like larva feeding from the kill Who: Erin, a Legionary of Haures, Jasper, Jameson, and open When: Early morning Where: Anywhere But Here
When the demonic waves hit town, Erin always showed her true workaholic colors. After working with the civilian round-up teams all the previous day, she’d headed to the hospital to help out and had worked through the night. She still hadn’t slept. She hadn’t even been home. After leaving the hospital, she headed over to the bar. Once again, the owner had given her a pair of keys, so she could head over early and set up base. She wasn’t sure if they’d even need the civilian groups today, but she’d be there if they did.
Erin unlocked and let herself in the front door, immediately heading over to the bar to check the messages on the phone. Because they’d always used the bar as the base, a lot of times people called the bar itself if they wanted to report a sighting that wasn’t an emergency. Before she got that far, she heard a noise back in the kitchen.
Now, Erin wasn’t stupid. She’d seen more than her fair share of horror movies. And in her humble opinion, anyone that wasn’t a hundred percent on their guard in times like these was just a fucking moron. So no, she did not go to investigate. She paused, staying very still as she pulled her gun from the waistband of her pants. She dropped her bag on the floor, kicked it to the side, and took the safety off. “Who’s back there?” she yelled. She didn’t get an answer, but the noises stopped. In the movies, that was always a bad sign.
She was not wrong.
All at once there was a loud commotion, shelves being pushed over and glass breaking as something moved fast and hard. The second a black head with eyes a-fucking-flame appeared in the kitchen door, Erin pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the thing’s massive shoulder, sending black blood flying. But it didn’t stop in its advance. She saw with widening eyes the way it had needed to duck down to get through the doorway. It was fucking huge, and running for her without hesitation. Apparently having a bullet in his shoulder was greatly irritating. Erin squeezed the trigger again, all the while backing her way towards the door as fast as she could. It hit dead center in its chest, and while it made it falter for a moment, it still kept coming.
In a situation like that, thinking wasn’t a part of your body’s process. In the groups, Erin had no problem with keeping a cool head when faced with this kind of shit. She always felt safe and secure in those groups. They were extra cautious, always had a game plan, and went into a situation expecting what was to come. There was no game-plan here. The warning she’d had was very slight, albeit one she was certainly grateful for. She fired again, and when that didn’t make the difference, she bolted. She hated the idea of turning her back on that thing, but it was too goddamn close for her liking.
It was also too fast. Before she could reach the door it slashed its massive hand out for her, just brushing it against the back of her arm. That was all it took.
In the single second that there was physical contact between them, Erin’s world erupted. Her brain flooded with images, sounds, and feelings – all of them bad. It felt as if several lifetimes worth of hate and suffering hit her all at once, assaulting her from the inside out and jamming all connections. It was agony, and it wasn’t limited to the mental. It came with a very real, physical pain. It felt like something in each temple popped. Pressure flooded her head, causing her vision to blur. She forgot everything else in that second. She clutched at her head and crouched, dropping the gun in the process.
The demon knew what it had done. It seemed to know her power the second it touched her, and had Erin been looking, she would have seen something like smug satisfaction pass over its face. It shoved Erin to the ground, and kicked her to her back. She didn’t feel that part so much. Every touch was flooding her with more, and far faster than her brain could comprehend it all. The laws of time didn’t seem to apply to her when that contact was established. Seconds stretched out into centuries in her head as she saw its evil unfold. The things she saw were horrors by themselves, without the pain they brought. The images alone would have made her sick, and made her weep with fear. The overload was torture. Her body couldn’t react fast enough. There was no relief to be found.
The demon shoved her into the nearest wall, and wrapped a single giant hand around her throat. He used this grip to raise her up against the wall, until not even her toes were touching the ground.
It made no other move. It didn’t go for the kill. It knew that this was enough. The clairsentient could only take so much. Erin screamed, making sounds she never would have believed any human could make – let alone herself. She lost her vision. Blood started to drip from both ears and nostrils. Her lungs burned for air, but she just couldn’t stop screaming.