidst all the unease we just went through…
… I smile.
2
Thirty feet.
That’s how far we are from the monster.
My heart’s dancing.
It’s been a while since I’ve had a hunt this big.
A pair of boots shuffle behind me. When I glance over slightly, I see Cynthia’s confident battle stance. Looks like she’s just as eager to go as I am. Still, she has her weapon concealed until the very last moment.
It’s very much her style. I’d be rude to break this moment for both of us, so I’ll play along.
My gaze is dead set on the monster. Each micro movement it acts out only encourages a reaction from me.
Strong eats the weak.
A philosophy that’s shared not only between humans, but also all animals. If this monster understands that concept, then the fact that it hasn’t made a move on us just proves its intelligence.
My breath is steady, and so is my partner’s.
The grip I have on my weapon gets tighter. I hear Cynthia’s pockets rustling from movement.
If we want to take this thing down as swiftly as possible, we’ll have to wait for it to attack us first.
But at the rate we’re at right now, I highly doubt that’ll happen.
In that case…
“GO!” I shout at the top of my lungs.
Two clicks echo behind me.
My legs kick to the side, taunting the monster to attack me through quick and sudden movement. When I look over at Cynthia, I notice that she’s done putting together her custom war scythe.
Folding her legs, she leaps up towards the monster with graceful confidence. Looking at her now, she seems like a completely different person from only a few minutes ago.
The ghastly beast looks over at Cynthia. In response, I pull out my own weapon.
A revolver laced with holy inscriptions.
With a sharp breath, I shoot at its head as quickly as possible. The sound of the gunshot cracks through the air. The bullet manages to land just behind its neck. I was aiming for the head, but it’ll do for now.
“⸺GAHHH!!!”
Cynthia’s battle cry is rough and hardened. With one swift movement, she manages to cut off one of the monster’s legs. Even with my trained eye, it looked like she was cutting butter with a hot knife.
Letting out a pained roar, the monster raises its legs with intentions of skewering my partner. I won’t let you!
In typical battle, the ranger might be the one to deliver the finishing blow. But due to the nature of my weapon and its slow reload, I don’t have many opportunities to deal consistent damage.
So for now, the only thing I can do is distract that thing!
I take aim, quickly firing another shot. As if anticipating my attack, the monster leaps high into the air like a child on a trampoline. Its massive, inhuman figure blocks out the moon as it lets out yet another ear-trembling roar.
Opening its mouth, a white substance starts to shoot out towards me.
Reacting quickly, I manage to dodge.
But only after I do so do I realize that it wasn’t truly aiming for me in the first place. The projectile it shot was a spiderweb. A long thread connected from its mouth to the ground by my side.
Using its long web as a reel, the monster pulls itself towards me at breakneck speed. My body begins to move on its own, quickly making myself clear of the impact zone.
Before I can truly process the situation, there’s a loud crash where I used to stand as dust and debris fly up into the air.
Behind the fog of war, though, I see the unmistakable shade of the monster lurking within. Even though I can’t see its eyes, I feel its soul-sucking gaze all the same.
“Rom!!!”
Hearing Cynthia’s voice is enough to make me execute my next move.
Leaping backward, I fire another shot through the dust. I don’t know where I hit the monster, but its pained cries are all I need to hear.
(Bound on earth, bound in heaven )
“Ligata in terra, ligata in caelo”
Golden rays of light start to seep out from the monster’s wounds.
Like flipping a light switch, the beast starts to convulse uncontrollably.
The incantation may be designed to take down demons, but it’ll hurt regular living creatures nonetheless. It won’t bind them completely, but I don’t need it to.
Since she’ll remove the pest anyway.
Speeding past me like the wind, Cynthia raises her weapon high into the sky. The moonlight shines across the weapon’s metallic surface, as if blessing its grace to finish the life of the anomaly once and for all.
Cynthia’s eyes are devoid of all mercy and compassion. She stares dead into the monster’s animalistic eyes with bloodlust. Her slender arms move swiftly, looking like a solo dance from where I’m standing.
One. Two. Three.
Its head.
A click resonates in the air as the long wooden handle of her weapon becomes undone, transforming it into a curved armblade.
Seven. Eight. Nine.
Its legs.
Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen.
The rest of its body.
Streaks of white and metallic hisses are all I see and hear.
In the next instant, blood gushes out violently, painting everything around us a sickening crimson red. Slowly, as if they missed their cue, the cleanly cut body parts come undone like cut bamboo.
Amidst the inevitable, forecasted rain of death stands a single victor, still gripping the handle of her weapon in case her prey comes back to life.
While the last of the monster’s blood drains out from its pathetic corpse, there’s a newfound void between us.
Our feet are planted firmly in place, our heavy breaths being the only thing either of us can hear. My heartbeat drums louder than it ever has before. Even though we just beat a monster capable of leveling the entire city, I don’t feel at ease.
Liquid drips from Cynthia’s hair onto a puddle below her.
Right now, no matter how much I want to look away, I find myself captivated by her existence.
But why?
It’s not like I haven’t seen this side of her before. So why am I acting so strange this time?
My hand still firmly grips the handle of my gun.
I want to shoot her.
I want to shoot her now.
But… Why…?
She turns to face me, her head still down. I can’t see her eyes, but it gives me the feeling you get when someone’s about to jump you. Is this how zebras feel when they’re about to be hunted?
Whenever she takes a step forward, the puddle beneath her ripples.
Shoot her.
Shoot her.
Why? I know why.
It’s because she reminds me of a ████████
My survival instincts slowly start to get the better of me. Without realizing it myself, my arm slowly starts to raise itself to point the gun at her. This is wrong, I know it is, but I can’t stop myself.
Just as the barrel of my gun is about to fully aim at her, the air suddenly shifts.
“Phewww! I feel so much better now!”
With a simple string of words, I start breathing again. Huh? I wasn’t breathing that entire time?
“⸺Huh?” I react, letting out a sigh of relief in the meantime.
She looks over at me with a smile full of glee.
“We did well, don't you think?”
“How long has it been since we hunted something this big?”
The best I can do is let out a rigid laugh.
With open arms, she starts to skip towards me. Only after seeing her figure slowly start to get closer do I realize what would happen if she were to hug me now.
I try to answer her question, but not a single word leaves the tip of my tongue.
She gets closer.
There’s no way she hasn’t heard me from this distance. I have the option of running away, but before I can, her steel-like arms wrap around my waist, preventing me from escaping.
The scent, stickiness, and stain are immediate.
As the warmth of her body spreads across my own, my shoulders gradually lower. I let out a sharp exhale, like a car exhaust letting out steam. It takes me a second, but looking at my friend’s relaxed state soothes me too.
“Cynthia. This was my favorite jacket,” I say with a sullen face.
Pulling away, she has a mischievous grin on her face. Don’t tell me…
“Well, it isn’t fair if I was the only dirty one here, right?”
“This is a uniform of God! If this has to get stained, then so do your non-God-loving clothes,” she says with a raised finger in a matter-of-fact manner.
“Ugh. Whatever.” My face contorts into disgust as I fling away any excess liquid still dripping from my clothes. The stains I can deal with eventually, but this scent is for sure going to stick with me the entire night.
As if satisfied with her mission, she starts making her way deeper into the town.
I follow closely behind her, eventually catching up by her side.
3
It’s been nearly thirty minutes since we started looking around the town. During our search, there hasn’t been another house like the first one we visited, with the doors busted open and their lights off.
Taking this short downtime to sightsee, my eyes scan around the surrounding area. Right now, we’re in what seems to be the town square. It’s a rather open area with a roofed structure in the middle.
Surrounding us are countless buildings, but none of them are actual residential homes. In fact, most of these seem to be either businesses or government buildings. Along the edge of the plaza, there are large structures of stone carved to look like a string of letters.
“Tututepec,” I say out loud.
“Hm? I thought you already knew the name of this place.”
“I did. I just think the letters are cute.”
“It might be to attract tourists, don’t you think?” Cynthia asks from five feet in front of me. She doesn’t even turn around to talk to me. From where I’m standing, she seems to be more into sightseeing than I am.
“I wonder if something so simple will attract tourists. They’re just stones,” I reply flatly.
From the looks of it, it seems like this town is relatively close-knit. Sure, we haven’t actually seen anyone at all, but the way the food stalls are stationed and parked tells me all I need to know.
Some left their doors open, while others don’t even have locks. It might be dead right now, but there’s no doubt that this is a bustling community in the morning. My only hope is that everyone’s okay and actually hiding in their homes.
“Makes you miss home, doesn’t it?” Cynthia’s high-pitched voice cuts through my own dull, mental one.
“Hm. I wouldn’t say this makes me miss home. This place isn’t anything like my home anyways.”
We slowly start making our way towards the end of the plaza. The metallic gates leading to a large building are open, as if inviting us to go inside.
“Ah, right. I guess Arizona isn’t really like this,” she says while we enter the large structure.
After a brief pause, I extend my arm out again, casting the same light incantation that I did back at the house. Small golden orbs of light then slowly illuminate the area in front of us. The space is vastly open, with various stalls being held stationary within the grounds.
Gasping in delight, Cynthia turns back to me, pointing into the distance like she found a great treasure. “This must be the market!”
“I wonder what kind of food they sell here~!”
Practically frolicking, she starts eyeing the wooden signs posted up along each and every stall.
Some say “huaraches,” while others say “taqueria.”
But the most prevalent, is “carniceria”.
“What about you? Do you miss home at all?” I call out to Cynthia, which seems to break the hypnosis the idea of food inflicted on her.
“Nope! I wouldn’t say so either.”
She takes a few steps towards me. Leaning forward with a bashful smile, she pokes my chest.
“Besides, if I went back home, we wouldn’t be spending all this time together.”
“Mnm… I guess that’s true.” I avert my gaze.
“Besides!” she spins around, twirling her bloodstained church habit.
“Something about travelling just makes me smile. Seeing new people, seeing their culture. I’ve been to Mexico before, but not around these parts.”
“Personally,” I cut in, “I’m not much of a travel guy myself.”
She stands firm, crossing her arms. “I know! You’re always grumbling when we’re in a car or plane for longer than an hour!”
Ghk… She’s reading me like a book.
“How about this, Rom. What if, after this mission, we went on a short vacation together? I feel like it’d be really fun.”
“Vacation? We get plenty of break time.”
“Going back to the office doesn’t count. Maybe we can go to Japan together. Sure, there are a bunch of things we have to worry about, like the D.D.A., the Dreamfalls, and all kinds of weird stuff. But hitting the beach every once in a while wouldn’t be so bad, right?”
I sigh. “We can go to the beach anywhere there’s water and sand. But I get what you mean. I’m okay with going on a vacation. I feel like we deserve it after a few years of non-stop work.”
“Yes!!!” she pumps a fist into the air, her excited shout echoing across the vast, empty market.
Looking at her smile, it almost makes me forget why I was so tense earlier. Nothing’s changed about her. Everything, ever since the day I met her, has been the same. Maybe it’s the creepy cicadas that were throwing me off.
Each time we take a step, echoes bounce back and forth.
“I wonder what these huarache things are. I hope we stick around till the morning,” she comments.
I look around the place for the hundredth time. “I don’t know. Something feels a bit off here still.”
“Riiiight? Do you think that monster was the cause of the missing people?”
“If it was,” I add on, “the townsfolk probably would have leapt out of their homes thanking us.”
“Even if they hated the Testaments, we would have seen more claw marks across the town.”
Cynthia places a finger on her chin. “Which also begs the question, if the monster didn’t kill the townsfolk, what was it doing just hangin’ out behind that house?”
I shrug my shoulders.
We reach the end of the road.
In the end, this mission is turning out to be quite uneventful. The mystery of the missing townsfolk is still present, but from my experience, it’s probably either a demon or another monster.
This case is as good as solved.
Is what I would have said if something didn’t bring us both to a sudden halt.
“⸻!” we both grunt in unison.
The reaction is immediate.
We’re both clutching the weapons in our pockets. There hasn’t been a sound, but we don’t need one to detect that something’s off. The light doesn’t detect anything within a thirty-foot distance.
Neither of us can see it or hear it.
But we can smell it.
As if our minds were connected, we sprint towards the source. It’s a scent that I’m all too familiar with. Having grown up in such a hot state in the United States, it was quite often that I had to deal with dead birds.
I had to get used to the scent of rotting meat.
“⸺AAH!”
We both gasp for air as we make our way towards the east side of the building. Since my light can’t catch up fast enough, we have to rely on our raw instincts to dodge and weave around all the empty food stalls.
There’s no doubt about it. Whoever this scent belongs to is most likely dead.
But that also means they’d be the first actual human we’d be encountering in this town that’s seemingly frozen in time.
When the scent is at its strongest, we both skid to a halt. The rubber soles of our shoes let out a piercing screech.
The moment I lay my sights on the atrocity before me, everything gets hazy.
“⸻⸻⸻”
There’s a corpse laid out in front of me.
Its stomach burst open, letting me see its internal organs.
Its face is covered in blood.
For a split second, I can’t help but stare at what humans are normally not supposed to see.
All of my senses are then attracted by another sight right on top of the pathetically sprawled innards.
A figure that doesn’t belong.
The small, slender figure is showing its back to us. It’s on its knees, its hands gripping the intestine like a sausage.
Before I see it, I hear it.
Gulps that aren’t mine. They aren’t Cynthia’s either.
As the light catches up to us, the small silhouette slowly starts to turn its head, raising a hand in an attempt to shield its face.
The first thing I see are colors.
Golden hair.
Crimson red eyes.
Extremely pale skin.
Nails that look like claws.
The face of a young girl. Her eyes are wide open, as if we’re the anomalies in her strange world.
⸺Gulp
It does it again. All while staring straight at me.
My pulse rises. My heart beats carelessly. My jaws are clenched. My hearing starts buzzing like radio static.
The grip I have on my gun tightens. I don’t know why, but this feels all too familiar to me. All I want to do right now is kill this creature right in front of me.
All I have to do is pull the trigger.
It’s so easy.
They’re just a child. We just took down a monster the size of a house. Something this small shouldn’t be a big deal for either of us. Where did I have this feeling before? It’s too familiar, like I just felt it.
Letting go of the pink lump of useless meat, I see her dagger-like fangs under the holy, golden light. Her lips are completely stained in blood, and so are her teeth.
The way she’s looking at me.
It reminds me of the way ████████ was looking at me earlier.
There’s another gulp, but this time, it’s mine. Each breath feels like a labor tasked by God.
Even though I’m a few feet away, just looking into the child’s eyes makes it feel like my blood is getting drained. Normally, Cynthia would either be bloodthirsty or scared, but I don’t hear a single squeak from her.
I need to kill it.
But I can’t.
Why???
This isn’t a child. Yes, this isn’t a child. It’s a demon disguised as a child. No. Demons would be far kinder to the dead.
This is…
…a vampire.