Judgement (The Twelve) (10 page)

Anvil spoke quietly, “Truce then.”

With a great deal of self control, Edge calmed down, “Shall we talk
about
souls
again? Remember when I said
yours
would be
going straight to hell
with mine
if I had my way. O
r shall we mention Chameleon? H
ave you found him yet
?”

Anvil
remained silent, so Edge shrugged, “No? 
W
ell what about……him!” Edge shot a finger upwards to point directly at the window Chris was sneaking a peak out of. No he was pointing a finger directly AT Chris!

Chris locked eyes with
Edge
and something stirred deep within him. Patch tried to pull him away but he shrugged her hand away and flung wide the curtains.

Claws hissed like a cat, both taloned hands slashed at the air in front of her face. Priest blessed himself, something he hadn’t done in a long time and Huntress slowly removed an arrow from her quiver.

Edge still pointing at the boy, turned his gaze upon her, “Don’t.”
a
s
i
f reading her intentions.

Anvil
risked a quick glance over his shoulder,
shaking his head once at Huntress,
before snapping his eyes back to Edge, “The kid?”

Edge smiled, which didn’t suit his face, “You
fool
! T
he penny still hasn’t dropped.”

Anvil
shook his head, “He can’t be
the one
. H
e never died.”

Edge, for some reason looked confused for a moment but recovered well.

He started
laugh
ing, “So you
still
don’t know then.”

G
estur
ing
with a raised hand
,
a fat
,
slime covered older Shade
, slowly
limped slowly over until it stood cringing near to its master.

“Look familiar?” Edge asked.

He wasn’t talking to
Anvil
but look
ed
up at Chris.
Somehow his voice carried to Chris.

“NO!!!!” Chris screamed. The glass pane in front of him exploded outwards into a thousand fragments. One flew across the distance that separated them, to lodge in the left Cheek under Edge’s eye. Slowly
Edge
raised
a
hand and almost gently as if with a great deal of reverence, plucked the sliver from his skin. A tiny speck of blood appeared, to flow down his cheek.
He held the speck of
blood smeared
glass up for all to see. “Prophesy.”

He
dropped the glass fragment
and
touched a finger to the
small
rivulet of blood
running down his cheek. He studied the redd
ened finger tip in great detail before licking the blood gently from his finger, “Ah yes it is as I thought.”

He showed
Anvil
his
bloody cheek which was already healing
,”
Pro
phesy
and
point to me. I claim an equal to be gathered.”

Slash moved slowly until he stood next to
Anvil
, “What the bloody hell is going on here?”

Priest had turned
white,” Prophesy
states Judgement
shall
b
e the first to draw blood
so that an
equal
can be recruited by
The Dark
.”

Priest turned to Anvil,” Whether you like it or not Chris is the one we’ve been waiting for.”

Anvil
slowly nodded as if conceding the point,” Point given. You may gather to yourself his equal before declaring the War of Blood, Fire and Souls.”

Edge looked once more up at Chris before slowly licking the blood from his fingertip
,
“
An equal yes
for that
has already been decided.
I had no idea until this creature was harvested.
”

It was Anvil’s turn to look slightly confused but Edge continued, “
I found out when the Shade the kid had injured returned to me, no one else could have done that. Then I discovered the one the kid just recognised and it all dropped into place. Pity, if I’d have gotten to him first,
I think he would have come over to my side
”

Anvil stood up straight, “I made that mistake once, never again.”

A strange look crossed
Edges
face, “
A costly mistake.
Now I’ve got to follow that damned prophesy and kill you all. I’ll miss you old man.”

W
ith a
nother
quick
bow
to
Anvil
, Edge
turned and walked away. Claws bl
e
w Priest a wet kiss before following. The gathered Shades, all bar one vanished into the darkness. The one that had been called forth still remained, looking up at Chris.
Strangely none of
Anvils
team moved to slay it.

Patch was about to ask Chris what had just happened, when he shoved her aside and ran for the door leading to the landing.

Speed blurred into
movement, appearing
next to the Shade who didn’t move, “How very interesting
. It doesn’t want to attack and for some weird reason I don’t want to kill it.
”

The back door burst open and Chris crossed the lawn in a few short strides, skidding to a half before the Shade.

“You!”  Was all he could manage to
spit
out.

The Shade held up one hand as if imploring to Chris
, “Forgive me!” the Shade sobbed
in a very human sounding voice.

Chris
did nothing for a second
,
before screaming
“Bastard!”

T
hrusting his hand deep into its chest,
he held it there
.
The thing
managed to glance down
once
before
exploded
outwards from where Chris’s hand was embedded, f
iery burning ash
drifted away
upon
the
cool
night air.

“
No
.”’ 
A faint voice echoed into the
darkness
.

Patch came running up as Chris fell to his knees sobbing.
His hand and forearm hissed and bubbled
as if terribly burnt. Patch watched as
the wound
quickly starting to
heal
all by itself
.
Huntress looked between Chris and
Anvil
.

Then her eyes locked with Priest,” Want to make a guess here?”

He replied, “No need to guess. The kid is Judgement plain and simple.”

Speed flickered across the grass and stood twitching nervously in front of Priest, “Not to me it isn’t!”

Anvil
turned a questioning face to Priest who qualified his statement, “The
Prophesy
state that Judgement shall be the one who draws first blood from the leader of The Dark. The kid’s the first person I know, alive or dead to wound Edge.”

Anvil looked down at Chris, “Edge said it would be
his equal that would draw blood.”

Priest shrugged, “
No, he said Chris would be the first to draw blood so that an equal could be gathered
.”

Slash nodded towards Chris who was still sobbing into Patches shoulder, “
Look t
he window broke by a
ccident. It was just an accident! T
he kid punched the bloody window or something. It was an accident
and
Edge was nicked by flying glass.”

Patch glanced up at them, “No way! Chris’s scream blew out the glass. There’s not a shard left in the frame.”

Anvil
nodded,” The
glass blew everywhere but no one but Edge was cut.”

Huntress slapped
the arrow in her hand
against her
thigh,” But
he’s never been reborn!”

Patch gently
lifted
Chris
’s face
up
from her shoulder. Chris looked into her eyes and whispered, “I think I know the answer. I think I’ve always known but never wanted to believe
, “

Chris was looking deep into her eyes,
finding the strength to go on
, “
I
was abused by
my
step father
,
t
erribly abused. One night
he held my face pressed into my pillow whilst he, whilst he….
well,
afterwards
, I thought I’d passed
out
. When
I
awoke
I
ran away from home
. I felt different then, I healed quicker and the cold of living in cardboard city never bothered me. I
didn’t pass out. Did I?”

P
riest
nodded, “He h
eld
your
face pressed into
the
pillow so hard
to stop
you
screaming.
Pressed and pressed until…
”

All Chris could do was nod in reply. He knew the answer but had suppressed it all this time.

Patch looked ever
so
sad, “You died
Chris. “ Then she smiled, “But
you were
reborn. That’s when you ran away.”

Anvil shook his head in disbelief,
“Can’t have happened
!
I would have known,
would
have
been there. I
would have
helped him.”

Priest belched, “Sorry
, I get terrible wind when I’m agitated!
The kids different
Anvil, h
e’s Judgement. Different rules apply to him. My guess
,
it was supposed to be like this
, with h
im finding us not the other way round.”

Bulls Eyes slapped a hand to his forehead, “The Shade!”

Priest nodded, “His step father.”

Anvil
smiled, “Edge thought to scare the kid away by showing him the one person he was most terrified off
, b
ut instead
he
brought about the Prophesy himself.”

Patch asked Chris directly
,”
How did you recognise that lump of melting grey slime?”

Chris looked down at his feet
,”
I saw past what it is
,
to what it was,
I
can’t explain any better than that. I
hope he rots in hell.”

Speed chuckled, even his laughter was chain lightning fast,
his head twitched from side to side,
“
They d
on’t go to hell kid, I mean Judgement.
Until you’re trained to bless them first, w
hen they go out like that, they’re destroyed for good. It’s like they never ever existed.”

Huntress
grinned,” Love
it when they blow up, better than fireworks night.”

Chris snapped his head up. “No, when I destroy
ed him I was given
a choice
. A voice inside me said ‘
be judged’
. I had the choice,
Hell or Heaven
. That bastards going to suffer for
eternity
”

The grin slipped from Huntress’s face, “What?”

Priest whistled softly, “He is Judgement!”

Huntress whispered into Priests ear, “I thought a Shade can only be destroyed
and we free the soul to go its own way
?”

Priest nodded, “So did I.”

Anvil
glanced first to Priest
,
then
stared hard at
Chris, “
You know this how?”

“It
was the same with the first Shade
.
I saw
who and what she was.”

Speed whistled like a high speed train, “That was a woman?”

Chris nodded, “Saw all the bad things she had ever done, screamed all the way down to Hell
. I
d
idn’t know I’d sent her though.
”

No one said anything for a very long time. The gathered Protectorate of the human race
, who had just about seen and heard everything
over countless centuries
,
ju
st stood there staring at Chris in amazement.

“Right!”
Anvil
broke the
silence
, “First thing tomorrow we move house. Tonight I expect we will be attacked. Speed
stand watch as normal
, y
ou know what to do.”

Speed smiled, “On the ball, ever watching
, ever moving!
”  One moment he was there, the next in a flicker of movement, he was perched on top of the roof
, as still as a gargoyle.

Anvil
led the others back into the house, gathering all except Speed in the living room. Patch sat with Chris on one settee, together with Huntress.  The others took up space on the other settee and two chairs. Rage hunkered down in one corner.
Anvil
strode back and forth in the centre of the room.