Salience

Chapter 4: Death From Above

There Acher stood, the door to his back staring at him in anger at his escape. If it had arms it would drag him back into its depths. His shirt became sticky from his blood loss finding that the blood had seemed to slow down significantly or completely. It was hard to tell with the lights out and the house filled with a different darkness than the basement jail. To his left was the disheveled bathroom with the most vile smell burning his nostrils. He slowly crept towards it squeezing his body as flat as he could against the wall. Nothing and no one was present though something eerie stood out in his mind about the bath. The curtain was drawn and through the cracks, you could see that nothing was inside yet something told him that something was lying in it. His hand stretched out towards the curtain and when he touched the curtain he withdrew his hand. Something more than instinct told him not to. He left quickly and as silently as he could. The kitchen held not a single germ or item out of place. So clean that the moonlight that crept through slits shined brilliantly and Acher could see his reflection.

A closing door sounded behind him, Acher, as quickly as he could, dashed beside the kitchen entrance and once again pressed himself against the wall wishing he could mush inside it and as close to paper-thin as possible. A fat nose peered into the doorway slowly creeping forward into the kitchen. Acher’s eyes grew terror as the head of the stranger grew larger through the door. The stranger began to growl a low disturbing growl and sniffed the air.

“Gyah! No matter how many times I clean this place up, I can’t seem to rid it of the smell of death and blood,” he said to himself. “

Acher felt his heart thump so loud he was sure the stranger could hear him. At that very moment, the stranger started to turn left where he was and Acher pressed as hard as he could against the wall so tightly that he felt like he would burst through the wall. The stranger looked left and then right, slowly he turned his head around out towards the hallway, and left. Acher breathed as slowly as he could and noticed that he didn’t feel his heartbeat the same as he once did. It felt as if it was pressing to the sides of his body as if it couldn’t beat away from his chest. He reached for it and felt his heart and found that it was, in fact, still beating just different. He pushed the thought from his mind when he reminded himself that he was still in danger and since his body was not in immediate danger it would be best to figure out the feeling later and find a way to escape.

He pondered as to why the stranger didn’t see him, only for a moment. Minutes went by and he felt he could wait no longer. He needed to take action and find a way to the front door. He crouched low to the floor and scuttled into the hallway once more slow and as bug-like as possible. Like a cockroach, he scurried into the living room sliding under the coffee table where he barely fit. He waited for any noise or lights or whatever sign would show the stranger near. Nothing, so he quickly ducked beside the couch. He strained his eyes for the door and couldn’t quite see any shape or sign of the exit. He put his hand forward and felt the floor shift. He stayed as still as possible not evening returning his hand to its place. He barely saw it but he noticed the stranger quickly gliding noiselessly into the living room in a fit of rage. How eerie that he could be so angry and so quiet in the same moment and this frightened Acher. The stranger grabbed the couch and effortlessly lifted the edge looking under. Acher was squished into the floor finding his fingers in the corner of it slowly being squeezed away and an audible crack echoed through the darkness. The stranger tilted his head towards Acher’s hideout and slowly put the couch down upon release the side of the couch heard the wood cracking and splintering. His face grew displeased and he lowered his body to the floor and took in a huge breath. He lunged upward and turned so quickly that Acher could feel the air push toward his back like a whisper he wished he never heard.

As the stranger disappeared into the darkness once more Acher finally inspected his hand. Two broken fingers at least though he didn’t have time to think about the pain nor what to do about it. The darkness stood still and he got up slowly from his hideaway and moved along the walls. He found himself at the entrance at last and he instantaneously reached for the handle. It was stuck, and he tried with even more force to twist it. Nothing. Acher let out a moan and then grabbed his mouth quickly. He looked behind him as quickly as he could and looked hard into the dark. He turned back to the door and he stood there not as alone as he thought. Fear had joined him.

Not only had he thought he could escape now he felt like he was truly trapped and the only thing waiting for him, besides his sister, was the certainty of death. He pressed his fingers into the keyhold and tried many times to twist the lock. His eyes leaked and he tried again to twist the knob. He was growing desperate and didn’t realize that he was beginning to increase his noisiness and soon found himself at the mercy of the door. He dropped to his knees and felt his life slipping away. He pressed his hand against the door and looked up towards the glimmering shine of stained window. His eyes grew determined and and he stood up backing away from the door. He knew what he must do and he backed away even more further and further until his back touched the walls. He ran as hard as he could and as he reached closer to the door he stumbled and fell crashing his neck sideways into the door and a great pain shot through his body. His hand hurt three times as much and now his neck could barely turn left. He realized that the shoes had been his demise and began kicking them all over the place away from him. It was too late to be quiet, the crash was surely heard and he ran back towards the wall again. Once more he ran towards the door lunging his foot straight ahead bent inward as much as he could collecting all the momentum and energy before releasing his might. His foot crashed into the door and it exploded off the hinges into the front yard and he quickly lept through the doorway as if it would grab him back inside.

He was so happy to be out of that place that he stood still longer than he intended and heard a gleeful clapping.

“Excellent, how marvelous. You’d be the very first ever to escape me. Or should I say escape the basement and house. As you will soon find out, you can not fully escape. Once I have my prey in sight, I’ll never let it go,” the stranger said.

Acher felt his eyes playing a trick on him. What he was seeing had to be a trick for the stranger was standing upside down under the eave that overlooked the door. Acher backed away naturally from the sight and found that his feet ignored him. The stranger looked much different now, he was once a short stubby man with great big arms though now with slender lanky arms. Much taller and huge ears reached out towards the night. His eyes though, looked just as evil as ever with big black onyx embers. Acher saw his grin and his smile reached from ear to ear with sharp fangs. He reminded him of the look of a bat or some type of man-bat from his video games back home.

The stranger released his grip from the eave, flipped over as if he had control of gravity himself, and plummeted to the ground with a loud thud. Those eyes of his never left their target and stared into Acher’s stealing more than his courage from him. Acher backed away slowly desperately thinking of a plan and finding that his brain could only come up with a big fat nothing. Acher pressed his hands hard into his temples with terror etched across his face.

The stranger glided forward and he could feel his excitement rage through his body. He was disgusted that he needed to activate his powers just to catch some simple kid but that thought was fleeting the closer he got to the boy. His lips quivered as the smell of fear and blood reached his nose now that he was outside his house of death. He loved the smell of fear. When his prey fought hard to get away or fought back was one of the best parts of the chase and the moments when he finally got to take them and watch the light fade from their eyes as they ultimately knew that their life would be forfeit after he was done with them. Thinking about all those moments past sent a warm rush over his body and he felt his pants tighten. The joy and the excitement were almost too much for him and he found himself almost blacking out from pleasure. He could easily relive any moment and it was pure ecstasy. He pushed those thoughts aside as he knew he needed to capture this prey here and now before too much happened and alerted the neighbors and his years of terror would be gone in a moment. He knew if anyone searched his house completely it would be the end of his life's work and joy.

Acher stood facing the stranger and feeling paralyzed from more than just fear. He had no idea what to do at this moment. Some SP had finally met him and after all of his years of contemplating what he would do to such a person drew blank pages. Those long nights of conspiring hate and evil desires fluttered away and he found himself dumbstruck. What happened to his plans? He knew that he wanted to show hate and anger and yet he faced this SP with fear and despair. His hands began to twitch and his foot took one step away from the bat-like beast. He saw it grin to his retreat.

“Yes, give in to your fears boy,” he said.

Acher took another step back. The stranger howled with glee taking one massive step towards him. Their fingers danced toward him the closer he got and Acher felt himself naturally feel the cuts on his chest.

“What delicious lines you have, I can’t wait to carve you up more,” the stranger said.

“Oh yeah? Well come and get me!” Acher said.

“With pleasure,” said the stranger and he leapt forward pinning Acher toward the ground with one arm. His claws pressed deep into the sides of the neck and whispered gasps sang into the night. Acher began beating his hands against the arm and kicked wildly.

“Yes! Yes! Struggle please. Show me your fight, this is my favorite part,” he said.

With his other arm he slowly began to touch all over Acher from his legs and up between. Tracing his arm up to his face and swirling his fingers over the chest and stomach pulling the tattered shirt up. He then began to slip his fingers down into Acher’s pants.

“Nooo!” Acher screamed!

Acher reached for the arm and yanked it out as fast as he could. The stranger slapped his arms away as one does a fly and continued back what he started. Acher felt the grip around his neck tighten and pulled at the hand to fight for air. He felt the strangers fingers sliding around down on him and he screamed in silent protests kicking as hard as he could. He landed a solid blow to the side of their head forcing them to yank their hand out quickly and he was sure that he was now cut somewhere below.

“This is becoming more of a scene than needed on this front lawn and let’s be honest, this should be savored and respected in a more humane place don’t you think?” he said gleefully licking his hand. He turned to look towards the open door frame with splintered wood and dragged Acher back to the hell he worked so hard to escape from.

Acher felt himself begin to slip consciousness and knew he needed to break this grip or suffer a fate worse than death. If only he was bigger he could fight back more. He imagined what he would look like if he had more muscles and a larger frame just like he imagined trying to see in the dark. His body felt heavy and the stranger looked sharply behind himself.

“What are you doing?” he asked with his head tilted to the side and he stared in amazement as Acher’s body grew in size and his grip slowly began to break apart.

Acher drew in as much breath as he could stubmling to stand. His legs were jelly and his vision blurry but he knew what stood in front of him. The stranger wasted no time and began swinging his massive arms towards him. Slashing hard Acher barely had enough time to get his own arms in the way and felt the nails bite into his arm. He screamed but did not falter and barreled towards the enemy with all his body weight behind him. The stranger was struck and flew back towards the house slamming his shoulder on the edge of the door frame flipping hard into the darkness. Acher threw his arms into the air in victory.

“That’s a bit premature don’t you think,” the stranger growled from the darkness. Like a bullet in the night he shot out of the house with such blinding speed ramming back into Acher.

Acher didn’t realize until he was hit that his body wasn’t large anymore and he flew hard into what barely passed for a tree crashing to the ground. His body was stiff and heavy. Acher tried hard to stand back up slipping towards the ground again. His wobbly arms failed to listen and he looked hard at the stranger. They slowly approached him and almost danced around his body.

“Ahhh, how wonderful, I’m so happy I’m about to burst,” the stranger said.

He leaned down and began licking Acher’s neck and ears. He then pressed his lips under the jawline and a terrible pinch of pain shot into the boy. His eyes rolled back as he began to suck the blood from their body and Acher tried again to stop him. His body did not move though his spirit fought hard. Releasing his mouth with a pop he pushed his face towards the moon allowing as much blood to drip down his lips. Painting his neck with the ruby liquid he reached down to pick up the boy.

“I think it’s time for some good fun, though I’m sure only I will be the one to enjoy it.”

“Not as much as me,” said a voice.

“What!?” the stranger yelled.

They turned on a dime to see a strange looking bear already swinging their paw into their face. The punch, if you could call it that, was so hard that the stranger’s neck twisted so hard and fast that when it stopped moving an audible popped was heard and they fell slowly to the ground. When the stranger landed his eyes met Acher and for the first time they really saw each other. He saw the boys fear and something else. He tried to figure out this look but something was pulling at him, like a shadow against his own. Unable to look he felt something reach inside him and yank at his core. A slow hiss burrowed into his ears and the world grew darker. A chill creeped along his body and he noticed arms wrapping around the boy. He reached outward to stop them but nothing happened. His body finally responded and he climbed back to his feet. His vision faded more and the sight of the man holding the boy grew harder to not just see but he could no longer remember what he was doing or looking at. The emotions fled his body and his memory with it. He stood confused and darkness finally over took his world.

“It’s time,” said a voice.

The stranger turned around and stared at a tall man with glimmering red eyes. His beard was sharp as his jaw line and the suit fitted them perfectly. He smiled and walked forward not even taking his hands out of his pocket. The stranger went to talk and couldn’t produce a sound.

“Oh, I love this part. Trying to talk,” he giggled.

The stranger just looked on blankly.

“Mmm so it’s almost complete, took longer than most but not surprising. Serial killers such as yourself tend to hold onto certain emotions longer and need more time to process. Yes the time should be done now,” the man in the suit said. He snapped his fingers and a weird light dressed the stranger. Another snap and the light swallowed him pulling him downward until his entire being vanished along with the man in the suit.

The strangers body lay on the ground motionless and the man who appeared was holidng Acher in his arms.

“Please,” Acher said weakly, “Please don’t hurt me.”

“I will do no such thing. Rest young one, for Gohm will protect you,” Gohm said.

“Who?”

“An SP who will keep you safe.”

“Ha, SPs aren’t shit,” Acher said before passing out.

Smiling Gohm said, “Can’t argue there can I?”