A Curse Upon Thee 2-27B

Savage.

Each strike swung out exactly that way.

Savage and brutal and unrelenting.

The blond didn’t bother defending, a too-wide smile on his face to match the nightmare as he went after it. Each one of his blows overpowered it, the sharp edge of the torn sign proving its worth as they ripped through matted fur and muscle.

Black blood sprayed across his baby-blue jacket but Chad didn’t stop.

He couldn’t stop.

Not when this monster was still alive. 

More than anything in the world, he needed it dead.

He pulled the weapon free and swung again, the monster driven back toward the wall of Clark’s Pharmacy.

“Chad!” David sprinted forward, sword raised. “Watch its arm!”

I’m watching! Chad didn’t bother with words, simply gripping the pole tighter as he rushed directly into the beast’s space. That too-long arm swung out even as he ducked past it, the jagged metal brought down in a halberd-worthy arc. Blue sparks erupted out as the sharp edge buried deep into the monster’s hide, reinforced metal cleaving into unnatural flesh.

The beast’s arm pinned to its chest, Chad roared a command. “Hit it!”

David drove his sword deep into the beast’s side as — “Stay down!” — Graham fired another slug right into its face. 

The beast thrashed in blind pain, howling and screaming as wolf and woman both. The red hood on its back pulsed blindingly bright and, with an explosion of what could only be blood, it erupted.

The blast shook the street, the world shuddering around him as Chad felt the stop sign ripped from his grasp. Thrown clear off his feet, the world spun without care, everything turning wildly as he flew back, body hitting the asphalt. Each skip against the ground was met with a flicker of blue, Chad tumbling uncontrollably until he hit another wall.

By the time he finally opened his eyes again, he could see David scatter in the opposite direction, the man’s sword clattering away as he hit the ground nearly as hard; the man gasping for air as blood ran down his face.

Another shot echoed through the air as Graham fired his weapon from the hip, the surge of power knocking him off balance even from that far away. “FUCK!” The gun clicked empty as he made to fire it again, Graham’s curse sounding out as loud as any shot.

Chad gasped for sorely-needed air, a hand coming up to paw his face as hot blood — blood that wasn’t his — dripped from his hair. How… 

The beast didn’t give Chad time to think as it stood up, the hood on its back limp and wounds smoking as they began to close. The thing ignored Chad. It ignored Graham. 

Instead, it turned its weeping, green-eyed gaze firmly onto David.

The mayor rushed to his feet, eyes wide, but he wasn’t fast enough.

Not as the nightmare moved in a blinding blur, the man tackled to the ground. Spindly arms pinned David’s own as that jaw stretched impossibly wide, intent on taking his head.

“D-david!” Chad pushed himself up against brick, the name leaving his lips in a cough as blue light sputtered back to life. “David!”

Before the monster’s teeth could connect, a shadow surged out from the dead of night.

A wolf? Chad’s eyes went wide.

It was a wolf, but this was no normal animal.

Easily the size of a pony, it was a beast on all fours, reddish-black fur bristling as it slammed into the side of the nightmare on two legs. The monster was thrown off David, the thing screaming loud as massive crushing jaws tore into its shoulder.

Both creatures tore across the asphalt in a blur of violence and blood; fangs ripping into fur and flesh, claws raking against concrete and asphalt. The bipedal nightmate shrieked loud as it ripped an arm free, hands wrapping tight around the giant wolf’s throat. With a sickening display of raw strength, it lifted the massive animal off itself and sent it hurling across the street.

through the glass window of the hardware store.

Glass shattered in a rain of glittering shards as the giant wolf flew through a window and into the depths of the hardware store. Whining in pain, it stumbled back outside; the thing shaky on all four legs. As the dust settled around it, the massive canine form rippled, shifted and finally shrank.

Fur receded completely, replaced by pale skin and a torn oversized flannel as Ruby Lucas lay outside on the broken glass, the girl half-naked and gasping for air.

David pushed himself up onto his elbows, eyes wide and horrified. “Ruby!”

Chad pushed himself off the wall, wiping a smear of blood from his mouth as his brain stalled out. “Ruby?!”

Ruby pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, blood dripping from her nose and dark hair plastered to her sweaty forehead. Her eyes flicked from the three men around her just to turn back to the horrific nightmare stalking towards her. She didn’t speak, simply shaking her head as her forest-green eyes flashed bright. 

In a sickening crunch of reshaping flesh and bone, Ruby Lucas tore her body back into the shape of the horse-sized wolf-beast. The werewolf let out a guttural snarl, planes planted as she prepared to charge.

“David, your sword!” Chad yelled at the mayor, voice cracking again as he lunged for his jagged stop sign. “Get back in there! Don’t let it get her down!”

“Yeah! Got it!” David grabbed his broadsword, wiping the blood out of his eyes even as the cut on his forehead continued to weep.

Graham tossed his empty shotgun aside, the man drawing a broad hunting knife from his belt, jaw tight. “Heard you!”

They all jumped back into the fray, the fight quickly devolving into an open bloodbath.

The giant wolf tore into the monster’s legs, while Chad swung his makeshift axe into the nightmare, blue light flickering as his stamina drained. David slashed and parried, driving his sword anywhere he could, while Graham darted in and out, hunting knife buried into the monster’s joints. 

But it wasn’t enough.

Even combined, they were outclassed.

Chad was the first down, a backhand hitting him clean in the ribs and sending him down to the pavement as his blue light winked out for the last time. David took a kick to the chest, the mayor sent sprawling to the ground; eyes dazed and barely-conscsious. Graham barely managed to get free as the nightmare swung Ruby like a ragdoll, the sheriff barely diving for safety as the wolf-girl flew over his head to crash into a parked car.

Throwing its head back into another howl-scream, the nightmare turned its full terrifying attention back to the giant wolf.

It pounced, claws pinning the true wolf to the asphalt. The monster raised its other arm, talons ready to gut the wolf-girl open.

No! Chad watched through a haze of pain, barely able to lift his arms as his vision swam. Come on! No!

Before the claws could fall, the air pressure in the street fell like a weight; the night wind blowing hard as everything else seemed to hush.

It came with no sound and no warning.

It just appeared.

A man.

Standing directly behind the monster, he stood incredibly tall, burly and broad-shouldered; his bulk and size enough to make David look almost like a child in comparison. Shirtless and bearded, his over-muscled torso was covered all over in scars and dirt and hair thick enough to be a carpet. 

The nightmare froze over Ruby, and began to turn.

Before it could, the bearded man reached out with a single calloused hand. Palming the top of the monster’s head, sausage-sized fingers buried deep into the fleshy red hood even as it pulsed back to life. 

With a casual flick of his wrist, the nightmare’s head came free of its shoulders.

There was no blood. 

The instant the spine severed, the beast let out a scream; as high-pitched and female as any it had ever made, the sound seeming to come from everywhere at once. The decapitated body fell backward from the man’s grip as the rest of it began to fade. In the space of just a single heartbeat, the entire grotesque monster began to dissipate to nothingness, fading away into a cloud of foul-smelling black ash that scattered on the returned night wind.

The street fell dead silent as the giant wolf collapsed back onto the asphalt. The fur receded again, leaving a perfectly human Ruby sitting up on cold asphalt. Skin and flannel soaked with sweat and blood, she stared up at the bearded man in paralyzed shock.

The bearded man casually tossed the still-dissolving head aside as he looked down at her. 

Under the streetlights, Chad saw the man’s eyes glow, each one a piercing forest green — the exact same color as Ruby’s as they flared back, wide and unblinking.

“Rest up, kid.” A knowing smile crossed his face as the man’s baritone rumbled through concrete. “I’ll see you soon.”

Before David could find his way to his feet, or Chad could demand an answer, the wind picked back up in full force. The bearded man took a single step back and simply vanished into the gust in between blinks, as if he had never been there.

Ruby sat in the middle of the ruined street, surrounded by shattered glass and concrete, looking around at the empty space like answers would fall out of the sky.

A dozen feet away, Chad let himself fall flat on his back, uncaring of the damp asphalt soaking into his clothes. He simply stared up at the bruised pink moon, suddenly aware of his ribs grinding in his chest.

He knew he should be asking questions or… or… something.

But as Chad let out a sigh, he realized he didn’t care.

He just wanted to rest.