The soft fall of heavy boots echoed through the aisles of the hardware store. Small clouds of dust lifted as each step connected with the aged floor. As the door was opened, it faintly creaked letting the world know its age. If the walls could talk, they would tell a story of a happily married man who lived a kind life with three children that lived what was left of his life in peace as he ran his very own hardware store. However, that story was long gone, lost to the orphaned building that was once cared for by that same man.

More than 80 years later, another story began with the same walls that were now withering away, watching a lone man only ever walk to and fro. He never touched any of the tools or equipment on the shelves, nor did he disturb the cashier counter and the family photos pinned to the corkboard behind it. He simply came and went. The walls had seen this same man come through many times over the course of a decade with a few wounds as he stumbled his way to the back; always looking like he wanted nothing more than to finally feel that sweet release of death. Now, though, the walls watched him leave with blood dripping down his clothes and the presence of someone with a job that needed to be done. He stepped with the confidence that nothing would take him down. The walls believed it.

When Onyx stepped outside, he instantly felt the presence of something wicked lurking nearby. It was like pin pricking the back of his brain. Trying his hearing, he heard nothing. Complete silence. Not even the wind had dared to blow in fear of what was stalking the shadows. Breathing in the air, only the scent of rust and dust filled his nostrils. No heartbeats, no scent. It’s too quiet for a normal night. With one last trick up his sleeve, Onyx focused on the natural magic energy that flowed throughout the air and earth. The soft feeling of waves gently touched the skin on his face, the waves timed and consistent. Then there was a small eruption in the waves, bringing his attention behind him.

A low growl came from the darkness. Onyx’s stalker pounced in for the kill, only for the prey to be armed. With barely a second to think, Onyx faced his attacker mid-air and delivered a powerful blow to the side of its head. It hit the ground hard, landing a few yards away with a pained growl. Regaining its composure, the creature stood and gave a godless growl filled with venom and hate.

In the dark of night, Onyx could see his attacker plain as day. A monstrous cat-like creature covered in thin black fur and hard shining scales, standing around ten feet tall reared its back. Thin flat horns wrapped themselves around its head. It’s two tails sliced through the air with bladed tips. Razor sharp ivory claws a foot long dug into the asphalt like it was sand and rows of huge fangs were visible through the cat’s hissing. Tall ears stood on its head and seemed to move in every direction at once, picking up the slightest noise. Its eyes were a soulless black that held nothing, but the primal instinct of a hungry animal.

There was only one word capable of describing the being before him. Demon.

He stared at the demon in disdain, an unrelenting wrath and unquenchable bloodthirst began to build up inside of him. As much as he wanted to avoid it, this fight was inevitable. His heart began beating rapidly at the exciting prospect of the impending battle. With everything he knows about these monsters and what they are capable of he stood firm. He wouldn’t let anything happen to Sunset.

“I guess I should’ve expected demons to show up sooner or later. No matter where I go, your kind always follows,” Onyx spat at the demon in a language no human should be able to fluently speak. “Answer one question for me, demon.”

The demon hissed in response, as it began to circle Onyx. Onyx kept his guard up, ready for the demon to try anything. There were things he absolutely needed to know involving this demon: where it came from, if it was summoned, who summoned it, and if there were more.

“Were you summoned and binded under a human’s contract, or are you hunting me for your Lord?”

Hissing again, the demon spoke in the same garbled tongue. “Those who hunt for a Lord are nothing, but hollow thralls with no allegiance to themselves. The same could be said for those who are forced under a binding contract to a lowly human.” The demon spat out the word ‘human’ with disgust. “Coming across you was not warranted, however.”

“So you’re under a contract then.” But for who? Onyx smirked. “Tell me, were the humans that bound you look like wrinkled old bags of nothing in robes?”

The demon flexed its powerful legs and raked its claws through the asphalt. “Your attempts to tip my ire for information are useless, Inhabited.”

Onyx sneered at the demon, clenching his fists at the mention of that name. “So, you are aware of how this will turn out.”

Snapping its jaw, the demon dashed at Onyx. “As it should. I will not be the one to die here,” it roared as it slashed its claws at him.

Stepping back, Onyx was barely able to dodge the swipe. The demon continued its attack with a barrage of quick swipes, pushing Onyx back along the road. Weaving in between the claws, Onyx was able to evade most attacks, but his wounds restricted his speed and flexibility. Blood splashed on the demon's claws and splattered the ground as gashes appeared on his left leg.

Ducking out of the onslaught of vicious slashes, Onyx dodged back and burst through the demon's attack. Rearing his head back, he bashed his forehead against an armored scale on the demon’s forehead, shattering it to pieces. The demon stumbled back, dazed from the force. Drawing his serrated dagger from behind him, he tried slicing the demon, but its fur appeared to be harder than it looked and resisted the blade. With an annoyed grunt, he chose to instead stab the demon, which worked. Hissing in pain, the demon snapped its jaws down on Onyx’s shoulder and slammed him into the road before throwing him across the street and into the base of an old lamp post.

Onyx grunted as he quickly forced himself on his feet. He wasn’t in any condition to drag this fight on any longer than it needed to be. The demon’s fur resisted cuts and its scales, while liable to break with enough force, were too hard for the knife to pierce. Smash and stab, smash and stab.

Reaching for his dagger, Onyx couldn’t find it nearby. Across the street, the demon struggled to pull the dagger from its shoulder with its teeth. Onyx took the opportunity whilst his enemy was distracted and closed the distance; however, the demon was ready and lashed at his body with its bladed tails. Sliding under the tails, Onyx got under the demon and ripped the dagger out from the demon’s leg. Before he could rip into the demon’s underbelly, the demon clamped its teeth on Onyx’s leg and dragged him out from under it and shook him like a mad dog.

Slamming Onyx onto the asphalt, the demon created a small crater from the impact and pounded his head in deeper with its paw, over and over until Onyx’s head was buried in the road. When the demon tired, it looked over its own handiwork and purred with satisfaction.

Onyx lay still in the crater, blood and asphalt chunks blanketing him. A few moments passed and he realized he went unconscious for a few seconds. His head pounded with a debilitating headache. Groaning in pain, he unburied his head and managed to pull himself to his knees with his grip still tight on his knife. Blood flowed from his scalp, burning his eyes as it washed over his face.

“Your reputation precedes you, mercenary. I was expecting more of a challenge from all the tales told of you,” the demon growled as it observed its bloodied and beaten prey. “I assume your weakness is from your lack of mana. I sense you have nothing left in you. You’re just a lowly stain on this world, Inhabited. Like us, in this world you need magic to live. To survive. Without it you’re no better than a walking corpse!”

Gathering what strength he could, he stood up and locked eyes with the demon. A burning fire roared in his chest, begging to be released to raze hell upon his opponent with the destructive force of the sun itself. It clawed at his heart, heating his body to the point it felt like an unwavering blaze would burst out from his chest.

“I… am nothing… like you…” he wheezed.

Pacing back and forth, the demon cackled darkly. “Don’t fool yourself. The only difference between us is your disgusting existence. You, like all born from the Void should know. For you are the stain your traitorous father made when-”

The demon was rendered unable to finish its sentence as a chunk of asphalt had become forcefully lodged in the back of its throat in an instant. The demon didn’t even see Onyx move until his hand was in its mouth. Its eyes widened as a sense of fear had dug into its mind. Onyx wrench his arm out of the demon’s mouth, grabbing its tongue and ripping it away. It choked on the asphalt and blood. Quickly realizing its mistake the demon backed away, hacking up blood and chunks of rock. It staggered back, tripping on its own bladed tail and impaling its leg. As it lay on the ground trying to crawl away, its hearts beat at such a pace the pulsing veins could be seen rapidly pushing its scales up and down. Looking back at Onyx, it tried to cry out and beg to be spared even if it knew it was pointless, but no sounds came from its mouth.

With a quick pace, Onyx stepped towards the demon and grabbed it by its tail. Ripping it back to his feet, he gripped the demon's horns and gave it another hardy headbutt, shattering more of its scales. Then without a second's hesitation buried his knife into the demon’s head. Its eyes slowly rolled back into its head and the body went limp. That wasn’t enough for Onyx though. Tearing his knife out of the demon’s skull, he plunged it back in again and again. A dark blood splattering on Onyx’s clothes and face. He didn’t care, he had to make sure this monster was dead. Dead! Dead! Dead!

His eye twitched and he snapped out of his destructive trance. Looking at the demon he saw a hole the size of a football dug out of its skull. His knife was bent and broken in half. One half in his hand. The other half buried deep in his attacker. He stood there for a moment, his grip on the demon’s horns still tight. It wasn’t his first choice to call upon the small amount of magic he had left. He didn’t even think of doing it. It just happened. The sense of survival breaking his tactical thinking and letting go. Although, if he had instead chosen to fight with nothing but his weakened body he would have for sure been defeated. What then? Was the demon summoned to capture or kill him? Either way what’s done is done. He only wished he could’ve gotten some more information.

Loosening his grip on the demon’s horns, its head fell with a hard thud. Wiping the blood from his eyes, Onyx slowly began to hobble back into the department store. His strength was waning fast. If he didn’t get inside and get his body tended to he’d be sleeping in a pool of his own blood outside. Going through an aisle in the store he found a carpenter staple gun still in the package and grabbed a box of staples to go with it. With shaky legs he crept up the stairs at the back of the department store. Doing his best to not wake Sunset, he slowly opened the door to the room. The door creaked open and he winced at the sound. Creeping in he saw Sunset stir in her sleep and he sighed with relief. She didn’t need to see him like this after what they just went through getting here.

Sitting down once again in the bathroom to patch himself up, Onyx decided to leave the light off to not disturb the sleeping girl. In the near pitch black darkness he could still see as if it was daylight with the sun shining through the windows. Taking a small pocket knife off the counter he sliced open the packaging of the staple gun and loaded in a few stainless steel staples. Placing the gun to his leg he pulled the trigger and slightly winced as they pierced through. It was shoddy work but it was all he could manage at the moment. Halfway through stapling the gashes on his leg he realized he had forgotten to take his pants off and had stapled his pants to his leg.

‘I guess I’m a little worse for wear for my thoughts at the moment. Oops.’ A quiet laugh escaped him at the act. Taking off his jacket and shirt before stapling his shoulder was a better idea. Looking at the state of his clothes, he decided it was something a staple gun wouldn’t be the best suited for. He balled up his torn and bloody shirt and tossed it in the bathtub. There were a couple white t-shirts he had folded up underneath his pillow for a little extra support, but with Sunset here he decided to wait until she was up to get one. For the moment, he could at least get some rest. Shaking his head and letting out a small sigh, Onyx got up from his seat on the toilet. Sitting down against the wall across from Sunset, he leaned the back of his head on the wall. It was still extremely sore but he was happy to give his bed up for the night. Sunset’s soft breathing was a brief respite of white noise. Onyx’s eyes were heavy and he wanted to get some sleep, but his mind was still a bit wired from his small outburst fighting the demon. The adrenaline had worn off and the heat of his magic had long faded. But he couldn’t stop thinking.

The demon seemed to be surprised to come across him. If it wasn’t bound to contract to kill him, then the demon had to be after Sunset. Why? There was nothing special about this girl to summon a fucking demon to kill her. Unless, the Crimson Moon Council knew something he didn’t. Could Sunset be involved with what happened at the high school? All he knows is that there were two magical occurrences that happened there. Some of the students had to be involved in it, unless maybe it was the council’s doing. There’s definitely something strange going on here and he will get to the bottom of it. It would have to wait for now though.

Listening to Sunset’s rhythmic breathing he closed his eyes and fell asleep. It felt as if not even a second had passed when he opened his eyes again. The sharp beeping of an alarm had begun to go off. Looking around for his watch he grabbed it and attempted to shut it off, but to his surprise the alarm had not been set. Hearing the sound to his left he noticed Sunset’s phone screen was on and the display of a wake up alarm was on the screen. It was 7:30 a.m. and the sun had begun to creep through the blinds. Onyx rubbed his eyes and yawned. When he stretched his arms he heard a few satisfying pops and stood up.

Sunset started to stir and soon sat up with her own yawn and stretches. Leaning over she grabbed her phone and shut the alarm off. Her eyes weren’t fully open yet and it took a minute for her to fully wake up. Rubbing the gunk out of her eyes, she noticed she wasn’t in her room and started to silently panic before remembering.

“I thought I was going to have to shut that alarm off before I went crazy,” Onyx joked.

“Oh, sorry. I’m usually up a few seconds after it goes off,” Sunset sleepily replied.

Onyx rolled his eyes and let out a chipper huff. “I’m kidding. Did you sleep alright? That painkiller I gave you knocked you out pretty quick,” he said.

Shaking her head and wiping her hair out of her face she looked up with a small smile. “I slept alright, almost like I was in my own bed.”

She looked up and noticed Onyx had no shirt. She found herself gazing upon his physique. He was extremely muscular and chiseled, his muscles seemed to almost want to burst free. His arms and chest looked so big and strong, Sunset’s thoughts wandered off to imagine what he could do with them. To her. Snapping out her wandering thoughts she looked away in embarrassment, a small blush on her face. Looking back she noticed just how heavily scarred he actually was. Deep caverns of tissue had made their home on his body, mapping out a twisted landscape of pain. Aside from the injuries he had received last night saving her, there seemed to be a few that were older and a couple that were fresh. She thought to herself how he had gotten to be this way and where those other wounds came from.

“That’s good to hear, because I don’t want you getting comfortable in a place like this. You’ll be back in your own bed tonight,” he said. “But do me a favor real quick and hand me a shirt from under the pillow so you stop ogling me.”

Realizing how long she had been staring, Sunset awkwardly fumbled around and grabbed a shirt from under the pillow and handed it to him. “Sorry,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it. I’d be lying if it’s been a while since anyone has seen me like this,” Onyx replied. Slipping his shirt on he knelt down in front of her. “Now we gotta get some things straight before we head out of here. It’s important you don’t tell a single soul about what happened last night and where you were. I’m trusting you with this so don’t screw it up. Got it?”

Sunset nodded in understanding. “I promise. What about my friends though? They have to have been worried sick about me.”

With a small annoyed shake of his head, Onyx stood and put his hands on his hips. “I’m sorry, but you can’t. Make something up for all I care. They can’t know. I only brought you here because I felt responsible for what happened. You never should’ve been caught in the crossfire but you did and that was just unlucky. If your friends find out what you saw it would only bring trouble their way too.”

The way he spoke with a stern yet soft voice helped Sunset see he was right. She wouldn’t want her friends to experience any more trauma than they already have. What happened in the alley was almost too much for herself. “Okay, I understand. I don’t want them to know anyway. Knowing them, they’d end up worrying themselves to death.” She let out a small chuckle.

There were so many questions Sunset still wanted to ask. Her mind began to race. Everything that's happened recently has been quite the experience, more confusing and dangerous than anything she had gone through in the past. She needed to know, but she knew it would be best to ask later.

Onyx nodded and couldn’t help but think how lucky Sunset is to have good friends like that. It almost made him jealous. He had people like that once, but it was so long ago he’d almost forgotten what it was like. Grabbing his canvas jacket he opened the door to the room and called out to Sunset, “Come on, we gotta get going. Don’t want to be late for school.”

Author's Note

Forgot this existed lol