Monster's Welcome [Syn]

[Cedric Costello]

TWO WEEKS AGO
_______________________

<Cedric> Cedric methodically worked his way down the list. The next number was for Syn. Just Syn. A woman he had slept with only once - and had not fed from her. She would remember him. He dialled the number - his own number will show up different on her end - and lifted the phone to his ear, waiting for an answer.

<Syn> A ring of Syn's phone brought her to the present. Slowly, she put the pen down upon the desk and picked up her phone. Without checking the number she answered, "Hello? This is Syn speaking."

<Cedric> "Syn. It's Cedric. How are you?"

<Syn> "Cedric... Oh yes! You. It was a lovely evening, I didn't think that I would be hearing from you again."

<Cedric> "I know. You said you were only visiting, but ... I have a question. It might seem strange..."

<Syn> A laugh followed those words. "Cedric, this whole conversation is rather strange."

<Cedric> He laughed, but it was a strained kind of laugh. "Are you pregnant?"

<Syn> More laughter followed these words, a true laugh. "Well no Cedric. I'm not a fool. I may like to dally, but a woman in the business cannot afford to get pregnant. I take the pill, so no, I am not pregnant."

<Cedric> "Yes, and we were protected. I am well aware. I think that you should make sure."

<Syn> "Cedric. It's late, I have work. No I am most definitely not pregnant. Alright? It's not possible, at all."

[Syn (DELETED 7911)]

<Cedric> "But it is. I have witnessed two deaths, and three other women are pregnant. Every time was protected. You don't believe me. It's not pretty - the end result. You have my number, now. If you start to show, if you start to feel sick, you know how to contact me."

<Syn> "Come now Cedric, I'm sure it's just a coincidence. You read far too much into the conspiracy theory novels."

<Cedric> "I do not read. I am not what you think I am, Syn. There's no point explaining if there's nothing wrong - just call me, if anything happens."

<Syn> A sigh fell from her lips, "No one is ever who they say they really are, it's how I've been successful so far. Also... Did you change your number?"

<Cedric> "I did. I called you on the new one. Please save it."

<Syn> "I'll think about saving it, but really, I'm not pregnant so there is no need for me to return to Harper Rock. Unless of course this is your way of trying to prank call me to go back to Harper Rock. I'm flattered but I'm busy."

<Cedric> "Alright. If you do not save it and you are dead by next month, you have only brought it on yourself. Good luck with your endeavours."

<Syn> "Right... Well, thank you for that lovely brief scare. Good night Mr Costello." She pulled the phone away from her ear and hung up as she placed the phone back down upon her desk.

<Cedric> Cedric grunted and shook his head. He had done what was required of him. If she chose not to listen - it was just another dead woman. At least this one wasn't in the city.

Present Day
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Panic, it was the only word that was coming to her at that point as she de-planed and picked up her bag. The day before she had begun to grow, not taller, but outwards by her stomach and she had gotten the first plane out to Harper Rock. Now that she was back in Harper Rock, she paused for a minute as she felt dizziness swarm over her. A hand reached out to steady herself upon the wall as she made her way out of the station. The bloody ******** had been correct, Cedric had warned her that she might be pregnant and she blew if off on the assumption that there wasn’t any proof. As she had expanded, she had also gotten dizzy and a little sick. The woman hadn’t even been able to hold down her protein shake, it made the whole coming up part worst. Whatever was happening to her, she had a feeling that Cedric knew, especially considering that he had been more than cryptic enough on the phone.

The only problem that she had, was that she had lost her phone. Some little thief had stolen it and she had to wipe her phone externally via an app, before going out to buy herself a new one. This meant that she no longer had Cedric's number even after she had saved it into her phone. Which also meant that even though she was in Harper Rock, she had no idea as to where to start looking for the man. Syn stumbled and reached a hand out again for the wall, her other hand clutched at the strap of her bag like hell was freezing over. If she managed to live, she didn’t plan on wasting any time in getting back on track with work. Already, this pregnancy or whatever it was, was going far too fast for her liking. It wasn’t normal, especially at the rate that it was going at.

”Cedric… I have to find Cedric…” She mumbled under her breath as she made her way towards the front of the airplane terminal. The woman had to find a taxi first, if she could find one. Knowing her luck, there wouldn’t be any of them around and she was beginning to think that the small swelling of her stomach was soon growing near completion. She could only imagine what it would be like if she actually gave birth… Or not. The hell would she know? This wasn’t a normal pregnancy by any standard. The doors slid open and she passed through them and the sweet cold hit her as she closed her blue eyes and tilted her head back to enjoy it. The woman felt as if she had been running a fever and the cool helped tremendously, so she couldn’t help but enjoy the slap of cold.

A snow flake fell upon her cheek and she blinked to look in front of her, a hand falling to the bump as she moved to seat herself down upon a bench. For now, she needed to sit and while she didn’t exactly feel sick any more, she felt so very warm. Syn push a stray lock behind her ear before she moved to wave down a taxi. The moment that the taxi pulled in, she slipped into the back seat, bag and all. After a moment passed, because she needed to take her breath, she actually sat in the back trying to think as to where she knew where Cedric was. Well ****, she thought to herself as she wondered just as to what she could do then. She had no address for Cedric, but hopefully the taxi man was a local and had an idea. ”Look… I’m seeking a man called Cedric Costello and I severely hope that you have an inkling as to where he is, because I need to see that ********.”

[Cedric Costello]

Cedric’s nights were peppered with calmness and gore. It had been a week, more or less, since he’d discovered that his sperm was radioactively effective. It didn’t matter what kind of protection he used. It didn’t matter if the women were on the pill. Every single woman that he had slept with in the past month was pregnant. Even since he’d spoken to Syn, he’d discovered others. Those whose addresses he had were easiest. He could find them, he could break in if they didn’t talk to him. He could track them down easy enough.

At home, he stood at the unused kitchen counter and stared at the list in front of him.

• Laurie Sheers
  Terri Delayney
  Claire London
  Syn *
  Paula S. *
  Marion Calder
  Kiki
  Leonora Fiero *
  Cheryl-Ann *
  Isabel McNaught
  Coco
  Paula C.
  Bridget McQueen
  Kate Cleary
  Octavia *

If Cedric were human, he’d be exhausted. Instead, he was a vampire and his energy seemed to spring from a never-ending fountain – at least, it seemed that way whenever he woke up. He always woke immediately; sleep didn’t cling to him like a bad smell. It didn’t gather in the corners of his eyes. There was never the urge to stay there, just another five minutes. As soon as the sun set below the horizon, he was out of bed and preparing himself for the night ahead.

There wasn’t much left to do, as far as his list was concerned.

The first three names were crossed off. He’d been too late. The fourth, fifth, eighth, ninth, and fifteenth all had asterisks beside them. These were the women he’d taken to hotels. The ones whose addresses he did not know – whose numbers he had called. He’d left messages. He was waiting for them to return the calls; or to realise they were in deep ****, and get back to him. It bothered him that he couldn’t find them; that he couldn’t go and take care of the problem himself. They were outliers; possible problems. Castalia had mentioned that Ambrose might organise a blood hunt if he were to find out that Cedric was ‘impure’. Cedric wasn’t really keen on the idea of a blood hunt. He wanted to try to keep this particular mess from the lineage head – though he figured he should probably ask the guy for advice, eventually. As much as Cedric didn’t want to be hunted down, he knew he wouldn’t be able to last. He’d told Castalia that he could control himself, but it had been more than a week. There was only so many times he could satisfy himself in the shower, or in bathroom stalls. It was almost shameful. Almost.

The sixth, seventh, and tenth names were also crossed off the list; they were women who’d refused to believe Cedric. They knew they were pregnant. They didn’t believe it was an evil thing. They wanted to keep their babies; they didn’t want abortions. They’d threatened to call the police; to organise restraining orders. The list was falling to pieces; Cedric had killed them. He’d killed them before slicing open their torsos. He’d found the underdeveloped foetuses, the writhing mass of shadows, barely held together. Not knowing that such fadeling corpses might be valuable, he’d destroyed them.

Thankfully, the remaining four names could be crossed out because Cedric had not slept with them. Some women weren’t that easy. Some had been added to his list because he thought they’d like to see him again. They’d let him know they’d like to see him again. Either that, or he’d merely fed from them, with the hope of perhaps sleeping with them the next time they met. There were only the outliers to worry about, now – and he hoped that aside from the throwaway number he had given to them, there’d be no other way to track their death back to him.

Folding the list and pushing it into his pocket, Cedric pulled on his jacket, grabbed his keys and his wallet, and left home. He went straight to the piano bar, where he chatted to the staff on hand, before taking his place behind the piano. If he could do nothing more about his current predicament, then he would play. It always soothed him, to play.

[Wearing]

[Syn (DELETED 7911)]

Ma’am! I don’t know a Mr Cedric Costello, can you give me a location please? I’ll take you there.” The cab man protested and her nostrils flared at the sound. Her headache was worse and her skin felt as if it was on fire, did she have a temperature already? Suddenly, it came to her then, the place that he had taken her to and she wound down the window. ”Take me to the Vertical Mall, where the Piano Bar is.” The man muttered something under his breath but he was on his way before she could say anything else in response to such rudeness. If someone was in company, she believed that they should speak clearly, regardless of what they were saying. However, the thought was purged from her mind as she felt yet another wave of dizziness wash over her. Syn pressed her head back into the head rest and lifted a hand to press to her temples as she closed her eyes. It seemed that the longer that she remained within this condition, the worst it got.

”I tell you what, you step on it and I’ll give you an extra hundred on top of the cab fare,” She bribed the cab driver and the woman felt the jerk as his foot was pressed down further upon the pedal. How long was it? How long had it been since she had been sitting in this cab as it drove through town? Her head angled so then she could feel the snap of cold from the open window brush her pale cheeks. This whole sudden pregnancy had left her feeling rather tired and weak. It was weird and she honestly didn’t know how to deal with it. The sensible thing, would be to see a hospital, to see if they could operate to get whatever it was out. That was assuming that they didn’t think that she had lost her mind. Hell, no one would believe her if she told them that she had gotten suddenly pregnant overnight. They would probably reach to conclusions that she had been secretly hiding it before revealing such a small bump.

Before too long, the cab had slowed to a stop and her sky blue eyes peered out the window and recognized the place at once. ”Thank you,” She said before she tossed some money at the man, well over the fare and step out, dragging her bag with her. Her hand grasped at the roof of the taxi to steady herself for a moment, then she closed the door and stepped away from the vehicle. Syn couldn’t believe that she was back here once again, but this time it wasn’t for business, it was for personal reason, personal reasons that no one would understand. She took a moment to draw a breath in, to feel the cold that currently surrounded her, because the moment that she stepped through the doors, it would guarantee be warm, too warm for her at that point. The woman pulled her hair up into a bun and flicked a few strands of hair behind her ears. The same hand then felt her own forehead, she was burning up, which wasn’t normal.

The cold snap on the back of her neck helped a little and she proceeded forwards into the building, her hand reached out to push the door open as she went. Once inside, the pregnant woman took a moment to adjust to the temperature and cast her gaze around the bar in thought. Would he be here? Then, it was as if she had been thrown back into a memory, because she recognized the piano being played and she angled her head to view the man seated at the music instrument. He was as handsome as she remembered and now that she could see him from here, she didn’t know what to say to him. Hi! I’m sorry that I didn’t believe you on the phone when it sounded that you were crazy. Hell, any normal person would have done the same thing and laughed. However, if she spoke to anyone else about this now, then they would laugh her out the door.

Slowly, she crossed the room and as she came to stand by the piano, she felt as if her head was trying to break open, it was so hot. A wave of dizziness over-came her once more and her free hand reach out to grasp the edge of the piano and she looked to the man that she never thought that she would see ever again. ”I don’t know what’s happening to me, but something tells me that you know.” Syn took a deep breath so she could straighten her form, her free hand lifting to brush at the beads of sweat that was beginning to grace her forehead. That was until a wave of pain from her lower stomach forced a small cry from her lips. The bag slipped from her fingers so then her hand could press to her small bump.

Her nostrils flared with the pain and she squeezed her eyes as her other hand grasped at the edge of the piano once more due to bending over in pain. ”Cedric, what the hell is wrong with me?” She gritted out as she looked up at him from underneath a few locks of her hair that had fallen into her face.

[Cedric Costello]

Most of the time, Cedric played something light. Something frivolous. He played something that helped to garner an enjoyable atmosphere; something that could be danced to, if necessary. But, he was the owner of the bar. He was the boss of himself. He could play whatever he wanted, and every now and again, he played something serious. He played as if he were on a stage playing to a packed auditorium - just as he had done in Brussels. Oh, how far the humble must fall.

Lit by dim overhead lighting, dressed all in black, Cedric blocked out the sound of the diners; the low hum of conversation, the clinking of cutlery upon ceramic, the laughter, the scraping of chairs. He lost himself in the music - in Moonlight. Every swoon, every dip in the music was executed with precision. The shift of tone, each note was played with smooth alacrity. This was something that Cedric was born to do, any no one could say otherwise. The piano was a part of him. It was the heart of him.

He didn’t notice when Syn entered the establishment. He didn’t even notice when she stepped up onto the circular platform that was his stage, moving in a slow circle. Even when he heard her voice, so close, he didn’t stop. He was a man lost in his music. It was when she said his name that his eyes finally saw her; it was only then that he finally focused, and pulled himself back into the present. He was not at home. He was not in an auditorium. He was in Harper Rock, in his own business, face to face with a woman he had impregnated with demon spawn.

The music came to an ungraceful halt. Syn. Pregnant. Yes. He had told her to call. Instead, she’d come to him in public. The next chair to scrape harshly against wood was his own, the stood pushed backward so that Cedric could stand and gently take Syn by the arm, to wrap his arm around her waist.

”You should have come immediately. I will try to help. I will try,” he said. The truth, however, was that he had failed to save any of them, thus far. He had no idea what to do with a fadebeast once it was born, and could only hope this one was smaller than the ones that he had seen thus far. He didn’t pick up Syn’s bag on the way past. They needed to go somewhere private, and the office at the bar just would not do. They were too far from his apartment, or Castalia’s. The tome, he assumed, would only work for him. And what would the ‘family’ do if he were to bring a human into their stronghold? One birthing a fadebeast? That wouldn’t do, either.

The record shop next door. It was easier. It was safer. That was where he took Syn, leading her without argument. As soon as they were inside he screamed for everyone to get out. He’d explain later. He’d make something up. It didn’t matter. As soon as everyone was out of the shop he locked the doors; he took Syn in hand again and led her back behind the counter, through the back door, to the office. Hardly a hotel room. Hardly a hospital suite. But there was a buffer for the noise - because he knew there was going to be some noise.

”****,” he swore. This wasn’t the best scenario, but he had brought it upon himself. He had been far too honest with this one. He had told her far too much. But he had only slept with her. He hadn’t bitten her. He hadn’t thought there was a need for too much secrecy.

”Okay,” he said. He swept everything from the desk. He gestured to it, tried to guide Syn to lay down upon it. ”You have no reason to trust me. I wouldn’t trust me. I am not reassuring you right now but...okay. You are pregnant with what is called a fadebeast. I think that if I try to get it out before it tries to get out, you… might have a better chance at survival,” he said. He was already searching his drawers. Searching… until he found what he was looking for. A discarded dagger. At least it was sharp.

[Syn (DELETED 7911)]

At that point, when Cedric began to speak after he had led her to his office at the Record Studio, her rational brain told her that all of this was insane. That any normal person would have turned tail and ran like a bat out of hell. Another part of her brain, one that told her that logic didn’t belong in this place, told her to stay. She had, after all came to him in search of answers, but a fadebeast? The woman hadn’t even heard of such a thing before. Vampires were a myth, a common myth, but fadebeasts? Let alone that no one had probably heard anything like a fadebeast, she knew that she hadn't. It seemed like a stretch, one that she wasn’t sure that she could grasp. However, as her blue orbs fell upon the blade, she was more or less inclined to run far away from Harper Rock… If only she had the energy. Besides, her legs would more than likely give out the moment that she crawled off the desk. Especially considering that she needed help just to get from the bar to the studio.

It was then that she realized what he meant by getting it out of her, he was going to cut the damn thing out. A soft groan rose to her lips then as she looked away, her gaze focusing upon a random wall. ”So that’s it, I really am going to die.” Syn didn’t know if there was anything else to say. The whole fadebeast thing left her at a loss for words and the sight of the dagger made her simply jump to the conclusions. No one survived having something cut out of them without blood infusions and without being hooked up to machines and monitor their progress. Not to mention that it was done in a sterile room. This room was far from sterile, plus there would be no pain medication nor blood infusions. The likely hood of bleeding out once he started cutting was high and she couldn’t help but think of that one simple fact.

”Tell me something, why are you bothering to try now when I laughed on the phone? Another thing, how is it possible that I’m pregnant to begin with? We had double the protection.” Which may have been over the top, but pregnancy wasn’t supposed to be in the cards, but then again, neither was dying. The woman hadn’t even written a will, because who would she leave anything to? No one that wasn’t family anyway. Although she knew that this was probably where she was going to die, she didn’t blame Cedric. She was just as much to blame as he was, it took two to tango and create something. So what was it that made her want to actually connect to someone before she died?

”So you own a record studio as well as a bar? What else do you own? Maybe you should look at owning a hotel, you would probably get a better profit than just simply a bar and a studio. Although if you’re still sold on those two ideas, you could always have a bar inside your hotel.” Another waved of dizziness overcame her and her hands reached out to curled over the sides of the desk. Why was she talking? Oh right, because he was going to stab her with a dagger and rip her open to get at whatever was growing inside of her. Syn felt another bout of pain, almost like a tearing pain, pain that made her lips part with a pained cry. She curled upwards, as her hands clutched at the small bump and tears welled in the corner of her eyes. What was happening to her?

[Cedric Costello]

The music was still playing out in the shop; the boxes of records stood like a shop from the 70s, in its prime, shining and bright. The records were all lined up like good little soldiers, divided by genre and then by alphabet of artist’s last name. Cedric didn’t know what had possessed him to own a record shop, except that he liked the idea of being able to order what he wanted. He supposed, too, it had something to do with the way he clung to tradition. He liked old things. Modernity wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. What the hell would he be like in one hundred years? Three hundred? A thousand? He hated to think…

…but he didn’t think. There were more important things to think about. Namely, the heavily pregnant woman now screaming on the desk in his office. To be double sure that no one saw, he went around and closed the blinds. The door. He locked it. Someone might still hear, he just hoped they left them alone; that they minded their own business and didn’t try to be heroes. Things could get really awkward, then.

Cedric grimaced as Syn remarked upon her limited mortality. He had to shrug. He had to nod. ”It is probable,” he said, knowing full well that his bedside manner was severely lacking. Though, she did amuse him, prattling on about his businesses, as if this were an ordinary conversation. As if they were back in bed and this was just pillow talk; gentle suggestions that he could either take on board or ignore.

The vampire approached the desk, the tip of the knife angled for the cut. Except, he stopped. He sucked in a hissed breath before he placed a hand on Syn’s shoulder. He tried to get her to relax a little. To look at him. To really listen to him.

”There’s something I’m going to do, and you are going to think that it is …insane. But it will give you a chance to survive. You are about to die, Syn. You are about to die and it does not matter how insane you think I am – you have nothing to lose,” he said. He had no idea whether it would work. At this point, he realised that simply cutting the creature out wasn’t going to save Syn. She’d die of blood loss. She’d die of… well, it probably wasn’t going to come out easy. It would fight. He’d seen the way they fought. The way they turned on their own mothers. It wasn’t pretty.

Before he used the knife to cut open her torso, Cedric instead sliced his own wrist. It wasn’t as gory as it could have been. There was no squirt of crimson blood – just curling coils of blackness, dispersing almost as soon as it hit the atmosphere. But it was still blood. It could still be ingested.

”It will taste strange, but drink it. Take as much as you can. Think of it like a drug. It’s something that might be able to heal you as fast as you break,” he said as he pressed the open wound to Syn’s lips. Maybe not as fast. Maybe it wouldn’t be fast enough. But there was no point in scaring her any more than she already was. He had no time to consider whether it was better or worse to give her optimism in the last ten minutes of her life. But what was done was done, and there was no going back. He had not asked. He had not waited for her to nod. He didn’t think it pertinent to clarify, to tell her what would happen if she nodded. At this point, there was no time for her to weigh up the pros and cons. Honestly, he thought she was terrified of death, and anything would be better.

[Syn (DELETED 7911)]

Syn wasn’t exactly sure as to why she was still there. She couldn’t tell if he actually wanted to help her or kill her. If she could run, she probably would have, but what did it matter now? The man had all but admitted that she would probably die and dying upon a desk in a random studio was not how she wanted to die at all. It was then how she realized that nothing was how she wanted it and she silently cursed the day that she had come to Harper Rock. If she hadn’t met Cedric, then she wouldn’t be at all pregnant with what he was calling a Fadebeast. A Fadebeast that was going to kill her either way. It will either try to get out, or Cedric was going to cut it out. The latter was going to happen, she just wished that he would hurry up and do it.

He kept putting it off and it was just making her nervous. It made her think about the up-coming pain, pain that made her cringe on the inside. Her blue eyes watched as he held the knife up over the bump and a flinch flickered over her facial features. The woman looked away, not wanting to watch the blade cut through skin, muscle and tissue to the thing growing inside of her. There was a reason why she had become a business woman and that was because she hated physical confrontations. Ever since she was a child, she had preferred to debate it out, rather than throw a punch or two. It was how she had excelled through school. It was also how she had excelled in her business studies. It was why she had dallied in things such as hacking.

Death made her fear and it also made her reflect upon all the things that she hadn’t done… at work. Even on her death bed, she couldn’t help but think of all the unfinished projects sitting on her desk and she regretted that she didn’t finish them before she had gotten onto the plane to Harper Rock. The woman felt a hand on her shoulder and her head turned back to view the man that stood over her. He spoke, but his words barely registered. Why? Because the moment he said that she was going to die, she closed her eyes and leaned her head away from him. The man kept telling her what she had already stated, what he had already confirmed and she didn’t know what else there was to say. Really, the fact that she was about to die, was all that mattered, so everything else seemed rather irrelevant.

It was then that she realized he had said to drink something and her eyes snapped open and she turned her head back to look at him. That was until he stuck his bloodied wrist into her mouth and she pressed her lips tightly together. How is drinking his blood going to help me? she silently asked herself as she glare up at him. The woman kept her lips pressed tightly together but it didn’t seem as if he was going to let up and she caved. Her lips parted and then she sucked upon the wound that he had cut into his wrist, drinking the blood that he was practically forced down her throat. It didn’t taste like blood, well it did taste coppery but it tasted a little sweet. Although she stopped drinking after her second mouthful and she bit the man’s wrist before she ripped her mouth away by turning her head to the side, a scowl upon her lips.

”That, was unnecessary. I don’t see how drinking your blood, as black as it is, will save me. It’s blood for Christ’s sake, not to mention you don’t know me. Who the hell sticks a bloodied wrist into someone’s mouth and says that it’s to save someone? Drinking someone’s blood saves no one from death.” Fear had coloured her words even though she hissed them, but what else was she to do? She would rather be a spit fire, than die without having a say about how rude it was. A sigh followed her words then as her shoulders drooped to touch the desk underneath. ”Just hurry up and do what you have to do.” Hurry up and kill me, she thought to herself. That was until another cry of pain welled from her lips as she felt as if something had starting slicing through her lower abdomen. Whatever it was, it wanted out. "Hurry!" She cried out as her fingers turned into a grip of steel to attempt to hold her form still for the man.

[Cedric Costello]

Cedric would not have been insulted even if he could read the woman’s thoughts. If he were in her shoes, he would regret meeting him too. He would regret ever coming to this city. Except, he wasn’t I her shoes. His shoes had walked an entirely different path. If there were things that he regretted he didn’t know what they were. At what point had fate decided to grant him the curse of demonic sperm? What final act had he committed that had sealed his fate? Was it because he had left his only child behind? Because he was an awful father, had fate decided to now grant him only awful children? Was this karma?

And now, here he was thinking about himself when he had a woman screaming on his desk – and not in a good way. Although he briefly imagined what it might be like to take a woman on this very desk, the image was hastily beaten back by the prospect of a baby monster soon emerging from Syn’s abdomen. Even now he could see it moving, swirling, twisting. Soon, it would start to claw, to rip, to tear. This would be so much better for Syn if he made a clean cut. If his blood worked, the wound would be easier for her to heal. Right? Small, insignificant questions that disappeared as soon as they arrived. They didn’t help the current situation.

Cedric didn’t wait any longer. The tip of the knife touch at her tender, flawless skin and he pressed down. Like ripping off a bandaid, he didn’t draw it unnecessarily. He tried not to press too hard; tried not to sink the knife too deep. Yes, he could harm the creature which would only do the two of them good. But he could also harm Syn to the point of no return. The knife was sharp and it sliced through the skin easily; one swift tug and her torso was split.

Cedric was not greeted with the sight of pulsing, healthy innards. Instead, at first, he could see only shadow. The creature had no features. It was just an inky blotch of hell itself tangled up in the torn skin of the uterus, the amniotic fluid thick and sickly. Cedric had seen this before, though not this close. He’d seen the way the creature started small but grew exponentially. He had to be quick. Reaching into the wound he grabbed the creature – it felt cold, it sent a shiver down his spine. It was unearthly. It felt as if he were picking up a slick sack of bones, but once he had it he threw it as hard as he could at the ground. He kicked it so it slammed against the wall. It was trying to unfurl. It grew, just a little, until he slid to his knees and hacked at it.

He did not realise that he was shouting. He was screaming at the beast, as the knife sunk into strange, blackly effervescent flesh. There were fleshy bits, clinging to the shadows. Bits of ramshackle bone that made no sense. If it had a face, Cedric tried not to see it. He didn’t want to see his little girl in this thing. He didn’t want to imagine that this thing could be in any way related to the angel he had left behind in Brussels.

The Shadow was quite certain that had he allowed the beat to grow, to become its formidable full self, he would not have been so lucky. After ten minutes of constant hacking and kicking, however, without opportunity to reach its full potential – or any potential at all – the creature was dead. Cedric huffed, waiting – making sure that it was fully dead before he stood and slowly made his way back to the desk. Back to Syn. Had another one bitten the dust, or was his blood going to work its magic?

[Syn (DELETED 7911)]

Pain exploded through Syn’s lower abdomen and a scream parted her lips. Her fingers curled to grip the table with a vice like grip as her eyes rolled into the back of her head. In her vision, she only saw red, red the colour of pain. The only thing she heard were her own screams, but somewhere deep down within, she knew that this had to happen. Her ears rung and she could have sworn that they too would be bleeding if she wasn’t already, which wouldn't have been a surprise. She didn’t know how she managed to stay even remotely conscious, or when she realized that Cedric had moved away, but when she did she realized that there was a lack of a sharp edge. Gone… Everything was gone and she pressed her hands to her lower abdomen as if to hold everything in as she rolled off the edge of the table. This only sent stars across her vision and her lips parted with pain, but she could no longer scream due to the fact that she had lost her voice.

There was blood everywhere and gods only know how she was still alive and had made it this far, but her strength was failing her. The woman never felt so alone in her pain and she curled up into the fetal position underneath the desk. She struggled to stay awake, in hopes that this was all a bad dream, that she would wake up from this nightmare. However, as she drew her last breath, she knew that it was not so. That she really had fallen pregnant and a man had cut out the beast that had been growing inside her womb. Now? Now she was dying, alone and she only had herself to blame. Slowly, the breath escaped her lungs as her grip upon the world she knew was released. All ties cut and the last thing she saw was the hard wood of the desk that she had curled up under.

It was strange, strange indeed that when she had died, she had died in pain. Fearful for her life and alone. However, the last thing that she had expected was to wake up again underneath the very same desk. Was this death? Was this the afterlife? To relive her last memory? No. It wasn’t, she finally realized as she drew in a breath feeling a burn at the back of her throat. At that point in time, Syn felt nothing. A blink came then as she forced a swallow and partially unfurled from her position so then her gaze could look to her lower abdomen. It was then that she realized that it was translucent, her wound where Cedric had cut open was translucent. Was it death after all? No, she still felt pain from where she had been cut open and she felt that burn at the back of her throat. What had happened?

Slowly, she moved out from underneath the desk and her right hand rose to grip the edge of the desk. Syn used this to help her rise to her knees with a hand held to her lower abdomen. She felt blood stick to her chocolate locks and blood stick to her skin, but that wasn’t what she was thinking about. Was the Fadebeast dead? The woman remembered the feeling of being alone and the pain, but now she felt absolutely nothing. Oh she felt the physical pain, but no emotional pain. The woman also felt no fear, nor did she even feel alone. She felt absolutely nothing and as she peeked over the desk’s edge, her blue eyes found Cedric and a frown formed upon her brow as she tried to work out just as to what was going on. For some reason, she felt the need to help him, even though she was the one that was wounded.

Syn licked her lips as her gaze moved from Cedric to the dead mass against the wall and she simply blinked. The woman felt no shock, she felt no remorse, not even pity for the dead thing that had once been inside of her. Cedric had wanted it dead, regardless if she had died and it was dead. At least his mission had been completed, but was she dead or alive? She angled her head as she looked up at Cedric and blinked, ”Are you sure that it’s dead?”