Lucyfer
I made something that'll love me even when I won't
An axe was lifted and brought down upon a box made of flesh. The sprinklers continued to pour down on the fire. The door was torn apart and rendered into splinters. The black-haired woman ducked, but the man with the axe was too focused on his task.
The skeletal figure in the doorway collapsed to dust as the axe met its mark.
The man holding the axe remained standing, shaking, hundreds of pieces of wooden debris piercing his flesh.
“You did—”
The woman had begun to speak, had begun to stand, before she saw the state of the man.
“SOL!”
For two weeks, Artemis Fero had sat at the bedside of Sol Fero. He was not her biological brother, but the boy who had come up to her all those years ago when he was investigating what happened to her town with his family. He had called her sister that very day, and been an unshakeable light in the darkness that was this world.
He had come out of his coma, but he was not doing well. There was a lot of nerve and muscle damage to be repaired.
It was with his blessing that Artemis left his side, and not a second sooner. Though she knew it wasn’t safe to hunt alone, talk on the network of a demon going on a cruise was enough reason for Artemis to want to leave. So, Sol used his funds and bought her a ticket.
“And if there is no demon, have fun! Relax. I’ll be here when you get back.”
Of course, other hunters noticed her absence.
“Where the hell are you?”
Arty smirked, walking up onto the boat with her VIP tag around her wrist, and her baggage being taken to her room. She’d used her identity as Autumn Versace to get her weapons on board, CIA, of course. “I’m on a cruise. Sol told me to go, Johnny,” she answered, phone up against her ear.
“A cruise? Girl, if you think I’m—”
Artemis immediately began to list off the information as she walked onto the deck and took to leaning against the metal railing. She didn’t look CIA in her jean shorts and green camisole, but that was part of her cover.
She could imagine Johnny’s deep frown. “What are you doing on a cruise?”
“Sol said I needed a vacation and staying around there wasn’t going to make him better, faster.”
“What are you doing on a cruise?” Johnny asked again.
She sighed, “Demon,” she confessed, brown eyes gazing out at the people waving to loved ones from the shore. It was painful, somehow, and so she turned away from it to see what was on the deck. “But I gotta go, or else I’m going to have to wait to get a drink. Cheers!” And she immediately hung up on him and started to walk towards one of the vendors on the deck. Supposedly this VIP meant all the drinks she could drink. It had cost a fortune, but then again, what was money to them? It was all ill-gotten gains anyway.
~***~
Artemis Fero was not the only hunter on board, nor the only one there on ill-gotten gains with a VIP bracelet. The hunter known as ‘Glitch’ to most of the world was on early, and already lounging in a plastic chair with a cherry coke at his side, and a laptop in his lap.
He was not here for a demon, nor was he on vacation.
The Bermuda triangle had always interested him, and he’d broken into some of the government’s information files when he found himself on the East Coast. He skimmed the details and decided that, really, the only way he was ever going to find out if there was a siren in the middle of it, or something more malevolent, was to actually go himself.
He tried to prepare for all things, including Cthulhu. ‘Cthulhu isn’t real.’ He chastised himself as he brought up another Lovecraftian tale on his laptop. ‘Sure he isn’t. That’s what the government wants you to think.’ And he chuckled to himself, brushing a hand back through brown hair he was starting to think was too short. That, or the sun was really hot that day. He could feel it on his scalp.
He was quickly distracted by the story, though. He didn't know if Cthulhu was real or not, but he was willing to believe it. He’d started to meet strange things, after all. He was perhaps the only Hunter who actually intervened on behalf of the supernatural creatures that were just trying to get by.
When his phone began to ring, he sighed. “Answer.” And his blue tooth in his ear lit up. “Hello.” He didn’t even know who it was.
“You were going on that cruise to Bermuda soon, weren’t ya?” Johnny’s voice.
“Today, actually. Why?” Sylas adjusted the glasses over his brown eyes.
“Is it by the Royal Cruise company, boat Victoria?”
“Yes.”
“Another hunter’s on board, Artemis Fero,” Johnny noted, “Said she’s after some demon, so look out for yourself and see if you can keep an eye on the girl.”
“Why?” He asked, typing in the name and deciding to do a search as best he could on it. He knew he wouldn’t find much, not on her real name, anyway.
“Arty ain’t used to working alone, and she’s there after watching her partner become a wooden cactus.” Sylas Devonshire barely managed not to crack up at the imagery. It was terribly dark. “So she ain’t in the right state of mind.”
“Understood,” Sylas answered him, “I’ll do what I can. How’s she look?”
“I’ll text ya a picture.”
“Appreciated. Talk to you later. End Call.” And he hung up on Johnny. Seconds later, a picture was texted to his phone, and he dug it out, checked the image. He nodded, then put it back in his pocket and went back to his search for information to figure out just what sort of hunter he was dealing with and how problematic that might be.
