Disclaimer: Basically the same as the previous 14 chapters.

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Superior

Chapter 14

- Monsters -

When we were kids they told us stories about the boogeyman. People said they lived in the shadows and only came out to steal children in the night. It freaked the hell out of us. But we knew, deep down, that it was just a story. Something that kids made up to frighten each other. We could always take comfort in the fact the boogeyman wasn't real.

They couldn't hurt you.

They were make-believe.

''If only that were true.'' Haruka was staring at the old lady next to her who was obviously lost in her own memories of a better time. There was only one little light in the cell they had put her in. The old woman had already been here when they'd thrown Haruka in this...place. She could hear the splash and gurgle of water as her boots waded through it. She had to get out of here. Haruka moved to the edge of the cave-like prison cell trying not to look down at what was slowly flowing around her.

The shock of smell had worn off, but she didn't want to catch a glimpse of anything that would tip her gag reflex over the edge. Haruka looked down at the woman next to her who was sitting on a worn out wooden bench that was stained with god only knew what. She seemed to just look at the tide of effluent around her and frowned as if she was checking the tide on a nice sandy beach. ''I have to get out of here.''

The woman remained silent for a second before bursting into fits of laughter, shaking her head. ''No one gets out of here you silly fool. I'm not sure anyone would want to get out of here.''

''Understandable,'' Haruka rolled her eyes. ''Because it's such a nice place here.''

''Compared to what's out there nowadays.'' The woman pointed to the little window in the far corner of the cell. ''The boogeyman. All of them.'' She slowly put her face in her hands and started rocking back and forth.''So much fire. There was so much fire.''

This woman was out of her mind. ''Where are we exactly? What are they going to do to us?''

''Burn us. I heard what you did. You freed the witch. You helped the boogeyman and now they put you in a cell with me.'' Suddenly the woman stopped rocking and jumped up. She walked to the blonde warrior and immidiately grabbed her hands. ''Are you one of them? Have you come to take me away?''

Haruka hadn't been able to see it before because of the darkness but now the woman was at such close range she could clearly see her age. This woman had to be about eighty years at least. And by the look of it she'd been here a long time too. ''I'm not sure what you mean.''

''You helped the witch. You're one of them. You're one of the monsters.'' The woman almost sounded excited and relieved. She tightened the grip on the blonde's hands.

'I helped them?' Haruka's heart skipped a beat. 'That's right. I helped Setsuna. I'm working together with demons. Minako. Michiru.' Her mind went in overdrive. 'No, the kid was a human. I saved a human.' But now she was in a prison cell about to get burned. She had a mission. She had to kill the demon queen. If this meant sacrificing some lives to...'No. Every life is holy. This is what my parents taught me. If Hotaru had been Hitomi I wouldn't even have thought about this.'

The blonde could feel the old lady's hands tremble in her own. ''No. I'm not one of them. The monsters. I'm killing them. All of them.'' That's why she had to get out of here. Escape the little picture perfect fantasy she had created by surrounding herself by demons. She'd been a fool to think she could kill the queen without killing her minions along the way. They killed Hitomi. They killed her parents. They were destroying the world.

''You can't kill them.'' The woman slowly let go of Haruka's hands and retreated back to her original spot on the wooden bench. Under the lighting of the small light bulb the woman looked like a ghost. ''My husband. He tried. He tried so hard. He said I had to run. And then there was fire. And that woman.''

''Woman?''

''She was everywhere. So fast. Black wings.''

''Black wings?'' Why did this information seem important all of a sudden?

The woman nodded. ''The Queen of the boogeyman. They steal our children for her. They say the devil gave her those wings. Only she has wings like those. The devil. He...'' She paused to look up at Haruka. ''Where else are they from? They come from underground. They come from the deepest pits of hell.''

Haruka never knew much about the queen. Not even what she looked like. Black wings were a good start. Then again, how trustworthy was this person exactly? She didn't seem sane and could easily be mixing reality with fiction. ''I have to get out of here.''

''You silly fool. No one gets out of here. No one wants to get out of here. Not with what's out there these days.''

Deja vu. This woman was really too old to be living life like this. ''Yeah. I know.'' Haruka sighed and turned around to find some sort of exit. All she could see and feel were steel pipes and she wasn't too thrilled about pulling those loose in fear of what was in them. 'I'm glad you can't see me now, Hitomi.'

Everywhere was screaming. People running around like little lost lambs trying to desperately escape the lion. Yes, Michiru was that lion. She was flying above the little village looking down at those little insects. She pointed her finger at one of the old men who had called her 'satan's spawn'. He was staring right back at her, frozen and unable to move.

''I'll show you hell. May the devil have mercy on your soul.'' A beam of light emitted from her finger and hit the man, instantly turning him to stone. Everyone just stopped their movement and got quiet. They were all looking at the stone man now. ''Because I won't.''

Michiru dropped out of the sky and gracefully landed on her feet. Slowly she started to walk up to the stone man, everyone just stepped back, clearing a path for the aqua haired demon. Michiru put a hand on the statue's head and smiled sadly. Then she broke the head off of its body and threw it on the ground. She could hear the villagers' heart race. They were afraid of her.

''It's all up to you now, humans. Tell me where Haruka is and I'll kill you fast. I'll let your children live. Don't tell me and I'll start to get creative.'' Michiru glared at one of the men in front of her. She could see the fear in his eyes, she could tell he knew he was about to die. She wondered why he wasn't running away anymore.

''We don't... I don't... who is... Haruka?'' He stammered and fell down on his knees. ''Please. God. Don't kill us. I beg of you.''

''You burn my kind. You burn innocent little girls. Human girls and you ask me to spare your life? You must be mad.'' Michiru didn't recognize herself like this. This wasn't her. But for some reason she had lost her composure. All because of Haruka. One measely human had this much effect on her. Finally Michiry realized why everyone stopped running away from her. They couldn't run or move anymore. They were afraid. Frightened.

''We wanted to burn the witch! The witch cursed us all. She brought you here!'' One woman yelled from the back of the crowd. Atleast one person still had the guts to speak. Not stammer but properly speak.

''I'm here because you...'' Michiru paused. She hadn't realized it before but now she had relaxed a bit and come to her senses she could clearly feel it. The presence of a demon. Could he be manipulating the crowd? Or is he just here by accident. She could clearly smell him now. He was close. He was here, among the people. But which one was it?

Michiru snapped her fingers three times and at the third time every human surrounding her fell down. They were asleep now. Or in a certain state of sleep. They could still hear and feel everything that was going on around them. Only one man remained standing. He was wearing a worn out shirt that used to be white once but now looked greyish and covered in mudd.

''Your majesty.'' He quickly dropped to his knees, looking at the ground underneath him. ''It's an honor to...''

''Shut up.'' Michiru demanded. He obliged. ''You already know I'm going to kill you. Don't you?'' He nodded in response. ''Good. You're the one who took the little girl I assume? The one who tried to burn her for witch craft?''

''They were on to me. The girl didn't listen to me anymore. The people noticed more and more people were dying. I like this town. I didn't care for the kid. Please understand. It was my life or the human's.''

''Why do you kill?'' Michiru asked while walking towards the kneeled down demon.

''Excuse me?''

''Why do you kill humans?''

''I don't understand,'' The demon spoke, finally daring to look up. He was looking at the aqua haired queen like she was crazy. ''It's my nature to kill them. I'm a demon. I find myself enjoying the sound of their screams.''

''Do you get off on hearing people scream?'' Michiru was still walking up to him, making sure not to step on one of the the villagers.

''Did you get off on killing that man just now, your majesty?'' The demon asked, getting up from the ground. He obviously wasn't going to give up without a fight. Or maybe the threatening fact of Michiru closing up on him made him aware of the situation again.

''We could co-exist with the humans. We could actually do it. I've seen it myself these past couple of days. But monsters like you,'' She paused and aimed her hand in front of her, right in his face. ''You ruined everything.'' Before he could even move Michiru squeezed her hand shut and he went up into flames. In a matter of seconds he disappeared into nothingness. All that remained of him was ash.

''So, that's the power of our queen?'' A voice sounded. Michiru quickly turned around and tried to kick her attacker. She could see the figure behind her jump into the sky and land on the ground a few meters back. Michiru was about to get ready for a second attack but stopped when she noticed it was Setsuna who was holding Hotaru in her arms.

In that split second of Michiru turning around Setsuna had been able to move so fast that she didn't just get herself out of harms way but the child as well. Just how strong was Setsuna?

''Haruka is probably being held in the sewer. Or, what's suppossed to be a sewer. Our kind destroyed most of this town. People had to find another place to leave their stuff. We are not the only ones who can get creative.''

''So, you heard that?'' The aqua haired girl felt kind of irritated by this knowledge. ''Why didn't you do anything?'' Or maybe she was just upset that she had missed her kick. She never missed.

''Like I said, these are my people. I don't harm them.''

''They hate us.''

''They hate them.'' Setsuna pointed at the ash at Michiru's feet.

''Whatever. I'm getting Haruka.''

Michiru turned around but someone held her back by taking her hand in their own. It was a small hand. Michiru looked down only to find Hotaru staring back at her. ''Let go.''

The little girl didn't seem to listen. Michiru tried to pull away from the girl's grip without forcing her to fall over. ''Hotaru is right,'' Setsuna started. The queen looked up from the girl, giving up on breaking free and just stared at the green haired demon with a don't you dare look on her face. ''It's time to wake up. How long are you going to keep up this façade? Haruka wants to kill you. She needs to kill you. She lost too much to give up just because you two slept together.''

Michiru blushed. She shouldn't have told Setsuna about that. The lack of need of sleep sometimes made demons want to fill up the silence with words and stories that would hurt them later on.

''Even if you love her. Even if she loves you, Michiru. It's foolish. This is not a fairytale. This is reality. Our worlds can't co-exist. Maybe a long time ago it could've but it's too late now. Too much has happened. Humanity will not forgive you.''

''I can try.'' Michiru spat. ''Besides, aren't you doing the same damn thing? Clinging to this child? You're not her mother. She'll grow old. You never will. She's die and you'll still be here.''

''Not if Haruka kills you.'' Setsuna stretched out her hand to Hotaru. Like on command the little girl let go of Michiru's hand and skipped back to the green haired demon.

''Excuse me?''

''The stories are false Michiru. When the queen dies we don't die with her. We turn human.'' Setsuna smiled and put a hand on Hotaru's head.

''That's why you asked our help? So you could...'' Michiru hadn't been ready for that revelation. It couldn't be true. How would Setsuna even know this and not her? It had to be a lie. 'Father would've told me this.'

''I'm not doing anything. You did.'' Setsuna's smile faded. ''I told Ami where to find Haruka. I'm sorry.''

''Sorry?'' The aqua haired demon followed Setsuna's gaze to something behind her. Michiru's heart sank. 'Oh god, no.' She could hear it now. The two heart beats behind her. One was racing, the other deadly calm.

To Be Continued

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