“You think you’ll ever be rid of this?” the voice came again, as Xander spun around looking for its source and finding nothing. “You think that if you save enough, if you forgive enough, that maybe someone will save and forgive you?”
-BANG!-
The clay moulding directly above Xander’s head erupted in gunfire, showering him with bits of silt and dust as he ran forward to get away from it, desperately trying to get the tiny stones out of his eyes. He stumbled forward until his hands felt something sturdy for him to lean against, his palms flat against the cool, hard surface. His eyes watered and cried until all the dust was out of them, the grey marble square in front of him slowly coming into view, as well as the equally grey foot that stood still on it. He looked up at the justice statue again, water still streaming down his face. “That’s not what this is about,” he said, locking eyes with the veiled ones of the statue for a moment before turning around. “That’s not what this is about!”
There was a long, odd creek from close by, but it stopped before he could get a read on it.
“No?” the voice laughed, and Xander could almost see his head rocking back in his mind’s eye. “And how would you know? You don’t even know why you’re fighting, let alone what you’re fighting for.”
The sound started again, much more sudden, and louder than before. There was a sudden weight on him so immense and heavy that it forced him to the floor. There was a loud crash, and more dust and dirt erupted all around him as he tried to turn around, making it impossible to see. When his eyes were clear again, he was nose-to-nose with the lady holding the scales.
Genblade got back up off of the floor where the statue had stood and dusted himself off as he hopped up onto her back, walking casually over the beautifully carved stone until he stood directly on top of Xander. He crouched down to get closer, watching the boy squirm and wince under the incredible weight, then took aim with the gun. “Justice is a hard weight to carry, isn’t it Womb?” he whispered mockingly, licking his lips. “That’s why nobody ever said doing the right thing was easy.”
“How would you know?” Xander grunted, forcing out each syllable more and more as his lungs refused to fill with air a little more with each breath. His eyes bulged, large and black.
“How indeed,” Genblade smirked. “But I tell you, I’d rather be this good at doing the wrong thing... than suck at doing the right thing as much as you do.”
Xander opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, Genblade pulled the trigger and pumped off one final shot that literally blew off his shoulder. He screamed, his hands slamming against the statue as they tried to reach up and hold the damaged flesh but were unable to do so.
As Genblade watched, he saw that the blood that seeped out of the gaping red maw was a thick, congealed black. He smiled, reaching down and grabbing Xander by the face, forcing his mouth to close and the screams to stop. “Time to continue your education, son. I think you’ll like today’s lesson. Round one to me.”
Xander tried to respond, but the black liquid boiling up in his throat, searing the lining of his esophagus as it went, drowned out the words. In the distance, sirens finally began to blare to life as squad cars came into range. Before the blackness completely enveloped his lips... a smile started over them.
Genblade leapt from the statue and onto the floor, bolting for the doors as fast as he could.
As the blackness overwhelmed him, devouring his body until there was nothing left, Xander felt a sick, gurgling laugh build up in his throat, though he wasn’t quite sure from where.
“Black Womb lives.”
He heard himself say in the creature’s horrible, gagging voice as his eyes opened, revealing the red, opaque lenses that saw every last detail the room had to offer. The mouth gaped open, its forked tongue whipping out and tasting the air. The scent it grabbed was so familiar that Xander could almost see it floating in the air and disappearing at the door. It gripped the statue by the hips with his clawed hands, rolling it to one side and then breaking into a run before it had even finished climbing to his feet.
It burst through the front doors of the courthouse, landing on all fours.
There was nothing. No people, no cars and most of all, no Genblade. For one single, horrifying moment, it occurred to Xander that he’d lost the killer already.
Then the truck hit him.
The Womb slammed against the concrete steps, feeling the sharp stone dig into his back.
Smiling, Genblade leaned out of the cab of the blue pickup and watched the Womb scramble back to his feet. Laughing, he pulled out onto the road and sped away. It drove a hundred feet and then turned sharply, spinning around one-hundred-and-eighty degrees until its dented grill again faced the Black Womb.
The sun blaring in its eyes, the Womb could only stand and watch as Genblade revved the car’s engine, then finally put his foot to the floor and started speeding toward the creature again.
Inside the Womb, Xander watched as the truck barreled down upon him, waiting for just the right moment. He felt the muscles in his legs filled with black blood and become tense, his taloned fingers dangling at his sides.
The vehicle was almost on top of him when he leapt, crashing through the windshield and into the cab. He landed square in the empty
