Maleficium: Duo (Devil's Playground 2)

He turned it from side to side, showing off dangerously ribbed blades already coated with red. With one last shaky breath, Dion crouched down and shot forward.

At the opposite end of the hall, the person in the purple did the same. It took me all of five seconds to decide what to do. I didn’t have any physical weapons, but that wasn’t a reason to stand back and watch this play out.

I ran after him, seeing the person in purple getting closer. Dion was fast. I had to give him that. He got to the door seconds ahead of us. If the number would’ve easily popped off, he could’ve been back before they reached him. He had both hands working at the digit in a desperate attempt to dislodge it.

Purple mask ran up as if to attack him. I reacted on instinct alone. I used my forearm to push them backward, feeling breast as it met with their chest.

The girl stumbled a few steps, quickly correcting her stance.

“Should’ve ran away,” she jeered rushing at me this time.

I’d figured this would be coming next. I braced myself, eating the impact as her body collided with mine and we hit the wall.

“Got it!” Dion exclaimed.

“Get to the door,” I yelled at him, shoving the girl away for the second time. She tried to grab hold of me. I struck her with my boot, knocking a leg out from beneath her. She went down, digging her nails into my arms to take me with her. I hissed as skin was torn clean off, buckling at the knees from the weight of her body. Mel was at my side in a flash.

She reached down and grabbed both braids exposed at the back of the girl’s head, yanking so hard her head was wrenched to the side.

She let out a cry of pain, calling Mel something in another language as she was forced to let go. Her companions were right in front of us, giving zero time for reprieve.

To be expected, honestly. There weren’t usually time-outs when it came to murder. Dude in the devil mask took the open shot. His blade barely missed slicing apart the whole right side of my face. I felt the tip skim across my flesh, leaving behind a slight sting. I lurched backward with my heart in my throat, almost falling on my ass for the third time that day.

Still holding the girl with the braids, Mel shoved her into the person wearing the green LED mask, buying us a few seconds.

“Go!” She jogged backward, spinning at the last second and urging me to run the other way.

I didn’t need to be told twice.

We turned and sprinted down the hall, whipping around the corner at breakneck speed.

I purposely dropped back some so that Mel was in front of me. I could hear us being pursued but didn’t dare look behind me. At the end of the next narrowed hall, Dion stood waiting. He was outside, holding onto the door to keep it from closing. I was legitimately happy as hell to see him. He could have easily left us here to rot.

Someone’s hand grabbed for me, sweeping across the center of my head. I brought my shoulders forward, pushing myself to run faster. We made it outside, but there was no time to catch our breath. Dion caught someone’s wrist between the door and the doorframe, using his body to hold it shut. It started to open again as our pursuers pushed from the other side.

“Dammit!” Mel stood beside him and began using her back to help keep the door closed.

“Is there anything that will hold this?” Dion asked, his voice strained. The muscles in his arms were flexed and tense.

I searched the area we’d emerged in, looking for something that would help. My eyes fell on a set of metal trashcans. The person who had their arm stuck outside was grabbing for Dion, ignoring any pain they may have been in.

Maybe we didn’t need something to hold the door closed. It just needed to shut. Everything always seemed to lock here. Back in Goetia once we went through one exit or took the path laid out for us, we couldn’t typically turn back. This place had been proving to be the same. I removed one of the metal lids from the nearest trashcan and flipped it sideways.

Approaching the door, I looked through the block window, directly at the person in the green mask before I started beating the shit out of their wrist.

The word bitch was yelled among something else unintelligible. The nasally voice wasn’t one I recognized. Their wrist began bleeding, a dark bruise spreading across the skin not yet covered by blood.

“Pull back,” the girl yelled.

Timing it perfectly, Dion and Mel gave just enough leeway for him to do so. His wrist vanished back inside, allowing the door to slam shut and lock, just as I’d predicted it would. Green mask moved away and the man with the leviathan took his place. He stared out at us for a few seconds before disappearing. The window remained empty after that.