Ethan Eternal

Chapter 6

“Blue and Grey”

            Danny sat uncomfortably on a paper sheet as he waited for the doctor to return. He thought for a moment that he could hear his mother screaming down a distant hallway but continued silence raised some doubt. He was about to lay back down on the table when the hum of the florescent lights above unexpectedly vanished and pitch darkness consumed his vision. A roar echoed through the floor and walls. Terror took him. This was not supposed to happen.

            Like a thunder crack, an explosion boomed from somewhere unseen. The air within the empty halls of the massive building seemed to electrify as Danny screamed in complete horror. The darkness was unyielding… unsympathetic to Danny’s blind panic. He had always been terrified of total darkness yet he never knew until this moment just how complete that fear could dominate him. He was helpless… alone… and something was coming.

            Through the black, he could hear it. The sound of running footsteps grew in both volume and clarity as someone rushed ahead… rushed with determined conviction… toward this room. Danny stumbled as he fought to stay quiet. He dropped to the ground… fumbling his arms around him… erratically reaching to the cold tile floor… trying desperately to find the door. He could feel his heart rolling like a drum… building to a crescendo that would surely end with his death.

            Gunshots.

            There could be no mistaking that sound.

            Noise ricocheted with a tin droll like firecrackers dropped into an empty well. Dozens of shots rang out and this time he was certain… he heard his mother screaming… shouting with the fierce intensity of a caged lioness the name of the only prize she held in this world… searing the air with a hawk’s screech for her lost and only son.

            Danny started to shout back to her but another voice arose. From some unknown hell, a deep and booming shout fired against his eardrums. The man spoke with a thunder almost as great as the guns had. Though only words, it was enough to freeze Danny cold where he lay.

            “If I were you… Mrs. Hill… I would leave while you still can!”

            Amanda answered this offer with smoke and lead. Several shots rang out. The hollow bell of falling shells tolled as she ran directly toward Danny’s room. The boy found himself loosed from his bonds by the thought of his mother’s approach and screamed until his lungs were empty.

            “Moooooooommmmm!!!!!”

            This was a mistake.

            The door flew open instantly. An ogre of a man stood tall against a grey background. Emergency lights down the hall provided enough illumination to distinguish the man’s monstrous size… and the silver barrel now aimed directly at Danny’s face.

            With a grumble, George muttered.

            “It seems that you are more trouble than you’re worth boy. Pity.”

            What happened next took only seconds, yet Danny would have sworn otherwise. George took aim carefully. White revealed his smile. Amanda’s feet hammed the floor close by… drawing nearer… nearer… and just as Danny was about to be relieved of the burden of his own mind… an unexpected champion revealed himself.

            George smiled and started to pull the trigger when he detected a strange sensation… almost like a tremor… low and faint… yet unmistakably close by. He spun around to face the mystery behind him… but Colt’s growl had not warned him soon enough. The German shepherd threw himself into the air and dove with skillful precision upon the weapon as it moved toward him. Shocked by the ferocity of the dog’s attack, George was thrown to the hard floor with devastating results. His head pounded against the tile as his weight fell upon it… almost rendering him unconscious… giving Colt more than enough time to regain steady footing and launch himself again.      

            The silhouette of the dog seemed almost majestic to Danny. Never had he seen so beautiful an animal and never had anyone saved his life. George was at a disadvantage… pinned hard to the ground… yet he managed to strike his attacker with more force than most men could deal upright… but this was no mere foe.

            Colt would not let the bad man hurt the boy. He took the blows dealt to him and fought on for more. Bad men like this had killed other boys. He had watched them do it from behind glass car windows and from the confines of leather restraints. He remembered each of their broken faces… their chilling screams… and his broken heart burned with relentless fury… as he raged to save Danny’s life.

            Ethan held his silver berretta upright as he slid his steps gently down the darkened hall. Dead men in black suits lay all around. Crimson tributaries danced against the shimmer of dieing flames. He could hear the invader in the darkness… filling chambers with polished brass.

            “You’re a long way from Texas…”

            Dorian’s voice bit a dry sting on Perry’s ears though The Ranger remained focused on reloading his twin revolvers. Returning the courtesy of Dorian’s words, Ranger Long answered with equal rasp.

            “So are you Dorian.”

            Ethan stopped. He was now fairly certain of the precise location to aim his weapon… but this knowledge given so freely from his enemy troubled him. He paused for a second with his back against a wall and waited in the dark with the Texas Ranger. Faint recoils reverberated through the thick limestone beside him. State Police were still engaged in a fierce and determined firefight outside with Ethan’s overpaid mercenaries. He wondered how much time he would need to buy for his men to finish dealing with that unfortunate obstacle.

            “You’re a hell of a shot Mr. Long. If I hadn’t seen that, I would never believe it. It’s not often I meet a man of such talent.”

            Perry answered this coldly.

            “Where’s the boy?”

            Ethan smiled. The Ranger had given up more information than he meant to.

            “Oh… The boy… Well now… I’m afraid you are a bit late for that. I’ve already taken what I needed from him. You can find the rest in a dumpster outside.”

            Perry thumbed back the hammers on his pistols simultaneously. Ethan persisted.

            “What did you think you would find here? What did you expect?”

            Perry’s brow began to tighten as he fixed his eyes on the shadow of a thin man perched within darker shadows. He could almost see Ethan’s eyes in that murk… and could almost feel them returning his frozen glare.

            “I’m a hell of a shot too… Once I took a man’s ear off from a tree seven blocks away. Before it hit the ground, I got the other one too. I admit though that I cheated a bit… his diamond ear rings made quite excellent targets.”

            Perry realized that Dorian was trying to stall for time. He had no misgivings about what that meant. His friends on The Montana State Police were good men and were well armed… but the army they had encountered outside was more than anyone would have expected. He had been lucky to get inside before security had locked down the facility. Now, he was trapped within this stone cage until the alarm was reset. He was almost certain that if he remained here long enough for that to occur… there would be no need for rescue. It was time to end this.

            Perry moved like a panther… stalking his foe with brutal certainty. He darted from shadow to shadow as he made his way to the opposite wall of the empty corridor. As he moved, he took careful aim and with full awareness of his enemy’s ability… fired his weapons toward Ethan Dorian. Bullets screamed through black air and met the unyielding resistance of stone. The ricochets were like alarms and their warnings told Perry that he had in fact underestimated Ethan after all. This would not end well.

            Amanda reached out with one arm and took her son’s quivering grasp. With her free hand, she fired wildly into the darkness. They ran backwards for a few steps and then turned towards a door marked “stairs”. George saw the door swing shut behind them as the dog released its jaws. Before he could react to either, all were gone. The dog seemed to evaporate into the shadows and he might have thought that it had truly done so had sound not betrayed it. At the opposite end of the hall, he heard broken glass give way under the animal’s paws and knew that it had found another way out.

             The giant took a moment to collect his thoughts before he moved any further. What had just happened to him?  Where did that damn dog come from? Frustration forced his fist through a piece of broken wood. The florescent lights high above began to flicker and flash almost as though they knew the wrath that George possessed. They screamed in chaotic panic for a few passing moments and then fell dead forever as a deep roar bubbled through the hall. George dropped to the floor and was surprised to feel it give way beneath him. A murky hole ripped across the length of the hallway… devouring the massive man… swallowing him inside a pit of absolute blackness.

            Amanda felt her feet give way as the building shook violently in all directions. The flash light in her hand slipped down the stairwell and shattered into a thousand fragments somewhere on a floor below them. Clinging to her son, she rolled down 3 steps and planted her back against a steel railing. She cried out in agony as it dug into her side but no amount of pain could loose her grip on Danny’s arm… not that arm… never again.

            They stood in silence for a moment. Shadows flickered as power attempted to restore itself. She thought for a moment that it just might… but then an electric scream shrieked through the walls and brought with it a new complication. First thunder… then rain… freezing water dropped on the mother and child hitting them like a frozen fist. Amanda slipped on the railing but regained her footing an instant later. She took her son into her arms and whispered to him with an unusual calm.

            “It’s ok Danny… It’s gonna be ok.”

            She might have believed her own words… had they not been drowned out so efficiently by the emergency fire suppression system… or the bone chilling scream of a giant tumbling down into a room close by.

            Perry rolled onto a concrete floor… through smears of drying blood and spent shells. A ricochet squealed beside him. He returned fire as he came to his feet. His silver muzzle flashed and then another report answered. This was no amateur he faced. He knew this… and Ethan knew the same. Two hunters matched each other in the dark as they stalked with cunning certainty. Neither man would allow this moment to end without one final kill added to their annals.

            Perry took a chance and decided to charge his foe. He had 4 shots loaded. If he needed half that he was in for some real trouble. Dorian slipped into the black as The Ranger neared but it was too late. Perry knew how his enemy moved… he had watched him closely. Even here… even in the darkness… the eyes of a hunter see and know. Into the dark he charged and knew that Dorian had made a fatal error. He had underestimated the speed of an old man… and grey eyes that still saw clearly.

            …but Perry didn’t know about the knife.

            Dorian’s eyes were not as sharp as they once were… but they didn’t need to be. He watched The Ranger charge… waited for the moment to come… and hurled his hunting knife with brutal precision directly towards his adversary. The blade flew straight and true but it must have made more noise than he realized because Ranger Long hesitated for an instant… ruining the certainty of his demise. The iron dagger buried itself deep into Long’s right shoulder instead of his heart… but it was enough to end the charge.

            A revolver scraped the floor as it dropped from Perry’s grip. Dorian watched The Ranger fall with it and took careful aim as he savored his moment of victory. The knife had missed its mark… but not completely… now Ethan Dorian would find it. He smiled as he thumbed the hammer of his berretta back and caught sight of Perry’s grey eyes in a flicker of autumn flame.

            …such cold eyes…
            Perry winced in agony as he hit the floor. One revolver flew from his grip. The other discharged as his hand met a large piece of broken concrete. He bit his lip down hard… trying not to make any more noise than he already had… unspeakably frustrated with his own imprudence and with the single bullet remaining in his gun. He was about to raise the pistol… when he saw two blue eyes in the faint flicker of a nearby flame.

            …such cold eyes…

            “That’s quite enough Ranger.” A raspy voice boomed… and it was.
            Perry let the pistol drop to the floor slowly as grey and blue eyes locked. Slowly, Ethan approached his fallen enemy. The smile drained away from his thin face as he stepped into brighter light… replaced with an almost solemn contempt.

            “Death is so pathetic… even more so for men like us. You deserve better than to die on your back… but at least it’s not a bed under you. You should thank me for sparing you that humiliation. At least this way you can die a man.”

            Perry stared deep into the sapphire glaring back and a smile crossed his face. This seemed surprising to Dorian for a second and then all too appropriate. Both men shared a grin as Ethan aimed his weapon. A laugh both sardonic and sincere spilled from Dorian’s throat as he pulled the trigger on his gun. He looked through the fallen warrior below him… into the hell awaiting… and laughed with demons eager to receive. He would gladly please them… and would have… if Kevin had not intervened.

            Ethan’s sure and certain grip upon his old familiar gun was forever severed by the blast of a 12 gauge shotgun. Kevin had entered the building through a broken window in another room and carefully made his way here without notice. He arrived just in time to save Perry’s life… just in time to lift his weapon and fire at the one in the madman’s grasp. He would not let this monster kill his friend… or his son. Danny could not be found… not here… not yet… and so Kevin took his shot without pause.

Ethan was understandably surprised.

            Ethan… the new Ethan… marveled at his pale and tiny hands as he sliced through the grey meat of a finely roast goose. As he carved the bird before him, the smell spilled upward in a cloud of white steam. Memory seized him. He saw his former self in that dark hallway… his right hand mangled and destroyed. To stop the bleeding, he had been forced to cauterize the wound with gasoline and flame. It was not a pleasant experience. He recalled the intensity of that agony… remembered well every single moment of it. He had remained conscious by fixing his thoughts on the sight of those grey eyes. He would have them soon.

            The boy took a large section of meat into his mouth and savored the texture with a grin. He shut his eyes as the flavor sang the song of the fallen fowl. He let it sing. Opening his eyes, Ethan caught sight of them on a finely made wall mirror. Such blue… such sweet… and perfect blue…

            He chewed the roasted goose… thought of the joke he had manifested on his plate… and took a sip of wine.  His cel phone rang. George was calling. Ethan wondered which other goose… was now… cooked…

(To be continued)