The beast burned through the apartment after its prey the moment Cole touched down from his mighty leap. Blood and slobber flung from its jowls as it screamed into Cole’s fleeing body. The weight of the beast was more than the engineers had ever planned when drawing up the building, and each of its powerful steps dug into the floorboards, splitting them, and separating them from their joists. Even though Cole ran with every fiber of his body, he was no match for the speed and size of the beast, which quickly moved in for a backbreaking blow. It knew that once Cole’s spine was shattered, or if it swung too high and removed Cole’s head, it would be able to feast on both his sole and flesh at a leisurely pace before it had to transform and return to the snow.
Pulling back his mighty limb, the beast knocked over most of the living area it had recently transversed. The senses honed in on the future placement of its prey and then it began to swing in the general area needed to end Cole’s feeble attempt to stave death. The strike flew in the direction of Cole’s ribs, and the mighty devil smiled its nasty devil smile. Shadowy tracers followed the blood drenched limb as it lashed closer to its target.
Half way to Cole’s warm body, the beast extended its claws in hopes of ripping the man in half and exposing all of his yummy organs. A clean blow of this nature would allow easy access to the most juicy and flavorful portions of his body, which would quickly be in the beast’s belly. The thought of these yummy organs, especially the dark, blood filled liver, invigorated the beast into a point of murderous ecstasy.
Its eyes began to glaze, and its heart pounded beyond relief. The delicacy was within its grasp. But then as the baneful and bloody claws were inches away from the point of impact, our hero’s body lowered and bounded from the path of the blow in the direction of the window. The beast’s eyes swelled with anger. Its arm fully passed under the chased prey. A wail of pain emitted from its bloody teeth. And the ecstasy turned into pure blinding rage.
If the beast had known of Newton and his laws of motion, he would have surely cursed him and then conspired to mutilate his body and that of all of his descendants. For the movement of the beast’s limb and the amount of power placed into the death blow were not absorbed by the man’s body, which caused the beast’s right side to sweep under its left and sent it rolling towards the wall.
As he prayed and soared through the air, Cole had no idea the beast had faltered in its course. He simply crossed his fingers that the window would break and allow him access to the three or four story drop.
“Please let the dumpling cart be below,” he thought, “maybe it will break my fall.””
In an attempt to assure the breaking of the window, Cole pulled back his left hand to punch through the glass before his body could reach it, when his trajectory began to alter. Whether it was the last of the beast’s failed blast or another part of the tumbling demon, Cole would never be sure. But some part of the beast clipped his legs sending his body in a circular spin towards the mahogany table next to the window. And because he believed this was a purposeful strike of the beast, it was at this point that Cole all but accepted his impending death.
Cole’s body irrupted in pain as he crashed into the small sideboard. The back of his neck took on one of the table’s legs. Then Cole’s back and tail took out the rest. The first leg of the table folded upon impact and the rest quickly followed as Cole smashed into it.
The explosion was loud and sent a few candles and some small pretties flying through the air. But before our hero was finished absorbing the blow, his senses redirected towards his attacker. Crashing through the apartment behind him, the beast came ripping and tumbling in Cole’s direction.
“Where was its head!?!” ”
“Was this some weird manifestation of the demon!?!”“
“NO WAIT, IT’S IN TROUBLE!!”
And with that thought Cole braced for impact, and the beast’s body smashed him against the wall like a grape under bare foot. Most of Cole’s ribs fractured upon impact, and the pain prevented him from feeling the crackling of the bones in the rest of his body. Blood filled his mouth and for a moment he could see nothing but the darkness of the creature’s being. His body reached for air, but there was none to be had under the mass of the dark and evil creature. Bright lights began to fill Cole’s head, and then everything started to fade when relief was found.
After the wall absorbed the creature, it spit it back to the floor. Cole gasped for air as the beast fell and rolled onto the ground in front of him. Almost in unison Cole’s body fell limp next to the beast, and the two adversaries were deposited next to each other catching their breath as lovers do after climax. Cole knew that if he was not the first of the two to rise he would never see tomorrow, but his corpus was unresponsive.
The beast cried out and the walls shook almost to the point of failing. Cole tried to move again but nothing seemed to work. The beast began to roll. A guttural shriek bellowed from our hero as the beast rolled over half of his body. And if he had continued to roll Cole would have been finished in this life.
Instead, its body changed direction and began to roll back towards the center of the room. Upon the ebbing of the demon’s body, Cole’s hand began to take shape around one of the broken table legs. Then his leg lifted and with might and energy he had never summoned before, he began to rise above the beast.
Cole’s eyes began to glaze as the beast’s eyes had before its attempt at the delicious strike. His muscles and arm forced the sharp end of the table leg high in the air. Blood fell all around Cole body, which sprung from the many injuries that had befallen him during the battle. The beast’s head turned as the fresh blood caught its attention. Glaring, the beast froze as it saw the man rise with spike in hand. It tried to move but could not before the wood was descending into a mound of its flesh.
Pro Se is excited about its free web pulp
"The Book of Green"
Written and Illustrated by Fuller Bumpers
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