Hooks

When I heard her screaming for help, I knew I was out of time. No time to get any help or find any more useful weapons. The concept of backup is a joke in this business, so there was no sense in trying to call in the cavalry. Out here, you were all the backup that you were going to get nine times out of ten, so there was never any point in assuming that you'd have any help along for the assignment, especially this time of year. It was a funny way of doing things, sure, but a method borne from necessity rather than practicality, since there were never enough of us former-mortals-turned-guardian-angel types working for the agency.

As for gear, I had a pistol, my knife, one of those small dental mirrors, a recall rune stone, and an ankh of invisibility. Normally, some random occult ornamentation wouldn't amount to Jack-diddly in a situation like this, but every once in a while you'd come across something from another age or plane of existence that possessed some special power. One would have to be a fool to pass on something like it, especially in this line of work.

The pistol wouldn't do squat to the query, so that just left the knife--a kukri-style blade with angular features with a sharpened hook end on the opposite side of the blade's edge. It was made of some kind of stone or gem like onyx, but I had it coated with Teflon to give it the appearance of some modern-day blades that are out on the market. I wasn't sure if it was going to be enough to stop someone like this, but I didn't have time to consider other options.

I crouched near the sliding metal door that led into the corner of the abandoned meat packing plant that I had heard the screams coming from and edged the door open as quietly as I could. Using a dentist's mirror, I peeked around the corner to get an idea of what I was about to jump in to and saw a large, dark chamber with hooked chains hanging from the ceiling. The only source of light in the room came from the lights outside, casting a dim and eerie orange sodium glow over everything. Movement caught my attention. I flicked the mirror to track it and saw the query--a large humanoid form, about the size of two men stacked together. As I trained the tiny mirror on the subject, I was able to make out more details about the monstrous figure. He had a bald head, pointy ears, and skin that was drawn taught over his features. His hulking body was composed of dried skin pulled over huge muscles that made his arms resemble tree logs in the dim light; in other words, the last kind of guy I'd want to try to take on in hand-to-hand combat, even if I had a knife. I noticed the groan of metal scraping across concrete first, then saw the massive sword-like weapon that big bastard was dragging limply behind him. It looked like it used to be a car bumper before it was pounded flat and had several other sharp metal objects welded to it. Some of the things looked a lot like license plates, no doubt sharpened before getting welded to the rest of the bumper. I could only hope that he'd have as much trouble wielding that ugly stick as I would in his shoes.

I pointed the mirror toward the screaming woman that the big bastard held captive in one corner of the room. She had a canvas sack over her head and her wrists and ankles were bound in old rope. The brute was getting closer, almost ten feet away from her now. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know what he planned to do with her. Within a few moments, she'd be just like the other victims that have been appearing throughout the city; mutilated and dismembered beyond recognition, with eldritch demonic glyphs scorched into their shredded flesh and bones like tattoo work done with a wood burner.

I pocketed the dental mirror, unsheathed the knife, and clutched the amulet in my free hand. I concentrated on the Ankh and willed its power into being, then slipped through the doorway into the killing room. He was reaching out to grab the would-be victim by the throat with his free hand with his back turned to me, revealing a long trail of protruding vertebrae under his tightly drawn skin that resembled a bony mountain range. He wrapped his massive hand around the woman's head and picked her up from the ground effortlessly. His other arm hefted the wicked junkyard weapon, preparing to end her life with a single swing.

In that moment, I acted upon the opportunity that I saw and swept the blade down across the monster's wrist, nearly severing the hand save for a few bits of desiccated skin and sinew that prevented it from following the massive sword to the ground. Rather than bleeding, the wound I made sizzled and smoldered. Such was the effect that this weapon had on creatures like the monster I fought with now.

I dropped low and jutted to my right as his other massive fist swung in my direction. Fortunately, he'd hit nothing but air as he hooked his fist blindly. The monster clamped his hand over the sizzling stump of his wrist and growled before he bellowed curses in whatever passed for the demonic language the creature spoke. As he did, I seized the opportunity to try to end this before it carried on too far by driving the blade into the monster's belly and dragging it upward into its sternum.

The beast howled and pummeled me down to the ground with both arms. Invisible or not, it had little trouble in deducing my whereabouts. I landed face-down on the concrete as one of the meaty boulders pounded the wind out of me. I rolled to one side, avoiding the smoking ruin of the opposite arm as it drove into the concrete, breaking chunks and flakes off of the ground from where the mutilated arm smashed into the floor. The force of the blow caused as much damage to the monster's wrist and forearm, shredding flesh from the bone and splintering the radius and ulna into jagged spear tips.

As the beast swung, I rolled backward into a crouch and dove in close, clutching onto the grip of my knife as it remained stuck in the monster's chest. As my battered body was fighting to suck in another breath of air, I focused on making sure this damned thing wouldn't walk away from this fight. Forging the adrenaline borne from the onset of panic brought on by suffocation into extra strength, I slashed and hacked the insides of the creature's rib cage, then reached in with my opposite hand and pulled out its beating heart before being grabbed up by the brute and tossed across the room like a toy.

The hammering I felt as my body impacted against the wall and hit the floor was nothing compared to the cold I felt from the heart I held in my hand. I gathered my wits after getting knocked dizzy and saw the creature standing to his full height. He was now holding my knife in his good hand, readying the blade for what would be a fatal strike. The taut skin of his face had twisted into a sneering grin.

My struggle to breathe finally paid off with the reward of a pained lungful of air, which staved off the oblivion that crept closer to claiming me with every second. I looked above me, marveled briefly at my luck, then stood up and impaled the icy demon heart on one of the hooks that dangled from the ceiling on the end of long chains that I had barely missed when I was tossed across the room. The heart sprayed ichor from the fresh puncture wounds, then swelled like a balloon and started to glow a fiery orange. The monster dropped the knife and shrieked in agony and outrage before the hulking form collapsed on the ground. I collected my knife as I staggered past the felled creature, then cut the bindings on the captive before leading her to the exit. Behind us, the pus-spewing bulging orb throbbed as it barely contained the destructive energy that threatened to burst free.

I tried to tell her to run, but for all my effort I had only managed a gurgling cough that spurted a bloody mist into the musty air. I settled on thrusting her out the door and covering her from the impending blast by tackling her to the ground and using my body to cover her.

There was a bright light, a deafening "whump" and a shower of glass and bits of debris. I rolled off of her, despite every fiber of my being protesting any form of physical action whatsoever. It was then that I was aware of another sensation, an odd protrusion sticking out of my back. It was one of the meat hooks, flung by the force of the blast and right into my back. I shook my head, again marveling at my luck.

The woman stirred and then sat up to her knees after pulling the hood off of her head. I clutched the amulet in my hand, willing it into action as I held my breath. Sure enough, as she gazed around at her surroundings, she came to the realization that she was the only living thing there. She rose to her feet and started off into a staggering jog. Off in the distance, I could already make out the sounds of police and fire truck sirens.

I strained to reach the rune stone in my pocket, pushing through the exhaustion and pain through sheer will alone. As I clutched the cool smooth rock and focused on the stone’s power, I immediately began to feel the familiar sensation of transporting from one plane to another; something akin to feeling pins and needles throughout my entire body, along with the hair-raising feeling of being too near a charged up source of static electricity. In one moment, I was there on the ground in front of that macabre sight. By the time the first boots of the firefighters hit the ground as they emerged from the fire engine, I would be back at headquarters receiving magical healing and filing a report on the result of this investigation and the fate of the demonic ogre that had caused so much trouble over the last couple of weeks.

That’s the trouble with this time of year—the veil between worlds is so thin that a creature like that big monstrous thug has little trouble venturing from their native dimension into the mortal realm. Samhain, like I mentioned before, is the busiest time of year for us. As I leaned back in my office chair to ease the strain of my injuries after filling out the after action report, I lamented the certainty in knowing that tomorrow I would be sent back to the mortal world again on yet another assignment.