The Scarlet Fire

Blackheart

"Or maybe it's something else," Y/N continues. 

They continue to drive through the desert mesa, structures of a forgotten ghost town. These are the ruins of San Venganza. 

CAW! CAW! CAW!

A murder of crows sit atop a tree in the middle of the square. In the old west this was known as a hanging tree.

CAW! CAW! CAW!

The crows calling grows louder and louder until...

THUMP!

One of the crows hits the ground dead. 

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

More crows hit the ground like canaries in a coal mine. A Texas red wolf runs out of its den, jittery and confused. It leaps in circles yapping at the rumbling storm overhead. 

A rattlesnake slithers from its hole and swallows its tail. Its skin burns and flakes like fish scales in a smoke house. The red wolf howls as it stumbles to the ground. Its tongue swells and bloats as it decays. 

Thunder booms as hail rains down like bullets and as it hits the ground it bursts into flames; like a Bosch painting come to life. The storm ends as quickly as it began and then...

A shadow creeps over the desert. A whispering in the wind can be heard, the chattering of some ancient tongue. The shadow stops as the moonlight reveals a young man. 

He's not much more than a boy but he carries himself with the brazen confidence of a born leader. 

He wears a feral smile on his handsome face and a long black coat that folds behind him like a raven's wings. Death has come to Texas. 

And its name is Blackheart. 

Glass and steel monoliths throw shadows over the forgotten sections of downtown Dallas. As the tour bus pulls up to a warehouse, the funky neighbour of Deep Ellum can be seen. 

In Y/N's loft, the line between home and garage has been erased. Motorcycles and spare parts are everywhere. 

Y/N steps out of the old service elevator and drops his duffel bag as Kuro rolls the smashed stunt cycle into the living room. 

"Ya'll got plans tonight?"

"I'm gonna mess around with Grace."

Kuro glances over to see 'Grace' in the corner, the old Chopper is nearly swimming in a puddle of leaking oil. 

"Ever think about getting a new girl? One that doesn't need a kick start?"

Y/N shrugs it off. 

"Relationships are messy..."

"'Messy?' That old panhead leaks more oil than the Exxon Valdez."

"She's not leaking oil. She's marking her territory..."

Kuro parks the motorcycle along the wall as six more motorcycles are revealed, all smashed to hell and back. Kuro shakes his head.

"Lucky..."

A dozen Harley Davidsons are lined up together like chrome horses to a hitching post. Raucous laughter is head as a dusty biker bar in the middle of the desert is revealed. 

A gang of tattooed Hell's Angels stand outside drinking, real hardcore felons. One of the bigger Hell's Angels looks over to see Blackheart stepping out of the moonlight mesa towards the garish glow of the biker bar. 

"What the hell....?"

He steps up to the entrance when the big Hell's Angel stops him with a rough hand to the chest. 

"Angel's only."

Blackheart stops, puzzled. This world is all new to him and it's going to be one Hell of a learning curve.

"You...are an angel?"

"We're all Angels here."

The biker gang closes in around them as the Hell's Angel jabs his finger into Blackheart's chest.

"You got a problem with that?"

A sinister smile splits Blackheart's face.

"As a matter of fact..."

Blackheart jabs his finger back into the Hell's Angel and it sinks right through his chest. The biker shrieks as poisonous necroplasm seeps into his heart, turning his eyes and skin an eerie midnight blue as he decomposes from the inside out.

"...I do."

The 'Fallen Angels' are everywhere and like the biker outside their poisoned corpses are a shimmering dark blue colour. Not a soul has been spared. Or so it would seem. 

"I know you're here. I could smell the brimstone from a mile away."

Blackheart steps past the mummified bartender, frozen in place while drawing a draft beer. 

"You've been hiding for so long that you've forgotten what you are."

The beer is running into the overflowing mug and onto the sawdust covered floor, creating a small river of foam.

"Living like a scavenger off the scraps the humans cast aside...like carrion waiting to feed..."

A low slurping sound is heard as Blackheart follows the meandering trail of beer past the billiard tables...

"But that's all about to change..."

...where it stops at a pile of sawdust in the corner.

"The time for hiding is over."

Blackheart kicks at the sawdust. A sudden shriek erupts as a monstrous dust devil bursts forth from the ground.

A feral flash of teeth and talons within this whirling dervish is revealed before the strange creature recedes back into the shadows.

"Hello, Gressil."

They are called The Hidden, elemental demons that can hide in anything, anywhere. You never know where they might be. 

"Welcome to the New Hell."

Two curious yellow eyes peer out from the darkness....