Seventeen Years of Starvation

THUMP.

The building stopped shaking just long enough for Rome to hope the thing had gotten bored and wandered off to terrorize someone else.

Then it dropped.

Didn't walk down. Didn't use the stairs like a civilized nightmare.

It just fucking dropped from the second floor, landing with a concrete-shattering impact that sent cracks spider-webbing outward like the world's most terrifying connect-the-dots puzzle. The floor buckled under Rome's feet, nearly sending him sprawling.

"Oh," he breathed, because his vocabulary had abandoned ship along with his courage and dignity. "That's... big."

Big didn't cover it. This thing made the hook monster look like a toddler's art project. Nine feet of pure, biological terror stood before them, its massive frame covered in overlapping plates of dark, chitinous armor. Each hand ended in claws the size of hunting knives.

Its head was almost reptilian, with a jaw that unhinged to reveal row after row of needle-like teeth.

The shadow things on the walls went absolutely still. Then, as one, they flattened themselves against the concrete in a grotesque parody of worship, their amorphous bodies quivering in what could only be terror.

"Rome," the girl said, and something in her voice made his heart stop. He'd heard her angry, annoyed, even grudgingly impressed when he'd tackled the hook monster.

He'd never heard her afraid.

Her hand shot out, gripping his forearm with bone-crushing force. Blood leaked from the corner of her mouth, and her eyes were wide with undiluted panic.

"RUN!" she screamed, her voice raw and desperate.

They ran.

Or they tried to. Rome's legs pumped furiously, the distance to the exit seemed to stretch though. Each step covered inches when they needed miles.

Behind them, the monster moved.

The speed of it defied physics. One moment it stood in the center of the room, the next it was a blur cutting off their escape route. Its massive frame now blocked the entrance completely, those awful, knowing eyes studying them with what looked disturbingly like amusement.

It was toying with them.

"Get behind me," the girl snapped, shoving Rome backward with her good arm.

She lunged forward, her katana a silver arc aimed at the creature's leg. The blade connected with a sound like nails on a chalkboard, scraping across the monster's armored hide. When she pulled back, Rome saw a shallow scratch on its surface, already sealing itself.

The creature looked down at the mark, then back at the girl. If a face like that could express contempt, it did.

It didn't bother with a real attack. It just backhanded her.

A casual, almost dismissive gesture.

The girl flew backward like she'd been hit by a truck. Her body slammed into a pile of rusted machinery thirty feet away with a sickening crash of metal and the wet thud of flesh. She didn't get up.

And then it was just Rome. Alone with the monster.

It turned those ancient eyes on him, and he swore to god it smiled. The exit behind it might as well have been on Mars. Hope evaporated like morning dew on a hot sidewalk.

Rome took a step back. Another. His back hit a concrete pillar.

Nowhere left to run.

The creature moved with deliberate slowness, savoring his fear like a fine wine. One massive, clawed hand reached out.

He tried to dodge.

He might as well have tried to dodge gravity.

The hand closed around his torso, fingers nearly wrapping all the way around his body. It lifted him off the ground with no more effort than he'd use to pick up a coffee mug.

And then it squeezed.

Pain exploded across his chest. His ribs creaked, then cracked with sounds like wet twigs snapping. Each breath became agony, shallow and desperate. Black spots danced at the edges of his vision.

He was going to die here. Just like his friends.

"You don't have it." The girl's words from earlier echoed in his mind. "You're normal."

Normal. Powerless. Useless.

The story of his life. Never strong enough. Never special enough. Always the one passed over, passed around, passed down.

Foster homes and lonely nights and always, always being at the mercy of forces beyond his control.

The pressure increased. Another rib gave way with a sharp crack that vibrated through his entire body. Rome tasted copper.

Something hot and wild bubbled up from deep in his gut. Fear had burned away, consumed by a far more primal emotion.

Rage.

Pure, molten fury at the unfairness of it all. At being powerless. At being prey.

No.

If this is what it takes, if power is the difference between being the victim and the victor, then I'll take it. Whatever it is. Whatever the cost. I don't care what I become.

Rome's free hand clawed upward, fingers scrabbling at his neck. They found the smooth, cool surface of the obsidian pendant. His mother's last gift, the one constant in his chaotic life.

I will not die like this.

With the last of his strength, he yanked down hard. The chain, worn thin by seventeen years of continuous wear, snapped with a sound like a gunshot.

The obsidian pendant fell, hitting the concrete with a soft, final tink.

The world stopped.

For one perfect, crystalline moment, everything froze. The pain. The fear. The monster. Rome.

Then that moment shattered.

The pressure around his chest vanished as the creature released him with a shriek of pure agony. It stumbled backward, massive claws clutching at its face. Four deep gashes had appeared there, as if some invisible beast had raked its talons across the armored hide. Dark ichor leaked from the wounds. Its left arm hung useless, nearly severed at the shoulder.

Rome dropped to his feet, landing with a grace he'd never possessed.

Something was happening to him. Energy coursed through his veins like liquid fire, instead of burning though, it healed. His broken ribs knitted themselves together with audible pops. The bruises faded from his skin. Power surged through him in waves, each stronger than the last.

The air around him ignited with violent purple light.

It felt right. Like finally stretching after being cramped in a tiny box for years.

The pressure built, a dam about to burst, and then...

CRACK!

The air itself shattered like glass. The barrier that had trapped them, the "Curtain" as the girl had called it, fell away in glittering fragments that dissolved into nothingness. The distant city lights and the star-filled night sky suddenly visible through the windows.

A movement caught his eye. The girl, pushing herself up from the wreckage, bloody and battered. She froze when their eyes met, her expression shifting from pain to shock to... fear.

The same fear she'd shown the monster.

Directed at him now though.

"Your eyes," she whispered, the words barely audible. "What are you?"

Rome didn't answer. He wasn't sure he knew anymore.

Instead, he turned back to the creature. It had recovered somewhat, now standing upright despite its injuries, watching him with those ancient eyes. Something had changed though. The coldly amused intelligence was gone, replaced by something he recognized immediately.

Fear.

The tables had turned. The predator had become the prey.

Rome cracked his neck, a slow, deliberate movement that felt entirely natural and completely foreign at the same time. A smile spread across his face, one that belonged to someone, something, else.

"All roads lead to Rome," he heard himself say, his voice layered with harmonics that hadn't been there before.

He took a step forward. The creature took a step back.

Rome was hungry. So hungry. Seventeen years of starvation suddenly making itself known with a vengeance.

And standing before him was a feast of demonic energy, ripe for the taking.