Innocent Ice (Short story)

WARNING: Rated for ages above 14!!!!

The streetlamps flickered from faulty wiring in the night, and the buzz of cheap air conditioners whirring in the windows of the above apartments made the streets of the city slums seem all the more run-down. All around, the streets and sidewalks were lined with garbage and filth. The buildings surrounding the paved roads all seemed to meld together into a single stretch of wooden planks from out of business shops and broken-into storehouses. Almost every building had at least one broken window, and through the windows, one could hear the shuffling inside from whatever monstrosities lurked within the walls. But, the greatest horror in the area wasn't going to be found in those walls on that night. It was out and about on the streets of the slums, searching for it's target.

A young woman walked along the sidewalks of the slums, glancing over her shoulder ever few seconds, a look of terror on her face. Her body shivered slightly as she moved along, her heels clicking and making the only real noise in the vicinity. She wore a light jacket over her thin light-blue sweater and white undershirt. The cold wind barely blew, but it didn't have to to make it seem cold; the 34 degree temperatures assured that. The woman passed by an alleyway and heard what sounded like breathing coming from the darkness shrouding the crevice between the buildings, and from the corner of her vision, she knew she'd seen the whitish glow from someone's breath when she'd passed. She froze, her eyes growing wider, as the sound of footsteps echoed suddenly out from the shadows. She turned around quickly and grabbed into her coat pocket for a small spray bottle with pepper spray in it, and held it up in front of her.

"Wh-who's there?" She asked.

A large brown mass of fur walked out onto the sidewalk on all fours, and turned to face the woman. It seemed to give off a sneer as it looked up at the woman. It was about four foot tall on it's four legs, but being a werewolf, it could easily go up on it's hindlegs and tower over the young woman. After all, werewolves were both quad- and bipedal. As if on cue, the brown wolf pushed upward with it's front paws, and rose up onto it's hind legs. It stood now at over seven feet tall, and now the woman was forced to strain her neck to see it's face.

"Oh, just little old me. A nice little doggie wanting some food or... company." The werewolf said, licking it's chops.

The woman gazed up at the werewolf, her eyes watering and her lip quivering. This particular werewolf was well known throughout the city, and even in areas across the country, whispers of him were occasionally spoken.

"Y-you... You're Ross the Wretc... Wretche..."

"AH! I see you've heard of me then!" The werewolf interrupted with a wicked laugh that could chill any human murderer to the bone. "Ross the Wretched. THAT'S what I'm called. Wanted for 5 charges of drug-trafficking, 7 charges of rape, 10 murders, and god knows how many charges of attempted, and then completed, conversion of a human into a non-human creature of the night."

"I...I..." The woman stammered.

"You what, little lady? Are you scared?" Ross reached down and swiped a lock of brown hair out of the woman's face. "Now c'mon. A nice petite little brunette like you shouldn't be running around out here in a dark and dreary neighborhood like this. A small little human like you could meet up with some... shady characters." Ross licked his chops yet again. "Or you MAY even end up as someone's... snack." He reached down and grabbed the woman's left arm.

"Please! No! I'll do anything! Just don't eat me, please! I'm begging you!" The woman screamed.

"Damn right you will. You're gonna come with me, and we're gonna have a little... chat... back at my place. I'm sure my subordinates would just love to have a piece of you too." Ross grinned a large toothy smile as he turned his large body and began to drag the woman with him down the sidewalk.

A few doors down from the alleyway, he turned towards an abandoned butcher shop. His paw/hand was still wrapped around the woman's one arm, while he felt her tug a bit at his arm fur with her right hand. She only made small sounds of frustration as she tugged in the opposite direction. Ross's smile only grew as he began toward the door of the meat shop.

"Oh yeah! Just keep pulling away. I love when my prey struggles a bit. You're gonna make a good ol' bitch for us. But first, we'll have to turn ya of course. We wouldn't want you to get torn to pieces from us by accident, would you?" He laughed. The woman gasped as he mentioned his intentions. He erupted in laughter yet again as he opened the door and turned on the dim light to the main room. His laughter was suddenly cut short as he froze. On the floor in the center of the room, were four other werewolves, all piled up together, dead. They were covered with gashes, cuts, and bullet holes, and a few were even missing limbs. A pool of crimson blood shone around them.

"Wh-what the hell?!?!" Ross let go of the woman's arm and ran to the pile of corpses. "No no no NO! What the hell is this?!?! What happened?!?!" Ross grabbed the nearest body and shook it violently, only to have confirmed what was obvious. That subordinate, along with the others, were dead. He rose up, and turned around to see that the woman was gone. "Augh! The damn bitch escaped too! Dammit! How could this have happened?!?!"

"mmm... hmmhmm... hehe... hehehehehehehe..."

Ross's head shot back around, and he suddenly saw a brief glint of light as a shiny metallic object, and in a brief instant, his left arm was chopped off at the shoulder, and laying on the ground nearby.

"AHHHHHHHHHHRRRROOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He screamed/howled in agony as blood suddenly sprayed from where his arm had once been. Only a moment later though, his howl was cut short as a leg came through the air and struck him to the back of the head. The blow was enough to send him reeling to the ground, and he collapsed face first. He managed to open his eyes, and in front of him, a very familiar figure stood.

The young woman now held a large cleaver in her hand, covered in his blood, and her jacket had been removed to reveal a pair of large wings, brown and white, and easily spanning seven feet outward as she extended them. Her face was ear to ear in a wide toothy grin.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

For once, Ross's blood went cold as he stared up in absolute fear at the sight. He knew instantly what she was, and it terrified even him to his very core. SHE was the thing that every werewolf, vampire, or other creature of the night feared with all their body and soul. She was an Angel.

"OOH! That was FUN! I love playing the damsel in distress like that! So much fun, so much fun! You should see your mutt face right now! It's gold! Absolutely PRICELESS! Too bad I have to put you out for a little bit though. I just love seeing the fear in your faces when I do this stuff! Nightie NIGHT!" The Angel swung the cleaver down on the werewolf's head with the blunt side, and he was out cold.


Ross stirred awake and was instantly assaulted with pain in his left shoulder area from where he'd just lost his arm. He shouted in pain as his eyes shot wildly around the room, and he struggled to get up. But none of his limbs would move an inch, and even his torso was rendered immobile. He thrashed more and more, howling and screaming all the while, when the sound of grating nearby, followed by the sound of familiar laughter, caught his attention.

"HAHAHAHA!!!! YES! Keep thrashing! I love when my prey struggles a bit! I just LOVE IT!" The woman shouted as she continued sharpening the cleaver in her hand.

She stopped for a moment and stood, before walking over to the slab where Ross was strapped down. She leaned over his body and smiled at him.

"AHHHHHH!!!!!! You sick bitch of an Angel!!!! I swear to god, I'll kill you!!!!" Ross screamed.

"Ooh, now now there. Little doggie needs to settle down before he makes things worse than they need to be. I'm Gabriella by the way. Gabriella Moxrylla Elizabeth Highwat-"

"LIKE I GIVE A DAMN WHO YOU ARE!!!!" Ross screamed as close to her face as possible.

Gabriella's smile just grew wider.

"Ooooh... well that's okay if you aren't interested in me. I'm VERY interested in you." She reached into her front pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, which she unfolded and proceeded to read.

"Ross Taggart, age 35, also called Ross the Wretched. Height is 7 foot 3, weight, 250 pounds. MAINLY MUSCLE TOO!!! OOH! Grew up in uptown New York, and went to a nice elementary school, and made straight A's and B's, and later got involved with the wrong crowd, leading up to dropping out of high school. MAN, you really blew it, huh? Fears water and silver, obvious fears, and wanted for... wait, you already know that stuff don't you? SKIP! Alright... turned werewolf by his uncle, Robert Taggart, at the age of 21- HEY! That's MY age! -at the age of 21, and has been causing trouble for city dwellers all over, normal AND night dweller! MAN! I'm surprised you weren't caught by us Angels sooner than this! OOH! What do we have here? It says you turned on the previous leader of your little gang after he took you in and turned you... wait, so YOU KILLED YOUR UNCLE?!? WHOA! NEAT-O! Not only are you a scumbag mutt whose very existence is an abomination and in need of erasure, but you're ALSO an uncle killer too! Man, I'm SOOOOOO glad it was me who caught you and not someone else. I get to have the fun today! YAAAY!"

Ross lay stunned on the slab.

"H-how did you... know all of that?" He asked.

"Oh, you know, just a little investigating here and there, a little watching over your shoulder, some spying, that kinda stuff. REALLY simple work, if you get down to it. Really, there's not much we DON'T know about you, Mr. Taggart." Gabriella leaned in close to Ross's muzzle. "In fact... don't tell anyone I told you... but we even know what you had for breakfast every day for the past 3 years! Isn't that cool?!?! We know everything from the illnesses you've come down with, to the brand of underpants you buy! He he!" Gabriella stood back up and turned to where she'd been sitting, taking a few steps.

"Actually, I was just assigned to you today, to be honest. I've been taking lower class jobs before this, but apparently, I have a knack for my job, and it showed, so I got moved up the ladder to dealing with the more well-known and "dangerous" creatures of the night. By the way, how'd you like my acting? I was good, wasn't I? I just LOVE that routine! I find the target, wait until he's gone for a while from his main hideout, make a scene inside and take out the weaklings of the bunch, then leave them for the target to find later. THEN it's just a matter of flying around at night to see where they are, which, by the way, is REALLY easy when most of you guys here in the city never look up, and then I just hide my wings and stuff, and BOOM! I play helpless little jailbait on the sidewalk. I came up with the whole plan on my own too! You like it? Well, I guess you wouldn't, considering YOU'RE the target, but even so! Now, the only part that's left is the finisher! WHOO!" Gabriella reached out for the cleaver and took it in her hand back to where Ross was standing.

"So you're just gonna kill me like that, huh? Take a knife and cut me with it?"

"Oh NO! Of course not! I NEVER kill with anything other than my trusty gun! Silver bullets will DEFINITELY kill you. Anything else, and there's no guarantee really. SOOOOO, I'm just gonna use this to have a bit of fun for a bit before I wipe your miserable excuse of a life from existence."

Ross's ears drooped as Gabriella neared him. "Oh yeah, and you haven't even seen the best part!" She said as she held the cleaver with one hand, and raised the other to it. Suddenly, a small blue flame appeared in the palm of her free hand, and with a small twitch of her fingers, the small light erupted into a spire of blazing blue flames, engulfing the blade, and causing it to glow a bright red, then orange. "I hope you make a lot of noise while we do this! Otherwise, it won't be near as fun for me. Oh! and by the way, you never let me finish earlier! My name is Gabriella Moxrylla Elizabeth Highwater. But back where I'm from, they call me Innocent Ice."