Layla Noir: Chapter 13

A-Merk
A-Merk
Aug 24, 2017 · 9 min read

“Let’s end some fucking stories!” I was excited.

“Your exuberance is appreciated but perhaps unwise” mumbled Wiz, his attention focused on the mansion, “be cautious. We have no way to know how many await us. The run across the field will be the most dangerous part. As I said before, we can only hope that their pride will prevent the use of ranged weapons. If our stories end, I must say that I’m glad that you accompanied me on the last chapter of mine. Shoot to kill. Aim for the upper chest and you should get the neck and head, too. OK… Let’s go.”

We went. Thankfully, no one opened fire as we ran at the mansion. Reaching the front door, Wiz motioned for me to use his weapon to blast it open, and I did so. No stealthy lock move, either, I fucking blew that sucker apart. Mahogany chips flew everywhere, dust was kicked up, and we ran right through that mess into the foyer. It looked fancy as all shit in there, even in this abandoned state, but I didn’t have much attention to spare for the decor. Wiz’s plan had worked, we had the element of surprise. I was immediately sure of this because two Hunters, still in their normal human form, had obviously just jumped up from plastic-wrapped couches as we surveyed the room. I pointed the weapon at one, and it popped, chest exploding in a red and white spray, bones mulched into the blood. The whole concoction was tinged with hints of pink and grey from its brain and it stained everything around the Hunter as well as what remained of its shell, which toppled to the ground, limp. I froze for a moment, horrified, as the second Hunter began to transform into the modified shell that would increase its potential for violence and dismemberment. It was awful: the arms shuddering and stretching with these unnatural cracking sounds, the face lengthening to make room for the four part maw, the nails becoming talons… but I was only frozen for a moment. I caught it mid-leap, in the stomach this time as the fear and shock had fucked with my aim, but it was enough. The corpse was spasming and twisting at my feet, but I knew the threat was over. Wiz was at my side, looking a little impressed actually, and he quietly suggested that we take the large set of stairs in front of us to the second level. This was where things began to unravel…

I topped the stairs and took a blow to the chest as I rounded a corner. I hit the wall with a sickening thud, dazed, and I barely managed to remain conscious. Obviously the Hunters upstairs hadn’t been deaf to the death throes of their friends downstairs. Through a foggy haze of pain and surprise, I saw Wiz moving, everything in slow motion, creating this unbelievable combat scene that any action film would kill to have: Wiz must have moved savagely as soon as I took the hit cus the first monster already had a broken left arm when my vision began to clear. It was hanging at a disgusting angle with pale, shattered bone poking out of the vertex as I watched Wiz plant what looked like a flaming fist in its chest. It flew backwards, impacting the second Hunter, the relatively thin hallway working for Wiz and against our enemies. The first Hunter landed in a crumpled heap and the second one was preparing to leap at Wiz but I saw his hand and his mouth moving, much like back at the hotel, and as it leaped at him, something that looked like an open doorway appeared in front of Wiz and the Hunter disappeared. As the doorway vanished, I caught a glimpse of stars and empty black space; one antagonist down. The second one must have recovered faster than Wiz expected, though, because as he came back to reality after the spell or item or whatever that was, it was already in his face. He caught its unbroken arm mid-swing, probably trying to break it like the other one, but it was clever. It leapt up and twisted around with a loud snap, breaking its own arm but landing with both legs wrapped around Wiz’s neck. The leg muscles tensed with superhuman strength as Wiz almost lost his balance, but his back hit the wall and he used it for support and remained upright, throwing blows at the Hunter. Wiz stiffened, and I thought this might be the end of my friend, but then he crouched and flung himself forward, twisting in the air, getting just enough space between the legs and his neck to work his hands in there to push them off. They landed in a pile, but Wiz was on top, ready for his next move. I shook my head, began to push myself up, and regained my upright position just in time to see Wiz crush something in his hands and whisper a word. As he did this, the Hunter’s body was crushed as well, falling apart into dust.

“You okay? Ready to proceed?” He asked, panting, speaking with less calm in his voice than I had ever heard.

“Yeah man… are you? That was fucking wild! I guess we should move slower, you wanna take point, like, I mean, do you wanna go first?”

“I’m still functional. I’m still a threat. Yes, I can lead the way. Prepare to fire over my shoulder…” We moved, slower this time as we couldn’t possibly be surprising anyone else, through the hallway towards whatever those two had been trying to protect. It had a few doors, but they all looked ancient and untouched. The only disturbance in the dust was a thin line in the middle of the hall and we followed that wearily. The trail lead us to a set of double doors at the hall’s end. They were open, and some crazy shit was in there, definitely alien. “A trap”, said Wiz, always ready to speak the obvious. We took a few steps back, and I whispered,

“What do you have left? Any more tricks up your sleeve?”

“Just the final defence”, he replied, “those were my ‘big guns’, as you would say. Please try not to become incapacitated at the beginning of the combat this time, if possible”. I turned to face him, pissed, only to see him smiling. The bastard was enjoying this shit! I couldn’t help but smile back, even though it felt like at least one of my ribs were cracked and I was scared out of my damn mind.

“Yeah, I’ll try, asshat. What’s the move?”

“I see no alternative; we have to spring the trap” he whispered, “I have one more energy recovery device that I can use to regain the capability to shield myself slightly. It won’t be much but I should survive… wait until the combat has begun, then do what you can to help me”. As he had done before we first entered the mansion, Wiz reached into his pockets and produced a tiny, needle-shaped piece of tech and stuck it directly into his neck. With a quiet *pshhhhissss*, it released something intense into his bloodstream, and although the widening of his eyes and a sharp intake of breath was the only outward sign of what he was experiencing, it was obvious that he was extremely energized. Shaking his head like a bull, Wiz looked at me, smiled awkwardly, and ran into the room.

I can’t lie, I was nervous as fuck. I had no idea what he had meant by “slightly” shielding himself, and I was worried that whatever awaited him would be too strong. I was almost right. As Wiz crossed the threshold, a massive blast of light and sound hit him from the right, knocking him out of view into the left side of the room. As the blast hit him, I saw, just for a second, a network of green honeycomb-shaped scales that hovered an inch above his skin before he disappeared from view. I could have sworn that I saw some of the ones closest to impact shatter and vanish. Needless to say, I rushed in there. I’m no coward, and I don’t leave my friends behind. Before I could clear the threshold, something large and feral flew from the right to the left, pouncing onto Wiz. They were already rolling around and trading blows when I got line of sight so I didn’t want to risk using the weapon. I felt powerless. As they rolled, Wiz grunting, the Hunter growling, I kept seeing flashes of green as more and more of Wiz’s protective shield shattered. I knew I had to do something before he got too tired to do anything. So I took a risk: I began activating the weapon while aiming it at the floor beneath them. I fired again and again while chunks of the wood floor flew in every direction and the structural integrity began to waver. Finally, I accomplished something: a huge area of the wood collapsed into itself, destabilizing the pair in combat. Wiz was able to twist around and get on top of the Hunter as a piece of debris hit it in the head, stunning it slightly. Raising both fists above his head and clasping them into one big club, Wiz swung down and crushed the Hunter’s face with a flash of the same flame-like energy I had seen him wield in combat earlier. This was the last straw for that section of the floor and Wiz would have fallen through it with the Hunter’s body if I hadn’t grabbed him at the last moment. We sat there, on the shattered edges of the hole we had made, breathing heavily and collecting ourselves. Finally, Wiz said one simple word: “Thanks”.

It was enough. He got up, slowly, obviously in pain, and began to inspect the tech that was all around us. I moved to watch the hallway in case we weren’t finished fighting yet. After a few moments, Wiz exclaimed, “Mick! Here! It’s even better than I thought!” I hurried over to find him standing on a large, flat disc that was raised about half a foot off the ground. It shone and morphed in the same manner as The Escape Pod, which was still in my backpack. Hopefully it hadn’t been broken in the combat. Realizing this possibility was altogether too likely, I asked if I should check on it, but Wiz laughed and said, “No need! Our problems are solved! This was made to transport 2 or even 3 persons between narratives. It doesn’t have the same bonding mechanism, for various reasons, one of which being that it is often used to transport groups in multiple trips. It will definitely have the coordinates of my narrative in it. Finally… I can begin my quest for revenge”.

“Revenge? I thought you were in my narrative to protect it from stagnation. We’ve been doing all this shit in this one to get back to yours AND mine, right? That’s why I was doing this!” He turned to me, great sadness in his eyes, and sighed, saying,

“Yes. I deceived you. There was never any chance of returning to your home, at least not directly from this narrative”.

“What the fuck?!” I screamed, getting in his face, “are you fucking kidding me? You KNEW I partnered up with you for one reason, and one reason only!”

“Yes. I knew. I’m sorry”. As he said this, I noticed two things at once: firstly, that he had been fiddling with a small thing that looked like a remote for the past few moments, and secondly, that I was standing on the disc with him. Wiz pressed a button on the remote. My world wavered, twisted, and split open. We left Bizarro World forever.


Author’s Note: Confused? Find chapter 12 of this sci-fi noir novel that I am writing and releasing live, at least one chapter every two weeks, right here. Enjoy! I really am excited for people to read upcoming chapters and I hope to hear back from people soon :) Leave a comment if you have anything to say about this story so far, where you think it is going, where you want it to go… whatever you like. Thank you for reading!

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