The Amalgamation Of Two Worlds

Hayden’s POV

Darkness. Sweet, blissful darkness. No. That wasn’t right.

Oblivion. Sweet, blissful... no.

Ignorance... no...

Pain. Gut wrenching, eye gouging, pain. Yes, that was right. Unfortunately.

My mind was in the back of the demon, seeing everything through some type of lens. Yet I could feel it all. Me? I cared about the pain. My demon? The demon? Not so much. To it, pain was bliss.

Claws ripped out of my hands, sending flesh and blood scattering the ground. My body arched and bones elongated, adding to the agony already coursing through my body. My eyes went blood red. Everything was infrared.

A sound pierced the night, and only when pain in my throat reached me, did I realize it was me making that sound. I didn’t have time to consider the horror of it all, for my body took flight. Thankfully toward the right target.

I closed my eyes. Or mentally did. My demon was wide awake, but I didn’t want to have to see what it was about to. So I tuned out my sight. I still felt it though. And heard it. That was almost worse.

~~
Damon’s POV

I find myself very sane. Intelligent. I find I can rationalize almost anything. Almost. This? Heck, I didn’t even know what this was. It was... odd. Terrifying, and coming from me, that meant something. Hayden–or what kinda looked like him–lunged at the creature.

He hit it in the face, claws–where the hell had they come from?–ripped into the creature’s eyes. I thought it’s screech before was bad. Nope. It had nothing on this.

The sound that left the creature shattered my eardrums, sending my hands to my ears in a desperate attempt to tune it out. The sound tore its way through my ears and through my body, sending every hair standing up, and every nerve gone. I screamed. Or tried to. I didn’t hear it. Everything was lost to the sound above me.

I barely managed to look. But when I did, revulsion hit me. Hayden was relentless. And he was winning. That itself shocked me, but I shoved it aside. I could ponder life’s queries later. Now, now was survival.

The creature was still screaming, but the sound was lessened now. Why? Hayden was ripping out its tongue. All that remained of the creature’s eyes were bloody sockets, and gore around them. And still it fought. Rearing and bucking, trying to fling Hayden off, to no avail. Even I could tell it was screwed. Yet, for some reason, that didn’t ease me.

That wasn’t Hayden. It was something else. Something I didn’t trust not to rip out my own eyes. Hell.

~~
Audrey’s POV

The problem with a plan? It can only ever be a guideline. For there are variables, and when one changes, you have to too. So here we were, all three hiking through the deep forest, backpacks overflowing strapped to our aching backs. Original plan? Quads. That failed an hour into the woods. It was too thick. They wouldn’t fit. And we were too far away to leave the stuff and come back if need be. No, so we had to carry it all.

Gabriel was cursing, big surprise there, and Brian was trudging toughly along, not making a sound. For such a young boy, he sure was resilient. I didn’t make a sound either, but my labored breathing could be heard for all. At the moment. A second later, nothing could be heard.

All three of us dropped down to the ground, hands flying to our ears. The sound tore it’s way through my nervous system, and everything vanished. Pain slammed into my temple, sending my eyes shut and my body arching, as if trying to get away from it. My throat turned raw as my screams filled the night, and my head pulsated with the noise, reverberating around and around...

I fell forward on my face, coughing up blood in the process. My already abused throat screamed at me, and my head gave another erratic pulse of agony. I began coughing uncontrollably, and a pool of blood began to form. Just as tears began to leak down my cheeks, it was over.

The pain in my head went away, the blood stopped coming, and the noise just... vanished. Why didn’t I think that was a good thing?

I spat a few times, clearing the blood from my mouth, before turning slowly. My throat was raw and painful, but I was alive... for the time. Gabriel was also standing up slowly, and Brian was wide eyed, but had no blood. I suppose not being human had to come in handy for something.

“Come one,” I murmured, my voice sounding raspy.

“And still we tread forward. We’ve lost out fucking minds.” For once, I agreed with Gabriel.

~~

Damon’s POV

The tongue was gone. And I had managed to crawl a whole... five feet. If I kept this up, I’d make it to cover in two days. Damn it. I shut my eyes, concentrating. I healed fast normally, so why couldn’t I now? Maybe because I had no blood left in me, and my arm and leg were hanging on by sinews, but damn if I was going to sit here and let Hayden–Hayden of all people!–kill me. No, if I was going to die today, I would die at the hands of whatever that creature was. Not some pansy ass clave.

I stiffled my gasp, and kept concentrating. My body screamed painfully, but slowly began to comply. I managed to get my leg relatively attached before my body just shut down and I fell back, sweating profusely and breathing heavily. Damn. But at least I could stand. In theory.

I fell down the first time I stood. Many curses, and my temper rising with each try, I finally made it to my wobbly feet. Once that was accomplished, I made my inconvenient body head toward more cover. It was slow going, but I made it there eventually, and Hayden was still tearing apart the creature... even though it had stopped moving five minuets ago. Who was I to care? It kept him from me. If I hoped to stand any chance, I needed blood. I didn’t expect to find anything remotely satisfying out here, but I could hope for maybe a deer. While vile, it would allow me to heal completely.

I began limping forward, making no noise. If I attracted Hayden now, I was a dead man. There was a blood lust in his eyes that I’ve never seen before, and something I had no hope to combat at the moment. I was twenty feet into the thick trees when I heard it; a slight snap.

My eyes snapped toward the noise, my body tensing. Briefly I thought it was Hayden, having spotted moving prey; me. Nope. My second guess was that my luck was lifting, and I had some sort of wild animal. Again I was wrong, and the answer that met me made my heart plummet.

There were three figures heading toward the clearing. Gabriel, Brian and Audrey. Audrey was in the lead, her eyes on Hayden and her pace hurried. She could only see him from the back next to the creature. She couldn’t see his blood covered teeth, his stained face, or his claws that were tearing flesh off the creature. No. All she could see was Hayden, and she was now running to him. Mind blowing panic hit me, and before I could shout out a warning, Audrey got Hayden’s attention. He spun around, hissing. Audrey froze, a shocked expression coming onto her face, before being replaced by panic. I didn’t blame her. Not one bit. For Hayden was in mid pounce for her.