499
Finally got word from EAT it was time to move into action. It didn’t leave any complicated messages: one day a body possessed by it showed up at my doorstep and said, “Chicago. June 1929. We will meet you there.”
It was waiting for me with a car when I arrived in the year. I’ve never really bothered much with America in the 1920s. Other parts of the world, hell yeah, but American prohibition always put a bit of a damper on things.
Inside the car was another body controlled by EAT. Weirded me out for a moment. It’s the first time I’ve seen it possessing multiple people at the same time. The one in the driver’s seat drove while the other spoke. “Grendel’s next target will be the Unnamed Child. We’ve convinced her to allow our interference in the matter, and will be protecting her from him.”
“How do you know it’s the target?” I asked.
“That Grendel and your shared heritage means you both may alter the foreseen course of events, however Grendel is a far more predictable individual than you are. It is easier for us to understand his mind than yours. As such, we may foresee his next action based upon what we know of him.”
That worked for me. We drove to one of the more upper class neighborhoods in the city, to a house that was absolutely surrounded by EAT’s people.
“The Child’s current host parent is one of the local crime bosses. He is aware that someone is planning to attack his home, but for the moment we are letting him believe that the aggressors are another gang. Because of this, he is allowing a higher amount of security than normal.”
The EAT who had been talking to me left to join the defenses, and another one started leading me in through the house, acting without any regard to the switch.
“We have told him that you are assisting in the security detail.”
“Who is he?”
“Irrelevant. In all probability he will be killed tonight.”
Well then, time to meet this dead man walking. In the room we stopped at was a man in a suit, several guards possessed by EAT, and a little girl so ugly she could only be the Unnamed Child. It’s skin looked slightly scaly, its hair was uneven and ragged, and its eyes had no color, just a black pupil on white. The man was holding her close, glaring suspiciously at everyone in the room.
“Carlo, who the hell is this?” The man said to EAT.
“Another guard we have brought in.” It responded.
“Carlo, I told you to get real guards, not broads you pick off the street corners! Now get the hell out there and-” The Unnamed Child whispered in his ear, and he calmed down. “Alright, she can stay. But get some more real security. I don’t like how these people are looking at my daughter….”
As far as I could tell, none of EAT’s guards were doing anything but looking straight ahead with an absolutely neutral expression on their face. Even so, EAT replied, “Of course. I shall double security immediately.”
“Good. Good. Now get the hell out of here.”
As we left the room, EAT said to me, “Grendel will likely attack tonight from the front entrance. You may wait for him there.”
Nothing better for me to do than wait there. As I walked back to the front of the house, I passed a room where several of EAT’s bodies were pinning down a man who was trying to struggle free. One of them started pouring water down his throat, which caused him to violently convulse. When the convulsions stopped, EAT let go, and the man stood up. But now he wore the same neutral expression as all of EAT’s other host bodies….
Didn’t think about that sort of stuff. Had to focus on stopping Grendel. I stood by the front door with at least two dozen armed, EAT possessed guards, and waited.
I will tell you one thing. EAT is pretty boring company after a while. It’s not really big on small talk. So the wait for night time had some pretty long stretches of boredom.
Night fell, and the street lights came on. No sign of Grendel. For a moment, I dozed off. And then I felt… something.
Woke with a start. Something was approaching. Something… bad. The street lights farthest from us were going off, and steadily moving closer. Behind the darkness they created, I could see a distortion in time, greater than anything I’d seen before. I shouldn’t have described Grendel as a black hole of time before; it left me at a loss for how to describe this abyss that was approaching me. It seemed as though all the timelines in the entire city were orbiting around this point, unable to escape its draw.
What the hell happened to Grendel that turned him into this? The last time I saw him, he was nothing like this monster. This was an entirely new level of power. I heard a sound in my head, like a muffled scream, and I saw visions of pyramids, stars, and atoms flashing before my eyes.
More street lights went out, and I realized I was shaking. Tried making myself stop, but I couldn’t. All the lights save the one in front of the house had gone out. The distortion moved into the light… and I saw myself. But with an eye patch and a glowing red eye.
A look of genuine surprise appeared on all of EAT’s faces. “This was not in our predictions.” The one closest to me said.
The other me vanished. Several of her appeared around the house, all attacking EAT’s bodies, tearing them apart with her hands. They were all dead in a moment; if I’d blinked, I’d have missed the whole thing. I didn’t have a chance to even try to stop her.
She reappeared under the light, and Grendel stepped out beside her. He whistled at the water strewn carnage. “Impressive, darling.” He moved to put his hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t touch me.”
And he moved his hand back to his side.
“Let’s get this over with.” She said, and the two began to walk toward the door.
Don’t know what the hell Future Me was thinking to be working with Grendel, and I really don’t care. I was stopping him either way. I stepped in their way and leveled my gun at Grendel. I was about to say something badass when Future Me warped in front of me and punched me in the jaw. God dammit… me… let me finish what I’m saying!
Grendel walked past me like I wasn’t there. I warped in front of him, but then Future Me warped beside me and threw me away. “Stay out of our way.” She said. I responded by trying to kick her, but she blocked that.
The water that had flowed out of EAT’s bodies came to life, and rushed at Grendel in a wave. He swung his hand, and a flaming sword appeared in it, which cut through the water, leaving a jagged line of emptiness behind it. The water fell back into an unmoving puddle on the ground.
“I suppose I’ll leave the two of you to enjoy yourselves.” Grendel said to Future Me. “I have to go and eat a god who likes to take the form of a little girl and brainwash adults into loving it. Farewell!”
I tried chasing after Grendel before he could enter the home, but Future Me got in the way again. All right, no more playing nice. I drew my pistol, aimed it at her, and then watched as the gun fell to pieces in my hand. Alright, bit of shoddy workmanship there but how about a grenade! I opened my coat to grab one, and promptly realized that all their pins had disappeared. Barely warped away before they all blew me up. Really starting to get pissed here. Grabbed one of the tommy guns EAT had been holding, pulled the trigger, and… nothing. In the time between me seeing the gun on the ground and grabbing it, all the ammunition had disappeared. And the whole time, it hadn’t looked like Future Me had moved an inch….
I threw aside the gun and screamed, then charged at her. Before I could get close, another her appeared, punched me in the gut, and then vanished. Only stopped me for a moment, and I started to run again. Once more another her appeared and attacked me, vanishing before I could react.
Enough running. Tried warping straight to her, but when I appeared she was gone. Looked around and didn’t see her, until she appeared and hit me again. She kept vanishing and reappearing to attack me, faster than I could strike back. I tried warping away, but she was always waiting for me wherever I arrived. And worst of all was when I realized that fucking bitch was only using one hand the entire time; she kept her left hand in her pocket while she fought me.
The next time she appeared to hit me, I manipulated time travel so that six more of me attacked her from different angles at once. I was moving in for the kill, when she finally pulled her left hand out of her pocket. A black tentacle whipped out of the sleeve, knocking all six of me aside, before returning to the shape of a hand. I tried to get back up, but she appeared in front of me and slammed her foot down on my throat.
“You’re still fighting wrong.” She said. “You act like a human who just happens to be able to teleport. Space and time are a part of you; you should use them to your advantage, not ignore them….”
She was interrupted when we felt spacetime spazzing out. Same feeling as when Grendel ate the Mother of Snakes back in Warsaw. Grendel reappeared outside, licking his fingers.
“Another delicious meal.” He said. “Shall we be off?”
Both of them were gone before I could get up. I rushed inside to see what the damage was. Grendel had torn the house to pieces; EAT’s soaked bodies were strewn throughout the halls, and entire rooms had been destroyed by the huge tears of nothingness. There was no sign of the Unnamed Child.
Found one of the possessed people who was still clinging to life amongst the bodies. Even as water bled out of it, it still spoke with EAT’s characteristic apathy.
“Grendel recruiting a future iteration of you was not foreseen. Some event must have altered his perception of you.”
“Yeah, great, great.” I said. “Now how do we stop them?”
“I will seek to create a counter to the weaponry Grendel utilized in this encounter.”
“And what about me?”
“Endeavor to not die soon. We will require you for containing the revolution.”
“Wait a minute, I thought we were supposed to be stopping that from happening in the first place?”
“Grendel has consumed the strength of two Fears. It is not within our capabilities to stop him from enacting his rebellion now. Our mission has changed to preserving as much of the multiverse as we can.”
“But….” I’m sick of all these damn failures. Every god damn time I’ve gone up against Grendel, the result has been the same. And I thought we had him this time, but then Future Me had to go and be a crazy, sociopathic, bitch. Why the hell was she helping him? Why the hell would I ever help him? How stupid would I have to be to do something like that? “What are the chances of us stopping him now?”
EAT thought for a moment. “Less than one percent.”
…. Awesome. If any of you need me, I’m going to be precisely calculating the amount of ale I need to consume in order to achieve a Viking Berserker fury when all this shit goes down.
I-330
No comments:
Post a Comment