Doom Story Update

2k words

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“All the way to my home. Well, home on this mortal plane. It is not the same without the backwash of Hell’s fumes lingering in the air, but my cathedral is secure, safe. It is there you and I will have much to discuss, safe and free from otherworldly distractions.”

Andreas didn’t like the hungry look she was giving him, like she was examining an alien specimen ripe for dissecting.

“Sounds… great,” Andrea replied, leaning uncomfortably away from the leering demonette. “Why’re we hoofing it when you can just portal us over?”

“My dear human, do you not understand the nuances, the complexities of interdimensional travel? Your kind should have unravelled such secrets by this point.”

“My interactions with portals usually involve lobbing grenades or setting up kill funnels.”

“A rather crass perspective, but I’ll humour your inquiry. Portals require an energy source to draw from, and there are specialised legions dedicated to channelling such energies into a mode of transition. Priests and acolytes are trained in such matters, they bring the more elite ranks of Hell to where they need to go.”

“What kinds of sources?”

“Oh, let me think. Hmm. Off the top of my head, gore nest’s make for very convenient stores of energy. Without it, we can only send demons into the fray, not get them out of it. You truly have no idea how much of a headache it was to try and reconcile after its destruction,” she growled, exposing her sharp teeth in a grimace.

“Maybe I’ll pop over to Hell one day and plant some trees, see how you like it.”

The Baroness said nothing, and then her snarl broke out into a laugh, the hysterics causing several of the surrounding imps to turn her way.

“Even captured, you still manage to keep your spirit,” Sharrya chuckled. “It may not sound so harsh to you, but when you’ve been surrounded by blind compliance for as long as I have, the banality of it all makes you eager for a change of pace. It’s so refreshing to have someone with a foul mouth and who’s not afraid to speak their mind.”

“I think you’ve got it all backwards,” Andreas replied. “I’ve called out a lot of people in my life, and it’s never once earned me a compliment.”

“If I do not want to hear, what I want to hear, then it’s your world that is backwards, not I.” She shoved a car out of the way for him. “Plus, I find it a good thing to not be able to predict whatever comes out of your mouth. It’s certainly irritating at times,” she added, her hand on this side clenching. “But nobody has ever pushed my buttons like you have, and I’m not used to that. And as someone who has travelled across several galaxies, well, you could see how that’s new to me.”

They continued down the highway for a silent while, the Baroness more at ease now that he was disarmed and compliant. She may have confiscated his weapons, but she’d neglected to relieve him of his pack, as if she didn’t expect him to have stashed a hidden weapon in there. She would be right, if one didn’t count the Argent Shards as weapons.

The thought made him freeze. The Shards were created from Hell, and if Sharrya discovered the Shards, his mission would be in jeopardy.

“Since there are no acolytes around, we shall walk until we find one,” Sharrya stated. “Which is of little bother. Without portals, we have plenty of time to pick up where we left off last time, Andreas.”

“Last time?”

“Now don’t pretend you’ve forgotten already,” she said, enunciating her syllables. “I told you we would continue our conversation on our next meeting. Now you are my prisoner with not much more to do than talk. And I do so have a strong urge to talk with you.”

Andreas remembered what Eva had said before, how the demoness was manipulating him, trying to get information out of him by appearing friendly, but it was his only chance. If he didn’t humour her, she might just remember about his pack, and the only thing separating her from the Shards was a thin layer of nylon.

“Alright, shoot,” he said, Sharrya giving him an odd look. “Shoot your questions,” he clarified.

“No quips or insults, Andreas? Is being my prisoner dulling that sharp tongue of yours? Do not worry, I treat those put under my special care very well.”

“Just get on with it, goat-legs, I haven’t got all morning.”

“That’s better,” she chuckled. “This security officer gig, as you called it, what made you strive for such a position?”

“I didn’t strive so much as took what I could get,” he said, Sharrya slowing her long stride to keep pace with him. “Tried to follow in my brothers’ footsteps, fucked that up. My father set me up with his carpentry business, wasn’t good at that either. Spent a lot of my twenties bouncing round, but apparently if you fling shit at the wall long enough, eventually something sticks, and passing the officer training was the one thing I could actually do well. It’s funny,” he added. “back then, my biggest concern was saving up enough money for a car.”

He chuckled bitterly, looking at the devastation all around him.

“You must have been better than average,” Sharrya noted. “You said you stopped a breakout with no casualties, correct? In the confines of a base, that must have been no easy task.”

“I said minimum casualties,” he corrected.

Sharrya tilted her head ever so slightly, clearly intrigued but perhaps unwilling to prompt him. Again, he considered holding his peace, but it was an old story, and what was the harm in telling it? He could even appeal to her softer side, if a demon possessed such a side.

“I couldn’t… didn’t, save everyone,” he continued. “There was this woman who worked at the base. Most of the scientists looked down on us grunts, but not her. Only person I really got along with during my shifts. When the shit hit the fan, everyone in my sector was accounted for. Everyone except her, and I only realised that after the choppers dusted off and I did a headcount.”

“Did you find out what happened to her?”

“Turned out she’d locked herself in her lab. Too scared to move, maybe. That happens to some people. The door was forced open, and she had a giant gash right here,” he said, touching a finger to his throat. “She died alone.”

“That must have been horrific,” Sharrya said, a hint of emotion in her voice.

“I made a promise after that. She’d be the last one. From then on I’d do whatever it took make sure I saved as many people as I could.”

“And so you leapt at the opportunity for advancement,” Sharrya mused. “and became a deadly warrior as a result. She must have been a fine mate.”

“Mate?” he echoed. “It wasn’t that kind of relationship.”

“But you liked her, no?”

“Yeah, sure. But… well,” he stammered. “We were technically work colleagues, so it didn’t feel right to go down that road. If it didn’t work out, that’s a lot of tension I don’t think either of us would rather deal with.”

“Mortal relationships are quite odd,” Sharrya noted. “But it would be cruel of me to speak ill of the dead. I won’t insult you by apologising on behalf of her demon killers, but it seems her loss has strengthened you rather than the opposite.”

“It was years ago, I’ve moved on,” he said, glad that the Baroness was socially aware enough that a word of comfort was just plain inappropriate. He’d give her a word of appreciation in another circumstances.

“How about you?” he asked. “You must have some stories about this… Shattered Peak place you grew up in.”

“So you do remember our talk,” Sharrya noted with a grin. “I experienced many tribulations during my ascent to Baroness. What did you have in mind?”

“Ever met your match?”

“Let’s see.” She paused, a considering claw on her chin. “There was…. one who managed to overcome me. Several one’s, excuse me. Two males and a female. They were my first taste of humiliation.”

“Wait, I’m not your first defeat? And here I was being proud of myself.”

“Are you arrogant or just ignorant? Being defeated, and being overcome, are not the same things. These three never met me on the field of battle once, they relied on manipulation and dishonourable acts to… to hurt me.”

The Baroness broke eye-contact on that last part, Andreas quirking a brow at her. Usually she was so stoic and confident, so seeing her hesitate was a peculiar sight.

“I once made the mistake of conjuring a fireball before my body was ready,” she continued. “I singed off two of my claws, and those three were there to witness my error. And like parasites, they clung to my weakness, prodded me, goaded me, and made sure I’d never live that moment down.”

“Wait, wait,” Andreas said, holding up his hands. “are you saying the great Baroness Sharrya, meanest son of a bitch in Spain, was bullied?”

“I was a newt,” she growled, a touch of irritation in her voice. “not five years off from my spawning. We all were. I was a far cry from the pristine Baroness you see before you.”

“I’ll say,” Andreas replied, his shoulders jumping as he began to laugh. “I can just imagine it, a bunch of Baron kids picking on one of their own. What else did you do, wet the bed?”

“Be silent,” Sharrya snapped. “You know nothing of what you speak of, I’ve experienced horrors so unfathomable, that your tiny mind would simply collapse on itself at the merest glance.”

“But none of that compares to you being picked on, does it? That kind of shit stays with you, I can see that plain as day. Oh man, I wish I could have seen the look on your face as you were put in your place.”

He threw his head back, laughing at the tormented sky. A couple of the imps turned their heads to peer at him, beady eyes shifting uneasily to their Baroness. She looked angry enough that she could boil the air around her head.

“You wretched little…” Sharrya snarled, jabbing a claw the size of a meat hook in his face. “I thought we were finally going to be civilised to one another, but you just couldn’t help yourself, could you? I have the courtesy to answer your question, and you throw it back in my face!”

Her eyes did more than blaze, they literally ignited, licking flames brushing across her brow as she leaned down until their noses practically touched, his whole world consumed in her fury.

“I should consume your soul right here,” she growled, her voice taking on an unsettling quality.

“Do it,” Andreas said, her threats going over his head. “Oh that’s right, killing me is the last thing you want, right? Can’t fulfill your urge to talk with a dead man.”

“You’d be surprised what a soul can offer,” Sharrya replied “Just ask your dead friend, I’m sure she’s still suffering damnation to this day.”

Andreas wiped the smile off his face, his brow furrowing. As angry as he was, his fear was overpowering, the fact he was staring down the biggest demon he’d ever seen setting a pit in his stomach. She could rip him limb from limb and he wouldn’t have a chance to fight back.

He could see she was resisting the urge to do exactly that, her eyes slowly closing, those waving flames snuffing out as she took in a deep breath. Her warm breath washed over his face as she exhaled, opening her lids to reveal her gaze had returned to normal.

“Bastard,” she hissed, crossing her arms and storming ahead, her hooves hitting the ground hard enough to leave cracks. She stopped short of the front of the imp pack, leaving him alone for the first time since she’d captured him.

Andreas regarded her back thoughtfully. Why hadn’t she done anything to him? He’d finally set her off, yet her retaliation had been completely verbal. If someone had made fun of his childhood like that, he’d have punched them in the mouth.

A swell of pity formed in his chest. Perhaps he’d been too cruel, saying that. If Baron’s could tease one another, it had to be on a whole other level compared to human kids. Two claws singed off? How hot could those hands get?

Andreas muttered a disapproving statement under his breath. He couldn’t believe a part of him was trying to… identify with this demon. Maybe Eva was right, and he’d talked to this demon too much already. He must be the only man on Earth holding a shred of amnesty towards a literal spawn of Hell, yet here he was, trying to decide whether he felt bad for Sharrya or not.

His thoughts were interrupted by a message from Eva, the AI’s tone coming off as excited.

“All right, Seargent, good news. That team Commander Valeria sent is just down the street, at the bottom of the ramp. They’re set up and have scopes on us right now.”

“Good. What’s the plan?” he replied, keeping his voice low. There was no point, the helmet could filter him out from the world at the press of a button, but the habit to whisper stuck.

“I’m thinking once we get close, you distract the Baroness, just in case she thinks something’s up. They’ve set up landmines down there, so when the explosions start, get your butt out into the alleys. It’s going to get loud and very messy.”

“Distract? Okay, I can do that.”

Over the tops of horned heads, Andreas could see the highway was angling slightly down, blooming into an extra lane on either side as it met with the street-level. Just before Andreas looked away, he caught a glint of light, flashing on one of the nearby rooftops. Andreas knew a sniper scope when he saw one. He didn’t think Valeria’s people were idiots, but that sniper had picked a pretty careless spot.

He had to make sure Sharrya didn’t look up. Fortunately, he had a plan for that.