Chapter 19: Wild hunt I

“Dude, what a drag…”

“I’m telling you man, they sell these things for just-”

“Did we really have to relocate here?”

“Fuck those gypsies! They think they can delay the payment and leave me hangin’ like that!?”

A dozen different delinquents had set camp at the roof of a certain luxurious old cabin in the outskirts of the Urban Center, shortly after the sun had set. It’d been almost two weeks since Vince’s body had been found, one after most information in regard to his fate had been leaked throughout the city’s underworld. Though they knew a solid reason or two regarding the sudden change, many Phantoms still found it hard to adapt to their new, more stagnant positions.

In this particular stakeout, the gang members had decided to drown out boredom through unconventional partying and drunk in-fighting, resulting in a mess of an old wooden roof filled with blood, used rubber, and broken glass.

“Oh, calm down, already! There’s nothing you can do about it.”

“I’ll calm down when I kill one of those suckers! Where are they!?”

“Probably inside, trying to sleep to everybody’s screams out here.”

“Perfect. Gimme some juice, already!”

“I can’t. We got explicit orders from Aaron not to attack ‘gypsies’ or whatever without good reason. He’s got some pretty hot deals with a bunch of them, I hear.”

“Who the hell cares!? They ripped me off!”

“Of course they did. Everyone rips you of! You get duped, like, once a week, so no surprise there!”

“Well, screw you too! Can I at least get a beer!?”

“Take it. Now piss off before I feel like breaking something other than beer bottles!"

Blatant disregard of orders wasn’t a very common occurrence, even among the lower ranks of the gang, but when it happened, it was rarely pleasant to watch. That group in particular had been put in charge of supervising a special haema transaction appointed in that area. However, exactly fifty-five minutes had passed from the intended delivery schedule, and neither their third-party seller nor the client had shown up.

As a result, the five different groups assigned with the task ended up joining together in a childish outrage, cutting communications with Leroy, their sub-chief, and the main base, thus causing an uproar in the middle of the night, trying to decompress in their own eccentric way.

Among all the confusion, one of the delinquents had picked up an almost full beer bottle and thrown it over the feeble roof, before it hit a small cat running down on the cracked walkway below and broke loudly into countless pieces, spilling all over the unruly surface.

“Aww, yeaahh! Now this is the life. We should start doin’ this stuff more often!”

“I know right!? If anybody asks, just say it was a signal failure, yeah? Can’t let the higher ups find out about –”

A muffled noise spread through the rooftop. Before she could finish speaking, a girl in one of the corners suddenly let out a short cry and fell to the side. She confusedly agonized as crimson blood began to form in a small, growing puddle around a deep, narrow wound, the color of the thin clothing around her abdomen began to darken.

“What the-!?”

Before anyone could go over help, the exact same sound rang out once again, and one more person fell, displaying a similar reaction to the girl.

The remaining teenagers laughed in scorn.

“Come on!”

 “Cheap guns are so last century!”

“Oi, Jones! Get up already. It’s just a bullet wound, c’mon!”

“Shit…! It’s… Burning, like hell… Dammit…!!” was all the young scout managed to to say, before passing out.

Another sound. Another person fell.

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“Yo, what the…? Their… their wounds aren’t even closing an inch. The hell’s goin’ on…?”

“Who… Who’s there!? This isn’t funny!”

The next instant, a distorted, deafening noise pierced through all of their ears, accompanied by blinding white light, and turned their world into a blur.

The scenery surrounding the delinquents had been lit up by a large explosion, spreading smoke and fire on the street below, which in turn quickly reached them and further blocked their visibility on one of the sides of the roof.

But before they could have realized the obvious distraction, more shots rang out, and more limp bodies fell to the ground, leaving only four of them to despair on their own.

“C-Call for backup! I said backup, dammit!”

“It’s not turning on, you morons cut the signal!”

“What!?”

 “I said it’s not turning o-“

The feeble wood under the teens’ feet broke like cardboard in the blink of an eye, and a long, ragged arm came forth from the narrow opening; slender, snake-like fingers latching onto his leg. The boy squirmed around, kicking and screaming, but to no avail, as the tendril-like limb soon pulled him down into the darkness.

His cries could still be heard beyond the crevasse, becoming fainter and fainter until they abruptly stopped.

Not a single word more came from the three who remained standing. They just stayed there, claws and fangs hopelessly bared, in hopes that was all just some heavy fever dream.

It was not.

There was something down there.

No, not anymore. At some point, it had moved away. Under their feet.

It had risen up past their backs, somehow, and now stood idly, right behind them.

They couldn’t make out its figure clearly as it stood at the edge of the wooden roof, in front of the blinding flames. But its looming presence was certain. It was covered in lightless black, its face held the grin of the devil itself. That thing could not possibly be human.

One of the thugs yelled, enraged, and savagely leapt at the uncertain creature, leaving the other boy and girl behind. Three more steps. Two more. He only needed to reach it and grab it before it tried anything else.

Just one last step, and he could end that madness.

Yet just as he’d thought to have reached it, the creature was no longer there.

Before he could even touch the hellish shadow that haunted his path, it had vanished from his sight. He hurriedly turned back, however, and was able to spot it again. He could see it clearly now, through slight strain due to the intense heat. That didn’t change much in his eyes, however.

It was right over there, right where he’d been, staring him down. Challenging him. It stood in the place the other boy and girl had previously been, but no longer were. They too had collapsed, lying in crimson puddles like all the others. It stood in front of him, surrounded by a sea of blood and fallen bodies.

He could barely move anymore. The boy felt his own feet had been glued to the uneven roof. His arms too were paralyzed, and his heart felt as though it could stop at any second.

In the blink of an eye, the figure disappeared again. Though he quite nearly heard a faint screech reaching the back of his throat, in the end it never came out.

He now saw nothing more than the darkness of night and the moon in its midst, he could feel an arm being wrapped around his neck, and a hand pressed against both his mouth and nose.

Excruciating pain filled his body without warning, and his mind went numb as both the moon and night sky were replaced by sallow fog, quickly filling his field of vision.

“Sleep…” a grisly voice slowly whispered into his ear.

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