PLEASE NOTE!!! This chapter is NOT SUITABLE for children. It contains violence and profanity.
Around the buildings, keeping to the shadows they cast to avoid rematerializing, I flew toward my destination, invisible within the darkness. I came to my target and changed course, flying straight upward along the window panes to the roof. With my speed, I flew far past the edge of the roof and with a mental command, I returned my body to its normal state, visible once more. I shifted my body during the short free fall and aimed for solid ground. With the crunch of gravel beneath my boots, I dropped into a crouch as I crouched low upon landing. Smirking, I looked for a way in to the building, quickly counting the door out, as the stairways were probably lighted, and full of cameras.
Noticing a small air duct, I strode toward it and peered through the grating. In the blackness I could see nothing with my human eyes, so I willed them into my shadow state, what Alex had once called Umbra. My vision shifted once more to low light and I could see every rivet within the aluminium ducting system with a clarity normal humans couldn’t fathom. The rooftop was too bright from the light of the moon, so I bent a rung of the grating ever so slightly, then stuck the tip of my finger through. Sending my finger into Umbra, the rest of my body was sucked through the grating.
I floated down it slowly, trying to gain my bearings. Looking through the smaller vents that fed into offices and conference rooms, I realized my target was one floor below my current position, and three offices west. I wound my way through the air conditioning system downard and westward until I thought I was where I should be, then peered out through a vent. With my enhanced vision through Umbra, I could see three men: two in the room with what I was after, and another in a small room off to the side, watching security cameras intently. With the right conditions, the cameras would never even see me.
Scanning back, I saw the item on a pedestal, surrounded by lasers from the security system. If anything bigger than a fly passed through them, the entire building would go into lockdown, the police would arrive within minutes, and all the guards from differing sections of the building would converge on this floor. Luckily, in Umbra I was completely invisible, and intangible. I slid through the vent, scanning for more guards, but found none. The first guard moved away, toward the only entrance and exit, hand on his pistol. Even with my powers, in my normal form, a bullet could still kill me, so I remained cloaked in Umbra.
I slithered up behind him, keeping to his back. Occasionally, someone can see the shadows shift as I move through them, and they usually go on alert, so I made sure to stay in his blind spot. Coming up on him, I reached my hand out, and passed it through the skin, muscle, and finally bones of his ribcage. Feeling around in his chest cavity, I found his beating heart, and willed my hand back to its normal state. Squeezing tightly, I interrupted the flow of blood to his body, causing a heart attack. Some people survive this, most don’t.
The guards body tensed, and a groan escaped him as he died. Removing my hand, he dropped to the floor, and I saw his name tag. Ernst. The other guard saw him fall, and ran over, calling the third guard as he ran. Kneeling beside Ernst, he shook his prone form before rolling him over. The camera guard knelt beside them then and after feeling for a pulse, started CPR. I floated just behind and above them, smirking at their futile attempts to revive him. His heart had stopped beating, and I could tell it wasn’t going to start back up again.
I lowered myself to behind the camera guard then reached out my hand again. Reaching into the back of his neck, my fingers brushed his brain stem, and I squeezed and twisted at the same time, severing his spinal cord and killing him instantly. He slumped over to his right, and the third guard stared. Rising slowly, he felt for the second man's pulse and I watched intently. His hand slowly moved for his belt, and he grasped the walkie talkie clipped to it. Quickly, I manipulated the shadows around us to envelop him in absolute darkness. That is another power I weild when in Umbra, the ability to cast shadow. The darkness surrounding my victim gives me a glance into their mind and I can make them realize their worst fears.
Turns out that this man had a family and feared for their safety above all else. I conjured an image of his wife being raped while he watched, screaming although he could not be heard. Next his son was shot then his daughter was kidnapped. He turned into a screaming, sobbing mess, curled up on the floor.
A minute in my shadow feels like years, or so I am told, so I held him there for five minutes, flashing one horror after another through his feeble mind. By the fourth minute he had gone clinically insane and by the fifth he was comatose. I drew my shadow back, then slid toward my prize, bypassing the lasers. Inspecting the artefact, I appreciated its beauty for a moment before I reached through the thick glass and brought it into my Umbra, then phased it through.
The moment it came through the glass, the room lit up with the strike of lighting outside the building. Moving quickly now, I stuffed it into the slinger I wore, a one strap backpack. Thunder rumbled in the distance, rattling the windows within the building. I had not smelled rain on my way here, so I was immediately tensed. Another rumble, closer this time, and I wondered just what the fuck was going on.
The room got a bit brighter suddenly, and I whirled around to find the source of the light. A spark of red appeared out of nowhere, followed by another. The sparks sped up, and I stood transfixed as the sparks fed into an orb, then wings sprouted from the sides. The sparks disappeared, and in their stead floated a grotesque creature, flapping its leathery wings. It was much larger than a bird, though the wings were quite the same. The torso and head were of what I thought to be a woman, and the legs and wings of an eagle. The torso was bare, and the creature's withered and wrinkled breasts hung low, while the mouth on the pointed face opened wide in a deafening screech. I covered my ears, and instinctively dropped out of Umbra to protect them.
The creatures mouth opened once more, but instead of the screech, a seductive voice wound out. “Veni mecum in inferno filius patrem vestrum manet.”
I sat, stunned for a moment. I knew the creature was speaking in a tongue I did not know, but I could understand her perfectly. “Come with me son of Hades, your father awaits.”
I shifted my backpack, feeling the weight of my stolen prize move within. Rising to my feet, I stared at the creature for a moment before the knowledge filled my mind, although from where, I did not know.
She was a Fury, servant and messenger of Hades in the Greek myths. Awestruck, I responded in english. “What do you want with me?”
“Tantum locum iure liberet te,” it hissed.“Only to deliver you to your rightful place.”
I balked before turning on my heel and running for the air vent. I shifted into Umbra as I ran, flying toward the vent quickly, and passing through it. Back to the roof I went, passing through the air conditioning system in a flash. I rematerialized in the light of the moon, and knelt on the gravel, coughing. The sound of beating wings reached me and my head snapped up, and I groaned in disappointment. The Fury was directly in front of me, flapping her wings to stay aloft as she stared at me with beady eyes.
