Though the rain was coming down strong enough to actually cause pain, Sharla’s attention was instead focused on the small shotgun she now held in her hands. She wasn’t aware that she had taken Cam’s weapon when she left Spooky Burger, but now that she had it she felt a little better about her chances. She wasn’t sure why exactly; after all she was on the trail of the worst monster to ever walk the earth, but having something of Cam’s with her seemed to help.
Cam... there was a whole other issue. What was he? A monster just like the ones they had hunted together? No, she refused to believe that. Cam was a lot of things, not the least of which was apparently being dead for the last however many years, but he was no monster. All Sharla knew for sure was that he was the best thing that ever happened to her, he was the source of her strength, and the reason she had left to pursue her target alone.
Well not exactly alone.
It had only been a few hours since she had left Cam in April’s arms to recover his strength and left Spooky Burger, but in that time she had gotten in touch with Wesley and asked him to have his contacts dig up what they could on any funny business with the local supernatural population. He got back to her within the hour, informing her that the word was out to stay the hell away from an old cemetery on the outskirts of town. A man was seen searching through the area and a pack of werewolves which claimed the graveyard as territory had turned up dead only a few hours ago.
If the Girl With the Dead Eyes had killed those werewolves, then Sharla knew there was only one person who would be hunting around that cemetery. The Inquisitor, the man she had seen in the park several nights ago, and a hunter without equal. His presence there and the timeline of the werewolves’ deaths all pointed to one thing.
The Girl With the Dead Eyes was hiding in the cemetery. The same cemetery Sharla now stood before, thick with the same inky blackness the Girl had oozed back in Spooky Burger. Sharla shuddered at the memory, recalling how the blackness had nearly devoured her, the feelings of hopelessness and despair still fresh but forced them to the back of her mind. She couldn’t afford to let her fear take her. She was the hunter here, and the Girl was prey.
A little clichéd, she thought, trying to focus on the scene in front of her, but I guess if she needed to lay low to heal up it makes sense. Either way it doesn't matter, wherever the Girl would have gone, I would have found her, and I will make sure it ends tonight. For Cam’s sake, and for mine.
Gripping Cam’s gun tightly in one hand and one of her own in the other, Sharla strode into the darkness, her eyes searching for her target, but finding only worn tombstones and crypts reclaimed by nature. It was obvious no one had tended to this place in a very long time. Yet that was the least of Sharla’s concerns. The further she walked, the more she could feel that this place was wrong. The Girl With the Dead Eyes had tainted this place, turned it into something far from natural.
Coming to a small clearing amidst the graves, she stopped and tried to look past the darkness, to listen past the deafening pounding of the rain, her senses on full alert, and trying to ignore the hammering of her heart. And then she leapt to the side, tucking into a brisk roll that saw her on her feet and firing her weapon within the blink of an eye.
The bullets slammed into the Inquisitor, and he stumbled in surprise for a split second before regaining his composure, seemingly unhurt by her attack.
“No human has ever sensed me coming when I was on the hunt,” he said, “Let alone been able to strike me. Who are you?”
Sharla kept her gun trained on the man, dressed in a ball cap and denim jacket, his jeans tucked into high cowboy boots. She couldn’t help but wonder why the monster that other monster’s feared would dress like a trucker. But despite his appearance however, Sharla was certain he wasn’t human, or anything close to it. Being near him was making her dizzy, and an inkling of doubt began to creep into her heart as she realized the rain wasn’t touching him. The droplets of water seemed to land everywhere but on him, and it took her a few moments to realize that the storm was on his side. It was one of his weapons. Now she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was right smack in the middle of a battle between two very powerful, very different monsters.
“Girl,” he spoke again, his eyes narrowing. “If you stay here you will die, that’s a promise. I will give you one chance to run as fast as you can. You have no place here.”
This time Sharla replied, filling her voice with as much courage as she could muster.
“First of all, my name is Sharla, and second, I do have a place here,” she said, “And it’s standing above the Girl with the Dead Eye’s corpse. And yours too, if necessary.”
The Inquisitor stared at her a moment, his mouth slightly agape then threw back his head and laughed.
“Not only are you the first person to ever dodge an attack of mine, you are the first to strike me, the first to threaten me, and the first to be so foolish as to hunt the Nightmare. I can see myself liking you.”
“The Nightmare?” Sharla asked. “What do you mean?”
“Who you call the Girl with the Dead Eyes, we call the Final Nightmare. It is what she became when she drank the source of her power.”
“And what was that?”
The Inquisitor frowned in disgust. “The blood of one of us.”
Sharla’s eyes widened as she tried to process this. “That’s...the blood of an Inqusitor is what made her?”
He shook his head, “No, it is what made her so powerful, but before that she was a vampire, a vampire of exceptional origin but a vampire nonetheless. Fate conspired to bring about her transformation into the Final Nightmare, and since then I have hunted her. Tonight that hunt is at an end. She is wounded, somehow her power is fading. Now more than ever she is vulnerable.”
“Cam’s blood,” she said. “The Girl drank it and it was like poison to her.”
The Inquisitor raised an eyebrow at her. “The Revenant? The Hunter Spirit’s vessel? Yes his blood would be anathema to a creature like her. So you must be his protégé then?”
“Um...Cam trained me yeah,” she said, “But what’s this about a Revenant? Or Hunter Spirit?”
“Ask him yourself girl, if he even knows the power which anchors him here. We are content to leave him be, so long as he does not forget his place.”
“His place,” she spat suddenly annoyed with the Inquisitor’s attitude, “Is killing monsters that prey on people. It’s my place too and that’s why I’m here, or did you forget already? And what about your place? What role do you play here? When the Girl is dead, will that be the last we ever hear of Inquisitors?”
He seemed thoughtful for a moment, before answering, “Until the next Nightmare comes along I suppose. But I wouldn’t worry about that just yet,” he said, his eyes drifting upwards, and Sharla followed his gaze before letting out a gasp.
The moon, the stars, the entire sky had been blocked out by the darkness.
“This Nightmare is already here,” he said, as a bolt of lightning seared through the darkness, deafening in its intensity as it slammed into the ground and illuminated the Girl with the Dead Eyes.
“Inquisitors and their storms,” she sang, as she revealed herself, her arms held loosely at her sides as she swayed back and forth. “Do you think you can wash me away? The last Inquisitor I met tried that, and I killed him and drank his blood. Before that I devoured my sire, and then I devoured the aspect of fate that created me. I wrote my own destiny. I am absolute. I am the end. I am everything, and I am nothing.”
She paused, her gaze running up and down Sharla, then said, “Oh and one other thing...after devouring your poisonous boyfriend, I am seriously pissed off!”
And then the darkness came alive and attacked, just as it had done in Spooky Burger. Sharla fired her weapon as the Girl flew towards her with claws and fangs bared. The bullets struck true and the Girl faltered just enough for Sharla to leap out of the way. More darkness flew at her, intent on impaling her as it did Cam, but this time the Inquisitor’s lightning intercepted the attacks, initiating a titanic battle of the most primal forces. Amidst the clash of light and dark, Sharla and the Inqusitor found themselves side by side as the Girl attacked again, a raging demon intent on Sharla’s life but met the Inquisitor instead as he too attacked, the two colliding in mid air.
The Inquisitor proved every bit as ferocious a fighter as the Girl, and for a moment Sharla was paralyzed by the sight before her. Watching the clash of claws and teeth, the lightning crashing into the darkness as both tried to strike their targets, she was certain she didn’t belong here.
Shaking those thoughts from her mind, she focused instead on something else she was certain of. While the Girl was able to match the Inquisitor blow for blow, she was nowhere near the level she had been at Spooky Burger. At Spooky Burger there had been an overwhelming sense of hopelessness, of loss.
What did the Girl say earlier? That she was an Absolute? She thought. Yeah, that’s what was at Spooky Burger, but that’s not what’s here now. Cam’s blood is still running through you bitch, and it’s making you weak.
The Inquisitor raised his hand to the sky and lightning answered his call, this time striking his outstretched hand and taking shape, becoming a brilliant sword that the Inquisitor used to deflect a blow from the Girl before countering, the slash leaving an arc of white fire in the air.
The Girl leapt back, only suffering a glancing blow that was already healing as she and the Inquisitor clashed again, his sword lighting the darkness as the two battled. Unfortunately even with his blade, The Girl was proving stronger, and her attacks were keeping the Inquisitor on the defensive.
Seeing an opening, Sharla fired her weapon for all it was worth, pausing only briefly when she heard the gun click empty to reload, and in a flash she was firing again, all the while moving towards the Girl and giving the Inquisitor time to recover. She knew her bullets wouldn’t do any real damage, but Cam’s gun was different. The gun had seriously injured the Girl back in Spooky Burger, and from the moment she first took it she knew it was more than just a gun, but a bane of monsters, and the longer she held it, the more certain she was that it was her best chance of winning this fight. Trying to get close enough so Cam’s shotgun could do some real damage, Sharla continued firing, forcing the Girl to stumble back. Finally close enough, Sharla drew Cam’s shotgun and fired. The gun seemed to glow in her hand as the bullets tore a hole through the Girl’s chest and knocked her to the ground.
The Inquisitor took that moment to charge, thrusting his sword toward the prone Girl with murder in his eyes. Sharla knew he smelled the kill, just as she did.
And then she saw the Girl grin.
“Wait!” she screamed, but the Inquisitor was already committed to his attack.
Before Sharla could blink the Girl had struck, playing possum and luring the Inquisitor to her as leapt to her feet, deflecting his attack as her fist slammed through the Inquisitor’s chest and out his back, his heart clutched in her hand.
Sharla could only watch in horror as the Inquisitor eyes widened, his sword dropping to the ground beneath him as he went limp around the Girl’s arm.
The Girl’s grin became a wide smile as she opened her mouth, her fangs seeking the neck of her prey, but the Inquisitor jerked up, and with fire in his eyes, he raised his hand to the sky.
“You won’t have another of us!” he snarled, “Not ever again!”
The lightning crashed into them both and the Girl howled with pain as she and the Inquisitor burned. When the lightning receded the Inquisitor was gone, reduced to ash by his own attack, leaving the Girl badly burnt, but alive. Her eyes focused on Sharla now, her rage overflowing but her strength fading.
Her wounds aren’t healing anymore, Sharla thought as the Girl staggered towards her. And the moonlight is breaching the darkness; her control over it is slipping. She can’t keep this up. Between Cam’s blood and the Inquisitor, she can barely stand.
“His blood would have washed away the poison inside me,” she muttered, still staggering towards Sharla. “And then I would have had my way with you, for everything you have done to me. After that I would have gone back to that restaurant and slaughtered your boyfriend and that other bimbo, and anyone else even remotely connected to any of you.”
The Girl stumbled towards her, “This shouldn’t be happening to me. Me! I am absolute! A Demon among Demons, I am above angles, an all consuming entity! But most of all I am immortal, and I will not be killed by a little girl like you!”
The Girl shot forward, her speed belying the severity of her wounds as her claws reached for Sharla, but Sharla was faster. Ducking the attack Sharla pushed forward into a roll, gripping the Inquisitor’s blade in her hand as she passed over it and stood, whirling around as the Girl raced at her again. Time seemed to slow and for a moment, Sharla saw with startling clarity. With a strength born of a conviction she never knew she possessed, Sharla plunged the sword deep into the Girl’s heart.
The blade burned brightly with white fire as it found its mark and the Girl’s eyes widened in shock as the flames began to engulf her.
“You were a little girl once too,” Sharla said, her voice soft as she aimed Cam’s shotgun. “I hope that little girl finds some peace.”
The blast scattered the Girl’s head into pieces as she fell backwards to the ground; the white fire continuing to burn unfettered by the rain until at last, the fire had consumed all of the Girl With the Dead Eyes.
Only when the fire had consumed the entirety of the Girl did it burn out and only when Sharla was certain there was nothing left did she allow herself to look away and towards the sky. The Girl’s darkness was gone, and the moon and stars had never shined so bright.
And then, finally, the rain stopped.
Sharla fell to the ground, staring up at the night sky. And then she laughed, letting all the terror and all the hopelessness and despair leave her. Not just the feelings brought on by the Girl With the Dead Eyes, but brought on by that first vampire that had tried to turn her in her kitchen all those years ago on prom night, by all the other monsters she had seen since joining Cam.
She had just killed the worst monster the world had ever known. As Sharla laughed she realized she would never have to be afraid again.
Finally, she felt herself able to stand back up, and with the Inquisitor’s sword in one hand and Cam’s gun in the other, she turned and headed back to Spooky Burger, and back to Cam, her Nightmare finally over.
