Creative-writing project; rushed, untitled, but somehow, A+ worthy. Don't know if this is worth building off of, ie. another chapter. I supppose it'd depend on the reception.
So, yes. Onward...
A smirk crept effortlessly across Adrian’s face as he surveyed the final moments of his unfortunate prey. He watched them writhe in agony, screaming, quivering, slithers of crimson spurted in all directions as they let out a series of coughs. Said coughing intensified into desperate gulps for the stale, midnight air; Adrian, meanwhile, was breathing softly and pleasantly. His eyes never left the ground.
“…Are you quite finished?”
This tone he knew all too well. The elder of the deities, and inherently the superior, stood several feet to the left. Whilst Adrian possessed a mop of onyx hair, coupled with a sickening mustard glint of the iris, Damien had managed to comb his silver follicles back into a singular parting, eyes plainly sapphire. The two were distant siblings.
Damien was Adrian’s polar opposite. His every move seemed to be calculated to the most insignificant detail. His strength could only be countered by his lack of patience, his underlying rage. These qualities had earned him the role of not only superior, but also as somewhat of a supervisor. The latter Adrian shared equal disdain for.
“Dear, dear, brother.” Yet again, he smirked. “You always manage to ruin my fun.”
He dug a vicious heel into the corpse. Various layers of flesh were stripped away in the process, and Adrian couldn’t help but gaze longingly at the open wound which followed. Before he could let animosity overcome him, Damien swept over and cast the customary glare.
“You disgust me.” He spat.
“I’m HUNGRY, damnit!”
“Father said--“
“Since when did I listen to--!?”
Damien validated his disgust by executing a vice-like grip, proceeding to hold a miscellaneous blade to the entirety of the throat. He spoke in low, lingering murmurs.
“He specifically told us to wait.” A momentary pause. “You disobeyed him.”
“So I did!” Adrian’s hands pierced left and right. “Perhaps now he will acknowledge me!”
The first words would drift from a set of cold, crooked lips, sprung forth from a tongue drenched in saliva, oozing with perpetual venom, fed betwixt a tightly locked jaw complete with reddening molars.
“Who was this?”
There was little to no movement. Damien jolted Adrian’s side, and gave the faintest of smiles. “Who was whom?” He said, gracefully albeit weakly. Every syllable brimmed with acid, coming to an inadvertent surface as he took the first of many steps forward. Having done so, another smile was given, though it was far more condescending than its predecessor.
“The corpse.” Talons glinted in a sallow beam of moonlight and motioned towards what remained of the previous victim. It was a woman. A young one. Surprisingly so, seeing as she had fought so relentlessly. “What was its moniker…?”
Alexis graced the room and did something truly extraordinary; lips, two blushing petals nestled sweetly upon her delicate frame, curved upwards. Embers danced within their proper boundaries, their light cascading upon an ominous if not comfortable armchair. As she placed herself upon it, she couldn’t help but muse as to the location of her child, yet to be named. She swept some golden locks aside in deep thought. There was scarcely a doubt, even to Alexis, that she was powerless if demons had been involved. Over the past and coming weeks, kidnappings would occur at almost the instant a minor was given life. In the awaiting months, however, the lives of both mother and daughter would take an all too interesting turn. Said daughter had arrived admist Alexis’ slumber.
“Wake up.” She whispered. “They’re waiting.”
Half asleep, Alexis replied: “… Patience is a virtue.” And with that, she grinned. “Repeat this to them.”
In a few moments, the daughter would return, more than slightly petrified. “They said they cared nothing for virtue, mother.”
“Then they have no place in MY house.” A cross was lifted from the mantelpiece. “Repeat THIS to them.”
“They said…they said, they were going to break us.”
A frown. “Surely not.”
“Surely!” Came the sardonic echo. It began raining tinted glass. Alexis glanced sideways and, to her horror, a lone figure was crouched beside two of the church windows, claws put to immediate work. In one foul swoop the demon would prise a particularly angelic scene apart and force their head through any resulting shards. A cackle. Then they would repeat this action.
Mother and daughter burst into the scene at once. Stood directly behind them, Adrian tapped each of their shoulders and brought both round to face him.
“My sincerest apologies.” He said, radiating malice. “But my brothers and I wished to converse with you, and saw this,” a gesture; St. Peter’s remains shattered and cascaded overhead, “as the only means of attracting your attention.”
Alexis didn’t favour the way he said “Attracting”.
“So…” He placed unlimited force to Alexis’ gullet. Expectedly, she let out a choke, but also managed a quiet whimper as Adrian kicked off from the green and perched high on the ugliest gargoyle he could find. It resembled his father. “…This seems as good a place as any, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Be gone!”
He was bemused, amused and confused, expression to match. “What’s that?” Thrusting the victim forward on her stomach, tantalizingly close to something like a 100 foot plummet, Adrian watched with cunning eyes for any sign of weakness, of movement, of acceptance. Alexis could only hold onto the gargoyle and summon every ounce of strength to do so. “Be gone!” She rasped. “Be gone, be gone, be gone, be gone, be gone, be—“
“What in the literal hell?” Adrian cupped her chin, once again, bringing her round to face him. “Who do you think you are, a priest? There’s nothing pure about you.”
The claw moved from chin to nose. It was a gentle, taunting prod. Then he returned Alexis to the previous downward stance, upon which, he saw tears. Small ones. Delicate ones. It was these he savoured more than any meal.
The unnerving distance between above and below became apparent. Demons were in frenzied pursuit. It was no use. Each atmospheric chill as wind sighed through the daughter’s bones, the unattainable niche of displacing impossible amounts of mud and rainwater in order to pass from oasis to chilly oasis, namely, clambering on and off each available tombstone. Demons of this region were well built, almost human in appearance. They would catch her eventually, and all Alexis could do was watch and scream.
“Do you want to save her?” Adrian whispered to the mother. He had flexed his wings like a cape behind him. “Do you want me to save her?”
Alexis kicked, loosening her grip until she had slid from the gargoyle’s back only to cling for dear life onto its warty neck. A cringe. Adrian had stepped on three fingers. “WHY ARE YOU HERE?!”
He spoke with the air of a businessman. “Good, good; you’re conversing. This is progress.” Four fingers. “I, like you, have a brother…”
The daughter squealed, yet Alexis was unable to see why.
“…This brother. He was given a mission.” Adrian let himself carry the smallest tune as he spoke. “And he’s not-so-reliable-in-this-” another gentle prod to her forehead, “-department, if you get my meaning.”
The entire hand was now pulsing with how much weight Adrian had thrust to it. His own hands, however, pressed against the ragged collar of his overcoat, gesturing kindly to himself. “I’m doing him a…tremendous favour.”
The sound of bare feet scraping against stone was no longer heard.
“…W-w-why should I care?! What does this--?!”
”If you’d kindly shut up and listen.” Adrian spoke, clenched teeth and fists. “All I need from you…”
Screaming.
“All…we, need from you…”
Jeering.
“Is…”
Alexis began a desperate struggle. She raised her free hand as high as it would stretch, but not far or fast enough to evade capturing his attention. Adrian curved another wing over them both. He was salivating.
“Your child.” The demon finished.
Silence. He touched her arm. She flinched. His smile widened. He leaned closer, crouching on one of the gargole’s corroded ears. More flinching. Another lean. A collective pulse. It was counting down the seconds. Five. She was hung by one arm. Four. A firm grip on her wrist. Three. The same fingers he had come close to breaking, he had brought upwards, toward his mouth. Tonguing them. Two. He lowered with a grip on a single, quivering digit. One.
He watched her fall.
A smirk crept effortlessly across Adrian’s face as he surveyed the final moments of his unfortunate prey. He watched them writhe in agony, screaming, quivering, slithers of crimson spurted in all directions as they let out a series of coughs. Said coughing intensified into desperate gulps for the stale, midnight air; Adrian, meanwhile, was breathing softly and pleasantly. His eyes never left the ground.
So, yes. Onward...
A smirk crept effortlessly across Adrian’s face as he surveyed the final moments of his unfortunate prey. He watched them writhe in agony, screaming, quivering, slithers of crimson spurted in all directions as they let out a series of coughs. Said coughing intensified into desperate gulps for the stale, midnight air; Adrian, meanwhile, was breathing softly and pleasantly. His eyes never left the ground.
“…Are you quite finished?”
This tone he knew all too well. The elder of the deities, and inherently the superior, stood several feet to the left. Whilst Adrian possessed a mop of onyx hair, coupled with a sickening mustard glint of the iris, Damien had managed to comb his silver follicles back into a singular parting, eyes plainly sapphire. The two were distant siblings.
Damien was Adrian’s polar opposite. His every move seemed to be calculated to the most insignificant detail. His strength could only be countered by his lack of patience, his underlying rage. These qualities had earned him the role of not only superior, but also as somewhat of a supervisor. The latter Adrian shared equal disdain for.
“Dear, dear, brother.” Yet again, he smirked. “You always manage to ruin my fun.”
He dug a vicious heel into the corpse. Various layers of flesh were stripped away in the process, and Adrian couldn’t help but gaze longingly at the open wound which followed. Before he could let animosity overcome him, Damien swept over and cast the customary glare.
“You disgust me.” He spat.
“I’m HUNGRY, damnit!”
“Father said--“
“Since when did I listen to--!?”
Damien validated his disgust by executing a vice-like grip, proceeding to hold a miscellaneous blade to the entirety of the throat. He spoke in low, lingering murmurs.
“He specifically told us to wait.” A momentary pause. “You disobeyed him.”
“So I did!” Adrian’s hands pierced left and right. “Perhaps now he will acknowledge me!”
The first words would drift from a set of cold, crooked lips, sprung forth from a tongue drenched in saliva, oozing with perpetual venom, fed betwixt a tightly locked jaw complete with reddening molars.
“Who was this?”
There was little to no movement. Damien jolted Adrian’s side, and gave the faintest of smiles. “Who was whom?” He said, gracefully albeit weakly. Every syllable brimmed with acid, coming to an inadvertent surface as he took the first of many steps forward. Having done so, another smile was given, though it was far more condescending than its predecessor.
“The corpse.” Talons glinted in a sallow beam of moonlight and motioned towards what remained of the previous victim. It was a woman. A young one. Surprisingly so, seeing as she had fought so relentlessly. “What was its moniker…?”
~*~
Alexis graced the room and did something truly extraordinary; lips, two blushing petals nestled sweetly upon her delicate frame, curved upwards. Embers danced within their proper boundaries, their light cascading upon an ominous if not comfortable armchair. As she placed herself upon it, she couldn’t help but muse as to the location of her child, yet to be named. She swept some golden locks aside in deep thought. There was scarcely a doubt, even to Alexis, that she was powerless if demons had been involved. Over the past and coming weeks, kidnappings would occur at almost the instant a minor was given life. In the awaiting months, however, the lives of both mother and daughter would take an all too interesting turn. Said daughter had arrived admist Alexis’ slumber.
“Wake up.” She whispered. “They’re waiting.”
Half asleep, Alexis replied: “… Patience is a virtue.” And with that, she grinned. “Repeat this to them.”
In a few moments, the daughter would return, more than slightly petrified. “They said they cared nothing for virtue, mother.”
“Then they have no place in MY house.” A cross was lifted from the mantelpiece. “Repeat THIS to them.”
“They said…they said, they were going to break us.”
A frown. “Surely not.”
“Surely!” Came the sardonic echo. It began raining tinted glass. Alexis glanced sideways and, to her horror, a lone figure was crouched beside two of the church windows, claws put to immediate work. In one foul swoop the demon would prise a particularly angelic scene apart and force their head through any resulting shards. A cackle. Then they would repeat this action.
Mother and daughter burst into the scene at once. Stood directly behind them, Adrian tapped each of their shoulders and brought both round to face him.
“My sincerest apologies.” He said, radiating malice. “But my brothers and I wished to converse with you, and saw this,” a gesture; St. Peter’s remains shattered and cascaded overhead, “as the only means of attracting your attention.”
Alexis didn’t favour the way he said “Attracting”.
“So…” He placed unlimited force to Alexis’ gullet. Expectedly, she let out a choke, but also managed a quiet whimper as Adrian kicked off from the green and perched high on the ugliest gargoyle he could find. It resembled his father. “…This seems as good a place as any, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Be gone!”
He was bemused, amused and confused, expression to match. “What’s that?” Thrusting the victim forward on her stomach, tantalizingly close to something like a 100 foot plummet, Adrian watched with cunning eyes for any sign of weakness, of movement, of acceptance. Alexis could only hold onto the gargoyle and summon every ounce of strength to do so. “Be gone!” She rasped. “Be gone, be gone, be gone, be gone, be gone, be—“
“What in the literal hell?” Adrian cupped her chin, once again, bringing her round to face him. “Who do you think you are, a priest? There’s nothing pure about you.”
The claw moved from chin to nose. It was a gentle, taunting prod. Then he returned Alexis to the previous downward stance, upon which, he saw tears. Small ones. Delicate ones. It was these he savoured more than any meal.
The unnerving distance between above and below became apparent. Demons were in frenzied pursuit. It was no use. Each atmospheric chill as wind sighed through the daughter’s bones, the unattainable niche of displacing impossible amounts of mud and rainwater in order to pass from oasis to chilly oasis, namely, clambering on and off each available tombstone. Demons of this region were well built, almost human in appearance. They would catch her eventually, and all Alexis could do was watch and scream.
“Do you want to save her?” Adrian whispered to the mother. He had flexed his wings like a cape behind him. “Do you want me to save her?”
Alexis kicked, loosening her grip until she had slid from the gargoyle’s back only to cling for dear life onto its warty neck. A cringe. Adrian had stepped on three fingers. “WHY ARE YOU HERE?!”
He spoke with the air of a businessman. “Good, good; you’re conversing. This is progress.” Four fingers. “I, like you, have a brother…”
The daughter squealed, yet Alexis was unable to see why.
“…This brother. He was given a mission.” Adrian let himself carry the smallest tune as he spoke. “And he’s not-so-reliable-in-this-” another gentle prod to her forehead, “-department, if you get my meaning.”
The entire hand was now pulsing with how much weight Adrian had thrust to it. His own hands, however, pressed against the ragged collar of his overcoat, gesturing kindly to himself. “I’m doing him a…tremendous favour.”
The sound of bare feet scraping against stone was no longer heard.
“…W-w-why should I care?! What does this--?!”
”If you’d kindly shut up and listen.” Adrian spoke, clenched teeth and fists. “All I need from you…”
Screaming.
“All…we, need from you…”
Jeering.
“Is…”
Alexis began a desperate struggle. She raised her free hand as high as it would stretch, but not far or fast enough to evade capturing his attention. Adrian curved another wing over them both. He was salivating.
“Your child.” The demon finished.
Silence. He touched her arm. She flinched. His smile widened. He leaned closer, crouching on one of the gargole’s corroded ears. More flinching. Another lean. A collective pulse. It was counting down the seconds. Five. She was hung by one arm. Four. A firm grip on her wrist. Three. The same fingers he had come close to breaking, he had brought upwards, toward his mouth. Tonguing them. Two. He lowered with a grip on a single, quivering digit. One.
He watched her fall.
A smirk crept effortlessly across Adrian’s face as he surveyed the final moments of his unfortunate prey. He watched them writhe in agony, screaming, quivering, slithers of crimson spurted in all directions as they let out a series of coughs. Said coughing intensified into desperate gulps for the stale, midnight air; Adrian, meanwhile, was breathing softly and pleasantly. His eyes never left the ground.
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