Ink Portals

Under pressure

23

Ravens exploded out of Arthur like a grenade of thrashing wings, the gunmen opened fire into the swirling mass of birds. Arthur grabbed Abby's hand, using the chaotic cover provided by the ravens, and dragged her in behind one of the pillars.

"Now it's a party!" Pierre shouted over the gunfire.

Yoshi jumped out from Jack's forearm in a cloud of smoke, and clawed his way up one of the golden pillars to the balcony. The beast roared, spewing a wave of fire that set Yakuza elite all along the guardrail, some of them falling over the railing as they fled the raging hellfire.

Chong was backing away into the shadows with the sumo by his side, as always, jealously guarding his master.

Pierre's tentacles reached up and wrapped around the railing, then he catapulted himself up to the second floor. He sent out his appendages to hunt down fleeing gunmen, strangling their throats as their weapons fired off in all directions. A misdirected spray of bullets obliterated the large chandelier in the center of the ceiling, casting the large hall into semi-darkness, and showering glass down on Mei who was still curled up next to Hiroko's body.

Arthur peeked out from behind the pillar, with his eyes still adjusting to the dark. The only available light was now coming from the massive fish tank behind Chong's desk, illuminating the penthouse in an eerie turquoise blue. Arthur felt for Abby's hand in the dim light. They heard Yoshi belch loudly; then a dry wheezing sound, like a cat struggling to cough up a hairball. Arthur saw Yoshi's silhouette, regurgitating a severed hand, still covered in half a shirt sleeve. From up on the balcony there was a wet, snot-like sound as the tentacles slithered around, pursuing their prey in the darkness. Abby jolted at the loud crack of a bone snapping, followed by a grown man screaming at the top of his lungs.

Jack's eyes rolled forward, casting Yoshi off into a pile of scales on the floor, while he scanned the room for Chong. Once the gunshots and screams had subsided, Mei lifted her head and shook pieces of glass from her hair; she was still sprawled over the carpet that covered Hiroko's body, protecting her sister's lifeless body, even in death.

Arthur came out from behind the pillar. There were bodies strewn everywhere, and the metallic smell of blood in the air; most of it pooling beneath a pile of mangled body parts at the foot of the stairs.

Jack trailed his fingers over his chest, where three bullet-holes had made small crater-like cracks in his armor. He remembered his lucky shirt underneath and grinned. Then Chong stepped out from the shadows, sneering as he slipped out of his suit jacket and dropped it on the floor.

"Everybody alright?" Jack said, looking around in the low light.

"I'm more than alright, Jackie boy!" Pierre said, hanging upside down from the balcony by a tentacle, swaying back and forth. "All this killing, I want more of it! She wants more of it!"

Pierre dropped down to the floor and slashed apart a pile of corpses with his tentacles, like a circus ringmaster cracking a whip. The spirit that lived under his skin appeared to have a sadistic side to it.

"He's having one of his episodes," Arthur said, pulling Abby in close to him.

Jack smiled and said: "Of all the times that squid could go ape-shit, this time might actually be useful to us."

Pierre's face contorted into a terrifying smile - not a human smile - as the creature spoke through his mouth in a language foreign to everyone in the room; slurping and gurgling out its words in a malicious tone that made even Jack's skin crawl.

"Oh God," Abby said, closing her eyes as goosebumps crawled over her arms. "That thing freaks me out."

"Enough!" Chong bellowed, tearing open his shirt and sending buttons rattling over the floor. His skinny, wrinkled torso was adorned with a tattoo of a hexagonal hive, covered in large black and orange wasps. "This is how you choose to repay my trust. So be it."