Judgement (The Twelve) (28 page)

C
hapter Nine

T
he rain was falling heavily now
, a
typical late
autumn
day,
cool and
wet.
The wind was blowing faded brown and gold coloured leaves across the park grass. Heartless and Slash
checked on the Parks Police hut.
Slash
glanced in through a side window.
Three policemen and one police woman were on duty and enjoying coffee. The childrens zoo was very quiet
,
Speed reported back,
it was as Judgement had stated, every animal ripped to pieces.

Anvil
looked to Chris, “
Where a
re they?”

Chris turned and pointed to the pump house down by the lake,
Judgement spoke clearly for all to hear,”
She is waiting for me
.”

Anvil
lifted his weapon up onto his shoulder,
“Time to go.”

They were almost at the wooden red front door, when Chris or rather Judgement called a halt. At that exact moment, the door was flung wide. Like rats rushing from the darkness within. The Dark rushed out. It was the first time Chris saw them all together.

Edge was at the front, stopping twenty feet away, a blade in
each
hand. To his left stood three
of the Dark
he recognised
,
Claws, Shadow and Leach. To his right stood
Ghost and others he didn’t know.

Anvil
whispered in his ear, “The ones on the right
besides Ghost are Retch, he’s the
massively fat
elderly
man dressed in that worn
monks
smock. He can vomit all sorts of horrible creepy crawly things that
can eat you down to the bones in a matter of a few minutes, or suffocate you where you stand. They
attack on his command. He’s also the thinker and planner for Edge, alth
ough you wouldn’t know it. The other one is
Screech, she’s as old
as
Retch, which is pretty old. She has a scream that can shatter glass or eardrums for that matter.”

Chris felt extremely uneasy when he recognised she was wearing what appeared to be a
n old worn
nun
s habit and high healed black shoes.

That left four
Dark
, two of which where sliding around towards
Anvils
right hand side. An arrow suddenly thudded into the earth before them. Both stopped and went into
a crouch
. To Chris they looked
and behaved like
wild cats
. Each had
wild unkempt red hair, long
canine teeth that showed
when they both let out a hiss of hatred. Chris also noticed that they had razor sharp
taloned claws
.

Anvil introduced them to Chris with a whisper
, “Those are the twins
,
Cougar and Panther. They
look and act like big cats and
always attack together.
”

Another figure lurked in the shadows
near the tree line
behind the twins, “
The one hanging back slightly is Sling.”

Chris could see a tall
muscular shouldered
black
man dressed in a loan cloth and nothing else except a leather pouch worn around his
lean
waist.
Sling was covered from head to toe in self inflicted tattoos.
He had what appeared to be a sling shot in the grip of his left hand.

“He’s as deadly with that thing as Huntress is. He use
s
solid steel balls as ammo, watch out for him.”

Chris nodded to a shadowy figure moving
through a clump of bushes
over to the left
, “What
i
s that?”

“Good question. All we know is its called Venom.
It’s neither male nor female. The thing has yellow slit eyes and its skin is covered in reptilian scales. I’ve never heard it talk.”

“Am I imagining things or is it naked?”

Anvil
nodded, “Skin like a snake, no sign of any sexual organs. Oh and it only has three fingers on each hand
and
three toes on
each foot
.
The index fingers on each of its hands are razor sharp
hooked
claws. It also has
a small hooked claw on
the heel of each foot.
It can rip
you open with either
, and it’s poisonous
.”

To Chris it was like he was looking at a freak show through nightmare eyes. He waited for something else to happen and didn’t have to wait long.

Edge was
whispering
something
to
Claws
but suddenly stopped in mid sentence. He turned his head quickly to glance over his right shoulder, Bow
ing
awkwardly
he
moved to one side.

“What have we here?”
priest
whispered.

A
blond
haired
shoulder length
female teenager dressed
in ski
n tight shiny black latex and high
heeled stiletto boots moved forwards sensually to stand just to the right hand side on Edge. She appeared to be wearing black lipstick and was extremely beautiful. This was not what Chris had expected.

“Hello Judgement, or can I call you Chris? I do hope so.
Apparently m
y name is The Chosen One but
my name before I died was
Coffee
. You can call me that
if you like.”

Chris was rooted to the spot, her words dripped like honey from her lips
, h
e
r voice full of sexual promises yet to come.

Patch squeezed his hand so hard that Chris risked a glance down at her smiling face. He returned the smile plus a slight nod of the head. Taking a deep breath he returned his attention to
Coffee
. She was visibly looking irked, something had annoyed her.

Priest shouted over to him, “Watch out Chris! Her voice
has
power. Can’t you feel the pull of it?”

Edge snapped
back
, ordering him to shut his fat mouth but
t
he woman placed a hand on his arm.

“It’s alright Edge,
he’s there prophet. It’s his job to know
.”

“Priest would you like to explore my body? I bet you would. Many a so called holy man would visit me in the night. Paying like all the others to have there way with me. Hypocrites one and all! I died underneath a fat bastard like you. He strangled me! Can you believe that? He blubbered and cried like a baby when he realised what he’d done
, p
rayed to your God for forgiveness as I was re-born. You should have seen the look on his face when I broke his fat neck!”

She reached out a hand to stroke Edges cheek, “I went
downstairs to
tell
one of the other girls
what had happened only to find Edge already there, together with a
Shade.
He had killed my friend and I watched as the thing took her soul.
He
saw me then and looked so shocked for a moment, maybe even angry or resentful
. Did you resent finding me Edge
?”

Edge bowed to her, “I was just surprised to discover you so easily oh Chosen One.

Coffee smiled coldly, “Possibly but that matters not. I somehow
knew
who and what I was.
Edge was telling me how he’d train me in the ways of The Dark but I slapped him across the face to shut him up. How dare he dream to
think he could teach me anything!
Well at this point I tested my new found powers and
commanded the Shade to go upstairs and gather the soul of my fat guest and to feed on his flesh. The thing did as I ordered and at that moment Edge actually b
owed to me
and
call
ed
me his Chosen One
, j
ust like he did just now. He introduced me to the rest of The Dark and well here we are.”

The Chosen One giggled lightly, “What is it you call yourselves?  Ah yes the Protectorate of the Human Race.”

Again she giggled, “Really
!
” She scalded
Anvil
, “At least we call ourselves by our real name. We are simply The Dark. In what century did you give yourselves such a grandiose title?”

She didn’t wait for an answer and turned her full attention back to Chris,
“
W
hatever they’ve told you
is
a lie.
Look upon me!
Am I not beautiful? How can someone like me be called evil?  We
are eternally young and I could show you pleasure after pleasure for
all
eternity
.
You hate the In Between, so do I. We can all walk in the light. You hate my Shades? I will destroy them all for you and you alone. You care for the other humans? I will stop The Dark killing them and turning them into ghouls. However we are different from other humans Chris. We are eternal beings with amazing gifts. Chris it is our destiny to rule over them all. Think on that! We will put an end to war and famine. Get rid of all those stupid politicians that cause so much suffering and financial ruin.
Think of the marvels we could bring in the world of science and medicine. All our combined knowledge from thousands of years put to good use instead of trying to kill one another.
All you have to do is step over here and stand side by side with me. Do this and the others can go free
or join us
.”