Episode: 5.1

--- Aiden Caine ---

“You know, there are easier ways of doing this.” He idly commented, lighting his cigarette.

The woman merely stared at him, dark eyes with heavy rings contrasting with sickly-pale skin. The spotlight caused by a nearby flashlight doing little to aid her appearance.

He nodded, taking a drag. “Yeah, I thought so.”

Part of him was tempted to just shoot her and be done with it, but if that was what the client wanted, they would’ve just called Sanctuary rather than him, because even with Thorne making things better for Deviants, Sanctuary still had policies for this kind of incident.

He sighed.

“So, hard way it is.” He grumbled, before walking over to a nearby wooden chair and dragging to across from the woman, so he could sit for the boring part of this job.

“So…” He began, taking his seat and laying his cane across his lap, before looking the woman in the eye. “If you don’t mind me asking, which hell hole did you manage to crawl out of?”

The woman’s mouth twitched in anger, and the shadows creeped a little closer.

He nodded again, taking an even deeper drag of his cigarette. “Yeah, my old man used to like that trick too.” He told the woman, before blowing a cloud of smoke in her face. “Also know that trick of yours is more bark than bite.”

The woman glared at him for a moment, before smiling wider than a human.

He merely raised a brow.

The woman trail of blood began to leak from the corner of the woman’s smile, until she finally opened her mouth causing a torrent of blood and teeth to stain the from of her already filthy sweat-stained clothing.

“Well, that’s going to take a little more than lemon and dish soap to get out.”

He glanced down as the blood puddle beneath the woman finally spread past the binding circle she was trapped in and to his boots, where a pair of her teeth bumped against his feet before drifting off.

He glanced at the woman, then down at the puddle curiously. “Is this supposed to be that dream thing about keeping my mouth shut or is it the one about being powerless?”

The blood stopped as the woman shut her mouth giving him an odd look.

He shrugged.

“I’ve been doing this for a few years now. You’re going to have to bring your A-game if you want me to react, because this body horror thing is just so…” He tapped his cigarette ash into the puddle of blood and teeth. “PG-13.”

The demon possessing the woman actually looked offended at that.

He rolled his eyes. “So, look, in all seriousness I’m just trying to figure out how badly my client done fucked up and/or lied to me.”

The possessed woman tilted her head.

“There’s something you learn about most people while on this job.” He took another drag before sighing out the smoke more annoyed than anything. “When they need a hunter, they tend to lie about why they need a hunter.”

The entity didn’t say anything to that. Not that he was expecting her to, given the difficulty of making the jaw and vocal cords work for a creature with an entirely different anatomy and nervous system, hence the jittery motions of most possessed creatures.

“Okay, here’s what I think happened. The Arcane that summoned you, not sure if it was the girl your possessing or the guy who hired me, well they probably fucked up the summoning circuit. Now, normally I’d be able to read the binding circle and find out where they fucked up, in this little Contracting spell and fix it, but you kind of covered it in blood.” He kicked the puddle of crimson at his feet, as he dug through his tailcoat pockets. “So, instead we’re going to have to go with the general fix, and hope for the best, rather than a specific guaranteed fix.”

The possessed woman just blinked at that explanation.

“Eh, this is the hunter equivalent of when a PI is sent to find out if the wife is sleeping with yoga instructor or the husband is fucking the secretary. The answer is ‘yes’ by the way.” He whispered that little secret, as he palmed a small crystal for the part that came after this. “Anyway, after the third or fourth time doing this, it all becomes pretty straightforward. So, you get screwed over by these people or not?”

After a moment of staring at him the possessed woman slowly nodded.

“Good. Now, I, myself, am crap at magic. Just don’t have that Arcane spark.” He admitted having finally found the paper he was looking for. “I do however know how to use a Practitioner’s glyph or jury-rig one anyway.”

He unfolded the paper to reveal a series of circles filled with a number of smaller circles, symbols, and archaic script that just gave him a headache trying to work out how the complex mess did what it did.

(But it does its job, so it doesn’t really matter.)

“Based on that little show earlier, I’m going to guess you still have access, to a portion of your power.” He looked towards the possessed woman and waited for them to nod, before handing over the piece of paper. “Okay, then what you’re going to want to do is put this on your, or rather your host’s, chest, and then flow a bit of magic into it to complete the circuit.”

The entity eyed the Spell Circuit with distrust.

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes, the Hunter’s magic can’t be trusted. Look it’s like,” He glanced at his watch laced over his gloves. “Eleven at night, so let’s just skip to the part where you realize you don’t have any options beyond sitting here for the next day or two. Around which point my client will probably decide it’s best just to mercy kill his friend and you, rather than let her continue to be possessed. I can even be the one to pull the trigger if you want.”

The possessed woman glared at him with two pitch black abyssal eyes.

He glared back. “Use the spell or don’t. You’re the one who’s going to be shot, not me.”

With a visible amount of reluctance, the entity placed the paper to their host’s chest. After a moment, a number of blue sparks jumped between the paper and the possessed woman’s hand, before jumping out coiling around her, wrapping her in blue lightning as her body began to violently spasm.

As the lightning faded to mere sparks, the woman became deathly still, before violently throwing her head back, as black smoke erupted from her mouth. The smoke spun through the air, twisting and weaving as lashed out at every wall of the room, smashing what little furniture was left, before crashing into the ground with enough force to crack the tile.

From within the grounded cloud, a massive black clawed hand covered in wrinkled and gnarled skin shot out of the darkness, before scrapping along the ground.

Slowly a head of matted black hair rose from the cloud, two glowing red eyes peering out from the shadows of its bangs, as a mouth full of ill sized teeth hung open below.

(I’ve never gotten the evolutionary advantage of this whole weird teeth thing in the darker spirits…)

He idly noted the woman collapsing behind the creature as the last of the smoke left her.

“Well, you’re a bit bigger than I was expecting… a good third level body, rather than the usual second.” He told the creature as he had to look up just to meet the creature’s crouched-eye-level.

(So, the client done fucked up bad on their end.)

The creature raised one of its hands, waving its fingers as if getting used to its new form, before smiling at its higher level of power as it smashed its hand into the ground, punching a hole down into the floor below.

“Such power…” The creature said, its voice like a stone scratching against concrete.

(Right, less than a minute to go mad with power. That’s a very good sign.)

He tightened his grip on his cane, already having a good idea of what came next. “Yeah, now because you’re a bit bigger than I was expecting, so we might have a bit of trouble getting you citizenship papers and what have you, so-”

The creature stared at him, before smiling a little too widely.

He barely registered the backhand that knocked him out of his chair, and knocked his hat off his head, before he was sent flying into a wall with an audible crack, as part of the wall gave out behind him.

(Just once, I’d like the possessing spirit to actually be benevolent, rather than a backstabbing asshole.)

“Foolish human, you’ve set me free!” The creature laughed, its high-pitched voice echoing all around the room. “Now you and yours shall learn the consequences of dabbling with powers you do not comprehend!”

“Mm-hmm.” He yawned, as he picked himself off the ground.

(Glad I popped a vial of Red Mal before this mess…)

He cracked his back as he stood up, his spine giving a number of audible pops.

(Oh, yeah… I’m going to feel that in the morning…)

The creature growled, spittle flying from its mouth as it roared. “Do you not realize what you’ve done? The monstrosity you’ve unleashed upon the world?!”

He shook his head. “Nah, you’re the one who doesn’t understand what’s happening.”

“How so?” the creature asked with a whispered snarl, as its eyes began to glow, and the shadows began to creep closer.

He merely rolled his eyes at the theatrics, as he loaded a crystal into his gun-cane. “You were a metaphysical spirit I couldn’t kill. Now, you’re a physical spirit trapped in a binding circle that I can kill, should you ever try to harm me.” He clicked the chamber shut. “You know, like you did thirty seconds ago.”

The creature blinked. “What.”

He aimed and pulled the trigger.

The creature’s head exploded.

As the remainder of the creature’s corpse collapsed to the ground, he was left with the downside of turning a metaphysical entity into a fully physical creature. (Namely that they leave a lot of blood, gore, and other shit behind.)

He ran a hand down his face, wiping away the worse of the blood. “Right, glad cleaning up the actual mess, isn’t in my job description.”

He glanced around the room, noting the smashed furniture, the hole in the floor, the other hole in the wall, the unconscious woman covered in blood, and the very large amount of blood and gore surrounding the massive rotting demon corpse.

“Girl saved, demon killed, mess is not my problem. So, all in all, a job well done.” He nodded to himself before fixing his hat. “Now, I just got to get the other half of the payment, and I can go grab a bottle of bourbon with Pet.”