Newborn

Chapter 42: The Scarlet Lady

Anne Halton

As I make my way downtown, the psychic scream gets louder and louder. 

Algea is focusing the boy’s anger to call for me.  He wants me to come for him.

Dressed in scarlet, I push myself to go as fast as I can.

I should have left earlier.  I should have been patrolling in the first place.

I get to the building.  There are two doormen at the front.

They tell me to stop, but I just keep going.

“Call the police!” I shout as I pass.

I kick open the stairwell, and leap up from one flight of stairs to the next, searching for the right floor. 

For the boy, it seems like eternity.  Algea is cutting into his mother.  He’s already violated her while he made shallow incisions all over her body.  Heather is covered in blood.  The demon puts the knife right below the woman’s eye.  He smiles and then he starts to cut.  He’s careful not to hit the eye ball, he’s saving that for later.  He carefully cuts off the woman’s eyelid so that she can’t close her eyes anymore.  They’ll be open forever.  Bloods pour out over Heather’s eye, but she can still see through it.  She can still see Algea.  She looks over at her son.  He’s watching and screaming.  Tears are flowing down his face.  Heather knows she’s going to die.  Her only wish now is for her son to live.  She wishes he wasn’t here and that he didn’t have to watch this, but she knows he doesn’t have a choice.   Algea is evil.  He’s a monster.

Heather hears the front door break open.  She doesn’t know what’s happening, but she can tell that Algea is pleased.

I see his brutal work and anger fills me.  I am strong and I want to fight him.

Algea runs at me with his knife.

My inner fire fills me and I knock him back with my might.  He doesn’t seem fazed by it.  He runs at me again.  We trade punches.  Somehow I manage to knock the knife out of his hand. 

“That’s more like it,” Algea says.  “Let out your rage out like a real demon.  We need to be strong.”

I ignore him.  I won’t let him get into my head.  I need to stop him.

He punches me in the face, but it just makes me angrier.  I’ll destroy him.

I punch him back, but he blocks my attacks. 

He is swinging at me with both arms.  I’m knocked back.

My body is healing, but the energy drain is getting to me.  I need the anger to fuel me.  I need more power.

“You can’t stop me if you keep holding back,” Algea says.

I run at him, focusing all my rage into my fists. 

As we fight, there are flames.  I don’t know if it’s coming from me or him, but the room is on fire. 

An alarm goes off and thick grey, dirty water sprays down from the roof.  It puts out the flames at first, but they’re stronger than water.

As I pummel him into the kitchen counter, he reaches over for a knife.  Before I can stop him, he stabs me in the side. Twisting it inside of me, he basks in my pain.

“You’re strong,” he says.  “Be strong.  I know there’s more to you.”

He’s right.  There are walls in me, but I can’t forget that what’s inside me is even worse than Algea.  He wants me to let out the fire so I’ll become like him.

I take a step back, still impaled by the knife.  I refuse to be stopped by a little piece of metal.  I start attacking Algea again.  He pulls out the knife and tries to stab me again, but this time I stop him.

I start to heal, but it drains my power.  Before I can stop him, Algea takes his knife and he stabs Heather through her heart.  He reaches out to the flames around the room, and feeds them.  They grow instantly, threatening to consume the whole apartment.  He grabs his camera and dashes for the balcony. “It’s been a time.  I hope you had as much fun as me.” 

I want to chase him, but I see flames closing in on the boy.  He’s still frozen by Algea.  I grab the child and I run.

The doormen called the police when I entered the building.  They’re here, but they’re having trouble getting up to the apartment.  Following the fire alarm, the elevators are shut down and the stairwells are flooded with people exiting the building.

As soon as I move the boy, he can speak again.  “What about my Mum?” he cries out as we flee the building.  I can’t go back for her.  She’s already dead.  The boy in my arms has just become an orphan.