Chapter 18




In my father's earlier years, he and his buddies liked to use a term known as 'uber death'. Allow me to define.

Uber Death: N.   1: Massive pownage of a single person in an online game.
     2: Massive death, wide scale, absolute killing spree. See also 'slaughter'.

To put it simply, this wasn't definition number one. No, before us lay not ten, not twenty, not thirty, not fifty. No, there were an uncountable number of bodies laying on the floor, hunched over bars, tables, rails. Some were smashed so hard against the wall that they actually stuck, and some were hanging from the ceiling by there...guts.
Everything was covered in blood. Now, when I say everything, I mean it. This was even worse...some of them looked like they'd been...eaten. I looked around the room, completely and utterly gruesome. Well...now I know what happened to all the psycho-psis.
I forced myself to look away, and went back to Winx before she could see. That was the last thing I wanted to show her.
"C'mon...lets go wait for Matt," I told her.
She looked up at me, "Is...everything ok?"
I didn't answer, "C'mon."
We walked back outside.
"Winx, I need you to head home," I told her.
She looked at me, "Grim...what's wrong."
I gave her my trademarked 'every thing's fine' smile, "Nothing, I'm just going to wait for Matt, and we'll search the rest of the complex."
She seemed confused.
"Just in case there's a big bio freak, I don't want you getting hurt, alright?"
She nodded slightly, "Alright..."
She stepped up in front of me, and I kissed her. It was true, I didn't want her getting hurt, but it wasn't the total truth. Oh well. We broke away from each other, I nodded to her, and she took off.
Man, those images were still haunting me. Especially that last one I saw, it was just...well, let's just say that if something else hadn't killed those psycho-scis, I would've. Damn it, my blood was starting to boil again, and I felt my fists clench.
Get a hold of yourself Grim. This was no time to let emotions get me angry. I'd worry about it later.
I leaped up into the air, clicked out my wings, and flew over the building until I heard the familiar sound of sirens. About time. I swooped down towards the sounds...



Well, long story short, the squad and I did a thorough sweep of the entire lab. Welp, no sign of anything living, bio-freak or otherwise. Anyway, they told me I could head home, and that they'd take care of cleanup and forensics. Good enough for me.
Sadly enough, the room full of bodies wasn't the worst thing I'd ever seen. Those visions were. I know I'm hung up on these, and I know I shouldn't be but...
...just the thought of anything happening to her makes me...I can't even explain it...just completely and utterly enraged. Thank god I had the open air, it relaxed me a bit.
I sighed and closed my eyes. Yes, when you're flying, you don't have to worry about running into much. I breathed in deeply, then breathed out slowly. Alright, I've regained my composure. Good good. I looked up at the moon.
I reached into my pocket, pulled out my cell phone, and checked the time. It was two forty one in the morning. Wow, where had the night gone? Oh well, it left me some time to spend with Winx and Scar. I pocketed the phone, swooped down through the clouds, and descended into the bell tower.
I landed gracefully, folded my wings in, and stood up. Yuck, I still smelled like chemicals. I moved down the stairwell, and into my nice, happy, welcoming home. Ah, good to be back. I stepped into the living room.
Fwoosh, is the best way I can describe the noise that was made as Angel flipped down from the ceiling in front of me. When I say this, I mean, she basically flipped upside-down, and hung upside-down from the ceiling in front of me. She smiled broadly.
"Hiya Grimmy!" she said.
Suddenly, the bottom of her shirt submitted to gravity, and it slid down over her head. Immediately, my face went red, and I looked away. She giggled, flipped down, and pulled her shirt back over herself.
"Hehe!" she giggled, "Sorry about that Grimmy!"
I sighed a bit, "Good to see you're as hyper as ever."
She crossed her arms and smirked, "You know it!"
Ah, forgot to mention. Angel is the last member of our team. She's....eccentric, to say the least. She's hyper, loud, obnoxious, and pretty cool to have around. We've been friends since...well since we were babies. It's funny, she's been my other best friend for all my life. In a sense, I think of her like a sister, which makes what just happened kinda awkward.
She's actually older than I am, by a few months. A little bit taller (and she used to love bragging about it), cute face, red hair in a ponytail. She was wearing a loose t-shirt, and a pair of denim shorts. Oh, yeah, she has huge feathery wings coming out of her back too.
She suddenly leaned forward, her expression shifting from carefree to serious, "Grim, I have a serious question for you."
I leaned back a bit, "Y...y...yeah?"
"Is it true you finally got yourself a girlfriend!?" her expression went back to normal.
Jeez, the one time I think she's actually gonna be serious. Well, my fault for assuming. I nodded a little bit and crossed my arms.
"So what if I do?" I asked.
Her hands shot up, and she squeezed my cheeks, "I'm so proud of my wittle Grimmy! It's about time!"
I pushed her hands away, and she giggled more, "So when do I get to meet 'er?"
I heard our large door open, and I looked over towards the doorway. Winx stepped through with a full plastic bag, removed her shoes, then stepped onto the carpet.
"I'm home," she smiled at me, "Scar asked me to go to the store and get some things for him, sorry I took so long."
"No biggy, just got home myself," I smiled back and put my hands behind my head.
Angel reached over and flicked me, "Don't ignore me."
"Oh, right," I stepped out of the way so Winx and Angel could see each other, "Winx, this is Angel, Angel, this is Winx."
Angel stared at her for a minute.
Finally, she broke the silence, "Wow, you picked a cute one, Grimmy!"
Winx's face went red. I took a minute to explain how I'd know Angel since I was little, then explained how I rescued Winx and she's been with us ever since. It's funny, most of the stories are tell are so bad ass that I don't need to exaggerate. The Winx rescue is one of those.
So, once I'd explained everything to them both, I took the groceries, headed to the kitchen, and figured I'd let them acquaint themselves.
So, I unloaded the contents of the bag on the counter, and sorted through it. Yes, I like organization. Let's see, inventory.
One bag of doggy bacon strip treats. Chalking that one up for Scar.
Three cans of spaghetti o's. Also for Scar.
1 bag of beef jerky. Scar.
1 bottle of Dr. Pepper. Scar, but he's sharing this.
10 packs of Jello brand gelatin. Scar.
Yes, Scar has rather diverse tastes. Not that I can argue. I mean, hey, I drink blood every now and then. Speaking of which.
My stomach growled in the weird way that it usually does when it's feeding time. Yeah, it's hard to explain, but it sounds different. Whatever, I could wait til tomorrow and swing by the lab.
I finished putting all of the items in their proper places, then returned to the living room. Angel was telling her the story of our sixth grade drama performance and how I screwed up and knocked over three of the band people. Don't ask, I don't wanna talk about it. Winx seemed pretty amused. Perfect.
Angel finished her story, yawned, and stretched, "Welp, I think it's about time for me to get home. Thanks for your time, Grimmy and Winx."
"Glad you could stop by," I told her, "You know our door's always open."
She smiled, nodded to be, and started for the door.
"Well, I'll seeya around, Grimmy," she waved her hand back as she walked away, "good luck with those bio-freaks."
That was Angel's style. Show up, say a few words, then split. She didn't like to linger too long, she felt it was a bother or intrusion to whoever she was with. Oh well, it was nice to see her again.
"You two seem like good friends," Winx said, "did you two used to be..."
Ah, I knew what she was gonna ask. Funny story behind that.
"Nope, we've never been together," I stretched my arms, "She isn't into guys."
Most of you will probably understand that subtle explanation. For the few of you that don't, I'm not gonna explain.
"O...oh, I see," that had caught Winx off guard.
"She's more like a sister to me anyway," I said, "besides, she's not my type."
She seemed acceptable of that answer. Good good. I looked around, weird, I hadn't heard any smart-ass comments from Scar since I got home.
"Where'd Scar go?" I asked.
Winx was stretching her wings, "He said he was going out, and left you a note on your desk."
I nodded a bit, stepped around the couch, and made my way to my room. Zak was sprawled out on my bed, sleeping soundly, and just as Winx had said, there was a small post it note on my desk.
I lifted the note.

'Dear Pete,'
'I'm covering the night watch for the rest of the night, that way you and Winx can have some time to yourselves. Don't worry, I can handle things by myself. It'll give you guys a good four or five hours. You could pop in a movie, or play games, or do other things. Just do me a favor and don't do it on the couch.'

What did he mean by that?

'What I mean is pretty self explanatory if you open your desk drawer.'

I reached down, pulled out the drawer, and yeah, his note made sense. Sitting on top of everything else was a small box with the label Trojan on it. I sighed and shut the drawer.
"You've gotta be kidding me," I grumbled quietly and continued the note.

'I kid you not.'

It's kinda scary how his notes seem to know what I'm going to say.

'C'mon, live a little my friend. You and Winx are really hitting it off right? I know she at least really digs you. Give it a shot man!
From your dearest friend
Jason Monmany Jr.  (Scar!)


I crumpled up the note and tossed it into the trash can beside my desk. Yeah, you know how women say men are just a bunch of dogs. Well, some days, Scar pretty much fits the bill. But I guess I can't really blame him. Being part wolf, he retains some of the natural instincts that wolves have. One of them being mating season. Yeah, I almost feel bad for him.
Aaaaaaaanyway. I returned to the living room. Winx was sitting and waiting patiently for me. She smiled and stood up when I entered. I smiled a little.
"Y'know, you don't need to wait for me all the time," I told her, "you can do whatever you want."
She nodded, "I know...but I don't mind waiting for you."
I smiled at her, stretched, and looked around, "so...what do you wanna do?"
At that moment, my stomach growled that weird 'I VANT BLOOD!!!' growl. Winx heard it, giggled, and looked to the kitchen.
"How about dinner?" she asked.
Alright, yeah, I could go with that. Technically, eating can delay my need for blood, but it can't completely subside it.
I don't recall if I explained the whole feeding thing, so I'll quickly to go over it again. I'm part vampire bat, meaning that every now and then I get a need for blood. When this happens, I weaken a little bit, my wings get stiff, and my stomach growls a weird growl. Now, yes, without blood, I'll die. But it wouldn't be an instant thing, it'd probably take a week or so. Thankfully, I never had this need for blood until I awakened as my fused self.
So, Winx and I went to the kitchen, I prepared us a fine meal of blt's, French fries, and cans of doctor pepper. Yes, I am the masterful chef when I want to be. I spread everything out on our breakfast bar, and we ate peacefully.
We talked a bit, ate, I took care of the dishes, then said, "I'm gonna hit the shower, alright?"
She nodded, "Alright."
I went to our room, grabbed my usually sleep clothes, (black tank top and shorts), and made my way to the bathroom.