Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #19 October 2015 | Page 54

chairs, and rested her left arm on its back while downing the entire bottle. “Phew, that was a workout.”

leaning on the bar. “And… And then—haha—I said to
him, ‘How’re you gonna leave without your sack?’”

“Was that what that was?” Jake grinned.  It
was always possible to tell when Jake was trying to
tease, his face would start to resemble the Chesire Cat.

The door behind the bar flew off its hinges.
The pudgy owner, with skin like melted butter, ducked
so fast his tusks hit the bar surface. While he was
there, he pulled the alarm cord. He hit the back panel
with his feet as hard as he could and opened a hidden
door, then squeezed through and ran for one of the
three exits.

Margo turned around and winked at her dance
partner who had sat down to rest, grinning. “Well,
both are fun.”
***

The horn rousted the already frightened patrons. The music stopped and people started running
away. The asparagus skinned demon grabbed a small
blue skinny demon that had fallen on her back, and
a human that had curled under a table. He held them
both like footballs while he ran for the door. Several
others followed his lead. Margo and the gang turned
around to see a large Vuur standing at the forefront.
Large burn marks, runes could be seen all over his
body and horns. He stepped over the bar. Margo got
up and pulled out her daggers. Jake got his gun. It was
then that the Vuur walked up to them. A grey rimmed
octagon appeared at his feet, and spread across the
floor. The rim reached the gang, and Lucas, Jake
and Patrick instantly flew back, crashing against the
wall. Margo dashed towards them, but was stopped
by a force field. Jake got up and shot at the Vuur. The
bullets stopped as soon as they reached the field, and
dropped on the floor.

A white van stopped in front of the wide delivery entrance. Ted jumped out of the driver’s seat via
the rolled down window. He opened the back door of
the van and let out a large figure wrapped in enough
dark fabric to make several long trenchcoats.
“I would go, and fast. You don’t exactly blend
in.” Ted winked, and the dark figure hurried towards
the bar.
***
Aksel felt at peace in the darkness. He could
relax and release his Vuur side. Grey thorn-like lines
appeared all over his body. As soon as he was done
changing, the lines on his hands lit up. The light from
his hands spread in thin grey strands all around him,
cocooning him. It glimmered, making soft shadows
he could see dancing on his closed lids. He sensed his
target in his mind’s eye. Now all he needed was to
time it just right.

The Vuur got into a fighting stance, taking out
two large sai. They were red. Jake realised they were
carved out of Vuur horns. He shouted at Margo, “Look
out, those can kill you!”

***

Margo twirled her two daggers, each in one
hand, extending them as they spun. Being ambidextrous always payed off.

Zetal punched through the metal door. After he
walked through the small storage space in an uncomfortable slouch, he broke the wooden entrance door as
loudly as he could.
***
A demon with skin the colour of asparagus was
laughing loudly, occasionally snorting. He was holding a glass of rum in a three-fingered hand, his body

The Vuur was not confused by the shouting.
He got into an attack position. “My name is Zetal, and
you are going to die,” was the last thing that escaped
his mouth before he charged forward.

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