Chapter Text
He'll probably be at the Indigo trying to unwind. It's where he and his buddies meet up for drinks.
Make sure you send a message. This is probably too simple a job for you but I need it done.
Keep casualties to a minimum.
… And try not to get caught on camera this time.
Cool summer wind, stifled only by the drifting waves of heat created by the surrounding city congestion and occasional draft of smoggy air kicked up from the grates nestled in the pavement. The night sky was tinged orange by the lights of the surrounding buildings, barely a star or cloud to be seen and the main street was busy as always, clogged with foot traffic and cars racing to get from one club to another. Cabs sat waiting on the curb as men and women toppled either in or out of them, laughing and joking in various states of sobriety.
Skull stayed to the back alleys like they were told.
Occasionally they would stop and stare down a dim corridor filled with dumpsters and debris to eye the busy street just beyond, as though longing to step out of the shadows, to race forward and scream 'I'm here'.
But they didn't. They obeyed their orders to get there hidden.
The Indigo was the go-to nightclub for a lot of people. The line was long but the drinks, music, and atmosphere were the best around. The front was full of flashing lights and rope, a bouncer always stood like a brick wall out front, only letting so many inside at a time as the night drew on.
Skull wouldn't be coming through the front entrance.
The back of the club was a different story. Dirty. Garbage littered the area just outside the exit. The steps were plastered with old gum, creating a rainbow of color on otherwise dull concrete squares. Empty eye sockets looked down at the steps before climbing them and standing on the uppermost one, inches from the door.
The suit encasing their body was pressed and clean. Their shoes shined and free of imperfections. They stood out like a sore thumb among the filth around them.
Skull's head angled backwards slightly, just enough to give the appearance as though they were staring at the lamp hung over the doorway. Mosquitoes and other insects buzzed around it, completely oblivious to the corpses of their fallen comrades collecting in the bottom of the light that they sought out so fervently.
Their head straightened, the wolf skull staring ahead blankly at the door in front of them. The nail stabbed into the area above their left eye socket was just as scuffed and lacerated as the door in front of them, having been kicked shut and banged into many times over the years.
A solid black, clawed hand reached up to try the handle. It moved only slightly before stopping, the lock clicking as it was forced. It was no surprise it was locked. You didn't want people sneaking in, after all.
Skull stared at the knob for a few moments. Locked or not they had been given a task, whether they wanted to actually complete it or not wasn't something they got to decide. It had to happen, no matter their opinion.
The creature poised itself, one leg raising upwards before shooting forward, slamming their heel into the door and forcing it open.
It swung with a crash, bits of wood from the door frame splintering off and sliding across the floor, the hinges bent and busted. The workers inside screamed and scrambled, smartly-dressed attendants ducking behind tables and bins. A few managed to run out of the room entirely, but those that hadn't right away stayed where they were, eyes wide at the creature before them.
… Was it a mask? Was this a robbery?
A few of them flicked out their phones, a hum of panicked mumbling rising among them as they started to record the crazed maniac who stood in the doorway to the back room. Skull turned, letting empty eyes meet a few of them.
Master wouldn't like that.
… But he said to keep casualties to a minimum.
Skull turned, facing forward, and began to walk.
The staff that still lingered asking questions on what the noise might have been scattered as soon as they saw them, startled gasps leaving their mouths before they ducked away into other rooms or tugged their coworkers aside to hide with them.
The brighter work areas eventually made way for the darker hallways around the main area of the club filled with the drunk and those wanting to go unseen. A man stumbled blindly forward, pushing off one wall to crash into the next. He fell into the creature's shoulder, knocked off to the side with a jolt that snapped him out of a drunken haze to look up at what he had just bumbled into.
A dead wolf looked back at him.
He smiled and patted the strange thing on the shoulder before shouting, “Nice costume!” much louder than he had any reason to. Then off he went, stumbling from one wall to the next looking for the exit.
The music grew louder and louder the closer they got to the main area of the club. The floor vibrated with each heavy thump through the speakers placed throughout the establishment, the walls buzzing with reverberation every time the music pitched and everyone danced in time.
Another man passed him, instantly looking uncomfortable as he squeezed by, never once taking his eyes off the strange being walking through the dark hallway. Skull stopped, turning their head just enough to watch the man scramble away a little bit faster, perhaps thinking that the drugs they had decided to try weren't really a good idea after all.
Through the turning back hallways he finally reached the door that lead to the dance floor. Skull's clawed hand hovered over the handle, ready to open it when there was a scream off to their side. They stopped, slowly turning their head to look over at a woman pressed between a wall and the man she had been making out with seconds before.
She looked terrified.
The man that had been fondling her finally caught on that his affections weren't being reciprocated and followed the woman's gaze to the creature staring back at them. He switched from mild annoyance to anger instantaneously.
“Hey!” He yelled, pulling away from the girl to take a few unsteady steps towards Skull. “What the hell, buddy. This ain't Halloween. Take off the fucking mask and stop fuckin' starin' at my girl!”
The creature didn't move, their hand still poised over the door handle leading out to the dance floor. Showing no anger or real interest in the conversation only served to make the man more angry, words flying out of his mouth inflected with curses every other syllable. He stood close.
Too close.
Close enough for spit to spray against Skull's muzzle.
Their hand left the knob of the door and, in a single, swift motion, was around the man's neck. He gurgled and kicked, grasping at the wrist holding him and beginning to lift him from the ground. One hand left Skull's arm to slam into the ridge of the wolf skull's snout, but it only served to give him a sore hand along with everything else.
The woman's yelling brought the beast back to attention, head tilting slightly to get a better angle on her from around the man in their grasp as she yelled and made a mad dash passed to get away, leaving her date to fend for himself.
Keep casualties to a minimum.
Skull lowered the man to his feet. He gagged, stumbling back slightly and held up his hands in surrender. “S-sor-”
Before he could finish a fist collided with the side of his face, sending him reeling into the wall before sliding down and slumping into a tangled pile on the floor. The creature stared down at the unconscious figure, their arm going back to the doorknob.
No casualties.
They pushed the door open, music slamming into them like a truck. The vibrations from each note punched them through their feet, pushing up through their legs and chest until they could feel it vibrating the metal nail driven into the area above their eye socket. No one noticed the strange creature begin to push through the edges of the crowd, everyone much too focused on their own little world, their own little bubble of friends and lovers as they writhed among one another to the beat of the music blasting throughout the room.
Skull looked around, watching as the club goers pressed against one another, locked lips in dark corners, and tried desperately to attract some form of affection from others, anything to forget the stress of their daily lives. It was almost disgusting how physical humans were.
Almost.
A clawed hand reached into their suit, fingers slipping around a candid photo of the target and pulling it out to look at. Dark sockets eyed the image with scrutiny before slipping it back inside their coat.
As Skull scanned the room they noted that most of the patrons hadn't taken notice of them. They were just a silhouette among silhouettes, a body crowded with other bodies stood on the edge of the dance floor. As strange as they looked, in a lot of cases humans were much too self-absorbed and focused on their own lives and pleasure to ever take notice of them in a crowded area.
Eventually they found who they were looking for; a tired, panicked young man sitting at a booth with some of whom Skull expected were his comrades or business acquaintances. None of them were particularly remarkable, just another throng of businessmen who needed to unwind from the stress of the day. Or, in one's case, the stress of a looming debt that needed to be paid.
With their prey in sight the beast moved forward.
As they stepped onto the dance floor, the rhythm of the people gyrating and pressing against one another really began to hit them. Thudding shook up through the soles of their shoes sending shock waves up their legs and into their back and arms, vibrating the wolf skull that sat atop a neck made of nothing but darkness.
Skull began to push through the crowd, not much taller than the average human man and easily blending in until there came the moment when they had to physically touch others to move them out of the way. Some only needed a gentle nudge while others required more of a forceful shove. Either way it finally started to draw people to their attention.
At first those pushed or jostled aside merely grumbled, shooting glares at the culprit as they passed until they realized just what had moved them – a strange man in a suit wearing the dead remains of a wolf over his face.
The further they walked through the crowd, aimed directly at their target, the more people caught on. They began to part before Skull had to touch them, the music seeming less and less important as this strange creature, man, or thing, cut through like a boat through the tide.
It was at that point that the man in the booth saw what was coming for him. The Lupo Family's pet.
Everyone who knew of the Lupo family knew what seeing their dog meant; death. There would be no trying to talk his way out of it. No bargains or pleas. Not even a quick, execution-style end.
It would be bloody and painful.
Panic welled up inside of him. Panic, terror, and despair. For a moment he couldn't even get his legs to move no matter how much he was screaming inside of his own head to run, but when he did finally manage to punch out of the lock around his knees he was like lightning.
The man spun from his seat and began to race through the crowd towards the nearest way out, the front entrance. He scrambled and shoved his way through, skidding along the floor and slamming into walls as he turned too quickly, pushing passed the bouncer before he could even register what was going on.
As soon as the man started to run, Skull did too. They pushed through what remained of the crowded dance floor a little more roughly, shoving those aside who remained in the way or hadn't parted quick enough. Once through the crowd they broke out into a run, turning corners with perfect accuracy and darting passed those who had been knocked out of the way by their victim. They burst through the main entrance and onto the sidewalk.
The line still stretching down along the edge of the pavement erupted with even more gasps and murmurs than it had when the first man had crashed through and went running passed. Some had already pulled out their phones if they hadn't had them out to begin with, recording the events happening before them and hoping to catch some sort of drama to post and share with their friends to prove just how wild and crazy their night had been.
“Hey!” A gruff voice shouted, the bouncer reaching out to take Skull's arm. One had already gotten away and he wasn't about to let another escape from paying their tab.
The creature looked at him, empty sockets eyeing the large hand wrapped around their arm. Their head then turned upward just slightly enough to indicate they were staring at the bouncer.
Whatever fear they might have been able to inflict on others by a mere stare didn't seem to be working with this one. The burly guard only scowled down at them and opened his mouth to berate, or perhaps give some sort of direction or order.
But this one was not their Master and they had a task to fulfill.
Skull turned, wrapping their arm around the bouncer's and giving a single upward jerk. The snap of bone was loud enough to cut through all of the chatter of the line waiting outside and the muffled thump of music that came from within the building he was guarding. The scream came shortly after, the bouncer yelling and clutching at his now broken arm as it dangled from the elbow.
Not much later the line of waiting patrons joined in, some screaming and covering their mouths or turning away while others shouted expletives and couldn't tear their eyes and phones from the strange creature as it calmly turned and began to run down the sidewalk in the direction their prey had fled.
The bouncer had bought him some time, the man having darted through a few alleys turning this way and that, running blindly through what little he knew of the more shady parts of the area. He ran and ran, climbing fences and nearly spilling over onto the other side before scrambling to his feet again and running more.
At first he didn't dare look back, much too frightened of what he might see. When he finally did his worst fears were realized.
The creature always seemed to be hot on his trail. It leapt over fences with practiced ease and never seemed out of breath, charging forward like a demon without pause, without hesitance while their target was in sight.
Skull couldn't stop now even if they wanted to; and they didn't. Not really. This was just another moment in time chasing down some foolish human who had gotten on the wrong side of the wrong family. It was a small interlude between the times they were kept in darkness, holed away like a prized possession until the next task was provided.
Eventually the man's luck would run out. You could only twist and turn through back alleys and leap over fences so many times before hitting a dead end. Unfortunately for him, the name would be literal.
He turned to watch the creature race around the last corner and come to a stop once they realized that their victim had nowhere else to run, hovering in the opening of the alley like a deadly fog.
This was it. This was the end. He knew it, yet... he didn't want to die.
“Please...” The man pleaded despite knowing that it was a lost cause. From what little he had heard the dog never listened, never spoke. The only thing it did was deal with the task it had been given and nothing else.
“I'll... I'll get what he wants. His money, please...” The man held up his hands and backed against the wall behind him.
Skull began to approach, the clack of shoes against pavement being the only sound coming from the macabre figure as it drew nearer and nearer.
“Stop! Please! I have a family! I never meant to get this...this...” His words died in his throat as the creature began to loom over him, blocking the light from the street lamps behind them. They weren't particularly tall or even thickly set, but something about them made the air grow ice cold; as though everything stopped as soon as you got close to them, like they were devoid of anything and whatever drew close enough was sucked in never to be seen again.
The man began to cry.
He simply couldn't stop himself. He crumbled to his knees, tears streaming down his face as he stared up at his end. His hands reached out, grasping at the pant legs of the monster's trousers, smooth and finely pressed. They looked and felt alien on the strange thing looming over him, the only human thing about them.
So he clung to it; clung to this small human piece of familiarity in desperation and begged.
“Please...” He muttered around sobs, “Please...”
Skull felt nothing for this fool. This entire matter was so inanely trivial. Why had he been given such a mundane, simple task? It was always about money. Deals, bargains, trades, alliances, all of it was so insanely irrelevant. Laughable.
Humans truly were a collection of utterly ridiculous creatures.
A cold, clawed hand reached down and grasped hold of the man's short, tufted brown hair sat atop his head. He let out a startled cry, reaching up and grasping at Skull's hand as his head was pulled back, exposing his neck. He scrambled and sobbed, trying to pull away, trying to wretch the cold fingers from his scalp.
But the grip was absolute. Not even the man's most violent jerks and pulls against them made the creature's arm quiver as they stepped around behind him, empty eye sockets staring down into the watering eyes of the human in their grasp.
The inky blackness underneath the upper jaw of the wolf skull that served as their head started to mist and swirl. At first it was little more than a collecting fog pulling into a strange shape, but as it started to solidify and gather, the form was unmistakeable; a lower jaw filled with teeth darker than the night. Light never seemed to reach it, the sheer blackness of it all confusing the brain, trying to discern what the eyes were seeing.
His eyes couldn't turn away. His sobs had stopped completely, shocked and terrified into silence.
A strange sound started to carry out from the creature's mouth. It wasn't a growl or a roar, nothing like you would expect a demon like this to sound like. It was clicks. Faint whistles. A low, deep, vibrating hum that slipped into your ears and shook your brain. Radio static that fizzled and cracked, broken up only by the growing, breathy throb of something he had never heard before.
Just as the shock started to fade; as the fear and inevitability of his death became apparent, he found his voice again.
He started to scream.
The whistle reached a fever pitch as Skull came down, grabbing onto the man's throat with their jaws and sinking in teeth colder than ice.
Any screams were quelled, drowned and replaced with a wet gurgle and kicking legs as the man used the last of his energy to try and get away, to try and live.
Skull flung what flesh and sinew they had ripped out across the alley, a wet smack reverberating down the dark corridor as it hit the building it slapped against, accompanying the sound of blood hitting pavement as their target bled out.
The scuffing of feet stopped. The drip of blood on stone quickly followed. The man's face grew pale and lost the life to keep the terror plastered across his face any longer as his arms fell limply to his sides, fingers dipping into the pooling red liquid below.
His eyes dimmed and once again the alley was quiet.
Skull's hand, still gripping onto the man's head of hair, released. Now lifeless and staring upward for eternity, the corpse fell with a wet thud onto the pavement, blood spreading around what remained and gathering around the creature's shoes.
They looked down at their prey, lifeless and cold. The front of their suit was spattered with blood, their shoes stained red. The jaw that had formed to do the deed slowly began to dissolve and fade, melding back into the blackness of the rest of their body as though it had never even been there in the first place. Their upper jaw remained, bits of muscle hanging from between the sharp canines that suspended downward like daggers.
A dark hand reached into the pocket of their suit, pulling out the same photo that they had looked at earlier. The empty sockets of their skull stared into the picture for much longer than before.
A happy family.
A loving husband and caring wife.
A newborn baby girl.
Skull looked at it, maybe wanting to commit it to memory. Maybe wanting to savor the moment of a job accomplished. Or, perhaps, wondering what actions had transpired in this man's life to lead him up to this point. It was impossible to read their expression. The bone of their face was unmoving, unflinching; a mask that could never be removed.
They shifted, kneeling down to place the photo over the man's chest before standing again. Then they stared as the edges became soaked with blood, the paper bending and beginning to warp from the fluid creeping into the image printed on the front.
Skull raised their head to look out the way they had came and began to move, stepping over the corpse and leaving a trail of footprints with no distinguishable soles away from the scene.
The task was completed.
It was time to return to their Master.