A cold wind as bitter as the Arctic cut through her flesh. Throwing her hair and clothes about in a tangled mess, pulsing at her back, threatening to push her over the edge. As Serephine stood at what felt to her as the fringe of the world, the edge of eternity, her blood turned to ice. All she knew and all that she would ever know was ending. This was her fate, to be flung from the highest point in her world and fall forever.

His voice resonates in her fading mind, strong and forceful. "Jump, do it, do it now!" he would yell at her over and over again from afar, as he fight a battle with much blood lost behind her, keeping the ravenous beasts at bay long enough for Serephine to jump. She had to take her own life, for if it were taken by an Aldre she would remain his masters forever more. She'd felt fear many a time before but none as fearful as this. Trying to steady her heavy beating heart, she wanted her journey of fall to be calm. She wanted to be unafraid. She didn't want to enter the world of the dead and damned a screaming, frightened mess. If this was where she were to spend her soulless afterlife, she would spend it there without fear of what await her. For in the company of devils and demons and creatures of death she should be scared but she would never let them see her as weak. They would have torn her apart fragile limb by fragile limb before she would ever let them see her afraid of them and their world.

-

"Serephine wait up!" Called out Antony, pulling his backpack up onto his skinny shoulders as he tries to catch her. She only turns briefly and chuckles to herself at the sight of him.

"You shouldn't run you know, those long lanky legs of yours might get tangled." She batted her lashes and joked. Amidst the snow stricken town of Fall, the two walk hurriedly side by side, willing to evade the cold but their destination on the other side of town made it impossible so far. People crossing the slick tarred road huddle inside their hooded jackets, no one immune to this bitterness. Except for her. Beauty, short white hair, easily mistaken for snow. Distant though her eyes hover over Serephine and her rake like friend. With only a black sweater and matching black slacks she seems unaware of the cold. Even her breath unaffected by it. Serephine sensing eyes upon her, she sweeps a glance across her shoulder and see's nothing. As the crowd moves in and out the mystery women is gone.

"What time do you finish tonight?" Asked Antony too keenly.

Serephine thinking nothing of her friends over eager question replies; "Around twoish, are you and Lorrette coming by?"

"Lorrette? Yeah, Lorrette and I will be there." Antony always forgot about Lorrette whenever he was near Serephine. She made him forget most things. Antony was astounded by Serephine's strange beauty. Her hair was something else, red, and not orange red but red. Bright like fresh blood and long enough to hang curls around her waist. She had eye's that captivated Antony, large eyes of emerald green washed with the milky hue of her skin. She was a sight. Most who saw her would stop and stare. Antony was no exception, even in the presence of his girlfriend Lorrette he would ogle her.

She was on her way to her place of work, Galvanize, a bar that sits on the farthest side of town. Backed by rugged mountainous terrain and fronted by the Berkshire River which leads way to the twinkling lights of the tiny city of Fall. Winter due to subside while spring lay in waiting. Every day creeping forward just a little bit, poking out the odd flower and a wayward blade of green grass shifting beneath the settled snow to reveal itself to the world anew.

Serephine loved this time of year, this transition between the bitterly cold to the fresh, crisp, cleanness of spring. It reminded her so of home. Home, she thought to herself, how she missed home. Her mind wondering back through the years, reminiscent of her family and closest friends. She'd often allow herself to think briefly if her friends of home would fit in here at Fall. She thought not. As the two couldn't possibly be any more different if they'd tried, both in its inhabitants and the place itself. Serephine rushed with Antony by her side as she made her way to Galvanize for the start of her shift. She enjoyed working there, the hoards of crowds that would gather on Fridays and Saturdays always made for a busy time.

She wondered what Antony was doing exactly following her, "You don't have to come, I'll be fine. I'll see you and Lorrette tonight," She laid her eyes of green on him and he stammered to a stop while Serephine kept her pace.

He looked a little hurt, "Okay, I'll, I'll see you tonight then." He called out after her. With her back still turned to him she gave him a wave and continued on her way. She hoped that when she walked through the doors she wouldn't see Marco, her boss. He was as Lorrette had once put it a pompous ass who she cared nothing for. Serephine felt the same as did the 13 other staff members who were subjected to Marco's pompous assery daily. He always looked at Serephine strangely, and it made her uncomfortable. For after every glance he threw at her it would soon be followed by some kind of inappropriate, lewd remark. He was under the impression that because he was handed a business from his father a few years ago that he is above the rest of them. He was mean, a bully but he paid well. Serephine would just keep her head down and into her work, serving customers as they swamped the bar for drinks.

It's Friday night and the crowd that grows larger by the minute, which waits in a cue in front three heavy set bouncers, all with shaven heads to give that extra touch of meanness. Serephine and her comrades knew tonight would be a chaotic night. Three extra staff had been put on to help man the large Z shaped bar, which already, at 9:00 was pulsing with thirsty customers. Blue and green laser lights dance over head while the merging patrons find their place on the dance floor. Serephine loved nights like these. The endless stream of faces each more different than the last. Each as amazed by the captivating red head who serves them. Serephine always left at the end of the night with a pocket full of phone numbers scrawled onto bits of tissue paper or drink coasters.

"I put on three extra staff tonight and you lot still can't keep up!" Marco scolded his workers as he walk through behind the bar, saying the same thing from one end to the other finishing with his eyes on Serephine who glances at him quickly before continuing serving a tall man with thick blonde dread locks. He hovers around her, making snide remarks; "One too many people waiting Serephine. Here, move!" He nudged her aside and grabbed for a tall glass for a gentlemens beer, "I am truly sorry about the wait, some of the staff here aren"t the best I have," he threw another mean look in her direction. He"s managed to serve one customer and it took him longer than it did for Serephine to serve the four men standing across the bar now. She just rolled her eyes and carried on about her business.

"Can I get a Long Island Ice Tea?" Asked a young woman wearing far too much makeup and few too little clothes.

"Sure thing," Serephine replied with a smile and turned toward the glass cabinet behind her for the spirits and glass only to have turned straight into Marco who was still just standing around being useless.

"Watch it!" He barked at her. She wanted to ask him if he was retarded or something, wondering why he was the way he was. But she held her tongue and excused herself before retrieving what she needed for the young ladies beverage. Marco had made his way back to the other end of the bar, continuing his barrage of insults on his way. Everyone eyeing each other back down the line as he passed, each shaking their heads and rolling their eyes. What was that guy's problem?

By 2:00 in the morning Serephine's shift had ended. She grabbed her coat from a room behind the bar and bid her farewells to the remaining few who would work through the night til dawn set in mere hours. Marco had managed to get sloppy drunk with a few patrons and Serephine along with four others watched him clumsily, drunkenly stumble across the road to the parking lot and fall into the side of his Mustang. Swearing as he drops his keys and then laughing to himself while he bends down to pick them up.

"Sure you don't want a ride home?" asks Jess, a tall, slender woman who worked side by side with Serephine, and who had the slightest of crushes on her.

Serephine, walking ahead, twirls herself around to face them. "Thats okay, I like to walk," and with a sweet smile she turns again and heads down the road waving her arm as another farewell.

The tires of the mustang squeal as they beg for grip against the wet tar. Sliding from one side of the road to the other, she watches in astonishment as Marco speeds off down the darkened street. Knocking over trashcans on his way. She hears them reverberate in a clatter, sound bouncing off the tall warehouses and red brick buildings, which hug the stretch.

Twenty minutes of walking see's the fading of far off voices, now only the sound of her dampened shoe souls against the concrete sidewalk and the drip drip drip of dew as it's released from it's holding and falls into puddles below or into drains aside the road. Cool air, fresh to breath, bitter at the touch. Dim orange lighting from the streetlights reflecting weakly off the surface of everything that is wet.

Serephine hears the light humming of an engine. A car sits ahead; nose into the curb, red taillights glowing against the darkness, steam bellowing from the engine and the exhaust. The drivers side door wide open. Its the Mustang. She approaches with caution and rounds the drivers side, peering inside, it is empty. The radio a light flicker of white noise, though through the windscreen she see's it. The crumpled front end, pushed in in the middle. "He's hit someone, oh my god, the drunken idiot has hit someone and fled the scene!" Serephine gasps as she looks around the immediate area, alert and now on edge.

Amidst her horrific thoughts she hears muffled voices echo out from an alleyway just behind the car. She back steps a few meters until she's standing at the opening. No shadows cast, as shadows can't fight against darkness blacker than it's own. She hears whimpering, then a shriek. She stands, unable to move, not from fear but from the need to hear things clearer. She turns her ear into the alley and waits. Seconds pass and nothing... Then a scream so air piercing it makes her jump. Its followed by the shuffling of feet, maybe many maybe only from one. Marco, he was hurting someone down there.

Serephine started to move, deeper into the black void. She comes to a corner which is ornamented by a large skip bin overflowing with rubbish and stink. She rounds the corner and the alley has opened up into a large square, a place obviously for the adjoining buildings to throw out their rubbish and dirty water. Serephine spots a body laying motionless against the red brick wall, head hung low, she can't make out the face. Though with each inch gained, she realizes that Marco wasn't the attacker, he was the victim. He sit, slouched against the wall, face hidden under murk, unmoving, unbreathing, unable to speak. She approaches slowly, "Marco, Marco if you can hear me, its Serephine and I'm going to help you."

She crouches down and reaches her shaky hand out to him, places it gently on his shoulder and his body moves, it startles her so she scuffles back. He continues sliding down the wall until he is laying on the ground. His face hits what little light there is and reveals a horrendous sight. Serephine jumps to her feet, eyes wide, mouth agape at the sight before her. Marco has no eyes, he has no bottom jaw. His face torn apart by god only knows what. Her mind trying to coincide with what her eyes are seeing.

He lets out a heavy whisp of air, a breath, one of his very last she was sure. This frightened her more than the sight of him, the fact that he still breathed. He reached out a shaky contorted hand, slowly toward the open in front of him. Groaning through the mouth that wasn't there. Now she was afraid for what had done this was probably more than she could fight against. She stumbles back, slipping, losing her footing on the wet ground. She hits hard with a thud, the pain striking through her arms as they catch her.

Not thinking about the pain now she turns in the stagnant water beneath her and scurries back only to be met by two legs, long, standing in her way. Serephine stills, gawking upward, craning her neck as though she were staring up the side of a sky scraper. She is met by a man, large, tall, and evil. She sensed the evil, the soullessness radiating off him like a heat wave. Shrouded within the darkness of early morning, she couldn't make out his face.

Serephine, as quick as she could manage, launches herself to the right. She is fast, but not fast enough. The man reaches out effortlessly and grabs her by the arm. The heat from his large hand almost burning her flesh as she cries out against the pain. Unaffected by her mewling he slams her back into the wall, and with fist clenched tightly around her throat he squeezed a bit more. Her senses acute and more aware of all around her now, she see's his eyes, burning flames of icy blue. It was one of the strangest things she had ever seen, and she'd seen some pretty strange things.

A passer by hearing the commotion unaware, stupidly trudges through the filth of the alley way to what he assumes is a damsel in distress. "What the hell is going on down here? I've called the police." He announces. He too stopped dead in his tracks as he lay eyes on this man firmly holding an innocent young woman by the throat, then another man with no face at all laying lifeless on the ground. Rats squeaking as they close in for a nibble.

Evil mans focus now on the intrusion. "Hey, get away from her!" He runs toward them. Serephine trying with rasped breath to tell him to leave. She eyes him, squirming within the searing hands that hold her. She can't speak, he's cutting off her airway and her throat is closing, crushing under the strength of his palm. The by stander, wearing a lumberjacks flannelettes, nears the two.

The evil man sweeps his free hand abruptly from one side to the other and before Serephine's disbelieving eyes, the large metal skip bin drags from its corner, following the movement of his hand and slams mercilessly into the poor mans body. Breaking bone, crushing flesh. Serephine knew this was no human. She kicks at his groin and as she thought he would, he buckles to his knees before her. Not a man, but he still has balls. She thought to herself.

He showed her no mercy as he threw her and hit her about the alley. A hard thump to the face see's her hurled meters back and she hits the wall with a crunch, clinching, bracing herself against the impact. Once again he is close, breathing warm breath on her neck as he sniffs at her scent. She cowers away, lowering her face, shielding herself as best she could. With his free hand he brushes her red tendrils away from her face. And he stills, as if turned to stone he just stands there, eyes fixed on Serephine. Something wasnt right!

His grip loosened slightly and she made her move. She swung her legs up and around his neck, twisting like a ninja she turned him, then threw him aside and she was free. At this moment she did it, she'd done what she knew was not allowed. She called for Dravuul. In her mind she screamed for him as she watched the devil crawl back to his feet, seeming to grow larger as he straightened out. There was a moment of silence in the air, only very brief and Serephine knew what that meant. She turned and ran, her legs moving faster than they had ever moved before.

The devil man flew high in the air and landed in front of her and as he reached out for her again, he is met by a loud rush of air and a heavy thump. Finally a shadow blacker than the darkness. Dravuul, he hit the devil man with such force the two creatures hurtled threw the air, low to the ground before skidding to a stop with a building shaking thud. It was evil staring into evil, eye's both as cold and dead as each others. Dravuul hunched over, fire threatening behind the black of smoke pitched from his soul, ready to send this creature back to the pits of hell from which he had came.

Please vote and or comment if you like the story so far. Feedback is more than welcome :)