Dusk Harbor 1999

I Hate Cats

Daemon had occupied himself with slicing away at an apartment building, something to knock over to further show his power. My team are all gone, but I can find new people. No problemo.

There was an audible crunch within the building, a few mini-explosions that sent glass bursting out from the windows, and then the thing began to collapse. Debris sprayed out from every direction, and it began to fold in on itself. He smiled from ear to ear, and let the lasers in his hands take a rest. He put his hands on his hips and sighed.

That's when he heard the cries. The screams. The whimperings for help.

He scanned his eyes across the building, and towards the top floor, he saw a young boy with red hair waving his arms, yelling out for someone to save him. Oh no, I had no idea there was anyone still in there! Especially not a child!

A great blue portal opened up just outside the window. Evanesce leapt into the open window.

I should help! I can't let a child get hurt!

He flew over to the window and peered inside the apartment. Evanesce was down on one knee, her hands on the child's shoulders. She was talking to him in a low sweet voice that could have comforted a lion with a thorn in his paw. The child whimpered, hugged against her, and then pulled away again. Looked at her with fear in his eyes.

"Why should I trust you?" He cried.

Unaware of Daemon's presence, Evanesce slowly removed her eye mask. She smiled at the boy.

"Because now you're the only boy who knows what I really look like." She said.

"I---" Daemon couldn't believe what he was seeing.

This woman. Her face, her hair, her voice. She reminded him of his wife Sofia. So much so that flashbacks of his times with her began to pollute his mind. He couldn't be angry with her any longer for anything she'd done. Anything she'd said. None of it. She was enchanting, absolutely beautiful. He wondered if it truly was his wife, in a new form. "Sofia?"

Evanesce looked up at him and glared. Held the child close to her.

"Move so I can teleport this kid out of here." She snapped.

"I--"

The building creaked and groaned, and the ceiling gave in. Wood and dust and plaster fell like rain all around her and the kid. He dove in towards her, grabbed around her shoulders and prepared to fly out.

A heavy slab came down on his back and forced him down. Made it impossible to get up.

The floors all collapsed beneath them. He kept his arms around her and the child, using himself as a shield to protect them.

Before he knew what else to do, everything had stopped. It was dark and hot, and they were buried in debris. The boy was crying hard. Evanesce started coughing.

He turned his entire face panel neon blue, so he could illuminate the space around them. They were surrounded by pieces of the building. There was broken glass sticking out from the rubble above them, glowing jagged shards like stalactites in a cave. There was about a foot of space between him and the ceiling, and a foot's worth of space all around. Things were shifting within the mess. Groaning and moving. Deciding where to settle.

He kept one arm over Evanesce's shoulders and lifted the other. Started blasting at the wood and bricks with his lasers, breaking them apart, hoping to at least get some air moving. Smoke inhalation for a living human was bad. Come on, I have to at least save the kid. I have to. I'll never forgive myself if he dies.

"Don't!" Evanesce yelled. "You could make it worse!"

He stopped. A sizeable hole had been made directly in front of him, he had made a sort of tunnel, one filled with sharp pieces of broken bricks and glass. Too dangerous to try and crawl through.

"Why did you attack my building?" The child cried.

"I thought that it was vacant!" Daemon replied.

"You're a jerk!" He yelled.

Beams above groaned and cracked. Dust poured down around him in a cascade, he moved forward a little to block most of it from getting on Evanesce and the kid. It all rolled off him and collected on the ground. He turned his head and looked up.

There was a baseball-sized gap now, where the tiniest shaft of orange streetlight was peeking through, illuminating the shards of glass all around them, making them look like glittering pieces of amber. He wrapped one arm around Evanesce's waist, and one around the kid's.

"Hold on guys, I see a way out," Daemon said.

"How about I teleport you straight to--"

He pressed his back to the ceiling and started standing up. Pushed against the weight of all the debris. Felt the ceiling rise. The gap widened to the size of a football, he could see the corner of a building through it. He released his hold on them. Posted his hands to the rubble around him and shoved a little harder, further opening the gap. Now there was enough space for the kid to crawl through. He heard metal bending and warping, and realized that his arms were cracking under the weight of everything he was holding up.

"Go! Get out of here!" He yelled.

Evanesce blinked at him, held the child close to her body, and opened a small portal just in front of her. It lit up the tiny cave for a brief moment, the sounds were similar to what he heard whenever he was traveling through the electrical. Mechanical, loud, like gears grinding together.

She leaped into the portal, and it closed up.

His arms and shoulders wavered and bent, the weight was suddenly too great, and came down on him with the weight of the world, sending him to the ground on his knees and elbows, crushed by everything on top of him. Crushed by his own destruction. I could travel to some other piece of technology... but maybe it's not worth it. This is it... I lost. I'm done for. Even if I get out of here, this body is so warped and broken that I'll have to build a new one. I'll have to disappear again. Back to square one! This damned team... They've ruined me.

"I hate cats," he groaned.