Into the Light

Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

   The Dark Queen watched the world turn dark with her hellspawn. They rose up from the abyss in a seemingly endless typhlosion. Red-and-black burned into her ancient eyes as she stood without a human suit in all her glory. With her glamor, she might have been mistaken for a goddess. Tall, ivory skin bathed in eturnal dancing shadows and smoke. Thick, lucious lips to seduce mortal men. Her mouth, still a bit too wide for her face, but she wanted to look a vision today as she stood at the edge of the broken house, staring down into the pit.

   She heard the Dark King's laugh.

   A lilting, rolling chuckle that built and built until it filled her ears and body and made her minions fall to their knees in terror.

   Her shadows of hair swayed with the sudden force of air as the beating of wings sounded deep within the earth, rising up and up. A bullet shot out, a streak, unidentifiable at its great speed, but the Dark Queen knew.

   The King's wings, black and leathered--dragon's wings--unfurrled to their great length. Her King looked down at her with hollowed eyes and grinned in a way that made even her shudder. This was true power. The Queen had given him what he wanted.

   The King had risen.

***

   Annette checked her helmet as she skirted down side streets on her little light blue Vespa. Oily rain streaked the road. Annette's resolve only strengthened.

   The childeren were in danger, and it was her duty to save them. Her pockets sagged heavily with an array of weapons.

   Crosses. Crystals. Healing herbs. Spell tombs. Premade curses. Holy water. A special wand made from an old willow tree to direct her power... power she'd rarely used. Power that had seemed to swell in the last several days giving her the ability to scry the future in teacups...and much much more.

   A meteor crashed into a roof of a neighboring house. So suddenly, so randomly, that Annette nearly lost control of the Vespa. She skidded to a stop, throwing out her leg as she looked to the house. The entire place cracked with fire, slowly being consumed by the blaze.

   Annette winced, looking up at the sky...streaked with red lines as meteors came down like rain crashing into houses and trees and the street.
One landed thirty yards from Annette and her eyes widened.

   They weren't metors.

   They were monsters.

   Annette's breath caught as the creature, a green little beast with golden eyes, spotted her. It peeled back it's lips, beating his chest and charged. Annette tossed the Vespa aside, stepping out.

   From her deep pockets, she brandished a cross. "Come no closer!" she shouted.

   The creature, no more than three feet in height, launched itself at Annette, knocking her to the ground. The cross burned a place in its face, sizzling the flesh like bacon in a skillet. It screamed, going for Annette's eyes. Annette snarled like a wild cat forcing the creature's hands away. She was nearly twice its size after all.

   She rolled, pinning it to the street with her knees on its arms, screaming as she jammed her thumbs into both of it's horrible eyes. Screaming as her thumbs sank into the eyeballs like grapes bleeding wine.

   The creature spasmed wildly, shrieking. Annette only stopped when the spasms turned to twitches, whimpers drooling out of the creature's mouth.

   Annette pulled herself up, dazed to see the neighborhood engulfed by monsters, smoke, and panic. Families fled their homes, running out into their lawns in nothing but their pajamas. Some stood in awe staring up at their burning homes.