Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2014 23:36:48 GMT -6
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Unknown Location
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The mall. How more simpler could that be? Thousands of people all frolicking to their own desires. Presents for loved ones. Women getting made over for their own selfish reasons. And yet in the middle of all of this happy holiday toilage there hides something else. Something far more malicious. Something....animalistic.
Mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers all crowded the shops, but he walked between them. He even noticed a strange woman in a long robe and hood over what appeared to be a porcelain style cupie doll mask. Slowly, in fact he was the only one who seemed to stroll. The others around him all hurried from one store to another. Frantic to get the newest deal. The best items. Capitalism at it's finest in full swing here today, but not him. No, he was here to do what he did best.
Watch.
The Hawaiian style shirt, short sleeved to show all the tattoos on his forearms and the long black hair pulled back behind a simple baseball cap. Though he looked like the masses around him he still gave off a very clear chill. A presence of a predator. People seemed to give him a wide birth. Thousands gathered and yet...he had a protective bubble around him at all times.
The people all circles around as if he were encased in a bubble, except the strange woman. She seemed to flicker in and out of the crowds. Floating pasts parents in and their children before disappearing back into the crowd. He didn't take much head of it however. This could very well have been Maiko playing her little jokes. Other then the woman however he was left alone.
That was until he reached the food court of the mall. Like the rest of the mall the food court was packed with people, and filled with couples eating and enjoying the afternoon out. He continued to walk through the masses until something pulled his attention to the left. To a man sitting alone at a table near the outer reaches of the court.
The man was dressed in a simple pair of blue jeans and red sneakers. His shirt was a white button up and was left open exposing the undershirt beneath. Red as blood. His arms were covered in tattoos and both his ears were pierced. Facial hair was cut short and his hair was shoulder length but slicked back.....but was blond on the bangs of the left side. The man.....may look familiar.
What had called his attention? Why his name of course.
Man: “Joshua.”
Joshua turned then to face the man and lifted a brow. The man lifted one of the red sneakers and kicked the chair across from him out. Joshua continued to lift the brow and pushed the chair back in, only for it to come out again and Joshua shoved it in again.
Man: “It's not possessed! It is...for sitting.”
Joshua: “Really? Is that what those were for?”
Man: “Yes. Now, please sit.”
Joshua: “Why would I do that?”
Man: “Because I am going to educate you.”
Joshua: “Oh really? Educate me? How so?”
Once again the chair came out and Joshua slid into the chair slowly and the man leaned forward. Out of the corner of his eye Joshua noticed the strange female figure standing across the food court leaning on the railing and staring at him. At least....he thought it was staring, with that mask one couldn't tell and his attention was on the man before him anyway.
Man: “His name....at least he says so. Is Sentinel. Hers is Talon. They are....complicated.”
Joshua: “And how do you plan to help me with this? I don't even know who you are.”
Man: “You don't need to know who I am. All you need to know....is that Sentinel isn't unstoppable. The great animal....has a single weakness. Her. She is his weakness....always has been.”
Joshua: “you speak like you know him.....”
Man: “Oh....he and I are....acquainted.”
Joshua: “Is that so?”
Man: “Once....upon a time.”
Joshua: “And how do I take advantage of this....weakness of his pray tell? You saw what happened when that idiot Brody went after her.”
Man: “You....truly know little do you.”
Joshua: “And you think you can do better?”
Man: “Then you....”
The man chuckled softly, almost darkly and shook his head in disbelief. Or perhaps it was disgust? He reached out then and grabbed a small glass....was that a shot glass? What in the hell was a shot glass doing in a shopping mall?
The glass was lifted and drained in a single drink as the man stood and looked down at the Messiah of Destruction.
Man: “.....Yea. I do.”
Joshua: “Wait! Who are you?”
The man turned then and the mall around them began to waver. Shimmer like waves of light. Like a mirage in the distance. The colors melting and the people all distorting to nightmare versions of themselves. Like demons dancing in the moonlight of hell.
Man: “Me?”
Even the man's voice was distorted now. He sounded demonic, his voice deep and rumbling and the flesh from his face began to slid off, as if wax was being melted off the skin of a mannequin.
Man: “....I am god's mistake. I am salvation and damnation. I am nothingness. A figure of your dreams....”
the images before him became to much for even him to bare and he turned and when he turned he was staring directly at it. The figure in the strange Gothic mask was inches from him and staring up at him with a canted head. He could see now it was a woman, the blond hair poking out of the hood of the robe. When she spoke it was a soft graveled, but definitely woman's voice.
Woman: “Blasmpher.”
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Roadside Cafe
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Roadside Cafe
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Joshua sat bolt up on the table of some run down diner on the side of the freeway. A half eaten plate of the special spread out before him. A half drank glass sitting on the table. His head was swimming, splitting at the seams.
Drugs.
He knew this feeling. The coppery taste in his mouth. The truly troubling thing was the strange porcelain mask. It was sitting on the table next to his plate. Just before he prepared to stand up a woman approached his table. She was a brunette and fairly dumpy, obviously the waitress.
Joshua: “My bill?”
Waitress: “....it's paid love. You paid it before you sat down.”
Joshua: “Was I alone?”
Waitress: “Yea....and seriously ill. I almost called 911 myself. You came in carrying that creepy mask and mumbling about a talon.”
Joshua: “I did.....”
Waitress: “Yes. Did you need anything else honey?”
Joshua: “....No. Thank you.”
The woman then turned and walked away leaving Joshua gaping behind her. So, whatever happened to him, it happened before he walked into the diner.
Joshua: “Interesting......”
Joshua slid then from the booth and walked from the diner and found himself standing outside overlooking the dark highway. Something about this seemed off. The dream had been vivid. He knew that the drugs had been to cover up something that happened before he walked into the diner. The woman in the strange mask was real....had the conversation between him and the man been his mind processing a talk they had?
Did she know Talon and Sentinel? What did she mean that Talon was his weakness? Was she hiding something? Was she truly on his side? Some secret he could exploit? Simply attacking her would be to easy. Brody had done that. No, it needed to be something more then that. Something....simpler. Something.....more vicious.
Joshua: "Hmmm....interesting."
Joshua then turned and began to walk down the dark highway until he was out of site and gone.