“In all honesty” Hella thought to herself as she hid inside the abandoned building, “I really shouldn’t have picked up that glowing object” her thoughts were interrupted as something crashed into the building through the roof, allowing moonlight to stream into the dark warehouse and elicit a scream from her which echoed throughout the abandoned warehouse. The scream was followed by a silence that rather than comfort her sent fear coursing through her. Putting her hands over her mouth to block any other noise that she might make as her heart pounded in her chest, she strained her ears to either hear the footsteps of the creature or any other thing that would give away the location of the monster that had been chasing her.
After complete silence for several minutes, Hella emerged from her hiding spot behind a stack of crates after deeming it safe to come out. Spitting out a mouthful of blood on the floor, she wiped away the blood that ran over her eyes with her jacket sleeve before slowly creeping away towards the exit, her body protesting with aches from the brutal beating she had suffered at the hands of Jessica and her cronies. Making her way towards the exit, she felt something get sprayed on her left shoulder from above, the substance burning through her jacket before reaching her skin and burning the flesh. Letting out a shout which was a mixture of pain, shock and horror, she burst into a sprint away from the spot while hurriedly taking off her jacket and throwing it on the floor, revealing the dark grey tank top she had on as something large and heavy crashed into the stack of crates she was previously hiding behind, sending a spiderweb of cracks across the floor and sinking the area around it, not only bringing down the stack of crates, but also the entire section on it as the creature let out a roar of frustration and pain before being completely being buried under the avalanche of crates and their various contents. Hearing the commotion behind her, Hella spared a backwards glance and watched as the creature was buried. Coming to a complete stop, she felt a wave of relief and tiredness wash over her as the source of her terrifying five-minute chase of cat and mouse was buried. Unable to stay on her feet any longer due to exhaustion, she fell flat on her butt with her back to a wall as tears of relief fell from her eyes while she swore to herself to never again let her curiosity get the best of her.
Deciding to stay seated on the floor for a while in order to recuperate, her eyes scanned the warehouse for her jacket while the adrenalin that had been pumping through her veins for the past five minutes slowly began to fade, alerting her to the numbness and chill that was originating from her left shoulder and slowly travelling to her chest as well as down her arm. Looking at her arm in the moonlight, she saw dozens of pitch black and toxic green lines slowly travel down her arm leaving a feeling of numbness and cold in their wake. “Poison” she thought as her eyes frantically searched for something to use to stem the spread of the toxin while the realization of how bad her situation was slowly dawned on her, causing her to tremble in fear and despair as she grasped the fact that she was going to die here. She was so preoccupied with the thought of her approaching death that she failed to notice that the mountain of crates and other miscellaneous items that kept the creature buried began to shift and was soon followed by a loud roar of rage and pain that resounded throughout the warehouse which originated from underneath the pile.
The roar was loud enough to snap Hella out of her reverie and back to the present. Seeing the shaking pile of items, she quickly got up and raced towards the exit; or would have if not for the fact that the poison had rendered her entire left arm useless and had reached her left leg as well causing it to go numb. Getting up with a grunt of effort, she rested her numb side on the wall and hobbled towards the exit with as much energy as she could muster, she tried her best to tune out the roars coming from behind her and the sounds of the creature’s makeshift prison collapsing; the only thing on her mind was closing the distance between her and the only exit in sight. Hobbling for what felt like hours, she felt her heart beat quicken as silence descended in the warehouse, “That can’t be good” she thought as she increased her speed, trying her best to ignore the numbness and chill that was slowly spreading across her body. Her hunch was proved right as the creature broke free of its prison with a roar of rage, launching the mountain of items into the air; its hate filled toxic green pupils locking onto the retreating human that had caused it so much trouble. It briefly wondered if the prey was worth all this trouble, but then it remembered why it started the hunt and its eyes lost any and all hints of hesitation as crates and other items rained down. Letting out a hiss, it decided to annihilate the pest and claim the prize that had eluded it for far longer than necessary. Swiping one of its paws at a nearby crate on the floor, the beast sent it flying towards the retreating girl and slowly followed after it, letting instincts dictate its actions.
Hearing the roar of the creature as it broke free from its prison behind her, Hella felt fear grip her heart and nearly paralyze her, but she shook it off with thoughts of escape and increased her speed; the distance between her and the exit growing smaller and smaller, the hope of escape far outweighing the paralyzing effect brought about by her fear of the creature while the thought of what said creature would do to her if she got caught added a much needed second wind to her sails and kept her moving. However, her hope for escape was dashed as the crate that the creature sent flying at her crashed into her back and shattered, not only sending her sprawling to the floor as the sound of bones breaking filled the air but also several fragments of wood buried themselves into her back, causing spots of crimson liquid to bloom on her shirt. On her back and at the mercy of the approaching creature, she tried her best to fight off the black spots that had begun to fill her vision and crawl away, only to become painfully aware that she could now no longer feel either of her legs and her left arm or control any of them; the black and toxic green veins proudly displaying themselves on her brown skin.
“D. d. damn it” she croaked weakly as her body began to give out on her “T. t. this isn’t how it was supposed to be” she continued as she heard the footsteps of the creature grow closer as her crimson life fluid drained from her body and ran across the concrete floor, shimmering in the moonlight that streamed into the warehouse through the door and hole in the ceiling. “No, n. n. not like this” she whimpered as she felt the creature’s predatory gaze land on her as her figure began to grow dark. They say that when you’re about to die, that your whole life flashes before your eyes and now she could personally attest to this; she knew her life wasn’t the worst and it definitely wasn’t the best, watching her life flash before her eyes, she felt a myriad of emotions flowed through her. She felt joy as she saw her parents, happiness as images of her friends in the role play center flashed before her and finally anger. Anger at her school for letting Jessica and her crew for picking on her, anger at her parents for always telling her how much of a disappointment she was and how much better others were when compared to her, anger at herself for failing to live up to the expectations that everyone had of her and most of all; anger at the world for making her
. She felt her rage deepen and turn to unbridled hatred as she remembered how much they bullied her. “Its all their fault. If they hadn’t taken my stuff and beat me up, then I wouldn’t have found the damn orb and I wouldn’t be bleeding on the floor of a godforsaken warehouse with god knows what trying to kill me” she mentally screamed, unaware that her entire right arm and the right side of her face was suddenly covered by intricate multicolored symbols.
The creature drew closer to her, its eyes brimming with killing intent, unbridled hatred and greed. Hearing the footsteps of the creature drew closer, Hella felt something somewhere deep inside of her snap. Turning over to her back with her single arm which had begun to fail her, she stared at the creature with hatred in her eyes, blood leaking down the sides of her mouth as the shards of wood sticking out of her back were pushed into her when she turned over, while the symbols on her arm and face slowly turned blood red as time suddenly seemed to stand still. “Little girl” a voice that sounded just like hers, yet not hers spoke softly in her head. “Why do you cower when you can tear it apart?” it asked with concern. Hella didn’t respond to the voice right away even though she knew it well, after all it had been her constant companion ever since she was twelve years old.
“What would you have me do? This thing isn’t even normal, in case you haven’t noticed” she chastised while noticing that her eyesight had begun to deteriorate.
Burn it, maim it, let out your rage and show this creature the price of its foolishness” the voice whispered to her with barely restrained rage.
“How can I?” she countered with a heated voice.
Encouraged by her response, the voice spoke again “All you have to do is let me in” and with that the voice became silent, patiently waiting for her answer.
“Last time I checked, you were just a voice, a disorder, one of the many things wrong with me”
“Last time you checked, monsters didn’t exist and weird glowing orbs didn’t melt into your skin whenever you touched them” the voice retorted.
“So what do I have to do” Hella asked as she realized that indulging the voice wasn’t the worst thing she could do. That and she literally had nothing left to lose.
“Excellent. Just relax, watch the show and let me get to work” the voice chuckled before disappearing back to wherever it came from and time returned to normal as the symbols pulsated with an unholy blood red color.
With a roar of rage that sent blood spewing out of her mouth, she thrust her only functional arm forward with as much energy as she could muster, her fingers splayed as a jet of fire erupted from her palm and bathed the creature, causing it to scream in pain. Taking great pleasure at the creature’s screams of pain, a savage grin appeared on her face “Burn! Burn you piece of shit!!” her voice rang out; raw from her previous scream and roar while the flames increased in size and intensity, the yellow flames beginning to take on a blue hue while the concrete floor began to melt from the heat.
“This is what we are capable of” the voice told her as it surrendered control to Hella, letting her bathe in the pleasure that having such power at her fingertips brought about. “There is so much we can do, so much pain we can dish out on those that wronged us”
“Especially Jessica” she finished for the voice as various ways to hurt Jessica and her friends filled her head, accompanied by the laughter of the voice. However, her musing was cut short when she felt something sharp, jagged and large force its way through her stomach, pinning her to the ground as the sounds of her choked screams filled the empty warehouse as pain flooded her very being despite her body being numb and killed the flames emerging from her palm. Glancing down at her stomach with her single barely functional eye, it widened in shock as she saw what appeared to be the creature’s tail in her stomach, its stinger releasing a fluid that set her insides ablaze; adding the smell of burning flesh into the air which was already saturated with the coppery stench of blood. The symbols on her skin faded into oblivion as the creature slowly pulled its tail out of her, leaving a gaping hole in her stomach and its serrated stinger covered in blood; her blood. Roaring in triumph as it placed its stinger above its mouth, purring in relish as Hella’s blood dripped from its stinger and into its mouth; the taste of her blood sending surges of power and pleasure rippling through it. Coughing up blood for the last time, Hella closed her eyes as oblivion claimed her, while the symbols on her skin returned once more but with a faint green color instead of the red of their first appearance.
With its prey on the floor and quite possibly dead, the monster licked its lips in anticipation as it approached its reward, saliva running down its elongated lower jaw and leaving scorch marks on the floor wherever they landed as it longed to sink its teeth into her. Stepping into the moonlight streaming in from one of the warehouse windows, the creature’s appearance was finally revealed; it resembled a lanky wolf with grey fur, black eyes and toxic green slits for pupils. Its face was covered by a white bone mask which was currently steaming and black due to it being bathed by the flames from Hella. It stood at a height of three meters tall and a length of seven meters from snout to stinger with several parts of its body covered with pieces of several-inch-thick bleach white bones which had grown over its skin and served as armor while its four limbs were covered with spiked bones and a set of five serrated claws poked out of its paws. Its scorpion like tail curved above its body, the transparent venom sack above the bloody stinger glowing with a purple hue as the liquid inside bubbled violently, and the blood on the curved serrated stinger causing it to reflect the moonlight. Its body appeared to be charred in several places due to the fiery baptism that it had just undergone, but a second glance revealed the burnt flesh and charred bone falling away to reveal new skin and bone.
