Update
Despite struggling with the script for my copywriting class's last out of class assignment, I managed to get quite a decent chunk of writing on the short done today, at least as far as doing it during a busy semester goes.
Current Word Count: 7,914
Scene of the Day
The stone warped around him as waves of heat rose like a
physical force.
Whatever this thing was, it was almost melting the cell
around us.
“So, uh… not a
demon, then?”
“A brilliant deduction, little exorcist,” he laughed.
Stone popped at his feet, releasing a puff of acrid
smoke.
“I’m nothing so weak as that. Care to take a second guess?
Perhaps try another impotent spell?”
“Well,” I stalled, taking slow steps back, “there’s only
a few monsters that toss fire ‘round without havin’ any spells behind it.
Higher-level demons are onea’ those.”
“Which I’m obviously not.”
Somehow, he made it feel like he was closing on a
trapped animal despite still being almost on the opposite side of the cell.
“Which you’re not. There’re the djinn, bloody
abominations.”
“Abominations is a bit harsh,” he laughed.
“Yeah, pardon me fer not worryin’ too much over hurtin’
a monster’s feelings,” I scoffed. I’m
guessin’ from alla’ tha’ crap you’re puttin’ out right now in that brand new
human suit you’re wearin’ tha’ you’re a half-breed.”
“Well, aren’t you a
clever one?” he mocked. “You assume I’m that low a creature?”
The narrowing of his eyes was a big clue I’d stopped
amusing him.
“That’s a normal human you’re possessin’. If ya’ were
full-blooded, tha’ body’d be a pilea’ ash now. Even if ya’ were a Ghoul, tha’
body’d be breakin’ down, not just lookin’ like he’s got such a bad dose a good,
solid cough’d send ‘im through the gate. Gotta’ say, I’ve not had the
pleasurea’ fightin’ many half-bloods.”
He wasn’t smirking, anymore, the expression vanishing in
favor of the angry snarl he was flashing at me.
“I assure you, the pleasure’s all mine. I need to break this body in, and I haven’t had a decent
meal in a long time, so you’re really
quite convenient.”
I gripped the pentacle tighter, until its cool energy
began to push the fiery air around me back.
“I do so hate
ta’ disappoint, but I didn’ come here ta’ get eaten.”
“Oh? Well, that’s just too bad, I suppose,” he sneered.
“Your little spell was annoying, but it had a nice flavor to it. You’re really
not just some exorcist, thinking
about it. I think you’re a lot more. Your soul might be exquisite.”
He released another laugh, his whole body moving with
the sound.
As he laughed, he seemed to grow.
It took me a second to realize that he was, in fact,
becoming larger as he pulled on the magic swirling through the air in the cell.
In a blink, he charged so fast his whole body blurred
with the speed.
Three strides, and he was across the room with a fist
coming at me with the speed of a rocket.
Luck was the only thing that kept me alive.
At the same time he would’ve hit me, I dropped and
rolled around him.
That part was intentional, but the fact that he slipped
on the damp, slippery floor where I’d stood, was entirely blind, stupid luck.
Even with that, he didn’t so much as flinch when I shot
my foot up into his ribs, though it still knocked him to the ground.
“You know this vessel’s still alive, right?” he mocked.
In one jerking motion, he was back on his feet and
facing me as I came up into a crouch.
With a shrug, I gave Johan a nod.
“Few broken bones or dead, not a tough call,” I
retorted.
His head canted to the side, and the creepy Cheshire
smile surfaced again.
“You’re a pretty entertaining little sort-of-exorcist,”
he laughed.
He lunged again, going for my throat.
I was faster, throwing a mass of essence to slam into
his chest and send him flying.
The cement and stone cracked under his body, raising a
cloud of dust with it.
“I really want to know. Why the rich kid, and not some
homeless guy that’d be missed?”
It was a sad fact, that demons and incorporeal creatures
of all kinds usually took advantage of the already down and disenfranchised,
making them the most common people they rode like cars.
Very rarely did you see an upper-class possession case,
unless there were certain reasons why they
were upper-class in the first place.
The Levis, snobby as they’d seemed, hadn’t struck me as
the kind of family that’d play the soul-trading game.
“Where would the fun be in that? Besides, it’s much
better to play around in a body already equipped for my power.”
“Johan’s a psychic,” I guessed, stepping back into the
depths of the cell as he pushed out of the indent he’d made.
Suddenly, the idea that he was being worn by something
in the higher echelons wasn’t so ridiculous.
Spirits love
humans with untrained powers, especially of the psychic variety, and even
moreso when they realize it and choose to ignore it.
Going by my meeting with the Levi’s, Johan probably
wouldn’t feel too supported if he told his dear parents he was suddenly
experiencing any kind of spiritual weirdness.
“Quite an interesting one, too,” the creature agreed.
The air became superheated, until small flares of white
fire rolled around his palms.
An adage about playing with fire came to mind, and I
wasn’t sure I’d be handing the kid over after I’d saved him anymore.
“Oh, a pyro. Lovely,”
I grumbled before taking another involuntary step back.
“Makes for an interesting experience, being in a body
that can actually take it,” he mused.
“I’ll bet.”
My luck was, in a word, cruel, most times.
Because, of course Johan wasn’t just any kind of
psychic.
Nope, I got the fortune of a creature that used fire
being inside a human with the ability to control fire.
Countless humans are born with access to magic and
essence, the two forces of reality that the supernaturals brought to Earth with
them when our realities had crashed together, but there are tons of different
ways that can develop.
Some take on a drastically different kind of power, like
elemental manipulation, which could do all sorts of wonderful things.
Like manipulating the molecules in the air around
someone until there’s no oxygen for their lungs to breathe, or use the water in
every human’s blood to make them dance like puppets on strings.
Or, like in Johan’s case, being able to torch a brick
building to ash with their bare hands.
I wasn’t entirely sure if it’d been bad luck or trying
to get the attentions of the various forces of the world that had led to
Johan’s possession, but it’d certainly worked out for the spirit.
A body that can manipulate fire also usually have the
ability to stand unholy amounts of heat, and even a full-blooded djinn would be
able to use that kind of ability.
Any thoughts of drawing things out until the monster was
worn down vanished, lest I end up breathing through a mile of ash and rubble on
my way out.
I took one more step back and let my breathing calm, my
mind going blank as all tension vanished.
My hands hung loosely at my sides, and I began lightly
bouncing on the balls of my feet until I fell into a relaxed, hypnotic rhythm
through my whole body.
In the trance-like state, my breathing became slower and
deeper.
With each soul-refreshing breath, the heat he was
throwing out in waves seemed to vanish.
The world faded around me; the heat, the dirty cell,
even Johan Levi’s possessed body, it all faded to a single, muffled greyness in
my awareness.
In their place, a whole different sensation flooded my
every synapse.
I stayed tethered to the regular, mundane world only
enough to make sure that the suddenly wary-looking meat suit standing in front
of me didn’t make any moves that I wouldn’t know about that’d snap my neck
before I’d done my trick.
I let myself focus everything else on the warm, tingling
sensation running through every one of my cells.
Every breath let the magic build and expand all around me.
My brain connected to the slow, rhythmic pulse of the
world around me, and it added to the calm.
Time seemed to slow to an utter stop as the magic
replaced my very blood running through my veins.
Then, something clicked, and everything rushed forward while
the power came to a head.
Faster than thought, I swung my arm through the air,
only dimly aware of the bright, silver flames that followed the movement.
“Sioc sí, osclaíonn
an geata chuig tuile tubaisteach!”
The power broke loose and lashed out, forming a
brilliant chain of burning silver around the creature before he could respond.
With a snarl, he jerked and ripped at the psychic trap,
but these were far stronger than the ones earlier, now that I’d added in my own
essence and a good bit of glacial magic.
The natural opposition of whatever the creature it was
and the ice would make breaking free far more daunting than just steel or
magic.
Hopefully, that meant it would take long enough for me
to finish this, because I was sure he’d be turning my throat inside out before
I could blink, when he was free.
“Power of the Ancients, heed my call,” I intoned.
As I spoke, the flames around me took on a very physical
property, becoming corporeal.
Another deep breath, and I began.
“In this time and in this hour, I call upon thine sacred
power. Magic, that which flows through all living things, I summon thee now to
work under my will. Watchtower of the North, tower of frost, bind this
creature, whatever the cost!”
The chains flared even brighter around him, the magic
leaving a growing, sharp ache in its place as it siphoned out of my chest.
“Creature of fire, wolf in human flesh, I command thee
now! I summon thee from that body, while soul and flesh remain relatively
unharmed and fresh.”
My hands clenched as power arced through me, and a line
of light formed connecting our bodies over the distance.
Johan’s form gave a grunt, teeth gritting as smoke
started rising from his eyes, which had shifted to a color like old blood.
“I command it of thee, with absolute authority, leave
that flesh now and bow before me in thine true form!”
Snarling filled the room, and a powerful wind the
temperature of a small sun swept through the room.
With a snap, something changed.
Flashes of fire began rising in random bursts from
Johan.
It started at his face, tiny black and red sparks
sputtering in and out of existence for several seconds.
Then, his mouth dropped open, and billowing smoke left
him.
His whole body jerked before a mass of fire ripped free
from his skin, in a perfect approximation of his body’s shape.
Johan dropped to the floor, leaving a true, living,
breathing horror floating in the air he’d previously occupied.
It stayed upright in the air, despite having no feet,
levitating over his utterly limp and heavily damaged body.
A massive, muscular body floated before me, sporting
bulging muscles made seemingly of pure fire.
The air turned to a haze around it, making all other
features entirely indiscernible.
Well, except for its face.
Its face was very, very
clear, even through the smoke and tears the heat drew out of my eyes.
It had a large, crooked maw that gaped wide open to
reveal fangs of dripping lava.
Above that pleasantness
were several sets of glowing, hellish slits, all of them undoubtedly locked in
a stare on me despite their utter lack of pupils.
“Well, hey there, tall, dark, an’ ugly. It musta’ been
pretty cramped in there,” I quipped.
It seemed distracted by how flippant I was over its
towering terrifying-ness.
That worked out
for me, since it kept him from jumping me before I pulled my gun free.
My nice, high-caliber, silver bullet-loaded gun.
I’d pulled the trigger before it registered the
distinct, poisonous scent the magical metal always filled the air with.
An enormous chunk of its body vanished in a burst of
grey smoke, coating the wall behind it in black blood the consistency of oil.
Thankfully, my chains still had a hold on the damned
thing, though they were cracking fast under the full, unfiltered power of a
djinn, now that it knew I had something that could actually kill it.
Not just any djinn, either, of course.
Luck, that fickle, twisted bitch, had apparently decided
she was done helping me that day.
The thing was a damned creature made of literally living
fire, the walking disasters that other djinn bowed down to so they didn’t get
eaten.
The fact that Johan had been able to survive hosting an
Ifrit was impressive as it was horrifying.
I emptied the full magazine into it, splattering its
fiery body into burning puddles.
Translation Notes:
"Sioc sí, osclaíonn an geata chuig tuile tubaisteach"- Gaelig: "Faery frost, the gate opens to a devastating flood"
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