WebNovels

Chapter 25 - 025. Ink Demon

The drive to Seed's apartment building took twelve minutes that felt like twelve hours. Delgado's unmarked police car weaved through Ashwick's streets, the old detective's knuckles gripped hard on the steering wheel. He kept glancing at Seed in the passenger seat, mouth opening and closing like he wanted to ask a thousand questions but couldn't figure out where to start.

Seed watched the streetlights blur past, His phone sat in his lap, Rebecca's desperate text message glowing on the screen. They won't stop moving. His Ghost Hair prickled at the base of his skull, sensing something wrong about to happen.

"So," Delgado finally said, his voice carefully controlled. "You gonna tell me what the hell is going on, or do I have to guess? Because right now, my best theory is that I'm having a stroke and this is all a very detailed hallucination."

Seed laughed a little, despite everything. "Trust me, I wish it was that simple." He took a breath, wincing as his felt the pain from his injured arm "You remember all those weird cases? The ones that never made sense? Missing persons during past Hollow Seasons, witnesses reporting impossible things, evidence that didn't add up?"

"Yeah." Delgado's jaw tightened. "We always wrote them off. 'Mass hysteria,' the captain would say. 'People seeing things in the dark.' I never liked it, but what else could we do?"

"They were real," Seed said flatly. "All of it. Ghosts, monsters, things that don't belong in our world. They're real, and they've always been here. Most people just can't see them. But during Hollow Season? The barrier gets thin. Things slip through, and even normal people start seeing shit."

Delgado was quiet for a long moment, his eyes fixed on the road. "And you can see them. Fight them. With your... hair." He said it like he was testing the words, seeing if they sounded as insane out loud.

"Yeah." Seed pulled up his sleeve, showing the skull tattoo. It pulsed faintly with red light. "I got this a few days ago. A book. The Book of Death. It gave me powers, but it's also... changing me. Corrupting me somehow. Every time I use it, I think I lose a little bit of myself to the strength it gives me"

"Jesus Christ, Wallace." Delgado's voice cracked. "Why didn't you come to me? Why didn't you—"

"Because you would've done exactly what you're doing now. Tried to help. Gotten yourself killed." Seed met his eyes. "That thing at the station was trying to murder you, Delgado. And I don't know why. I don't know what those symbols mean, or who sent that assassin. But someone is hunting us in Ashwick."

They pulled up to the apartment building. Most windows were dark except for a few, seed could see his own apartment on the fourth floor, and two doors down, Mira's light was on. But Rebecca's window across from his was blazing bright, and even from the street, he could see shadows moving inside. Too many shadows for a apartment that should have only one person in it.

"That's her place," Seed said, pointing. "Rebecca Hayes. Artist. Lives alone. She can bring her drawings to life, ink creatures. But she's new to her powers, can't always control them."

Delgado pulled his gun, checking it again. "She's the neighbour that had that incident right? And you think someone's attacking her too?"

"I think whatever's happening, it's targeting people with abilities." Seed opened the door, his Ghost Hair already starting to rise. "Stay close. And Delgado? If things go bad, just run. Don't try to be a hero."

"Fuck that," Delgado growled, falling into step beside him. "I didn't spend thirty years as a cop just to run from some Halloween nightmare. Let's go get your friend."

They took the stairs two at a time. The building was quiet, too quiet. Usually Mrs. Chen on the second floor had her TV blasting, and the college kids on third were always playing music. Now, nothing. Just the sound of their footsteps echoing in the stairwell.

Fourth floor. Seed's apartment door was closed and dark. Mira's light was still on, but no movement. And Rebecca's door stood open, light spilling into the hallway along with an acrid smell, like burnt ink and copper.

Seed exchanged a look with Delgado, then pushed the door open.

"Holy mother of—" Delgado breathed.

Rebecca's apartment was a warzone. Her paintings had been torn from the walls, canvases slashed and scattered. Ink splattered everywhere, on the carpet, the walls, the ceiling but it wasn't behaving like normal ink. It moved. Writhed. Black puddles crawled across the floor like living things, trying to form shapes but collapsing back into liquid.

And in the center of it all stood Rebecca, her back to the door. She was hunched over her sketchbook, pencil flying across the page with desperate speed. Her long black hair hung loose and wild, her white crop top splattered with ink. She was muttering something under her breath, over and over.

"Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. STOP!"

"Rebecca!" Seed called out.

She spun around, and Seed's heart dropped. Her eyes were bloodshot, tears streaming down her face. Ink stained her hands up to her elbows, and more dripped from her nose like a noseblood. Behind her, something massive was forming, a creature of made from pure ink, easily eight feet tall, with too many arms and a gaping mouth full of sketch-line teeth.

"Seed!" Rebecca sobbed. "I can't—I can't stop it! I drew it in a nightmare and now it won't—" She gasped as the creature lurched forward, one of its ink-tendril arms wrapping around her waist. "Help me!"

The ink demon roared, a sound like tearing paper amplified a thousand times. It lifted Rebecca off the ground, pulling her closer to its gaping maw. More ink puddles across the room began rising, forming smaller creatures, twisted dogs with too many legs, birds with human hands for wings, faces that screamed silently.

"What the hell do we shoot?" Delgado yelled, aiming his gun at the biggest threat.

"The heart!" Rebecca screamed. "Every ink creature has a heart, the first stroke I drew! It's in the center of the chest! But I drew it too dark, too solid, I can't—"

Seed didn't wait to hear more. His Ghost Hair exploded outward, dozens of strands whipping through the air. They lashed at the ink demon's arm holding Rebecca, trying to sever it, but the ink was thick and resistant. His hair passed through, came back out dripping black.

The demon swung its free arms at Seed, massive ink-fists the size of basketballs. He dodged one, but the second caught his shoulder and sent him crashing into the wall. Pain exploded through his injured arm. His vision blurred.

[Death Field]

Seed activated the privilege on instinct. The apartment plunged into that eerie silence, isolated from reality. The ink creatures' movements slowed, giving him precious seconds. But they didn't stop, they were Rebecca's creations, technically alive in their own way.

"Delgado!" Seed shouted. "Center mass! Empty your clip!"

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The detective didn't hesitate. He opened fire, the gunshots oddly muffled in the Death Field. Bullets tore through the ink demon's torso, and black liquid sprayed across the room. One shot hit something solid...

CRACK

...and the creature shrieked.

There. A small sphere of hardened ink in its chest, barely visible through the liquid body. The heart.

Seed's Ghost Hair shot forward, all the strands converging on that single point. They wrapped around the heart-sphere, squeezed, pulled. The ink resisted, fighting back, but Seed gritted his teeth and poured more death energy into his hair. The strands glowed faintly black, strengthened by his power.

CRACK.

The heart shattered. The ink demon convulsed, dropping Rebecca. She hit the floor hard, gasping. The creature collapsed into a puddle, spreading across the carpet and going still. The other smaller creatures, the dogs, the birds, the screaming faces, all melted back into harmless ink simultaneously.

Seed dropped his Death Field. Sound rushed back, Rebecca's sobbing, Delgado's heavy breathing, the distant wail of sirens from somewhere in the city.

"Rebecca." Seed limped over to her, kneeling down. His arm was bleeding again, and his shoulder felt like it had been hit by a truck. "Hey. You're okay. It's over."

She looked up at him, mascara running down her face, ink in her hair. "I fell asleep," she whispered. "I was so tired after last time, and I fell asleep with my sketchbook open. I dreamed about... about something chasing me. And when I woke up, it was there. On the page. And then it was real. It was real and I couldn't stop it and—"

"Shh. It's okay now." Seed helped her to her feet. She was shaking, her whole body trembling like a leaf. "You're safe."

Delgado holstered his gun, his face pale but composed. Thirty years as a cop had taught him how to keep it together even when everything was insane. "Kid," he said to Seed. "I'm gonna need that explanation now. All of it. Because I just shot a goddamn ink monster in a apartment that looks like a painting came to life, and I'd really like to know what the hell I'm involved in."

Seed opened his mouth to answer, but Rebecca grabbed his arm. "Seed. There was someone here. Before the demon formed. I heard them in the hallway. Whispering. I looked through the peephole and saw..." She swallowed hard. "A hooded figure. Just standing there. Watching my door. And then they drew something on my door with chalk and walked away. That's when the nightmare started."

Cold dread washed over Seed. He pulled away from Rebecca and stepped into the hallway. On her door, barely visible in the dim light, was a symbol drawn in white chalk. The same jagged spiral from the police station. The same symbol the faceless assassin had worn on its robes.

They were being marked. Targeted. One by one.

"We need to call the others," Seed said, pulling out his phone. "Cassie, Pedro, Mira. The boss. Something's hunting us, and we need to figure out what before—"

KYAAAAA!

A scream cut through the building. High-pitched, terrified. It came from down the hall.

From Mira's apartment.

More Chapters