Unwanted

The moment Jace reached his apartment door in he knew something was off.

He heard his music blaring from the stereo on the other side of the door. Who was in his apartment and how did they get in? He tried to open the door but it was locked. He lived on the third floor, and the only entrance was door he was standing at. So unless the intruder went through the trouble of using a ladder to get into one of his windows and risk easily being seen, it was impossible.

Jace unlocked the door and opened it slowly. His music so was loud he could practically feel the soundwaves trying to push him back away from the door. His eyes did a quick scan of the entrance to his apartment and he peered around the corner of the kitchen. No robbers in sight, however, it was without doubt that someone had been here, or still is. Jace couldn’t believe the crime scene he stumbled upon. The victim being all the food in his fridge, and then some. The fridge door was opened, and no cabinet was left untouched. So now he had a gluttonous burglar?

Jace decided to leave the kitchen for after he searched the rest of his place. He walked into the living room, the source of the loud music. All the remains of food that were missing from the kitchen were found scattered on the floor all around the living room. The place was completely trashed. Food wrappers about actual food, upon beer cans. Jace didn’t even have beer in his apartment. It was starting to look like someone threw a party while he was gone, and this was the aftermath.

There was loud knocking at the door. The type of knocking that comes from someone who’s really pissed off. Jace backtracked to the door and hesitated a moment, not sure if he really wanted to deal with who was on the other side. He already had one issue to deal with in here. Jace opened the door to find one of his neighbors standing there. The middle-aged man’s face nearly had steam coming out of his ears. The man spoke right as Jace opened his mouth to talk. He spoke between clenched teeth, as is trying to contain his rage and keep composer.

“You’ve lived next to me for about a year now. And you were always good at keeping the noise down, but I’ve been hearing your trash music for over six hours straight. I’m trying to get some sleep before I start my night shift tonight.” Jace stumbled trying to find the words for an apology. The noise annoyed him just as much.

“I-I’m so sorry sir. Someo- I mean I forgot to turn it off before I left. I’ll turn it off now.”

His neighbor didn’t seem to care for Jace’s apology,”You’re too young to be forgetting things. Don’t let it happen again or I’ll be calling up the landlord to file a complaint.” After that Jace’s neighbor left back to his apartment, and Jace went to the living room to turn off his stereo system.

With the push of a button, the room filled with the sweet sound of nothing. Jace let out a short sigh of relief, but he didn’t have much time to relax as he soon heard movement behind him. He slowly peered over his shoulder, suspecting the noise was either a rabid street rat or the intruder. When he saw a grown man laying on his couch, Jace really wished it would have been twenty dirty rats instead.

Instinct kicked in and Jace grabbed the closest object he could use as a weapon. Said weapon was an empty glass beer bottle that had to belong to the intruder. With the bottle in hand, he spun around and held the bottle up ready to smash it over his enemies head. Laying in front of him on his couch was a dark-haired man in an old brown leather jacket and a half-empty bottle of beer in his hand. Jace new right away who this man was, and he was struck with confusion and disbelief. The man who trashed his apartment, blared ear-busting music, and is currently sleeping in front of him was his father; a man better known as Delta the Death Hound.

Without a second thought or a moment of hesitation, Jace stepped up to the sleeping man and bashed the bottle over Delta’s head. The glass broke on impact into smaller shards that fell onto the couch and the floor. There was no further movement from either of them until Delta slowly opened his eyelids, shifting his eyes to look at his son. Jace could feel a shiver run up his spine. Something about Delta’s dead gaze was always unsettling to him.

There was an even longer moment of silence between them, along with a building tension filling the room. Jace thought for sure he was a goner. He’s heard the stories of what Delta was capable of, and what happened to anyone who tried to take him on. None of those stories came to mind when he was bashing a bottle over the head of the man who abandoned him. He won’t deny it felt good to do so.

“Who taught you to wake up people like that?” was all that came out of Delta’s mouth as he sat up with a groan and stretched.

Jace’s nerves went away with how calm Delta’s reaction was, and now he wanted answers,”Why are you here?”

Delta stood up from the couch, brushing off some glass from his clothes with no concern for cutting himself, and gave no answer. He began to walk away but Jace wasn’t letting him get away easily, “Don’t walk away from me! You can’t waltz into my life suddenly like this and expect me to deal with it. Why are you here?”

“For your soul.”
Delta turned around and it was hard to tell from the look on his face if that statement were true or not. Jace called his bluff and relaxed. If Delta was really here to kill him, he would have done it already.

“I’m here because to train you,” Delta responded with an honest answer.

Jace scoffed and crossed his arms,”Training? I’m not a dog like you. I blend in just fine with humans. So you can go back to the woods.”

“It’s only a matter of time before you start losing control of your abilities.”

Jace smirked and held up a fist, flames engulfing his hand, but leaving him unharmed,”I’m in perfect control.”

“I don’t mean those ones you imbecile. I’m talking about when you start getting the urge to rip people’s hearts out. Before you know it you’ll be blacking out and waking up with some strangers blood on your hands,” Delta spat out, clearly had been through it himself.

The flames on Jace’s hand died out along with his confidence in himself. That possibility never crossed his mind before. Jace rarely saw Delta in his childhood, so the part of him that he got from his father was still a mystery to him. He knew Delta was supposedly a demon from hell, crafted by Death itself. He knew that this appearance Delta held now was only to blend in with humans. All he really knew about Delta was that his true form looked more like a chimera. It wasn’t something he’d ever seen for himself but his parents; his mother and her boyfriend, described it as a dog with dragon legs and a spiky tail. They usually would laugh at how bizarre and sloppy his real form was as if it was designed by a five-year-old smashing animal parts together. Could Jace also transform into the same creature as the man in front of him? He never had any sort of strange changes happen to his body before, puberty aside.

“I’m not a monster like you. My job isn’t to kill and collect souls. I wait tables and work in fast food like the typical young adult. Besides, I’ve lived this long the only power I have from you is my flames,” Jace responded.

Delta went to speak but something got caught up in his throat, making his gag and cover his mouth with one hand. Jace watched him, not sure if this was some prank or if he was really about to be sick.

“Bathrooms to your left, first door to the right man,” Jace blurted out, not wanting to have another mess to clean in the living room with all the trash. Delta sprinted down the hall to the bathroom, and soon after Jace heard the sounds of him hurling into what he hoped was the toilet. A chuckle escaped from Jace’s mouth. The sight of seeing the demon show weakness and run off in a panic humored him. Maybe Delta wasn’t so tough and scary after all. Jace walked over to the bathroom and peered in,”Are you going to be ok old man? Don’t tell me you’re here because you found out you’re dying and want to reconnect with me before then.”

Delta spat into the toilet where he was, sitting on the bathroom floor practically hugging the toilet,”I’m not dying you idiot. It’s the food I ate. I have no digestive track so it’s got to come up eventually.”

“Why did you eat all my food if you were just going to throw it back up! Do you have any idea how much that cost me?” Jace freaked when he realized the sludge in the toilet was all his missing food.

“I wanted to inconvenience you,” Delta said with a completely straight face, then started to laugh. He may not have the ability to feel emotions, but Delta was great at messing with other peoples. His laughing was cut short as he had to puke up for food crawling back up his throat. Jace stood there shocked, not knowing what to do with the madman sitting in his bathroom.

“Mom was right… you’re pure evil. Get out of my house! Now!” Jace rose his voice, having enough of Deltas nonsense. He wasn’t about to start playing these games with him. When Delta wouldn’t move Jace went in and grabbed Delta by the collar of his jacket. Just as fast Deltas hand grabbed Jace’s arm. Delta’s had was covered in green scales, and he had long claws that nearly dug into Jace’s skin. Jace looked at the hand and then to Delta, who’s orange eyes seemed to glow as if warning him to back off. Jace let go of the jacket but Delta kept his tight grip on the arm.

Delta’s voice got very deep and his words were practically growls,”Don’t put your filthy hands on me again you unwanted bag of guts and blood. I’m not here because I care about you. I’m here to save my own ass, because I am the one who decided to let you live when you were born.”

Jace ripped his arm from Delta finally, along with ripping some skin off,”You’re the one who decided to leave us too. If you’re in trouble, I’m not helping. You’re “The legendary Death Hound” nothing can kill you, so I’m sure you’ll be fine.” Jace left to the kitchen and grabbed a towel to press down on his cuts. They were deep and soon the towel was soaked and red. He muttered,”I need to get to a hospital.”

Jace grabbed his keys and stepped out of his apartment and hurried down the stairwell and off to the hospital a good couple blocks away. He had grabbed a new towel and wrapped it around his arm. His fast-paced walk turned to a jog, then a run as he began to panic more about the blood he already lost. It didn’t take him long to get to the hospital, and directly into the emergency clinic. To no surprise, he had to wait and took a seat. He sat there applying as much pressure to his arm as he could.

Unsure if it was the lack of blood or stress, Jace started to feel dizzy, but at the same time, he felt like all his senses were working at their max at once. He could hear voices of people not in the room, the beeping of machines, a child crying, sneezing, coughing, screaming, chatter, everything. The lights were too bright, and the room was on fire and vibrating. He felt like he was on some wild ride, everything happening at once until… He smelt something. Something that he could focus on, and tune everything else out. He smelt, blood. It wasn’t his, no this was something from beyond the room. Down the twisting hallways of the hospitals. Door after door his nose was telling him where the smell was coming from.

Before he knew it was standing up and walking without telling his feet to move. He was so focused on getting to the scent, Jace didn’t care what else was happening to him or around him. He went through the door in the first hallway. The world was spinning around him, but his balance wasn’t affected by it, and he kept walking slowly, one foot after the other. He came to the end of the hall, which led in two different directions. He inhaled deeply, and on his exhale he opened his hands, scales beginning to form on them, running up his arms and ending at his shoulders. Jace paid no mind to the change and turned in the direction of the smell and continued.

Corner after corner he knew he was getting closer. Jace hit shoulders with a nurse hurrying by and they both stopped in their tracks and shared rude glances. It wasn’t until the nurse looked down at Jace’s arms that she became fearful of him and her heart began to beat rapidly in her chest. Jace’s eyes shifted to where he heard the beating heart, and he clinched one of his hands into a fist. For a split second, he envisioned himself driving his claws into the woman’s chest and ripping out her heart and soul. He blinked and snapped out of it and kept on walking. The nurse was left petrified in her spot, watching Jace walk, then hurried off to get help.

This was it, beyond a thick layer of glass Jace found the source. He found himself staring through a window at a sleeping patient, bandaged and clearly just going through an extensive surgery. The scent of blood seeping past the fresh stitches, waiting to be cut open and drained. All the noise and confusion dulled down, and Jace felt like he was alone, just him, the window, and the bag of blood sleeping on the other side. He pulled his hand back into a fist and got ready for impact. The force of his punch was beyond any human ability, and as the glass shattered, Jace felt like the world around him was growing darker and darker. The view of his prize in front of him was fading away. Then, darkness took over his every being.

A dim flickering light woke Jace up from the darkness and he felt a terrible pain in his head as if someone stabbed him in the forehead. He was on the cold hard floor of the hospital and sat up looking around. It looked like a war took place in the hallway. Lights were dangling from the ceiling by mere wires, wheelchairs flipped and broken, blood splattered on the walls and on the floor, and faint alarms. He groaned and placed a hand on his forehead and felt a wound. By further inspection, he realized that something indeed actually stabbed him in the head and he screamed in horror. He couldn’t understand how he wasn’t dead.

“God you scream like a wimp,” a voice spoke behind him, making Jace turn quickly, being startled. He saw a figure standing next to him and with a closer look he saw it was Delta, holding a bloody knife no less. Jace jumped up to his feet, he felt in danger next to the monster who made this mess. Why was he here? How did he find him? And why did he cause this chaos to all the innocent people?

“You monster! How could you murder all these people!” Jace shouted and formed fire in his hands, ready to get revenge for whoever’s blood covered the walls,”And you thought you could kill me with that knife, but here I am standing. I’m ending you now demon!” Jace threw a ball of fire at Delta, who in turn deflected it with the scales on his arm, leaving no burns.

“I didn’t make this mess. I’m much cleaner than this. This is the work of an amateur. This is you’re doing, idiot,” Delta respond. Jace stared at him in disbelieve. He wasn’t capable of this. This was the work of a true monster, a demon… The demon that made up a part of him.

Jace shook his head,”This isn’t me… I wouldn’t… I’m not like you…”

Delta began walking past him, putting a hand on his shoulder like a proud father but his words saying otherwise,”You’re my spawn. I know it’s disgusting to think about, trust me, I hate the idea as much as you. And we could stand here all night talking about how much we hate each other, but you have SWAT after your ass, so let’s get out of here.”

Jace didn’t want to follow him, but he didn’t exactly have a choice. Delta looked like he had a plan and Jace wasn’t about to stay here and get taken in as a mass murderer. He followed behind Delta, looking down at his arm he saw that the wounds on his arm were covered in some black liquid. Delta spoke as if he could read Jace’s thoughts,”that’s a healing substance, don’t ask where it came from. Oh, and I take full credit for stabbing you in the head. You and I have a sort of reset button in here,” he said as he knocks on his own head.

“You enjoyed doing that, didn’t you? ” Jace muttered.

“Maybe a lot,” Delta smirked and pulled Jace with him when he went to go another way,”This way now, I didn’t disable the camera’s down that corridor. Humans and their technology… such a pain.”

The two walked through the hospital, Jace getting a larger look at what he had done while he went haywire. He saw the lifeless bodies of his victims mangled all over the floor. He looked into the cold dead eyes of one that he had to step over. Trying to process everything he was seeing was hard enough, let alone having to accept that what he was seeing was his doing. The blood and bodies came to an end as they got the basement level. Delta showed him the way he came in through the sewers, which Jace wasn’t too keen on using it as an exit. He didn’t have much of a choice, and followed Delta, though it didn’t feel right to turn his back on what he did.

While in the sewers Jace decided it was as good a time as ever to get some more answers on the mysterious man who was, unfortunately, his father.

“Why did you let me live? You said you let me live when I was born. Would you have actually killed me?” Jace’s voice echoed down the damp dripping tunnels.

“I’ve done it before. The reason I didn’t kill you is that your mom made a deal with me. I let her keep you, but if you started getting out of hand, I would put an end to it permanently.”

Jace stopped walking after hearing that,”You’re going to kill me then? After what I did?”

“I said when you started getting out of hand. You’re nothing I can’t handle right now. And honestly, I thought you’d destroy the world as we know it years ago. You’re not the hellspawn I thought you’d be, but you still need to learn how to control yourself,” Delta kept walking, and Jace continued after him once hearing that.

“Thanks… I think,” Jace mumbled.

“For what?”

“Stabbing me in the head,” Jace chuckled,”And putting this black ointment on my cuts, is it some magical healing stuff from the underworld?”

“It’s my blood.”

Jace looked disgusted by the answer and Delta muttered,”Idiot.”

They escaped from the danger of the authority and got back to Jace’s apartment. When Jace opened the door he took a look at the place and saw that his apartment was spotless. The beer cans, food wrappers, and stains all gone. Everything was organized even more so than how Jace left it before he went to work that morning. Jace turned and looked at Delta,”You did this?” He went to the kitchen and opened the cabinets to find all the missing food replaced,”How did you pay for all this?” Delta walked by the kitchen to the living room.

“I have more human money from all over the world than I will ever use. This helped get rid of some pocket change. Also, I should be insulted that you’d think I wouldn’t clean up my own mess before I left.”

Jace thought to himself,”Why should I feel guilty for accusing you? Does he always have to make himself sound better than everyone?”. He decided to keep his thoughts to himself and avoid an argument. Instead, he asked,”When does training start?” But before Delta could answer, something started ringing. Delta got on the defensive and grew the scales on his arms. Jace chuckled and grabbed his phone from the side table near the couch,”It’s just a phone….jeez.” He smirked and looked at the caller ID, it was one of his jobs. He answered,”Hello?…I’m sorry I can’t come in… no my uh… my, Dad’s up for a visit.” The look on both Jace and Delta’s face was mutual disgust. Jace finished the call and hung up then looked at Delta.

“Don’t ever call me your dad again.”

Jace smiled,”ok Idiot.”