Kelevra, pt 1: The Rift

So I was having a day of sorts. I got a fire going at one of the shrines and when I left, the proxies had been watching the whole time. I think now that they were baiting me. Seems like they finally got wise to what I was doing. It makes me wonder even further about the purpose of the shrines that they were so keen to defend them. Are they actually shrines? I mean, you get the odd fervent proxy, they're not unusual - but more often than not, they're not very religious. At least, not enough that desecrating a symbol alone would annoy them.

I haven't seen the tall one in months. I should be glad, but it's making me uneasy. Funny how this shit messes with you - you see it and you get paranoid, or you don't see it and you get paranoid. Anyway I get coughs, and the occasional nosebleed where the blood seems to have blackish streaks in it, so I don't think I'm "clean" by any means.

In the past few months I've been working on a weakness of mine. It's to a particular song. Which now I say it, sounds stupid, but those of you in the know . . . well, doesn't matter. After a lot of failed attempts, I came up with a solution to Pavlov my way out of this shit. Whenever I had nice food, I played music of a similar but not same genre. Then after a few sessions I switched to music more specific to the genre and era the song came from. It's taken a lot of getting used to, and more discomfort than I care to admit. Soon I need to try songs by the same artist. That will not be fun. Though it will be worth it. I doubt I'll ever be remotely OK hearing the song, but I need to be able to hold a gun steady.

Anyway. I picked a hideout a little too close to where I targeted. Meant I didn't have much opportunity to lose them, just to sweep up all my shit and go. When the sirens started, most of the proxies after me had to go back to base, presumably to help sweep up more of their shit before it became ashes or evidence. That still left quite a few after me though. I legged it deeper into the abandoned part of the industrial district.

Got pretty far, but carrying all my stuff, among them a rifle, was starting to tire me out. Worse still, under the thudding of pursuing feet I could hear the chamber of a revolver spinning. I glanced back over my shoulder - I needed a look at the gun. Glimpsed it. A Smith and Wesson probably - either way, always six shots on the revolvers that are that particular size. Dived into an alley just as he fired. That was one. Sprinted further along and dived behind a skip as he fired again. Two. That was when I noticed. Before he fired, his trainers made a distinctive crunch as he slowed to aim. Whether it was fleeing into another alley, stooping behind a skip or bin, that made it simpler to know when to take cover.

On the sixth shot I stepped out of cover and opened fire with my trusty Colt. Three shots and he was down. But different gunshot noise had alerted some of them, they came looking. Had to keep running. The scrap metal I kept seeing gave me an idea. I grabbed a sheet of what I think had been steel roofing and stood it in a narrower part up ahead as a barrier. As I put it into place I noticed a worn junction box up ahead with a frayed wires sticking out. That gave me another idea. I pulled a wire out of it by the safe part and tried to attach it to the metal. The bastard thing stopped just before it could touch the metal. I was determined this wasn't going to be a waste of precious running time though, so I took my water out my bag and filled in the remaining distance. It actually made the connection more secure than laying the wire on it alone. I didn't see exactly what happened after, but I did hear enough to know it worked. Have you ever heard someone try to scream but they can't open their mouths? And then another person, followed by another? Given the kinds of folk that read this, probably. But for the dilettanti - it's quite something.

I continued running until I got to an intersection of alleys. There was a glow of something in the corner of my eye. Two proxies lighting something up ahead of me. Molotovs. I fired, aiming for one of the bottles, the third shot hit. Flames and glass erupted on them both, and then again as the other bottle was dropped. They hit the floor, right onto the fire and shards. One way now blocked by fire, the way behind blocked by electricity, I tried for the left alley. A proxy was coming down it, grey hoodie. I went for the right, one that had set of fire exit stairs. Another proxy in a bandana. I fired a shot at Bandana and he hit the ground. I was about to charge past and away when both my legs were grabbed with a yell. I slammed against the floor hard. The breath shot straight out of me, and the gun fell from my grip. Very clever - Bandana dodging the shot and playing dead in one swift move. Watch out for that trick. I rolled onto my back and reached for the Colt. My fingertips just about brushed it before it was snatched up and I took the weight of Bandana to the chest. Not helped by the stench of body odour and Lynx. "Gotta thank her for whacking Ruby, now I can make captain!" 

I was trying to squirm out when the shadow of the grey hoodied proxy approached, then I had two people restraining me.

"Dead or alive?" asked Grey.

My pockets were turned inside out by Bandana fumbling for ammo, which he soon found, reloading. "Fucking dead."

Suddenly the dim from the flickering sodium streetlight was gone, eclipsed by a black shape. It was like an antimatter rift had opened up over us. With it came a loud, visceral tear - the aubade of something cutting insatiably through flesh and bone. Droplets of blood hit me. In the dark I could make out a spike sticking out of Bandana's mouth like a hook. It had been driven in savagely from the back of his head. Blood flowed over Bandana's dying lips in a closing red curtain. Grey could barely cry out.

Then the dark rift spoke - burning with excitement. "Fucking dead it is, then." The weight was lifted off me as Bandana was hauled up, up and away. The sodium light drifted back until the silhouette of Bandana's corpse was hurled into it, smashing the bulb. Complete darkness, followed by the rift laughing from indiscernible directions, then the gun hitting the floor of the alley. Figuring Grey was distracted, I kneed him in the balls, punched him across the face with all my might and rolled out from under him. He staggered, his jaw having been considerably loosened with a crack. Bandana's dead body fell down from the obscured heights.

I scrambled away, drawing my L1A1 and tucking myself behind the fire stairs. A relief that the light was gone. Darkness is a sanctuary. I heard some noises as Grey shuffled around. Then bright phone light glared at me. I fired. The bullet blew his skull apart in a red splatter.

Now I was starting to put it together. I picked up the phone and shone it up. The rift was gone. The laughter was familiar, the modus operandi, and one of the few monsters like that who would actually come to see me.

"Alright," I said, "come on out."

The fire escape stairs creaked. And then the voice reverberated through the alley, possibly from above. "My, my, so uncivilised . . ." Then a sliding sound. I could sense something traversing the darkness, now level with me. "But then again, looking at your handiwork, it's safe to say that civility is the last thing on your mind right now." When I turned around with the phone light, the admonisher was nowhere. Just the corpses still bleeding out. The source of the voice was now moving rapidly, shadows flittering. I looked right.

"In the four years of my absence . . ."

Left. Corpses.

". . . you've grown up . . ."

Right. Empty alley.

". . . become more vicious . . ."

Up. A vacant staircase.

". . . far more dangerous . . ."

Everywhere. The encroaching gloom.

". . . it's almost hard to believe it's you . . ."

I gotta keep moving, so I'll cut this post here. I'll tell you how our little meeting went soon enough though.