“I can’t believe I’m here.” A muscular young man stands at the base of a very modernly designed building, staring straight up and into the dimly lit sky. With a wave of his gloved hand, he brushed his auburn locks away from his face. “Three years I’ve hunted, can’t believe you were here all along.”
His chestnut brown eyes glanced briefly to the sign on the mirror like side of the building and he whispered to himself as he read it. “Euforia Enterprises.” He swallowed hard. “You took everything from me. Now, I return the favour.”
The door to the office building whispered open as the young man entered, his long suit jacket blowing in the slight air conditioned breeze from between the sliding glass panes. As he walked in a security guard stepped out in front of him.
“Excuse me Sir, I’ll need to see some identification.” The burly man stated, no room for misinterpretation in his voice.
“Oh. Of course.” The young man reached cautiously into his navy blue lined blazer and pulled out a singular card.
The security guard took the card and glanced at it. “Roman Firente.” He paused a moment as the light bulb came on in his memory. Before he could reach his own gun, a bullet had exited through the back of his skull.
As the silencer smouldered, Roman lowered it to his side. Disappointing… he almost didn’t remember me. Stepping over the security guard, he began to head toward the dual elevators when a sudden and all too familiar ‘ding’ sound caught his attention. Roman slinked quickly into the shadows as two men rushed out, guns drawn and ties tucked tight against their chests. Two almost inaudible whispers dropped the pair and Roman lowered the pair of guns in his hands. “Unbelievable.” He said shaking his head.
Roman entered the elevator and admired the mahogany finish and polished wood of the tiny room for transport. As he stared at the numbers his finger settled upon the top floor, floor eighty two. The ride to the top was long and filled with nothing but stereotypical elevator jazz. As the doors slid open at the destination, Roman slid quickly into the hallway, but only silence filled the room.
“Goddamnit.” Roman said as he shook his head, “No one’s here.”
Suddenly his attention turned to a small door at the top of a short set of stairs as it clicked shut.
“Bingo.” Roman smiled. As he made his way up the rickety stairwell, he reloaded both guns. “Well, here we go.”
The door at the top of the stairs pushed open and landed with a large clang against the brick wall supporting it. In that moment of confusion, Roman fired two shots, both hitting the leader of the group and sending him to his back.
“Kill him…” The man whispered as he drew his final breath.
“Master!” As the other thirty people standing on the roof quickly turned, Roman walked calmly up the middle aisle to where the man was speaking.
“Well, that ends that.” Roman spat at his victim. He turned to the enraged masses around him. “Now folks, I have saved you from a demon… a demon who has possessed all of you. He’s turned you into slaves.”
As he spoke, the people around him began to move closer.
Backing away, Roman continued. “You are all free. He turned me into his puppet, just like he has with you.”
Suddenly a man lunged forth and Roman narrowly dodged his flailing.
“Can you not hear-” Roman stopped as he turned and realised he was at the very edge of the building. “Listen, I-”
Five of the mindless ones leapt out toward him and together they all tumbled over the edge. As Roman watched, their skin melted away and their faces turned demonic.
“Hmm, so not like me at all… Okay then.” Roman pulled the trigger on one of his guns and watched as the demon in front of him went limp and drifted away from the group. As his attention turned from the lifeless husk drifting away, he watched as the remaining people from the roof cascaded like a waterfall down toward him.
“Son of a b-” A punch cut Roman’s speech short and he returned to the other four demons clawing away and biting at him. “Fine. Have it-” Roman narrowly dodged a punch as he thrust the gun in his right hand into a demon’s belly. “-your way!” The bullet pierced two demons and with a quick elbow, demons were floating away from Roman at an acceptable rate. Suddenly more were upon him. “Damn it to hell!”
“That’s where we’re taking you… Back to Hell!” One demon hissed.
Roman paused for a moment and shook his head. “Not a damn chance.” With a few more trigger pulls, demons were limply floating into other demons. Roman pulled the trigger on another demon’s arm then turned in free fall to finish it off with a few more bullets. As new demons collided into him, Roman’s frustration grew. “Death to you all!”
Channelling his rage, Roman pushed off one demon to clear away from the pack and fired a hail of bullets into the mass of entangled demons. Then the realisation hit him. “I’m heading toward the ground at an alarming rate.” With a deep sigh, Roman closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. “I hate this part.”
Suddenly his skin embered away and when his eyes opened they were as black as night, but the iris in both eyes had turned to an array of fiery colors. As he pushed downward through the demons he flipped and braced for impact. As the sidewalk cracked beneath his landing, he took a second to recover.
“Ow… That could definitely have gone better.” Roman shook off the pain and cracked his neck. As he began to walk forward a demon landed on the ground before him. “What the-” He looked quickly up and then hopped out of the way as another body landed just to the left of the previous body.
“Shit!” Roman ran and leapt over fallen demons, and dodged and weaved around the falling ones. “Damn, damn… double damn!” He yelled as he shot upward knocking some demons off trajectory. As the last demon landed in a heap of bodies behind him, Roman checked his gun for ammo. “Not bad, still got a couple bullets left for later.”
Walking away from the heap of disaster Roman had left before the business building, Roman felt a wild sense of accomplishment. “I’m finally a free soul.” He thought aloud as he inhaled the first breath of a new day. “I can’t believe that I have escaped that fate.”
“You haven’t escaped yet.”
Roman froze as he turned to see an extremely androgynous person standing against a nearby lamp post , picking at their nails. “Who are you?!”
“Me? That doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you’re alive.” The angel smirked and brushed the hair from its face. “I don’t think you understood the ramifications of your actions or what happens next.”
“Huh?” Roman shook his head. “No no, it was purely a quest for revenge.”
With a slight chuckle, the angel smiled at Roman’s ignorance. “That man you killed was Damian, the son of Lucifer and I don’t think that’s going to go over very well with dear old Dad.”
