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"So... when's the abomination supposed to show up again?" Diego said. He dangled upside down off the ledge of a tall, abandoned building with just his feet supporting the rest of his body. Frost sat beside him with his katana on his lap. This was three months ago. A few weeks before the inter-school tournament.
"You're welcome to go look for it if you want," Frost said blankly.
"You don't have to be such an asshole all the time, y'know?" Diego glared, and Frost responded with an even deeper glare.
"Call me an asshole one more time... I dare you," Frost said and placed the tip of his katana on Diego's neck before he could even register it.
"Assho—" Both Diego and Frost froze when they heard the sound of a loud gunshot. Frost pulled his katana back and jumped down to the ground. Diego landed beside him and adjusted his red jacket. In the distance, they could see large stretches of grassy plains and a red barn.
"We might have just found our target," Frost said and headed straight for the barn. Diego followed closely behind him as they walked across the fields of grass.
"You're still an asshole," Diego said.
"And you're an immature brat," Frost shot back.
"I'm the immature one?" Diego gasped sarcastically. "You're the one who always wants everything to go your way! You think you're so damn right about everything!"
"That's because I am!" Frost yelled and suddenly shoved Diego hard enough for him to fall onto the long grass. Frost didn't spare Diego a single glance as he kept walking to the barn.
"Hey! Asshole!" Diego yelled. Frost turned around and the moment he did, WHAM!!! Diego punched his jaw so hard that the bones in his fist cracked. Frost didn't even flinch when the fist struck. Diego winced and cradled his damaged fist but before he could realise what was happening, CRUNCH!!! Frost smashed his own fist into Diego's jaw with enough devastating force to blast him right into the barn which was multiple meters away.
Frost looked at his now bloody fist with regret. It was always easy for him to forget how weak Diego was compared to him. He glanced at the barn that had a new human-sized hole thanks to him and grimaced.
"That... ass...hole..." Diego gasped and tried to sit up. Luckily for him, he landed in a large haystack in the quiet barn. Blood the same colour as his hair and jacket was dripping from his nose and he was in too much pain to move at all when he felt the cold tip of a shotgun pressed on his forehead.
His eyes focused and slowly adjusted to his new, dark surroundings and that's when his eyes locked onto the person pointing a murder weapon at him. It was a young man who was probably in his early 20s. He had hard hair and wore a green shirt that was covered in blood. His face was also painted in fresh-looking blood.
"W-Who are you!" the man demanded with a shaky voice. The shotgun he held was also trembling in his grip like he was terrified by something. Diego's head was still reeling from the punch and he found it hard to say anything more than a pained groan. "ANSWER ME!" the man yelled and grabbed a fistful of Diego's hair. The man dragged Diego off the haystack violently and tossed him straight onto the dirty floor.
Diego slowly looked up and reality hit like a wrecking ball. There were five bodies in front of him. The first two looked like an old couple (probably the ones who owned the farm). They had bullet holes at the sides of their heads and their faces were frozen into a horrified stare. The third body belonged to a middle-aged man. There were too many holes all over his body to even count how many times he had been shot.
Then there was the fourth body... to put it lightly, the body looked... like something that had been run over by a truck... twice. Half of the body was nowhere to be found and the other half had large chunks of flesh missing. There were flies and maggots all over the body and when the smell hit Diego, he had to resist the urge to barf. Diego scrambled backwards in panic until his back was pressed against a wooden wall of the barn. That's when he saw the fifth body... Staring at him from the opposite end of the room was an Abomination...
It was massive and its body took up almost half of the entire barn. It looked obese. A large body covered in black fur and a head made of five mouths with jagged teeth. It held the disfigured remains of a small child between its teeth and dozens of human and farm animals lay dead around it, either partially eaten or left to decay.
"You weren't supposed to see this," the man said and pressed the shotgun between Diego's eyes again.
"You're... you're feeding it," Diego realised in horror. "Do you have any idea what that monster is?!"
"He's not a monster!" the man yelled and drove the butt of the shotgun into Diego's face. "HIS NAME'S HANZEL AND HE'S THE ONLY FAMILY I EVER NEEDED!" Diego looked at the man with disgust when he yelled those words.
"You fed your family to this thing?!" Diego growled and dropped the man with a smooth leg sweep. The man fell with a thud and his weapon fired through his shoulder by accident.
Diego watched the man scream and writhe in agony. The shotgun landed at his feet but when Diego reached for it, the abomination let out a guttural roar and reached for him. Its arms were long and fat but could barely reach the red-haired boy once he was pressed against the wooden wall.
"I have to kill it before it does any more harm," Diego muttered and activated his Hell Breaker. Large fangs grew in his mouth and a pair of dark shadowy wings emerged from his back. The abomination kept reaching for Diego and he waited for the perfect moment to pounce when the man yelled.
"Wait!!!" Diego froze and his Hell Breaker deactivated almost instantly. The man crawled back to his feet. Blood was oozing out from his shoulder and his face was streaming with tears. "Don't hurt him..." the man sobbed.
The man looked at the abomination and somehow, it stopped trying to attack Diego. Was it... was it actually friends with him? The man dragged himself until he was close enough and hugged the abomination like it was his family. The abomination let out a low grunt and leaned into the hug. Diego stared in shock at the sight.
"If you want Hanzel, then you'll have to kill me first!" the man said and spread his arms wide in an attempt to act as a shield. They had a relationship... a twisted one but still, it was a relationship. Diego couldn't tell if it just kept the man around because he brought it food or if it actually cared about him.
Diego held his stare. The man was still bleeding but he wasn't backing down anytime soon. With a defeated sigh, Diego backed up. Maybe... just maybe... he could leave them be. If the man just fed it animals, no more harm would be done.
"I had someone I cared about just as much," Diego muttered. "Just... don't feed it anymore people. Animals can work just as well." The man's eyes lit up at Diego's mercy.
"I-I can do that," the man stuttered and shuffled until he reached Diego. "I'll introduce you to him." The idea wasn't practical but it didn't feel bad either. Diego shrugged and took the man's hand.
As they approached the abomination, it growled and reached for Diego but the man raised his hand and the abomination stopped. When they were close enough, the man winced and said,
"Hanzel, he's not a threat to us anymore." The man placed a palm on the abomination's furry belly. "Go ahead. I'm sure he trusts you."
"And I trust him too," Diego smiled and gently placed his palm beside the man's. "Hanzel was it? You're not as bad as the others I've met."
HHHRRRRNNN-CREEEAAAK
The barn's large doors were pushed open and Frost emerged from outside. Diego's face fell instantly.
"Diego. What's going on?" Frost said and raised his katana.
"The abomination," Diego said and stood between it and Frost. "It's not like the other ones we've found. It's—"
SLLLAAASSSHHH!!!
Blood sprayed everywhere until Diego was drenched in it and the whole barn was covered. Frost had cut the abomination in half before Diego could even say anything. Diego turned and saw the body of the abomination but the thing that wrecked him the most was the man.
The man's body was trembling uncontrollably and his breathing was chaotic. "You monster..." the man whispered and grabbed his shotgun off the floor. He tripped over some of the bodies but held his ground until he was face to face with a stoic Frost. "YOU MURDERED HANZEL!" the man screamed and raised his weapon. Frost noticed the man's bleeding shoulder but didn't seem to care.
"C'mon Diego, let's go," Frost said and turned to leave the barn. Needless to say, the man didn't take being ignored so calmly.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" the man screamed. BANG!!! The man fired and Diego shut his eyes and ears to shield them from the gun firing but when he opened his eyes, his horror only grew more. Frost's katana was buried deep into the man's chest. The man cried out and dropped the shotgun but Frost twisted his weapon inside him until the man started puking out blood.
"You'll kill him!" Diego yelled and tried to separate them but before he could, Frost pulled his katana out of the man's chest and drove it straight through his heart, killing him instantly. The man's body dropped to the floor and that left Diego and Frost staring face to face at each other...
"You killed them both..." Diego scowled.
"I killed two monsters," Frost shot back.
"The only monster I see here is you!"
"Call me that again and see what happens."
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That was the very first time Diego and Frost fought. This time, the circumstances were different but the tension was still the same. Both friends were ready to fight to the death, unaware that this might be the last time they ever stood together.
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END OF CHAPTER 28
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