Darker Than Black: Chapter 2

"Anyway," Keni said in a chipper tone, seeming to have forgotten how upset he'd been earlier, "I figured we could hit that new clothing store here and then head down to the food court and go to Baskin Robbins because it has been so long since I've had ice cream from there. Then we can go to Hot Topic since it's on that floor and then we'll see what we feel like doing after that…"

Zia smiled and kept in step with her friend, happy that he was feeling a bit better. "Glad to see you're feeling better, hun."

"Yeah," Keni said, grinning. "It feels good to finally let it all out and talk to someone who believes me. Hell, it feels good to just get out of the clock tower and do some shopping without having Jack hovering over me."

"What's it like living in a clock tower?" Zia asked as they walked into an upscale clothing store.

Keni shrugged. "Kinda cool, I guess. I mean, it's a roof over my head and a floor beneath my feet. It does get pretty cold, though, and drafty in the winter; even summer days are really cool when in the clock tower, at least according to Jack. It's amazing, really, because the way Jack's got it set up you can't even tell that you're in a clock tower; the clock face actually lets in a lot of light and Jack uses an old-fashioned typewriter to write his poems so we just need the electricity for the television and my laptop. It's actually really nice…"

Zia smiled and tried not acknowledge the prices of the clothes they were looking at. "It does sound cool; I think it would be kind of amazing to live in a clock tower."

"You should stay there some time," Keni said, holding a shirt up to see if he liked how it looked. "You're more than welcome to stay there anytime you want; I'm sure Jack wouldn't mind since he seems to like you."

Zia picked up another shirt before she set it back down upon seeing the price; she was surprised when Keni picked up the shirt and said, "If you want it, I'll buy it for you. It's the least I can do since you're such an awesome friend."

"Thanks, hun, but you don't have to do that," she said, looking again at the price tag. "The price is…rather high…"

"It's cool," Keni said, smiling as he got in line to pay for the clothes he'd decided to buy and whipped out the platinum card Jack had given him. "I've got enough. Besides, like I said, you deserve it for being so cool about me killing demons and everything so you are getting this shirt and anything else you want today. Now, let me pay for these things and we can head out to shop until we drop!"

Zia shook her head; she hated it when people offered to buy things for her, but she knew better than to try to talk Keni out of it. Once Keni had paid for everything, he skipped back over to her and they left the store so they could head to the food court; Zia couldn't help but admit that it was nice that he'd bought her the shirt. Besides, Keni was a great friend and she could easily accept the fact that he killed demons for a living.

They were on the escalator heading down to the lower level surrounded by several other people doing the same when Keni felt the hair on the back of his neck standing on end, pricking at the electricity; he felt the charge, much like that of the calm air before a storm or the energy before a fight, and he knew what that meant.

There was a demon in the mall.

"Zia," he said in an undertone so no one nearby would hear them, "there's a demon somewhere in the mall. I don't know where it is or what it will look like, but there's one in the mall. I'm gonna need to find it before it reveals it's true form because then it will be too hard for me to fight it…"

"What can I do to help?" she asked in the same soft tone.

Keni bit his lip, thinking carefully about his answer; true, he wanted to find the demon, but he didn't want to jeopardize his best friend's life in the process. He glanced around at the crowded mall before he sighed and said, "I'm gonna need you to help me find it. All demons make the area where they're at feel tense, charged with energy--like how the air feels before and after a lightning strike. We're gonna have to split up and keep our senses peeled for a demon…oh, and the static charge that is caused because of the demon's presence causes cell phones to malfunction…"

"And when we find it, what do we do?" she asked, somewhat annoyed at the fact that her cell phone was going to malfunction around the demon and hoping that it wouldn't be a permanent malfunction.

He frowned; he hadn't thought of that. In all honesty, every time he had to slay a demon, Jack was always the one who handled everything when things became too extreme for him; Jack was the one who would force the demons to show themselves--abandoning their poor hosts in the process so that the hosts wouldn't be killed--and would weaken them with prayers, summoning angels only when the situation turned desperate. Fighting a demon on his own…well, he didn't have Crucify with him and had only basic--very basic, almost non-existent--knowledge of how to fight demons any other way…

"We do whatever we can to kill it before it kills us," Keni said quietly, trying not to let Zia hear how truly terrified he was at the prospect of fighting a demon without Jack around to help him. "Just use anything that can be used as a weapon and have faith that it will work; any object or item you have that could be considered religious or any item of faith will work as a way of preventing the demon from possessing you…prayers seem to weaken them, but I think that only works if it's in Latin…holy water burns them, but I don't think we'll find any here…"

"What about guns? Fire? Metal? Regular water?"

He shrugged. "I've never tried any of those before so I don't know. I mean, none of them effect Jack, but he has said that he's an isolated case. We can try anything to see what works…" He stepped onto the first floor off the escalator and said, "Okay, should we split up or stick together?"

"Stick together," Zia said, looking around cautiously. It wasn't that she could really sense the demon's presence like Keni could, but she could tell from how tense he was that she needed to be very guarded and prepared to strike or run at a moment's notice.

Keni nodded and said, "Alright. Let's start in the food court since there's more people there and work our way to the different stores…"

So saying, he led the way to the food court, shaking as he did so; he may not have been able to distinguish the disguised demon from the other hundreds of people present, but he would hopefully be able to lure it away from the crowd so that he could minimize the loss of life in the event of a fight. Of course, it would have been better if Jack was there to help him destroy the demon, but as long as he had Zia, as long as he wasn't alone, he was sure that he'd at least have a chance at defeating the demon…

Suddenly, Keni felt ill and found he was having a hard time remaining standing; he swayed a little, threatening to fall to his knees. He felt Zia holding onto him so that he wouldn't fall, but he could barely see her as his vision blurred; he began shaking, knowing that he would be completely unable to fight a demon in this weakened state. Zia guided him over to a table that was slightly apart from the group so that no one would bother them while Keni recovered.

"Are you okay? What's wrong?" Zia asked, a concerned tone entering her voice as she helped Keni sit down. She frowned when she felt him shaking and noticed blood pouring from his eyes like tears; she didn't know much about demon-slaying, but she knew that this wasn't good…

"Y-yeah," he mumbled, grabbing a napkin from the table so he could dab the blood away from his eyes. "I've just gotta sit here for a moment. I just…this demon's very powerful, I think…"

He winced and hid his bleeding wrists from her, since they now bore nail wounds; he didn't need to remove his shoes to see that his feet were bleeding as well. He sighed and pulled a pair of gloves and a hat out of his bag; the gloves would work to hide his wrist wounds and the hat would help to hide the Crown of Thorns marks that now adorned his head. He took a sharp intake of breath when he felt marks from a scourge appear on his back, accompanying the lance wound in his side; having holy marks appearing on his body in the middle of a crowded mall was not exactly low-key…

He shook his head, trying and failing to clear his vision; he climbed to his feet, swaying slightly as he did so. "We…we need to hurry and find the demon…"

Zia nodded and grabbed onto Keni's hand, looping their arms together to give Keni a bit more support so he wouldn't collapse to his knees; she could tell that he was using all his strength and energy just to remain standing. She was about to suggest that they call Jack from one of the pay phones when felt the hair on her neck stand up and she froze, causing Keni to cease walking as well; she felt something evil nearby.

"Keni…"

"I know," he said, his voice weak and shaky. "I sense it, too. It's really close…"

Zia cast her gaze around the crowd--harried parents being dragged by excited children, grandparents struggling to reach the store that would hopefully hold the presents they desired, gaggles of teenagers who were clumped together in different cliques as they made their way through the mall in their little packs, and distracted businessmen talking on their cell phones to their employers while they fought to the front of check-out lines to by gifts for the children they wouldn't be spending the holidays with--trying to figure out where the demon was hiding; any one of these seemingly innocent bystanders could be a demon just waiting for them to let their guard down so it could strike.

And this is what Keni does all the time, Zia thought, glancing at Keni out of the corner of her eye as she continued to scan the crowd. Even though he has the advantage of being able to sense the demon, he still isn't able to tell exactly who the demon is until it shows itself…

"Zia," he whispered out, his voice hoarse, "I think I know where the demon is…"

"Where?"

Keni looked over to the center of the mall where there was a chair set up where the younger mall patrons could have their pictures taken with Santa; he could sense the power and danger coming from the chair which in his mind looked far more like the throne of an arrogant and haughty king than a seat for a kind, generous man. It would make sense for a demon to appear as a mall Santa; after all, while the demon was disguised as Santa, any request the child made for presents they wanted to see under the tree on Christmas morning would automatically be considered a deal--the gift in exchange for their soul. Considering how many children would visit the mall just to see the famous bringer of gifts, this demon had a fairly good set-up going to damn as many souls as possible in such a brief amount of time; all these young children's souls would be condemned before they even had a chance.

Zia seemed to think along the same lines as Keni because her gaze was resting on the Santa who was lounging in his chair and surveying the crowd as though he were a king overlooking the commoners of his domain; she felt scared for the children, of course, but more than that she felt angry, not so much so at that fact that a demon would trick innocent children into selling their souls for their Christmas wishes, but at the fact that no one--not even angels--were able to protect them and save the children from being condemned to Hell.

"That's…that's just…there aren't even words," Zia whispered, fear and anger obvious in her voice.

"I know," Keni said, a trace of raw emotion clear in his voice despite the fact that he was trying to hide it. "We need to kill it soon before it claims more souls than it has already…"

"More souls? He's already claimed souls…?" Zia asked, looking around at the children as though she would be able to immediately tell which ones had unwittingly given up their souls.

"Yes," Keni said, his voice sounding tired at the prospect of the fight. "Of course, once he's dead, the souls will be released from their contracts which will mean that they'll be safe until another demon comes along to tempt them."

"Then we've got to kill him as soon as possible," Zia said, a look of determination crossing her face.

"Right," Keni agreed, though he bit his lip as he looked around the mall at the crowd. It was true they needed to kill the demon, but it wasn't going to be easy since it was masquerading as a mall Santa; with the mall this crowded and full of children, fighting it right there was not an option. Of course, it would impossible to get the demon out of the crowded mall which meant that they had no other choice but to fight it in the mall…

The demon caught sight of Keni and seemed to recognize him as an Apostle; he smirked though the smirk was hidden by the fake beard. He stood up, leaving his throne, and gave a subtle jerk of his head, letting them know that he was taking a break from condemning the children's souls; he walked down the hall which led to the bathrooms and an exit so that employees could go out for a smoke break. Keni and Zia followed him down the hallway and out the door where they were instantly greeted by the sight of the demon, minus the beard, with a cigarette in his mouth which he lit by snapping his fingers.

"Ah, you're just a young one. Can't say I'm not surprised a bit by how young you are. I mean, it's not like you're the first Apostle to be still a child, but really, you are the first to confront a demon without back-up. Oh, I'm sorry," he said, bowing slightly upon seeing Zia. "By that statement, I merely meant that I have never met an Apostle his age confronting me without help from an Apostle of a more mature age. I suppose there is the possibility that you might be helpful to him, though I sincerely doubt that."

Zia hadn't expected the demon to be so civilized; true, she'd already met Jack and he'd been civilized if a bit dramatic, but she hadn't expected this particular demon to be civilized towards them especially since he knew why they were there. Even so, she could feel how powerful the demon was and that scared her; she resisted the urge to take a few steps back so that she could put some distance between herself and the demon.

He smiled in a charming manner and said to Zia, "Relax, my dear. I have no intention of harming you since you are not an Apostle. My fight is with your young friend, not you." He chuckled darkly as he looked at Keni. "Although, I dare say that it won't be much of a fight with him in such a weakened state. Of course, it wouldn't have been much of a fight anyway since he's so inexperienced and without a weapon…"

"I don't need a weapon to defeat you," Keni said, trying to sound strong, though his voice came out very weak. "I…I can still fight you…"

The demon laughed and threw his cigarette on the ground, grinding it out against the asphalt of the parking lot; before they could blink, the demon had his hand around Keni's throat and was holding him off the ground, slammed against the wall of the mall. "Really, now? It would appear that you're quite mistaken…"

Keni struggled against the demon's grip, desperate to break free and fight the demon before he was able to harm Zia or anyone else; he felt his strength beginning to wane and could see the corners of his vision fading. He couldn't breathe and couldn't fight; without a weapon, without anything to help defeat the demon, he was going to die…

Suddenly, the demon dropped him to the ground and he coughed, gasping for breath; he looked over to see what had caused the demon to release him and saw that the demon was burning slightly from the water that had been thrown on him by Zia. The demon, blinded somewhat from the water that had ended up in his eyes, staggered into the mall, planning on losing them in the crowd; once he was inside, he locked the door, barring their way in and insuring that should he decide to reveal his true form and destroy the mall, no one would be able to escape.

Zia helped Keni to his feet, noticing the blood as she did so; she frowned, knowing that these wounds hadn't been caused by the demon and were not wounds that he had had previously. "You alright, Keni?"

He shook his head and said, "No, not really, but I'm fine enough to kill that demon as long as I have your help…"

She nodded. "Of course I'll help you."

Allowing him to lean against her for support, the two made their way to the front entrance of the mall yet again since they'd been locked out; upon entering the mall, it became clear to both of them that they would have a hard time finding the demon again since the mall seemed to be even more crowded than it had been when they'd been locked out. Zia sighed and glanced at Keni, noticing that he was pale from blood loss; his shirt, gloves, and hat were stained with blood and the blood seeping out of his shoes left a trail that anyone could follow to find them.

They made their way through the mall and attempted to find the demon before he caused any damage or destruction; Zia, sensing that Keni was in no condition to attempt to fight, had him sit down on a bench nearby. When he began to protest, she gave him a stern look, much like one a mother might give a petulant child that was trying her last nerve.

"Sit down here and rest," she said, hoping that he would listen. "You aren't in any condition to fight--you, me, and the demon all know that. I don't want you to get hurt and, even though I know nothing about demon-slaying, I'm not going to let you risk your life."

"But," Keni began, sounding weak but determined, "the demon was right. He has no reason to fight you since you're not an Apostle like me and you have no reason to take on this fight by yourself, especially since it is my responsibility…"

"You're wrong," Zia insisted. "The moment you told me about fighting demons, the moment that demon attacked you this became my fight, too. Sure, it may have started out as your responsibility to hunt and kill demons to protect the innocent, but now it is our fight. We are in this together now and I am not going to let you get yourself killed if I am able to help you fight."

Keni looked at her for a moment, unable to believe that she was so willing to fight with him and help him even if it was dangerous; using what little bit of strength he'd managed to hang on to, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly, happy that he had such a great friend. Feeling reinvigorated, he climbed to his feet and gave her an 'I'm fine at the moment' smile before saying, "Let's go kill that demon."

She grinned and the two of them continued to search the mall for the demon; they remained on the second floor instead of going to the lower level because they knew the demon wouldn't return to his original position now that they were on to him. After scouring the second floor of the mall, they were faced with the horrible revelation that they would have to venture to the ground floor to find the demon since he wasn't up there; this meant that they would have to battle the massive sea of people that formed a writhing, serpentine like form of lines on the escalators. Practically moaning in displeasure at the fact that they were going to have to take the escalator and hopefully not be trampled before they got the chance to destroy the demon, Zia and Keni boarded that moving stairway that could barely be seen under the mass of people also taking the escalator to the ground level.

Suddenly, the lights flickered and the escalator began shaking violently, threatening to throw it's countless riders off; Keni looked around and frowned, knowing that it was the demon who was causing the escalator to shake since he was no doubt in the process of revealing his true form. This wasn't good; they had to get off the now structurally unsound escalator and find the demon before he caused more damage to the mall. After all, if just revealing his true form caused such a surge of power that the lights flickered and the escalator shook, if he were to use his actual powers, the mall could come crumbling down around them, causing a massive loss of life which was something Keni just couldn't allow to happen.

"Okay, Zia," he said, looking over the side at the floor below them. "We're going to have to jump…" At the utterly horrified look on her face, he continued, "Either we jump or we get killed when the mad rush of people trying to get off the escalator tramples us or the escalator collapses and we get slushified by the machinery."

She was quiet for a moment as she considered all her options before she nodded and said, "Alright." She looked over the side of the escalator and frowned. "Um…it is possible to survive a fall from this height, right?"

"Yeah," Keni said, looking over the edge with her. "I think so. I mean, people have fallen from greater heights and lived so I think that we'll be okay. A little sore, but more or less fine…"

Suddenly, they heard the most unearthly roar, a snarling screech that sounded more like that of some prehistoric monster than anything remotely human or roaming the earth in the present; taking that as their cue to get off the escalator, Keni vaulted over the side of the escalator and landed on the floor below much like a cat would, gracefully remaining on his feet. Instead of taking off in the direction of the roar, he turned his gaze up to Zia, waiting to see if his best friend would be alright upon landing.

Still not entirely convinced that a fall from this height would be safe despite seeing Keni survive it with no visible injuries, she took a deep breath and leapt over the side; she closed her eyes and held her breath, waiting for the sickening thud that would accompany her landing. Instead, she landed on her back, feeling the breath she'd been holding forcefully knocked out of her; she opened one eye cautiously and looked over at Keni who had a hand extended to help her to her feet.

"I am never doing that again," she said as she accepted his outstretched hand and climbed to her feet. "Never again."

"Duly noted," Keni said with a small nod as he scanned the first floor for some sign of the demon. When he saw a group of people running away from something, he knew immediately where the demon was. He took off at a sprint in the direction the people were coming from. "Come on!"

Zia followed after him, battling her way through the crowd to keep up with Keni; once the crowd cleared, she almost gasped in shock at the sight that stood before her. The demon's true form was a massive creature, a horrendous sight to behold; the demon resembled something one might find in a Lovecraftian novel or else at the very bottom of a deep oceanic trench. Tentacles with octopus-like suckers reaching out to smash the surrounding structure or grab innocent bystanders sprouted from a black elephantine body that had an upper torso that vaguely resembled a human form with bleached white ribs protruding from the decaying flesh like a gaping maw looking to swallow anything in its path; before either Keni or Zia could hide, the creature turned its immense head towards them, capturing them in its crimson gaze.

"Okay," Zia whispered to Keni, fear obvious in her voice. "What do we do now?"

"Um," Keni began, watching as the demon pulled a fountain out of the ground, "we run."

That being said, he pushed Zia out of the way of the fountain which the demon threw at them; the two of them took cover behind the counter of one of the food court stalls. Keni sighed and glanced over the counter at the demon for a moment before he returned to his hiding spot, looking around the stall for anything that could be used to fight the demon; he leaned his head back against the counter, closing his eyes as he did so.

"See anything we can use to fight?"

Zia was about to shake her head when she heard the distinctive sound of grease in a deep-fat fryer; she looked over at it and grinned. "Will that work?"

Keni cocked an eyebrow and nodded. "Worth a shot. Let's see what else we can find to make into improvised weapons…"

Within about half a minute, they had found dozens of things that they could use to at the very least hopefully wound the demon enough to get it to return to Hell to recuperate; along with the super heated grease from the deep-fat fryer, they had found a sink that had a hose which they could use to spray the demon from long distance, knives, and a stove which they could use by turning on the gas, luring the demon over there, and throwing a lit match over there.

"Okay," Keni said, taking stock of their weapons while tying dishtowels around his wrists since his gloves had become soaked with blood. "Do we have a plan or are we just going to wing it?"

"Wing it," Zia said, assisting him with tying the towels when he struggled with doing so. "That way the demon won't know what we're going to do until the second we do it."

He nodded and thanked her quietly for tying the towels around his wrists before he glanced over at the demon who was smashing its way through the mall, destroying everything in its path; he took a deep breath and said, "Why don't we try blowing it up?"

Zia thought for a moment, then nodded. "That could work."

Before they had more time to talk, a large tentacle smashed through the counter in between the two; Keni grabbed one of the knives and vaulted over the remainder of the counter, weaving in between the trunk-like legs and dodging the many tentacles that threatened to attack him. He expertly slashed at the bend in one of the legs, assuming that the skin there would be delicate and a natural weak spot for the demon; apparently, he selected the right area because the demon roared in pain and jerked its leg away from the blade, throwing the blade across the floor where it skidded to a stop near the remains of the destroyed fountain.

Keni was about to move for the knife when a thick tentacle wrapped itself around him, pulling him off the floor with incredible force; he yelped out as the demon lifted him up to its face to look at him, longing to see the fear in his captive's face. The demon's mouth seemed to stretch from ear to ear in a malicious Cheshire cat like grin which showed far too many teeth; the demon then threw him forcefully against the wall and Keni was sure he heard more than a few bones crack.

Zia, having seen this happen, sprayed the demon with water from the sink to draw his attention away from her injured friend; it worked because the demon turned his gaze to her and began to approach her. Biting her lip, she stood her ground, waiting for the demon to get closer and into the strike zone; a little closer and…

The demon was right where he needed to be! She had to do it now!

She leapt aside as she flicked the lighter, throwing the lighter to the food stall where she and Keni had been hiding; the lighter ignited the gas from the stove they had left on, creating a massive fireball that quickly engulfed the demon who let out a shrill earsplitting shriek of pain. Without watching to make sure that the demon was dead, she raced over to Keni's side; he was unconscious and barely breathing, but he was still breathing.

Zia helped him climb to his feet; she gave one last look at the pile of black sludge that had at one point not too long ago been a monstrous demon before she half-dragged, half-carried Keni out of the mall, making her way to her car at the furthest corner of the parking lot. She gingerly set Keni in the passenger seat before she climbed into the driver's seat and started the car; even though anyone else would have taken Keni to the hospital, something told her that the best thing for Keni was to take him back to the clock tower.