Changing of the Guard

Part Three: The First Lesson

Cover: The interior of Jason's car. In the mirror we see Jason's face has a very un-heroic expression of stark terror. Also in the mirror is the reflection of a huge dog-like demon creature chasing the car through the parking garage. The creature's mouth is open, exposing multiple rows of very sharp, nasty-looking teeth. Tiny text across bottom of mirror "Objects in mirror may be a lot bigger and nastier than they appear."

" xplain to me what's supposed to be happening again," said Jason. "Because I'm not feeling a damned thing other than REAL silly."

Jason looked down at the sword he was holding in his hands. The long, straight blade held his reflection like a mirror, and the leather upholstery of Jason's 98 Toyota Celica offered no resistance to the weapon's razor-sharp edges. He'd already ruined one seat belt and cut several accidental gashes in his passenger seat just from handling the blade. He wanted very much to put it back in its scabbard, but Donovan insisted that he hold it in his hands until some undefined 'magical event' happened.

So far, Jason was coming up empty. That fact didn't really surprise him. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more this whole day started to seem like a big practical joke. Maybe the old man's ghost was real. Maybe all the auras and visions he'd seen were true. After all, the sword was right were Donovan said it would be.

But the whole "crusader in the fight against evil" was too 'comic-book/action' hero for Jason to even grasp. The more he tried to accept it as real, the funnier it became.

That is... except for the holes in his leather seats.

"Give it time," replied Donovan.

"Time? I've been staring at this thing for ten minutes."

"I don't understand. It wasn't like this with me. The effect was instantaneous the moment I held the weapon in my hand."

"What affect are we talking about here?"

"Affinity. You're supposed to be feeling a... a kinship with the sword."

"With THIS thing?" Jason shifted his grip on the weapon, and accidentally sliced a deep hole in his door-panel. Fortunately, he didn't notice it at the time.

"With that sword or any other," said Donovan. "The gift of Affinity makes whatever sword you wield an extension of your own mind. It becomes a part of you from the instant you pick it up. The Affinity perfects your movements... your skill, your speed and your reflexes will surpass those of even the highest grand-master."

"Yeah? Well ain't none of that happening here."

"Are you sure you don't feel anything?"

"Look..." Jason snapped. "You wanted me to come out here and see the church you blew up... well, we're here, and we saw it. You wanted me to stop and pick up this sword.... well, here it is. NOW you want me to hold it and wait for the Force to kick in. Well guess what, Obi-Wan... the Force ain't cooperating today. So if you don't mind, I've got plans for tonight."

"No you don't."

"The hell I don't. It's Saturday night. LAST night I spent in bed because of whatever it was you did to me. I got some phone calls to make and some people I need to-"

"Not anymore. I explained this to you earlier; your old life is over."

"Screw you. You picked me to be some cosmic warrior, but now it looks like whatever it was didn't take. The sword thing ain't working... you're outta luck, and I'm taking my life back."

"I'll figure this out."

"Yeah, well while you're figuring, you need to figure yourself a new boy to run your errands- HEY! Hey look at my DOOR!" Jason pointed at the smooth gash that he'd sliced into his passenger door panel. Your sword scratched up my door! That's it. This is over..."

Jason rolled down the window with the full intention of tossing Donovan's sword out into the bushes. He took one more look at the weapon and changed his mind. Instead, he sheathed the blade and propped it up on the passenger seat.

"I'm going home. But at the FIRST pawn shop I come to, THAT thing is getting dropped off. I'm using the cash to fix all the holes you put in my ride."

"Jason-"

"You're a ghost right? Isn't there a light or something that you're supposed to be going into?"

Jason started the car and revved the engine. The 180 horsepower machine roared to life. Jason hummed along with it as fastened his seat belt and darted out into the street.

"Slow down..."

Jason took a hard right at the first intersection and headed back towards town.

"You're a ghost, remember? What do YOU care how I drive?"

"I'm supposed to look after you."

"No thanks, I don't need a nanny. I've listened to you all day... and the whole day has been shot straight to hell. You've had me running out of hospitals and doing all kinds of strange shi-"

"I'm sure there's a logical explanation about the sword. There must me."

"SCREW the sword! You think I give a damn about a sword! How am I gonna look walking around with a THAT thing tucked under my trenchcoat? Like some kinda NUT, that's how! Who do I look like, the freakin HIGHLANDER or something!?!"

"Actually it's very easy to conceal with the proper clothing-"

"What makes you think I'd know how to use a sword anyway? I've never even SEEN one until about ten minutes ago..."

"Hmmm... I think I've got an explanati-"

"Whatever it is, keep it to yourself. I only got one more thing to say to you..."

"What would that be?"

"Hold on."

Jason made a hard right that made the performance tires squeal. He pictured Donovan's ghost being thrown to the other side of the car, and couldn't help but smile. He made a similarly hard left turn and shot down the entrance ramp to the highway. He put the accelerator almost to the floor, and the car was going at least 130 miles per hour when Jason burst onto the highway and veered across three empty lanes. Once there, he slowed down to a very reasonable 95 per hour.

"You drive like a maniac." said Donovan.

"Oh... this from a guy who crashed into a streetlight last night. Don't try to deny it... I was there."

"I was dead at the time."

"No excuse."

Jason zoomed down the highway and got off at the next exit. Two bone-jarring right turns later, he was cruising down main street. He stopped right outside of a large pawn shop.

"You're actually going to sell my sword!!?"

"I SAID I was, didn't I?"

"Wait... if we just give it some more t-"

"Screw you."

Jason got out of the car, grabbed the sword and walked towards the shop. He stopped a few yards away from the door.

"What?" said Donovan. "Changed your mind?"

Jason's gaze was fixed on the store's window. It was a pawn shop, and, like most pawn shops, it had more that a fair amount of weapons. Handguns. Rifles. Shotguns. Every calibre, every size. Jason could see them clearly through the glass. Everything seemed to slow down around him. Fear and distress poured into his gut, where it formed a hard knot. His throat was dry... all the moisture of his body seemed to have been re-routed to his forehead and underarms. There was a horrible taste in his mouth that wasn't there before.

It was the same terror that Jason knew all too well.

He thought about his brother. He tried not to, but he couldn't stop the thoughts from coming. He heard the bang. Saw the flash. He felt the weapon kick in his hand.

He saw the bloody hole in his brother's chest.

"Jason?" said Donovan.

All those weapons...

There was no way he could go in there.

"...uhh... yeah... you know what?" said Jason as he backed away from the store. He turned back toward the car. "I think I know somebody at work who'll buy this thing. He'll give me more money than I can get from here."

Jason got back in the car and started the engine.

"What just happened?" said Donovan.

"What? I just said... I can sell this thing to somebody else for more money."

"That's not what happened. You were afraid."

"What? Me? Never."

"Yes you were. What is it about this place?"

"I'm really tired of hearing your voice in my head," said Jason. He drummed his fingers nervously on the steering wheel. "Now would be a good time for you to shut up and leave me alone."

"Did you see something in there? Did you feel anything?"

"I saw lots of stuff... and I felt like I could get a better deal somewhere else."

"But did you-"

Jason sighed, then an idea came to him. He turned on the radio, and punched in one of his CD's at random. Donovan continued to talk while the music played, but as Jason focused on the radio, the ghost's voice became less and less distinct... until it was finally just a barely-discernible buzz in the background.

"Guess that focussing trick works for ghosts too. Bye-bye, Donovan. Find somebody else to haunt."

Jason pulled out into the street, made a U-turn, and headed home.

" xcuse me miss, you look like you need some help..."

The man and his wife, both in their mid thirties, were just finishing up their late afternoon jog when they came across a the woman. She was in her late twenties, and had long, blonde hair that was pulled back in an oddly-shaped ponytail. Her long, angular face was peering into the engine of her old brown van. She scratched her head in confusion, and then turned toward the couple.

"I, uhh... It just stopped."

"Lemme take a look at it." The man leaned in under the hood and started wiggling the ignition wires. He accidentally touched the hot engine block and singed his knuckles. "Ouch. This thing's still hot... must have just happened right?"

"Yeah." The blonde stepped back out of his way.

"What exactly did it do? Cut off suddenly, or did it ride really rough for a while? Any smoke? Indicator lights?"

"Uhhh....It just stopped."

"Hmmm."

"It's okay, dear," said the man's wife. "Harold's a mechanic. Has his own store, too!"

"Really?" said the blonde women in a mocking, disinterested tone.

"Yep," said the man. "Lucky we came along. Okay, get in and try to start 'er up."

The blonde walked over to the driver's side of the van. But instead of getting in, she looked around... up and down the street... then walked over to the man.

"I said get in, honey... try to start it-"

*pfft!*
*pfft!*

They never even saw the tranquilizer gun. She shot the man in the side, and the woman in the chest. The man slumped into the engine. His forehead fell against the hot metal and his skin sizzled as it burned away... but he was already too far gone to notice. The woman opened her mouth, and collapsed before the scream could emerge.

The rear doors of the van flew open. Three men jumped out, loaded the unconscious couple into the back, and climbed in after them. The rear doors slammed shut as the blonde quickly lowered the hood and got in the van.

She drove away without saying a word.

etectives Dobbs and Royce were inside the old church, looking at the many pools and puddles of blood that were staining the wooden floor. One pool in particular, near the pulpit, looked like someone had bled to death on that very spot.

There was no body, of course.

The forensics experts were wandering around taking samples of everything that could be sampled. Wood, blood, cloth and carpet fibers, dusting for fingerprints... everything.

"How much you wanna bet this is where our John Doe got that neck wound?" said Marilyn.

"It's a sucker-bet," replied her partner, James Royce.

"You think this is where he came from too, eh?"

"This is a quiet town," said Royce. "It isn't likely that whatever happened here and whatever happened to Mr. Doe were unrelated. That much crap just doesn't HAPPEN in one night in this town."

"That's why I moved here," said Marilyn. "In New York, there'd be this, the John Doe, and five other homicides in a three block radius. None of 'em connected."

"Hmph."

"Detective Dobbs?" a uniformed officer was standing at the door of the church. He didn't want to enter for fear of disturbing the crime scene. Marilyn and Royce strolled over to where the young cop stood.

"I followed that guy, like you said. He walked about a half-mile up the road and then stopped to get something out of the bushes."

"Something?" said Royce.

"What kind of something?"

"A sword."

"Hmmm..." Royce looked around at some of the gash-marks in the walls and pews. "Hey Dobbs, ya think a sword coulda made some of those?"

"Some," replied Marilyn. "But not that one-" She pointed at what looked like a set of furrows made by the claws of some animal.

"After that he went to his car and just sat there for about ten minutes," the cop continued.

"Did he see you?"

"I was way back. Watching with my binocs. Anyway, he sat there for a while, looked like he was talking to somebody, but there wasn't anybody else in the car."

"Radio? Speaker phone?" said Marilyn.

"Either that or he was just crazy. He finishes talking and just takes off. Really fast... like he was in a hurry."

"You didn't by any chance get a plate number, did you?" said Marilyn.

"Already ran it. Belongs to a guy named Jason Brooks. Lives-"

"Downtown," Marilyn finished. "Well, well, well... what a coincidence."

"Or not," added Royce.

"This guy a suspect?" the officer asked.

"Not yet," said Marilyn. "But he's getting close."

"Close? Hell, this guy knows something," said Royce. "He's the first guy to see the John Doe... the only guy to see him alive after the accident. Then he just shows up out here by coincidence? Naahhh... He came out here to get something."

"The sword. Maybe something hidden in it. Drugs or money?"

"How do you hide drugs or money in a sword?" asked Royce.

"There are ways to hid anything anywhere," said Marilyn. "And criminals always know about 'em. It's part of their training at crime school. Looks like this Brooks guy was involved in whatever went on here... either that or the John Doe told him something that he neglected to pass on to the officers at the accident scene."

"Sound like we're on our way to see Mr. Brooks," said Royce.

"Damn right we are..."

ason pulled into the three-level parking garage next to his apartment. It was just late enough that people were starting to go out in preparation for their Saturday night festivities... or were just now waking up and from Friday night's. As a result Jason found a space on the second level not too far from the stairs. He left Donovan's sword in the car, and hoped that Donovan would stay behind with it.

No such luck.

Jason heard the ghost's annoying buzz in his head, even though he was actively concentrating on the last song he heard before shutting off the radio. His mind had shut out Donovan's words, but the ghost himself was still there.

The garage had more than its share of lights, but unfortunately, they weren't lit. Sunlight streamed in from the open sides, lighting the perimeter but leaving the central portion blanketed in shadows. Jason walked down the rows of cars, focussing so hard on not hearing Donovan's voice that he didn't hear the deep guttural growl of the creature until it leapt out of the darkness. He saw the movement out of the corner of his eye. He heard Donovan's incessant buzzing double in volume. Jason turned his head toward the movement and-

"WHAAAA- HEEEYYY!!!"

Jason screamed. The thing was roughly the size and shape of a huge dog... or a small bear. Only it had no fur. Or skin. It was no more than a pile of knotted muscle with a large, tooth-filled snout sticking out of one end. It didn't even have a tail. But it DID have claws and teeth. Jason could see them quite clearly as they sailed through the air towards him.

Jason twisted out of the thing's path more by reflex than intent. He turned and ran for the stairwell door, determined that if that thing was going to catch him, it was going to catch him from behind!

"AAAAAHH!!" He screamed. The door loomed ahead of him. "DONOVAN! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!"

"DUCK!" Donovan's voice shouted in his head.

"A DUCK!?!"

"DUCK! HIT THE GROUND!"

Jason fell to the ground, and the dog-thing sailed overhead. It would have taken his head... no- the entire top half of his body off if he had still been in its path. Instead, it slammed into the thick metal stairwell door... and demolished it completely. The door folded in half as if it'd been hit with a cannonball. The dog-thing rebounded and hit the ground.

For the briefest instant, Jason thought it had knocked itself out, but the thing quickly rolled over onto its feet and ran for him. Only NOW it was between him and the exit.

Jason fled back towards his car. He could hear the thing gaining on him. Fast.

He couldn't outrun it.

Jason veered right and squeezed down a narrow space between a black Mercedes and a large concrete support beam. The dog followed... or at least it tried.

WHAM!

It slammed into rear of the Mercedes, doing about as much damage as a 50mph collision. The thing wasn't even stunned, but the Mercedes was now in dire need of medical attention. The thing tried to squeeze through the space where Jason had passed. With a twist of its neck and a shrug of it shoulders, it sent the damaged car sliding into the car beside it, widening the space enough for the dog-thing to pass.

Jason, of course, didn't see any of this. He was already two rows away, speeding towards the other stairwell door.

"HELLLPPP!!!" he screamed. "SOMEBODY HELLP!!!"

No one answered his cry. No one except for his pursuer, which let out a half-bark, half-roar as it leapt over several cars and landed just a few yards behind Jason.

Jason felt the concrete floor vibrate with the force of the thing's landing.

"DONOVAAAAN! DO SOMETHING!!!"

"It's faster than you!" Donovan yelled into Jason's mind. "But not smarter! You have to outmaneuver it!"

The only maneuvering Jason was thinking about was how to maneuver his legs faster in the general direction of the stairwell. He could hear the thing's grunted breaths as it gained on him. Jason was ran through a pair of empty parking spaces and emerged onto the next row. He ran right for the rear of the car directly in front of him... an ugly blue Ford Taurus. He veered away at the last second and ran down the length of the car.

CRASH!

The beast demolished the Taurus, slamming head-first into it and crushing the trunk inward like an accordion. The dog didn't even seem to notice. When it extracted its head from the hole it had made in the Ford's trunk, it turned toward Jason.

Jason was now running back the way he had come. That stairwell was still closer, so he had a much better chance of reaching it with his arms and legs still attached to his body. The dog-thing roared and was after him again. It leapt over cars as if they were tin cans and rapidly ate away at Jason's lead.

"Get back to the car!" said Donovan. "Get my SWORD!"

"What the hell is your SWORD gonna do against THAT thing!?"

"It's the only weapon you HAVE!"

"But I can't USE IT!"

"Yes you CAN! You just needed the right catalyst... I think this qualifies!"

While Jason's mind wrestled with the idea, his body altered course towards his Toyota... and Donovan's sword. It was closer than the stairwell, but he seriously doubted it would offer him any safety.

"You'd better be right about this!"

"I AM!"

Jason was halfway to his car when he heard... and felt... the thing land behind him again. Jason altered his course slightly and made for the nearest concrete post. STRAIGHT for the nearest concrete post. He veered and shot past it at he last moment to keep from cracking his skull open... but the dog didn't bother.

THOOOM!

The whole floor shook so violently that Jason stumbled and almost fell... almost.

"Damn, that thing IS stupid!" he huffed as he ran for his car. "That's the second time he's fallen for that trick!"

"I told you.. now trust me and get the sword!"

The concrete post proved harder and more unyielding than the cars that the dog-thing had encountered... The creature was actually stunned for a few moments. It stood motionless for perhaps three seconds, a tiny trickle of dark blood streaked down its face from a gash on its forehead. Finally, it shook itself like a wet dog after a bath... and it roared.

It saw Jason and started running again.

Jason slammed the driver's door. And jammed the keys into the ignition.

"What are you Doing!" said Donovan as Jason started the car.

"I'm getting the hell OUT OF HERE!"

"That thing will chase this car down and chew it apart... with YOU INSIDE!"

"Catch THIS car? I doubt that very seriously..." Jason pulled out of the parking space. He could see the creature in the rear-view mirror.

"You have to fight it! Grab the sword!"

"Yeah... uh-huh..."

Jason put the pedal to the floor and awaited the sudden acceleration that would thrust him back into the seat. He heard the tires squealing...

But the car wasn't moving.

KRUNK! CRUNCH!

The sound of metal being crushed sank Jason's heart. The dog had latched onto the car's rear end!

"DAMMIT!"

Jason floored it again. The tires smoked as they spun in place. Finally they began to move...

"YYEAAAAAHHHH!!!"

-backwards

"DAMN!"

The beast was pulling him back.

"SHIT!"

"Get out and FIGHT IT! It's your JOB!"

"I've already GOT a job! And it don't include fighting ugly mutant dogs! FINE... if fido want's to go backwards... then DAMMIT, LET'S GO BACKWARDS!!!"

Jason lifted his foot from the accelerator and the car jerked backwards in the monster's grip. Then he threw the gear-shift into reverse and floored it.

The car jostled and rocked as it rolled over the thing. Suddenly, all four wheels left the ground. The car rose about a foot into the air, and then tilted to the left and slid back to the ground-

"WHOOAH!"

THUD!

Having shrugged the Toyoto off of its shoulders, the creature rose up and snarled. Jason could see it clearly through the passenger side window. It's mouth opened, and the sight of all those teeth made Jason's stomach rocket down to the bottom of his shoes.

"NOW will you listen to me?" said Donovan.

"I AIN'T FIGHTIN' THAT THING- HELL NO!!!"

"You're a Crusader... it's your job!"

"SCREW the job.. I QUIT!"

The monster bit down on the Toyota's passenger door. Its teeth sank easily into the metal and plastic. It pulled, and the door came away in its jaws!

"AAA! IT ATE MY DOOR!"

The creature snapped its head to one side and sent the door flying.

Jason grabbed Donovan's sword from the passenger seat with one hand, and opened the driver's door with the other. The creature leapt into the car just as Jason was rolling out onto the concrete on the drivers side.

He got to his feet and pulled the sword free of the scabbard.

The hell hound's claws shredded Jason's upholstery as the beast scrambled through the car and out towards Jason.

"What now!?!" said Jason, who was rapidly backing away.

"The sword... you should feel it now! You should feel your reflexes and muscles kicking in... going on autopilot-"

"I'm feeling like a two-piece Jason dinner- THAT'S what I'm feeling!"

"What? It's not working!?"

"NO! Oh, GOD I'm gonna die! DONOVAN, I TRUSTED YOU!!!"

The monster emerged from Jason's car, spotted Jason, and started to approach. Fast.

"Okay...we'll do this the hard way-"

"HELLLLLPPP!!"

"You ever play baseball?"

"YES! But what does THAT have to do-"

"That thing's throat is the ball. When it leaps, step to one side and hit a home run."

"But-"

"DO IT NOW!"

The monster slowed, crouched down, and leapt... supernaturally powerful muscles propelled it towards Jason like a rocket.

As soon as its hind legs left the floor, Jason dodged to the left. He saw the creature's mouth opening. He swung with every ounce of strength he had.

The tip of the sword sliced into the creature's neck, carving a long two inch-deep line from the center of it's throat around to right side of its neck.

The creature yelped, hit the ground like a large bag of sand, and slid into the rear of yet another car. It left a trail of black blood behind it. The creature growled weakly and then let out a loud gurgle as more blood pumped out of its wound. Finally it lay silent and still.

"What the hell?" Jason looked down at his... Donovan's... sword.

"Good job. You severed a nerve bundle as well as the main jugular."

"Wha- Wha- Wha-"

"Now get over there and put your sword through its heart."

"What?"

Still in shock, Jason gazed at the motionless monster as if hypnotized. He looked back down at the sword, then down at the front of his pants to verify that he hadn't embarrassed himself. He hadn't.

"JASON!" Donovan's shout brought Jason back to reality.

"WHAT?!"

"Take the sword and put it through the center of the thing's chest!"

"What? Why? I'M not going over there! YOU do it!"

"This creature isn't from this world! It's down now, but the only way to kill it is to pierce the-"

As if on cue, the monster rolled to its feet and ran straight towards Jason.

"AAAAAAHHHH!!!"

Trying to back away, Jason tripped and fell. His back hit the ground just as the creature started to pounce. Jason brought the sword around and held it straight up.

THWOCK!

The beast impaled itself on the sword. Right through the heart.

Then it collapsed... pinning Jason to the ground with its enormous dead weight.

"Not the way I would have done it," said Donovan. "But still effective."

Jason wiggled out from under the dead beast, which took more effort than he thought he was capable of at the moment. Jason managed to pull himself free, though when he finished, his brown trenchcoat was soaked with the thing's black blood. Jason placed his rear end against one of the ubiquitous concrete posts and slid all the way back down to the floor. He couldn't bring himself to stand up just yet, so he just sat...

"Okay..." Jason said between gasps for breath. "You... are gonna... tell me... what... the HELL... that thing was..."

"'Hell' is pretty accurate. It was a Lower Cerberite," replied Donovan, as if the words 'lower Cerberite' were self-explanatory. "A young one from the looks of it."

"Young?"

"A good choice for a first kill. Their muscles and bones are hard... their body structure can absorb lots of impact. But a sharp blade cuts through 'em like warm butter. Lucky for you. At least now you've gotten a taste of what's at stake here."

"Taste? That thing was gonna taste ME! Where-"

"From Hell. It's kind of like a rodent down there."

"A rat. From hell. From THE Hell!?"

"Actually there's more than one. Cerberites are from one of the generally-accepted 'fire and brimstone' type hells."

"This thing was a demon?"

"No. Not even close."

Jason gulped.

"So... uhh... How did it get here?"

"There are lots of ways to get to the mortal plane. Usually these things tag along when something larger makes the jump."

"No. How did it get HERE! In MY freakin' parking garage!? Why was it after ME?"

"Because you were the only one in the garage, maybe?" Donovan offered in a joking tone.

"Very funny. A dead man with a sense of humor. Great. No, no, no... back up... Rewind to this morning. You were telling me something..."

"Attraction. Good, you were paying attention."

"Explain it again, so I can be sure this is as messed up as I remember it."

"Evil is attracted to you, Jason. It's part of the Crusade, part of what you are now. This thing was drawn here... drawn specifically to you. Had I lived... had I never passed the crusade on to you, then it would have come after me instead."

"So now I'm walking around with a big neon bullseye on my back? Is that it?"

"More or less. The idea is to draw these things AWAY from other people, and focus them on someone who is trained and equipped to handle them."

"Trained and equipped," said Jason. "And exactly HOW does either of those things apply to me?"

"The Affinity wasn't working," said Donovan. "I don't know why. I thought a real conflict would jolt it into-"

"A real conflict almost jolted me into the afterlife. The Affinity ain't workin... I got every demon in the city after me... and all I got is a sword i can't even use."

"World."

"What?"

"Every demon in the world. At least. We'll figure something out about the Affinity. Might take a little research-"

Jason wasn't listening. He stared off into space for a while, trying to absorb what he had just heard. Not far away, the Cerberite's corpse was beginning to dissolve... forming a pool of dark, bubbling, foul-smelling liquid on the concrete.

"Every... demon... in the world?"

"I wouldn't worry about the cerberites," said Donovan. "They're not dangerous."

"Huh? What was that? Were you not paying attention for the last five minutes here?"

"Size and strength don't matter when dealing with the infernal forces. What matters is how smart is it, and how hard is it to kill. This thing was dumb and simple. Not at all like most of what you'll be facing. Nothing like what killed me."

"Oh, God." Jason didn't thing it was possible for his stomach to sink any lower... but there it went, right through the floor. Jason stood up, looked down at his bloody coat, and shook his head.

"This... this stuff is real isn't it."

"The blood?"

"All of it. You. The sword. This Crusade thing..."

"As real as anything else you've don until now. Probably MORE real. If it weren't for you, that thing would've gone on to kill dozens of people. You prevented that. That's what you're here for... and yes, it's real. You'd better get the sword"

"What for?"

"Only weapon you've got right now, unless you happen to have an arsenal in your apartment."

Jason went back and picked up the weapon, which was laying in a smelly puddle of good. There was nothing left of the Cerberite at all. Jason looked at his car. The interior looked like it had been caught in a tornado along with a truckload of very sharp knives. The seats and dashboard were ripped to shreds.
The passenger door was gone. The trunk and rear bumper looked like something large and ugly had taken a bite out of them.... which is exactly what happened.

"That thing ATE my car!"

"You go through a lot of cars in this line of work. And clothes. Best not to get too attached to anything."

"I don't suppose 'lower cerberites' have insurance, do they?"

"No."

"Damn."

To Be Continued...

copyright 2005 by Dark Icon Entertainment