Scarlet Night (Limited Edition) Read Online Free Page B

curse and making the tattoos flare bright enough to be seen through my beer stained and tattered shirt.
    A cautious step is taken back as the therion's lip pulls back in a bestial sneer, “ Nice trick, freak show! Might get yo' blood-clot suckin' ass mo' quarters if ya pull that circus tent shit on the meat-sacks, though!”
    “It might…” I chuckle, rolling my shoulders and then my neck to prepare for what's about to happen, “… but, like I said: this is your money now!”
    The first wave of pain hits me like a kick to the nuts as I tighten my grip on the stein's handle and bring it around in a left hook. Before he can register the motion, the glass smashes into the side of his face and explodes into shards. The wad of donated bills—now free of their confinement—make a run for freedom; piggy-backing on a gentle breeze down the sidewalk as the therion howls out and slams to the sidewalk.
    “Fuckin' cocksucker!”
    I open my mouth to retort, but the second wave rolls in—starting at the base of my spine and ripping its way up each vertebrae until it reaches my brain and sets fire to my core—and all I can offer is a gargled whine. I feel something shift in my mind and suddenly the world is my circus and I can't stop laughing. Gazing down at the now wide-eyed therion, I see a trail of blood starting down his jaw; a few shards of my glass still embedded in his cheek and a lonely fiver clinging like a desperate lover on his heaving chest. I laugh harder.
    And then my shoulder jumps free from the socket and my cackles are cut short as an agonized sob takes their place.
    Fuck!
    I'd forgotten how much this hurts!
    My left knee starts to twitch and then suddenly melts into molten lead and I drop down to one side, trying to hold myself upright with my right leg as the left begins to tear apart from the inside.
    Another shift in my mind and suddenly we're laughing again, though we're not sure what's so funny about our pain!
    My pain?
    Something screams inside our skull and begins to claw free behind our left eye and the night goes bright and forces us to clutch our eyes. Only then do we remember that the light is inside our eyes!
    And the shrieking beast in our brain wants our heart…
    We pitch back as the curse claws its way down; thrashing in our throat and digging through our chest until it finds its target and takes its first bite.
    We laugh.
    We cry.
    We curse the heavens and praise the freedom and claw at the burning agony as it spreads through our veins.
    Our hands pop and shift and warp—every joint howling to our blackening mind that we're dying; that we'll never live through this change—but find strength enough to clutch at our shirt and begin struggling against the material to free ourselves from its confines!
    How DARE it try to hold us!
    We are FREE!
    And, knowing we are free, our cackles erupt from our scorching core once again.
    The therion's rage from our punch slips away, and we watch through stinging eyes as they shift into the next spectrum and allow us to see what lies beyond the flesh. Like a mirage coming into focus, we see his shit-brown aura whip and writhe into view around him; every terrified spike giving away just how he really feels about us!
    “H-hey! Look, mah man! I… uh, I can see that yer comin' down from some serious shit, an' I KNOW yer too fucked up ta see the mistake yer 'bout ta make, but y'all better ease-the-fuck-up, or shit's gonna get real fucked up real fuckin' quick!”
    The funny fucker's joke hits our funny bone just as it shatters and our arm falls limp to the pavement and begins to shake and writhe like a dying snake. The pain is excruciating, but—oh!—how that funny fucker's gotten to us. We can feel our throat rip open to make room for more oxygen and we eagerly gulp down as much as we can before the pained shrieks and tickled cackles roll forth from our warped vocal cords in a simultaneous roar.
    “Don't act—GAHFFfuck!!—like y-you're n-n-n—AH!