A Missed Shot

Chapter Seventeen

Scarlet looks like she's been through Hell. There are claw rips across her jacket and shirt. Cuts and bruises on her face. Yet, she doesn't show any other sign she's in pain. Her demon hand clenched and glimmered a slight blue aura. She breaks the awkward silence between the three. "Well, a 'thank you' would be nice. For once."

Destiny scoffs and steps closer to Scarlet. "'Thank you?!' You're fucking insane! You turned your back on me, Scarlet! How could I ever—"

Scarlet cuts her off before Destiny could resume. "Oh shut the hell up already,

alright, and listen." She sighs before continuing on. "Destiny. You walk into this. . .you're gonna die."

"So?"

"'So?!' Okay let me reiterate. Either she, Ellie, will kill you. . .or I will."

Destiny giggles in response. "You? Kill me? Yeah right. You couldn't even if you wanted to."

"Not now, no. But when the seal is broken, I will kill one of you. And I won't have much a choice." Destiny sits in silence. "Well." Scarlet checks her watch. "23:30 with no way outta here. Just wonderful. Guess we're leggin' it from here."

"Yeah, well where to? We got no leads. All the info was in that hunk of junk." Destiny gestures to the wrecked car that's in flames behind her as Scarlet begins to walk, but abruptly stops. Her demonic arm seems to glow a vibrant blue as if reacting to something. Destiny's amulet glows in synchronization with Scarlet's arm. Groaning in slight pain herself, Destiny says, "Scar? You okay?"

Scarlet swats away while holding her own temple.

Off to the distance in the woods, there seems to be some sort of loud screeching, which is ear piercing, causing the girls to fall to their knees trying to cover their ears. After a few minutes have gone by, the screeching stops and out from the thickness of the trees emerges a demon. Recovering their senses, Destiny and Scarlet stand, drawing their swords. Breaking the silence, Destiny says, "The hell is this thing?"

In response, Scarlet says, "It's a shadow ghoul of some sort."

"You had me at 'shadow ghoul.'" Destiny charged at the ghoul with Scarlet yelling at her saying not to do it, but it was too late. Destiny leaped and attempted to slash at its face. Destiny was fast, but the ghoul was faster. Only getting about a four foot vertical, the ghoul impaled her with one of its legs. As it drives through her, she screams in extreme agony as Yamato falls and sticks into the dirt.

Scarlet dashes around the ghoul, planning to chop off its legs, but ultimately fails as she is kicked and sent flying half a mile deeper into the forest. Destiny, still struggling to get free, deploys her doppelganger. Spawned at the base of the ghoul, Destiny's clone does an upward slash, cutting the ghoul's gut. As the clone was about to deliver the finishing blow to the ghoul's face, the ghoul was again, too quick. Grabbing the clone, the ghoul slams it onto the ground repeatedly before tossing it into a tree. On impact, it dissipates into black mist.

Destiny is still coughing and hacking up blood. The ghoul makes a croaking sound and tears her off of its leg. It brings up another leg as if it were to impale her once more, but a rip of pistol shots break the almost silence in the air. The ghoul seemed to be getting burned by the touch of each bullet as it screeches and staggers back into the woods. The shooter seemed to be Scarlet, holding two guns: a silver revolver and a black heavy pistol. The ghoul has taken off but is injured well enough to understand that coming back would mean death. Scarlet approaches Destiny, who is crippled on the ground.

While struggling to speak and still coughing up blood, Destiny says, "Scar. You gotta get outta here before it comes back."

Scarlet, while breathing heavily, responds, "Shut up." She sticks her ghoul hand into Destiny's impaled gut as she screams out in excruciating pain. After she takes her hand out, Destiny's wounds were healed. Breathing heavily, Destiny spins up to her feet and grabs Yamato before bringing it up to Scarlet's neck.

Scarlet eyes Destiny while saying, "That your way of saying thank you?"

Destiny pushes the blade slightly further into Scarlet's neck. "Why? Why dammit?! Why come back for me after all of this time and expect me to be all good about it?"

"Because you wanted me to. Destiny, I'm rooting for you, all the way. And I'll do what it takes to see that this is paid in full. Whatever it takes. Including pulling the plug on you. So you know what? There's three ways this is gonna go down, Destiny. Slit my throat and end it. Let me walk along side you and see this to the end. Or you let me go and I walk away, coming back full of bloodlust only itching to kill you. What's it gonna be?"

Destiny's lip twitches in anger as she tightens her grip on the blade and her amulet lights up.