Judgement (The Twelve) Read online

  Priest had turned white,” Prophesy states Judgement shall be the first to draw blood so that an equal can be recruited by The Dark.”

  Priest turned to Anvil,” Whether you like it or not Chris is the one we’ve been waiting for.”

  Anvil slowly nodded as if conceding the point,” Point given. You may gather to yourself his equal before declaring the War of Blood, Fire and Souls.”

  Edge looked once more up at Chris before slowly licking the blood from his fingertip, “An equal yes for that has already been decided. I had no idea until this creature was harvested.”

  It was Anvil’s turn to look slightly confused but Edge continued, “I found out when the Shade the kid had injured returned to me, no one else could have done that. Then I discovered the one the kid just recognised and it all dropped into place. Pity, if I’d have gotten to him first, I think he would have come over to my side”

  Anvil stood up straight, “I made that mistake once, never again.”

  A strange look crossed Edges face, “A costly mistake. Now I’ve got to follow that damned prophesy and kill you all. I’ll miss you old man.”

  With another quick bow to Anvil, Edge turned and walked away. Claws blew Priest a wet kiss before following. The gathered Shades, all bar one vanished into the darkness. The one that had been called forth still remained, looking up at Chris. Strangely none of Anvils team moved to slay it.

  Patch was about to ask Chris what had just happened, when he shoved her aside and ran for the door leading to the landing.

  Speed blurred into movement, appearing next to the Shade who didn’t move, “How very interesting. It doesn’t want to attack and for some weird reason I don’t want to kill it.”

  The back door burst open and Chris crossed the lawn in a few short strides, skidding to a half before the Shade.

  “You!” Was all he could manage to spit out.

  The Shade held up one hand as if imploring to Chris, “Forgive me!” the Shade sobbed in a very human sounding voice.

  Chris did nothing for a second, before screaming “Bastard!”

  Thrusting his hand deep into its chest, he held it there. The thing managed to glance down once before exploded outwards from where Chris’s hand was embedded, fiery burning ash drifted away upon the cool night air.

  “No.”’ A faint voice echoed into the darkness.

  Patch came running up as Chris fell to his knees sobbing. His hand and forearm hissed and bubbled as if terribly burnt. Patch watched as the wound quickly starting to heal all by itself. Huntress looked between Chris and Anvil.

  Then her eyes locked with Priest,” Want to make a guess here?”

  He replied, “No need to guess. The kid is Judgement plain and simple.”

  Speed flickered across the grass and stood twitching nervously in front of Priest, “Not to me it isn’t!”

  Anvil turned a questioning face to Priest who qualified his statement, “The Prophesy state that Judgement shall be the one who draws first blood from the leader of The Dark. The kid’s the first person I know, alive or dead to wound Edge.”

  Anvil looked down at Chris, “Edge said it would be his equal that would draw blood.”

  Priest shrugged, “No, he said Chris would be the first to draw blood so that an equal could be gathered.”

  Slash nodded towards Chris who was still sobbing into Patches shoulder, “Look the window broke by accident. It was just an accident! The kid punched the bloody window or something. It was an accident and Edge was nicked by flying glass.”

  Patch glanced up at them, “No way! Chris’s scream blew out the glass. There’s not a shard left in the frame.”

  Anvil nodded,” The glass blew everywhere but no one but Edge was cut.”

  Huntress slapped the arrow in her hand against her thigh,” But he’s never been reborn!”

  Patch gently lifted Chris’s face up from her shoulder. Chris looked into her eyes and whispered, “I think I know the answer. I think I’ve always known but never wanted to believe, “

  Chris was looking deep into her eyes, finding the strength to go on, “I was abused by my step father, terribly abused. One night he held my face pressed into my pillow whilst he, whilst he….well, afterwards, I thought I’d passed out. When I awoke I ran away from home. I felt different then, I healed quicker and the cold of living in cardboard city never bothered me. I didn’t pass out. Did I?”

  Priest nodded, “He held your face pressed into the pillow so hard to stop you screaming. Pressed and pressed until…”

  All Chris could do was nod in reply. He knew the answer but had suppressed it all this time.

  Patch looked ever so sad, “You died Chris. “ Then she smiled, “But you were reborn. That’s when you ran away.”

  Anvil shook his head in disbelief, “Can’t have happened! I would have known, would have been there. I would have helped him.”

  Priest belched, “Sorry, I get terrible wind when I’m agitated! The kids different Anvil, he’s Judgement. Different rules apply to him. My guess, it was supposed to be like this, with him finding us not the other way round.”

  Bulls Eyes slapped a hand to his forehead, “The Shade!”

  Priest nodded, “His step father.”

  Anvil smiled, “Edge thought to scare the kid away by showing him the one person he was most terrified off, but instead he brought about the Prophesy himself.”

  Patch asked Chris directly,” How did you recognise that lump of melting grey slime?”

  Chris looked down at his feet,” I saw past what it is, to what it was, I can’t explain any better than that. I hope he rots in hell.”

  Speed chuckled, even his laughter was chain lightning fast, his head twitched from side to side, “They don’t go to hell kid, I mean Judgement. Until you’re trained to bless them first, when they go out like that, they’re destroyed for good. It’s like they never ever existed.”

  Huntress grinned,” Love it when they blow up, better than fireworks night.”

  Chris snapped his head up. “No, when I destroyed him I was given a choice. A voice inside me said ‘be judged’. I had the choice, Hell or Heaven. That bastards going to suffer for eternity”

  The grin slipped from Huntress’s face, “What?”

  Priest whistled softly, “He is Judgement!”

  Huntress whispered into Priests ear, “I thought a Shade can only be destroyed and we free the soul to go its own way?”

  Priest nodded, “So did I.”

  Anvil glanced first to Priest, then stared hard at Chris, “You know this how?”

  “It was the same with the first Shade. I saw who and what she was.”

  Speed whistled like a high speed train, “That was a woman?”

  Chris nodded, “Saw all the bad things she had ever done, screamed all the way down to Hell. I didn’t know I’d sent her though.”

  No one said anything for a very long time. The gathered Protectorate of the human race, who had just about seen and heard everything over countless centuries, just stood there staring at Chris in amazement.

  “Right!” Anvil broke the silence, “First thing tomorrow we move house. Tonight I expect we will be attacked. Speed stand watch as normal, you know what to do.”

  Speed smiled, “On the ball, ever watching, ever moving!” One moment he was there, the next in a flicker of movement, he was perched on top of the roof, as still as a gargoyle.

  Anvil led the others back into the house, gathering all except Speed in the living room. Patch sat with Chris on one settee, together with Huntress. The others took up space on the other settee and two chairs. Rage hunkered down in one corner. Anvil strode back and forth in the centre of the room.

  “This is something new. For ions, all you’ve had to do is destroy Shades and the occasional Ghoul. Time to time, I have killed one of the Dark but they are always replaced. None of you have been allowed to kill any of The Dark.”

  Hot Cross muttered, “Not that we’ve tried!”

  Anvil ignored
him, “We can expect to be attacked. That is Edge’s way. The first and hopefully the last one tonight will be very soon, so I will be quick. With the arrival of Judgement, Edge can now find and recruit Chris’s equal, or as I expect he or she will find Edge. Once that’s done, they can declare the war of blood, fire and souls. It will be at that point that each of you and each of them will be able to kill one another. I’ve waited thousands of years for this. So far we’ve only lost three to The Dark, so I want you all to be very careful.”

  Huntress added, “You can’t be sure Edge killed Chameleon.”

  Anvil rubbed at an eyebrow, “Only possible answer. He went out on a reconnaissance mission and didn’t come home. The only reason would be if Edge had killed him. Remember Edge killed Steel and Wings. Speed you replaced wings and Hot Cross you replaced Steel. The balance was always maintained. We killed two of theirs, Rust face and Fracture.”

  Huntress wasn’t giving up, “Then why wasn’t Chameleon replaced?”

  Anvil didn’t want to think of the alternative.” Maybe he or she’s not been re-born yet. After all it was a hundred years before I found Speed and another forty before Hot Cross arrived on the scene.”

  Speed glanced towards Hot Cross, “But you found him in just forty year, Chameleon’s been missing for two hundred years or so.”

  Priest butted in, “You know we don’t work to a time line. So shut up the fuck up and let Anvil finish.”

  It was the first time he’d ever spoken harsh words to any of them and it showed on there faces.

  Anvil thanked Priest before continuing, “As soon as Speed gives the warning, I want you to let them in through the front and back doors. Huntress take the landing, you can cover the hallway and stairs with your bow. Rage fight in here, don’t worry about damage, we move out tomorrow. Hot cross in the hallway but give Huntress a clear shot. Slash the kitchen, with me. Bulls Eye the landing with Huntress. Guard Patch and the kid in case any come in through the smashed window. Priest take the front room next to the hallway, I expect they will come in through the windows as well as the front door. Speed will do his own thing as usual.”

  Patch raised her hand in an almost school like manner,” What about me?”

  Back bedroom again with Chris, I mean Judgement and guard him with your life.”

  Before anyone could ask a further question, Speed burst in, sending a whirling gust of air around the room, “Shades coming.”

  “Which way?” Anvil asked.

  “Front and back. Over a hundred I’d say and I may be wrong but I think Ghost and Shadow are with them.”

  “Positions everyone!” Anvil voice thundered out the command.

  Chris found himself pushed up the stairs into the same back bedroom by Patch and Bulls Eye. “Who’s Shadow and Ghost?” Chris asked as he was pushed along.

  Bulls Eye answered on the trot, “ Shadow, is a middle aged male, about six foot tall, well built, with teeth filled to points. He’s an eater of flesh and commands ghouls and Shades in Edges absence. Oh and he’s a will-o'-the-wisp.”

  By now they were in the rear bedroom. Chris was ordered to crouch in one corner of the room besides a chest of drawers. The other two stood near the smashed window.

  Chris looked totally puzzled, “What the hells a will-o'-the-wisp when he’s at home?”

  Patch pulled two long thin knifes from out of the folds of her outfit, “Also known as Jack-o'-the-lantern or Corpse Candle. But he was named Shadow by The Dark. He has the faint shape of a man with a flickering flame where his heart would be.”

  “Bugger that!” was all Chris could think of saying.

  Both Patch and Bulls Eye replied together, “No thank you.”

  He didn’t get time to ask about Ghost.

  Suddenly, Chris heard a downstairs window smash in, followed by both the front and back doors. The night was filled with wailing moans and screams of anguish, mixed in with the sounds of breaking furniture and heavy fighting.

  Chris heard Priest’s booming voice yelling scriptures, Huntress’s bow string twanging and the whistle of arrow after arrow in flight. A massive thud shook the house. Rage had entered the fight. A figure suddenly appeared at the window. Scrambling over the sill, it leapt forward. It wasn’t a Shade but something even more hideous to Chris. The thing stunk to high heaven of rotting flesh, as indeed that’s what it was, a wailing walking rotting human corpse. Bulls Eyes guns boomed twice and the thing flew back out of the window, Sparks, ash and green gloop blooming from massive twin holes in its chest.

  Another appeared almost as fast, followed by a Shade. Bulls Eye Spun the right gun and fired, shooting the first in the head then again to the centre of its body mass. The thing collapsed in a heap of rotting flesh. The body’s remains starting to speed decay.

  But that left the Shade, Bulls Eye beckoned to Patch with his free hand. Patch surprised Chris. As fast as lightning she sprang high into the air, her head almost touching the ceiling (and this was an old house and the ceiling must have been nine feet high). She slashed the Shade across the throat with one sharpened steel toe cap. The thing staggered back clutching flames that shot between its fingers. Patch landed, spun and kicked it high in the forehead. The Shade was propelled violently back against the window frame. Patch whipped her rice flails from the holster on her thigh. Two lightning fast blows, striking first the right side, then the left side of the Shades head. Both sides exploded into ash, the body following a fraction of a second later. Bulls Eye was quickly reloading, his fingers a blur of movement. In that moments lull, Chris focused on the fight taking place in the rest of house. It sounded utter pandemonium. Chris was utterly terrified. He knew he should be helping but he couldn’t move.

  “Shit, back away!” Patch screamed.

  Chris’s eyes snapped back to what was happening in the bedroom. Bulls Eye and Patch where slowly moving away from the window. Bulls Eye deliberately started to fire first one gun then the other at the empty window. No wait! It wasn’t empty, a black rolling cloud was moving slowly over the sill into the room. Was something on fire? Hang on a minute Chris thought, Bulls Eye was shooting at the smoke. Chris would see huge chunks of the wooden window frame being blasted to pieces but also small holes appearing momentarily in the smoke as well.

  Patch held out a hand urgently towards Chris,” Come on Chris, we need to leave.”

  Although frozen with fear, Chris somehow managed to find his legs. Staggering slightly, afraid they’d buckle any second. He started to slide over towards Patches outstretched hand. The rolling black cloud reached her first, engulfing her as it took on the outline of a female form. The swirling female smoke cloud totally engulfed her from head to toe. Its face seemed to be touching hers, almost kissing her. To his horror Chris saw that Patch couldn’t breath. She was trying to take big gulps of air, but the black cloud looked like it was suffocating her. Slowly it started to pull her back towards the open window.

  “I can’t shoot!” Bulls Eye shouted.

  Without thinking Chris took a hesitant step towards it, “Leave her alone!” His voice was nothing but a frightened squawk. The thing ignored him and Chris tried to find his voice, “I said leave her be.” Then another deeper voice rolled from his mouth, “……Or stand and be Judged!”

  The creature swirled away from Patch who collapsed to the floor, gulping in air. Gathering itself, the cloud flew towards Chris. He could barely make out a beautiful females face together with two hands, outstretched towards his throat. All he could do was raise both hands to protect himself and to his surprise, instead of passing through the cloud. He felt resistance instead and pushed back hard.

  A feline howl of rage hissed from the cloud that solidified into a solid black mass of a female outline. The thing staggered back away from Chris, where his hands had touched; there were now twin holes in the shape of his hands and he could see clearly through the creature to the room beyond. Smoke shaped hands clutched at the cleansed areas, it howled again in rage but also extreme pain. In the nex
t moment it broke apart and disappeared out of the window and was gone.

  All Bulls Eye could say was, “Well you don’t see that every day!”

  Patch crossed herself, “Amen to that!”

  It was at that moment, as Chris stood there staring in amazement at his hands. The skin had turned jet black and was totally numb to the touch. He willed them to heal and as usual they did, gritting his teeth against the pain. It was at this point He realised that the house had gone quiet. Bulls Eye helped Patch to her feet and together, the three of them stepped out onto the landing. Huntress stood there with her last arrow notched to her drawn bow. After a second, she slowly released the tension and removed the arrow. Glancing back over her shoulder, she gave them a quick once over, “First attack over.” She stated.