Sopot Boyz

Chapter I Surfacing of the tattered and torn

The city of Danzig was unusually quiet. Despite a quite rainy evening, and fog settling down on gray stones of the old city street, normally you would still see people chatting around cafes or watching football games and drinking cheap beers in pubs. You wouldn't see any vagrants or bums. Even the colorful walls of the monumental tenements seemed lifeless. Only tolling of the bells from the old cathedral of Saint Mary could be heard. And there, lost in her thoughts, not really caring about the odd stillness of this place, was walking Emilia. A tall, slim girl with waist-length hair, darker than the night sky, yet still somehow a bit brighter than her deep, blue eyes. Listening to her favorite band on her headphones, with hands hidden warm under her blue-white poncho, she was heading back to her home. Suddenly a weird thought occurred in her mind, or rather... a lack of thought. Just a feeling of cold mist glooming over her brain. Getting confused but still walking, she noticed she is not getting anywhere, she's been in the same place for a while. She couldn't tell the time. She did not know for how long she's been marching through the same street, but she didn't really care about it all.
- It's a weird feeling isn't it? - She heard a voice echoing through the avenue. The voice belonged to a boy sitting in a chair next to a pub few meters away from her. Despite the chilly, autumn weather, the boy wasn't wearing any warm cloths. Only olive cargo pants, boots with red shoelaces, a black T-shirt and leather, fingerless gloves. He had several visible tattoos on his arms depicting weird religious or occultic symbols. Another strange thing was that he was wearing really dark flaxen glasses with thin, silver frames. He had combed back hair that was mostly dark brown but getting gray which was very peculiar because he couldn't be older than her, probably starting collage. He was quite tall and athletic, but something about his posture was unsettling. He was sitting laid back with his legs crossed, looking at her through fog mixed with cigarette smoke, as if he was waiting for her to say something. She came a little closer. Being around this man seemed like a bad idea for Emilia. She was feeling something eerie in the air.
- What do you mean by that? - she asked sheepishly.
- What are you listening to? - he asked out of nowhere with a rude smirk on his thin lips.
- Change by De... Wait, why are you even asking me that? - she got even more confused.
- Nice track but shouldn't you maybe, hmmm, I don't know... not be able to hear me with your headphones on? - Question was followed by a moment of awkward silence. - Well, weird, isn't it? - Emilia took her headphones off. She was getting anxious. - I got stuck here with you for God knows how long. So better start talkin' cause am getting kinda bored. - He said with a mean tone. Everything seemed... mysteriously unreal all of the sudden.
- You could start with telling me what is going on here you know...
- You wouldn't understand it yet.
- But I know something is wrong! - she felt fear crawling on her back.
- But you don't know what exactly, do you feel... endangered? Don't you think something bad might happen if you step closer to me? - Emilia flinched. Why was she feeling that?
- Yes... - she replied, trying not to look away from him. He took a big draw from the cigarette and put it out on the shoe sole of his boot.
- Wrong! You're silly, am not the danger here - he laughed with the emptiest, driest laugh she has ever heard. - But IT is getting closer. Good, finally we can get out of this damn Limbo. You should probably look for some safe place. - he said calmly. He slowly stood up and turned away from her. He took off his glasses and put them on a table beside him. He looked at the floor and started walking around in circles while shaking his legs. He walked past her and stood in the middle of the street and started stretching. She was looking at him like he was some kind of madman, which honestly, wasn't far from the truth. Suddenly, she heard an awful, otherworldly scream from somewhere around the corner few hundred meters from them. It sounded like horses getting burnt alive mixed with noise of heavy machinery like train crashing. The boy started laughing, but this time, it wasn't a dry, lifeless laugh like earlier. He seemed excited. She didn't know who to be more scared of. Emilia started shaking and walking away in fear, but she couldn't stop staring at the direction of the roar.
- What in heavens is that thing?!
- Heaven? This bastard is definitely from hell! - The boy replied jokingly. Moment after he said it, the beast showed itself. It looked like a huge, hellish hybrid of a dog and a boar. Long horse-like legs carried a bulgy torso which was ending with an ugliest head she had ever seen. It was almost her height and was covered in black fur and spikes. Its long jaws reminded her of a crocodile, with sharp teeth sticking out of it in every direction, even wounding itself. A pig-like nose was sniffing furiously. Its small, black eyes were fixed directly at her, there were dozens of them, placed on its head seemingly randomly like chocolate chips on some really fucked up eldritch cookies. She felt cold sweat and death running down her neck and back. She felt sick, paralyzed.
- Come on! Bring it on bastard! - shouted the boy while pulling a long pocket knife out of his cargo pants. The beast looked at him and growled deeply. It started running at him, gaining speed no one would expect from something this size. The boy with the knife looked absurdly weak in comparison to it, yet still he looked confident and even excited. The fight began. The boy dodged monsters charge by dashing to the side while cutting it at the same time. All of it happened in a blink of an eye. Monster turned back incredibly fast, but the boy was even faster and jabbed his knife in its lower jaw, and something even more unbelievable happened. He flipped the hellspawn over his head. She could feel the ground tremble when it hit the ground. The beast screamed at the top of its lungs as it hit him with a hoof to the chest. She expected to hear awful crack of his ribs. Boy flew few meters back and landed on some trashcans. She wanted to shout, but still she couldn't move at all. The beast got itself up from the ground and shrugged. It sniffed the air and slowly turned its ugly head to Emilia. It slowly started moving towards her, bleeding profoundly from its mouth and side, its blood sizzling on the pavement as if it was acidic. She could only move back a little, while praying for salvation.
- So much... light... - The beast growled. - So tasty... - She opened her eyes even wider and froze. It could speak. She felt like drowning in an ocean of dread. But like an angel coming down from the heavens to smite the devil, the boy drop kicked the demon right in the head, he must have run insanely fast, because the beast was pushed a good two meters away. His heavy boots increased the impact. She could see few teeth flying away from its mouth. He quickly stood up and run up to it but the beast kicked and hit him with its jaws, poking few nasty holes in his chest and stomach. Boy screamed and as he got up in a mix of pain and rage, he started furiously punching it with his bare hands. His strength was beyond human. He didn't stop until the beast's head mixed with the pavement. He kneeled, and closed his eyes tightly, breathing heavily, bleeding from his fists, nose, mouth and the wounds in his chest and abdomen. He looked like he could die any minute, yet he still clenched his fists and eyes. He turned away from her.

- It's over. You should go now. - He whispered calmly. Emilia snapped out of her fear induced paralysis-like state. She had so many questions, but the only thing she did was she slowly approached him and asked with a shaky voice.
- What... what should I do? - He slowly stood up and picked up his glasses from the pub table.
- You just wait here girl. Am goin to call Doc. You should just stay put for now... - He said as she felt her consciousness slipping away. The fog started clearing up and in just few seconds, the stranger, the gray fog, the confusion, and fear. It all disappeared. She was standing in the middle of the ever-crowded Long Street.

Alone with her thoughts. The song in her headphones has just started playing.