Read The Bridge

Aria shook her head to stop the spinning, Adagio and Sonata sprinting over to pick her up. Slinging their half delirious member’s arms around their shoulders, the duo was quick to run away from their attacker and back to the elevator.

Amongst the chaos, the electronic doors had closed. Setting Aria on Sonata, Adagio frantically bashed at the Down button, practically punching it. The moment she looked up was the moment she mentally swore. The elevator wasn’t on their floor and was taking its sweet time getting up to them. The three stole a glance back at the struggling Enjin, who at this point was powering through the shocks to get to the machine electrocuting it. It wasn’t going to be held off for long.

Sonata quickly yanked on Aria and Adagio, motioning for the stairwell.

“No time! Stairs! Now!“

She shouted, letting go and reaching for the door handle. Had the blue siren been half a second quicker she might have taken her last step. A bolt of half twisted metal flew past Sonata, a sharpened point stabbing through the slack of her sleeve and impaling itself into the seam and locking mechanism of the doorframe. The pipe rattled to a halt, shaking off the connected wires and thoroughly wedging itself into the frame. Sonata yelped and winced from the impact. The pipe’s jagged edge had cut into her arm, but it was mercifully shallow. What was unmerciful was the growing, bronze glow starting to encompass the room.

Adagio and Sonata looked down the hall with horrified expressions to see Enjin, freed from the impromptu shock therapy and looking right at them. Rather than approaching however, the demon’s torso opened up, tendrils of shadowy energy flowering out like a grotesque parody of a ribcage. The growing light that had been shining outwards sparked and crackled into a blinding flare. Jolts of energy radiated amongst and down from the tendrils. A ball of light formed amongst the rib-like tendrils, a sound akin to a flock of birds screeching gnawing at the air. Enjin drew its hand over the orb, pulling it out and holding it amongst its fingers while closing its chest back up. Enjin balled a fist, compacting the sphere of energy before silently charging with it in hand.

Adagio and Sonata ripped at the latter’s sleeve to try and free her amongst frantic yelling as the monster closed in, but to no avail. Amidst the sea of panic, Aria’s gemstone sparked. The jolt of energy revived the half delirious siren and she looked out as the world around her spun down to the milliseconds. Pulses of might from her siren heart fueling more adrenaline as Enjin got within five yards of them. For a brief moment, an unnatural color slithered into her sclera. Aria grabbed Sonata and Adagio and snapped her hips around as hard as she could, tearing to duo off their feet and ripping Sonata free from the pipe.

Both sisters flew off several yards behind Aria as Enjin crashed energy sphere first into the wall right next to Aria. For several moments the hall became blotted with dust and debris. Adagio and Sonata, half hyperventilating and trying to process just what happened, looked to the cloud of debris. Neither siren was looking well. Adagio’s cheese puff hair was matted with chunks of drywall and wood, and she was now sporting a maturing bruise across her forehead due to Aria having thrown her hard enough to hit a wall. Sonata was clutching her now bare arm as blood trickled out from several shallow cuts along her forearm. But as the dust cleared, Aria was probably the worst off. She was the one being choked.