Never Gonna Be Alone

 

A Man After Midnight

I walk into a room and see the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I check the time, it is two minutes past midnight, why is he not sleeping?

His hair hangs down to the centre of his back, waving as it goes but the middle section is cut short and choppy. He has a sweeping side fringe that covers his left eye, even from here I can see the milky white orbs and know that they are blind, the middle, spiky section of his hair is dyed black while the rest of it is dyed neon green. There are streaks of black interspersed within the green.

He wears a black sleeveless vest top that features raised black rubberized circuit prints on the shoulders, at the front and continuing around across the back with a cyberdog logo in the centre. The raised edges of the design are neon green. The left side of the shirt is shredded and hangs from his body in tatters. His right leg is encased in black stretch skinny jeans with purple zips print design and a decorative zip on his thigh.

There is a silver sword earring with red jewel hanging from the point dangling from his right ear. Around his neck hangs an eye catching barb wire style necklace that fastens with a lobster clasp. There is an eye catching chain attached to a machine gun on his back that is made to look like barbed wire. It has a spring clasp at one end and a key ring and spring hook clasp at the other.

On his arms are black stretch lycra gloves that are decorated with black webbing strips and D-rings all the way down the length of the glove. His nails are painted black. Threaded into his ear he has a uniquely designed rose of passion earring with a crystal blood drop and a surgical steel post. On his left foot he wears a new rock high cross boot with skull buckles, cross decoration, reactor sole and zip fastening, on his left foot he wears a few shreds of leather and some scraps of metal.

Through the tattered and abused material of his boot I can see that the man has a black circuit board tattoo on his right foot. On his left leg is a massive tattoo that covers all of his available skin in neon green, black, purple and silver zip tattoos. There is a red sword tattooed on the back of his right hand.

There is a long jagged scar down the length of his neck that disappears beneath the neck-line of his shirt. I can see another two beneath the tattered remnants of his shirt that run parallel to each other along the third rib of his left side.

His body stiffens and eyes the colour of virgin snow turn in my direction to stare about a foot above my head. I feel the air begin to heat up as the blind man straightens to his full and rather considerable height. He takes a step forward and flames engulf his hands and lower arms to the elbows.

“Hey come on now, man. We’re in the same boat here,” I stand my ground and my voice holds steady as the man continues to advance towards me.

“Oh really,” the mans voice is deep and dangerous and rough and sexy. Sexy, where the hell did that come from.

I focus and step towards him as my own arms burst into flames up to the elbows and almost laugh as the sensation begins to tickle. I’ve never done this before, you see, I have a power, possibly the rarest of all the powers that are left. I am a shadowcaster, I have a specific power that one day I will unlock.

“You’re a Shadow Caster?” the baritone rings across the room again and I fight to keep a hold of my emotions.

“Born and bred,” the man takes a few steps back and lowers his arms but does not extinguish the flames.

I see the cogs in his head begin to work; he knows that I can only mimic other people’s powers until I discover my own. He knows that all Shadow Casters were trained in Mountain Pass, just as he was, a fact he is proud of. He wears the symbol in full display on his belt buckle and he knows that it is against all laws of assassins to attack each other without reason.

The man makes a decision and allows the flames engulfing his arms to fizzle out, “You must be Killy, I heard that you were the last of your kind. I’m Chuajo. You can call me Chu if you want,” he says as he pulls a packet of rizlas from his pocket.

“OK then Chu, do you have any idea where we are?” the man shrugs his shoulders and throws the rizla packet to me.

I see a line of white roll from the corner of his mouth to the underside of his chin but he doesn’t seem to notice. I look at the man again and see that his body language is stiff, too stiff, especially for an assassin. Assassins of the Mountain Pass are taught to always stay relaxed as you can react faster to danger when your muscles are loose.

“Not a clue, I was hoping you would tell me,” he takes out a pouch of tobacco before quickly rolling a cigarette.

“I would if I could,” my body is working on autopilot, giving ritualistic and realistic responses so that the man in front of me can’t see what I’m thinking.

I catch the tobacco pouch and go through the process of rolling a cigarette as my mind races through the possibilities. If it was a demon then the substance would be ectoplasm, which is black, so I know it’s not a demon. It could be an angel but they usually give off white light rather than white gunk.

“Fantastic. So neither of us know where we are, or what we’re doing here, or what might be coming for us.”

“What makes you think something is coming for us?” I search for a lighter as I consider the possibility of a hybrid, something new, but it knows how to hide itself too well.

“Ejey eti uuas?,” What are you? When speaking the language of beasts, no creature can lie and once the language is instigated you must answer all questions.

“O eqw yji izivytui-dzahj,” I am the izivytui-dzahj.

“Ejey od uuat eielmidd,” What is your weakness?

“Qu eielmiddf od ezdu qui dytimhyjk. Gut qu eielmiddf od izivytovoyu emfg izivytovoyui eozzx umzu lozzx yji judyu. Op vem yizz uua fumyu eemyu yui lozzx yji judyu,” My weakness is also my strength. For my weakness is electricity and electricity will also kill the host. I can see you don’t want to kill the host.

I think for a second, deliberating on my best course of action before stepping forward and drawing my blades. They come out of the scabbards across my back with well-oiled ease and I focus all my energy on them. I close my eyes and imagine the two weapons surging and crackling with lightening, the most natural form of electricity. I open my eyes to see that the blades are now pulsating with energy. Just as they were in my imagination, I look towards the izivytui-dzahj and smirk at the panic in his eyes. I lunge forwards, faster than a snake and the flat of my blade connects with the izivytui-dzahj’s neck. His hosts body shakes and convulses as the large current pulses through him, until a small brown and red spider shoots from his mouth. The spider twitches and dies on the floor as I get thrown back. I smash into the wall with a bone-crushing thud and I see the young man slump to the floor. Just as the world turns black

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