Az the Spirits Whisperer

Chapter 1

Everybody was screaming and running in the restaurant. It was a panic, no one could ever resolve. Blood was all over the dark brown walls. A little girl, 6 years old at most, was on the floor screaming over her father's dead body. The poor child was covered in his blood. Terror was palpable in her horrified almond shaped eyes.

"Daddy! Wake up, Daddy! Please! Wake up! Help! Help!!" She cried as loud as her little lungs could manage.

Nobody was paying attention to the distressed little girl as they were trying to save their own lives. People kept screaming. A woman was frantically trying to wipe off the blood from her purple dress as her breathing became more and more irregular. Translucent forms that looked like smoke figures of terrifying animals, were bouncing on the walls, attacking people. An old man hidden under a table was looking straight at this young lady standing still in the middle of this chaos, eyes closed, hands turned upwards.

Her blonde, shoulder length, hair would move every time one of the creatures passed close to her, but they would never even graze her. That's when he knew. That's when he realized this was her doing. For 83 years he had always found logical explanations for everything, but not today. This young woman... No. This monster. Yes, that was more like it. This monster had mysterious powers. "It" was doing all of this. It was killing all of these innocent people and even he, at 83 years old, would not survive. He had to do something. But what?

That's when he painfully got out from under the restaurant table and charged at It. His old bones hurting with every rash movement he made, he was going to slit the demon's throat with the table knife he found laying on the ground. The old man was getting closer, almost 6 feet from It. He had to make it, for the good of humanity. The knife was 3 inches away from the devil's throat now, he almost had It. However, that's when the monster opened Its eyes. At this very last second, the creature pulled a long, weird looking red tool and chopped his head clean off.

The old man's head rolled on the floor. The demon watched the rogue head make its way to someone's black leather boots. The creature looked up to see the owner of said cargo-like footwear and saw a group of men all wearing swat equipments and guns pointed at It.

Startled, the demon quickly called a tiger form and an oversized snakelike at them. They all ducked.

The creature found shelter behind a wall, but now It couldn't control the spirits from where It was. The monster was too far to sense them enough. The human looking beast peeked out and a gun shot scraped Its cheek.

Stepping back to the hiding spot, the devil whispered to itself. "Fuck!"

"We know you're there! Stop the killing and come out hands in the air, and we won't shoot!" One of the men declared.

'Idiots..'  The thing thought to Itself. 'They really think I'll believe that?'  The evil entity thought again.

It was looking in all directions trying to find what It could do. Dead bodies and blood were in every direction. The monster couldn't find anything useful. That's when the woman looking creature felt a presence right behind Its physical body. It turned abruptly to see what was there, but it was too late. Electricity shot through Its frail body and It fell to the ground. Everything went black.

*****

Az slowly gained consciousness. It was cold and she could feel only a thin fabric on her skin. Her entire body was hurting and her head was pounding. She tried to open her eyes but a striking white light would burn her sight. She shut them closed right away. The stinging sensation made it impossible to see. She winced at the déjà-vu.

"Welcome back Az!" An enthusiastic woman's voice said. "Hey Maya..." She replied monotonously, recognizing the voice of her old acquaintance.

Maya was a nurse at the mental institute. "What is it? You don't seem happy to see me." The woman complained. "Well, I can't actually see you with that damn light."

Az heard the nurse get up from a chair, then noticed the light being brought down a bit. She could now open her eyes fully and take in the all too familiar room. She tried to get up from the bed but noticed she was tied down.

"Seriously?" Exclaimed the girl, visibly annoyed. "Precautions." Maya said simply. "This is stupid, untie me." Always in the same dull intonation.

Maya got up from the hospital-like chair she had already returned to and slowly untied Az. As soon as she was free of the leather straps, the young woman stood up to stretch and walked around the room.

Everything was white. From the asylum-like bed, to the padded walls. The floor and the ceiling. The chair Maya was sitting on, and even the little desk beside the bed. It felt like having a white-overdose.

"You don't look happy to be back here." Maya said, staring straight into Az's eyes who greeted her with an unimpressed look on her face. "You know I hate it here." The oddly muscular nurse wrote something on the pad she was holding and asked. "Is that why you ran away?"

Az wasn't paying attention anymore. She was used to the usual 20-questions. "No." Az replied simply as she looked around.

The truth was, she didn't even know why she ran away. She just never felt safe in this weird institute. Something was off with this place.

"Why did you leave then?" The lady pressured. "The food is disgusting." Az said a bit more harshly than intended. The food wasn't that bad actually. She kind of liked it even.

"... I see. Are you ready to go back and see the others? I must say though, none of your old friends are here anymore.. Actually, everyone here is new. Don't draw too much attention." Maya advised her.

"What? Where are they?!" Az asked, alarmed. The lady sighed sharply as she put her pen down. "It's been 4 years, Az."

That wasn't an excuse. Nobody gets out of here unless they manage to run away. 'Did they all run away?' But she brushed off that thought. It was impossible. It's hell to escape from here! And she would know! She tried 3 times before succeeding.

"I'll let you some more time to get your mind straight. Just knock when you are ready to go." Maya said with a compassionate smile that felt so fake to the girl, and left.

Az started to think about her old friends. 'Edven, they were scared of even thinking of running. They couldn't have thought of doing this!' They always told her to think the plan through and consider the pros and cons before doing such a thing! 'Oh Edven! I hope nothing bad happened to you! If you did run away, I hope you're alright!' She found herself thinking fondly of them. 'And what of Rob?' Her mind started to wonder. 'I guess it was to expect of him though. He was hot headed.' She smiled to herself at the memories of them causing trouble. It was a surprise he didn't do it before her. 'Maybe they ran away together!' Yeah that was probably it. They would be fine together.

She got up and knocked on the annoyingly white door.

"Hey!" Az called disrespectfully. "Move your asses! I'm ready."