Valen’s eyes flew open. He sat up in his seat, tugging the seatbelt taught. Cold dry air filled his humidified lungs like a gulp of iced water on a hot day.

Enid swerved the car to a halt beside the sidewalk.

“You okay?” she asked. “I can still u-turn to the hospital.”

Valen sat hunched over gasping for breath. Cold sweat caked his brow and the lingering chill in his heart now felt like icy fingers clutched tight around his heart after having it pierced a second time. What little strength he had left had been sapped even further, but he mustered up enough to shake his head.

“Keep driving,” he said with a halfhearted nod, his whispered words getting lost in the soft jazz around them.

“Are you sure?” Enid asked again.

“Yeah,” he assured her. “Just…let’s go home.”

Enid slowly returned the car to the road, stealing glances at him every now and then to check if he was alright. “If you say so, I guess.”

For a brief moment Valen considered telling her what he saw. In the end he decided against it. He had no proof other than his word and she must already be questioning his mental stability as it is. Mutated flesh scorpions were one thing, but if he told her that the Unborn God came to visit him in his dream then there’s a good chance she’d turn the car around to put him back in the hospital for post-traumatic hallucinations. Who knows what’ll happen to her then.

Part of him did want to brush it all off as just another vivid nightmare. To forget about the attack on their home, the Primordial Church, and everything that had happened in the past two days so that he could return to worrying about simpler things like assignment deadlines instead.

But the blood boiling inside his veins said otherwise. He’d been tainted now, both by the Unborn God’s blood inside him, and the truth of its existence.

An abominable, unspeakable truth no mortal was meant to know. There would be no going back. The Unborn God won’t allow it now that it’s revealed itself to him.

“MY FOLLOWERS WILL NOT OFFER THE COMPASSION I HAVE SHOWN TODAY…”

The Unborn God’s final words echoed in his head.

Valen squinted at the crowd, watching for anyone who could be following them and stealing occasional glances behind him to make sure they weren’t being tailed.

“Uh, Valen?” said Enid, concerned. “You alright?”

“Just paranoid,” said Valen. “I keep thinking the Primordial Church might send more of their goons after us.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Enid assured him. “I paid enough in donations to make sure nothing about our new place or your hospital records gets out into the public.”

“Donations?”

“Donations, bribes, tomayto, tomahto.”

“Are you sure it’s okay for you to throw money around like that?”

“Valen, I’m a multi-millionaire even without counting my dad’s money,” she reminded him. “I can afford to pay a year’s rent for a few underpaid cops and hospital staff.”

“If you say so,” said Valen. “Thank you for doing all this, Enid.”

“Don’t worry about it. Your safety is worth every penny.”

A sad smile found its way to Valen’s face. He really didn’t deserve Enid, and it made him feel all the worse for dragging her into all this.

He resolved to stay quiet about the whole thing until they got back to Enid’s new place so he could talk about what he saw with Louise present. Hopefully by then he’ll have thought of how to explain it in a way that won’t make them call the insane asylum.

Enid made a slow left turn into a hidden alleyway, easing the car through the tight space between buildings until they emerged to a dilapidated neighbourhood on the other side. Valen furrowed his brow in worry.

While nowhere near as impoverished as the Nocturnal District, it was still far from an ideal place to be. Identical looking houses were crammed next to each other on either side of the dark street. Hazardous old cracks that no one bothered to fix marred the ageing dull red bricks and every single window was shut and curtained if not boarded up entirely. The people who lived there must’ve either left or wanted to be left alone inside their crumbling houses. A rusty street sign covered in bird shit read the ironic name of ‘Hope Street.’

“Is this the way to your other house?” Valen asked. “This doesn’t seem like your kind of neighbourhood.”

“It’s a shortcut,” said Enid. “Snowball told me about it. Apparently some delivery drivers use this street because there’s almost never any traffic.”

“What is this place?”

“A bunch of council houses built by the government. Funding for it’s dried up so it’s mostly home to vagrants and drug addicts now.”

Valen looked behind him to see if anyone was following them. He didn’t like this ‘Hope Street’ one bit. It reminded him too much of the Nocturnal District, an oft forgotten scar upon the city where people can go missing without anyone kicking up a fuss.

“Are you sure this place is safe?” Valen asked.

“If Snowball can drive through here on that stupid gaudy motorcycle then we should be fine too.”

“Don’t let Louise hear you call her ride that,” said Valen. “The last bloke who insulted it got his teeth kicked in.”

“Please, I can literally electrocute that undersized poodle with a thought.”

“I’d still prefer it if you two don’t murder each other.” Valen muttered the next bit under his breath. “Gods know I need you both right now.”

Valen leaned on the car door, watching the ramshackle houses pass them by on their way to a hopefully better place until his hypersensitive hearing caught the low hum of a car engine outside. It would’ve melded into background noise had Hope Street not been so quiet.

He looked at the side mirror and saw a pitch black taxi trailing behind Enid’s car. It drove way too slowly when they could’ve easily passed them on the wide empty street. Even more concerning was how they didn’t have their headlights on in the darkness. Almost as if they were trying not to be seen.

“Is that car following us?” he asked, worried.

“What?” Enid looked up at her rearview mirror. “Oh, a taxi. It’s probably nothing. I told you, this is a popular shortcut for delivery drivers.”

“Taxis are delivery drivers?”

“They deliver people from point a to point b so I would assume so.”

“Then why don’t they have their headlights on?”

Enid shrugged. “Maybe they have darkvision like you do.”

“But isn’t it still dangerous to not have it on?”

“There are a lot of crap drivers with a licence out there.”

“I guess…” Valen still couldn’t shake the feeling that the one in the car behind them was more than just a well-travelled cabby. “Hey, do you mind if I borrow your phone for a bit? I want to give Louise a call, just in case.”

Valen would’ve used the contact on his own phone but wasn’t sure if Louise still used her old number. It was likely she ditched it after leaving her gang to not keep in contact with them. Or at least, he hoped she did.

“Sure.” Enid handed him her phone. “Don’t expect me to join in though.”

Valen went straight to contacts and tapped on the one labelled ‘Snowball.’ Just in case Enid changed her mind, he put the call on speaker and held it out between them so that she could hear the conversation too.

The dial tone had hardly begun when Louise picked up on the other side.

“Who am I speaking to?” came Louise’s voice on the other side. The roar of a speeding motorcycle was still clearly audible on her end, but Valen elected to ignore it just this once.

“It’s me, Louise,” said Valen. “Look, I just wanted to give you a heads up.”

“A heads up? Is this about the Primordial Church?”

“Yes. There’s a good chance they’ll be watching us now so try to lay low and keep an eye out for anyone suspicious.”

“What brought this on?” Uncharacteristic worry entered Louise’s voice. “Are you okay? Where are you right now?”

“We’re driving through Hope Street at the moment,” said Valen. “There’s a car trailing behind us right now but it might be nothing. Just be careful, okay?”

“Do you want me to come over? I’ve already finished my last delivery for the day.”

“No need for that. Like I said, it’s probably nothing.”

The rear window shattered behind him the moment the words left his mouth, instantly followed by what looked like a crossbow bolt shooting straight through the side of Enid’s outstretched phone, nearly breaking it in half before impaling itself into the CD player.

Distorted jazz blended with screeching tires as Enid instinctively swerved her car side to side in surprise.

“Shit!” shouted Enid as she struggled to steady her car.

Valen turned around to find a green orc hanging from the side of the passenger seat of the taxi holding a crossbow. He wore dark sunglasses despite it being night and had biceps the size of footballs. Valen got the feeling that he had red-white eyes behind those sunglasses to-another assassin from the Primordial Church, no doubt.

“Definitely being followed!” said Valen. “And they got a crossbow!”

“Hang on!” Enid floored the accelerator.

Valen hung on to the cushion of his seat for dear life as the car tore up the neglected road under them, leaving behind a trail of smoking asphalt wherever the burning rubber touched.

The black taxi behind him followed suit, its engine roaring to life now that stealth was no longer a priority.

“Can you escape to the main road?” asked Valen. “They might give up in a populated area.”

“The alleyways are too narrow,” said Enid. “We’ll be sitting ducks trying to fit through them.”

Enid kept swerving left and right along the road to throw off their pursuer’s aim. Sporadic crossbow bolts whizzed past the windows. One of them shot right into the car through the broken rear window and missed Valen’s face by a few inches before smashing into the windshield.

A pattern of spiderweb cracks erupted across the glass, obscuring vision of the road.

“Alright, screw this!” Enid rolled down the window on her side. “Valen! Take the wheel!”

“Wait, what?!” Valen grabbed the wheel right as Enid poked her top half through the window. “Enid, you bloody know I can’t drive!”

“Perfect time to learn then.”

Valen blindly swerved the car side to side, trying his best not to crash into the sidewalk with each frantic spin of the wheel. He’d be praying to the gods right about now if he didn’t know one of them was trying to kill him.

Powerful magical static prickled his skin. Lightning crackled in his ears. He risked a glance to his right and saw bright blue streaks of electricity coursing through Enid’s body as she hung from the car window.

She let it all out through two extended knuckles aimed at the taxi. A magical thunderclap drowned out the roaring engines and screaming rubber tires. The concentrated blast of mana-fueled lightning struck the taxi’s grille and sent a crackling blue wave of electricity through the entire vehicle from front to end. It must’ve burnt or short circuited something, because the engine immediately sputtered to a dead stop.

The taxi veered off the road into the sidewalk with the driver no longer able to steer it. Valen was too focused on the road to see the crash, but the sound of crushing metal and blaring emergency alarms behind them sent a wave of relief washing over him.

He almost thought they were safe when the squelch of a crossbow bolt piercing flesh made his heart jump.

“Enid!” Valen turned to Enid just in time to see her body fall from the car window.

Unable to reach the brakes, he instead made a sharp left, opposite to where Enid fell, and allowed the car to crash into a brick wall.

The impact sent a shockwave through the entire car. Valen felt his guts shake inside him from the vibrations seconds before the airbags swelled into his face. Emergency alarms blared into his ears as the air-filled nylon pressed tight against his cheek. He struggled to push it back to no avail. His strength hadn’t fully recovered yet, but Enid must be much worse off after that fall.

Exasperated, Valen allowed his fangs to grow to their full length and bit the airbag smothering him. The nylon deflated between his teeth and he spat it out to scramble out of the car.

“Enid!” A mass of deep scarlet splayed out on the asphalt immediately drew his eyes to her body laying curled up with her back to him. He ran over to her, ready to apply as much first aid as he could with what he had. “Are you…okay?”

His voice trailed off when he saw that she already had the crossbow bolt that had pierced her in her hand.

“I’m fine.” Enid sat up and rolled her left arm up and down in its socket. Her coat had a very noticeable hole around her shoulder but no visible blood or wound. “It was just a scratch.”

“That sounded a lot more than a scratch,” said Valen. She still looked better than most people after nearly dying, but one couldn’t be too sure. “Are you sure you’re okay? You took quite a fall too. Do you have a concussion?”

“I appreciate the concern but we have bigger problems to deal with right now.” Enid looked up and Valen followed her gaze.

The driver of the taxi was nowhere to be seen, probably dead or unconscious inside the flaming wreckage, but the orcish cultist emerged from it with the crossbow still held in his burly hands. His sunglasses had cracked and fallen off his face to reveal the red sclera and white pupils Valen had expected to see underneath. A long gash on his forehead caused trickles of blood to flow into his eyes, forcing him to squint as he walked slowly towards them as if in a trance.

Valen instinctively put himself between the cultist and Enid when he saw his crossbow already loaded and aimed straight at them. Enid was lucky to have survived getting shot with it once, and it was best not to push her luck.

Magical static prickled his back. Enid must be readying another spell. She could probably blast the bastard with enough lightning to make his eyeballs pop from his skull now but didn’t want to risk it with his hand on the trigger. The shock might cause muscle spasms that’ll make him fire his crossbow. With Valen’s weakened state, he wasn’t sure if he would survive it if it hit him in the heart or the head.

The cultist halted his advance a couple dozen yards away, pointing the business end of his crossbow at Valen and Enid with his oversized finger already caressing the trigger.

A quiet understanding dawned on the three of them when they realised they were all in a standoff. A quickdraw between Enid’s magic and the cultist’s crossbow with Valen stuck in the middle.

Enid should be fine with Valen shielding her, but she wouldn’t risk his life if she could help it. Valen might be able to shield his vitals with his arms if he was fast enough, but he still didn’t fancy his odds in his weakened state. And lastly, the cultist knew that the moment he fired his crossbow, either he would kill Valen and have to deal with a pissed off Enid or miss his shot and be forced to fight both of them.

Tense silence fell on the scene as they each ran their options inside their heads. Valen was the first to notice when the silence was interrupted by the familiar roar of a motorcycle engine tearing down the street towards them. By the time the cultist noticed it as well, it was already too late.

A bright yellow motorcycle swooped down the road at blinding speeds. On top of it was a tiny white werewolf spinning a red motorcycle helmet by the chin straps like a ball and chain.

Louise swung the helmet down at the crossbow, forcing it to shoot its one bolt into the ground. Acting fast, Enid shot out another bolt of blue lightning that danced across the cold night air and into the cultist’s heart. His screams mixed with the crackle of electricity. His body spasmed from the shock before collapsing onto the ground unconscious.

Valen and Enid stared at Louise in disbelief as she did a full 180 on her motorcycle and it to a screeching halt right beside them.

She flipped up the visor of her yellow helmet to look down at them and flicked down her motorcycle’s side stand. “Came here as quickly as I could. You two okay?”

“We’re fine,” said Enid.

“Thanks for the help,” said Valen. “You got here rather quickly.”

The body of the cultist started to twitch on the ground. What could’ve chalked off as random muscle spasms soon turned into violent convulsion accompanied by inhuman screams from a mouth opened far too wide to be natural.

Considering what happened to the last bloke with red-white eyes after a beating, Valen had the feeling he knew what was coming next. Louise must’ve known it too, because she flicked back her side stand and stared dead ahead at the transforming cultist.

"I do 30-minutes delivery or it's free with no tips." She revved her motorcycle engine, her eyes trained on the cultist as his body started to deform into something that shouldn’t exist. “I heard you ordered a can of whoop-ass.”

The injured cultist swelled up to ten times his size, his skin expanding outwards like an overinflated water balloon on the verge of bursting. When the confines of his mortal body could no longer contain its own writhing muscles, it exploded into a shower of gore. Bits of green skin and gallons of blood splattered all over the street and walls, leaving a thick pink mist where he once was.

When the bloody mist faded, it revealed an unholy abomination where the orc cultist once laid. It had the vague shape of a giant green boar with exposed bloody ribs that revealed only emptiness inside. Instead of tusks, bullish horns protruded from the sides of its head that had way too many eyes, all of which were fixed on Louise as she continued to rev her engine.

“...Louise?” said Valen slowly. “Please tell me you’re not playing chicken with the eldritch bacon.”

No response.

Louise tore her gaze away from the monstrous boar to look at him a second later. She didn’t say a word. Just winked at him before flipping her visor back on.

The monstrosity that used to be a person let out a half-pig, half-person scream. It pawed the ground in preparation for a charge, to which Louise responded by revving up her motorcycle to its absolute maximum and charging first by a split second.

Valen and Enid choked on the giant trail of smoke left behind by the motorcycle. Valen stood up, squinting through the dust in his eyes.

He saw the yellow motorcycle running full throttle towards the monstrous boar, but there was no one riding on top of it.

“Heads up!”

Valen looked up in time to see Louise high in the air backflipping towards him.

“What the bloody-”

He stopped himself mid-sentence to catch her before she could hit the ground. She was much heavier than he remembered, or maybe recent events had weakened him more than he’d thought. Either way, she landed into his arms like an anvil dropped from a five storey building.

Meanwhile her motorcycle continued its riderless charge, crashing into the head of the monstrous boar. Two hundred kilos of searing hot steel crushed the abomination’s skull and the fiery explosion that followed burnt away the foul flesh covering it.

The monstrosity stopped moving. Its flesh and bone disintegrated into formless blood that boiled into dark red smoke in the air, its essence returned to the twisted heaven of its spiteful god.

With the threat gone and his arms already way too sore, Valen set Louise down on the ground while Enid stood up beside him with an annoyed grunt.

Enid eyed Louise with an icy blue eye as she brushed the dirt and ash from her trench coat. “You’re bloody insane, you know that?”

There was the tiniest hint of respect mixed in with her usual apathy. Not many people had the crackhead courage to use a motorcycle as a land torpedo by backflipping off it at full speed. It was moments like this that made Valen wonder if Louise had any honey badger in her with how little fucks she gave about her own safety.

“Considering all the weird shit that’s happened, insane sounds about right,” said Louise.

“There’s probably a logical explanation to all this,” said Enid. “I just can’t figure it out at the moment.”

Valen took a deep breath, taking in the scent of blood and smoke around him. This needed to stop.

“There’s an explanation alright,” he said. “Just not a logical one.”

Both women looked at each other in concern.

“Valen?” said Louise. “Are you feeling okay?”

“No,” he answered honestly. “But I think I know what’s going on now.”