I'd like to take a moment to thank Madam Whitewalker, who has been gracious enough to add some well needed editing to this chapter, and I'm looking forward to working with her on the future ones. Enjoy, and thanks for reading.
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The sky above the city was black, thick with clouds. Thunder rolled across the heavens with a deep voice, threatening, angry.
Blinding lightning split the sky open with a scream. At that moment, the clouds opened up and sheets of cold rain began to fall from the black sky.
Below, Joo-won Ko was speeding through the glistening streets, the rear tires of his car skidding as he drove through the red lights, sliding around dark corners of the City in a desperate bid to escape what he knew was following him closely.
This would be the last moment of his life.
He reached his shaking hand into the pocket of his jacket and felt the reassuring heft and bulk of his pistol there. He wrapped his hand around the cool metal of the handle, as he had done a dozen times or so already. He let it go.
Joo-won knew that it wasn't going to help him in any way. Well, maybe one. If it came to that.
He was a cold man who had overseen the executions of any number of men in his native Korea, and here in the City as well. He knew that when death arrived to claim you, begging wouldn't help, money wouldn't help, if your time had come, nothing in the world would buy you even another minute.
Don't look behind you, he thought to himself. Whatever you do,
don't
look behind you.
He looked behind.
And he saw exactly what he knew he would see - the inhuman, glowing red eyes of something that could not have come from this world. A pair of crimson eyes, dark like blood, blazing and steaming behind the sheets of rain.
Joo-won turned sharply to the right, hoping desperately that maybe this would lead to escape. He aimed his car into a dark alley and pressed the accelerator down to the firewall.
But the wheels of his car slid out from behind him, fishtailing, and the steering wheel felt like a black snake in his hands. Joo-won couldn't control it, and his car slid into a dumpster, the metal on metal screaming. Steam poured from the engine as coolant burst all over the hot engine block.
This, he knew, was the end.
Joo-won reached into his jacket and pulled out his pistol. He let out a little sob as he did so, this cruel and terrible killer of men finding a last shred of humanity in his own fear at death.
Suddenly, his car shook violently as a large weight fell onto the roof. He could hear the scraping of something hard on the metal surface above him, and he knew he didn't have much time.
He heard the sound of metal being torn apart directly above his head, and a couple of drops of rain fell in and onto his face, cool, refreshing.
Joo-won put his pistol to his head and pulled the trigger. The shot rang out unheard over the thunder and lightning, and he slumped over onto his steering wheel, lifeless.
The roof above him was torn completely open, and a thick rope of a tail curled down into the car, wrapped around Joo-won's limp neck, and pulled him out of the car like a child might pull a doll.
The creature above held Joo-won's face up to its own, the blazing red eyes looking deep into Joo-won's own lifeless eyes. The creature curled its thin, reptilian lips up, revealing long, yellow fangs. The creature shook Joo-won's body back and forth with its tail, took a deep smell of the dead man, and raised its head towards the night sky and let out a shriek that was never meant to be heard in this world, an evil and inhuman roar of rage and hate.
No life force.
No soul to eat.
The creature flexed its tail, snapping Joo-won's lifeless neck in the process, and threw his limp body into the wall of the alley. Joo-won hit with a wet thump and slid down in the cold rain.
Red Eyes screamed again in rage, spreading dark and leathery wings out behind itself, crushing the roof of Joo-won's car absentmindedly with the long claws of its hand.
The sky burst open with blinding white lightning, cold in the black sky.
When the light faded, Red Eyes was gone.
The rain continued to pour down in grey sheets, washing Joo-won's blood into the gutters, into the sewers, and from there into the earth.
At the mouth of the alley, a woman descended from the sky, fast, almost too fast to see. She landed hard and went down to one knee, rising up to both feet after a moment.
The television was calling her the Power.
She was a tall woman, wearing red boots that came up to just above her knee over a skin-tight blue outfit. She had a confident gait in her boots, her red cape flowing behind her, long blonde hair framing a red mask.
The Power walked over to Joo-won's car, blocking the alley. She shoved it effortlessly to the side and continued on to Joo-won's body.
She knelt over him, looking closely at the man. Joo-won's lifeless eyes stared at the Power, unblinking, his broken neck lolling on his shoulders. There was the slightest look of relief in his expression.
He hasn't been eviscerated, she thought. He's still bleeding, he still has his blood.
She stood up and looked around. She saw no sign of Red Eyes, and thought that it was probably gone.
She felt a little relieved.
The Power looked down at Joo-won. She saw that he had been shot in the head, self-inflicted, it seemed. What was different about this killing than all the others, then? Why hadn't this one been torn apart?
She shook her head. There wouldn't be any answers here tonight.
The Power looked up into the black sky, torrents of cold rain falling down. She crouched down, Joo-won's blood running around her boots, and leapt up into the night sky.
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The waiter was talking to John, asking him if he wanted more coffee.
John looked up at the man and nodded.
He watched the cup fill again and he put it to his lips, the thick brown liquid flowing tastelessly past them as the other cups had done.
None of it was helping. John was more tired than he'd ever been.
He drank half the cup, looking every now and then at the glossy, laminated menu on the table before him.
When's the last time I ate anything, he wondered.
He couldn't remember.
Looking up, he saw that Heather had gotten to the restaurant. She was at the host's station, and the host was pointing her John's way. Her lips were tight; she looked annoyed.
She sat down across from him and told the waiter that she'd have iced tea. Heather looked over at John.
"You look like shit," she said.
He just nodded.
"I don't know why I'm here," she told him. "I don't want to be here."
He nodded again. The waiter brought the tea and she squeezed lemon into the top of it. John watched her, exhausted, staring blankly at her perform the mundane task as if he'd never seen such a thing in his life before.
"You did what I told you to do?" he asked, finally.
"I did it," she said. "I didn't want to."
"Tell me what you did."
Heather looked around the restaurant, only half filled after the lunch rush. No one seemed to be paying attention.
"Here?"
He nodded.
"I... I went to her place, like you told me to."
"And?"
"And I made her... do things to me."
"You took control of her?"
Heather nodded.
"You made her be your slave?"
She nodded again.
"This is important, Heather. Did you make her
say
that she was your slave? That she
belongs
to you? That she'd do whatever you told her to do?"
