6°47'56.7"N 5°16'33.8"W – Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast

  21.05.2024- 09.40 UTC +00.00

  “If you have hurt him, I swear to all that is unholy, I will gut you.”

  “Hurt who dear?” the Haunt’s voice asked.

  “Don’t play coy, if he is not safe, there is no holding me back,” I said, and I knew they knew what I meant.

  They did not answer. A moment later, the phone was hung up.

  “I hope you have…”

  Julien tackled me, throwing me to the ground. Before I could push back, he forced a mask on my face. It was a breathing mask, with a military-grade filter. He wore one too, and his eyes shone blue.

  I did not have time to react as a smoke grenade was launched through the window and into the abandoned house, right into the middle of the room. Julien tumbled away from me, and I lunged into the middle to grab the pouches.

  As I secured them, I held my breath to kick in my bloodsense. I had to understand what we were up against.

  “I count eight hearts,” I yelled to Julien, somewhere lost in the smoke.

  “Let them in,” he said calmly. I fought my instinct to run away. We were still in Julien’s ward, and that ought to be an advantage. I pulled out my firearm, slowly walking and crouched toward one of the corners of the room.

  The hearts I could sense were walking with their pulse intensifying. Three were coming from the main door, and I could sense them closing in. The other five were surrounding all the windows and walls of the small house we were in. One other heart in the room with me, Julien’s heart, was pumping blood fast.

  I pulled the safety of my weapon, useless as that would be with all that smoke. My bloodsense could help my aim, but I would only see them if they were standing right in front of me, and the ones coming in were grouped, confusing my senses. Three pulses ran in hot, as the smoke thickened inside the room, pushing on the door to bring it down.

  I took a few steps back to have the wall behind me. I tried to recall where the closest window was and stepped next to it. My palm got sweaty holding my firearm as seconds passed. Suddenly, I felt a man’s pulse beating just next to me albeit behind the wall, outside the house. He was alone, guarding perhaps the window next to me. As I crouched, I counted each pulse of his bloodstream, as I started to hum in low vibrations. I needed to be absolutely in tune with him.

  I held my breath to stabilize myself, jumped up, imed my firearm at the window next to me, and shot. The glass of the window shattered but my aim was true right to the man’s heart. I felt his last breath as his heart imploded by the bullet.

  I crouched again and rolled to the side, as now the three men were inside the house. I heard no follow-up shots, instead slashes and screams. Julien’s heart was slinging around them, to what I could interpret only as him waltzing among them and slitting their throats one by one in terrifying combat.

  We had dealt with four of them, but more were still outside. A car stopped by in the nearby street: immediately five hearts entered my range of bloodsense. We were outnumbered and could only rely on our Curses to maneuver through the smoke. I tapped my fingers on the wooden floor. One, two, three times.

  “Come out, I know you are here,” I said speaking in Dida. And as I did a couple of small black spiders jumped out of the cracks of the floor.

  Mystaria rufolimbata, a nice crab spider. I put them on my hands.

  Jump, I whispered in Dida.

  One jumped through the window and one towards the center of the room.

  “More are coming,” Julien said exhausted, as the third man dropped dead in the house.

  “Oh, they sure are!” I chuckled. I waited a few moments for the spiders to find their sparkless bodies. “Spark,” I yelled in Dida, just as more armed men approached the house, “I keep you alive to kill them all!”

  As my spiders stitched the two dead men and Sparked them awake, I lunged towards Julien’s voice and pulse.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  When I was close enough to see him, I noticed the blood on his hands and chest.

  “My ward can be useful only as much,” he said, “we need to run.”

  “My Sparked will make a distraction from the side of the main entrance. We can skip this place from the other window,” I explained as gunshots were fired from outside.

  He nodded positively and ran towards the back of the house, finding the furthest window from the commotion. I could feel my Sparked being shot at, but I willed them to mend. They needed to stay up and fire as much as possible.

  Julien started pulling planks from a fortified window, and I ran to help. We didn’t have the time for this, but I also sensed no one with a pulse from this side of the house, so it was our safest choice. After we pulled out the second plank, I jumped out, and Julien followed suit.

  We were in an alley behind the house, connected with houses next door. I could hear cars pulling through on the main street. Whether they were more of these men or local authorities, did not matter. The main streets were not safe.

  “We need to take cover, they are inside the house already,” Julien said, “they will get to the window in five!”

  We both sprinted and jumped into the alley of the neighboring house. Bullets shot through the air hitting where we were standing just a second ago.

  I was panting. “Protect me,” I said to Julien.

  “How am I supp-

  I shot another of my friends right through the head, as his bullet pierced through mine. The pain was excruciating but I was invincible, a god. I felt threads pulling my head together, stitching it up, as their promise echoed in my head: we keep you alive, to kill them all.

  You are no god yet, but I can make you one.

  A woman’s voice, a new voice, in my head. She was me and I was her. She was not here before, but I knew this was her gift.

  Tell me what I have to do.

  I grabbed the machine gun from a body nearby. I was unsure if it was me that had killed him, or someone else. It did not matter.

  Look around. Are there any cars?

  I looked to the side of the main street. Two SUVs with enhanced shields.

  The ones we came here with. Two of them. A third is on the way.

  Grab it and drive through the back alley.

  And then the voice left, leaving me only for this longing to hear it again.

  I shot and I shot again. Two more of the same men, dead. I did not care. I just had to reach the second car, before the third arrived. And suddenly, a new voice echoed.

  You, you have to blow them up.

  Yes! Yes I do!

  An amazing idea. I dropped my gun and ignored everyone trying to shoot me. A few bullets hit my legs, but I was invincible. Spiders had nested inside of me.

  There were two SUVs on the road, the ones we arrived with. The first was taken care of by someone else.

  Take from the second and neutralize the third.

  The voice commanded, and I would do exactly that.

  I ran as fast as I could. I sprang the second car’s doors open and shot the driver before he could react. He thought I was his friend, and perhaps I used to be, I knew him. Now he was red paste in the driver’s seat.

  There was no time to properly do this. I grabbed the case with the equipment and grabbed as many grenades as I could, placed them in the case, and started running.

  This will be glorious! The voice echoed in my head, and I teared up. I was getting emotional – this would be glorious!

  I ran as fast as I could in the street, towards a third car, now heading right towards me. I pulled the pin out of one of the grenades.

  “Can you see me?” I asked but the voice was gone.

  “Demi!” Julien yelled as I jumped back into my body, panting even more intensely. We were still taking cover behind the fence, in the same alley. Julien now was holding my gun. He fired some more warning shots and then ducked behind the cover as our enemies responded. “What are you doing?”

  “I am getting us out of here,” I answered. As I did, a series of explosions in the main street shook the ground, with flames rising past the height of houses. Julien turned around startled, and I grabbed my gun of his hands.

  I stood up and started shooting at the men who were now running towards us. One jumped to take cover, but the few bravest crouched to take a better shot at me.

  “Demi, are you mad!” Julien asked, perhaps forgetting who I was. All the monsters were mad, I thought in anger.

  Within a smoked apartment, I was not much of a threat. But outside, with a clear line of sight, the threat of a bullet was always higher for my enemies. I could see their heart beating, and the best they could do was delay me.

  A black SUV, with one of my Sparked men in the driver's seat, drove through the alley and towards us. The men in front of me jumped up startled.

  I shot them all, one after the other, always aiming for the heart guiding my bloodsense. They shot back. Only one hit, pierced through the right side of my head.

  I felt my flesh peel off and drop to the side, as my head was ready to unravel. Spiders crawled on me – they would not let that happen.

  “Get both of us in the car,” I said to Julien, and I collapsed right as the SUV reached us.