You guys have proven to be such great sports, I thought we might have some real fun for the next few days.  You’ve probably all played the game I have in mind at one time or other.  I don’t even know the name.  All I’m sure of is that each of us takes a turn writing a bit of story, and in the end we’re going to have one wild, weird tale we can be proud of (or at least get a good giggle over)!

 Here are the rules.  I’ll start.  You chime in whenever you want, understanding your bit may not fall exactly where you thought, considering we have people posting from all over the world at all times of the day–but that’s part of the fun, right?

Each of us will write about a paragraph at a time and stop in the middle of the action, so the next person can move in any given direction according to his or her whim.  I’ll leave your part in your post, but also add it to mine, so the story will grow as we go.  You can write more than one paragraph during the game, but I ask that you allow other people to post between them, so we get a good variety of submissions.  Making sense so far?

When the story dwindles down, I’ll end it.  And I think that covers it!  So here we go….

Slay All Night (Final Version)

      May Kelly shoved her francisca in her belt, making sure the cutting-edge of the throwing axe pointed away from her left elbow.  Her short sword, glowing so brightly in its scabbard she nearly smacked it, as if the runes responded to any other than blood violence, hooked to the right side of her belt.  She slammed the trunk of her new Chevy Bel Air. 

     “I swear, Joe, if one spot of demon blood hits this paint I’m going to split some skulls,” she warned.

     Joe Nash, a towering edifice to whom the FBI had considered assigning his own zip code, shouldered his  

demon leash and looked behind him. “You heard that?” he asked. May Kelly was gratified that the demon at least had the sense to look penitent. Her irritation vanished as another great drop of demon blood welled up on the demon’s snout and hit the pavement, dissolving a marble-sized divot. “Here,” she said to the demon. “Let me see if I can heal that.” Just as she started channeling her healing energy,

the floor began to shake as the blood had activated a long dormant spell.

“Oh god!” May Kelly said.

Yet she’d always known that this day was to come as the curse had been laid on her after her father had slaughtered a coven of black witches when he was a part of the same team.

The question is what had caused this to happen at this point and what exactly would the curse entail as the original language it had been spoken in had to be translated through Somarian as well as latin to get the English version.

Yet perhaps more pertinent was what the hell …..

 Joe was going to think. Would he think that she’s crazy? even after everything they’ve seen together?
Another question formed in her brain, why the hell was she that worried about what Joe thought? Since when had she ever cared?
She look toward the demon and saw….

a devil or greater deomon spinning up out of the ground, holding its black witch familiar on a leash. “Ahhh, at last the blood of a demon spilt by a cursed one has released me from my encircled prison” it roared.

Ah so thats why my short sword is still glowing, May Kelly thought to herself, all the while pulling it from its scabbard, as the demon turned toward Joe and said,

‘Die, mortal.’
Joe backed up, looking startled as the black witch repeated the catchy phrase in her high, nasal voice. Blood welled from the witch’s neck as the leash bit into her skin, skin which was so slick it was as if she were made of liquid resin. The witch lifted her hand, pointing to Joe.
That was until her finger disintergrated into a dark, sticky form, long and slender, resembling a tar snake.

[Without missing a beat she added]

“Release my son at once!”

At the same time, May Kelly said, “Mom?”

The black witch said, “Maisy?”

Joe said, “Your son? Mom? What is this, a family reunion?”

After which, the demon-son said . . .

nothing. What had begun to emerge from her finger retreated. She lowered her arm.

‘My Maisy…’ The black witch muttered. She looked like I felt. Stunned, confused, amazed.

The demon holding her leash roared angrily, snapping the the chain. It began to twist, to melt. It was changing…

unable to hold to its glamour under the pressure of her sword as it sent pulsing blue waves of power through skin and bone.  Now its true form emerged, four massive legs supporting a contorted skeleton that looked like it had been smashed and then repaired again by a pack of third graders.  It swung its horned head toward May, the leash it now held in its mouth forcing the witch it held to stumble in her direction as well.

“Alkrenon.  I should’ve known,” May spat as she yanked her axe from her belt.  Now she understood the source of Joe’s nosebleed and all the confusion that had gone before.  Chaos demons had a way of bringing the weird out in every situation.

“Trade me,” Alkrenon demanded, his spittle oozing down the leather strap lying across his teeth.  “Leash for leash.  Your mother for my freedom.”

May checked her watch.  “My mother is just finishing up the dishes and sitting down with my dad to watch Milton Berle.  This,” May gestured to the creature who did have an amazing resemblance to the woman whose picture her father still carried because, at least, she’d given birth to May before she’d disappeared.  ”Whatever she’s done hasn’t qualified her to be family.  Do with her what you will.”

“No!” screeched the witch. 

At the same time Alkrenon bellowed with outrage, “Now neither of us will ever be free!

“What drama.  You should go onstage with that act.  But you’d never make it past the audition, because I don’t even buy it.  How about you, Joe?” May looked up at her partner, whose smile revealed a row of teeth that could bite your arm off. 

“Should we show him what we do to bad actors?” suggested Joe.

May nodded.  “I like that plan.”  With a motion so smooth she knew her dad, who’d taught her to throw, would’ve applauded, May pulled back her arm and shot it forward, releasing the axe at the precise moment required to bury it in Alkrenon’s nose.  Blood flew like the foam off ocean waves, splattering into the surrounding cars, sizzling through the metal frames as if they were made of cotton.

The witch screamed as blood flew into her hair and dripped down her cheek.  Without even realizing Alkrenon had dropped her leash, she ran off, yanking out hand fulls of rank, black tangles, leaving them in steaming piles behind her as she screamed her way down 42nd street, without even a yellow cab turning in to detour her.

Joe bounded onto Alkrenon’s back, making the demon rear with fury as Joe’s weight took him to his knees.  They rolled across the road, crashing into a ’49 Buick that had seen better days anyhow, leaving a dent in the door that wasn’t so bad, until the tiny drops of blood they’d added began eating through the green paint. 

May followed them as closely as she dared, her sword held ready.  She nearly stabbed in desperation a couple of times.  Alkrenon fought mean and dirty, and Joe was bleeding from both ears and cuts across his forehead, chest and neck within the next couple of minutes.  But he wouldn’t give up.  Which was why he still worked for the good guys in the first place. 

With a mighty heave he forced Alkrenon to stand on his hind legs and yanked his head back.  “Now!” Joe gasped.  “Come on, May!  I can’t hold him much longer!”

May danced in, slashing the chaos demon across the throat in one, clean stroke.  Her sword, made for the work, absorbed the blood as if it was another layer of steel, meant to be added to the glowing blade as a tribute to its beauty.

Alkrenon crumpled.  Not dead, of course.  You couldn’t kill demons in this world.  But tamed enough for Joe to slip the leash around his head.  He dragged Alkrenon back to the circle from which he’d risen. 

May retrieved her francisca and wiped the edge carefully on Alkrenon’s shirt.  “In the name of all that is holy, I banish you,” she said.  She crossed her arms, watching with her lips pressed together as the demon dropped into a new hell, this one reserved for those who’d been yoked.  So far May and Joe had sent ten of them there all by themselves.  Unfortunately, this one hadn’t been planned.  Which meant…

“I don’t suppose you brought a spare leash,” May said as Joe strode around to the passenger side of her car. 

“Always.”

“Shoot.  You know what that means.”

“Drelifess still hunts.  It is our job to stop him.”

May opened her door and slumped into the seat.  “We deserve a raise, you know.”

Joe settled his sunglasses over his snout and stretched his arm across the seat.  “I’ll settle for a partner who doesn’t have to stuff herself after every battle.”

“I don’t–!”

“Tell me you’re not hungry.”

“Well, now that you mention it, I could really go for a chocolate malt.”

Joe shook his head.  “Your stomach must be lined with lead.  After what you’ve just seen and done, you want to eat?”

May thought about the witch, who really might have birthed her, and felt her stomach growl.  “Oh, yeah.”