Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Unleashed part 3 I ran as fast as I could, never taking my eyes off Ravage as he rocketed towards the city. I tried desperately to keep up with him, but he quickly became a small shadow against the black-blue sky. I obviously wasn’t going to be able to catch up with him, so I climbed up the tallest tree I could find and tracked his flight. My fear and frustration mounted as he got closer and closer to downtown. And sure enough, I lost him right in front of Lincoln Tower; the tallest building in the city and the center of Metrolex. I jumped down from my perch and started cursing up a storm. “Damn, damn, damn it! Damn it all! Damn him.... and damn me too! Grrrrrr! I could’ve done something. I should’ve stopped him when I had the chance. Now there’s no telling what he’ll do. All those people.... I’d never make it in time.” What was I saying? I snapped myself out of it and regained my tenacity. “I’ve got to try. I’m really the only hope the city has now.” I couldn’t just stand there and feel sorry for myself. I had to do keep going. With my momentum renewed, I made a bee-line for downtown. When I got to the city, I started running on the rooftops. I stopped every block or so to listen for any signs of Ravage’s wake. You know. Screams. Crashes. Car alarms. Gun shots? I hoped not. I was in a strange position. Not only was I trying to protect the city, but also the monster that was terrorizing it. And I didn’t want to see or get Justin hurt, but I couldn’t take any more chances. No more kid gloves, as they say. The second I saw Ravage and got close enough to him, I would bring him down by any means. Except death, of course. “But I’ll have to stay out of sight,” I thought. “If these humans saw two beast people, there’d be even more panic.” Just then, as if it were cued, I heard a shrill cry come from 6th street. I was off. As I made my way to the source of the scream, I looked below and saw a stream of people running in the opposite direction. “Once again, he’s making it way too easy,” I said. But I stopped, looked carefully at the panicked mob, and made sure nobody was hurt. No. Everyone seemed alright. And there was no scent of blood in the air. That’s good. But I hadn’t gotten to the center of the scourge yet. I suspected things would only get worse as I got closer. Soon I came to the corner of Woodrow and 6th and I got a clear view of the street up and down. The scene was pure chaos. Lamp-posts were torn out of the ground like uprooted trees and lay on the asphalt. A geyser of water spewed into the sky from where a fire-hydrant used to be. Shop windows were shattered and looked like the open mouths of an army of razor-toothed animals. Cars were crushed, crunched, and torn apart as if they had been through a giant compactor. The street was covered with new cracks, craters, and potholes. And in the middle of it all, surrounded by the throngs of stampeding hystericals, was the abomination. He proudly strode about as he surveyed his work. I quickly looked at the people. No one was injured. Even at the core of this pandemonium, everyone seemed relatively unscathed. Then I looked back at Ravage. He seemed rather uninterested in the victims of his destruction. Except for every now and then when looked into the crowds and caused them to shriek with fright. He grinned sadistically whenever he did so. This guy actually was less of a carnage hound than Incubus. It appeared he just loved to saturate himself in anarchy. Suddenly, Ravage stopped and looked into a shop where several humans had taken refuge. He smiled with psychotic glee and darted inside, crashing through the glass. The humans spilled out into the street and joined the rest of the rabble. Here was my chance. I had to take down Ravage in a small area where there were as few humans as possible. I ran across the roofs and dropped down into an alley beside the building. I busted open the back door and stealthily resumed hunting my quarry. Ravage had broken into a small restaurant and I had just let myself into the kitchen. I stayed low as I crawled around the counters and stoves. I was just about to look through the window in the door that led to the dining room, when I heard Ravage yell out, “Ikinasai!” Then the whole building shook and there were crashes and booms from the other side of the door, as if a bomb had gone off. When the din had ceased, I cracked open the door. Ravage was gone and there was rubble everywhere. The ceiling was gone, as well as the ceilings and floors for the two upper stories. I looked up and saw clear way to the sky, as well as the tip of Ravage’s receding tail. I jumped up to the second story, then the third, and finally the roof just in time to see him streaking off eastwards. “Damn it! I was so close! Who knows how far he’ll go now. I can’t keep this up all night.” But to my surprise, he landed on a roof just eight blocks over. And then, to my even greater surprise, he collapsed. “Justin!” I jumped over alleys and ran fast as I could to my target. Hopefully, now my purram. I had gotten five blocks down when I saw him sit up. It was still Ravage. I suspected he had gotten his second wind and I waited for him to take off again. But instead, he just sat there, back towards me, and hugged himself. He was almost trembling. Seizing this opportunity, I wasted no time. I was over and on his rooftop in three seconds. “It’s time to put you down, dog,” I growled. He seemed to shudder at my words. “Don’t come any closer!” he yelled. Not happening. I wasn’t going to give this bastard one more inch. This was going to end here and now! I started walking towards him. Then he bellowed, “AISHA, STOP!” That voice. It was Justin’s. “Don’t look at me! Please!” He sounded in tears. Then he slowly stood up and cried out, “No more! I WANT THIS NO MORE!!” He hunched over and groaned in pain as he fought his way back. The hair and claws receded. The tail shrunk and disappeared. The backward bent legs straightened and regained human appearance. And the despicable wolf’s head contorted back into the face of the man I love. He dropped to his knees and looked back at me, his eyes welling with tears. I couldn’t hold myself back. “Purram!” I rushed forward and embraced him longingly. I held him tight, yet he was too exhausted to hug me back. His body was covered in scratches and bruises. “Aisha,” he sobbed, “I’m so sorry. I...” I stopped him and whispered in his ear, “Don’t. Don’t even speak. I know you didn’t mean to.” I tenderly kissed his cheek. “You beat him. I knew you could do it.” “But... but I...” “It wasn’t you. It’s OK. It wasn’t you.” I shook my head as I reassured him. He stared at me, wanting to say something more. But then he let his head fall against my chest and cried even more. Poor Justin. He had been through so much in one night. But now the nightmare was over. Justin had confronted his inner demons and finally won. I couldn’t do it. Aisha was just so happy to see my face again. I just didn’t have the heart. I couldn’t tell her the truth. That the only difference between myself and Ravage..... was our appearance.

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