FAKE Fic: Unnatural Causes - Part 4
Title: Unnatural Causes - Part 4
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, Ryo, Ted, Marty, OCs.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2159
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Dee and Ryo are as ready as they can be, but will their arsenal of unlikely weapons be enough to prevent the creature from taking more lives?
Written For: spook_me 2022.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: Set after Like Like Love.
Back to Part 3
Just before eleven, armed with their arsenal of theoretical weapons, carefully concealed in the pockets of their overcoats, Dee and Ryo took to the night-time streets once more. It was early December now, and even colder than it had been when they’d stood over the body of Mary Beresford, still believing they were looking for a serial killer of the human variety rather than a supernatural entity. Frost lay heavy on the sidewalks and the occasional parked car, and the two detectives had taken to winding their scarves around the bottom half of their faces, covering their mouths and noses, so they didn’t have to breathe the frigid air. It was risky since it muffled their voices, but they figured they could always fire off a quick text to call for help in an emergency. SOS wouldn’t take much time or effort.
The night proved uneventful, however, with nothing besides themselves moving through the icy streets and alleyways, and the two nights that followed also passed without any sign of the creature Dee had seen. Ryo let himself dare to hope that it had already returned to wherever it had come from, or perhaps it really had just been a sick and injured cat after all, and being hairless, had finally succumbed to the sub-zero temperatures. As they continued their efforts to catch the real killer, they might find the unfortunate animal’s body frozen stiff in an alley, or behind a dumpster.
Then, on the fourth night, as he turned the corner onto the next street, cold, bored, and feeling like he could probably find his way through this section of the city with his eyes closed having walked it so many times, he spotted a man walking alone about a block ahead of him. It was difficult to see him clearly in the dim light from the widely spaced streetlamps, but he appeared to be hurrying along, his shoulders hunched against the cold, and his hands jammed deep in the pockets of an oversized parka.
Ryo picked up the pace and lengthened his strides; he needed to warn whoever it was that he should get off the streets as quickly as possible, although that was no doubt what he was trying to do anyway. No one in their right mind would want to be outside at gone two in the morning on a bitterly cold night like this one. The sidewalks were slick with frost and ice thanks to the rain that had fallen earlier in the evening, and heavy clouds still hung low over the city, blotting out the moon and stars, threatening sleet, if not snow.
He’d closed the gap between them to less than half a block when he caught a flicker of movement ahead of the man, something small and pale skittering across the street and into an alley on the far side. The man’s steps faltered, he’d obviously seen the animal too, and then he was crossing the empty street in its wake, heading for the alley it had disappeared into.
Pulling out his phone and tugging his scarf out of the way, Ryo made a quick call alerting Dee to what was happening. Giving his partner his location, he put the phone away and broke into a run. The sturdy hiking boots he was wearing, with their thick, ridged soles, weren’t exactly ideal for running in, but they gripped the frosty ground, keeping him from slipping on random patches of black ice as he sped along the paved sidewalk, then veered onto the pitted asphalt of the roadway, desperate to prevent another death.
OoOoOoO
A couple of blocks away, Dee shoved his phone into his pants pocket, and then he was running too, picturing the layout of the streets and alleys in his head, trying to work out which of them the possible victim was being lured into. If he could block his end, then Ryo would be able to close the trap, penning in the menace that had been stalking the streets, and hopefully giving them the time and space they needed to figure out how to deal with it.
At the next junction he sped over the cross-street at an angle, grateful for the lack of traffic, and kept going. The street he was on now ran parallel to the one Ryo had identified as his location; still going flat out, Dee passed the first of the narrow, lightless alleyways connecting the streets he and Ryo were on, then the second… From what Ryo had told him during his rushed phone call, the alley he wanted had to be one of the next two or three, those closest to the center of the block, but which was it?
He slowed as he approached the next shadowy gap in the long row of shabby brownstones, glancing down it and finding it empty, aside from an overflowing dumpster. He saw something else though, something that made him curse under his breath even as he continued along the street, picking up the pace again. There was a serious flaw in his plan, something he hadn’t taken into consideration; even if he and Ryo did manage to block both ends of the alley, that would still leave a double row of narrow, walled backyards between the two rows of buildings that could provide the creature with an escape route. Cats were quick and agile, and this thing was similar enough to a cat that the tall brick walls were unlikely to give it any problems. One leap and it could be racing away along what amounted to a cat highway before he and Ryo could make a move to follow.
Slowing again at the next alley, Dee found that to be empty as well, and with the freezing air burning his lungs he sped onwards, eyes fixed on the next dark opening, silently praying that he was on the right street. All the buildings in this area looked alike; if he’d taken a wrong turn in his rush to reach his partner, or if Ryo had been mistaken about which road he was on…
A sensation of growing warmth against his upper chest stripped Dee’s doubts away as he felt his St. Christopher reacting just as it had on his first encounter. This was it, the creature was nearby, and he could only hope he was in time. It seemed to have taken him forever to get here, and yet in reality it had probably been no more than five minutes since Ryo’s phone call. Breathing hard from his mad dash, Dee halted just before the alley entrance and eased his head around the corner, assessing the situation at a glance.
Relief flooded through him when he saw his partner near the far end, standing just inside the circle of illumination shed by the nearest streetlamp. Ryo had a plastic container of salt in one hand, and his flashlight wedged under his arm, but behind him, in the entrance to the alley, was what looked like a body lying on the filthy ground. Dammit, they’d gotten so close this time; they couldn’t have failed, not again!
OoOoOoO
A few minutes earlier…
As the man in the parka had reached the alleyway, Ryo, by now no more than forty feet behind him, had known he wouldn’t get to him in time and had shouted a desperate warning.
“NYPD! Stop where you are; your life may be in danger!”
There had been no response; the man hadn’t so much as glanced back at him, it was as if he hadn’t heard. He’d just kept walking, disappearing into the shadows, and Ryo had dredged up everything he had left in an effort to run faster.
One foot landed on the crumbling edge of an unnoticed pothole, throwing him off balance. He barely managed to stay on his feet, staggering for several steps before finding his footing again, but he gritted his teeth and carried on, ignoring the throbbing from his twisted ankle. Another half-dozen strides and he reached the alley entrance, all but skidding to a halt, just in time to see the man, who was crouched down several yards further in, slowly topple over backwards to lie still as death, eyes open and staring blindly upwards, his face twisted into a rictus of terror.
Out of the shadows, something pale and vaguely catlike glided forwards and up onto the fallen man’s chest, its eyes glowing a sickly yellow, and its needle-sharp teeth bared in a silent snarl. Ryo’s blood ran cold in his veins; Dee had been right, this wasn’t some alley cat, or anything even remotely natural. It glared balefully up at him, as if mocking his helplessness, before lowering its head towards the fallen man’s face and opening its mouth, extruding a thin, forked red worm of a tongue that seemed far too long. It moved snakelike, as if with a will of its own, the twin tips lengthening as they quested towards the man’s nostrils.
Ryo didn’t stop to think; he’d be damned if he was going to just stand there and let this thing take another life, not when he could do something to prevent it! Darting forward, he grabbed a double handful of parka and started dragging the man back towards the street, thinking if he could only get him into the light…
The creature, still on the man’s chest, retracted its tongue and crouched low as if preparing to pounce, staring up at him, unblinking. As their eyes met, Ryo found himself unable to look away, caught and trapped by its glowing gaze. He faltered, stumbling, legs turning to water, his grip loosening as the strength drained out of him to be replaced by a numbing terror beyond anything he’d ever experienced. He knew then with absolute certainty that death was staring back at him, that the creature would claim two victims tonight. He was doomed; there was no escape possible.
And yet, just as Ryo was about to surrender to the inevitable, through the overwhelming fear and dread blanketing his mind a memory from a few days earlier came back to him, sharp and clear, of the elderly priest, Father Malone, smiling gently and placing something in his hand.
“Trust it, and all it represents.”
Staring into those eerie yellow eyes, Ryo thought of what Dee had told him: Faith is trusting in something even when you don’t have any evidence.
In that instant he knew what he had to do; summoning the last dregs of his willpower, he forced his eyes closed, breaking the connection between himself and the creature. A single thought filled his head, a silent prayer to whatever deity might exist. ‘Help me.’
The creature recoiled, Ryo could hear it scrabbling away from him, hissing like a boiling kettle and making a weird chittering sound that sent chills like icy fingers down his spine. For a moment he wondered what could possibly be making it back off, then he felt a sudden blaze of heat around his left wrist, where Dee had once again fastened Father Malone’s rosary before they’d left their apartment, and somehow he knew even without looking that it was glowing with a clean, white brilliance, chasing away the shadows...
The heat seemed to sweep through his entire body, making him tingle all over, washing away the paralysis that had gripped him as if it had never existed, and taking most of the fear with it. Strength flooded back into his limbs, and keeping his eyes closed he tightened his grip on the fallen man’s parka once more, pulling with everything he had until he reached the alley’s entrance and the pool of light shed by a nearby streetlamp.
Dropping the body, and deliberately avoiding looking back into the alley, even though every instinct screamed at him to check the enemy’s position, Ryo opened his eyes and fumbled for the man’s wrist, searching for a pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found it, weak and uneven, but there. The man seemed to be in a trance, unmoving and unblinking, his breathing shallow, but he was still alive.
Straightening up, Ryo drew a deep breath of the frigid night air, letting it clear away the last lingering shreds of terror still fogging his brain, and stepping over the unconscious man, he pulled a plastic container from his pocket. Stooping, making sure not to look directly at the demonic entity that crouched a few yards away, studying him through slitted yellow eyes as though searching for any sign of weakness, he carefully poured an unbroken trail of salt across the alley, creating a barrier between the creature and its would-be victim. Then, salt in one hand and flashlight tucked securely under his arm, he reached into his coat and plucked a vial of holy water from his inside pocket before calmly stepping over the salt to confront his adversary. Let the showdown begin.
Part 5
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, Ryo, Ted, Marty, OCs.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2159
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Dee and Ryo are as ready as they can be, but will their arsenal of unlikely weapons be enough to prevent the creature from taking more lives?
Written For: spook_me 2022.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: Set after Like Like Love.
Back to Part 3
Just before eleven, armed with their arsenal of theoretical weapons, carefully concealed in the pockets of their overcoats, Dee and Ryo took to the night-time streets once more. It was early December now, and even colder than it had been when they’d stood over the body of Mary Beresford, still believing they were looking for a serial killer of the human variety rather than a supernatural entity. Frost lay heavy on the sidewalks and the occasional parked car, and the two detectives had taken to winding their scarves around the bottom half of their faces, covering their mouths and noses, so they didn’t have to breathe the frigid air. It was risky since it muffled their voices, but they figured they could always fire off a quick text to call for help in an emergency. SOS wouldn’t take much time or effort.
The night proved uneventful, however, with nothing besides themselves moving through the icy streets and alleyways, and the two nights that followed also passed without any sign of the creature Dee had seen. Ryo let himself dare to hope that it had already returned to wherever it had come from, or perhaps it really had just been a sick and injured cat after all, and being hairless, had finally succumbed to the sub-zero temperatures. As they continued their efforts to catch the real killer, they might find the unfortunate animal’s body frozen stiff in an alley, or behind a dumpster.
Then, on the fourth night, as he turned the corner onto the next street, cold, bored, and feeling like he could probably find his way through this section of the city with his eyes closed having walked it so many times, he spotted a man walking alone about a block ahead of him. It was difficult to see him clearly in the dim light from the widely spaced streetlamps, but he appeared to be hurrying along, his shoulders hunched against the cold, and his hands jammed deep in the pockets of an oversized parka.
Ryo picked up the pace and lengthened his strides; he needed to warn whoever it was that he should get off the streets as quickly as possible, although that was no doubt what he was trying to do anyway. No one in their right mind would want to be outside at gone two in the morning on a bitterly cold night like this one. The sidewalks were slick with frost and ice thanks to the rain that had fallen earlier in the evening, and heavy clouds still hung low over the city, blotting out the moon and stars, threatening sleet, if not snow.
He’d closed the gap between them to less than half a block when he caught a flicker of movement ahead of the man, something small and pale skittering across the street and into an alley on the far side. The man’s steps faltered, he’d obviously seen the animal too, and then he was crossing the empty street in its wake, heading for the alley it had disappeared into.
Pulling out his phone and tugging his scarf out of the way, Ryo made a quick call alerting Dee to what was happening. Giving his partner his location, he put the phone away and broke into a run. The sturdy hiking boots he was wearing, with their thick, ridged soles, weren’t exactly ideal for running in, but they gripped the frosty ground, keeping him from slipping on random patches of black ice as he sped along the paved sidewalk, then veered onto the pitted asphalt of the roadway, desperate to prevent another death.
OoOoOoO
A couple of blocks away, Dee shoved his phone into his pants pocket, and then he was running too, picturing the layout of the streets and alleys in his head, trying to work out which of them the possible victim was being lured into. If he could block his end, then Ryo would be able to close the trap, penning in the menace that had been stalking the streets, and hopefully giving them the time and space they needed to figure out how to deal with it.
At the next junction he sped over the cross-street at an angle, grateful for the lack of traffic, and kept going. The street he was on now ran parallel to the one Ryo had identified as his location; still going flat out, Dee passed the first of the narrow, lightless alleyways connecting the streets he and Ryo were on, then the second… From what Ryo had told him during his rushed phone call, the alley he wanted had to be one of the next two or three, those closest to the center of the block, but which was it?
He slowed as he approached the next shadowy gap in the long row of shabby brownstones, glancing down it and finding it empty, aside from an overflowing dumpster. He saw something else though, something that made him curse under his breath even as he continued along the street, picking up the pace again. There was a serious flaw in his plan, something he hadn’t taken into consideration; even if he and Ryo did manage to block both ends of the alley, that would still leave a double row of narrow, walled backyards between the two rows of buildings that could provide the creature with an escape route. Cats were quick and agile, and this thing was similar enough to a cat that the tall brick walls were unlikely to give it any problems. One leap and it could be racing away along what amounted to a cat highway before he and Ryo could make a move to follow.
Slowing again at the next alley, Dee found that to be empty as well, and with the freezing air burning his lungs he sped onwards, eyes fixed on the next dark opening, silently praying that he was on the right street. All the buildings in this area looked alike; if he’d taken a wrong turn in his rush to reach his partner, or if Ryo had been mistaken about which road he was on…
A sensation of growing warmth against his upper chest stripped Dee’s doubts away as he felt his St. Christopher reacting just as it had on his first encounter. This was it, the creature was nearby, and he could only hope he was in time. It seemed to have taken him forever to get here, and yet in reality it had probably been no more than five minutes since Ryo’s phone call. Breathing hard from his mad dash, Dee halted just before the alley entrance and eased his head around the corner, assessing the situation at a glance.
Relief flooded through him when he saw his partner near the far end, standing just inside the circle of illumination shed by the nearest streetlamp. Ryo had a plastic container of salt in one hand, and his flashlight wedged under his arm, but behind him, in the entrance to the alley, was what looked like a body lying on the filthy ground. Dammit, they’d gotten so close this time; they couldn’t have failed, not again!
OoOoOoO
A few minutes earlier…
As the man in the parka had reached the alleyway, Ryo, by now no more than forty feet behind him, had known he wouldn’t get to him in time and had shouted a desperate warning.
“NYPD! Stop where you are; your life may be in danger!”
There had been no response; the man hadn’t so much as glanced back at him, it was as if he hadn’t heard. He’d just kept walking, disappearing into the shadows, and Ryo had dredged up everything he had left in an effort to run faster.
One foot landed on the crumbling edge of an unnoticed pothole, throwing him off balance. He barely managed to stay on his feet, staggering for several steps before finding his footing again, but he gritted his teeth and carried on, ignoring the throbbing from his twisted ankle. Another half-dozen strides and he reached the alley entrance, all but skidding to a halt, just in time to see the man, who was crouched down several yards further in, slowly topple over backwards to lie still as death, eyes open and staring blindly upwards, his face twisted into a rictus of terror.
Out of the shadows, something pale and vaguely catlike glided forwards and up onto the fallen man’s chest, its eyes glowing a sickly yellow, and its needle-sharp teeth bared in a silent snarl. Ryo’s blood ran cold in his veins; Dee had been right, this wasn’t some alley cat, or anything even remotely natural. It glared balefully up at him, as if mocking his helplessness, before lowering its head towards the fallen man’s face and opening its mouth, extruding a thin, forked red worm of a tongue that seemed far too long. It moved snakelike, as if with a will of its own, the twin tips lengthening as they quested towards the man’s nostrils.
Ryo didn’t stop to think; he’d be damned if he was going to just stand there and let this thing take another life, not when he could do something to prevent it! Darting forward, he grabbed a double handful of parka and started dragging the man back towards the street, thinking if he could only get him into the light…
The creature, still on the man’s chest, retracted its tongue and crouched low as if preparing to pounce, staring up at him, unblinking. As their eyes met, Ryo found himself unable to look away, caught and trapped by its glowing gaze. He faltered, stumbling, legs turning to water, his grip loosening as the strength drained out of him to be replaced by a numbing terror beyond anything he’d ever experienced. He knew then with absolute certainty that death was staring back at him, that the creature would claim two victims tonight. He was doomed; there was no escape possible.
And yet, just as Ryo was about to surrender to the inevitable, through the overwhelming fear and dread blanketing his mind a memory from a few days earlier came back to him, sharp and clear, of the elderly priest, Father Malone, smiling gently and placing something in his hand.
“Trust it, and all it represents.”
Staring into those eerie yellow eyes, Ryo thought of what Dee had told him: Faith is trusting in something even when you don’t have any evidence.
In that instant he knew what he had to do; summoning the last dregs of his willpower, he forced his eyes closed, breaking the connection between himself and the creature. A single thought filled his head, a silent prayer to whatever deity might exist. ‘Help me.’
The creature recoiled, Ryo could hear it scrabbling away from him, hissing like a boiling kettle and making a weird chittering sound that sent chills like icy fingers down his spine. For a moment he wondered what could possibly be making it back off, then he felt a sudden blaze of heat around his left wrist, where Dee had once again fastened Father Malone’s rosary before they’d left their apartment, and somehow he knew even without looking that it was glowing with a clean, white brilliance, chasing away the shadows...
The heat seemed to sweep through his entire body, making him tingle all over, washing away the paralysis that had gripped him as if it had never existed, and taking most of the fear with it. Strength flooded back into his limbs, and keeping his eyes closed he tightened his grip on the fallen man’s parka once more, pulling with everything he had until he reached the alley’s entrance and the pool of light shed by a nearby streetlamp.
Dropping the body, and deliberately avoiding looking back into the alley, even though every instinct screamed at him to check the enemy’s position, Ryo opened his eyes and fumbled for the man’s wrist, searching for a pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found it, weak and uneven, but there. The man seemed to be in a trance, unmoving and unblinking, his breathing shallow, but he was still alive.
Straightening up, Ryo drew a deep breath of the frigid night air, letting it clear away the last lingering shreds of terror still fogging his brain, and stepping over the unconscious man, he pulled a plastic container from his pocket. Stooping, making sure not to look directly at the demonic entity that crouched a few yards away, studying him through slitted yellow eyes as though searching for any sign of weakness, he carefully poured an unbroken trail of salt across the alley, creating a barrier between the creature and its would-be victim. Then, salt in one hand and flashlight tucked securely under his arm, he reached into his coat and plucked a vial of holy water from his inside pocket before calmly stepping over the salt to confront his adversary. Let the showdown begin.
Part 5