snapping to the man descending the steps of the porch I move to join him.
“He’s gone, old man. I have control, and soon I’ll have it all,” I inform him with a deviant smile.
Fists clenching, he ceases before the abode like a righteous sheriff ready to defend his town. “There’s no way I can let that happen.”
“Then death will finally know what it’s like to die.”
Groans rise in the cool night air, my puppets lurching forward with new purpose. Jaws snapping hungrily, they use my will for guidance.
“Ah, but here’s the thing. Death is mine to rein over. You’ve overstepped by making your playthings, keeping them hovering between this world and the next.”
With a flicking of my wrist, the reanimated creatures swarm toward him with groping hands and gnashing teeth. In a heartbeat, his gun is drawn, bullets cutting the first few down. It’s not enough to stop them. They hold no fear or hesitation. Like locusts, they fall on him taking him to the ground with their frenzied weight.
Dismissing the fallen god, I prowl with purpose toward my prey unsheathing the knife on my belt. I’ll cut them up with pleasure. Coax the life force from their corpses. A sound behind me has me swinging around bringing my blade with me. The man’s eyes widen in shock as it meets his stomach, gouging deeply. Remotely, I observe Snatch stagger, clutching the hilt rooted in his flesh.
“Snatch!” Robin runs to his side, catching him as he tumbles to the grass.
“There are at least seven ways this could have gone better. All of them not involving me being stabbed,” he wails hysterically.
Reaching for her, I clasp the sides of her head, crushing the skull between my hands. “Every time I look at you, I feel something stirring inside me. New-born stars drowning in an ancient constellation. The sweet taste of death.”
Pain erupts through my side. Tossed through the air, I land with a thud in the undergrowth. The ground trembles with a thunderous roar. Rolling to my knees, I find Illusions and Nightmares have taken a defensive stance before the human girl.
“Why are you fighting me? We belong together forged as one ultimate being. It’s inevitable.”
Illusions weaves his fantasies a multi-colored cloud forming around him with his magic. “We won’t let you hurt her.”
My laugh is harsh. “She’s already dying slowly, decaying day by day like all humans do. Life withering to a husk. All I’m going to do is hurry up the process.”
The world blurs at the edges, the fog rolling in through the darkness contorting with creatures he’s brought to life. Things stitched together in his imagination much like my beautiful, living dead dolls. It just shows me more how sparks of us echo in one another. That this is my destiny. Hooves, claws, and paws stomp, making the ground shake, monstrous heads rolling, eyes bright with fury.
With one thought, I set several of my zombies in the path of the beasts. Distraction enough while I dodge the rest who stray into my route with the grace of a dancer.
Gunshots ring out in succession, the clamor of combat coming from above and behind me.
“Robin, retreat back to the house. Nightmares, get Snatch to Ceasefire.” Gabriel’s voice rings out from somewhere above.
Listening closely, I pick up on the footfalls of someone nearby. “I’ve brutally ripped the fabric of reality multiple times already to bridge the gap between life and death. It will cost me nothing to enslave your corpse into eternal servitude, girl.”
“That’s really not appealing,” she answers nearer than I anticipate.
Senses sharpening, I stalk toward the sound in the swirling pink. “They battle so fiercely to save you, but in the end, once I absorb them, they will no longer care what happens to you.”
I spy a bulky silhouette. Nightmares lifts the human I’d wounded, both vanishing into thin air. A petite form moves in another direction, the nearest shape beside her, I pluck before he can realize I’m even there.
As if she can sense me, Robin turns her scream shrill and high. “No! Let him go!”
“Who’s going to stop me? You?” I taunt, lips peeling up in an evil sneer. Clutching the nape of Illusions neck, his molecules crumble into fine gleaming atoms sucked inward to the center of my chest. I devour him quickly, using his struggles to only hasten the process of absorbing him further. His strength and powers flow through me filling my veins. The mist ebbing and clearing at my silent bidding.
Robin stands trembling,