The Talon Family
The Kiss of the Witch Doctor
February
Draft_2
By: Chase L. Currie
Michael stepped onto the old steps leading into the dark
basement. He could already smell the copper in the air from blood but couldn’t
see anything as he made it to the ground. He glanced away looking for a light
and feeling the wall to find nothing. He stood there for a moment letting his
eyes sit in the dark, soon they will adjust, and they did in time for him see
the man standing up from a chair.
“Welcome,”
the man said with a sly grin. He was a tall black man with long black hair tied
up in knocks Michael had seen Native American do before and he wore red face
paint in the shape of a laughing skull. He stepped forward in a black and green
three pieces suit holding a cane in one hand. He didn’t get to close to Michael
but was close enough to hit him with the cane. “They call me Doctor Voudon and
I can bring ills on to your foes.”
Michael
didn’t move and kept searching for the girl in the room, but he couldn’t see
her. If she was here, Doctor Voudon was keeping her from his sight. “I doubt
that is your real name,” Michael said.
“Of
course not,” the bad Doctor said. “A name has power.”
“Yes,
it does,” Michael said staring right into his black eyes. He prays his sister
Helbis had broken free of her spells and
then found the others. The magic of this thing wouldn’t be as powerful to her,
it was a plus to having witch blood in her. She could feel magic and find its
weakest faster than anyone in the family. Michael knew everything up to this
point had been a part of the Doctor’s plan. Every moved he took was leading him
to the Doctor because the Doctor wanted him to be here. If he didn’t then Michael
would blink and be back in the first room.
He had to play along until Helbis did
something to save them.
The
Doctor smiled showing he white teeth and said, “You are a strong boy.”
“I work
out a lot,” Michael told him which wasn’t a lie at all, but he gave the Doctor chuckle at the simple remarked. Michael snapped his fist right into the sight of
the man’s head, faster than the Doctor thought he could move. The hit creaked
his head against the far end of the walls, but Michael knew the fight wasn’t
over. It was getting started.
The man
planted the end of his cane right into Michael’s chest. The hit knocked him
back, and it hurt. It hurt a lot more
than he thought it would, but there was no time to sit with the pain. He dashed
at his foe hoping against all hope he
could keep the Doctor mind on the fight. The Doctor keeps his cane out like a fencing sword blocking and batting
Michael’s attacks away.
“You
are quite skilled,” The Doctor said.
Michael
didn’t say a word.
“I
think when we are done with this little duel of ours,” The Doctor said sidestepping another swing of Michael’s fist.
“I’m going to take your body and eat your soul.”
“So,
you are a Soul Collector,” Helbis said from the side of the room as Gabriel let
go off letting her blink back into sight.
The
Doctor growled at them. “You were the distraction,” he said to Michael. Michael
nodded and shrugged at him.
“You
are a witch,” The Doctor said. “I can smell it now.” He glanced at the other
two with an equal amount of hate for them both. “I will kill you all.”
“You
will try,” Michael said throwing himself at the Doctor. He knew what he had to
do, give Helbis time to figure out where he was keeping the souls. He thought
for a second it was a little odd this was his life, and this wasn’t the first
time they had dealt with Soul Collector. Once, they destroy the object withheld
all the souls the Doctor had collector over the years that he would die. The problem was finding the object.
Could
it be his cane? Michael thought as Raphael jumped into the fray of the brawl. A
thought his brother and sister seem to agree with, without saying a word. They
both tried to get his cane and break it, but why would he use the thing that
could kill him as a weapon?
The
last and only other Soul Collector they fought had their object in their
necklace, but the Doctor wasn’t wearing a necklace nor rings nor a pocket watch
nor anything outside of the cane, but it didn’t seem right.
The
cane creaked against the side of Michael his face dropping him to the wall
causing him to see stars for a moment. It was great having super strength, and his bones were changed as well to handle the
strength, but it did nothing to stop the pain from an attack. He could still
feel it like everyone else in the world.
Helbis
jumped, duck, and rolled out of the way of all the Doctor’s attack like a cat
playing with string. Raphael was trying to do the same but wasn’t as skilled as
his sister. He took a few hits being knocked to the ground. Michael rubs the side of his face telling himself it
was time to get back into the fire.
He
watched growing to his feet as Gabriel help carried two girls out from a room
from somewhere in the dark. Chelsea was able to walk and help with her friend
who wasn’t awake or moving. It must have been Maggie they were carrying. They
headed for the stairs trying to get out of the battle and the house.
“They
can’t leave my house,” the Doctor said letting them go.
Michael
jumped at him putting a knee into his chest flatting him against the wall, and the wall gives
a little like someone jumping into bed. The strike would have killed a normal
person, but the Doctor wasn’t a person at all. All he did was laugh at them.
“Where
is the door,” Michael heard Chelsea yelled from above making the Doctor smile
wide.
“None
of you will be able to leave my house,” he said hitting Raphael in the ribs
with a loud popping sound.
The
house was what was keeping the souls for him. It wasn’t his cane or anything on
his body. It was the house itself, that is why he didn’t want Michael
destroying any part of it. If the house were
destroyed then he would lose his power,
lose all the souls that he gained over the lifetimes.
The
question remained how to bring down the house without killing everyone while
doing it? Michael wasn’t sure he knew what to do. He could start punching the
walls bring part of the house down and weakening the Doctor’s power but what
would the cost be?
He was
hit to the bottom of the steps yelling at
his brother and sister, “We need to get to Gabriel.”
Raphael
turned smiling at him and said, “I got
it.”
In a
normal moment, Michael was sure his
brother would have asked why but the among of missions they had been on, which
was a lot, has taught them to trust each other no matter what. Helbis ducked a
flying cane, touched the ground with her hand and dashed at Michael who was
already heading up the stairs.
He
didn’t have to glance back to see
Raphael’s armor pour over his body and heard the drop a grenade pin. Helbis hit
Michael in the back making him face planet into the floor as the smoke rolled
up the stairs after them.
She
stood up looking back down the room watching Raphael climb his way up to them
decked out in his armor. All his weapons and supplies were left down in the basement, but
it no longer matters to him. “Guess the Doctor didn’t think about removing our
belts,” Michael said standing up and helping Helbis to her feet.
“Those
were the new grenades,” she said showing him a few she had on her belt. They
looked like little black boxes with a small half ring sticking out from them.
The punch a lot harder hit than a normal grenade and some of them were firebombs, but the most important thing is that
looked like a part of a black belt. They were all the bombs on them, everyone
expects Michael, he didn’t like the idea of carrying something that could blow
up on him around. “Didn’t know we had them.”
“He
does now,” Raphael said through the metal of his smooth mask. The armor was a
bio-steel, or at least that’s what their
father called. It was far stronger than any steel and Michael thought of it as adamantium
like Wolverine’s claw, but his dad wouldn’t let him call it by the name. The
metal around his brother’s body had little green
dots in it and look like bones. “So, what do we do now?” He asked thumbing back
down to the basement, “that’s not going to keep him down for along.”
Gabriel
came up stilling holding on to Maggie and asked, “What is going on?”
“The
house,” Michael said. “It’s where he keeps the soul.”
“You
think your little toys would stop me,” The Doctor’s voice run out in the halls.
“I am evil. I am forever in the dark. I cannot die.”
“Michael,”
Gabriel order give him the girl. He took
with easy.“Head to the end of the hall.”
“But
there is no door,” Chelsea protested.
“There
will be,” Gabriel told her. She took off four of the boxes from her belt giving
them to Raphael. “Toss them into rooms and get out of there.”
The
Doctor swung his cane from the nothings hitting Helbis hard and knocking her to
her knees. Raphael tried to hit him back, but he faded back into the nothingness
he came from.
“Go,”
Gabriel order helping Helbis to her feet.
Raphael
ran down the hallway and upstairs for a moment.
“You
can run, but you can’t hide in this
place, child,” the Doctor said fading back into the world in front of them all.
Chelsea fell to her knees crying while Gabriel and Helbis ready themselves for
a hard fight. “I see everything in here.”
“I hope
so,” Gabriel said hearing the pops from above, “because I smell smoke.”
“No,”
the Doctor hissed stepping to the wall beside him followed by Raphael rolling
down the steps he went up.
“Now,”
Gabriel said to Helbis.
“Right,”
she said pulling four pins from her belt and tossing the firebombs into the old dead living room. The
only life they had seen in lifetimes was the quick reacting fire being birth in
it.
Raphael
grew to his feet seeing his family illuminated by the living fire. He rubs his
head as they walked up to him. He couldn’t feel the hit, but it felt right to
pretended he could and asked, “Now, what?”
“You’ll
all burn with me,” The Doctor said from behind them with the fire growing
around him but not hurting him yet. “I will not let you free.” The more the
house was hurt, the more his power
started to fade. Souls of the many dead he keeps with him in this place were
walking out of the fires of Hell and disappearing through the walls. He hissed
at them all trying to keep them in his hands, but his power was melting like
Icarus’s wax wings.
A door
blinked into view for a moment and then blinked away. “You will all die,” The
Doctor said dropping to his knees among
the fire.
“One
day, sure,” Michael said seeing the door and opening it with his boot, “but not
today.” They made it outside as the Doctor tried to stop them. He willed his
power to blocked them, but the flames were eating the old house far faster than
he could stop them. He had to choose the Talon family and the girls or the
fire, but he couldn’t stop them both.
He let
them go facing the fire and slowly pushing it back, but the house was giving in
more than he wanted it too. Gabriel stopped off the bottom step as everyone
rushed to safety and tossed the last of her grenades into the house. She ran
away and turn in time to watch the whole house jump up in flames. Everyone for
a quick moment believed they saw a screaming face of agony shot up into the
flames and hoped the bad Doctor was dead.
~
By the time they got back to their plane, the sun had been sitting over the world for a few hours now,
and Gabriel received the good news a lot
of the people sick were waking up. The
magic was gone with the house and the girl Maggie had come too crying over her
actions. Revenge blinded her from not seeing the monster she was making a deal
with.
Michael
found himself being hug hard by Sesily and asked, “Why do you smell like
smoke?”
“Long
story,” he said kissing her.
“Hey
now,” Gabriel told them walking by to get to the cockpit, “not in front of your
sister.”
“Sorry,”
Michael said.
She
stopped in the doorway turning to face him and saying, “You did well out there.”
“Thank
you,” he said back. “I won’t let you down again.”
“I
know,” Gabriel smiled walking away.
“I need
a nap,” Helbis yawned.
“I need
clothes,” Raphael said heading for the back of the jet.
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