This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, events and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

We found ourselves at the abandoned mine shaft, home to the mysterious entity we call the Eye.

Preacher, our leader, a man of the cloth with the heavy weight of his unconventional faith on his shoulders.

Desmond, an old man who’s been around and knows everyone there is to know.

Teddy, an academic with a desire to gain political power for yet to be determined reasons.

And myself, Blade. Ostracised from the Academy for my “dangerous” research, I took to the streets where my ability to make things go boom would be put to good use.

We couldn’t rely on Preacher to communicate with the Eye for us anymore. He hasn’t been the same ever since he lost himself in the ghost field a few weeks back.

Always looking to prove herself and to gain the respect of her peers (and eventually the people of Doskvol), Teddy reached out to the Eye and the Eye reached back.

It was hungry and it wanted to be fed.

…

“Hey guys, what can I get you?”, said Chansey, the lovely bartender of the Bull, our usual haunt.

If everything went according to plan tonight, this would be her last day on the job.

As my colleagues drank the “Teddy” cocktails the bartender had whipped up for us to celebrate this special day, I fingered through my equipment, itching to get the real party started.

We stayed until closing time and waited just outside the bar for the right time to strike. We were regulars so it didn’t take much convincing to get the bouncers off our ass.

As they walked away, I barrelled through Teddy, who should have known better than to try and get in my way, and kicked in the front door to the bar.

What I saw was… unexpected.

Chansey was flanked on all sides by another group of thugs, they must have came in through the back… Seeing this, Teddy quickly convinced the bouncers to attack Chansey’s assailants instead of us while I started to do what I do best.

Many explosions, stabbings and fists to the jaw later, we were the last ones standing. Well almost, Desmond was knocked out and Teddy and I were barely keeping everything together.

But, everyone else in the bar was knocked out or dead.

On closer inspection, Chansey’s attackers seemed to be members of the Circle of Flame. I hate to say it but… one of them got away. That’ll be a problem for us to deal with another day.

We searched the bar for Chansey but we couldn’t find her… A consolation prize will have to do, I chucked a barely breathing member of the Circle of Flame into the trunk as well as Desmond’s hobo friend Steve, completely smashed out of his mind.

As I got into the driver’s seat, I could see Chansey’s massive boyfriend Giles roll up on us.

I told him that we weren’t responsible for starting the fight in the bar (although under different circumstances we definitely would have been) and that Chansey was doing just fine… somewhere… probably.

He wasn’t convinced.

Well, too bad. I started the engine and slammed on the pedal to get the hell out of there before the crows showed up.

Arriving back at the mine, I chucked the body and the soon-to-be body down the mine shaft for the Eye to consume, and I drove my unconscious colleagues back to my place for some well-deserved rest, despite our wickedness.

Follow me with fraidycat, or an RSS reader, to be notified whenever I write something.