I caught the flu. It was, as expected, misery. When I heard the noise that night, I thought it was just a side effect of the cough syrup, or the fever, or both. I rolled over and tried to ignore it. It wasn't until the second or third squish that I realized something was wrong. I opened my eyes and looked up at the ceiling. A humanoid creature was climbing across it on all fours. I watched in horror as his head turned, slowly, until the vertebrae were cracking and breaking so he could look down at me. I tried to scream and found myself unable to. I tried to roll away, but my limbs were paralyzed. Looking up at that thing, I couldn't breathe.
And then, my girlfriend was raking my eyes out with razor sharp talons, screeching in laughter.
I startled upwards from the bed with a scream. The woman next to me went sprawling. I panted and shivered in cold sweat.
"Astin? Babe?" Mary was there with a hand on my shoulder. I felt a warm pull from me to her, calming me. "I'm here. You're safe."
"If you say so." I rubbed my burning forehead. Thanks to this stupid virus, even my horns ached. Did I mention I had horns? Wings, too. You'd think it'd be glamorous being Other—a living myth stuck in a human world—but ever since I sprouted my new appendages, it'd been one unpleasant surprise after the next. I found out last week I molted. I spent most of my weekend sweeping up feathers that humans couldn't see and hacking up a lung. Not fun.
And then, there was the Taint—these things made of solid nightmares, always gnawing away at the edge of the world. No one knew where they came from, and yet they had always been there, devouring reality bit by tiny bit. They mostly kept in the shadows until it was time to strike. What little I saw of them haunted my nightmares. I hadn't slept real well since discovering their existence. Constantly having to watch my back didn't help.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Mary asked, putting a hand on my chest.
"Not much to talk about," I mumbled back. "A freaky thing crawled over the ceiling. Then... uh... something plucked my eyeballs out."
"You mean me."
"Yeah," I sighed, tussling her dark black hair. "I meant you."
"It's okay. I understand." She tapped my necklace. A pink crystal, washer, and ankh hung from it—male, female, and a symbol of power. It kept both of safe from her psychic fits. "Besides, the Taint is gone. You got rid of it last winter."
"It was still awful." I shivered. "I'd never seen anything like that before."
"You mean, you've never seen it before you had a nightmare?" Mary tensed. "Not out on the streets? Not in that underground temple?"
I shook my head.
"Astin," she said slowly, "don't you have prophetic dreams?"
Both our eyes widened in horror, and we turned. While we were distracted, a figure made of tar had crawled through the window. With a horrible gurgle, it spat a blob of black.
We lurched away just in time, and a few seconds later, there was a smoking hole in the mattress where we were laying. We bolted into action—or, at least, one of us did. Mary dropped her human mask and went on the attack, unleashing the full fury of vampyric rage. Meanwhile, I got my feet tangled up in the sheets and hit the ground with a pained wheeze. I struggled through fever, cough medicine, and 300 thread count sheets to get back up.
Mary dodged its acid vomit and managed to take off one of its arms with her claws, but the bathroom now had a jagged, hissing window where there hadn't been before. The missing limb didn't seem to bother the thing too much. The severed arm spasmed, then skittered over on its fingers and grabbed her ankle. She gave a cry of alarm, and the distraction was enough for the creature to grab her by the throat.
"Let her go!" I suspect it was mostly luck, but the creature got a solid goring as I staggered forward and sunk my horns into it. It screamed a horrible squeal of metal on metal and fell off the wall. That was enough to free Mary, and she took the quickest route available by ripping its throat out with her teeth. It fell back, gushing black goop from the wound. We both knew it wouldn't stay that way. From my knees, I closed my eyes and spread my wings.
Whoever you are, wherever you are, I prayed silently, please help us. Because we're kind of fucked.
I felt heat on my wings, and a soft white glow lit the room. Holy shit. It worked. I focused through the haze of flu and gave the glow everything I had. The creature had just enough time to lurch for me before I let loose. The room was briefly flooded with white light, and when it faded, there was nothing left of the monster—just a faint outline of ash that melted away in the wind.
Mary flopped to the ground, gasping for air. I looked over at her true form: milky eyes without pupils, translucent skin full of blue veins, inch long talons, and a razor sharp shark's grin.
She smirked at me. "Still think I'm pretty, Astin?"
"Babe," I sighed, "you're gorgeous."
"You're just saying that because I saved your pretty little ass. Again."
"It's pretty?" I looked out the window. A human teenager passed by, adjusting the strap on his backpack. He had no idea about the brawl that just took place above him. "That's news to me."
"I thought you'd have figured it out by now. Any more of those things?"
"Looks like we're clear." I shut the window and drew the shade again. Opening the window tonight was a mistake. Next time, we'd just foot the bill for air conditioning. "Where the hell did that thing come from? There haven't been any attacks for a couple of months now."
Her response was interrupted by the cheerful jingle of my cell phone. She rolled her eyes in annoyance and waved for me to answer it.
I snapped the phone open. "Hello?"
"Third and Main," came a growl from the other end. "Better step on it, things went south." That was all I got before they hung up.
"Kylie?" Mary asked.
"Yeah." I located my jeans and shirt, dressed, then bundled my bottle-black hair into a knot. "Sounds like it was a rough night. I better go before it gets worse."
•
Downtown has never been a particularly good area past midnight. During the day, it was old hotels and cozy donut shops. After the bar scene wound down, the only people left at night were the suckers and drunks, and the less savory elements of society were happy to prey on it. That's why I was particularly worried when, after driving two blocks past Third and Main, I located a short, skinny girl in a nightshirt wandering down the sidewalk with a head wound.
I rolled down my window. "Kylie? You okay?"
She gave me a look.
"Right. Obviously, you're not okay." I sighed. "Hop in, I'll give you a ride home."
She had to fumble with the door handle a bit before she got it open. Her eyes were having problems focusing—probably a concussion. She didn't say much as we drove towards Old Town. She was probably pissed at me, and I didn't blame her. I mean, it wasn't really my fault, but still.
As bad as Downtown was after hours, Old Town was worse. Granted, it depended on where you went: the neighborhood changed from block to block, with slums located a short distance away from antique mansions. Kylie's apartment was in one of the seedier areas, across from a graveled lot that used to be a witch house bar before it unceremoniously imploded. By the time I got her home, I was at least getting more than grunts in response.
"Look, I'm sorry about all this." I dropped my hatchback into reverse and looked over my shoulder. If you think parallel parking is hard, try it with a wing in your face. "For what it's worth, I came as soon as I could. There's a first aid kit in the glove compartment."
"It's not the first time I've bled in your car," she said, as we both unbuckled.
"Well, that doesn't mean we shouldn't clean it up. Kylie, we've got problems. I got attacked tonight by—"
Someone yanked my car door open, and I almost fell out. When I got my balance back, I had a gun in my face.
"Out of the car," the man demanded from under a balaclava. "Now."
"Please, no," Kylie was muttering under her breath, holding up her hands in surrender. "Please, no. Please."
I swallowed. "You really don't want to do this."
"Shut the fuck up and give me your wallet. Keys, too."
"Okay," I said, handing them over without any sudden movements. "But I'm telling you, you don't want to do this."
"Yeah?" he laughed. "Or what?"
I didn't think it was worth explaining since it was already happening. Kylie had grabbed her head with both hands and was moaning in pain.
"What the fuck's wrong with her?" the mugger demanded.
Kylie stopped writhing, leaving her head hanging and her fists clenched. "Do you have any idea how much bullshit I've had to put up with tonight?"
Our attacker wasn't ready for that. It surprised him enough that he stopped waving a gun in my face. I took the opportunity to put the car between me and him.
"I have been working for fourteen hours," she said, taking a step towards him. "Fourteen, in and out of consciousness. Do you have any idea what that does to the human brain?"
"Stay where you are, bitch!" He pointed the gun at her.
"I have been punched, kicked, stabbed, shot at, and bashed against walls." She didn't stop advancing. If anything, she was speeding up. "I've dealt with humans robbing ATM machines just to alleviate my own boredom. Do you know how far beneath my goddamn station that is?"
"Stay the fuck back!" He put both hands on the gun and pulled back the hammer. He already knew something was wrong. He just didn't know what. "I'll blow your fucking head off!"
She moved in an eye-blink. I'd seen her do it before, and I still didn't know how she did it. Before the crack of the gunshot was over, she had crossed the remaining distance, forced the gun out of his hand, and slammed him against the car door. She pressed a forearm into his throat with a strength she shouldn't have.
After that, her eyes burst into flames.
"I have wasted days of my eternal life cleaning up the mess you petty morons keep making," she snarled. "And I am sick. And fucking. Tired of it."
I had to duck as a pair of wings exploded from her back. They were massive—way bigger than mine—and each prismatic feather glinted in the streetlight. I knew to look away from the twin globes of plasma blazing out of her skull. He didn't. The mugger hit the pavement with both knees and wretched, unable to break eye contact with her.
"I am Nemesis," she sneered at him, "Avenger of Hubris, Daughter of the Darkness Before Time. And you are way out of your fucking league."
"I'm sorry," he blubbered, eyes watering. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I'll stop."
She considered his apology, then kicked him in the head. His skull bounced off the door of my car, and he fell to the pavement, unconscious.
"That's gonna leave a dent in my car," I complained, taking my wallet and keys back.
"You want to be next?"
"No." I shook my head with making eye contact. "No thank you."
"Then you've got more sense than most of these idiots." She slipped a pair of dark, round spectacles over her eyes, and it was safe to look at her again. "You don't look so hot, Feathers."
"I have the flu. You're bleeding from your head. I think I can manage."
"Kylie'll heal. She's tougher than she looks." She dragged the man to the curb by his armpits. "You were going to tell me something before we got interrupted? It didn't sound good."
"It's not." I swallowed. "The Taint is back."
"Pe yamwto," was the grunted exhale of a response, followed by, "Kylie's gonna have to wait to get her body back. Let's get inside before I have to kick someone else in the head."
•
Nemesis flicked on the light, and a roach or two skittered away. The apartment wasn't exactly paradise: a combination dining room/kitchen with eye-peeling lime paint and a bedroom with one mattress and no headboard. She rooted around in the fridge and found a bottle of crappy beer, then retrieved a bag of peas from the freezer.
"All right, spill it." She pressed the bag to her head and unceremoniously opened her beer using a drawer handle. "How bad are we talking about here?"
"I don't know if it's an infestation yet. All I know is something attacked me and Mary while we were asleep. If I hadn't dreamt about it coming, we'd be dead right now."
"Sounds like you got though it, though. Hang on a sec." She picked up a pad of sticky notes, scrawled 'Buy more peas' on one, then stuck it next to another note that read, 'Stop fucking buying peas!' "Describe this thing for me."
I considered. "It was made almost entirely of Taint. It kinda looked like a regular human, but---"
"A Corrupted?" She took a pull of her beer. "Nothing new there."
"No, you don't get it. It was spitting acid at us. It crawled up the goddamn wall. I've never seen a Corrupted do that before. I thought they were just possessed."
"'Possessed' is a little generous. I possessed somebody, but you don't see me hollowing out their insides and living in them. You're sure it was pure Taint? They didn't just eat some mage somewhere and send what was left after you?"
"Believe me, I'm sure. We managed to get rid of it, but I don't know if I can keep dispelling them. My control over that hasn't gotten any better." I swallowed. "One's bad enough, but if they send an army..."
"Relax," she smirked. "You don't need an army. You have me."
She suddenly dropped her beer. It shattered on the floor as she thrust one arm against the fridge to keep from falling over. I stepped carefully around the mess and helped her to a chair.
"Wha---what happened?" Kylie blinked as she came back into her own head. "Oh, for fuck's sake. Again?"
"Sorry, we were in the middle of debriefing. We didn't expect you back so soon." I gestured to the bag in her hand. "It's for your head. Helps with the swelling, I guess."
"Oh. At least that explains all the peas." She make a face at the sticky note Nemesis left her. "It's like she doesn't even read mine."
"She probably doesn't. Speaking of which: doesn't leaving notes for each other weird out your roommate?"
"Oh, it's not a problem any more." She shifted the bag on her head and sat on the counter top, dangling her legs. "Did you know Gwen was Other?"
"No shit?"
"Yup. Expressed last week—just up and grew scales out of nowhere. I didn't even know you guys had naga."
"Huh. Neither did I."
"Anyway, it took a good five minutes to get her to stop screaming. I don't know what was harder: convincing her she wasn't crazy, or convincing her I wasn't." She winced. "Ow. Christ, what the hell has Nemesis been up to while I've been out?"
"Fighting crime, apparently."
"I thought she wasn't the superhero type. From what I've heard, she shoots first and asks questions never."
"She's just bored." I went through a brief coughing fit. "She may not be anymore."
"Wha---no. No, don't tell me. I don't want to know yet." She slung the blood covered bag back into the freezer. I figured a lecture on hygiene would be inappropriate right now. "I just want to bandage up my head and collapse until tomorrow afternoon. If she has something to brood over, maybe she'll leave me alone for a while. It'd be nice to wake up in the same place I went to sleep."
"Should you be sleeping with a concussion?" I said, concerned.
"Aw. Are you worried about me, Astin?" She slugged me on the shoulder. It always hurt a lot worse than I expected. Even without Nemesis at the wheel, Kylie still had a little bit of her powers. "I'll be fine. Go home, and stop coughing all over my shit. Life's hard enough without the flu."
I said my goodbyes and returned to the car, carefully stepping over the guy who tried to mug us. I probably should've called the cops, but after what Nem did, I was pretty sure he'd stay on the straight and narrow. My crappy little studio apartment was a lot closer than Mary's apartment, so after a short call to let her know I was safe, I went home. I tossed my keys on the floor, locked the door, then made a beeline for the bottle of cough syrup on my kitchen counter. I probably wasn't supposed to take another dose yet, but I had been coughing off and on for nearly the entire ride home. I laid down after that, and I was out nearly as fast as my head hit the futon.