Lady in Red: Chapter 5

Lady in Red: Chapter 5

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Commissioned by Sivantic

Wordcount: 2500

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I felt like a thunderstorm went through my entire body when I woke up. Every bone in my body ached and felt cracked, while my heart and head both felt like they were dragged over coals and smashed apart. The pain made my eyes water and it took nearly everything to not cry out the moment that I awoke in a bed that reeked and stank of many putrid things.

Feh, I forgot how feeble you mortals are without all your tricks and traditions. This is a horrid feeling.

Diayu appeared at the foot of the bed with a face contorted in both pain and disgust. Her eyes were harsh and her lips curled in a sneer.

I frowned as I came to a realization.

My thoughts were different.

Your mind is quicker and recalls more than it ever did before. Diayu stated… spoke… and glared at me while I tried to make my thoughts mine. Oh, don’t be foolish. Your thoughts are still yours, boy. They simply come more easily now that you’re better than the rest of your kind, even if you cannot compare to us.

I rose—got up from the bed. The mess on the bed was pitch black, but it was dried up and fell off my body. The stink remained and the clothes that I wore were ruined, but not all of it clung—stuck to me.

Diayu’s eyes rolled and she gestured towards one of the walls of the well-furnished—fancy—room.

When I went inside it before I slept, I hadn’t noticed the fact that there was a door in the room besides the one that came from the bar.

Cleanse yourself of the filth that was expunged from your body. I got up as Diayu spoke. My thoughts were faster and… better… but I was still me. The words that were normal for me were still there. My memories were still there. The things that I felt were still there. I was just thinking faster and using words that I used to have to stop and think about using before. That was all. Yes, yes. Be amazed with your improvements later. Bathe now, boy. The stench is unbearable for you, but horrific for me.

Diayu shared her own senses with me, somehow still being hers even though she was a ghost inside me, and I almost puked as the black, dried bile on my body suddenly gained a dozen different scents that were distinguishable from wherever they came from my body.

I hurried to the shower without another thought and didn’t leave until I was sure that I was clean.

…

Diayu ordered me to dress in the clothes left in the room after I took a shower. I found myself in a suit that would’ve taken Ma and I months to buy, even without worrying about rent or food, with our wages. It felt light to wear, even though it had three layers from coat, vest, and shirt, and I knew that it was something that someone worked their entire life to make.

It’s passable for a guard and unfit for my vessel, especially since you’re to meet my people. Diayu wore a white blouse and a pencil-skirt behind the bar. She took ghostly versions of the drinks behind the bar and mixed them expertly. She poured herself a drink and drank it. A bitter-sweetness filled my mouth. I didn’t like it.  Especially those who only have loyalty as their sole path to survival.

I took a seat at the bar and listened.

Well, well. You gained a sharper mind than I thought you would. Diayu hummed and placed the glass down and traced its rim with a finger after seating herself on the countertop. She towered over me from where she sat and a shadow was cast upon her face. That’ll either be useful or terribly worthless, because stupidity does help one keep calm when facing monsters.

She spoke down upon me, as though sitting upon a throne.

Listen well, mortal. Many of your kind have entered the world my kind inhabit, but most mortals struggle and die even with one of their own guiding them against the meekest of mine kin. You have stepped into a storm in which even the finest of your kind falter and fail with a single misstep. Daiyu shaped my surroundings. The walls and floor fell away to darkness that suddenly filled with monstrous figures clad in shadow. Their forms were inhuman and human. A monster one moment and a person the next. Many will seek to kill you for my power. They will consume your soul as an appetizer while mine is the main course, so that they can ascend to greater heights, and they include in their ranks not only my foes but my former allies.

I was surprised by her words and she laughed at me from the bartop in the void.

There is no such thing as loyalty in this world. There is only victory and that is achieved through power. Power gained through any means. Do away with your thoughts of morality and philosophy. Those are for mortals to enrich their lives in a world bereft of magic.  Daiyu laughed. It was a harsh and grating song like jagged steel against rusted iron bars. Beneath the sound was something more ferocious and beastly than anything I ever heard in my life. In this city are my scattered forces, my enemies, and my hunters. Those loyal who come will see you and wonder if they can kill you and save themselves, rather than pledge their loyalty to you, should you be found wanting.

With a wave of her hand reality returned and she swung her legs off the bar’s top. She primly landed with the clack of heels on the bar floor.

She was right. I understood more of what she said now. I was stepping into something incredibly dangerous. Before, I was able to just keep going, but now I had to stop myself from losing control over my breathing. Fear was gripping me and taking control of me, while all I felt before faded… except for one.

I knew everything that my mother did for me before, but now I knew better.

I recalled how she learned how to sew and spent days with bandaged fingers, so that she could keep her uniform in good shape, while giving me new clothes for my growth spurts. I remembered all the days she let me eat plenty, while she ate so little, so that I’d grow. Sometimes, when men looked her way, she’d look happy… before shaking her head and smiling at me when I glared at them, because I still hoped that she and the man who left us would get back together.

Knowing all of that, remembering all those little details, let me grit my teeth and work against the terror that threatened to grip me.

When I regained control of myself, I found Diayu’s face mere millimeters from my own. Her eyes were like that of a fox, bereft of any white, and rippling amber with a slitted black iris at the very center. The beautiful features that she had were muted and she looked more animalistic with sharper lines to her face. When she spoke to me in my mind, her lips moved, and fangs filled her face.

Yes. That is good. Mortal courage has bested many of my kin and foes both. It is good that you have it, otherwise I would’ve simply let you die against my first loyal subject, and done my best to take them, even at the cost of my power. I felt a warmth spread from the center of my body, which began to turn into an inferno. It ravaged my body and spectral flame formed all over my body while Diayu loomed over me. You will learn now. Feel my power within you. It is a flame that will consume you if you allow it. Resist it. Conquer it. Subjugate it. Fill your veins and muscle with it, even while your entire form shakes, otherwise even the meakest of my servants will kill you!

I screamed as pain wracked my body, but I latched onto the memory of my mother, even as every muscle in my body contorted while my bones creaked. My body wrenched itself in every direction without my doing and my spine ached as my back arched and fell again and again. Physical pain surged with every contortion made by my body, while some deeper pain threatened to take me completely.

The memory of my mother, of what could be happening to her, didn’t save me.

But it let me fight.

It let me grit my teeth and take control of my body, even while the blood I spilled turned to ash the moment it left my body because of blue flames surging from my body.

Diayu screamed at me like a mad ghost.

Take it! Seize it! Mantle it! Make it yours, so that I can have my vengeance against my enemies! With my power, you will retake all that I have, destroy my enemies, and return my body to me and I shall respect my oath to you! She was less of a woman now. The vague shape of a womanly figure loomed in a shadow of a massive roaring maw with eyes of fire the size of car wheels. I refuse to give it to any other! I will not lose it! Become a vessel of my power, see me back to my throne, and I shall honor the oath I swore to you and more!

Diayu’s words echoed throughout my entire body, surging through my words as she spoke to my very soul, and I had no choice to listen.

Not that I planned to fail.

I didn’t want to die and I still had to save Ma.

So, I held on to myself as I burned.

…

Pain coursed through my body as I stood up from the bar’s floor. Ashe fell from my body. It was all that remained of the blood that broke through my skin through wounds. It turned to ash the moment it left my skin, not even having a moment to stain the clothes I wore, and fell like dust from the openings of the clothes that I wore.

Diayu stood at my back, most of her beauty and grace no longer there, as she showed her true self.

A monster that wanted everything it once had back.

The door is opening. Prepare yourself or die. There was no longer any geniality in her voice. She knew that after everything that she did to me for the sake of her power that I wouldn’t be fooled any longer. No matter how beautiful she made herself, no matter how sweet her words, I’ll only remember the pain she forced me to endure so that she could get what she wanted. Mortal, no matter who opens that door, you will seize them by the throat and beat them within an inch of their life.

The door to the underground pub opened and I didn’t have a moment to think as a monster surged forth. It was a black wolf about my size in terms of length and its limbs were covered in chains. Its eyes held a frightening intelligence and its mouth was lined with teeth covered in steel that surged straight for my throat.

It was fast, but not fast enough to catch my by surprise, and I moved to avoid its maw.

I managed it, but its chains lashed out at me.

They were strong and tight, and I was sure that they would’ve broken me, if not the changes to my body. Instead the chains allowed the wolf to correct its lunge in mid-air and bring its mouth to bare, as they retracted and moved the beast towards me. That was a mistake, because I’d stepped into its lunge while dodging, and so my fist was able to collide with its side before it could fully turn its neck and maw towards me.

My fist collided with steel-like muscle over hardened bone and both gave way. I felt flesh give way and bones crack, while the coiled chains around me slackened and zipped back against the wolf’s limbs. It flew towards the bar’s shelves of liquors and crashed into the bottles and glasses of spirits. Instead of breaking into the glass, it bounced off something I could see with great force and was launched into the bar’s top and briefly stunned.

Kill that one or the rest will not be threatened enough to surrender! Diayu’s words ran through my entire being. It was like a spear that went down through my skull, my entire spine, and out my tailbone. The command took my breath away and my body instinctively reacted to comply. But, after resisting the flame and taking it, the words she threw at me weren’t anywhere close enough to make me do what she wants. Bothersome fool!

Instead I took the power that had brought me to my knees seconds ago and let it flow. I imagined making myself bigger, stronger, and intimidating. I’d used my size to keep myself and Ma safe plenty of times before, even though it got me into plenty of trouble, and this time was just a bit different. I was using the thing that made me feel like absolute shit, that brought me to my knees when I first used it, but it was better than letting myself get in trouble with a bunch of monsters.

Daiyu was going to owe me, she was going to honor our pact, because it would get her back everything that she wanted. But I was sure that she wouldn’t stop her people from killing me, after I lost her power, and just became a bit faster, smarter, and stronger mortal. Those things could also just go after Ma, while I wouldn’t be able to do a thing, and I couldn’t let that happen.

I had to be the bigger man.

Someone that these things couldn’t fight.

This was the only way that Ma and I could live after this.

“Listen to me!” My throat felt like it filled with a dozen heated thorn bushes and every word had those flaming thorns blend my throat. The taste of flame and blood filled my mouth while channeling the power again had my body break apart, spill blood, and heal at the same time. It hurt. I couldn’t handle the power, even with how different my body was, but it worked. The figures in the door flinched and took a step back, while the wolf I’d hit shuddered and struggled to breathe until it transformed into a young, black-haired woman in a suit with bracers and anklets made of chains. I had their attention and spoke through the pain. “Death or obedience! Choose now!”

I played my gambit, doing my best to pretend to be Diayu, while the power I summoned struggled within me.

It was a gambit, and if it failed, I could die…  but it was my only chance.

I couldn’t just do what Diayu wanted.

I needed to do everything I could to not just save Ma, but make a path for us both to get out of here.