blood-red tongues licked the iron framework of Evelyn & Laurens.
His gaze was drawn ever upwards, following the flames as they rose, then the iridescent cloud of glass and plastic dust swirling leisurely downwards. And Jason saw two figures hovering in the air, descending smoothly towards the ground.
Even at such a distance it was possible to tell one from the other. The girl looked tiny and fragile beside the ominous, smoke-wrapped shadow of Pariah. The two landed on the ground twenty feet away, and froze in place. Jason didn’t move. He didn’t even blink—though his eyes watered from the smoke and tension— but it became increasingly hard to stay still as his body began to itch all over. He put all his effort into suppressing the violent urge to scratch.
The girl was the first to move, lunging forward so fast that her silhouette blurred. She thrust her hand forward, and a flash of blinding white light shot in the enemy’s direction. The shadow dodged the ray, and in that motion his black frame turned to light so intense that Jason’s eyes hurt. In the next second the girl was wrapped in liquid light, and both figures soared into the sky. Flashes illuminated the clouds, and whenever the two blazing dots came too close to each other, they were surrounded by opalescent spheres.
Jason sprang aside just in time as one of the rays shot in his direction and hit his car. A deafening explosion followed, hurling him several meters away. Jason staggered back to his feet and surveyed his ruined vehicle, then stared back up at the spectacle in the sky. The figures spun in a horrific, yet beautiful danse macabre , the swirling lights spinning as if choreographed to music.
Then everything stopped. The skyscrapers, the pavement, and the sky flared white, turning chalky and unusually perfect for several moments. The perfection was followed by an ear-splitting crash of breaking glass as every window in range shattered. Darkness fell like a heavy curtain, broken only by a bright sphere as it descended from the sky and burned directly towards Jason at an alarming rate. Jason stood rooted to the spot, stupefied by the impending collision. He clenched his fists as the rumbling and whistling of the approaching ultrafast sphere grew louder, but just when Jason assumed the impact was inevitable, the noise stopped. The sphere dissolved before his eyes, sending sprouts of light underground as if they were liquid leaking through a sieve.
Then she appeared, and Jason felt as if a wave of warmth had washed over him. Pale and exhausted, her clothes torn to rags, the girl stumbled towards him, oblivious to the blood spilling down her forehead. Emily, the creature had called her.
Jason stared, speechless, as the person whose mind he had shared came towards him in the real, physical world. Her eyes gleamed with amusement when she saw how he squirmed.
“We need to get away before he regains his power,” she said at last, her voice breathless. She pointed at a motorcycle standing by the curb—behind the pile of scrap metal which had been his car minutes earlier. “We’ll take my bike.”
He climbed up behind her on the electric blue Honda and took a last glance at E&L’s neighboring skyscraper as Emily peeled off into the street. Near the top of the building he saw a black circle scorched by the other sphere, then saw a tiny figure when it appeared in front of the circle. The Shadow was no longer hidden within a blanket of black smoke, but he was still too far for Jason to discern his face. The enemy cast two deadly lashes upwards so that they clung to the walls of the building, then he climbed onto the roof of the skyscraper and vanished into the night.
***
From the moment she’d let loose and destroyed the walls of the restroom until this moment, when the Evil One had frozen in mid-air, only one question flashed in her mind: Will he come?
Soaring around the peaks of buildings, she could feel Jason’s ungovernable, raging
His gaze was drawn ever upwards, following the flames as they rose, then the iridescent cloud of glass and plastic dust swirling leisurely downwards. And Jason saw two figures hovering in the air, descending smoothly towards the ground.
Even at such a distance it was possible to tell one from the other. The girl looked tiny and fragile beside the ominous, smoke-wrapped shadow of Pariah. The two landed on the ground twenty feet away, and froze in place. Jason didn’t move. He didn’t even blink—though his eyes watered from the smoke and tension— but it became increasingly hard to stay still as his body began to itch all over. He put all his effort into suppressing the violent urge to scratch.
The girl was the first to move, lunging forward so fast that her silhouette blurred. She thrust her hand forward, and a flash of blinding white light shot in the enemy’s direction. The shadow dodged the ray, and in that motion his black frame turned to light so intense that Jason’s eyes hurt. In the next second the girl was wrapped in liquid light, and both figures soared into the sky. Flashes illuminated the clouds, and whenever the two blazing dots came too close to each other, they were surrounded by opalescent spheres.
Jason sprang aside just in time as one of the rays shot in his direction and hit his car. A deafening explosion followed, hurling him several meters away. Jason staggered back to his feet and surveyed his ruined vehicle, then stared back up at the spectacle in the sky. The figures spun in a horrific, yet beautiful danse macabre , the swirling lights spinning as if choreographed to music.
Then everything stopped. The skyscrapers, the pavement, and the sky flared white, turning chalky and unusually perfect for several moments. The perfection was followed by an ear-splitting crash of breaking glass as every window in range shattered. Darkness fell like a heavy curtain, broken only by a bright sphere as it descended from the sky and burned directly towards Jason at an alarming rate. Jason stood rooted to the spot, stupefied by the impending collision. He clenched his fists as the rumbling and whistling of the approaching ultrafast sphere grew louder, but just when Jason assumed the impact was inevitable, the noise stopped. The sphere dissolved before his eyes, sending sprouts of light underground as if they were liquid leaking through a sieve.
Then she appeared, and Jason felt as if a wave of warmth had washed over him. Pale and exhausted, her clothes torn to rags, the girl stumbled towards him, oblivious to the blood spilling down her forehead. Emily, the creature had called her.
Jason stared, speechless, as the person whose mind he had shared came towards him in the real, physical world. Her eyes gleamed with amusement when she saw how he squirmed.
“We need to get away before he regains his power,” she said at last, her voice breathless. She pointed at a motorcycle standing by the curb—behind the pile of scrap metal which had been his car minutes earlier. “We’ll take my bike.”
He climbed up behind her on the electric blue Honda and took a last glance at E&L’s neighboring skyscraper as Emily peeled off into the street. Near the top of the building he saw a black circle scorched by the other sphere, then saw a tiny figure when it appeared in front of the circle. The Shadow was no longer hidden within a blanket of black smoke, but he was still too far for Jason to discern his face. The enemy cast two deadly lashes upwards so that they clung to the walls of the building, then he climbed onto the roof of the skyscraper and vanished into the night.
***
From the moment she’d let loose and destroyed the walls of the restroom until this moment, when the Evil One had frozen in mid-air, only one question flashed in her mind: Will he come?
Soaring around the peaks of buildings, she could feel Jason’s ungovernable, raging
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