Child of the Crimson Night

Just behind the fancy restaurant on the corner of the big shopping center, there’s an alley. No one uses it anymore. The dumpster back here hasn’t been picked up in decades, and smells suspiciously like dead hobos. Broken bottles are everywhere. The pavement is cracked and dark with age, and there are rats everywhere. The moon above casts an eerie shadow over everything.1

“Let me go!”2

A woman’s voice calls out for help. She sounds hoarse. Men’s laughter follows every objection. A grunt from the woman and a cry of pain from a man result in a roar of mirth from the others.3

Their shadows appear in the opening into the alley. Two men are carrying the struggling woman by her shoulders and ankles, and a third is walking slowly behind them, clutching his groin. They smell like cigarettes and strong alcohol. The upper portion of her dress has been roughly torn open. She throws obscenities at them at every exertion, but they no longer hear. The third man puts one hand over her mouth and the other under her head, but pulls away clutching his fingers.4

“You’re an idiot!”5

“Let me go! Now!”6

“Not until we’re done with you!”7

They toss her on the ground. Glass crunches underneath her, and she screams, curling into a ball. The men laugh, and one of the ones carrying her grabs her shoulder and rips the top of her dress the rest of the way off. The third starts to take off his pants.8

“Stop!”9

“Shut up! We don’t need you to talk!”10

“... What the hell? ...”11

The light around them was different. The moon had turned a bloody crimson, and was casting a new glow on the alley and everything in it. Most of the rats have already scurried into their burrows. The girls eyes flash red and orange.12

“I don’t feel too good...”13

The moonlight catches fire. Earth and sky form an inferno that cleanses the alley. The rats still outside shriek as they burst, the water in their bodies turning into scalding steam in a fraction of a second. The three men shout and curse and scream, trying to resist the blaze to no avail.14

White ash floats down. The moon pales, and bathes the alley once more in ghostly white beams. The whole area reeks of smoke and burnt flesh.15

The woman gets up. The ashes of her clothing fall from her body. She looks up at the moon and smiles, her bare skin shining in the soft glow.16

“Thank you, Mother.”17