CHAPTER 3 - Lipstick Stains
To prepare for her night out, Lena threw on a simple baby blue t-shirt, a black skirt and flip flops. Her hair was a mess, her lack of a bra was apparent and her nails were flesh-toned. She was fairly certain Elijah wouldn’t care. As a final touch, she donned a pair of cute, tacky leg warmers in neon-striped tones. If he could look at her like this and still want to talk to her, let alone get to know her better, than a real connection must have happened when they met. She studied herself in the mirror, looking up and down and chuckling just a bit at how tacky and offbeat she looked - like a reject from the pit of a post-grunge concert. She gave herself a sexy look, lifted her shirt just a little and grinned. “Come on, Elijah…”, she cooed to nobody, then threw her head back and laughed ridiculously at herself. “Yeah, first date, real slut.” She decided there would be no charades. He would see her for who, and what, she was, the first night they spent out together. Traditional dating made her sick with all its fakery and lies. The bar was a short bus ride from her house, so she decided against driving. If the night went well, she was going to end it in no state to drive.
Elijah didn’t feel the need to dress in his Sunday best tonight. He decided that this girl who had read his mind was worth showing the real face that she brought back out after years of hiding in sorrow. He changed into a punk-rock t-shirt, jeans with chains and a black wristband. This was how he dressed after work each day before the accident. As a finishing touch, he reached into his underwear drawer and pulled out a necklace bearing the first guitar pick he had ever used in a performance. Seeing his old self in the mirror, Elijah couldn’t help but smile and shed a single tear. Since the bar was close to where he lived, Elijah decided to walk and not risk having to leave his car in town or drive home on a buzz.
Lena bounced in her seat the entire bus ride to the iconic hotspot, eager to see the man whose mind she had unwittingly probed and gained a strange and sudden attraction to. Her thoughts raced. Was he aggressive? Was he too much of a joker? Was he her dream? She shook her head and the thoughts flew away with the breeze from the windows. However this night may turn out, Lena was fairly certain overthinking wouldn't help much of anything. Lost in thought, she barely noticed a greasy hand creeping over her shoulder and down the front of her shirt. By the time she came back to Earth, the hand was inside her shirt, on her bare bosom. The roughed-up leather glove the man wore felt strange on her bare flesh. Dirty fingers began to probe her nipple. She turned around slowly, not bothering to remove the hand just yet. "Sir," she stated in her kindest possible voice, "My being unaccompanied by a man does not mean..." The drunken hooligan cut her off. "Aw, come on, baby!" His words slurred into near unintelligible noises. After a second of silence, he began to sing in an off-key mock baritone. "The night is young and..." He, too was cut off. Rather than by words, his charming song’s abrupt ending came through being picked up rather painfully by the offending arm and being sent sailing through the center aisle. The intoxicated greaser landed with a thud, unconscious at the bus driver's feet. Lena sat back down slowly. "Don't worry. He's not dead. Now, if he insults my favorite movie again, no promises." She flashed a smile and the bus erupted in laughter and applause. Within seconds, she was lost in thought again. As Lena got up to leave the bus, she noticed the two young men across from her were snickering and staring at her. She looked down and noticed, as she assumed, her breast hung freely from her shirt. She fixed it without a word and gave the hooligans a look that made them both freeze. Hiding her smug grin, she got off the bus with a sexy swagger. She couldn’t decide if she liked the attention she got, but she figured she might as well break out of her shell before she got to the biggest bar in the state and most likely made a drunken, lovestruck fool of herself. The ego boost was helpful, too.
Elijah’s walk was interrupted in short order. At the end of his street, two men were screaming obscenities at each other. One had a gun pointed at the other’s face, but that didn’t stop the shouting match. Elijah decided he had to stop this before somebody got hurt. He stooped to pick up a nearby fallen tree branch and hid it down the leg of his pants, hoping he wouldn’t have to use it. “Gentlemen!”, he shouted as he walked closer, “The night is beautiful! Certainly a terrible time and place for this kind of behavior, yes?” The man with the gun turned his head, but didn’t move his weapon. “Butt out, stranger. This guy here deserves what I’m gonna give him.” Elijah’s eyes turned cold. “Why’s that, hm? Because he slept with your wife? Because he owes you money? Get over yourself, punk.” The man pointed his gun at Elijah. “Big talk for somebody who’s not packing any heat, staring down my barrel.” In a flash, Elijah’s pocket knife was open and flying. The man licked off a clumsy shot that took down a tree branch a few yards away and lifted his arm to the perfect position for the knife to slice him wide across the shoulder. The gun clattered to the ground. “Now kiss and make up.” The man who had faced down the gun before finished watching in stunned silence and fled. Three more men made their way out of the shadows to stand by their fallen comrade. Their postures said their blood was boiling, but their eyes showed fear. Somewhere deep down, something in Elijah snapped. His lips curled into a bloodthirsty smile. He pulled the tree branch that he had retrieved earlier. One of the men started to plead hysterically as Elijah’s madly grinning visage approached him. The three attacked as a unit and only a single haymaker met its target. Elijah’s nose bled, but he felt no pain. A single upward swipe sent the sobbing man flying and broke the branch. Elijah discarded it and seized upon the collar of one man with inhuman speed and grace. Before the man knew he had left the ground, he was unconscious, face-down on the asphalt. The third man tried to run, but Elijah made a joke of his attempt and lifted him by the neck. Peering into the man’s eyes, Elijah hissed, “Who are you running from?” The man pleaded and struggled. “Please, man, I have kids!” The plea echoed in Elijah’s ears. “Please man, I have kids…” He remembered a time when his family was new, his son and daughter mere infants. He had faced down a barrel and said the same to his assailant. The man on the other end of the gun pulled the cash from Elijah’s wallet, returned the leather with an apology and said something that haunted Elijah for years. “I’m sorry, bro. When you gotta do what you gotta do to survive, you lose sight of other people’s right to survive.” Leaving those words behind, he had disappeared into the night and left Elijah to think of his old ways, all those years ago. In the present, Elijah set the man he was holding down gently. “I’m so sorry…” Tears burned behind his eyes and slowly made their way out. The man who had been spared a beating walked away slowly, not sure what he had just seen. Elijah took a second to compose himself and put his mind back in the present, then left for the bar, stooping to pick up his bloody knife as he passed. He cleaned it with a handkerchief and looked at it disgustedly, reluctantly pocketing it. “You’re supposed to be for slicing apples…”, he muttered to the blade. As he walked away, he finally began to feel his aching nose and cleaned the blood off his face.
He arrived at the bar surprisingly well put together, cleaned off and smoothed over. Lena’s stretched shirt didn’t draw his eye. WIth a smile and very little hesitation, he acted on instinct, grabbing Lena and planting a kiss on her. She tensed for half a second, then kissed him back. “I’m glad that’s out of the way…”, she sighed, breathless. “Now we can actually get comfortable with each other.” Elijah smiled, took her by the hand and led her to the bar. The place was suspiciously empty for a Saturday night. A pervasive air of unease wafted over the couple as they ordered stiff drinks from a haggard and taciturn youth. As soon as the glasses hit the bar, Elijah and Lena’s reached down in unison to retrieve their drinks. Lena was unaccustomed to hard liquor, pulling a face as her whiskey slid down her throat. Elijah chuckled and downed his shot with no trouble. As they neared the exit, the air became thicker and more menacing. Elijah drew his knife. Lena’s eyes burned with malevolent energy that leaked out and crackled on the tense air. “Come out already!” Elijah’s knife flipped up and he fell into his instinctive fighting stance.
“I told you to stay away from her, didn’t I?” The woman with the spear appeared, surrounded by four scared-looking young men. “Naughty boy. Now you have to die.” WIthout another word, Elijah was among them, his knife and fists meeting flesh and bone in a mad flurry. Blood flew on the air, a good amount of it his. Lena’s mind lashed out at the woman in black, knocking her against the glass doors and shattering them. The four men dead in short order, Elijah set his sights on the woman. “Pathetic.” She threw her head back and laughed. The sound turned gruff and grating as her body began to twist. The rough laughter turned to a cry of anguish as her head began to expand and her hands and feet formed into rough paws. Her spine lengthened with a series of sickening pops and a snake’s head formed on the end. Her ears cracked and twisted as they became pointed and arched backward. Over her entire body, fur sprouted up, leaving blood in the wake of its far-too-fast growth. A ten-foot lion with a snake for a tail stood before the couple. In the snake’s mouth, the woman’s long spear had transformed into a wicked blade.
The snake whipped at Elijah and steel met steel, his arm barely moving fast enough to counter the vicious blow. The force pushed him back, but he dug his heel into the hardwood as the creature slowly advanced back into the bar. The lion focused on Lena, advancing on her with a furious combo, cracking her purple psionic shield ever so slightly and pushing her back. Elijah locked blades with the snake, then used his free hand to wrench the blade from its mouth. The jerking motion threw the blade aside and dazed the snake, giving him time to launch a dropkick at the lion. Right when the assault on Lena let up, a fluorescent purple crescent of energy flew through the air and separated the lion from the snake. The snake fell dead, fading away in a puff of smoke, and the unfazed lion took up the snake’s sword as it got up on its hind legs. Elijah didn’t have to ask for a sword. A streak of purple light beamed from the handle of his knife. The lion lunged faster than Elijah could move. The heavy attack bounced harmlessly against a shimmering purple bubble. Elijah took the opportunity to issue a glancing blow to its legs. When the lion toppled, he spun and beheaded it with a single powerful upward slash. The lion fell limp to the floor and vanished in a cloud of smoke in the middle of transforming back into the woman. Its sword became a spear again, which Elijah picked up and examined.
“Who or what was that?” Lena shook her head. “Bad stuff, to be sure. We’re obviously being hunted. We need to talk, Elijah.” He handed her the spear. “Maybe dispose of this first? We’d look awfully weird stalking the streets with medieval weaponry.” Lena closed her eyes briefly and the spear burned to ash. Smoke and the scent of blood in the air, the pair made their way out into the night, panting from exertion. Elijah reached out a hand to steady Lena and pull her close. "My place is a short walk from here. Better than risking being attacked on the bus, right?" Lena nodded weakly.
After a surprisingly peaceful walk, Elijah and Lena walked into the house side by side, Elijah shutting the door warily. As soon as she sensed the coast was clear, Lena began throwing her clothes on the floor. “Ew, ew ,ew… monster blood... “ Elijah decided to be a gentleman and make his way to the guest bathroom. “I’m sure you already know where the master bath is.” To his surprise, he was scooped up with alarming force and turned to face Lena in all her naked glory. “No way, buster. Neither of us needs to be alone right now. “ “But…” Lena cut off his protest. “Yes, my butt is nice and you’ll be seeing a lot of it, because I’m not leaving your side until we figure out who the fuck wants us dead and how to stop the attacks!” Blushing, he smiled and silently disrobed. “Not like I don’t already know what you look like naked anyway, you know. I’ve seen all your memories.” Elijah rolled his eyes. “I think I love you already, you crazy bitch, you.” Lena took his hand and smirked into his eyes. “I’m pretty sure I love you, too, you hardheaded lug.”
Lena was enamored by the huge bathroom, its centerpiece being a beautiful jacuzzi-style bathtub. The pure luxury of it all, compared to her life up until that moment, slapped her in the face. Elijah turned on the water and watched the tub fill at an astronomical pace. Lena was in hog heaven, touring the room and gushing over the side-by-side open showers, stonework tiles and pristine handrails. Elijah got in the tub without a word, letting his sore muscles relax. After a few more excited minutes, Lena cannonballed into the tub, then swam over and sat in Elijah’s lap. Elijah popped open a bottle of champagne from the mini-fridge in the side of the tub and before long, Lena was sipping far more of it than he was. Lena was plenty comfortable, babbling on about her childhood and school days. Elijah was uncomfortable at first, with a naked woman on his lap that he had just met, but he grew more relaxed a few glasses in. “So, after elementary school…” Lena hiccuped. “Hey!” She turned to face Elijah, straddling him. Naturally, given their position, she rubbed against his throbbing bulge, but his stoic nature wouldn’t let him take it further at the moment. After a few seconds, she gave up and settled in a lower position in his lap. “What about your childhood?” He rolled his eyes. “Oh boy, here we go.” Lena giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck. “C’mon, tell me!” With a heavy sigh, he launched into his tale. “Nothing noteworthy, really. Always into martial arts and computers… Dad walked out when I was seven… Let’s see, what else…?” He pondered for a moment, then blathered on about his overwhelmingly boring school years, tales of teachers and grades far outnumbering stories of childlike bravery and mistakes to learn from. Content, Lena sank into his chest and absorbed every detail as if she didn’t already know it. The retelling should have bored her, since she had already read every corner of his mind, but she adored how Elijah was so willing to open up to her. The pair stayed in the bath for hours, simply talking, with little moments of teasing here and there when Lena couldn’t restrain herself any longer.
When the sun began to peek over the picturesque hillside in the window, Elijah kissed Lena briskly, then began to rise. “No!”, she squeaked and pushed him down forcefully. “You’re mine!” He grinned up at her. “Do I at least get a condom?” Lena sank slowly, meeting his eyes as her lips hit the water. “I’ll take a pill tomorrow.” Her devilish smirk sank into the bubbling depths. Elijah’s body tensed, suddenly enveloped by a shivery, slippery and warm sensation. His spine hadn’t tingled that way in quite some time. His back arched dramatically, throwing Lena off balance, but she held firm. Roughly two minutes later, when her shocking lung capacity began to give, she wrapped her toes around the drain and gave a tug. Still latched on, she shuddered a heavy breath in through her nose, then resumed her work. Her tongue moved quickly, darting like a snake across a complex microcosm of a landscape. With each strike, Elijah’s breath caught in his chest. Lena froze when she felt firm hands grasp her hips and heave her in a circle as the pair sank into the shallow pool. Before she could make a move on her own, Elijah’s tongue was mirroring hers. Sweat mingled with water circling the drain as the pair shifted positions blindly, caught up in mindless passion. The smell of freshly watered flesh, akin to a steamy shower, rose into the air only to be quickly replaced by a more distinct aroma. The two didn’t notice at all. After a few minutes of this impromptu lovefest, Elijah got up, lifting Lena upside down, and walked over to the master bed, his tongue still doing its work until the second he tossed Lena onto the bed like a doll, then dove on top of her with unrestrained force. Lena let out a single gasp as she was penetrated, then clung to his neck and fell silent for the rest of the night aside from an occasional soft whimper.
Lena popped awake with little delay or fanfare and shook Elijah gently. The pair got out of bed together, threw on robes and shuffled dreamily to the kitchen. After starting the coffee maker and pulling down two cups, Elijah sputtered over to the fridge, threw it open and looked around. Lena appeared over his shoulder and snatched up a plate of leftover steak. Elijah decided on a simple breakfast-in-a-bun, eaten cold. “Hey,” Lena hummed between voracious bites, “Need to talk to you about something.” They stood in silence for a few minutes, drinking their coffee slowly as they ate. Finally, Elijah spoke up. “OK, about what? Do you know something about the attacks?” Lena nodded slowly, reclining lithely on a nearby circular chair. “I’m supposed to go to a job interview for MaximiLand soon. After I bought the interview clothes from you, I had a pretty weird experience.“ Elijah settled into a padded chair at the kitchen table, propping his head up in one hand. “What kind of weird?”, he puffed between bites of his icy meal.
“This kind of weird.” The blue-haired man materialized in the dining room. “What the fuck?!” Elijah leapt to his feet, spraying bits of food as he fell into his instinctive fighting stance. The man smirked at him, tensed for a second, then dropped into a relaxed pose. “Chill, dude. I’m not the enemy here.” Elijah’s body grew more tense as he began to feel his blood work into a boil. “Give me one good fucking reason I should believe you, asshole.” Lena stood up and walked over to the man. “He’s telling the truth, oaf. I was just about to tell you about what he told me and showed me yesterday.” Elijah sunk back into his chair and resumed his meal, trusting Lena’s word. “Tho, then…” Elijah’s words were muffled by hunks of beef and frozen cheese. “Whaf duh deal?”
The blue-haired man’s mouth was obscured by a strip of black matter floating in midair. It expanded quickly into a tentacle, then into the blocky form of a large, musclebound man with multiple tentacles on his back. “Don’t say shit, creep.” The large man’s gravelly voice echoed through the dining hall. Elijah’s fist shot through the glass table like a bullet, coming back up without a single shard stuck in it. “God damn it!”, he screamed, “Can’t I get a fucking minute of peace?” His eyes darkened visibly as he walked slowly and purposefully toward the octo-man. “Are you insane, pleb?!” The monster let go of the blue-haired man, who sank backward slowly. “Don’t you realize you’re facing down a genuine monster?” The tentacles solidified, turning into eight long and tapered blades. Elijah dodged a blow from one, then seized it without a word. Ignoring the pain of it slicing into his hands, he tore savagely at it. The monster man cried out in shock and pain as his tentacle detached from his back. The seven remaining tentacles whipped at Elijah with incredible speed, but only two glancing blows met their target, leaving small cuts. “What are you?!” The octo-man backed away, continuing his attack with each blow being parried almost effortlessly. “I’m pissed off, that’s what I am!” Elijah fell back to avoid a series of blows, turned quickly on his heel and issued three quick slashes. Five tentacles fell to the floor. The octo-man’s pants got darker and a heavy scent rose in the air. “Please!” He fell to his knees, “I’ve only been part of the company for one year! They don’t pay me enough to die!”
Elijah dropped the tentacle-sword he was holding and launched himself into a vicious haymaker. A sickening popping sound seemed to filled the air as Elijah’s body rose, impaled on the two remaining tentacles in a movement faster than anybody had been able to follow. Before any protests met the air, Elijah’s body split in half at the waist, then each half was struck through. The monster disappeared with the corpse. All the neighbors could tell the police was that a purple bubble containing a woman in a bathrobe had burst through the roof of the home and zoomed off in the direction of the main highway. Naturally, the cops could only believe that the entire neighborhood was either crazy or in cahoots on some kind of harebrained scheme. Lena felt another presence, an energy similar to hers, headed toward D.C. ,but she couldn’t pay it much mind right now. All that mattered to her right now was finding Elijah, if he was still alive somehow, and killing every monster she could find.
As a bonus... Random stuff I wrote while tipsy!
Wrote this at 3:46 A.M. a few nights ago with a bit of drink in me. If anybody knows anywhere I could go with it or wants to steal it and do something with it, that's cool.
Dave’s chunky fingers gripped the controller eagerly. The whiskey was doing its job quite well, leaving Dave’s gaming session a drunken delight. Without warning, his small studio apartment was filled with the clatter of glass and wood breaking into pieces. Tall figures in form-fitting black garments approached through the rubble, holding strange weapons that bore some resemblance to whips, but with a buzzing energy about them. “You are the key.”, one of the figures said as the others stopped walking. “You will come with us.” Dave’s heavy easy chair flew across the room, causing three of the figures to dive for cover. “Like hell I will!”, he cried as he ran to the back of the apartment. On the wall above the bed, a generic katana and a movie replica longsword were on display, as was a cheap pistol. He snatched up the pistol in his left hand and the longsword in his right. The seven black-clad figures approached all too quickly. Dave licked off two shots, felling two of them, but the remaining five carried on. Something was subtly inhuman about them; their rancid breath made Dave’s lungs halt all operations. A cold hand touched his left arm, gripping it tight enough to make him drop the pistol. Dave severed the hand with his longsword, then impaled its stunned former owner through the middle of the head. Leaving his blade in his victim, he reached up to retrieve the katana and felt a jolt through his body. He gave a mighty swing as his vision blurred and faded, feeling the blade contact something and drop from his hand. He felt abnormally hot, acidic blood splash on his face just before he lost consciousness.
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