Chapter 43: Chapter 043

“Hey, Henry!” Chloe shouted as she briskly trotted down the street towards Henry, who was waiting in front of the pizza parlour. “W-whoa, what’s with the face mask?”

“I have a sensitive nose and the smell of the city is simply too much.”

“I see… Well anyway, did you wait long?”

“Yes,” Henry answered dryly. “You're twenty minutes late.”

Chloe scoffed. “At times like this, you should be saying “Oh, I didn’t wait long at all.” Have some decency, please. You're never gonna get a girlfriend with this attitude.”

Henry smirked. “We shall see. Anyway, here.”

Chloe looked down at what Henry was giving her. “Pizza wraps? Takeout?”

“Yes, takeout.”

“Why? Can’t we just enjoy our food inside the restaurant?” Though she questioned him, she took the pizza wrap regardless.

“No. Enough time has been wasted. You can eat on the go. Tell me about your ex,” Henry said and began walking.

Chloe let out a small sigh and followed suit while munching on the pizza wrap. “Before that, tell me why you think my ex, Keith, is involved.”

“I found him in nearly all of the photos taken at the third and twenty-fourth street. And he was wearing boots in one of the photos. Dirty filthy boots as if he had stepped on shit.”

“So he had been down the sewers…” Chloe muttered. “Maybe he was also hunting the Demons like you?”

“I don’t even know the guy but one look at his appearance already tells me he ain’t the heroic and charitable type. Do you honestly believe he was in the sewers to subjugate the Demons?”

Chloe cast her gaze down. “He’s responsible for the appearance of these abominable creatures?”

“He had a hand in it, that I know for sure. Where can I find him?”

“I don’t really know…”

“You don’t? What about his residence? As his ex, shouldn’t you know that at least?”

“We went to the same university and he lived in the dorms.”

“Lived?”

Chloe nodded. “He moved out some time ago. Around the time we broke up. No one knows where he went. Now that I think about it, he was acting strange…”

“When was the last time you saw him?”

“Personally? When we broke up, that was the last I saw of him. Since then, I have only heard about him. I just thought he was too devastated by the break-up to show himself.”

“Hmm…” Henry mulled with his head canted. “Why did you break up with him?”

“He became strange, too strange. He was already a strange boy but he became stranger ever since we got our powers. He loves his fantasy fiction and anime, manga, whatever he calls them. When he got his powers, he was thrilled. It was a dream come true, he said.”

“What are his powers?”

“He can shoot out energy bolts of some kind from his palms. He described the feeling of using his powers like he was drawing energy from another dimension.”

“Him being the culprit of the Demons’ emergence is getting more and more promising. Do you know where he could be right now?”

Chloe shrugged. “Beats me,” she answered, finishing the pizza wrap. Her belly felt empty as ever despite having just eaten. “I shouldn’t have let him be. Truth to be told, I was kinda afraid of him when he started changing, becoming weirder. I was afraid he would hurt me one of these days. I just chalked it up to me being paranoid.”

“Why would you be afraid? Don’t you have superpowers too?”

“Mine’s nothing compared to Keith’s. His energy bolts could put a dent in steel.”

Henry raised an eyebrow. “I know I said I wasn’t curious before but I sure am curious now. How did you two get your powers?”

“We just got them while we were going about our usual routine. We were at the library, studying and doing our projects. We were leaving the library when we realised something weird was happening to our bodies. We got them around a few minutes apart from each other. I got mine first. After that, we straight away headed to an abandoned warehouse by the harbour to test our—” Chloe paused herself and stared at Henry.

Henry gave an understanding nod in response. “Where is this warehouse?”

“Two miles from here, give or take. We can take a cab there.”

****

After about a ten minutes journey, they eventually reached the harbour by taxi. The moment they got off the car, Henry shuddered and nearly lost his bearings.

“You’re okay?” Chloe asked.

“I’m fine. It’s just… we’re definitely at the right place. I can feel the Demonic energy coming from the harbour.”

As soon as the taxi was out of sight, silver matter oozed out of her pores and enveloped Chloe’s whole body, donning her bodysuit armour and turning her blonde hair black. “So much for a movie night.”

“You don’t have to follow me, you know?” Henry said.

“This is my city and the one bringing harm to it is my ex. I feel responsible for this even if I don’t like it and don’t want to.”

“Suit yourself. So, any security guards?” Henry asked, looking around. He saw no fences or walls that defined the perimeter.

“None. It has been abandoned for a few years now. Whoever owns this place doesn't seem to care.”

“Works for us,” Henry said and sped straight into the harbour, following the trail of Demonic energy.

Chloe followed closely behind. “Shouldn’t I be leading?”

“I know where to go. I can sense where the ominous feeling is coming from.”

“That sounds very handy. Wish I had senses like yours.”

“Trust me, you won’t want it. Just imagine smelling shit but you smell triple the intensity of it. Do you think that’s a good thing?”

“Um… it’s not like I’ll be smelling shit twenty-four seven.”

“No, but you are smelling things as terrible as shit and you just aren’t aware because your nose isn’t as sensitive as mine. Why do you think I’m wearing this face mask?”

“Ah, touche.”

The two scuttled their way across the harbour furtively. The harbour was completely shrouded in darkness. The only source of light was the pale glow of the waning moon. Following the trail, they arrived at the warehouse at the end of the harbour. The chains were broken and the gates were opened. The two stopped right outside the warehouse, in front of the opened gates.

“No one’s inside,” Henry said after a few sniffles. “But it sure does smell like someone had been here quite recently. It smells heavily of lime or lemon, either one of the two.”

“It’s Keith alright. He loves shandy. He would bring a pack with him nearly every time we went out somewhere. Shall we go in?”

Henry stopped her. He picked up a small pebble from the ground and tossed it into the warehouse. The pebble went bouncing a few times before a chain of explosions erupted, shaking the air with its trembling boom. Thankfully, the explosion did not spread beyond the interior of the warehouse.

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“W-what the hell was that?” Chloe asked, already crouching with her arms crossed over her head.

“Booby traps. There must be something your ex doesn’t want anyone to know or see.”

“That shit fucker…! What if I had come here alone to find him? Won’t I be dead at this point?”

“Obviously, that’s the idea, whether they’re friends or an ex. I’m afraid your ex is a lost cause.”

When the dust and smoke had settled to an extent, Henry moved in with Chloe trailing behind him in case of another explosion. There was no fire after the blast but there was a lot of rubble and fragments scattered about. Henry peered at the remnants of the explosion closely.

“Seems like he destroyed evidence for whatever he has planned,” Henry said, fiddling with the ashes of paper in between his fingers. “Considering that he booby-trapped the place instead of destroying the evidence from the get-go, the evidence must still have some uses to him. He will be back.”

“What if he had made it so that he knew if someone triggered the booby trap? Would he still come back then?”

Henry glanced behind his shoulder at those words. And he grinned. “He will come back. In fact, he’s already here. He’s walking towards this place as we speak.”

Chloe’s eyes widened. “W-what? You sure?”

“No doubt about it. I can hear his footsteps. It can’t be anyone else but him. I can smell the lemonade beer stench off of him.”

“Fuck… Where do we hide?”

“Hide?” Henry snorted. “Why would we hide?” Henry turned and stood facing the gates with his arms crossed.

“You’re just going to confront him like this? What if he’s unhinged and he attacks us on sight?”

“For his sake, he better not,” Henry said, cocking his neck and cracking his knuckles. “You can go hide if you want.”

“Screw that. If you’re not hiding, then neither am I.”

A few minutes later, a frail-looking boy with glasses appeared at the gates of the warehouse. He was dressed in shabby clothing and his haggard appearance made him look no different than a hobo. He recoiled with shock when he saw the condition of the warehouse. He was even more shocked at Chloe’s presence.

“C-Chloe?” he stammered.

“Keith,” Chloe greeted him dryly.

“W-what are you doing here? A-and who’s this guy?”

“You literally disappeared. No one had seen you. No one knew where you were. And you fucking booby-trapped this warehouse. What happened to you, Keith?”

“Booby-traps?” Keith laughed, trying to stave off the guilt but the opposite happened. “W-what booby traps?”

“You don’t seem surprised about what happened to this place.”

“Of course, I am, Chloe.” He chuckled nervously. “I’m just more surprised that you’re here.”

“You meant that you’re surprised that I wasn’t killed by your booby traps.”

“Don’t be absurd, Chloe. The trap wasn’t meant for you. It was—” Keith stopped himself but it was too late. The milk was spilt.

Chloe sighed and rubbed her temple with her head hung low. “I was really hoping, despite all the evidence present, you were truly not involved. What the fuck have you been doing, Keith? What the hell happened?”

Keith did not answer. Instead, his swimming gaze turned into a firm glare that was directed at Henry. “I can ask you the same thing. You moved on quickly… But me? I have never moved on. I did not stop thinking about you even after you broke up with me so abruptly.”

“Abruptly?” Chloe scoffed. “You think the break-up was abrupt? How fucking remiss are you? Are you seriously unaware of how much you have changed?”

“I have not changed, Chloe. This is who I always have been. I was chosen. We were chosen. We are gods, Chloe. I’m just doing what we should be doing.”

“Which is what? Summoning those fucking Demons into this world?”

“You watch your goddamn mouth, Chloe!” Keith roared. “They are not Demons. They are… superiors. Human’s superiors.”

“You have lost your mind, Keith.”

Keith burst out laughing. “I have not. On the contrary, I have never felt more whole than ever. I—” A stream of high-pressure air cut across the air, nearly decapitating him if he hadn’t dodged low.

Henry clicked his tongue. “Damn it,” he muttered.

“What the fuck, Henry?!” Chloe shouted. “You just tried to—”

“Kill him? Yes, I did. That’s what I’m here for in the first place. Say, is super intuition part of your powers?”

“You dare attack me?” Keith growled and thrust out his palms, shooting out bolts of dark purplish energy at them

Chloe dodged the bolt swiftly but Henry nearly got blown away had he been a second later in moving. Before the two of them could think of their next course of action, bolts came flying at them again.

“Fucking hell!” Henry cried and dove behind a huge piece of rubble that was rapidly being shrunk from the relentless barrage of Keith’s energy bolts. “He’s a fucking machine gun!”

“Sorry!” Chloe shouted in response as she sprinted up the walls while avoiding Keith’s barrage. “Keith, what the hell!? You’re shooting me too!”

“Be silent, whore,” Keith replied coldly as he continued shooting out energy bolts from his palms without any recoil.

Chloe shifted her foothold to the ceiling, dashing across.

Keith redirected his fire and aimed both of her palms at her.

Chloe dropped from the ceiling, landed smoothly on the ground, and charged toward him in a zig-zag. Keith tutted and ceased his fire. He clenched his hands into fists and slammed them to the ground. The ground caved in below him, forming a crater as a shockwave was unleashed radially. Chloe was swept off her feet and thrown across the room. She went rolling and tumbling until she hit her back against a pillar.

“It’s a shame, Chloe. We could have been something. You could have become a god with me but you chose to remain with these abhorrent apes.”

“Stop talking, please,” Chloe grunted, trying to get to her feet. “You sound so fucking cringe right now. Please stop talking.”

Keith’s face twisted further with anger and indignation. “Should have known you are a vile slut with that filthy tongue of yours. All we have ever done as a couple is just me suffering your abuse. You won’t even let me fuck you while you’re fucking a dozen men behind my back.”

“Suffering my abuse? Did you also suffer from memory loss right now? Or are you saying that I’m not allowed to joke with you because every joke of mine just keeps flying over your head?”

Keith’s frown deepened.

“Considering what you have become, I’m glad that I haven’t had sex with you. I don’t think I could live with myself if I had.”

“You fucking bitch!” he snarled and unleashed a volley of energy bolts at her.

Chloe sprang away, dodging the barrage after having stalled enough time for her own recovery.

“Keep running, bitch! That’s all you can ever do against me. That’s all— argh!” He suddenly started choking mid-sentence and his barrage was halted.

Henry manifested behind Keith, coming out of his camouflage, with his arms and hands around his neck and head. “I'm truly sorry” Henry whispered with a grimace and snapped his neck.

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