When people are ‘drained’, their masks break and disappear which can expose them to Entha. When someone is exposed to Entha there are three reactions the body can experience. The first and most common is when the heart stops immediately and the person dies. The second is when the body is overtaken by a warm glow that will ease pain. That person will soon develop an ability. The third is said to be the most painful. The mental state of the person is attacked, and they will lose their sense of reality. This process, titled demonization, first starts with full body tremors caused by abnormal temperature regulation.
The demonized person can and will try to kill anyone nearby so if you encounter a demonization it is in your best interest to run.
Twenty minutes away from the parking garage a phone began to ring.
Wilson Rogue paused his kneading of the bread dough before him.
“Phone, answer call,” he said.
“Answering: Cain (the favorite child).” the robotic voice said.
Wilson shook his head. He really needed to change that name, a name which Cain himself put in.
“What is it, Cain?” Wilson said with a sigh.
“Nothing,” Cain’s voice said through the phone suddenly. It sounded distant and distorted. Was Cain talking with someone? “Please don’t kill her. She can’t die in some gross parking garage in Gregton. Not to some Giant like you!”
Wilson froze. “What!? Cain! What's going on!? What Giant?”
An unfamiliar voice spoke, even harder to hear than Cain. “That-...people gave us… it brings- memories. I like it.”
“Fuck!” Wilson grabbed his phone and rushed to the home phone on the back counter. He pushed the buttons of his wife's number as fast as he could.
“Drain him. We’ll take the girl.”
“Cain!” Wilson shouted, panic taking over. “Can you hear me!? Hold on!”
The fucking phone in his hand wasn’t ringing fast enough.
“I don’t know. He seems more cooperative.”
The home phone stopped ringing.
“Hey,” the voice of his wife, Athena, said. “What’s up? I’m working late.”
“Athena, you need to get down to Gregton, NOW! Cain’s in danger!”
The call with his son went dead.
I have never been colder. No matter how much I curled in on myself I couldn’t ease the bone-deep ice that overtook my senses.
The pain followed the cold quickly. It crept up on me, starting out slow but it soon grew to a boiling sensation that burned under my skin. It hurt, it hurt so much. Why did it hurt so much!? Stop, stop, stop, stop- I clawed at my cheeks, at my arms, at anything that burned. A scream tore through my throat, the sound ringing in my ears.
Through the pain, a thought came to me.
.
It was horrific in every way that others had failed to describe. ’ demonization was glacial. ,’ demonization was torturous. ,’ demonization was horrifying to experience! No wonder why people lost their minds. No wonder!
A sob escaped from me.
I’m going to lose my mind.
I hadn’t stopped screaming. I wasn’t sure if I ever would. Was my last cohesive thought going to be about pain? Was it really? That fucking sucks. Why did it suck so much? WHY?
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What did I do to deserve this?
The pain eased only slightly and my screams quietened to whines and gasps. Everything still hurt and I was pretty sure my arms were bleeding from scratch marks.
With my ringing ears, I could barely make it out, but I heard someone say, “He’s being loud, will you kill him?” I tried to process what that meant. Who was speaking? Who were they talking about?
I gritted my teeth. I didn’t want to think about those things. I would rather sleep for a while. I wished I was in my bed, or even on the moldy-smelling couch in my room. I should seriously consider throwing that thing out.
“Goodbye, thief.” This was right above me. Why was it right above me? Couldn’t it leave me alone? Please, for five minutes. I would really like a nap…
I cracked my eyes open and looked up. I was met with the face of… something. It was familiar… I blinked at it. It had long nails. They were sharp. Those nails were really close to my head. I looked over its shoulder and saw another thing like it… that thing was also familiar. It was a thing that I really didn’t like. Though, on its shoulder was a limp figure. It may have been a person but it was hard to tell as everything became harder to focus on.
“Wha-” I muttered, my tongue heavy. I pulled myself to my knees and my arms trembled with that same chill breathing down my spine. I narrowed my eyes and found that the person hanging was a girl. Did I know her? I wasn’t sure.
“Pray to your god,” The thing above me said.
I blinked again.
…No. What’s going on?
!
It screamed in my head.
!
“You're nothing but a monster now.” The thing said. I couldn’t really understand what it meant though. It slashed its claws at me with blinding speed. It was going to hit me so I did the only thing I could do. I jumped.
I was in the air. It was like I was flying for a brief moment. I don’t think I’ve ever jumped so high before. I was at least a foot above the thing’s head now. That’s pretty neat. Too bad everything around me was blurry. It could have been a cool view.
!
I was in danger… wasn’t I? But she, whoever the fuck she was, was in more danger. That side of me that was beginning to panic can come later.
I landed on the thing’s shoulder and kicked off of it, touching down several feet behind it and about the length of a small car from the girl and her monster thing. I reached into my pocket, pulling out a pair of gloves, and slipped them on.
“Hey, bitch! Give me that person!” My words were slurred. I found it oddly hard to speak or even breathe. I was starting to wonder what I was even trying to do.
I started charging at the creature with the girl. The creature seemed surprised and stepped back. I leaped at it without a plan. I wasn’t even sure what I was trying to accomplish anyway. My thoughts were beginning to muddle.
The creature dropped the girl. It grabbed me by the collar and threw me to the ground. And, shit, that hurt. It hurt a lot. The pain that was already there was amplified by the impact, and something in my shoulder popped.
That arm may be unusable now.
I got to my feet anyway and kept low to the ground, my eyes not leaving the creature. It seemed hesitant in response, I wasn’t sure why, but I grinned anyway.
.
I pounced forward with one of my arms hanging at my side. I barreled into the thing’s legs causing it to stumble. It kicked me after regaining its balance and I rolled. My side ached but I got up.
The other creature tried to grab me from behind but I smacked my head into its chin and almost impaled myself with its horns. I skipped away from that creature and avoided a murder attempt from the other one. The claws missed my head by a finger width.
I was still grinning.
I didn’t know why.
!
I shook my head and dodged a punch. Both creatures were stalking towards me and they mostly seemed pissed. Why were they mad again? Behind me was the perhaps dead person. They looked dead. They certainly weren’t awake. I didn’t know who they were nor did I really care, but I knew one thing. I really wanted to get them away from these creatures.
So I scooped them up with my one arm and carried them on my shoulder like a heavy bag. Well, not too heavy. They were surprisingly light, light enough for me to sprint away as those creatures chased me down.
I lasted on my feet for a solid three minutes, running around in circles before I tripped over my own feet as the world became nothing but a darkening veil. I couldn’t catch myself with my arms so I twisted to land on my back. The air was knocked out of me. The person on my shoulder landed next to me, but I don’t think they got hurt.
“Finally,” one of the creatures said. “I was beginning to think we’d have to use our abilities.”
They were surprisingly close.
I couldn’t really see them much. All I could make out was two tall figures who were towering over the two of us. I remember… they’re called Giants… huh, what a simple name.
Wait… what’s going on?
I narrowed my eyes.
The Giants stood tall but I don’t think they were that tall. In fact, they seemed to be off the ground. The creatures themselves were saying words that I couldn’t understand. I tried to focus my gaze to even fathom what was happening.
Something suddenly blocked my view of the flying Giants. A mass of material, a neck, and a head… So this was a person (probably). They had seemingly appeared from or something cause I didn’t notice them until that moment.
Whoever just arrived turned their head to look at me. They were smiling. I liked the smile. It was a smile a superhero would have.
“I’ll take care of them for you,” the person said. Their voice was masculine. “It’s okay now.”
“Okay,” I mumbled, letting my head fall to the ground. The ache in my body eased slightly.
I closed my eyes and exhaustion washed over me.
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