“Sara, just call him. The anticipation is killing me,” her friend Taylor said.
The two teenage girls were walking down the street, immersed in their innocent, little world. Smog filled the brisk night air. The late night made the street deserted like a ghost town. The only thing on it was a few vehicles and a police car parked on the curb. The moon glowed a bright yellow, breaking its way through a black sky filled with void. The negative atmosphere almost echoed throughout the block like an omen.
“I don’t know…” Sara replied, taking her eyes off from her surroundings to contemplate. She fiddled with the cross pendant around her neck.
“Ugh! What is there to think about? You have been crushing on each other, since like forever.”
“I don’t just ‘go for it’ like you do.”
“Judge me all you want, but you never know when life might” – she snapped her fingers in front of Sara’s face – “end. Just sayin’…” She gleefully looks back at her as she proceeds to shout, “YOLO!”
Sara shakes her head, looking away in embarrassment. She can’t help but smile behind her covered face at Taylor.
Sara notices a cop walking down the sidewalk, approaching their direction. She figured she was headed to the cop car they passed by about half a block.
“Uh oh, give it up. You’re busted,” Taylor teased under her breath.
“Speak for yourself you shouting nutcase,” Sara replied.
They quiet their playful giggles as the officer passes by. The officer’s comm broke the stillness of the silent night air. They nod in the cop’s direction. She nods in response. Sara observes the cop’s tense expression as they pass her. Sarah decides to walk slower to listen in without being obvious.
“Dispatch, we have eyes on an APB’s location – target matches description of the employee from F.R.B.U., over,” the voice through the comm said.
The cop stopped dead in her tracks. She waited in anticipation for the next staticky message. Sara immediately turned her gaze forward as not to be noticed. Taylor took note of both of their demeanors and quickly sensed some type of tension creeping its way into their otherwise normal night.
“Roger that, officer -”
“Negative dispatch!” another officer shouted through the comm while cutting off dispatch. “Target is on James Street and is hostile!”
The cop’s eyes widened in shock as distorted shouts could be heard from the other end of the line. She continued to listen intently. Dispatch received calls from a few more officers, saying they witnessed the same culprit in other areas around the city.
“Wait a sec,” the cop murmured. “Isn’t James just up the -”
Before she could finish her thought, the sound of a thunderous stampede and shrills of screams shrieked the ominous night. She saw the girls pass each other terrified looks. Flames licking the dark canvas of the night sky could be seen in the distance. A horde of people came running down the block in hysteria. They trampled over each other just to create distance from whatever was chasing them. The color was gone from their faces only to be replaced with dread.
The cop glanced at her phone for the time – 1:20 a.m. She wondered what caused so many people to run for their lives at such an ungodly hour. She regretted asking this question as she saw… him.
Sara and Taylor froze in fear as the sound of metal scraped against the surface of the concrete. They saw him, too. A pale man who looked like he was touched by death approached slowly as if dragging a boulder behind him. The red marks on his wrists and ankles stood out like a sore thumb as it contrasted with his white complexion. His head was down. As everyone rushed to get distance from him, the cop and two girls stared on, paralyzed.
The cop instinctively went into fighter flight as the man got within arm’s reach of the two girls. Rushing in, she became a wall between him and them. She didn’t say a word as she pulled her weapon from her holster, shakingly aiming it at him. Sara was surprised the cop didn’t take the time to say “freeze”, read his Miranda rights, or anything. Panic reverberated through Taylor’s body. She realized at that moment, the cop was no longer an authority figure to feel safe behind. She was as human as them standing face to face with this mysterious threat.
Without a moment’s notice, luminescent chains appeared on his wrists and ankles out of thin air. He tilted his head up to stare at the three women who stood before their own demise. His eyes were sunken in with a blank expression – devoid of life. Taylor was about to let out a scream, but Sara cupped her mouth. This man was already on edge. She sensed anything could set him off.
“Get back or I swear -”
The cop’s empty threat was cut short as the man’s chain lashed at her. It seamlessly went inside her like an invisible cord. Sara and Taylor were confused. Before their eyes, the cop’s skin instantly turned the same color as the man’s. Their last hope dropped to her knees and collapsed on the ground before them.
*Gasp*.
Sara’s heart nearly thudded out of her chest as she saw Taylor gasping for air right beside her. A hand was placed atop of her head. Life drained from her body as wrinkles in her skin appeared until she was shriveled up on the floor like a raisin. To Sara’s dismay, two more men appeared out of nowhere behind her who looked similar in appearance to the pale man in front of her. The one who sucked the life from her friend’s body had more texture to his face, reveling in the act as if it gave him some type of nourishment. The man behind him looked on sternly. His eyes glowed white. He had an air about him; an arrogant like posture.
“Well done, Slack and Covet,” the arrogant one said. “Now become one!”
Sara curled up in the fetus position on the pavement, clutching her pendant in hand as she saw the three men merge. Tears flowed forth like waterfalls down her face. The man levitated from the ground. Four streams of mysterious dark energies also infused with his body.
Confused, horrified, and powerless beyond belief, all Sara managed to utter was, “Oh my God!”
The floating being locked eyes onto her. A black aura resonated off of him, engulfing him in darkness. A sinister grin formed as he said, “Not even He can save you flawed creations from the abyss!”
(*Note: James 1:20 is a biblical reference subtly hidden. Hidden symbols and biblical ties can be a continued theme for Abyss and Protector stories for fans to find on their own; making the characters more engaging for older audiences but still exciting stories for a younger age group.)
Reginald andah 