ZFighter18

FULL CHAPTER HERE —> A CURSE UPON THEE 3-13 “Huh.” The noise around him seemed to hush, everything in the depot finding a quiet that was unknown to the place— at least to his ears. The grunting of the workers, the chatter of the hunters, and the clanking of the machinery; all of it found a way to qu

FULL CHAPTER HERE —> A CURSE UPON THEE 3-12 One blue eye cracked itself open and Finn McHale immediately regretted it, morning sunlight blinding in all its white-gold evil. Dust floated above him, illuminated through the glass of the balcony doors under a beam of that evil aimed right at him. …okay.

FULL CHAPTER HERE —> A CURSE UPON THEE 3-11B “...how loooong, Finn?” He turned a page, not even bothering to look up. “How loooooooooong?” He turned another page, ignoring the whisper-complaining in his ear that had been going on for a good twenty minutes now. Granted, he’d been ignoring her for abo

FULL CHAPTER HERE —> A CURSE UPON THEE 3-11A “SQUAWK!” Some days you just regretted waking up. “SQUAWK!” Some days you regretted even the concept of leaving your bed and that was a much more specific kind of regret; the kind that usually started up when his phone started buzzing on the low table and

…how old is that kid? He was aiming for sixteen, which sounded about right. Fifteen was possible, sure, but sixteen seemed to hit the spot a bit better. The bat in his hand definitely seemed like it was school property, the aluminum weapon looking worn in exactly that sort of ‘too many hands have be

The sky was really pretty in Kyoto this time of year, an undeniable part of a beautiful Japanese summer as the months moved into May. Unfortunately — “FINN!” — he wasn’t really able to enjoy it all that well right now. Mostly because the world had just gone stupid, blue sky and white clouds replacin

A thousand yen a page… Finn clicked his tongue, eyes firmly on the old man behind the counter as his machine beeped and whirred. You’re joking. Unfortunately, the konbini owner didn’t seem to believe in jokes. He also didn’t believe in fair prices either. This is freakin’ Suujin. Despite two weeks o

“Off—!” “Nope.” Torture wasn’t exactly as easy as it looked. Not the pain-causing part, no… Finn was pretty sure he could do that to a monster without caring all that much. No skin off his nose, even if the monster had a habit of squealing like a pathetic chihuahua that had grown a bit past the bree

Great. Finn stepped over a shattered cinderblock, soles scraping against powder and grit as he glanced around. Perfect spot for a barbecue. “You are certain it’s here.” It wasn’t much of a question at all, really. No little uptick to the end that would have had him ready with an answer, serious or n

The rear axle was complaining, suspension a few decibels short of a scream as Finn cranked the steering wheel of his kei truck. Every single pebble on the pavement was almost enough for Finn to feel it right against his most sensitive set of cheeks, a massage chair that was entirely unnecessary. Eit

The scent of Kurosawa-san’s cigarette wafted up from the second floor, Finn wrinkling his nose against cheap tobacco. Okay. He snapped his phone shut and slipped the clamshell back into his pocket, a sigh leaving his lips. Okay… A call with the fixer had gone as usual, the woman on the other end str

Chad the Barbarian… It felt like there was a joke somewhere in there. Unfortunately, he wasn’t too good at making them. No, that was more the wheelhouse of a specific red-haired idiot. Being honest, it was hard not to see what was funny there, but looking at the stop sign in his grip — a new notch i

Gold took the curve of Main Street slow and careful, his Cadillac obedient as ever. One hand on the wheel, the other took its rest across his thigh just bare inches from his cane. The wood might as well have been another limb at this point, yet what did he carry it for still? Habit. All of it, mere

Wet hair dripped down the back of her collar, Ruby biting back the urge to shake her hair like it was fur. A towel was also too much work so she’d already decided she wasn’t getting up to deal with it. Twenty minutes in the shower, standing under the water until the stuff in her hair and on her skin

What are you going to do, Emma? That same thought had been a constant in her head since she was old enough to even think and it had only gotten more common every single year. These last two weeks? It might as well have been playing on a loop. Exactly as long as she’d spent trudging through the trees

“...well, alright.” With all the crowing and celebration over and done with, now it was time for the messy part of the job. Messy-ish, at least. The actual fight was pretty harsh enough already, but it was dealing with the wet meat smearing thick grease and coagulated blood across the floor of the w

"—AAAAAAAAAAAA—!" Kyoto had gotten to hear the subtle sounds of his screaming the last few minutes, Finn serenading the streets he’d been getting dragged through for a solid four — maybe five? — five blocks now. Five sounded about right. And somewhere around block number two, his count had stopped b

Lunch had stretched late, nearing something closer to early dinner by the time the Kurose family finally sat down to eat. The television was still talking to itself from the next room, some host shouting over a laughing studio as Mother made one last trip from the kitchen and back over to the table.

「おはようございます。七時になりました。京都の朝、今朝は少し冷たい雨になっています。」 Japanese tore through the thin cotton of the covers in a quick clip of syllables, some guy talking about the weather. 「京都市内の気温は十五度、午後には雨も上がる見込みです。」 For some ungodly reason, the dickhead on the morning radio was cheerful about it too, way too loud and way t

THEN “Chad!” The smell of rubber soles on sun-baked asphalt was thick in the air, a seven-year old on the curb with summer sweat plastering blond hair to his forehead as he bawled his eyes out. Tears mixed with sweat, both cutting tracks through the dust on his face. Blue t-shirt bunched up in one h

Green-brown-green. Bark smeared past her shoulders, pine striping at the corner of her vision, the world tunneling and the ground rushing under her boots with all the speed she could muster on just two human legs. Every twenty steps, though, her hands wanted the dirt. To feel the ground under her pa

Water crawled higher from the growing depths around the geyser, long trails of water spreading further and farther. Foot by encroaching foot, fluid ate up the space of the cracked bowl; the lakebed with a lot more lake in it than just five minutes ago. At the very center right in front of the geyser

Laughter bounced off the baked ground, a high musical shriek from the fairy by the treeline blending in with the over-loud cackle from the pirate right in front of him. Red. It fell to the floor, dozens of copper-colored strands fluttering down over his face. Each one drifted lazily through the air,

Forest green and mud brown finally gave way to the ugly tan of dust and baked earth. All that travel had gotten them this far, just for this. A lake that wasn’t a lake. There was no other way to describe what opened in front of them as they broke the treeline and his red boots dug into the hard-pack

“My point is…” Emma’s sigh came loud over his shoulder as he kept working. “Even if we do get out of here…” Finn grunted. “When…” It was a when, not if. The finger trick was working and had been for a few solid minutes. That was the good news. “Fine. When we get out of here, we don’t even know which

Red. “Finn…” It roared tight and hard around his fist, a scream of Cursed Energy as he swung his hips and drove his armored right foot deep into loose mortar. “Spark…” Stone cracked beneath his pivot, the floor fissuring beneath his planted boot as Finn McHale swung out for all he was worth. “Strike

“Looks dead.” Two days. Two days of walking through rotting pine, stagnant ponds of black and air so thick it felt like trying to breathe through wet wool had put a new level of appreciation for this world into Finn McHale. Unfortunately, that level was below ground. The ‘Black Forest’ — another sec

The smell of cordite and cold concrete was the same in any range, no matter where or when. This one was no different despite its small size, and the stink of some Storybrooke mustiness underneath Chad had long stopped trying to place. Regardless of smell, the concussive snap of his P229 bounced off

“Finn, you sure you know where we’re going?” Blue eyes rolled behind half-lids as he kept himself moving, the mud sucking at the soles of his boots with a greedy sound that followed every single step. Roots the size of city bus tires were their own hazard, but at least those were obvious and rare. M

MAL IGNA AÏDOENOUS The Violet Shade The afterimage burned green into his retinas, the color a flickering flaming neon before those oversized letters dissolved into the green canopy above; nothing but the stinging scent of burnt sugar and lavender left behind. Finn didn’t blink or breathe, knees digg

The shop had never been so loud. So. So. So. Loud. That was her first thought, absurd and useless as it was the moment the first sharp crack split the air. Sound rebounded off the crowded walls of the once-peaceful pawnshop and Belle’s immediate stupid thought was that the first edition of Paradise

And with this, the last of the comissioned chapters of A Curse Upon Thee are done for this period. A Grade One. God-knows-how-many-hours later, it was still on his mind and his lips both; the fact of it refusing to fade. I exorcised a Grade One. He shook his head slow, a smile still on his face as h

Huh. A thumb pressed hard into his side, the digit poking deep at his ribs as he waited for it. A wince. A twinge, even. A white-hot grind of bone against bone that forced his breath to hitch the night before. Huh. He pushed harder, enough for the knuckle to whiten as he tried to get a single sense

“Let’s die!” It echoed out across the cavernous ballroom, carried on the heat of the flames and bouncing over ruined marble flooring. Finn meant it, too. Not as a threat. Hell, not even as a plan. The words left his bleeding mouth and something deep in his chest settled around them, a heavy iron wei

ASHEN SLUMBER - GRADE 1 Diseased Cursed Spirit [Hex-Born] A Grade 1. The bold black text dripped red like blood, hovering in the air for all of one agonizing heartbeat before dissolving into falling embers. A Grade 1 Cursed Spirit. Finn swallowed hard, the dry heat of the burning ballroom turning sa

“I… don’t know.” The cool Maine wind was still blowing, shattered glass and powdered brick settling over the Main Street of Storybrooke. “I really don’t.” Almost the same exact words scraped past Ruby Lucas’s lips for what had to be the third or fourth time, her rasp catching in her throat. She sat

Savage. Each strike swung out exactly that way. Savage and brutal and unrelenting. The blond didn’t bother defending, a too-wide smile on his face to match the nightmare as he went after it. Each one of his blows overpowered it, the sharp edge of the torn sign proving its worth as they ripped throug

Jaws neared him, teeth close enough that Chad could smell the rotting stench of its breath. He didn’t even have time to flinch as it lunged. Meaning his eyes were as wide open as his ears to catch the deafening blast that tore through the night, a sound so violent it rattled the teeth in his skull.

Finn’s eyes snapped open the second the scream rang out. He didn’t bother jumping out of bed this time, no need to kick to his feet or reach for a weapon. Instead, he just groaned from his bedroll. “Could somebody wake her up already?” Aurora screamed out again, Finn joining in the noise with a groa

His shoes slapped a hard rhythm against the damp pavement of Storybrooke’s streets, uncaring of the puddles he splashed through. Feet and trousers drenched, Chad couldn’t find it in him to stop; steps uneven and breath shaky as he tried to ignore the way his heart was bashing against his ribs like a

“Too tight…” The hiss left one Ruby Lucas, the girl’s rasp even lower and rougher than usual. From what he’d been told, it had to do with the full moon and the ‘nature of the wolf’ being closer to the surface than normal. The instinct to say that it might have just been the stress of the day had bee

And all the answers were insane. "You all are psychotic." Chad clicked his tongue, the syllables more spat out than said as they hit the salt-heavy air of the Storybrooke docks and vanished. The fog took sound in the same way it took distance, everything more than a few yards out swallowed up until

Alright. Enough. Chad O’Donaghue frowned as the bell to Granny’s diner chimed loud above his head, the young man pushing his way past the glass. The door swung shut, the chill of the Maine dawn left behind and his eyes took in the empty diner; the air missing the distinct smell of fresh-brewed crude

Municipal Allocations… A sigh left David’s mouth as he stared at the form in front of him. Infrastructural Budget Derivatives… As much as he wanted to keep his eyes focused, the black text blurred together under the buzzing glare of the fluorescents in the sheriff’s station. “Jesus.” He raised a hea

'If you’re scared, that’s good. Very good, in fact. Means your heart’s still beating, boy. Brain’s still working.' The young man adjusted the cuffs of his sport coat, pausing his steps on the sidewalk as his chest buzzed. His phone left his jacket pocket a second later, blue eyes staring down at a t

For all its vaunted softness, Egyptian cotton was suffocating. Regina Mills opened her eyes from beneath the sheets, pulling them down from her head to stare up at the ceiling. Barely an inch of morning light made its way in through the blackout drapes, the sterile hum of the HVAC filtering into the

A pitiful pile of orange embers stared back at him from his bedroll, the glow doing almost nothing against the gold glare of morning light already edging over the edge of the world and filtering through the trees. Arms crossed behind his head, blue eyes stared straight up, up, and even higher up; no

Eyes blue as a summer sky snapped open at the scream. Wha-! It tore through heavy night air, the sound jagged the way it stabbed into his ears; exactly the kind of unfiltered panic that hit you right in the hindbrain. Survival instinct had him up and wide-eyed, Finn jumping right to his feet in the

"Interesting.” One long pale finger tapped itself thoughtfully, the digit landing over and over on the tip of a sharp chin as the imp purred out each and every syllable. “In-te-res-ting.” Ruby Lucas stood by the hallway entrance of the sheriff’s office, arms crossed so tightly that her skin was prot

“—elieve in magic in a young girl’s heart…” Pale fingers snapped on the downbeat, the crisp pop of skin on skin echoing out the thick green forest. “How the music can free her…” Red armored boots marched over a sprawling knot of moss-slick roots, the rhythm guiding his steps as he walked. “…whenever