Still (Y/N)'s POV
"Kill that diavolo!" Luca yelled from the darkness, his voice booming from the speakers. I quickly shielded my eyes from the lights above, but in my attempt to look around I was met with an unsurprising ambush from the smoke. I quickly moved my hand back to grip the katana, but before I could even raise the weapon I was met with a barrage of attacks. The second my hand had moved, I was quickly stabbed in my right shoulder. I couldn't tell how big the wound was, since that attack was almost immediately followed up by something hard slamming into my ribs. I was worried that something may have broke, but that fear was confirmed when another, separate blunt weapon struck my wrist. I felt a crack, and the weapon in my hand was flung off into the smoke and darkness.
Despite my wrist being unwillingly bent on the wrong direction, as the katana violently skidded across the floor I felt nothing but relief fill my body. A smile crept its way onto my face as a baseball-bat-wielding guard ran at me, his weapon raised high. I weakly held my hands out to the side welcomingly, and before long he brought his wooden bat down over my head with all of his strength. Even over the smoke machine's violent hissing, and the somewhat faint music of the main room, the mighty *SNAP* from the bat breaking over my head was easy to hear. I began to bleed profusely and, as I felt blood pour down my face and soak into my hair and mask, I felt the last bits of consciousness I had slowly slip away. There was only one emotion that I could feel as I was resigned to only watching myself move.
Joy.
My brain had seemingly switched off by this point. My moral compass had been thrown away, and my initial heroic goal was no longer in the front or back of my mind. I just wanted to rip and tear the men before me to pieces, and I wanted Luca to watch before he had his turn. Before I could react, another knife came from the smoke and I was once again stabbed. This time, it was my left shoulder - but from the front side. I quickly grabbed my attacker by the forearm with my left hand, quickly spinning around to face him head on. We soon locked eyes before I punched him with my free hand, and he began to fall back. I caught him before he hit the ground, and I kept my grip as his arm remained at a full extension. I began to laugh as I gripped his bicep with my free hand, a familiar feeling washing over me. With as much force as I could muster, I snapped his elbow over my leg. The bones of his forearm immediately penetrated his skin, and with a psychotic laugh I drove those bones through this man's right eye and into his head.
After this, the red tint of my vision had darkened somewhat. I couldn't tell if it was from my blood or not, but since it seemed to offset the blinding effect of the neon lights around me I didn't feel the need to question it. Ripping the knife out of my front, I felt the warm feeling of blood coat my chest as I quickly spun back to the bat wielder. I held the knife out as I span, and because of this the guard's throat was slit whilst he attempted another attack. I threw the knife into another rushing guard, and it quickly sunk between his eyes as I picked up the mostly broken bat. I once again swung out as I spun around, and the frayed end of the bat sliced the cheek of a guard behind me. He recoiled at the attack, holding his bleeding cheek as he stumbled back. This didn't matter much, since I quickly followed up by jumping and slamming the bat down over his head. This resulted in the splintering end shredding his face and eyes as it made contact, and him being rendered unrecognisable and unable to fight.
I was still stood in the spotlight for all of this, and as I slowly looked around I noticed that there were no more targets approaching. My psychotic laughter then died down, eventually ending in a laugh that was almost done for the sake of mockery. "What's wrong, guys!?" I asked, holding my arms out once again. "Don't tell me you're afraid now!" I added, nonchalantly tossing the broken weapon off into the darkness. I waited a few more seconds, but I was quickly annoyed at the lack of response. With an upset huff, I casually ripped the knife out of my other shoulder and flipped it a few times before an idea came to mind. With a small giggle, I tossed the knife up at the roof. I heard a small metallic crunch, and with a smile I took a short step left as one of the neon lights above violently slammed down beside me.
Much to my satisfaction, the light was still fully intact after crushing the skull of the dying man beside me. I hummed a tune as I picked up the warm metallic chunk, hoisting it up and onto my shoulder. "Luuuuuu-caaaaaaaa~" I called out giddily, using this neon yellow 'flashlight' to look through the smoke and darkness. I noticed that the room was still littered with Luca's security, but as my gaze landed on each one they all cowered and yelped in fear. For a moment, I felt my blood thirst lessen and some control return. Taking this into account, I quickly remembered my objective and began paying less attention to the guards as I looked out for Luca's white suit. Once my back faced the doorway, I heard a metallic scrape against the ground which caught my attention. I quickly turned around to be met with a furious Luca, wielding his katana once again.
"You're fucking dead!" Luca roared, seconds before bringing his sword down. I reacted quickly, turning my body and pushing the light towards Luca to absorb the blow. The katana sliced through the light with ease, and my opponent was quick in following up his attack. He hit me with a strong front kick, which knocked me to the ground almost instantly. It didn't take long for Luca to swing down at me, but it was a heavily telegraphed attack so I rolled across the sticky floor and out of the way. His sword pierced the ground where I was and, not wanting to fall victim to his blade, I let off a counterattack of my own. Grabbing ahold of the cable from the grounded light, I yanked it towards myself as I stood up. It shot behind me with impressive force and, after spinning and angling myself, with another violent pull the broken bottom half of the light flung into Luca's left leg. It hit the side of his knee well, and resulted in a rather satisfactory *CRUNCH* as it made contact and dropped him onto all fours. He used his sword to prop himself up, but before I could get close I was caught in a full nelson.
"Uccidilo!" Luca ordered, now using the sword as a walking stick as he hobbled away and back to the stairs. I began to flail and writhe in this guards grip, but I was unable to shake myself loose. Whilst I continued my attempts to free myself, I watched as the remaining guards began to surround me. I continued to struggle as the smug security began to brandish their weapons, and they were quick to stop my attempt at escape. I was met with a metal bat to my stomach, something that knocked the wind out of me immediately and most definitely caused some internal damage. The same guard went for another swing, but as he reared back I jumped up and kicked him in the face with both of my feet. My attack landed well, but since I was still grappled by another guard I was quickly restrained once again. It didn't take long for the crowd to swarm me, attacking from every angle as they bashed, slashed and stabbed me.
'Fuck fuck fuck!' I mentally exclaimed, my vision flashing in and out of varying redness. As I was being beaten to a bloody pulp, I felt myself being jostled between states of consciousness and unconsciousness. However, after a metal bat hit my ribs and made a loud *CRUNCH*, my mind quickly returned to consistency. Whether the consistency that returned was good or not was certainly a matter of debate, but one that saved my life regardless. My vision quickly went from its default view to red once again, however it quickly scaled from a simple tint to one that covered my vision completely. I was essentially blinded by this redness, but I could still feel any and everything that I came into contact with. There was pain crying out from each part of my body, and these feeling were only amplified as I felt my fists, legs, and head violently bash or be bashed by a number of solid objects.
After a short while, the roars and yells of combat had all ceased. The only noise that remained was a whimper, and it seemed to have come from my hands. The opaque redness of my vision finally began to fade, and as the room finally returned to view I witnessed the source of tension and noise between my hands. I was stood behind a kneeling security guard, with one hand on his chin and the other firmly holding a handful of his hair. I blinked a few times and noticed that I was very slowly, and very forcefully, twisting his neck to the side. It had reached about a 45° angle, but as my gaze fell over the rest of the room a small smirk made its way across my face once again. "What's one more scumbag on the pile?" I asked myself, causing the guard to shriek before I swiftly twisted his head and snapped his neck. He lifelessly flopped to the floor, and as I looked to the corpse pile under the spotlight I also noticed a weapon that would probably help me out. "I'll be taking that" I muttered, crouching down and picking up a blood-stained, aluminium baseball bat.
I took a few steps towards the main room stairs, but I quickly fell forward and had to lean on the bat for support. 'There goes my knee' I thought. Grabbing the joint in question, my right knee made a gruesome *POP* as I snapped it back into place. It definitely still hurt to move, but I knew that I had no time to waste caring about that. I hobbled up the stairs, using the bat as a cane, and after I got to the top I quickly did my best to look for clues. Upon entering the main room, attention once again all snapped to me since I entered between songs. The cringeworthy scraping of the bat echoed around the room, and upon seeing me covered in blood seemingly everyone screamed out in terror and fled the dance floor.
I paid this no mind however, as my attention was instantly drawn to a trail of small blood splatters that led across the room. Assuming this came from my target, I walked as fast as I could as I followed this trail and I was soon led to a familiar place. It led up to the now abandoned second floor, and then back into Luca's 'office'. As I walked over the countless bodies that littered the hall, I began to hear talking behind the door as I approached. "He's fuckin' crazy!" A voice I recognised as Luca's yelled. "Sì! Tutti!" He exclaimed fearfully. "All of them! Dead!" He cried. A felt a sinister smile make its way upon my face for the millionth time, and I cut him off by tapping on the door with the bat.
"Luuuuuuuu-caaaaaaaa~" I called out creepily from behind the door.
I heard a shriek come from the room, and after hearing a few frantic footsteps I kicked the door wide open. "Where'd ya go, Lukie?" I asked to the seemingly empty room. I looked around the space as I stood in the doorway, but I saw no signs of life and I couldn't feel the presence of the sword anymore. Confused, I shut the door behind me before dragging the bat along the carpet as I slowly walked around the desk. Suddenly, as I turned the corner, Luca dove out from under the desk and rammed the katana through my gut. "Ack!" I coughed out, dropping the bat and gripping onto the blade to avoid it pushing deeper into me.
"Caro Dio, bandisci questo demone" Luca chanted, gripping his sword tight whilst he closed his eyes.
The burning pain from before had returned in full, an agonising sensation now darting around my body at an immense speed. It felt as if the air had been sucked out of me, and that my blood boiled at a temperature hot enough to rival lava. As I gripped the blade, the feeling only worsened as the sharp steel cut into my fingers and only seemed to speed up the rate that this pain travelled. Luca eventually opened his eyes, and the pain I felt seemed to make him smile as we locked eyes. "How does it feel, Diavolo?" He asked, forcing the sword deeper. "See what happens when you're a stupido bastardo?" He added smugly, slowly pulling the sword out. "God is on our side" he continued as some sort of red bubble was being pulled out of me along with the sword.
As the sharp edge of the katana dragged along my flesh, the pain that I felt only amplified further. "So that's what a soul looks like" I commented, wincing in pain as I stared in bewilderment at his red bubble. As the bubble began to take a somewhat human shape, my eyes shot open as I heard a bloodcurdling roar echo within my mind. The agony I was feeling subsided almost immediately, and I watched in awe as a pair of spectral red hands emerged separately from the red shape. "I should warn you, Luca..." I began, a smug look forming on my face as the hands gripped the blade in the centre. "My soul technically isn't mine anymore" I explained as the hands snapped the blade in two, then pulling the remaining half out of my stomach. "And I don't think 'he' is willing to share anymore than he has to" I added, chuckling as these hands threw the blade into Luca's good leg. He yelled out in pain as the blade pinned him to the carpet, soaking and staining it with his blood. 'Welcome back, Nighty' I stated mentally, slowly approaching Luca as I felt my major wounds shrink as my wrist loudly snapped back into place.
"So..." I began, crouching down to Luca's height. "Wanna let me back in there?" I asked kindly, pointing towards the hidden room.
"Vaffanculo!" Luca yelled, spitting in my face after he spoke. "Just you wait 'till my Uncle hears about this! He'll- AGHHH!" I had cut him off by ripping the blade out of his leg, causing him to yell out and clutch his wound in pain.
"Now now, don't make this difficult" I stated, gently poking his last remaining white sleeve with the broken blade.
"I... I'm not telling you shit!" He exclaimed, evidently trying to mask his fear with false bravado.
"Fine then. The hard way" I said with a sigh. I stood back up and violently threw the blade through the window against the left wall, shattering it instantly and lodging the blade in the brick building across the street. I walked over to the window and looked down to see the street swarmed with police officers, and with an annoyed sigh I turned back around to face the bleeding mafioso.
I extended an open hand towards Luca, and grabbed him by his black tie with a shadow hand. He yelped out in fear as he was lifted off of the ground, but he began flailing and screaming as I pulled him towards me and leaned him out of the window. "What the fuck, man!?" He cried, trying to hold on to the shadow hand despite his hands repeatedly phasing through.
"Now, Luca" I began, taking a few steps forward so his feet could barely touch the ledge. "I think it's about time you told me how to free those girls in there" I stated smugly.
"What the fuck are you!?" He cried, his feet beginning to slip backwards.
"I'm a man who stops scumbags like you from harming innocents like those girls" I explained, raising my pinky so his tie slipped from my grasp ever so slightly. "Oh, and also..." I added, raising my ring finger so I was barely pinching his tie. "I'm also a man who's willing to drop you. So make it snappy" I added, smirking as his face filled with fear.
"Alright!" He exclaimed fearfully. "I'll open it up!" He added, seemingly holding back tears.
"Good boy" I said smugly, jerking my arm back and launching him through his desk. "Now hurry it up" I ordered, gesturing towards the keypad.
Luca quickly scrambled to his feet and speedily typed in a code, that I now saw was 3459, and scanned his eye to reveal the vast room once again. I approached the first girl I saw and as I went to free her, I realised that her shackles were steel plated and needed a key. "And how do I open these?" I asked, knowing I wouldn't have the physical strength to rip them all open.
"Use this" Luca said smugly, causing me to turn to him. He held his revolver up and aimed at me once again, something that made my eyes go wide in panic. As I noticed him pull the hammer back, I violently ripped this girl's restraints out of the wall and pulled her to the floor. A loud bang rang out as the large calibre bullet hit the wall where this girls head just was, and it was then when I sprung back into action. Luca wasn't very far from me at this point, so I grabbed a knife off of the guard corpse beside me and rushed him. He shakily aimed at me once again, but this time I moved so fast that didn't even need to dodge. I was before him in a second, and once again drove this knife up into his arm. As his last white sleeve was stained red, he shot a bullet into the ceiling which once again made the door behind us to slam shut.
'God dammit!' I mentally yelled, frustrated with this repeated result. Luca took this chance to punch me across to jaw, but I barely even flinched as the blow landed. I sliced the knife out of his arm, squirting blood everywhere, before headbutting him and launching him over rubble that was his desk. He landed on his feet, but before he could charge me again I had already picked up the bat and whacked it hard into his good knee. After the violent crunch that followed the hit, I heard a massive amount of noise coming from the club for the first time since the music had ceased. Assuming it was the police, I quickly did my best to wrap things up in a nice little bow for them before taking the window to leave. I quickly tied the now unconscious Luca's arms behind his back with his jacket, and left him slumped against his desk with a sticky note reading 'Luca Vitale - attempted murder, human + drug trafficker, mobster' stuck to his forehead. I then wrote out instructions on how to open the hidden room on another sticky note, which I then stuck to the keypad.
As I heard footsteps barrelling down the hallway, I tossed the bat over my shoulder before sprinting towards the window. "Freeze!" I heard as I leapt out of the window. I turned back to see four cops in full riot gear bust through the door, and with a smile I used my shadow arms to grab onto the roof and launch myself up. I heard a small ruckus after I left their view, but upon landing on the roof my attention was quickly drawn to something else. Before me stood a girl, who was faced away from me. Her hair was blonde, and went down to her lower back. Taking note of the white dress she wore, I was confident that I recognised her. "You're... you're the girl from the alleyway, right?" I asked, taking a step closer.
"That would be me" she responded, still turned away. "And I take it you're the one who freed everyone?" She asked, looking over her shoulder to face me.
"That would be me" I copied, hoping to alleviate some of the tension I was feeling. "But how'd you get out so quick? Weren't you chained up too?" I asked, genuinely confused.
She took a deep breath before answering, and what she said really caught me off guard. "Well, physical objects can't exactly hold down a ghost" she stated flatly. Before I was able to speak again, she surprised me again by gently floating off of the ground and turning to face me. Her bare arms were covered in scars, and as her hair floated away from her face I also noticed that was missing her left eye.
"Holy shit..." I muttered in disbelief.
"Suicide Sadie?"