It Came Through the Door

The following is based on a telling in the Province...

     December 30, 2014.  Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada.

     I've known for quite some time now, but I could not prove it.  I felt alone in this, for everyone I've told, none believed or would listen to me.  Perhaps I was going insane, or I was conjuring delusions.  But every time I saw it, something deep within me -- some primordial feeling left within my DNA -- sensed something was off.  I paced my apartment, knowing its arrival was inevitable, and felt like a lab rat trapped in a glass cage, ready for what came next.  My heart pounded within my chest, made more oppressive with every step I took.  Despite the warmth of the room, my hands felt as ice; I wrung them to get the blood flowing, which didn't seem to help.  Damn, the December freeze!  Winter never felt so lonely as it did at that moment.

     I heard a click at the door..  My heart skipped and a lump formed in my throat.  The thought of seeing it again...  Fear gathered at the back of my neck and weighed down my chest in anticipation.  It was here!

     The slide of the key hitting home raised my awareness, my surroundings coming ever so closer.  All at once, I didn't have room to pace, the couch and seats crowded me and the coffee table was a huge road block.  I tried to back out of the living room, but the dining room table rose up to meet the walls on either side.  Everything in my apartment was put into place to deter my every movement.  And, I quickly realized, they were put there by it.  The thing arranged everything in just the right position, so when the infernal time came, there was nothing I could do.

     The key turned and the knob with it.  My mind scrambled, absorbing every object inside the room.  The chairs of the dining room seemed miles away.  I could use one of the lamps sitting on the end tables, but they held such a venerable age, it seemed not worth the effort.  The shoes beside the threshold of the door lain soft and comfortable on the carpet, probably not enough to do damage.  So much stuff surrounded me, yet not a thing I could use to defend myself.

     The click of the latch snapped so loud in my ears, I took a step back, yet I stood in place, not moving at all.  The sensation felt surreal, like I was there, yet looked at myself from somewhere near the kitchen, peeking around the corner, frightened at... what might come.  My shoulders detached from my body and the rest of my conscience followed, stepping back and watching the moment the door opened... at the moment of my death.

     And then... there it was!  Standing with its purse strapped over its shoulder like a rotting head dangling from a rope.  Bits of snow melted on its shoulders and wool cap.  It stomped its booted feet like a bull getting ready for the matador.  It yanked the cap off its head and hung it on a coat hook.  Its deathly pale face held a toothy smile with bright white teeth -- fangs? --  and a crimson nose.  It looked at me with pale blue eyes and reached toward me, holding a brown cylinder capped with a black disk, wicked steam rising from the top; perhaps its hellish death device.

     "Hi, hon," it said.  "I brought you some coffee."

     It was a ruse, I knew, and the thing had plans for me more horrifying than I could imagine.  It took a step toward me and shoved the hot, brown cylinder in my direction.  I had no choice but to handle the igneous death device, forged in the fires of hell.

     "It's deathly cold outside," it said, flashing those sharpened fangs again.  It began speaking in its natural foreign tongues -- about what, I had not idea -- but most likely about its accustomed daily activities and such.

     I set the damnable cylinder down on the table and took a step back.  The thing shed its peculiarly dried overcoat, like a serpent shedding its skin, and hung it on the hooks.  It turned around to face me, pale blue eyes had gone huge and black, and said, "You will no longer call me Satan."

     At that moment, fear gripped me in its iron vice.  Nothing I could do, I knew, would save my life.  I was doomed from the minute it came through the door.

     It stepped toward me, but I freed myself of the fear and threw the brown death cylinder at it.  I found a painted rock on the mantel and struck its head several times, but the thing's terrible roar only made it stronger.  I found an electrical cord and managed to get it around the thing's neck.  It coughed, and I knew I somehow blocked its ability to spew its venomous breath.  I pulled and tightened my grip, but its struggle was greater than mine.  It would not die.

     How stupid could I have been?  Of course!  I realized the beast could only be slain by disrupting the chakra energies it used for its cruel and evil purposes.  I rushed to the kitchen, gripped the handle of a butcher knife, and hurried back to finish it.  By that time, the thing had the cord from around its neck, but I saw it was weak.  I overcame it and immediately plunged the knife into its groin, starting at the Root.  Six more times, working my way up, I plunged the knife into it until I reached its head.  The thing finally stopped moving.  The demon was dead.

Life on Mars

The following is based on a report posted in the Inquistr...

     3 billion years ago.  The Last Great Solar War, Mars.
     Aksyrob leveled his blaster rifle at the Draco warrior.  he knew, or at least his government and military leader had told everyone, the reptilians had started this war for the domination and procurement of resources.  The entirety of Mars held their ground, battling against the Draco invasion, which had spread throughout the galaxy.  Of course, the humans of Mars were not without help.  The Grays brought in their allies from the Sirius, Rigel, and Aldebaran systems.  However, the Draco countered with their own, bigger allies in the insectoid Mantis and other for a galactic domination.  No one in the galaxy was safe, unless the forces of evil were brought down with a mighty blow.
     Before the reptilian could take a shot, Akysrob let loose a volley of concentrated plasma toward the warrior, blasting through the Draco's ceramic armor, which carved out a cavity deep in its chest.  The warrior collapsed in a heap, unmoving.
"We've got them holed-up in the building across the street," Aksyrob heard his commander via the comms-unit in his helmet.  Her voice quivered with anger.  Aksyrob thought she could be fierce at times, and this was one of those times.  "Ydissac, take a squad to the back entrance," she directed.  The commander gave her directions from sights unseen, at least from a point unknown to Aksyrob.  It was probably better that way.  "Aksyrob, take your troops through the front doors, while I coordinate the side doors."
     All squad leaders acknowledged their positions and confirmed their orders.  Aksyrob checked on his squad.  Semaj was a big man, wide and broad, who could hardly fit into his combat gear.  His muscles seemed to want to escape such confinement.  Delfsnurg was the wiry type, both in physique and intelligence; the demolition/engineer of the team, his body was great for getting into tight spaces.  Revor was packed with an attitude only fit for a woman who thought of herself as one of the guys, and would never let anyone see her feminine side.  And, finally, there was Aksyrob's best friend, Tolemac.  They were recruited at the same time, graduating boot camp and serving in Caledonia for two years before the Draco Invasion.  When the shit hit the fan, the two of them vowed to be inseparable, no matter the assignment given by the military leaders.  The four of them made a formidable team, largely because of their tendency to make irrational decisions, always heading into danger without considering the consequences and usually come out the better for it.  Because they were always rushing in head first, they were known as the Rush Ins.
     Aksyrob relayed orders to his squad and, together, they quickly moved toward the front of the building.

Elsewhere in the solar system, the Draco-Mantis Throng maneuvered a dwarf planet with their greatest weapon, the Tiamat Device.  Tiamat, meaning "chaotic bearer of words" in the reptilian language, had the capability to move planets the size of Mars with an incredible amount of energy harnessed by the sun.  the dwarf planet in this war was directed at Mars.  The Draco believed if the Martians did not relinquish its resources, no one will have it.
     The dwarf planet was due to strike Mars within 24 hours of Tiamat's launch, but a military operation devised by the Human-Gray Confederation had been launched to divert the planet out of the system and out of harm's way.  Unfortunately, things went FUBAR, and the operatives of the mission managed only to divert the dwarf planet just enough to miss Mars. Minutes later, it hit the third, recently cooled planet of the system, which will eventually be called Earth.  The catastrophe was such that, hundreds of thousands of years later, a moon would develop and orbit the earth.  the destruction of that world sent asteroid-sized rocks in the direction of Mars, pelting the advanced civilization with its carnal devastation.  One particular chunk of earth would open a crack across Mars' landscape and cause the luscious, fertile planet to lose its atmosphere.

Minutes before the catastrophe, Aksyrob and his squad entered the building through the front doors.  Immediately, the Rush Ins were bombarded by Draco plasma blasts.  Lucky for the squad, there was enough cover to hide behind.  Although they traded blaster fire, not one of them knew what came from space, crashing into their planet... ending their existence forever.