Shadow Demon Pt. 05

Sarah crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, watching Crackle.

When a demon is in possession of you, they see and hear everything that your thinking. The demon can't see the person's memories, but they can project dreams and suggestions on your mind to trick you into thinking about them.

Sarah waited a minute before deciding to break the silence. "Find anything?" She asked.

Crackle's eyes eerily darted towards Sarah, his head unmoving.

"The demon souls we found were not originally Crackle's. He stole them from other mortals." Crackle said, speaking with both his own voice and Endo's simultaneously.

"Did you find out where he got them or what he's doing with them?" Asked Sarah.

"I have. Months ago, He and his men intercepted the souls from a group of civilians transporting them into the city. Crackle recognized a couple of the civilians as past business associates of his father's. Believing his father to be covertly moving into the drug trade without him, Crackle mistook the souls to be a new street drug. He stole the souls from the civilians, named himself Crackle, and began selling the souls as Angst." Said Crackle and Endo.

"Why would Crackle go to the trouble of giving himself an alias and selling the drugs himself?" Asked Sarah.

"I don't know yet. It is becoming increasingly difficult to get him to focus. Before I found him, the mortal ingested a substantial quantity of MDMA. The effects of the drug are starting to influence his mind. His imagination is becoming difficult to control, it undermines the seriousness of the dreams I project." Endo and Crackle said with some frustration. "I'll need to push harder.".

A moment later, Crackle's face contorted in pain and a drop of blood trickled down one of his nostrils.

The human body is foreign to demons. When a demon possesses a living creature, it is almost never gentle.

People often take for granted the fact that they coordinate multiple sets of muscle fibers in unison to perform the simplest of tasks such as walking or eating. For demons, only the most intelligent and skilled of their kind can successfully pilot a human body. Even then, a person is often left bruised and permanently handicapped after a possession, as the demon tears muscles from bones and bends joints backwards attempting to pilot the body themselves.

Then there are emotions. Demons only understand self-preservation, and most can't fully comprehend or exhibit human emotions. If a demon isn't careful, the mental damage they inflict when projecting on someone's mind can often drive the person into madness or even kill them. Thankfully, Sarah is an exception to the average possession. Endo attempts to preserve Sarah's mental and physical health by allowing her to retain her free will, otherwise she would have been dead a long ago.

"Why sell Angst, why become Crackle?" Endo's voice whispered in the room from no obvious source.

Crackle's face contorted in anger and yelled "He wouldn't take me seriously, he looks at me as if I'm a mistake. The old man will never let me take over the empire, but once I learn how to make Angst, I won't need his empire. I'll build my own empire, overthrow my father, and rule this city myself!"

Sarah considered Crackle's answer. The man was a fool. If Crackle though he could overthrow even one of the seven crime empires in the city, he was in for a nasty surprise. Challenging a major crime faction with only a club, a handful of muscle, and a pile of drugs to his name was suicide. The guy probably didn't realize that he was already dead with the bounty placed over his head. If it wasn't Sarah, one of the other assassins in the city would make short work of him in a day or two.

"I want your name." whispered Endo's disembodied voice again.

Sarah suddenly tilted her head up, listening. She could feel the rolling of tires on asphalt, and the hum of muscle tension empowered with adrenaline. Multiple patrol cars and an armored van pulled up outside the club. Almost before the van finished coming to a stop, the van's rear door burst open allowing multiple people to jump out. Sarah could smell the Kevlar body armor and metal combat-rifles carried by the people exiting the van. The city's SWAT team was here. Someone from the street or a nearby apartment building must have reported the sound of gunfire coming from the club.

"Endo wrap it up, we're about to be interrupted." Said Sarah as she pushed herself off the wall and started looking around the office for the computer that was attached to all the security monitors.

"Take care of them, I need more time." said Crackle, again with both his own and Endo's voice.

"Not happening." Sarah snapped. "Even if most of the cops in this city are either lazy or corrupt, I'm not going to start killing them indiscriminately." She added while opening a cabinet against the wall containing a desktop computer.

Endo and Crackle simultaneously snarled in frustration.

"I SAID I WANT YOUR NAME!" Endo's voice boomed and reverberated inside the office.

The sudden outburst from Endo made Sarah tense her shoulders. She looked back towards Crackle, who's other nostril, and now his eyes were starting to bleed. At this rate, Endo would kill Crackle before he got what he wanted. Granted, she'd have to kill Crackle anyway to claim the contract, but she still felt slightly sorry for him. Almost any death is better than by possession.

Sarah felt the SWAT team outside move itself into a flanking position before the front entrance of the club and prepare to rush inside. The group of men exchanged hand signals, wordlessly planning on how to charge into the building.

Sarah pulled the computer out of the cabinet and tore the side panel off, revealing the hard drive.

"Vincent Ward is dead. I'm Crackle now, the spark that will grow into the inferno that claims this city!" Crackle yelled with his own voice.

Sarah smirked while grabbed the hard drive and tearing it out of the computer. She had an amusing hunch that Crackle probably recites that line to himself in front of the mirror every morning.

Sarah examined the hard drive, then smashed it over the desk in one hard strike. Chips of the golden wheel exploded out from within the metal box, scattering across the room. The evidence of her identity destroyed.

Endo's large smoky body spilled out of Crackle's mouth and looked down at the skinny man.

Crackle coughed and blinked. He raised a hand to his face, smearing the blood from his nose onto his hand. He looked at his blooded hand in confusion, then looked up to the towering form of Endo. "What the FUCK!" He screamed, the pitch of his voice elevating with the last word.

Endo grabbed Crackle by the throat and raised him to eye level.

"That answer will have to do. My time is not my own this night. You have only one more use for me." Endo said as he stabbed his free hand into Crackle's chest. "Don't fear mortal, this won't take long." Endo added as the skin on Crackle's chest surrounding Endo's hand erupted in flame. The skin audibly hissed and popped under the flames.

Crackle screamed so shrill and high-pitched, that Sarah could only compare it to the sound of a squealing pig.

Crackle's scream was obviously heard from outside, as Sarah felt the SWAT team to burst through the front door and start fanning out across the main floor in reaction. Their weapons and heads moving in unison as they searched for the source of the sound.

Crackle's body was consumed by the flame in as little as five seconds. All that remained was a smoking husk skewered on Endo's hand. Endo flicked Crackle's body off his hand, which shattered into ash when it impacted the floor.

Endo tilled his head back and closed his eyes, inhaling with satisfaction, like he did with every soul.

Sarah crossed her arms and stared at Endo with an annoyed look as she tapped her foot with impatience. "We don't have time for you to enjoy this." she said.

Half the SWAT team was positioning themselves outside the office door, while the other was making their way upstairs. A few members broke off to check the bodies of the three thugs on the main floor for life signs.

Endo opened his eyes, looked at Sarah, then turned his head towards the closed office door, watching the SWAT team position themselves on the opposite side.

"We would have plenty of time if you had just killed them." Said Endo.

Sarah closed her eyes and inhaled through her nose to calm herself. She sighed, looked up at Endo then said, "I said no, Endo.".

"So be it." Endo said. He then turned back to Sarah and rushed back inside her.

Sarah willed herself to the rooftop half a second before the SWAT team kicked in the office door and rushed in. She spotted what she was looking for on the roof right away. Leaning against the ledge, curled up in a ball was the academically dressed man. He must have fallen asleep or passed out.

Sarah walked over to him and patted him on the cheek to wake him.

He didn't wake.

Sarah could sense the SWAT team moving through the grow-op, flashlights shining through the darkness.

"You saw my face Mr.-" Sarah said, trailing off as she reached over him to reach her hand into his back pocket. She pulled out his wallet. Inside the wallet she found the academically dressed man's driver's license which read: Leonard Patterson, age 26, 1579 Breezemist Bvld. "-Patterson... Guess you're leaving with me." She continued.

Sarah could feel the SWAT team making their way up the stairs to the roof. She wrapped her arms around Leo in a hug, willing the mist around her to encase Leo as well. With an effort, Sarah willed both herself and Leo to the rooftop of an apartment building across the street.

Sarah looked over the ledge and watched as the SWAT team tactically spread out across the roof looking for the source of the carnage witnessed in the club below. She could hear one of the team members yell "CLEAR", which prompted the whole party to relax slightly, and begin heading back towards the roof's entrance.

Sarah turned away and sat down against the ledge of the rooftop with Leo's head on her lap. She took a moment to watch the laundry on the apartment's clothes lines flutter in the gentle breeze of the night. She looked down at Leo and ran a thumb over his cheek. In the two years she's been doing this, not once has she been caught on camera, had her mask removed, or had a living witness. Evidently, there were a lot of firsts this evening.

Sarah ran the claw of her thumb over Leo's throat, just lightly enough to not break the skin. She considered how easy it would be to just end Leo's life tonight, thus tying up the last loose end.

Sarah rolled her head back and looked at the night sky. "Damn it" she breathed out.

Leo didn't do anything, he was an innocent civilian. Sarah crossed many lines in the last couple years, but she didn't harm the innocent. She couldn't cross that line; It was the only thing separating her from the gang leaders... and Endo. Sarah didn't have any delusions about herself. She knew she was corrupted. The thrill of violence and murder excited her, but she didn't become a what she is to be the shinning white knight that saves the city. She became a demon so that the criminals would be afraid of the dark and think twice before ruining someone's life, before ruining Beth's life.

It hurt to even think about Beth.

Beth was the reason Sarah started her fight against the criminals of this city. It was the night that Beth died that Sarah met Endo and the night that Endo gave her the power to do something about it.

Sarah turned her head to the side and closed her eyes. She inhaled sharply, steeled herself from the old emotions, and repressed Beth's memory.

Quickly, Sarah moved Leo off her, and stood up. She stretched her arms above her head and leaned side to side to loosen up her obliques.

Looking down at Leo, Sarah then bent down and put him over her shoulder. "Let's go see your house Mr. Patterson. You owe me a drink." she said in a cheerful tone while patting him on the ass a couple times.