46. The storm

"Wake up, Juno! Judith is missing!" Arc's voice hollered in my head. I flew out of the bed, flustered and confuse. I blinked as I stared at him, duvet in my hands. "Snap out of it, Jue, our little girl is gone!"

"Gone? Gone to where?" I asked dazedly.

"I don't know, my demon woke me up, anxious over his pup. When I woke up, she wasn't on the bed. I've checked everywhere, Jue, I can't sense her. Pumpkin checked the cameras, she just woke up and disappeared!" Arc was as perplex and panic stricken as I was.

"Where did she go to?!" I screamed, everything was becoming real to me.

"I found her!" Eva shouted from everywhere, she wasn't in her body form. "My location tracker says she is between time and space? What the…"

"Teleportation, she teleported but her powers aren't strong enough so it's taking time to get to where she wants…"

"Hunter," Arc cut me off, "that is the only possible place she would go to. Jue, let's go. Julietta, call us in case she comes back or there is a new development."

"Yes, my king." I rushed over to Arc, took his hand and disappeared.

You won't understand, you can't understand because your ears and reasoning has been shut… Reverberated in my head.

••• Narrative •••

Blood coated the white floor, stained the walls and almost everything in sight. Esme laughed as the last piece of stump flesh fell in a squishy thump on the floor before her. She came to destroy, she came to collect souls and she succeeded. She certainly wasn't expecting the whole family to be in, laughing and enjoying their time, but it was much better. The more the merrier.

Nineteen people dead: maids, cooks, relatives, friends; slaughtered like animals with blood let to intentionally splatter on the walls and properties, for the sick pleasure of seeing the horrible sight. The whole house looked like a tornado swept through it, the sofas and loveseats toppled over, claw marks and blood splattered on them. The windows were shattered to pieces, the plasma television hanging loosely with a gaping hole in the middle of the screen.

It was perfect.

"Now, where is that little boy? Come out, come out wherever you are," she called out in a singsong. Like a ghost, she floated above the floor, pale sheer skin glowing in the darkness. "Come out, little Hunter, I'm not going to hurt you, I just wanna play."

Hunter remained hidden in the closet, sobbing quietly. His mother had quickly hid him there when the unknown red-headed woman appeared in their living room. He was with his mother in the kitchen, she pulled him to safety when the killing started and warned him to stay still until his Aunt came to rescue them. But what could his auntie do against a creepy mad murderer?

"Hunter! Come out! Don't make me scare you out!" He didn't utter a word, only cupped his mouth. His heart hammered at his chest, it frightened and aggressive rhythm echoed in his ears. Graveyard silence followed the shout, he wanted to cry so bad but couldn't.

Then he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned and saw only the head of the woman grinning at him. "Ticker boo, I see you." She whispered. Hunter screamed and ran out of his maid's closet. Her laughter trailed after him, her evil witch cackle.

He ran to the stairs but a force pushed him down. The little six years old screamed as his body tumbled over, rolled down the long staircase. When he reached the landing, his face was a grotesque blood mask, his hand dislocated from it joint. His eyes looked beneath his blood mask, the blood everywhere, the pieces of human flesh butchered everywhere. Tears washed his blood, he could recognise his mother's head.

Too much! Too much for a kid!

"Still alive?" The voice laughed, she was insane. He screamed internally as two eyes floated above him, scaring him to the point of wetting his pants. "I should keep you, when you grow up you will warm my bed, isn't that generous of me, mini Quinn?"

No reply, only sobs.

"I know, I should be done with his lineage and flush him out of my system, good idea. Say hi to him for me… Oh wait, his soul has been used to energised me." She laughed psychopathically.

Her head appeared again and her body followed. A red-head with pallid bluish white diaphanous skin covered with little black freckles, void black eyes that matched her long high-low zigzaggery dress. Like a four legged spider, black furry legs lifted her up from the ground, she had giant four spider legs protruding from her back. The edge of her red hair was the copy of Medusa's, the skin of her flesh missing some parts and exposing her skeleton and the worms gnawing at it. On her forearms were snake scales and black roughly cut spikes. She looked like a demon.

"Sorry if I don't look too…" she hissed, sticking out her snake tongue, "breathtaking, part of the consequences of acquiring t…(hiss)…he powers I have now. What is beauty anyways, I never had em to begin with. I love my new look, don't you?" She laughed as he didn't reply. "I'll just… aaah! What the…!"

Esme looked over her shoulder to see a small girl, she looked at the burnt spot on her back as it covered up. "Sorry, honey, I heal quickly. Now who is this little sunshine of magnitude powers? My mouth is…" She hissed again, "salivating from the stench of your pow…(hiss)…wers, who are you?" She asked, turning around to face her.

"Stay away from him, don't hurt him." She warned with a growl.

"Roar," Esme purred, "feisty, how I love it when my m…(hiss).. eal fights, so arousing." She giggled, placing her hand on her cheek.

"Go away!" The girl screamed, tears pouring down her cheeks. "Get out!"

"Okay brat, it's fe…eding time!" The girl screamed and backed away as the spider creature approached her with speed. She had seen this moment in her dreams countless of times, she knew what to do to save her future little sister's mate.

A fate so heavy on her young shoulders, she wanted none of it. She cried for her mother, her father, her friends and herself. She was never meant to be born. With all of her little strength and life force gathered into her teeth, she leapt towards the spider woman, shifting into her demon dog in midair. Her teeth snap at the woman's chest, clamming down on the rotten flesh of worms and giving her a weakness, one she hoped her mother would realise when the time comes.

Esme screeched and hissed as the fire burst through her chest, shattering her spiritual and invincible barrier. The kid had permanently destroyed the barrier that would make her invincible to all her enemies attack.

"Stupid kid!" A single mighty claw spider leg lifted and plunged into the small pup, causing it to yip and then cry out. It whipped her away, bashing her against a window. "My head…" Esme whimpered. She staggered back, the whole world was spinning.

Juno.

She felt her presence coming near, she had to leave. Without a glance at what she had done, she disappeared into thin air.