The city was burning and Jack-Jaw grinned. He’d wanted this day so badly, and now he could revel in it. Glass burst somewhere behind him and he threw his arms wide and twirled towards the sound. Small clumps of people still cowered from the flames that had come so suddenly at Jack-Jaw’s direction, they hadn’t quite realized what was going on or couldn’t find a way to get out. Jack-Jaw skipped over to a particular group with three grown men and a woman. They all wore highly tailored clothes, looking important and well groomed. Jack-Jaw grinned his double grin at the group. The men all screamed, the woman merely gaped.
Jack-Jaw licked twin mouths with identical tongs at the thought of devouring her. The brave tasted best when they finally broke. He fell on the group, tearing with knife blade nails, biting with shark teeth, chewing with both mouths. In the end the woman screamed and she tasted delicious for it.
Full of flesh and covered in blood, Jack-Jaw felt a little less mobile. He was sated and still had the lovely show of the burning city to watch. He ambled over to an unoccupied bench and sat down on it to watch the flames of the buildings and smell the scents of many things turning to ash. He was relaxed and elated. Things hadn’t gone this well for him since he was sealed up in that damned jar. He made a mental note to hunt down the fucking mage who locked him in the relic. Though the thought occurred to Jack-Jaw that the mage might not be alive anymore. He didn’t really know what year it was and mages didn’t necessarily live forever.
He waved the thought away like a fly. Now was not the time for such deep thoughts. The sky was dark with smoke and flame, humans ran about screaming, things were exploding, and he was glad for it. It smelt like old times, before times, times when the only way out of the dark was with flames. Sometimes they saved you, sometimes they burned you. Jack-Jaw had sorely missed the burning.
“Jesus age Christ,” the vulgarity roused Jack-Jaw from his musings and he lolled his head to one side, frowning with both mouths. Two figures stood together, one, a tall youthful man with long raven black hair dressed in black with silver chain accents, and was he wearing makeup on his eyes? The other was a short woman who wore entirely too much black leather, ripped pants, and a torn shirt with some ghostly visage painted on it. She too sported chains, but what was wrong with her hair? Why did it stand up straight like that? Jack-jaw decided chains must be the new accessory among the young, but he couldn’t fathom her hair, did it also have colors in it? He turned on the bench to look at the couple from a better angle.
The man looked around him as if overwhelmed by the chaos about him, but he didn’t look impressed or concerned by it, rather he looked annoyed. His head rolled here and there, finally settling on Jack-Jaw. Only then did his wide eyes narrow a bit. This was not the reaction Jack-Jaw was accustomed too, fear, awe, sometimes desire, but not this accusatory reaction. As if he was some petulant child throwing a temper tantrum.
As much as this man puzzled Jack-Jaw, the woman puzzled him more. She didn’t look the least bit upset but she didn’t look happy either. Rather she looked bored. Jack-jaw frowned deeper as she sneered disdainfully at a glass explosion behind Jack-Jaw. He watched as the fire glinted in her moon bright eyes lending them no warmth. Jack-Jaw knew that particular light, the too bright eagerness of the insane. It made him grin again and both mouths gaped at her. He liked the lunatics, they tasted best.
“Oh fuck, does he have two mouths?” The man asked the woman. She snorted irritably and walked towards Jak-Jaw without answering the man. She looked like she’d resigned herself to some bothersome chore. Jack-Jaw’s grins faded a touch.
“Just who the fuck are you then?” She demanded of Jack-Jaw as if he was the interloper.
Frowning again, he simply reached out an arm to swipe lazily at her face, he wanted to get back to his fire.
She moved faster than he’d thought she should be able too. She practically danced away from him, instantly intrigued he gave chase. A few more swipes and he had corralled her nicely towards one of the flaming storefronts. Fire would melt that ice in her eyes, fire would burn the moon from her mind. He’d roast her like a rabbit and eat her whole.
Something impossibly solid hammered down on his head. Jack-jaw collapsed to his knees and the woman moved deftly out of reach, snickering at his obliviousness. He’d been so wrapped-up in chasing the woman he’d forgotten the man. He recovered his form fast enough.
He looked over at the man who just stood watching him, hot winds making his hair flutter around him like thin feathers. Jack-jaw growled, but the man didn’t flinch. Rather he just stared Jack-Jaw down and began chanting something under his breath. The woman rejoined the man, still sneering at Jack-Jaw. His anger flared inside him and fire erupted behind and around him. Neither seemed phased. The woman shook her head and pointed at him with a shinny machete she’d pulled from somewhere.
“I’ll spare you the fancy bullshit about who I am and what that all means, you don’t seem to care much,” The woman said and then jerked a thumb at the flames behind her. “You did all this?“
“The city, burns, for me!” Jack-Jaw flung his arms open to the surrounding scene. Let them be impressed by his power!
Black ichor erupted from his mouths and he gagged on his own inner fluids. He looked down, puzzled at the sudden heartburn in this chest. The woman twisted and pulled out the machete and swung a second at his neck. Jack-Jaw had the sudden sensation of falling.
Jude wiped the black tar that passed as the monster’s blood from her machetes. She’d have to clean the blade well when she got home. No telling how corrosive this thing’s blood could be. Anson walked up to look at the gutted and beheaded corpse. Sirens were finally starting to wail in the distance.
“You think we can burn it?” He asked knowing they had to dispose of the body before the emergency responders arrived.
“Why couldn’t we?” She snapped. She was pissed that the creature had been so easy to kill.
“Well…it just seemed pretty excited about the fire. Maybe it’s got a connection with it or something…you know…maybe,” He drifted off at the cold stare she gave him. He sighed deciding to come at it a different way. “What did Quintas say?” He knew she’d been briefed about the possible monster by the City’s Librarian.
Jude shrugged. She’d half listened at best.
“He said that water would probably do some damage to it, since it seemed so in love with fire.” Anson fought the urge to point out that was exactly what he’d said, he just rolled his eyes. Jude pointed back towards a manhole that led to the actual sewer. “Give us a hand.”
Anson knew damn well that she could lift and carry this guy on her own, but he took the feet of the headless monster and they carried it over to the manhole. He lifted the manhole cover and Jude dropped the body in. With an eager glint in her eyes she followed it down, Anson crouched above watching. The dark in the sewer access hole was too complete for him to see well. Jude’s eyes were better suited for total darkness. Aside from the sounds of burning around him and the slow glug of the sewer below he thought he hear a new sizzling noise.
“Anything?” He asked.
Jude ignored him as she stood against the tunnel wall watching, fascinated for the first time that day. The monster’s body began to dissolve like packed sand in a soft current. He melted away, a layer at a time as the forced current of the waster and now the added hydrant water washed over him. It took a while, but he finally began to break up into large chunks that melted away as well. Only once she couldn’t see anymore of him did she climb back up, grinning the whole way.
“Damnedest thing I’ve seen in a while,” She said describing the event to Anson. He just blinked and shook his head then he replaced the manhole cover, secretly happy he couldn’t see down the hole.
“Are you going to take the head back to Quintas?” He asked as they walked back over to claim it. It’s twin mouths gaping, ichor pooling around it, it’s eyes rolled up and glazed over. Anson touched it with the tip of his black converse then moved backwards as it rolled a little towards him.
“Don’t know why he’d want it,” She picked it up by its wiry black hair and poked it once with her finger. “but he likes to keep track of these things. Disgusting fuck.” Anson wasn’t sure if she referred to the Librarian or the monster. She had a low opinion of the City’s self appointed know-it-all.
Firetrucks worked in the distance, and both Anson and Jude thought to make themselves scarce. Lucky they didn’t need to go too far. The creature had only managed to set fire to the buildings on one half of one street. Granted it was Market Street and all the shops and clubs were in pretty bad shape. Still, from his perspective, Anson mussed, it must have looked like the whole city was indeed on fire. The repairs would be costly and there were a fair number of causalities, but it was a far cry from the whole city. Anson felt a sudden pang of pity for the monster. It had seemed so happy right before Jude disembowel it.
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