Devil Equinox

My ears were ringing, my aching, my breathing difficult and soreness overwhelming me. The inaudible screams of fear of an attack by the civilians, sirens wailing in the background. All this while I was disoriented.

It happened so quickly and it was meant to be such. Maybe it was planned, maybe it wasn't.

The explosion incapacitated me, so I was unaware of my environment.

The pain I had felt like it was originating from my legs, in agony I looked down and found my feet still intact with severe flesh wounds. I then turned myself over on to my belly and crawled toward the road.

In my strife, a black SUV, which was a luxury sports brand, stopped right in front of me then an individual stepped out of the vehicle. I couldn't see who they were because my vision had gotten blurred. Another stepped around the vehicle to drag me into the SUV.

They set me in the backseat carefully and they both got back inside. "Go! Go! Go!" one of them shouted. The vehicle's tire screeched as it took off from the area. "How's he looking?" one in the front seat asked.

The one beside me checked on me as the car was speeding on the road. The driver maneuvered the SUV in a meandering motion that was sickening, but they were in a rush to get somewhere.

"We need to get him some place safe, man! Put your foot on the accelerator!" one male shouted.

"I am driving as fast as I possibly can, Dante! There's a lot of traffic out here!" the other male shouted back.

Dante was here, I was shocked but I couldn't do much since I had a lot of pain to ignore and it only got worse when I heal because all the damaged flesh would have to grow in an unnaturally fast and rather awful pace to heal hence causing me pain. Well just temporarily.

The vehicle drifted to take a turn and then the tires were screeched to slow down?

"What the fuck is that?" Dante asked.

"I don't know and we are not staying behind to find out!" another voice spoke.

The driver then put the vehicle in reverse and pressed down heavily on the accelerator pedal. We were moving backwards and the driver whipped the vehicle around and quickly changed gears to drive.

"Oh fuck! It's coming after us! Go! Go!" Dante shouted.

"What about Captain?" the other asked.

"He's healing his wound right now! We can't get his help until his wounds are healed!"

"Shit! Okay, Andy lose that thing behind us and get us back to the safe house,"

"Got it, James!"

The drive was unpleasant and only a while later did the vehicle stop again. "I think we lost it," Dante said. "Captain?" James asked about me.

"Most likely keeping his eyes closed and conscious since he's healed,"

"Can't I even take a fucking rest from what happened?"

"There we go,"

I snarled at him for that statement and got up and out of the vehicle. The other got out and decided to talk with me.

Dante as I remember him didn't change but the other two, James and Andy, I was yet to figure out.

Both were young, built and had athletic physique. One was taller than the other, the other had blue eyes and one with brown eyes.

"Captain, it's nice to meet you in person," the taller said as he approached me for a handshake. I looked down at the hand he offered and then back at him. He saw my face and backed off. "I see you aren't one for handshakes, and small talk. Let's start over shall we," he walked over to the shorter one and stood next to him.

"Captain, I am Lieutenant James Brenet. This is Private Andy Philips and that man over there I presume is your teammate. We are on orders from General Mynde to aid you in your mission and to help you take care of any business you have in the city under your orders,"

My glare struck James and Andy, making them nervous. "Ahem," Andy cleared his throat. "Is there a problem, sir?"

"No, there isn't a problem. I just want to know why General Mynde sent you two with him and not the other two,"

"Um... about that sir. Both Marie Silver and Donny Graves were injured during our mission out in an undisclosed location, resulting in General Mynde picking both of us to come with Dante to help you on this mission."

"You two have to leave and I will stick to Dante. I don't need anyone to slow me down and die because of it. Am I clear?"

"Understood, sir. But underestimating us won't cut it out either,"

Andy had caught my attention with that statement and I wondered what he meant by that. "Elaborate Andy,"

"We have been trained under General Mynde to be able to handle demons and the likes and we were given military grade weapons, not even the government knows about to use in combat against them."

"Have you ever been attacked by a demon?" I interjected.

"Personally, no. I and James have been put up against Dante over there, using strength from common demons before we moved on to tougher and more difficult drills with him."

I looked at Dante leaning back on the SUV, one foot on the wheel and the other on the ground with his arms, with that annoying smirk. I looked back at the two freshmen and asked, "Did he really put you through that?"

James answered yes and Andy nodded. Then I remembered that they were chased by something earlier and I had asked them about it.

"We had never seen anything like it before,"

Andy described it as something of merged flesh and it had someone on the back of it. Someone controlling it. Whoever that individual was they noticed the vehicle and yet, they didn't pursue us.

What could that mean? Have you seen anything like that before? NO! What? I... gave you a problem to look at instead of myself. Why do I put this up to you? How am I such a... bad guy.

Fuck! Those thoughts I had not come across them. "What are you?", "Leave it for me to handle it," and "Stop I will eradicate it!" played in my head more and more.

"Ravedos, are you good?" Andy asked me.

That question snapped me out of my thoughts. I slowly raised my head to look at him, "Where did you get that name?" I asked intently.

"It's in your files," he said.

I grabbed him by the throat and raised him in the air, slowly crushing his throat. "I will ask you one last time! Where did you get that name?"

James pulled his gun out and aimed at me, "Put him down, Captain! We don't need to do this," he commanded.

That only made me contempt. "Shoot me!" I told him. The strength I used slowly increased on Andy's throat, and he struggled to fight back, he was struggling to breathe, suffocating. James was indecisive and reluctantly put away his gun in frustration. "Okay Captain, what now? You kill him, then what? You need help, you showed General Mynde that you can't handle this alone,"

That sentence almost threw me into a pit I was never going to come back from. My anger almost led me to killing Andy, but I stopped myself. I loosened my grip around his throat and let him go. "Where to now?" I asked.

Dante then got off the car and walked off, I followed him to a safe away from the vehicle, in an area I had not been before in the city. "How is your sister?" I asked him.

"About that, she is gonna join us this time," he said and his tone was flat. It was uncharacteristic of him and it made me realise he didn't want this. The other two were behind us, murmuring something about the plans of the current mission.

We arrived in front of a door that needed a pass code. Dante and Andy entered their codes first, then James stood by the keypad to do so, but the door opened before he could. I stood in front of it and when it was open, I was greeted with a gun aiming at my head.