Dealer's Shuffle
1.
Mongkok District, Hong Kong
The locals are
staying indoor as the typhoon alert was on that evening. The shops are closed
making it another reason to stay in. But not exactly all; a group of the local
gang decided to meet in one of the alley. They are there on the request of
their leader to meet there.
"We go in
there and do this pig." The leader' a bald headed tall man with a stooped
back from an old injury suffered from a similar incident. The leader was
dressed in casual outfit with a windbreaker over it. He look at his boys; all
six of them ranging from late teens to early twenties, armed with some sharp
weapons. The leader opened the rear door of the diner and walked in. His boys
followed him behind with their nervous looks. They passed through the kitchen
which was empty except for an older lady cleaning it. She averted their looks
and continue her work.
The gang went to
the serving hall with its ten tables in there, but only one was occupied. The
person sitting there was not of local descent but a foreigner in this district.
She was dressed casually; t-shirt and jeans with her windbreaker unzipped. Her
hair are braided hanging just over her neckline.
"Kwei Lo! You
caused us a lot of issue." The leader sat himself in opposite of the lady
at the table while his boys stand all around the serving area. "You come
no more.... Aargh!"
The leader
screamed out in pain when the lady kicked her boots into his inner left thigh;
the boot have a blade at the front. Some of the boys wanted to intervene but
the leader raised up his hands to stop them. The leader pulled back at the
seat, and stood up.
"You should
try better. A small blade won't hurt me." The leader tugged at his jeans;
the bleeding stopped and the man eye's glowed in red. "I did not expect
you to stab me where I hid my demon identity."
"Yup, I hit
your sensitive side; the devil in you appeared." The lady stood up and
faced the man with the glow eyes. "How many of your boys are from the
Legion?"
"None
actually." The leader pulled off his windbreaker to show his new anatomy;
a three sets of upper limbs. "Like my new look. They grafted it on
me."
Just as the leader
completed his introduction to the enhancement, his limbs extend out to snuffle
out the boys. Those limbs became long fingered claws that pierce the skin of
the flesh, cracked the ribs to pulled the heart out. His limbs retract back
with the pulsating hearts.
"I like them
fresh and vibrant. Most times, I tell the rest they died in the fight. They
would never know I did them all in." The demon reached for one of the
hearts and bit into it. "Its very tantalizing these way."
The 'sai'; a
martial artist weapon that resemble a lobotomy pick with the 'S' shape sword
handle. The lady thrust her right hand with the sai into the demon's forehead,
while her left hand holding the other sai stabbed his right ribs. The 'sai' was
made from a metal taken from the Underworld; something which actually burns
like hell on contact. The Demon writhe in pain as the 'sai' works it element on
the demon body. Then it became rigid and falls to the ground like ashes/
"I hate heart
eaters. They don't last long in a relationship." The lady pulled pull out
the 'sai' and placed them in her back pack before she walked away from the
table. She soon exit from the shop and looked at the weather. Its still bad and
the train won't be operating for sometime. She took to her super bike by the
road and rode off in the rain.
Soon she pulled up
at her apartment building and rode into the basement. She parked her bike at
the designated spot and walked to the escalator that would take her to the
thirteen floor of the building. She stood there and looked at the screen
display above the escalator doors. Her instinct prep her up for the next move.
She moved out her left leg in a side kick at the figure which appeared there
but she missed the target. The figure had stepped back but did not retaliate.
"Ms.Geraldine
Black, I apologies if I startled you." The figure was of a man dressed in
the buttoned up suit with a white collar. "My name is Father Ricken. I am
here on an urgent request."
"Father
Ricken, if you are of the Church, please find your own way out. I have nothing
to confess to you." Geraldine fit the key into the lock and had it opened
in seconds. She walked in and kicked at the door to close it. The priest
followed in before it closed. Geraldine placed her bike helmet on the table
near the door and walked to her adjoining room.
"The door to
leave is the same one which you came in. I am going to get comfortable and then
have my dinner. So be wise to my request." Geraldine spoke out to her
uninvited guest while she get ready to take her shower. Soon she was out
dressed in an oversize shirt and barefooted.
"That smells
good, so you can cook as well as you can come uninvited." Geraldine walked
up to looked at the prepared food. "Those looked does not looked like
mine. Did you bring them here?"
"Yes, I did.
Much earlier when you were not in. I was getting some drinks when we met in the
doorway." Priest Ricken sat himself at the table.
"You were in
my apartment before this?" Geraldine looked at him from her food.
"God helped
us to work in many ways." Priest Ricken smiled.
Later after a nice
warm meal, Geraldine extend her hospitality to the priest to a cup of coffee.
Geraldine sat at the couch while the priest sat himself on a high back chair.
Then he got up and walked to the bedroom becoming out with a blanket. He
offered it to Geraldine who smiled sheepishly. She covered her exposed legs and
listened to the older man who had sat himself back on his chair. They spoke for
a while but Geraldine could not disclosed why her family reluctance to be
involved in the church for over four centuries, but it was a handed down order
from the family. Nevertheless, hey were still involved in the fight albeit more
hidden in the background.
"I been
killing demons since I was twelve." Geraldine told the priest. She also
know about the Crusaders and her ancestor, Sir Gerald Black. Like him, she
learned from her father art of fighting and being the only girl, she was given
the easy tasks initially, but the last of the males soon died. She was all
alone at eighteen and had her independence since then. The Black family had
accumulated a wealth over the years and that fortune was enough for Geraldine
to live on.
"Geraldine,
did you ever made contact with the rest of the Crusaders?" Father Ricken
was baiting her but she shook her head.
"I met Mileal
Landon III from the Moor once, but he was also like me; he was told to stay
away but Miles could not resist. So he left for war zone, and fought the real
man of flesh. Last I heard he was in the Middle East." Geraldine spoke out
on the possible whereabouts. "The Von Kluck escaped the Axis influence and
left for South America; according to Mileal."
"Your
father's friend and trusted servant, the Clawler?" Father Ricken was
persistent on his queries.
"Since
Gerald's grandson died in the cotton field of Arkansas before the Civil War, he
was never heard of." Geraldine looked out to the window. The storm is
still raging out there. She later left the priest to sleep at the couch while
she took back her own bed. She hopes that tonight with the priest here, she
would not have the nightmare she been getting for sometime.
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