Chapter 10; 1:35 am Saint James Hospital - Morgue.

Detective Stone could not believe what he was seeing. Two bodies laid in the Morgue, with one detached hand. The hand while mildly charred still had two perfectly manicured fingers; French tips, just as Jane had when he last saw her. Detective Stone had seen many gruesome scenes not only in his Police Career, also many more during the war. However, this scene before him surpassed all others. Scott's body still in his work uniform laid the closest to the door; he arrived to the morgue after his brother Dale. Scott died on his way to the hospital. Looking at his body, Stone could not believe he had lived at all. His assailant removed both of Scott's eyes; you could clearly see dig marks around the eyes someone clawed his eyes out. His lower jaw was completely missing including his tongue. Detective Stone leaned in for closer inspection.

[It appears someone ripped his jaw from his face, torn from the left to the right judging by of the way the skin looks]

Detective Stone noticed all of Scott's fingers had been broken, each one twisted in a different and wrong direction.

[That took time, torture.]

Stone made his way to the other table along the back wall. Pulling back the white sheet, he saw what he believed was Dale, his face completely burned; eyelids melted away, along with his nose and lips, the blisters on his now bald head made it clear this was the result of a grease fire, not the structure fire. While structure fires can cause blistering, when exposed to the fire for long periods layers of the skin burn away leaving no blister. There was a large gash on Dale's left side. Dale been stabbed under the ribs at an upward angle.

[His attacker possessed enough skill to avoid the sternum and the ribs.]

On a small tray next to the body was a pair of golden ceremonial scissors. The large and long ends covered in blood. Detective Stone remembered seeing them on the wall next to a picture of the ribbon cutting for opening of their restaurant.

Stone's current theory was, the attackers stormed the restaurant after hours, forced Dale's face into the deep fryer then used the scissors to kill him, Scott was then tortured.

[Now what happened to Jane? Moreover, where is she?]

The case was now larger than just the murder of the Mepple Brothers and the attack on Gwen. Stone couldn't see how they were connected, but he knew they were. The attacker or attackers decided that they no longer cared how the murders looked, The Mepple brothers cause of death was Decapitation and then the bodies where melted down with some form of acid they had yet to identify. When the autopsy came back on them both John and Nic had massive trauma to their hearts, they suffered a massive heart attack. The coroner contributed that to the beheading; just the sheer terror before the decapitation sent them into cardiac arrest. Marcs was the only one that differed, while yes he suffered from decapitation like his brothers, he also suffered internal burns in his throat and stomach.  Leaving them to believe he forced to drink the acid before his death, thankfully their DNA and fingerprints were in the system. Freely given has a part of their background checks to work for Mr. Ginn's company. If it hadn't been the case, they may have never verified their identities. Those murders where done in secret, out of sight. Now with the murders of the Moirais, screamed notice me, the attackers no longer feared exposure. Anyone who could kill the Moirais definitely had a reason to lack fear.

1:50 am Saint James Hospital - ICU

William, Bai, and Officer Cain stood staring out the window at the gentle hue of orange that dance in the night sky. Jacob had let them know what happened at Scott and Dale's after he heard about it on his radio.

Jacob swore he was not here to make friends, yet he found that both William and Bai were actually very likeable. William had discovered a love for Coffee in his youth and Bai's passion was food. They argued liked an old married couple, and they loved Gwen and Marci like daughters. Marci had returned to the hospital earlier in the day. She then spent all day reading Alice in Wonderland, Gwen's favorite book. She took the time to explain to her sister about her date with a man name Josh. Jacob respected her effort; she even brought flowers into the room. Lilacs, Marci said those were Gwen's favor flower. She was napping comfortably on a chair that double has a pullout bed just large enough for a single person to sleep on. William had discovered it in another room and moved it earlier in the day for Marci. Bai had found some pillows and a blanket from somewhere: they were not hospital pillows, far too soft and brightly colored. These two men had large hearts, it contradicts what Stone had told him, or it just made them that much more dangerous. The three of them stood there watching the hue slowly fade from the night sky. They knew Stone was in the building. They could not sense him, however they could sense what was missing, Stone gave off a void of nothing. It unnerved most of the families. So there the pair of unlikely friends stood, watching the disaster unfold far away from the hospital unaware that Stone's presence was masking the attackers'

Saint James Hospital - Outside.

Digging around in the dumpster on the side of the hospital an old man in tattered clothing was searching for food. The staff didn't mind him picking through the trash; the security guard would even leave the mechanical room unlocked most nights in the winter for him to have a warm dry spot to sleep, in return he would shovel the employee entrance. The cafeteria workers would even bring him hot food on slow nights. He was happy; suddenly he heard a strange sound. One he could place, it was a low rumble mixed the kind of hissing sound. He followed the strange sound; it led him around the wall to the maintenance alley. There he could not comprehend what he was looking at. Two figures stood in the alley. One looked like a shadow of a Man, while the other was a black goo; like fresh asphalt, they seemed communicate in a series of hums and clicks. The tar like creäture appeared to have two legs, two arms, but he was unable to make out any other main features. He could tell one had its back to him, because the man shape shadow had red glowing eyes. Red eyes that were looking straight at him; little did he know this was the last thing he would see. Unknown to him another black tar creäture was moving down the wall from above him. The creature pounced on him; terror instantly filled him. Dark claws grasped his flesh; they were sharp yet fluid. His skin burned, not the type of burning you would expect when suffering a slashing. It felt more like the burning when you touch a piece of metal in subzero temperatures. He went to scream, but a third arm filled his mouth, it felt like mud and it silenced him. His eyes welled with tears; the pain was unbearable, he listened and mumbled screams as one by one he felt his bones begin to break.

*Crack, snap,*

He could feel the arm going further down his throat, and he could feel the creature removing his organs. He swore he heard the creäture laugh has he died. The body of the nameless man laid twisted on the ground, the tar like creatures circled it. On all fours, moving like cats playing with a dead mouse.

*Tink, Tink, Tink*

Three metal taps drew the creatures attention to the shadow man just a few feet from them. They stopped circling and waited for their orders. While no words where said, each creäture took off to another part of the hospital. The first climbed to the roof, while the shadow man made his way towards the power lines, the second tar like beast sunk into the ground. The shadow man tapped the large wooden pole twice with his cane, the pole splintered like a toothpick, the lines themselves hissed and danced like fish out of water. The first tar like creäture crushed the backup generators before they could even turn on, the second tar like beast was moving in the shadows towards Detective Stone.

Saint James Hospital - Morgue

Once the power went out Detective Stone knew the deaths of the Moirai brothers was nothing more than a diversion to get Stone to the Hospital. Whoever planned this was smart. They knew enough about Stone and the others to know Stone's presence would mask their arrival from the others. They also knew the deaths of the Moirai would create a large enough magical void that Stone wouldn't be able to sense them arriving either. For the first time in what seemed forever, Stone was nervous. For the Fates had fallen at the hands of these attackers.

Saint James Hospital - ICU

When the power went out nurses scrambled to check on patients, the backup generators failed to come on. William disappeared in the chaos and appeared next to Gwen's bed. Marci began to stir.

"What's going on?" still half a sleep she inquired

"Power has gone out. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about" William confidently replied, even though he was anything but confident.

Jacob took his post by Gwen's room. He closed his eyes and cleared his mind. To the nurses passing by it might have looked like he was annoyed and just trying to avoid the chaos; but William knew better. Jacob was drowning out the unnecessary chaos and sounds to focus on anything out-of-place. Bai had moved closer to the window, William could clearly see the dragons moving on his clothing, while they moved so slow that the nurse would not notice them even if chaos wasn't all around them at the moment; William could. Bai was clearly calm; he had lived a very long time by not losing his faculties in stressful situations. While he knew it would take a huge threat to get past the three of them, four if he counted Marci, he knew there was far too many witnesses for an attempt on Gwen's life, or so he thought. Jacob's keen senses picked up a hissing sound that seemed to be getting closer, he could not place it; but he knew it was not good. He began to dial in on the sound; suddenly he knew where, but when he opened his eyes, the sound burst through the window behind Bai. The waiting areas chairs exploded from the force of the creäture's entrance. Shattered pieces of furniture impact into the walls, the floor and impaled a passing nurse through his neck a quick, with small squirt of blood his body fell. A Larger pool of blood flowed to the floor just in front of Bai's feet. While William could transfer between locations with a thought (this ability called Blinking), Bai had a sixth sense and cat-like reflexes. Therefore, when Bai heard the window just crack, he had already cleared the waiting area. A female nurse scream at the sight of the Tar like monster, she spun around to try to flee; the creäture reached out at her with such a speed Bai doubted the woman saw it coming. Using his own speed, Bai put himself before the woman. Bai kept his chin down, arms and hands in front of him; elbows close to his body. He place his legs slightly wider than a shoulder-width apart, feet facing forward towards the attacker. The creatures arm split in two and just went around Bai, the first half forcing its way into the nurses mouth forcing her to gargle a scream, in an instant her stomach explode, as her organs fell so did her body. The second half of the Arm flipped the Nurses' station desk, the large heavy desk rolled over a Doctor Aaliyah has she stood frozen in fear, her body twisted and broken; the desk pinned the emergency exit shut.

"What the hell is that?" Marci screamed.

"Shadow Demon" William replied nearly in a whisper; he was in complete shock.

End Chapter 10

Note from the Author: First ten Chapters are now out. Please leave me some feedback on what you think so far. I thank you for reading the first ten chapters and hope you are enjoying the story so far.