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Callen gasped as he was jolted awake by a large thud. He rubbed the back of his neck and wiped the dried tears from his eyes. "Dad," the word brought the feeling of abandonment when the whisper rolled over his lips.
The clock at the bottom of the screen turned 2:56 AM. There was another thud. He ignored it. Loud noises were quite common in this place. Someone was either listening to loud music or slamming around drunk, fighting or both.
His headphones had fallen out of his ears and were pulsing with the Guns and Roses version of Knocking on Heaven's Door. He clicked off Derrick's, now his, iPod and wound the headphone cord around it.
The room was dark, save for the multi-colored electric glow of his computer. He looked backward and saw Ania had long since gone to sleep. How he fell asleep in his chair felt like the dream he had just exited. He vaguely remembered the news program, but it didn't seem real.
He stood up and headed to the bathroom. He flicked the light on, and a cockroach skittered out of sight. He hated this place, and he especially hated cockroaches. The dream of his Dad reminded him how good their lives were before.
He flushed the toilet, washed his hands, and filled a paper cup. He drank the water and gagged a little at the taste of chlorine. He stared at his reflection in the cracked mirror.
A touch of anger lurked below his frozen surface. He wished he could catch that cockroach and make it suffer. It was as if tearing each disgusting brown leg off its body would somehow bring his dad back, resurrect his friends, stop his cancer from ever returning, and get his family out of this hole.
He took another swig of water. He knew in his rational mind that torturing an insect would solve nothing. He closed his eyes slowly, and hoped to see any of the faces that have disappeared from his life, but nothing came.
Thud.
He opened his eyes, and the bathroom shook slightly, like something had just smashed into the wall. "He's beating her again,” Callen whispered. "I wonder if the cops will show up this time. Poor woman."
Thud. The plaster chipped.
"He's gonna be jailed for murder." He whispered. When a shriek came from deeper in the complex and fell silent, he let out a sigh.
He hated how Ania thought Dad left because of some domestic dispute with their mother. To Ania, their father was the root of their misery and in a sense, she was right. But Callen knew her demonization of their father was merely a product of her pain filling her emptiness. There was nothing he could do to break the illusion, for it was of emotion and not logic. She blatantly ignored the fact that anyone who laid a finger on their mother would end up losing their arm. Emotions and logic didn't mix.
He left the bathroom and saw a sliver of light coming from his mother's room. He saw her seated on her bed reloading her handgun. Gun cleaning supplies sat on a towel in front of her along with a tomahawk. She had a headset plugged into her ear. Her rosary, which she almost never used, hung from her neck. She put the handgun down and picked up the tomahawk. Callen could see the swirls of dark steel and metallic blue on the blade. A strange combination of Native American and Celtic designs decorated the dark wooden handle.
"I understand, Dad," Eve whispered as she looked at the razor sharp edge. "But, I can't believe it. After all this time?" She sighed. "Yup, I'll be ready." She packed ammo and other gear into a military backpack. "We can get the children up at first light. I know you're sorry, but I don't see another choice. See you soon."
Callen placed his hand on the door to push it open, but the pale light from his bedroom suddenly flashed red. Without a second thought, he ran back towards his room. Red meant a computer attack. Something had hacked his network, and something was breaking through his firewalls on his newly upgraded system.
He franticly began checking his computer's status. For now, the firewalls were holding. He opened the network status to see that there was one unknown icon linked to his network. The icon flickered and changed as if his system had a hard time recognizing what the device was that was connected to the network. It flashed a few strange glyphs and settled on a skull-like glyph that was missing the bottom jaw and had four tentacles in place of its teeth. "What the...?" He whispered. "Not good. Not good at all. Gotta be some hacker's symbol."
The computer flashed another warning. The intruder was communicating through Callen's network to something outside it, like the intruder was some proxy system. He pulled up the data feed. The window began scrolling with static and strange glyphs. The glyphs looked as if they were a blend of Egyptian hieroglyphics, kanji, Viking runes, and other obscure symbols.
His heart skipped a beat. It looked like what he saw on the hospital computers. His gut told him that the intruder was going to hijack his system's computing capacity. When whatever he was trying to do finish, he was going to erase his tracks with a virus bomb.
In the hospital, there was stuff to steal, like personal information, but there was no profitable information of Callen's computer. In fact, he made sure there was nothing personal on it. However, the “why” could be answered later. He had to do something now. There was no way he was going to let some hacker get the best of him.
Thud. There was another smash, but this time it was from somewhere else in the apartment building. The room shook. A large crack ripped across the outside wall. He ignored it.
He brought up his hacking program and began running a scan, but there was nothing. There were no backdoors. Whatever it was that had broken onto his network was impossibly secure.
He began to panic, and his head started to itch. The communication stream and the fact that it wanted onto his computer was key. If he could translate part of the encryption, he might be able to insert his overload virus into the intruder as it opened a port to connect with his system.
Data flows both ways. If he dropped his firewalls and fired his virus encrypted with the same symbols, the intruder would recognize Callen's signal as a friend. It would accept the virus. At that point, it would be too late for him to attempt any sort of counter measure against Callen. He just needed the proper glyph. He started to set his trap. It was a long shot and a nearly impossible hack, but he didn't have a choice.
A loud creak came from the fire escape, but Callen focused on his hack. The glyphs scrolled across the text window. His hacking program struggled to make the translation. It wasn't going fast enough. The code was extremely complex, whatever was receiving it was incredibly complicated as well. He cursed. Whatever was on his network was like nothing he had ever seen. He felt a buzz in his brain as a particular ridged circular glyph scrolled across his screen. That was the execution glyph. He knew it in his gut. He bypassed the translation program and started the virus transcription. He hoped he was right.
Another loud creak came from the fire escape, followed by several more. The metal groaned.
Callen turned to look at the window in time to see the glass shatter. A dark blur moved through the maelstrom of shards glittering with the red light from the computer.
The shape landed crouched on all fours and slowly lifted its skull-like head. The pale glow from the computer revealed sharp artificial, yet organic, angles across its demonic body. Under patternless patches of stitched foreign skin, moved dark metal parts and strands of muscles with the color of polished graphite.
The demon's eyeless face turned towards Callen and the tentacles that hung from its upper lip flexed like a scorpion's tails as it hissed. It crouched as if to pounce and brought the blade on its barbed tail up over its head. Its claws, tail, and tentacles glistened with a thin coating of slime.
Fear paralyzed Callen. Somehow, through the flesh knitted and folded over where eyes should be, he knew it was staring at him. The creature that was inching towards him was without a soul. The dark fibrous muscles flexed beneath the rotten flesh and the putrid scent of burnt ozone stung his nose.
Ania screamed, and the monster twisted towards the new sound. It hissed and circled closer to Ania as if she were a mouse huddled in the corner futilely protecting herself with her pillow and teddy bear.
The door to the room busted open, and Eve entered, like a Special Forces commando. The old door's rusted hinges snapped from the force and fell to the floor. "Callen, Ania, run!" The first pop from her revolver filled the room forcing the children to cover their ears. She took aim one handed and tossed Callen the military bag. "Take this and go!" She fired again.
Sparks flew from the monster as the rounds glanced off of it. The monster spun to face its new threat.
Despite the needles of paralyzing fear, Callen managed to catch the bag.
Eve rolled as the creature took its first swipe. It was fast, very fast, but Eve was even faster. Its strikes hit only air. She angled herself behind it and unloaded the rest of her cylinder. Plaster erupted off the walls from the ricochets. The bullets did nothing.
One of the ricochets skimmed Callen's cheek. He cried out in a blend of pain and surprise. Eve's attention dropped from the creature just for split second. Just long enough for the monster’s elbow to connect with the side of her face and the tail to pull her feet out from under her.
"Mommy!" Ania screamed.
Eve hit the ground hard with a stream of blood erupting from her mouth accompanied by the sound of cracking bone. "Run!" She gagged. She coughed and pulled herself back against the broken door as far away as she could get from her children.
The monster slowly backed into its predatory crawl stalking Eve, savoring the kill. It stopped before her and flexed its razor sharp talons and pulled its hand back to deliver its final strike.
Eve was cornered. Blood oozed into her left eye as she struggled to reload her pistol with a speed loader she pulled from her jacket pocket.
Its strike was too fast for the gun. She dropped it and pulled her tomahawk as she narrowly evaded it. She sprang underneath its elbow away from its bladed hands. Her hand flashed and the razor sharp blade connected with the creature's face. Sparks flew and the creature's head reeled from the attack. A split from the tomahawk's fine edge opened a deep slash of the creature's face tearing through sewn flesh and the dark weave underneath. However, even with the appearance of a viscous fluid, it didn't slow.
Eve positioned the tomahawk to slice into the creature's neck, but it drove its elbow hard into her shoulder dropping her to her knees. She dropped the knife and supported herself with that same hand. She looked up at the monster while choking a little on her blood. It paused with its head at an angle just for a second as if it was taunting her. It hissed, and its tail blade tore across her torso. The four tentacles raked across her face as she leaned forward to avoid the tail blade.
Eve screamed. Chemicals rushed through her blood stream, and her vision twisted. She coughed for her children to run, but fear had petrified. Another swipe from the tail sent her stumbling backward into Ania's desk. The desk splintered and her back broke. Her words were gargled with blood and chemical paralysis as she crumbled.
The demon hissed again and prepared to deliver the final blow. It dug its front claws into the broken desk. It leaned its horrible deformed skull over the fallen woman. Its tentacles spread as it moved its face towards Eve's.
The light on the computer flashed blue. The shadows on the creature's face shifted, reviling an unholy weave of bone, metal, and electronics buried beneath the rotting skin and black webbing. The tentacles moved to engulf Eve's head. It's hot breath that reeked of infection filled Eve's nostrils and slime dripped onto her cheeks. Ania screamed.
The flash from his computer and Ania's scream pulled Callen's gaze from the horrid abomination. His eyes went to his computer. His hack was complete and it was nearly waiting for him to give the command for it to send the virus. His heart fluttered, but he couldn't be sure what was receiving the signal. Or could he?
His mind worked quick, stringing together the clues. None of this was a coincidence. It had to be the monster that was about to kill his mother. Her conventional weapons had done little to slow the monster. Perhaps it's weakness was what Callen knew best. It was a long shot, but he didn't have any other options. The creature was too fast for him and his sister to out run. He couldn't let his family die. The feeling of desperation in his gut was the final push that broke his paralysis. His computer was their last chance.
His fingers flew over the computer. He dropped the firewall as the demon's tentacles entangled Eve's face. His mind felt as if it were connected to the computer and in response, it sung with a symphonic grace of zeros and ones. He tapped the final note, and a jolt ran through the creature's body. He bit his lip and turned.
The tentacles slowed. Her mouth had been forced open by the some of the tentacles and others begun to burrow into her skin.
Ania ducked a slow swiping tail as she pulled her mother's head out of the creature's tentacles. With a little effort from girl, her mother fell free. The staggered creature attempted to swipe at the women. Before it hit her, Callen's computer virus froze it in place. Although, the rasp of a faint breath came from deep in its chest. The creature wasn't completely mechanical.
"Mom?" Ania yelled as Eve's eyes rolled back into her head.
Eve struggled to say something, but her tongue was heavy from the chemicals. The wave of unconsciousness washed over Eve as she lay on the blood-soaked carpet.
Callen rushed to his mother's and sister's side. He checked his mom's pulse like he had seen dozens of times in the hospital. "She's alive. Grab me a sheet." He ordered.
Ania tore one off her bed and Callen attempted to bind his mother's wounds. However, he was no medic. He couldn't stop the bleeding. His hands, knees, and poor bandage were soon slippery with blood.
"She's alive." Ania sobbed.
Callen struggled to bind her wounds. He worked harder, not smarter, and the panic grew in his chest. He had seen death before, far too many times, but he had never been soaked in the fluids of life as it left the body.
"Callen!" Ania choked as she stared at the demon. "Its finger moved... It's not dead..."
He didn't know how he was going to get their mother out of the apartment, but he grabbed her arms as if he were going to drag her.
"Lad, stop!" A Scottish, or perhaps a deep Irish, sounding voice said from the doorway.
The man was short and almost as wide as the door. His black clothing and dark weathered skin helped him blend into the shadows caused by the dim light from the computer. His mouth was invisible because of a large gray braided beard, not characteristic of a Native American. Along with the Native American decorations in his beard, a feather of an eagle hung from the back of his wild mane. He was wearing a pair of strange goggles and a large shotgun of custom manufacture that hung from a tactical strap comfortably clipped around his shoulders.
He looked at the frozen demonic thing with a look of amazement just for a brief second before kneeling down to check Eve's vitals. Worried wrinkles crossed his forehead. He released the gun's handle and began tapping on what seemed to be a keyboard that only he could see. He adjusted something on his goggles then paused for a second to look Eve as if he was scanning something. "Lad, she'll make it, but I gotta be a getting her to me truck. We gotta get her out of here fast. Them things got bad poison in their tentacles and tail."
"Ah, okay." Callen sounded overwhelmed. But, it wasn't just the monsters. There was something familiar about the old Native American. "Grandpa?" Callen whispered.
"Aye, pup. I be Corth Greftar. Yer mum's adopted pop, but we'll talk about that later. Let's go, the both of you. Hurry." He took the sheet from Callen and finished binding Eve's wounds. Before hoisting Eve onto his shoulders, he slid her tomahawk into his belt. "We don't have a lot of time."
The demon's tentacles began to stiffly squirmed. I
t tried to hiss. The faint rasping sound was louder this time, almost like it was trying to breath.
There was no way Callen was going to leave his computer behind, not after it saved their lives. He grabbed it, Derrick's iPod and multi-tool off his desk and shoved them into the military backpack his mother had tossed him. "Ania grab some us some clothes."
He was in a t-shirt and boxers while Ania wore flannel pajama pants and a sweatshirt. She grabbed a shirt and pair of pants for each of them from a pile on the floor, and they followed Corth out into the hall.
The demon tried to move after them, but it stumbled to the ground.
The dim hallway was littered with bodies and soaked with blood. The moans of the dying mingled with the sounds of the flickering hallway lights. The scent of pierced bowels and bile filled the hallway, and they stuck to the floor as they walked and climbed over broken chunks of wallboard.
In the flicker, a mutilated innocent's head, still attached to its body, fell from the tentacles of a second demon in the doorway of another apartment. Chunks of skin looked like they had been peeled off. Callen could have sworn its victim was still alive. It dropped the mangled body and moved to attack.
He turned his eyes from it's hapless victim, only to rest his gaze on the demon, who had different pattern of fresh flesh dangling from its metallic body and no cut across its face. "Oh my god!" Callen yelled in horror. "There's more of them!"
"Go lad!" Corth yelled as he turned down the closest stairwell. He raised his shotgun and fired. The slug hit the demon like a battering ram, but it only knocked it flat. It struggled to its feet as the children and Corth descended.
A third leaped from the second-floor hallway, decorated in its hellish wake, narrowly missing their grandfather. It landed like a cat against the wall. The blood and bits of flesh from its victims slipped free from its metal skin and slapped against the crumbling wall. Somehow, the old wall supported its weight and the demon sprung after them.
"How many of those things are there?" Callen yelled.
"No idea, but keep running, lads. Get to the black truck!" Corth moved like Eve's weight on his back was nothing. "Catch!" he tossed Callen the keys. "Start the truck!"
Despite the threat of the demons, the keys flew in a perfect arch. Callen easily caught them.
Corth pulled out a device. He clicked the button and mumbled something about “Felix” and “better work.” He tossed it into the stairwell and fired another round knocking the third demon down as he followed the fleeing children.
The stairwell exploded as the three escaped the building. The building collapsed. The dirty building called Silver Grove Apartment no more as it should have been long ago.
Callen opened the truck and started it up from the passenger seat. It smelled of peat and tobacco.
Ania climbed in the back and held her mother's head as Corth tossed Eve in the back seat. He slammed the door and jumped in the driver's seat. He jammed the pedal and sped off as the two demons pushed their way out of the rubble.
The car shook as something landed in the truck's bed. Ania screamed as the third demon's claw smashed through the window. She rolled to the floor as glass sprayed through the cabin.
Their Grandpa popped the truck in reverse smashing the creature into the back of the cabin. He hit the accelerator, jammed the break, and accelerated again. The creature went flying off as the truck screeched down the street.
The other two caught up with the third and they followed. "They're coming..." Callen sounded frantic. "And gaining..."
"Not for long." Corth moved his hand over the dashboard, but he touched nothing but air. All of a sudden, the truck flew forward, like a drag racer.
"Mom is dying!" Ania shouted. "Her...colors are fading..."
"Hold on Evy, hold on," Corth muttered as he took a few turns completely losing the creatures in the process. They just weren't fast enough to keep up. "Lass, there is a box under the seat marked first aid. Grab it."
"First aid? She needs more than..." Callen started.
"Lad, trust me."
"Got it." Ania opened the box. She looked at the strange metal gear, needles, glass vials, and injection gun. "Ummm..."
"The red vial first. It be snapin' into the gun. Hold the gun over every wound and pull the trigger, lass."
Ania followed directions and thick foam filled Eve's wounds with a loud sucking sound.
"Fook, those fookers be fast." Corth glanced out the side window. "They are usin' the roofs. We gotta get out of the city fast." He began muttering a Hail Mary.
Callen noticed he had a headache, and his face was bleeding from where the bullet skimmed his cheek. He ripped off a piece of his shirt and applied pressure to it. It stung.
The truck buckled as one landed on the roof. The children's grandfather tapped another space like there was an invisible button. "Hold tight lads." He took a hard right onto the highway smashing through a concrete barrier with no damage to his car. The demon lost its balance and rolled out of the truck smashing through the debris and the window of a closed flower shop.
Another landed in front of them as they turned. The truck plowed into it smashing it through the concrete wall of the on ramp. The creature went under the truck and spun out behind them.
"What the hell are those things?" Callen pulled on his jeans.
"Demons...maybe," Corth answered.
"Anything else I need to do?" Ania interrupted.
"Aye." He said. "Load the orange one. And inject it into her arse."
"Ah, excuse me?" Ania said.
"The arse...err...butt cheek, lass."
The aerosol sound hissed again. "That it?" She asked.
"Aye. She just be needing a doctor."
Ania used the sheet to pad her mother's head. Then she pulled on her jeans.
"I think she will hold out a bit longer. She is a tough one. Hang on Evy." He made the sign of the cross on his forehead.
"I can't believe you're here, Grandpa," Callen stated as he stared at the stout bearded man.
"Aye, lad. Glad yeh remember. It has been far too long, lads, far too long."
"Where have you been all these years?" Callen yelled. "I haven't seen you since Dad..."
"Yeah, and I've never met you!" Ania added.
"Yeh met me lass...yeh were just a wee lass then...yeh may not remember. But as fer where me be all this time, it be a wee bit complicated."
Ania shook her head with frustration and confusion. "Tell us what is going on!" She yelled. "Mom is nearly dead; you crashed through a wall onto the highway, and blew up the building! There were people in there!"
"Aye, things should have gone a bit more covertly. But, as fer people, they were going to die anyway, or worse...if they weren't dead already." Corth said. "All of them."
"Demons." Callen shook his head in disbelief. "How can those things be real?"
"Lad, there be all manner's o' creatures that dwell in the shadows that be real," Corth said. "I not be concernin' meself wit' how they be real. I worry about killing 'em."
Callen rested his head against the headrest and took a deep breath. He rested his hand on the truck's worn leather seat. He had a hard time accepting what he just saw, let alone that his grandfather had shown up out of nowhere and told him they just saw a demon. He didn't even need to look back to know that his sister was in the same boat.
"How did we..." Ania started to ask.
"God wouldn't be havin' yehs die today...and maybe something else too." He gave Callen a wink. "If my guess is right your brother is the first one in the world to slow one of those things down ever. Quite an accomplishment, lad. I know a certain member of me clan who are gonna want to meet you."
"Wait, your clan?" Callen asked. "Don't you mean tribe?"
"No lad, not me tribe,
me clan." Corth shook his head with obvious frustration. "And me clan...well, it's a wee bit complicated...and the tribe...well that gets even more complicated."
"Are you a dwarf?" Ania asked bluntly. "Our long lost grandfather is a dwarf?"
"Aye, some call us that in the old world...among other things, but here in America we be called somethin' else."
"Alright, demons and dwarves." Callen sighed. "Anything else we should know?" He pressed harder on his face to slow the bleeding even more.
"Aye, there be more than one can understand in a lifetime." He sighed. "But, I think yeh have had enough to deal with tonight, I'll explain when we get back."
"Back? Where are we going?" Callen looked over towards him as he drove and noticed a rosary hanging from his rearview mirror. It was just like the one that belonged to his mother.
"Philadelphia, laddie." He turned the truck onto interstate 95. He glanced back at Eve and sighed. "I don't have much choice."
"What's in Philadelphia?" Ania asked.
"Long story, lassie. But, you'll both be safe there while I deal with what happened tonight."