Part I
The girl raised her hands to hush him up, and then spoke softly: "I am Angelique; I've come to make amends with you, in the name of my friends. They believe you are not to be trusted; I'm here to prove them wrong. Will you play along?".
"What kind of game is this?", he asked.
"It is a game of enigmatic proportions, you must follow me", she said and turned her back on him. He watched her Giger's tattoos which covered her arms and the Japanese marks which covered her torso through the black net t-shirt and stockings and her sharp piercing jewelry through her belly button just before she turned around, disguised her as an suburb girl; a one which hangs out at questionable places, with the shady looking fellows. But still, she was here, in this damp sewer, where she had said she would meet him, alone, with nothing to protect him except of his own wit and hands. As he followed her through the maze of sewage corridors, with the dribbling sound of water shading through the foggy bank, he couldn't stop looking at her pale skin and thin curves, as if Ana had been her liquid tension and by the god of Rexia, she would slip through her scrim panties deep down into the moist of the water. Her blue hair patted her shoulders and she glanced back at him with a grimace grin of the devil. If Satan was as deluding and tempting as it was thought to be, it would be her, mentally and physically; it would be Angelique.
She stopped herself at a chamber full of candles, and it reminded Alex of a scene from The Phantom of the Opera, where the boat arrives toward the Phantom's coven and it's full of candlelight and its reminisced pipe organ music had arrived to his mind, and engulfed him entirely.
"Why have you brought me here?", Alex had asked, and felt deja-vou, as if he was rhyming after the Phantom words as he sang to Christine.
"I've brought you here to prove your bravery," She said back, glaring at him from the distance. "Are you brave enough? Mr. Alexander The Large?".
"Don't you dare mock me," he said. "You don't know me; you don't know who I am".
"Oh, but I do know you, I know every little detail of you, and now you must know me too", and by those words he saw darkness engulf him entirely and he fainted from the lack of breathe.
He woke to the alien sound of thunder, and rain poured over him as he found himself inside a different chamber with water up to his knee caps and a hole with bars far up above where the rain could pour down on him. Sitting tied on a metal stool, his head is locked in some metallic mechanism and beside him, the moon light which illuminated the chamber and parted the sea beams which swept him with a rhythm quite strange to him, yet profound and delicate with the memory of what is yet to come. From the distance came the sound of water being pushed aside as a figure emerged from the shadows, it wore a purple tunic and her blue hair was undistinguishable.
"Angelique, what have you done with me?" He asked loudly.
"Shhhhhesh, Be quiet, my love. For you will wake up the others".
"The others?" He said. "For cries out loud, what others?".
And then a glitter rose and from the tubes around them, out came the fog; It crept all over them, all over the room. The fog had eyes; they covered Alex in an instance, touching him, feeling his flesh crudely and unkindly. And then a brilliant fog approached, must be the leader, and stood before him, opening his mouth and roaring with the thunderous scream which pushed Alex off with his stool on his back, and forced his head into the water which began to suffocate. He couldn't grasp for air, he couldn't grasp for life - he was doomed.
Part II
"I am Angelique," a voice had said. "I've come to answer your prayers". His head was pulled out of the water and was leaned upon a rock with the help of the strange metallic mechanism which transformed into something peculiar. Alex was still tied to the stool, and a woman figure was sitting on top of his chest, his head leans between her hips. She was pulling him by his hair as he spat water and he could see that she was grinning madly.
"What do you want-", he started, but his head was drowned again. The stream of liquid bypassed his eyelashes and the thin curves of his closed eyes, washing the outside of his pupils and eye fluids. His hair was pulled upward again as he gasped for air, and he saw that the images of the fog beings are around them both. Angelique turned her head toward them, she was clearly upset. She mumbled something under her breath but he couldn't hear what because of the loud voice of the rain. In the cold liquid shower, the fog was a bit more visible, a bit more realistic. It had a real shape, not just thin air. He saw those were creatures, monsters of some kind. They didn't have much of a human form, beside their eyes, hideous stretched mouth and blob like fingers. The rest was beast-like, squid-alligator form with gills on their neck and blade-shoulders muscles. The rest was too blurred. He felt a sudden rush of pain and then a hollow feeling of numbness as he saw one of the creatures holding a familiar pair of fingers in its mouth. The scar was familiar too; the ring was pulled with the finger and was eaten alive, maliciously. Alex had screamed and Angelique had a sudden knowledge of what had happened. "No!' she said with anger."He is mine!". I don't belong to any of you, he wanted to say but the tears chocked his throat.
As she spoke to them, he saw flare spurting in her eyes.
She looked back at him, and closed her eyes.
"Leave us", she pronounced softly.
There was a harsh noise from around her and she said again, softly: "I won't ask of you again", and there was a heat wave of blue fire coming from her back which burnt the flesh of the unlikely fog creatures as they roared with their thunderous screams and backed off toward the shadows, unnoticed but still watching.
She held Alex's drenched shirt and pulled him up toward her, his head lying back, with inhuman strength she couldn't have possibly possess.
"Look at me," she said, quietly.
He couldn't respond.
"I said, LOOK AT ME!" and rain broke and spurt to all sides, and after a moment of echoing roar, it resumed its steady rhythm and flow.
Alex raised his heavy head, slowly until he was in eye contact with the woman. Her pale skin was as white as a corpse, and her flame-like eyes burned with the passion of a creature who weren't mere mortal.
"You wanted to know me", she said, smiling. Her blue hair was drenched and fell in strings against her forehead and her European nose. She took off her robe and let it gently slide into the water. She wore metallic bra and tight silicon panties. She had spikes on her neck and right wrist. Her septum jewelry glittered from the moonlight that bathed the chamber. Angelique took out one spike from her wrist band and in her hands its melted and grew longer into a sharper tool, into a short-length lance. She held it two inches from Alex left eye, and said, smiling: "Well, now you do. Do you like what you see?".
Part III
"And in the shadow of death I've found comfort in the form of my suffering. And in vain of my birth I found the guilt of the innocent who was myself. I couldn't bear the anguish of my youth, I had to run, I had to hide myself from the others. And most of all, I had to hide myself from my own mind. For love is no longer a choice for me. I cannot endure it any longer. I wanted an escape. I wanted love and goodness in this which is living death".
She spoke to him, softly. The metallic lance moving from his right eye to the other, tempted to corrode inside, to tear the flesh and fracture the material that separated Alex's soul from his own living blood. He was in a state of shock. Afraid to move, afraid to speak, for it would be in the cost of his life.
Again, she began her philosophical musing as if she were an actor speaking to his audience from the stage. "I wanted to find solitude from my thoughts. I couldn't stand being around my family, my friends. They were no longer my friends. I have no friends. I ran into the tunnels, into the sewage. It was raining. I ran inside until I was safe from any curious eyes. Then, I stumbled upon a broken tile and fell down inside a chamber, this chamber." She smiled, as if remembering a lost and once forgotten memory. "I was in a dreadful state. I was cold, my hair was drenched, my clothes were torn and my body was bruised and bleeding. I couldn't wait no longer and I took a piece of glass from the water and cut both of my wrists impulsively. I sat there, bleeding to death. No one came. No one knew where I am, I made sure of that. All I wanted was to sit there and die. And just in those moments, came the fog, and It has lifted me and carried me away.
I awoke to the sound of thunder. I could see their form through the rain. I could communicate with them. On my death reaching-point I had behold powers I couldn't have possibly possess. I became their connection to the outside world, because their form wouldn't allow them to reach out". All this time, she looked at the floor, and now he could see beyond her tears an expression of resent. "They used me. But not anymore", she looked back. "Come out of there now, I won't hurt you…", and behind her grin she whispered - "Yet".
The fog shifted and approached. It flowed inward and backward at the same time. Spiraled like smoke toward them. As it entered the screen of rain, it became visible to them, although it seemed that Angelique could have seen them without the aid of the rain. The monsters crept forward, and Angelique rose toward them, pulling the lance from the nearness of Alex's eye, and held it against her, as a police rod. The creatures circled around her, and then began the thunderous roars as they spoke, and she grinned, again – with her resent emotion visible only to Alex. One of the creatures turned to look at one another, and then she leaped forward, as if in slow motion, raised her lance in mid-air, and struck the creature in front of her straight at his head. The spear went out at the back of his head, and blue liquid gashed out from the wound. There was a commotion now. The creatures were shocked at first. The girl, now, in fast movements slashed its throat open and its head rolled on to the floor. One of the creatures was cut in half and from it burst out a transformation, something foul and terrifying. It had spider legs and blob like front. Twisted machinery pelvis with bolts holding it shut. It crawled out with its long tentacles and jumped on Angelique's neck, sucking her blood out of it. She tried to cut of its arms, but new ones kept on growing. Another transformation burst out from the headless creature. Its movement in the water was quicker, as if it had stabled itself into the environment. The rain kept pouring as the beast-like-spider threw itself at the girl chest but with quick movement she cut it open and it fell as a heap to the floor. One of its claws was thrown at Alex's hand and scratched it. He bled and tried to struggle to get the claw out of his skin, but his lack of fingers made that difficult for him. He twisted and turned and by a great deal of pain by the twisting of his arm, he pulled out the claw and started using it to cut the wire that tied him to the stool. In his turning, the mechanism attached to his head broke, and his head felt into the water and water entered his lungs ad he struggled for air. He tried to haste his cutting the wire but he needed oxygen. And then he lost the claw, and he was still tied to the wire, chocking on the water, almost fading. A blow hit him, as one of the creatures fell and broke the stool. He quickly got up, free from the wire, bleeding, he watched Angelique fighting with the creatures. He looked at his missing fingers with agony, then raised his head and searched for the exit. It was right behind him, so he'd noticed. He started to run through the rain in search for a hideout, hearing her voice calling after him: "Wait! Wait…!", Leaving Angelique behind him. Allowing her to die alone.
Part IV
He ran and ran, and ran, slipping on the wet mud but getting up to run some more. Through the vast tunnels of the damp and humid underground structure that once had been a train station, but now became a filthy sewage, he fell on his face, mud covering every clean inch of his forehead, snout, cheeks and chin. Feeling scared and depressed, he crawled down some humid niche of dirty waste surrounded by half torn net covered with leaves that fell from the sewer holes down with the rain water. There, in the shadows, he hid, listening carefully to his own heartbeats and heavy breathing, trying to lower the amount of noise he was doing by simply being alive. There was a squeal and then a scream. Must be Angelique's, you coward! He told himself. I would have never forgiven you if I were her, pray she is dead. And so he prayed; for death as his saviour, for forgiveness, for surviving this horrific nightmare, he just kept on praying as the screaming ceased, and footsteps were heard. She is not dead. She survived the attack, by help me god, she did! And I deserve to die for what I did to her, I do, I really do. He kept on mumbling, realizing that in the cool dimness of his cave, in its hollow space, he is well heard. Quiet. Just the approaching footsteps, then a howl and a thunderous noise. It kept on approaching, one foot after the next, sinking in the mud and with a squishing sound as it got out of it, again and again. He could feel the bad smell, the awful stench of blood. Through the net came the glitter of fog, it started to envelope him, crawling through the damp air to Alex's hideout under the filthy blanket, there was nothing that could have escaped the fog. And as a foggy finger started lifting off the blanket, there was a sudden burst as the creature blew off with a bang and blood spurted out on the blanket. Alex, scared shitless, stared through a hole in the rag and saw Angelique with a double-barren shotgun. Her flaring eyes burning bright with a smile as she blew the creature again with the shotgun. Alex lifted the blanket and run fast behind her. She turned around fast and instinctively shot at his figure, she only missed by little, and she started running toward him, screaming as she blow off a part of the wall with her madness. He slipped down into a sewage hole, hugging the wall, covering his mouth so she wouldn't hear his breathing. Up above, he heard her footsteps, walking calmly. Her voice whispering through the acoustic surroundings of the cavern: "I'm coming…."
"Where are you, my dear, dear Alex?" he could hear her speak. "You shouldn't hide from me, Alex. I'm not the big bad wolf, I mean you no harm", and then there was the undistinguishable maniacal laugh. She is mad. She has gone mad. Or perhaps she always had been? He really couldn't tell.
"Come on, Alex", she spat his name out as if it were a fly. "I just want to talk, you do know what talking is, now, do you? Just to hang around and have a conversation, nothing much". In her calm voice he could only find deceit. "Oh, you were afraid of the Kronikers? Well, they are my friends. They too wish you no harm, nor me". She was clearly mad, he decided. "Come on out, bada bim bim bom, and we'll have some real golly good fun. Come on-" and then there was the blow of the shotgun, and the squeaking of rats. "Oh, gosh," she said and then there was quiet. No movement at all. Alex waited. After ten minutes had passed he removed his hand from his mouth and remained still, allowing him to breathe more easily, but still there was no movement, no sound whatsoever. He waited a dozen more and he began to feel the stench of where he was. It was dreadful. In his fear he hadn't noticed at all where he was or what was down there. As he moved, he felt he was stepping on something soft. He crouched and sent his hands to feel what he was standing on, hoping for it to be a clothe or type of rag to cover himself with so he wouldn't die from ammonia, but it was rubbery, as if it were alive once. And there were teeth… Disgusted he ran away from there, falling on the water only on another corpse and another, the tunnel was full of them. He reached for the ladder that was lying there and climbed up ahead, unaware of the hand that gripped his shirt and pulled him out of the hole. "Alex, you've been a very, very, naughty little boy, I'm gonna have to teach you a lesson now". She dragged him by his shirt as if he were a young brat deserved a spank and threw him over on the wet floor. Feeling the floor he now noticed a gap, a large gap on his right side and by the moonlight illumination he saw it was a huge pit with infiniteness bottom. Alex crawled away from it only to stumble upon Angelique's boots and her shotgun. He crawled backwards until there was nothing to crawl to and he stayed there, at the end of the pit, sitting still, staring at her reluctantly.
"Finally, I got you to listen, now, don't I?" she smiled happily, and he saw it was a happiness of a little child. She sat in front of him, legged crossed, and lowering her shotgun beside her she had resumed her story, as if nothing happened: "Yes, they used me, but I liked it. I liked being used. There was a time when I was eighteen and I wanted to be kissed by this guy, but people always said he wanted to fuck me. I felt as though I wanted to be kissed only by him and no other guy. I became obsessed, well, that's the sort of girl I am. I waited by his house until he got out, and told me to scram. I told him I'll do anything he'd like and he smiled and took me inside. It's hard for me to tell what really happened there but I found myself naked the next morning, with scratches and bruises and blood. I never got my kiss. I never allowed anyone to touch my lips ever again. And now it's time to go and for you to be instead. I never got my kiss. I never did." She repeated as she stood up and went to the pit. "I wonder how it would be like, I wondered that ever since", and she jumped as Alex ran and screamed for her not to go, and held her hand as she was hanging loose, looking down at the soles of her feet and then looked up at him, smiling .
"But what do you mean you go and I to be instead? You can't leave like that, you just can't", said Alex, starting to loose his grip. Angelique just shrugged and smiled, her wet blue hair covering half her face, her eyes still burning with the passion of youth.
A light started approaching from the deepness of the pit. It approached with waves and rose up slowly but steady, still far from them. Angelique looked down and raised her head back to Alex, shrugging again. "What?", Said Alex. "Tell me what is going on?".
"Could you kiss me?" she asked, slowly. The beam of light reached both of them and the entire room was in blue flame. From the pit rose a snake of light, it lipless mouth quivered as it opened and swallowed Angelique legs. She still looked at Alex, pleading, smiling with tears. "Please?". Alex left her hand and she rose in the air, sucked back into the mouth of the light snake, and he held her face gently with his two palms and kissed her softly. After a moment of eternity they let go, and she was almost swallowed entirely. She looked at Alex, her eyes burning, and softly said: "Amazing". The light of her eyes went off, and her beautiful blue eyes closed and she was gone. Her source of energy flowed from her body which was inside the snake toward Alex and engulfed him. He fell on his knees, as the snake returned to the bottom of the pit, the light beam disappearing slowly into darkness.
Through the darkness of the sewage came the fog. Its body envelopes once again the surrounding, and approached Alex as he sat helplessly down against the blackness pit. The rain started falling softly, deforming the fog into shape. The fog creatures stood there, watching him, speaking in their thunderous roars, when all of the sudden, it wasn't just thunder anymore, it were mere words!
They've said: "We are you, you are us.
Welcome to our brotherhood".
