All hell had broken loose at Spooky Burger.
At least that was the only way Sharla could think of to describe the scene playing out in front of her. The blackness that fell from the Girl with the Dead Eyes was steadily consuming everything around it, pooling at their feet and covering the restaurant in darkness. Her fingers had become grotesque talons, and her mouth was full of vampiric fangs.
Sharla had faced down enough creatures and been in enough outlandish and seemingly impossible situations over her years spent with Cam to be considered an experienced hunter, despite her youth. And yet this was the worst of them all. This was different than the feeling of inferiority a vampire instilled, different than the chill of a restless spirit or the panic brought forth by a werewolf. This girl embodied hopelessness, an all consuming despair. To Sharla, this girl was the end, pure and simple.
“Wesley,” Cam barked, “Get your crew out of here and leave this to me. Sharla, April, you too, I don’t want you guys anywhere near this thing.”
Wesley nodded his eyes wide with horror as ran to the back. Sharla however glared at Cam.
“I’m not leaving you alone, you should know better by now.”
Cam opened his mouth to reply before April cut him off.
“Shut up Cam, we’ll fight together, just like old times.”
Cam sighed in resignation before turning his full attention back to the girl in front of them.
“Fine. How silly of me to worry about your safety.”
Sharla gave him a lopsided grin, “Yeah well, don’t do it again.”
With that, Cam and April sprung into action and began fighting in perfect sync, as though they had been doing this forever as they engaged the girl, covering each other and splitting the girl’s focus.
They pressed the attack as best they could; trying to keep the creature off balance, but the darkness was ever growing and acting as weapon in and of itself. Inky blackness shot forth from the pool, as solid and as sharp as any blade forcing Cam and April to quickly dodge or parry. As it was, neither of them was able to get close enough to the girl to land a solid attack.
Sharla darted around the darkness as it leapt at her, her speed and agility her greatest asset as she lined up the girls head with the barrels of her twin revolvers. Squeezing the triggers, her shots rang out with a deafening crash, only for her heart to sink as the darkness reached out and swatted both bullets from the air. Refusing to let that deter her from supporting Cam in this battle, she quickly dodged the darkness’ counterattack and fired again, this time one of the bullets finding its mark in the side of the girl’s head.
The Girl with the Dead Eyes turned and roared, the roar of a true predator, and as her eyes locked with Sharla, Sharla froze. Suddenly the feelings of hopelessness and despair that radiated from the girl intensified. She knew, knew down to her very core that they would die here; swallowed by the black. Sharla knew she was nothing more than prey. Then, as quickly as those feelings attacked her they disappeared, as Cam’s fist came crashing across the monster’s face, breaking the eye contact and freeing Sharla from its spell.
The girl slashed with her talons, catching Cam as he leapt back and leaving deep cuts across his chest. He hissed in pain but otherwise continued to fight. Sharla would have been worried but in her time with him she had seen him absorb an almost inhuman amount of punishment and he always came out okay. She had no idea how he did it, and she hated it every time he got hurt, but he still insisted on going toe to toe with these monsters.
The girl continued to focus on Cam, slashing with her talons and snapping with her teeth, more animal than human, and the darkness continued to intercept the bullets Sharla fired at it. So focused was the girl on Cam and Sharla that she didn’t seem to notice that April had managed to get behind her until her tire iron had struck the side of her head, and for the first time, the Girl With the Dead Eyes fell to the ground.
“Sharla fights exactly like Lindsy did,” April said as she moved beside Cam, helping him regroup. “Any particular reason you trained her that way?”
“Focus April,” Cam said with a wince, blood dripping down his chest as the Girl With the Dead Eyes stood up, seemingly none the worse for where from their repeated attacks.
“I’ve finished playing,” The girl said, her voice hypnotizing in its purity. “Time for supper.”
Bracing for an attack, Sharla suddenly felt the darkness beneath her feet leap up to engulf her, covering her from head to toe in the inky blackness as she felt her herself being pulled beneath the surface, and only then did she realize the depths of the abyss they were standing on. The infinity that this blackness represented, and the true power of the Girl With the Dead Eyes. She could hear Cam shout her name, but it was faint, as though he was a distant echo. It was soothing here, peaceful, and she remembered she was supposed to be scared, supposed to be fighting, but she simply couldn’t remember why. She could see the girl, full of warmth, her arms protective as she embraced her.
Suddenly there was a hand, a cold hand invading the warmth and wrenching her away, back into the cold, back into the fear and back into the fight. Sharla opened her eyes to see Cam’s arms holding her close, his eyes filled with worry, and for the first time, fear.
“Cam move!” April screamed, and just as the words had left her mouth Cam had thrown Sharla into April’s arms as the girl descended upon him. The darkness was too fast, impaling Cam upon multiple blades as the girl’s talons gripped him and her fangs sank deep into his throat as she began to drink.
“NO!” Sharla roared, pulling herself from April’s grasp and firing every bullet she had at the girl, her heart sinking as the darkness moved faster than she could see, but she could hear the sounds of her bullets being deflected.
April moved to attack but the darkness struck again, tearing several deep cuts across her chest and forcing her back. She grimaced and fought through the pain, ignoring the blood that seeped from the deep wounds as she prepared to attack again. However she stopped short when she saw the girl suddenly release Cam from her grip, her face contorted in pain.
The girl looked at Cam with wide eyes, and then began to wretch, her body heaving as it revolted against the tainted blood, trying to force it out, her hacking coughs deafening. And Cam, impaled upon the blades of darkness, blood pouring from his torn throat with a smile on his face and his shotgun in his hand, pointed it flat against the girl as she looked at him.
There was a flash of light and a monstrous crash as he pulled the trigger, and the girl howled in agony as her head was blown clean off, falling backwards into the darkness, the inky blackness swallowing her up even as her hacking coughs persisted. The darkness suddenly receded as quickly as it had spread, and within seconds was gone altogether. The Girl With the Dead Eyes had retreated.
Sharla rushed to Cam and caught him as he fell, her eyes meeting his as she held him close.
“You can’t die,” she said softly, both to him and to herself. “You can’t die, you understand, you’re gonna be fine, you can’t die...”
Cam looked at her and chuckled, the sound coming out a gargle as his throat continued to bleed. He motioned to April, and she came to kneel beside him.
“Tell her...” he said softly, before closing his eyes and drifting into sleep.
Terrified she had lost him, Sharla was suddenly filled with a sense of relief as she saw he was still breathing. She knew Cam would pull through, they just had to get him to a hospital, but Cam was tough and he would survive. He always did. She made to stand but April placed a hand on her arm.
“He’ll be fine,” April said to her, “But he needs to stay here, trust me.”
Sharla looked at her in shock. “You can’t be serious, he’ll die if we don’t get him help, we need to go right now...”
April shook her head firmly, cutting her off.
“Sharla, Cam hasn’t told you something pretty important.”
Sharla stared at the woman, but suddenly Cam’s words flashed in her mind, just now realizing what he had said. “He said ‘tell her’, what did he want you to tell me?”
April sighed heavily, “Sharla, Cam is already dead. He died a long time ago, long before I or any of the others of our team ever met him.”
Sharla just stared at her incredulously. “What? What do you mean? That’s...that can’t be....”
“Sharla,” April said again, her voice soft. “Cam is dead. He’s been dead for over ten years. But this place...” she gestured with her hand, and Sharla took a good long look at the Spooky Burger restaurant. “This place brought him back, and it keeps him from crossing over, it keeps him fighting monsters.”
Sharla was speechless. She had seen the dead walk before, even before tonight she had seen things that simply should not have existed but did. But she never thought.... She could only gaze down at Cam, who looked so peaceful in his slumber, despite his wounds.
April put her hand on the girl’s back. “Cam will be back,” she said, “He always gets up and comes back. Don’t worry; you’ll get to talk to him again as soon as he wakes up.”
Sharla simply gazed at the man in her arms, before finally breaking down, the night’s events proving too much. Holding him as tight as she could, she wept.
