Own Your Sins - The Main Thread

As the shadowy insects closed in on the body, the skeleton began to move. In a mere moment, most of the monster's body had regenerated. The insects that swarmed it now, had no effect. The Thin man was much slower this time. It seemed to be limping, but it was still moving towards the group, Alice in particular. However, this time it let out a scream. The scream was different from the ones before, and could only be heard by the three whom had caused it the most damage so far. This scream was directed at Alex, Alice, and Damian, and took the form of those they had hurt the most with their sins.

Weird smiled, He took a deep breath and exhaled, the pew next to him rattled before shooting towards the Banshee's upper body.

Damn it, why do I have to be right? Alice thought. Quickly, she turned the sword back into a bow, aimed it at the Thin Man, and—

"You!"

Alice dropped the bow onto the ground. How?!? He's not supposed to be here!

"Why the hell didn't you get help?!? Why did you leave me there?!?"

Alice couldn't saw anything. She didn't know. Everything had happened so fast — the screeching of the tires, the sound of the impact...

She collapsed to her knees, muttering "I'm sorry" while trying to fight back tears. The bow, meanwhile, began to grow and deform out of control, becoming more of an ever-growing vine of thorns wrapping around her than the bow it was before.

Something wasn't right. The Thin Man was using its trump card.

...he felt it. It was as if the Banshee had ripped out a piece of him, molded into his image and presented in front of him. After all, who could have been more hurt by his negligence than himself? Sammy... Sammy wasn't. She was always a little too forgiving for the world.

No, instead this was himself, crying and tearing his hair off. Frustrated, enraged, grieving. It's all his fault after all. All his fault.

Alexander took a step back as the column of army ants deformed into featureless ooze, trying to wave away the nightmare. No use. It was as if he was looking at the mirror... a mirror he wanted to smash to tiniest pieces. It didn't matter if he hurt himself doing so. It has to die.

And so had that Banshee.

"...you think this is a game?" He snarled, the ooze regrouping back into him, enveloping him as if it was some sort of thick hide, slowly crawling and climbing all over him. "You think this is funny?" He took a step forward, the hideous darkness covering him almost from head to toe, giving him a vaguely bestial, demonic appearance. It was no longer Alexander Graham Payne, but rather a beast of black given his voice, distorting every other second.    "You think you can throw this at my face, that you can laugh at my expense?!"    The spectacle of one monster closing to another was... disconcerting, at least. The being of black waited for The Thin Man to do its first move, albeit just barely.

The temptation to try and rip it apart right there was ever so greater with each step.

Damian fell to his knees, eyes wide, as that moment played over and over again in his head. The moment he heard his parents' pain-filled screams abruptly end as the house collapsed right as he ran outside. In the real world, flames and sparks fell from his body to the floor of the church, their heat immersing him even more firmly in the memories.

Solomon had been watching the whole thing from the sideline. His presence was unknown, and he knew these kids weren't strong enough to see him their quite yet. This fight was turning ugly, but he liked how the kids had been fighting, up till this point. Now they were losing control, or turning themselves into monsters. A figure approached Solomon from behind.

"Damn, this is getting ugly."

"They are doing better than the last couple of batches though. You probably should have waited a bit more before taking them out on a hunt, but you always where one to jump ahead impulsively."

"Shut it. If you think you could do better, then be my guest."

" Now, you know I can't do that. If I did, that would just ruin everything."

"Then keep your mouth shut. Ya bastard."

The Thin Man closed in on Alexander, ready to deliver a powerful blow, when out of nowhere a pew slammed into the Banshees side, sending it sprawling onto the floor. It's wailing was cut off, and with it went the images.

edited 28th Aug '14 3:15:33 PM by DontLookBack

"Hah!" Shouted Weird, halfway across the room, getting his coat back on. "Suck it!" he walked over, "Remember to kill it!" He walked over, and proceeded to stomp on the creature's head.

Damian's eyes slowly went to the Banshee, narrowing dangerously as he shook of the trauma of the visions, his fury running hotter than his flames. He held a hand in front of him pulling all the flames produced by his lack of control as well as even more flames he generated into a marble sized sphere that gave off a blinding white light as the compressed flames grew ever hotter. He then shot the sphere towards the Thin Man, willing it to explode into a raging firestorm on impact.

Suddenly, just as quickly as the vision began, it faded away, leaving Alice back at the Banshee's nest, her arms covered in thorns and cuts.

I had attacked myself with my own powers. No, it's just a side effect of falling to the Banshee's shriek.

Still, maybe she could use these vines. Once again thinking of what she had done, she willed the vines of light to grow, this time grabbing the Thin Man's limbs and covering its mouth.

"Now! While I have him incapacitated!" Alice yelled to the others.

After having its head stomped into the floor, repeatedly, the Thin Man, grabbed Weird's leg and tossed him away. The Thin Man then proceeded to stand up, when vines made of light reached out and grabbed the Banshee. Now bound, the monster was open to attack. A small sphere of fire, all most as if on cue, flew from Damian, and exploded in a massive inferno upon coming into contact with the Thin Man.

The smoke cleared, revealing that their was nothing left of their target. The Sinners had won.

Solomon, who was still in his hiding spot, let out a sigh of relief.

"These kids did alright, suprisingly."

The figure who had been standing next to the care taker, turned to leave.

"Like I said, they seem better than those from before. Everything might work out well this time."

"You said that last time. And the time before that. Plus, these kids are a lot more messed up than most of the ones I typically dealt with. And, I'd like to add that the Judges have given these kids a much harder task."

The visitor turned to face Solomon before leaving.

"When did you become so pessimistic. Cheer up, with this group it is not like they have that far to fall. Besides, their task may be harder, but their powers are already leagues above what we've seen. Well, I gotta go for now, be seeing you real soon."

The Banshee's nest slowly transformed back into the church that it once was. Their was no sign of battle, no sign of disorder, and no sign of the Sinner's having any power.

edited 29th Aug '14 9:53:00 AM by DontLookBack

Weird leaned back on a pew, looking at the others, "Hurrah!" He deadpanned, "The beast is dead." He looked around. "So...Now what? The church is back to normal...relatively speaking."

"I guess we just leave the place," Alice said as she turned towards the exit.

Damn, we did it. We actually did it...

The rage waned as Alexander found himself standing as if wanting to slug The Thin Man in the face. The all-clouding wrath dissipated, leaving place for confusion. "...what happened?"

"...I... I recall sending ants at it and then it all turned black for some reason." The teen glanced around, seeing as church went back to normal. "Anyway, we did it, huh? Congrats to you all." Payne nodded with a slight smile.

Appearing at the entrance, clapping slowly, was Solomon. "Way to go kiddos. You all did better than I coulda thought. For your good perfomance, I'm gonna let ya have tommorrow off. Meet me back the next night and we'll work on getting this task done with."

"Thanks," Alice muttered. Rather than wait for the others, she began to walk back home. Her mother would be worried — this was the first time in a year that she had been home late, after all...

"...I suppose." Alexander responded to Solomon's praise without much enthusiasm. That Banshee seemed to get the better of him with its ability to open the grievousness of his negligence in front of him like that. "Thank you. We shall see you by tomorrow then." With that he began moving off the graveyard himself, thinking about the things done. It was kinda odd that he didn't mention where exactly would they meet with him, but it wasn't for Payne to judge.

Upon seeing Alice a brief hit of what happened back then struck him once more. "Miss Underwood, if I may..." He began, catching up with her. "Do you mind if I walk you home? It is kinda late already."

Weird looked at Solomon, "I better be fucking paid for this." He walked through the graveyard, rubbing his shoulder, being thrown through a church and slamming into a brick wall hurt.

edited 2nd Sep '14 12:35:44 PM by TroyandHawk

"I'll be fine," Alice said, not even looking at Alexander as she said that. "This isn't my first time walking home by myself."

Yet, when she looked at the street, with its flickering lights and abandoned houses, she found herself hesitant to move.

You have yet to be forgiven for what you have done. You can't just go home with someone else, they'll find out.

Except this was different. They were a group of damned souls here. They all were in the same boat here.

"On second thought," Alice responded, darting her eyes away again as her cheeks began to burn, "this place is giving me the creeps."

...I'd rather not experience this nightmare the second time.

"I understand that my request is out of the blue and for that I can only apologize." He spoke, sighing. Yes, this was definitely awkward. That said, he was willing to make through that awkwardness if it meant getting her home safely. "That said, I promise to remove myself from vicinity once we made it to your home."

Weird looked at Payne. "Do you have to talk like that?" he asked, before turning to the girl. "Take his request. We just learned about ghosts. God Knows what else is out there."

Damian shot a flat gaze at weird before deadpanning, "Lions and tigers and bears. Oh my." Before turnig and walking towards his own home, which coincidentally seemed to lay in the same direction Alice and Alexander were heading.

edited 2nd Sep '14 2:32:25 PM by Gladonost

"...Fine," Alice finally said to Alexander. She turned to face him. "We'd better get going, though..."

Alexander glanced at Weird, quirking an eyebrow. "I'd ask you to elaborate, but Miss Underwood is right. We shouldn't be staying here." Turning back to Alice he merely nodded in response. "Lead the way then."

"Okay," Alice said, beginning to walk down the street. Ten minutes later, they would end up at Alice's house.

"Well then, looks like that's it." Alexander said once they made it to Alice's home. They walked in complete silence all this time, but he didn't mind. It's not like they could find any topics of interest, especially not after such an exhausting night.

"...see you tomorrow at school, I suppose." Giving a small nod towards the girl he turned around, whipping out his music player and putting on earphones. Sweet, sweet Motorhead filled his head as he walked down the street to reach his home.

...funny. Back then it also was about ten minutes of walking.