She Who Cries Wolf

001
-She Who Cries Wolf-

The night was cold in the grand metropolis of Nocturne. The city lights resembled the brightest stars in the sky, but no matter how marvelous the city looked, evil lurked within it. It was very windy that night, not quite winter, but in the first week of December. In a building; just one of the thousands of nameless structures standing in the city, a group of a dozen men were hard at work, trying desperately to build a weapon that would bring Nocturne crumbling before them.
“We have to make sure everything is right,” said one of the men. “If we mess this up even a little bit, it could go off and take us with it.”
Two of his colleagues carried a heavy metal object to a table in the center of the room. They fit it to a much larger metal piece. The bomb was coming along quite well.
“So how powerful is this thing?” another of the men asked.
“Think Hiroshima,” the first man chuckled. “Once we finish the bomb, we can hold the whole city for ransom!”
All of the men laughed. The idea of harming people tickled them. They were almost done with their instrument. All they needed now was the the detonator. Another of the men was bringing it to the structure to complete it. Just then, the lights went out. The men panicked at first, but their leader calmed them down.
“It's just this stupid building! Someone find the damn fuse box!”
Flashlights danced in the darkness. Before the lights could come back on, one of the men screamed as an ungodly rattling rang out.
“Get those lights on!”
Another man was taken. His screams echoed though the darkness. Finally, after several minutes and losing two more comrades, the lights came on. The four missing men were tied to the ceiling, gagged and unconscious.
“How'd they get up there?!” one of the remaining men screamed.
They had armed themselves with guns. They were under attack, but by who or what exactly was a mystery. They searched behind crates and under the catwalks, but they found nothing. Their leader looked up at his friends, hanging from the ceiling and saw something that made his heart skip a beat. Two glowing red eyes were staring at him from the shadows.
“Above us! He's above us!” he shouted.
Just as his men looked up, a shadowy figure dropped down and landed in the center of the room next to the bomb. He stood at 6', 6”, his dread locks hung out of his hood and down to the middle of his chest. He wore black pants and a black shirt with a black sleeveless trench coat. Bloody bandages were wrapped around his arms. In his hand, he held a silver and black scythe. The thing looked like it was forged in hell. The most disturbing factor of this person was the horrific burlap mask he wore. Pain and suffering was its face. His eyes glowed through the black holes in his mask.
“It's Krähe...,” one of the men said. “It's the Crow of Nocturne...”
The men all backed away from him.
“What are you waiting for?!” their leader cried. “Kill-”
Before he could even finish his sentence, Krähe whipped his scythe around. The blade flew off of the staff, attached to a seemingly infinite chain and took down all of the remaining men except for their leader. Just as he aimed his gun, Krähe whipped the blade at him. The gun shot off as the scythe hit it and the force made the man drop it. The man tried to flee by running up a set of catwalk stairs. He almost made it. Using the blade and chain of his scythe, Krähe launched himself up to the catwalk and forced his prey to the ground.
“So what will you do with me?” he asked Krähe with a cocky twist to his voice. “Will you kill me? Or does your sense of justice prevent you from doing so.”
Krähe said nothing to the man. He released him and turned to walk away. The man seemed surprised. But after about twenty feet, Krähe turned to face the man once more.
“I'm going to give you a head start,” he said in a deep, dark voice. “Five... Four...”
The man, now terrified, turned and nearly jumped down the stairs.
“Three...Two...”
Using the blade of his scythe as an anchor to the ceiling, Krähe swung down to the lower level to subdue the man. He knocked him out with a hard punch to the face and tied him to a support beam. With the men taken care of, he made his way over to the bomb and found the detonator. It was circular and hollow with magnets on the inside. In the bomb it would have fitted into the battery. When a switch was hit, the wheel would have turned, aligning the magnets with other magnets within the bomb, completing the circuit, and leveling Nocturne City. Krähe crushed it in his hand, then left the building through the window as the police arrived.
Krähe waited on the roof and watched the police take the terrorists into custody. Satisfied that he had done his job, he shot his blade out and swung across the city, seeking out crime, feeling the burning desire to make them suffer just as he had in the past. When he closed his eyes, all he could think of was finding his daughter's corpse when he returned home from work one night. He had to make them pay. They all had to pay.
Atop a building, Krähe spied a lonely deli after dark with the lights still on. At this hour, all of the food stores in this part of the city should be closed. He took a closer look from an alley across the street. As he looked in through the glass, a man was taking money from the cash register. Krähe skulked into the alley behind the story and listened. He could hear crying and another man. There were hostages. He didn't know how many, though, making this a very delicate situation.
Krähe decided it would be best to flush them out, rather than going in and risking the lives of innocent people. He moved to the front of the store and tapped the glass of the shop with the tip of his scythe. The robber at the register froze and looked up. He was surprised to see no one there. He walked over to the window and looked out, gun at the ready. He turned to walk away, dismissing the noise. Before he could take three steps, he heard an ear splitting screeching on the glass. He slowly turned and saw Krähe's dim red eyes staring at him. In a panic he fired his gun and Krähe was gone. The man turned on his heels and ran. Krähe, on the outside, ran to the back of the store and listened.
“Let's get the hell out of here!” one of the men yelled.
He waited atop a sign where there was no light and he couldn't be seen. Three men exited the building, bags and guns in hand and ran down the alley. Krähe followed them, taking them out one by one in quick succession, ending their crime before they could get away. Krähe took the money back to the people of the deli and set them free. It was a family of Asian Americans. He returned what was stolen and turned to walk away. The family's young daughter grabbed the bottom of Krähe's coat. He turned to face her.
“Thank you, Krähe,” she said innocently, “you're my hero.”
Without a word, he left the building and swung to the rooftops once more. It was time to head home. The city streets were quiet, at least for now. Krähe made his way through the city until he reached a large apartment building. It was tall and sort of run down with a giant clock built into the top, sort of like Big Ben from London. Not many people that lived there were awake at this hour, but a few windows shone in the night. Krähe swung to the top of the clock tower and entered through a hatch in the roof.
He removed his coat and mask and hung them over his arm as he made his way down several sets of stairs. A locking mechanism kept this door closed and sealed to ensure no one could get in. There is only one floor directly beneath the clock and it served as his apartment. After that, it would be six floors before one could reach any other living person.
The hallways were dark, decaying, and full of webs from lonely spiders. But it was home. Krähe came to a door with an hour glass carved into the wood. A single sliver of light above the door was all that illuminated this solemn place. He opened the door and entered his living quarters.
“Aleena, I'm home,” he said, closing the door behind him.
He waited for her to respond, but she did not. He moved into his bathroom and disrobed before getting into the hot shower. He stood there, the water streaming down his tired, muscular body. He watched the blood spiral down the drain. He had been careless lately and it was costing him. Before he entered the warehouse, he had gotten into a brief scuffle with Dr. Weaver. His metallic legs had cut him across his arms. He needed to be more careful, but lately he'd just been feeling so... down. He almost didn't care if he was killed or not. But he had to keep fighting. There were many more people to bring to justice. No, they can't be called people. Monsters.
He stepped out of the shower and stood before the mirror. His brown skin and black hair were clean now, and his eyes had gone from their deep red back to their usual dark brown. In his cabinet was a medical box. He pulled from it a curved needle and some thread. He proceeded to sew up his wound, disinfect it, and bandage it up. He went to his master-sized bedroom and sat on his large bed. A dresser and a rack for his scythe stood against the opposite wall. The wall opposite of the door held a set of glass doors. Beyond them was a balcony, overlooking Nocturne and it's bay.
Krähe got dressed and hung up his scythe. Then he slowly walked to the glass doors and opened them. He stepped out on his balcony and met a 10 year old girl in an old style European dress. Her black hair was tied in two, pigtails, her dark blue dress fluttered in the night breeze. She floated about a foot above the ground and stared off into the distance.
“I see you can float again,” Krähe said to her, leaning on the stone balcony. “What are you thinking about?”
“You must be crazy to truly believe you can rid Nocturne of all it's crime,” she said in her Russian accent. “It is madness. You are mad.”
“That may be so. But I know that because of the people that I can stop, there are innocent people that can sleep easy tonight. They can rest. I know you don't care for living people, but it's the principle of the thing. It's about having life and protecting it.”
Aleena turned to face him, her dark red eyes staring at him. “No one was there to protect me.”
“Aleena, I would have protected you if I'd have been there. And you know that.”
The two stood in awkward silence for a few moments. Aleena had turned to look at the city once again. Then she said, “I know...”
Aleena levitated to his eye level. “Fighting crime is taking a toll on you, Derek. You need to be more careful. You're no good to anyone if you're dead. My scythe can only give you so much protection.”
With those words, Aleena floated through the glass doors and into the house. He followed after one last look at Nocturne. He lied down in his bed and put some soft R&B music on. After about five minutes, he drifted off to sleep.
A lot of people in the world dream. Many dream about their fears, others about their hopes. But what do heroes dream about?
Krähe's dream was very much a pleasant one at first. He was making love to Red, a beautiful raven haired villain that he had come to blows with many times in the past. In his dream she had mounted him, her red lips, ever so tempting. Even though she was his enemy, he couldn't help but accept her lust. Her green eyes stared into his as she began to climax. He reached up to grab her breasts. She grabbed his wrist as he did so and smiled a devious smile at him.
In a split second, her head tore apart and in its place a mutant wolf head grew. It was Loupo, Red's pet. But it was too late. Luopo bit his head clean off and spit it out next to his body. The nasty wolf girl laughed a horrid laugh and he awoke with a start.

The first thing he saw was Aleena staring at him from the end of his bed.
“Another nightmare?” she asked, stone faced.
He sat up in bed and swung his feet around to the ground. He didn't want to answer her. He didn't want her to know that he was afraid of anything. He got dressed and picked up his scythe and went into his kitchen to eat. He turned on the news. Nothing interesting seemed to be happening. It was a peaceful morning in Nocturne. Derek decided to go for a walk around the city and just observe the people.
He packed Krähe's suit and mask in a duffel bag and went to open the door.
“You'll transport the scythe to me when I need it, won't you?” he asked Aleena. She appeared before him.
“I will.”
He nodded to her and left. He descended six floors and kept going. On the eighth floor of the apartments, he met someone familiar, in the hallway. It was Stephanie. And she was crying.
“Did he put you out again?” Derek asked her.
“It's just... He doesn't really...,” she stuttered through each word.
“Call the police, Stephanie. Don't let him keep doing this to you. How many times does this make this year?”
“Three.”
“No, it's seven. Seriously. Do something or I will.”
Derek walked away from her. He felt guilty about not breaking in and just beating him to a bloody pulp, but the truth was if she didn't stand up for herself, she would never learn how. He descended the building and stepped into the streets. It was drizzling. He pulled the hood of his coat over his head and walked toward the corner store.
He went in and picked up a few things. While he was browsing, he noticed the man at the register staring him down. He probably thought that Derek was going to steal something. Derek felt sad by this thought. The man behind the counter sat at a strange angle. At first it didn't make sense, but then Derek noticed the 12 gauge shotgun position directly in front of him. If something happened, he would be close to his weapon. It's too bad that the man didn't know that Derek wasn't going to rob him. It's too bad that he couldn’t know that he was the Crow of Nocturne. Derek paid for his items and left.
It was raining harder when he left the store. Derek ducked into an alley to try and find some cover. He walked down. He figured he'd go to a cafe and get something warm to drink. As he silently moved through the narrow alley, two men stepped out in front of him. He stopped and turned to go the opposite direction. There were four more men blocking his path.
“This really isn't a good day for me,” Derek said.
The men chuckled and drew weapons. It really wasn't a good day for Derek, but it was about to become an even worse day for these thugs.
Derek exited the alley, leaving the motionless bodies of his six assailants in his wake. He arrived at the cafe and asked the clerk for a hot chocolate. He sat at a table and looked out at the rain as he contemplated his dream. He couldn't get what it was for, but he knew that he'd have a run in with Red and Loupo soon. He finished his beverage and returned to his apartment building. By this time, the sun was going down. Derek was angry. He didn't want to fight Red, but he knew he had to. Aleena was making life at home very dreary. He dreaded going back. But he had to. There was something inside of her that he was trying to reach out to.
He climbed the creaky stairs of the building and near the eighth floor, he heard a familiar sound. Sure enough as soon as he stepped up the last step, Stephanie was sitting across from her door, sobbing into her arms. He knew he shouldn't, but his body moved for him. He quickly walked to her door and banged on it.
“What the fuck do you want?!” Stephanie's boyfriend spat as he opened the door.
Derek grabbed him by his collar and punched him in his face. He went flying back and Derek went right after him. Stephanie's boyfriend tried to regain himself, but Derek wasn't having it. It truly wasn't fair; all of the villains and criminals that Derek had fought. This man didn't stand a chance. Derek picked him up by his neck and slammed him on the ground, knocking him out cold. Stephanie rushed in.
“What did you do?!” she screamed. “Why would you do this?!”
She looked up at him with tearful eyes, then down to her boyfriend.
“If it had been another day,” Derek said. “You'd be the one on the floor and I might not have been here to help you!”
He turned and started walking. She stopped him, but he didn't turn to face her. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his back.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “Thank you so much, Derek.”
“Call the police,” he said before leaving her room.
Feeling a bit less tense, Derek made his way to his room.
“Watch the news,” Aleena said before he could even cross the threshold.
He went to his couch and sat down. There was a new report on. The anchor was frantic.
“Here I am in Nocturne National Park where police are engaged in a gunfight with the mutated villain known as Loupo! The police received a call from a young woman claiming that the deranged man-wolf was attacking people in the park. The police arrived on the scene just ten minutes ago and are already on the defensive. None of our brave police officers can get in close enough to take down the monster.”
Without a word, Derek quickly suited up, took up his scythe, and ran up to the clock tower. He climbed out of the hatch and swung over to the park as fast as he could. He arrived within minutes to find the police unable to attack Loupo due to a hostage situation. He had a young woman clutched in his massive hand. His green eyes glowed in the darkness.
The woman screamed for help and Krähe knew that if he didn't get to her in time, Loupo would bleed her all over the park. She wore a tattered coat and hoodie. She looked homeless. Poor woman. He had to save her. He swung clear over the police and took Loupo down with a flying kick to his chest. He dropped the woman.
“Get someplace safe,” Krähe told her as he prepared to face Loupo.
He immediately got back to his feet and lumbered toward Krähe. Scythe at the ready, he charged the wolf. He narrowly dodged a claw and was able to strike him in the back of his neck, sending him flying again. Before he was out of range, Loupo turned on his heels and slashed Krähe across his chest. Krähe fell back so that Loupo would follow. However, Krähe stopped short and, with great speed, whacked Loupo across the face, sending the beast to the ground, unconscious.
Satisfied so far, Krähe went to check on the hostage. She was cowering by a tree, holding her head, terrified to look up. He knelt down beside her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She didn't answer. He put his hand on her shoulder to turn her over. Loupo could have injured her. As she turned, a swift and hard punch came at the Crow of Nocturne. Krähe fell back, dazed. Before he could gather himself, Loupo wrapped his massive arms around him, lifting him off of the ground.
“I can't believe you, of all people, fell for that,” the woman said in a seductive voice.
She stood up and removed her layers to reveal her black and red corset, skirt, fishnets, boots, gloves, and her signature red cape. Her black hair fell down her shoulders and her bloody red lips curled into a smile. Her evil emerald eyes stared at him with joy.
“Very clever, Red,” Krähe said to her.
“Now my love, it's time for you to die.”
She walked up to him and kissed his cheek. Then with a hit to the temple, knocked him out.
When Krähe awoke, he found himself kneeling on a wooden platform in the middle of a lake. He was facing away from the shore. The river was miles across and in the darkness of the night, he couldn't see the other side. His hands were bound behind his back and he had cinder blocks chained to his feet. His scythe had been taken. A pair arms embraced him from behind.
“Isn't the water so beautiful?” Red asked him.
He didn't answer her.
“You'll get to see it close up soon enough, dear Crow.”
It was quiet. Somehow they had lost Nocturne Police. Either that or Krähe wasn't worth enough o help. He knew he was on his own.
Krähe tried to turn around to attack Red, but before he could get a fix on her, Loupo had knocked him backward. Krähe threw his leg up for a kick, but Red avoided it, the chain on his leg sailing past her. Loupo picked Krähe up and tossed him into the inky black water.
Without realizing it, Red had allowed Krähe to loop the chain around her leg before he was thrown in. As he descended to the depths, she was dragged in with him.
Once under, Krähe got his hands in front of him and grabbed Red. He choked her into unconsciousness. The water was freezing. It felt like each and every one of the cells in his body was turning to ice. It would be okay if he died, as long as he took Red with him. He heard something plunge into the the river. Loupo was coming to rescue his mistress. Krähe knew that he would be coming for his life, so in a natural act of defense, he raised his arms above his head. Luck was on his side, for Loupo bit right through the chains, setting his hands free. He freed his feet and same to the surface while the wolf man went after Red.
Krähe quickly reclaimed his scythe, which was stuck in the sand on the shore and waited for Loupo to surface with Red. The moment he did, Krähe knocked him out. He tied the both of them together and made sure they could not get out, then waited for the police. They would take the two to the Water Prison, a place where even the most hardened of criminals would fail to keep their sanity, floating miles from civilization. Once the police arrived, Krähe left for his home.
The moment he walked in the door, he headed for his bathroom and took a hot shower. He leaned against the wall, thinking about his night and wondering when they'd break out, how many people they'd kill, and what she would try to do to him next. One thing was for sure, he wouldn't fall for the same trick twice. He put the thought in the back of his mind and tried to relax while he had the precious time to do so. He stepped out of the shower and looked at his chest wound in the mirror. Aleena appeared behind him.
“Was it Loupo?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said, staring at his eyes in the mirror.
Aleena floated over to him and put her hand on his shoulder. She pulled him around so that he was staring her in her eyes. Stone faced, she pressed her hands to his chest. They were cold and clammy. Derek's wounds pulsed and the little blood that was still flowing through them was absorbed into Aleena's fingertips. His blood ran through her hand and bloody veins became visible through her transparent skin. Then, as they disappeared, Derek's wounds healed.
“I don't think I can ever get used to that,” Derek said.
“Well if I absorb human DNA, I can replenish my powers. With those powers, I can heal your minor injuries. Not only that, but if I absorb enough blood, I can eventually become human again. And as long as I do it slowly over time, you will not have to perish for it. It has to be blood though. Your blood.”
“Why me?”
“Because your blood is the first that I've absorbed. What will be my body will one day flow with the same blood that is in your veins.”
With those final words, Aleena disappeared through the mist in the bathroom. Derek got dressed and went straight to his couch to watch his television. It wasn't even five minutes before he feel into a deep sleep, his scythe clutched tightly in his hand.
High upon the clock tower, Aleena floated, looking out over the city. The wind blew her hair and her dress. She closed her eyes.
“Raven,” she said, “I'm here.”
A black spirit materialized before her. It had no specific shape. It was a nasty, amorphous cluster of shadows. It had deep, gray sockets where eyes would be, and another opening for its mouth. When it spoke, it was as if multiple people were speaking all at once.
“Tell me, Aleena,” it said in a haunting voice. “What is the scythe doing to him?”
“It's worsening his depression,” she replied. “He doesn't even seem to have the will to fight it anymore. If he's not fighting, he just goes to sleep.”
“Good.”
There was a moment of silence between the two of them. After thinking about it for a minute, Aleena asked, “Will the scythe kill him?”
“What does it matter so long as you get your powers back? You'll need a life sacrificed to become human again anyway. You know, if he died now, we could bleed him out and you'd be a human tonight.”
Aleena didn't say anything. She looked away from Raven and out over the city once more. She turned her back to it and disappeared. She materialized in Derek's living room. She hovered over his coffee table and watched him sleep, pondering the scythe clenched in his hand.

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 19.12.2011

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