[LNHY/ACRA] The Daily Super Short-Short Story #60

[Saxon Brenton]

The Daily Super Short-Short Story #60
 
A Devil Came Down To Georgia 42
 
Last time: Jesus Christ was pounding Beel.gzip.bub with a loaf of bread 
and Martin was in a grudge match again his fellow Nephalim, Lisa.
 
     TJ grabbed Delory and hustled him to a corner that looked at least 
vaguely defensible.  And which didn't look as though it was under threat 
from having something collapse on it, TJ mentally added as another sheet 
of dust from the cavern's roof drifted towards downwards, causing them 
both to cough. Needless to say the view from where they were was no 
longer panoramic, and the two of them had only the vaguest idea of what 
was happening. Even the flashes of fire that Jesus was batting back at 
the demon lord only gave an indication of where the conflict was 
happening, not was actually going on with it.
     Jesus was battling Beel.gzip.bub - although `toying with' might 
have been a better term - and Martin was fighting Lisa. That left an 
unspecified, but probably very large, number of demonlings to worry about 
if they took it into their malformed little heads to make trouble. Plus Kien.
     "Cowering in a corner?" asked Kien as he faded into view. "That's 
not like you, Timmy-Joe."
     Big talk, TJ knew, from someone who used his powers of psycho-
projection to attack from afar rather than running the risk of being 
harmed himself. And so TJ said nothing, instead adopting a defensive 
stance. Neither he nor Delory was really in the best condition for a 
fight, what with the venom Lisa had put into them earlier. While they 
were here in this infernal realm they weren't going to die, but they 
were still in a pretty poor condition with which to stave off an assault. 
He let his eyes roam around the immediate area, looking for any hints 
of where Kien really was.
     Kien attacked - lunging at TJ and swinging punches. There was not 
much grace to the motions of the assault, TJ noticed, but the Tulpa 
didn't even need to connect precisely. Well, he wouldn't need to, would 
he? Kien only needed to focus his telekinesis through the psionic 
projection of his body, and as long as he came within a few inches with 
his swipes, then that was indeed `close enough'.
     TJ dodged as best he could. Could he hold off this murderous little 
soul-eater for long enough for Martin to finish off Lisa and come to 
their rescue? Dunno, but best not to rely on such a happy prospect. TJ 
hastily glanced around, wondering if the cost in exhaustion would be 
worth the benefit in trying to run ahead of his attacker. Or the chance 
that they might be able to run across Kien's real body.
     For his part Delroy felt frustrated and helpless. He had been 
warned about Kien's abilities, and also knew that TJ's mutant powers 
made him slightly faster and dextrous than normals. There was no logical 
reason for him to even bother trying to be in the fight against Kien... 
If TJ couldn't handle Kien, then realistically Delroy had little hope.
     As if this angst-ridden self-reproachment had attracted Kien's 
attention, the Tulpa quirked a little smile and simply walked through 
TJ towards Delroy. TJ did a double take, and Delroy backed off - but not 
fast enough, and certainly not nimbly enough. He tripped over a rock as 
he was stepping back, and in a second Kien was on him, pummelling him 
with the telekinetic equivalent of super strong fists.
     It was lucky that TJ caught some movement out of his eye. There 
were footprints in the dust nearby, for which there was no reason he 
could see. TJ carefully looked around, and noted another Kien some way 
away. He was staring at his psycho-projection bashing Delory, and his 
face was a Paper White Masque of Evil (obligatory They Might be Giants 
reference). TJ remembered Kien's claim that he was all that was evil and 
debased in the soul of some young monk which had then overwhelmed and 
eaten his originating self, and shuddered. Almost without thinking he 
ran and crash tackled the physical body of the Tulpa, and began slamming 
Kien's head against the ground. That felt good. It brought back memories 
of the way Damian the wondersock had used his earlier host body to 
similarly bash TJ's face to a bloody pulp, and being able to return the 
compliment was very fulfilling. Such reminiscences were not wise, however, 
and unexpectedly TJ remembered the taste of the shit that Damian had made 
him eat in order to repair that damage, and without warning he gagged.
     Kien used the opportunity to renew his own attack, this time on TJ. 
Hammering from two sides, one from his physical body and one from his 
psycho-projection, Kien began pummelling TJ. He didn't retain the upper 
hand for very long, though. TJ simply grabbed Kien's throat and began 
throttling him, and with bloodyminded determination ignored the punches 
from the psycho-projection. Eventually those punches weakened and faded 
away. TJ barely noticed; he was too intent on watching Kien's face turn 
desperate and pruple.
     "Tim, no! Don't do that!" said Delroy frantically, grabbing TJ's 
arm.
     "Go away you stupid twit!" yelled TJ. "What do you think you're 
trying to do?"
     "Don't murder him in cold blood," Delroy said. "Not here. Not in 
Hell. The contamination of the soul..."
     TJ stared at Delroy. He couldn't believe this. For a dreadful 
second he considered killing Delroy just to get him out of the way, and 
then telling the others that Kien had done it before he could stop him. 
"He's a fsking Monster from the ID that ate the soul of the body he's 
inhabiting!" TJ explained with an exaggerated, grating patience. "Do you 
really think that just because he's got the looks of baby faced innocence 
that he's any less evil that Tsurlich or Lisa or the bloody wondersock? 
And besides, it's not in cold blood. He'll try and kill us if we don't 
get him first." Delory looked anguished. "It's kill or be killed, 
Delory," TJ said.
     "We can't kill anything here, Tim," Delory reminded him. "That's 
why We haven't died of the poison yet, remember? And if you let yourself 
lose it, you'll just be scrabbling with one another here, forever."
     "Then I'll subdue him by smashing his head to pulp. That should keep 
him out of our hair," replied TJ, jabbing a angry finger at Delroy.
     Which was when Kien ran TJ through the gut with a long metal spear.
 
Tomorrow: Penultimate part of the story.
 
The Daily Super Short-Short Story series created by Arthur Spitzer, and 
used with belated permission.
 
All main characters created by Saxon Brenton are Ask First Before Use 
for the duration of this storyline, then they'll probably go to Usable 
Without Permission.
 
-----
Saxon Brenton     University of Technology, city library, Sydney Australia
     saxon.brenton at uts.edu.au
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