In a Parking Lot at 3am

Wishes are never free. In fact, they are illegal. Making a wish is a criminal offense that could get you up to ten years of prison on that charge alone. That’s also not counting the amount of people that the Distortion born from that wish hurts or kills. Those are additional charges.And yet, who wouldn’t want their wish granted? Anything could become yours, at the cost of summoning an incredibly vicious and bloodthirsty monster that seems hell bent on eating as many people as it could. So people do it anyway. And they do it a lot. All you have to do is find a creature known as a Dark One. They usually hang out where you would expect shady deals to take place. Abandoned buildings, under bridges. The parking lot at 3am. Go to those places, and odds are you might run into a Dark One. Make your wish, and depending on how powerful that Dark One is, it’ll come true. Then the Dark One turns into a Distortion and starts eating people. A lot of times the wish maker doesn’t have time to enjoy their wish. The Distortion tends to eat them. And then it grows bigger, and then it gives birth to more Dark Ones.

Naturally, someone has to control these things. Those people are known as Reapers. They specialize in making sure your dreams are crushed, sometimes before your very eyes. Reapers patrol those shady areas, keeping them clean and making sure the kids don’t get easy access to any illegal wishes. They had to earn those the hard way. Reapers aren’t just your ordinary humans. They almost always have extraordinary powers. Not to say there aren’t Reapers who don’t have powers, but they tend to be few and do not last long. Needless to say, the way they obtain these powers is kept under great secrecy. Although there are whispers and rumors about it.

And then there’s a weird third thing. Rare, but not unheard of. Half human/half Distortions that Reapers refer to as Hounds. Now Hounds aren’t born when a mommy Distortion falls in love with a handsome looking human. No one really knows where they come from. All that’s known is they are sometimes created when humans make wishes with a Dark One. Maybe it’s some sort of glitch, or maybe a special type of Dark One, there are many theories. But for some reason or another, the Dark One instead fuses with the wish giver, turning them into some kind of weird abomination with unusual powers. They don’t seem to want to eat other people thankfully, and other than gaining a great amount of power, there seem to be no downsides. A wish and super powers. Except for one of course. Sometimes, for whatever reason, these Half-breeds go berserk, and turn into extremely powerful full breed Distortions that can level continents. Now this doesn’t happen often, but it’s happen a handful of times and completely shaped the flow of human history. But only sometimes. Oh, and also Dark Ones can fuse with them and cause this transformation. But only if they’re dead. Naturally Dark Ones try to kill Hounds any chance they get.

Now, that was all set up to explain why a Hound, known as Anders Whitlock, is sitting duct taped to a lawn chair in an abandoned mall parking lot at 3am. His “partner” Mirai had insisted on tying him up. But Anders did not understand why his mouth had to be duct taped as well. He muffled in protest, even though he knew it was futile. Mirai never listened to him anyways. They were “partners” of course, but that didn’t really mean anything. It just meant if he start transforming, she’d use her scythe to decapitate him on the spot. Anders chewed, finally managing to wade up the duct tape and spit it out.

“Can we call it quits for tonight?!” He yelled towards his partner who was hidden behind a dumpster across the lot. “I have a test tomorrow!”

Mirai clicked her tongue, poking her head out from behind the dumpster.

“Please?” Anders said, bouncing on his lawn chair in an attempt to face her.

She shot him an irritated look before disappearing behind the dumpster again.

“Ah dammit another one is coming…” He sighed.

Hounds are like beacons for Dark Ones. But, it also worked the other way around. As a Hound, he had a kind of sixth sense that allowed him to sense both Dark Ones and Distortions. The creature emerged from a shattered window from the nearby mall, two long, dark tentacles at first slithering out from between the boards that barely covered the opening. Then, the rest of its dark body emerged. They reminded Anders of balloons. Large, black, organic balloons with a row of spindly tentacles that twisted and turned as they approached you. Yeah, that’s something that you’d approach for a wish.

The creature slowly floated forward, noticing Anders. It let out a raspy hiss as it approached. It’s tentacles fidgeted, reaching towards him like a curious toddler’s fingers.

“Mirai? It’s almost got me. Mirai?” Anders protested, squirming and sliding backwards on his lawn chair away from the creature’s grasp, the chair’s legs grinding against the asphalt.

The creature suddenly lashed forward, wrapping its tentacles around his neck.

“Mi…Mirai…” Anders rasped as the creature squeezed, choking the life out of him.

Darkness began to envelop his vision. He had faced death many times since becoming a Hound, but was now the time he greeted it as an old friend? Was now the time he faced the light? Was now the time he could get away from the crazy girl with the scythe who tries to kill him every chance she gets? And the Dark One’s grip tightened, his neck giving way with an audible crack.

The shrill of metal rang through the air as the scythe cleaved into the Dark One’s body. Cleanly, it parted through, leaving behind a wake of scattering tentacles and black ash. The grip around Anders’s neck loosened as the free tentacles, separated from the balloon-like body, fell limp. In much the same way, the limp body of Anders slumped over, taking the lawn chair with it with a pathetic platter of plastic. His body twitched, his neck twisted and black.

Mirai crouched down, watching the corpse with disinterest. A few moments passed, before an audible gasp echoed from it.

“Im alive!!!” Anders screamed, flailing about like a trout out of water.

“Unfortunate.” Mirai sighed, standing back up, carefully maneuvering so that the flopping idiot wouldn’t see up her uniform skirt.

With a flick, she examined her scythe for damage. The long silver weapon was elegantly made, with a dazzlingly sharp curved blade at the end. With another flick, the scythe folded itself, allowing her to tuck it away under her right arm.

“We’ll hit one or two more. Then, maybe. Maybe. I’ll consider letting you go home.” She shrugged.

“Can you at least untie me?” Anders gasped, still flailing on the ground as the girl walked away from him.

“What if you turn?” She shrugged. “I need to kill you easily.”

“You’ve killed me already! Five times just tonight!” Anders bounced.

Mirai disappeared behind the dumpster, not answering any more of his protests.

“Can you at least pick me up!” He cried.

The silence from behind the dumpster was deafening.

“And here comes another one…” Anders sighed.

He died three more times that morning.