Sopot Boyz

The city of Danzig was unusually quiet. On a regular day, people would be chatting around cafes or watching football games and drinking cheap beers in numerous pubs even despite a quite rainy evening and fog settling down on gray stones of the old city street. But this day was somehow different. Not even vagrants or beggars could be seen or heard anywhere. Even the colorful walls of the monumental tenements seemed lifeless. Only tolling of the bells from the old cathedral of Saint Mary could be heard.

And there, lost in her thoughts, not really caring about the odd stillness of this place, walked Emilia, who would actually appreciate the atmosphere of this particular day if she did notice it at all. A tall, slim girl with waist-length hair, darker than the night sky, yet still somehow a bit brighter than her deep, blue eyes. Listening to her favorite band on her headphones, with hands hidden warm under her blue-white poncho, she was heading back to her house.

As she walked she noticed some peculiarities. The street seemed awfully long today, she worried she might be late for her tram. A feeling of cold mist glooming over her brain clouded her mind. An overwhelming sense of apathy. A weird thought occurred in her mind, or rather... a lack of it. Everything seemed odd all of the sudden. As if she was in a dream of sorts. Getting confused but still walking, she noticed she is not getting anywhere. She must’ve walked at least few hundred meters since she subconsciously thought of it. She couldn’t even tell the time. She did not know for how long she’s been marching through the same street, but she didn’t really care about it all. She couldn’t figure out if it was really happening. Some sane part of her mind kept telling her things weren't right, but the feeling was fading as fast it was appearing.

- It’s a weird feeling isn’t it? - She heard a voice echoing through the avenue.

The voice belonged to a boy sitting in a chair next to a pub few meters away from her. Strangely, she didn't notice him at first even though he seemed to be the only person in sight. Despite the chilly, autumn weather, the boy wasn’t wearing any warm cloths. Only olive cargo pants, boots with red shoelaces, a simple black T-shirt and leather, fingerless gloves. He had several visible tattoos on his arms depicting weird religious or occultic symbols. Another odd thing was that he was wearing really dark flaxen glasses with thin, silver frames. He had combed back hair that was mostly dark brown but if you looked closely you would notice some strains of grey which was very peculiar because he couldn’t be older than her, probably starting collage or work. He was quite tall and athletic, but something about his posture was unsettling. He was sitting laid back with his legs crossed, looking at her through fog mixed with cigarette smoke, as if he was waiting for her to say something. She came a little closer. Being around this man seemed like a bad idea for Emilia. She was feeling something eerie in the air.

- Excuse me but what do you mean by that? - She asked as she looked around. - What feeling exactly?

- What are you listening to? - He asked out of nowhere, completely ignoring her question with a rude smirk on his thin lips.

- Change by D... No wait, why are you even asking me that? What does it even have to do with anything? - She got even more confused.

- Nice track but shouldn’t you maybe... I don’t know... not be able to hear me with your headphones on? -He asked sarcastically.

The question was followed by a moment of awkward silence as he raised his eyebrow.

- Well, weird, isn’t it? - He repeated the mean remark.

Emilia took her headphones off. She was getting anxious.

- I got stuck here with you for God knows how long. So better start talkin’ cause am getting kinda bored. - He said with a mean tone.

Everything seemed... mysteriously unreal all of the sudden.

- You could start with telling me what is going on here. Since you seem to actually understand it right? Is there anything actually wrong with this place?

She looked around, trying to understand what exactly he had on his mind. Everything still seemed almost normal just really quiet and empty with an exception of mixed feelings fighting in her mind.

- More or less... But you wouldn’t understand it anyway yet so I don't think I will.

- You're not very talkative are you? Are you actually going to tell me anything or what? - She was getting irritated by his unhelpful attitude.

- Fine, fine, since you insist I will try to do a little explaining. So you know something is wrong, right?. Your mind just doesn't want to see it yet. You don’t know what exactly because you don't know what to look for. Don't you feel... endangered? Don’t you think something bad might happen if you step closer to me?

Emilia flinched. She felt fear crawling on her back. Why was she feeling that? There wasn't anything to be scared of besides the man sitting in front of her but he didn't seem very intimidating anyway.

- Yes, I suppose you do seem like a jerk... Are you trying to rob me or something? Because if you do, it's a rather shitty way to do so. - She replied, trying not to look away from him.

He took a big draw from the cigarette and put it out on the shoe sole of his boot.

- Wrong! You’re silly, am not the danger here! - He laughed with the emptiest, driest laugh she has ever heard. - But IT is getting closer. Good, finally we can get out of this damn Limbo... You should probably look for some safe place.

He said calmly and slowly stood up, turning away from her. He took off his glasses and put them on a table beside him.

- Well that didn't explain any of this! - She exclaimed angerly.

Her reply was ignored. He looked at the floor and started walking around in circles while shaking his legs. He walked past her, stood in the middle of the street and started stretching. She was looking at him like he was some kind of madman, which honestly, wasn’t far from the truth. Suddenly, she heard an awful, otherworldly scream from somewhere around the corner few hundred meters from them. It sounded like horses getting burnt alive mixed with noise of heavy machinery like train crashing. The boy started laughing, but this time, it wasn’t a dry, lifeless laugh like earlier. He seemed excited. She didn’t know who to be more scared of at this point. Emilia started shaking and walking away in fear, but she couldn’t stop staring at the direction of the roar.

- What in heavens was that?!

- Heaven? Definitely not, this bastard is obviously from hell! Or at least somewhere similar. - The boy replied jokingly.

Moment after he said it, the beast showed itself. It resembled a huge, hellish hybrid of a dog and a boar. Long horse-like legs carried a bulgy torso which ended with an ugliest head she had ever seen. It was almost her height and it's whole body was covered in black fur and spikes. Its long jaws reminded her of a crocodile, with sharp teeth sticking out of it in every direction, even wounding itself in few places. A pig-like nose was sniffing furiously. Its small, black eyes were fixed directly at her, there were dozens of them, placed on its head seemingly randomly like chocolate chips on some really fucked up eldritch cookies. It made no sense how something like this could exist. It was out of this world. She felt cold sweat running down her neck and back. She felt sick, paralyzed. Even more so than she should. The fear was like poison seeping through her system, debilitating.

- Come on! Bring it on bastard! - Shouted the boy while pulling a long pocket knife out of his cargo pants.

The beast looked at him and growled deeply. It started running at him, gaining speed no one would expect from something this size. The boy with the knife looked absurdly weak in comparison to it, yet still he looked confident and even excited. The fight began. The boy dodged monsters charge by dashing to the side while cutting it at the same time. All of it happened in a blink of an eye. Monster turned back incredibly fast, but the boy was even faster and jabbed his knife in its lower jaw, and then something even more unbelievable happened. He flipped the hellspawn over his head. She could feel the floor tremble when it hit the ground. The beast screamed at the top of its lungs as it hit him with a hoof to the chest. She expected to hear awful crack of his ribs. Boy flew few meters back and landed on some trashcans. She wanted to shout but she couldn’t move at all. Not a single muscle would listen to her commands. The beast got itself up from the ground and shrugged. It sniffed the air and turned its ugly head to Emilia. It slowly started moving towards her, bleeding profoundly from its mouth and side, its blood sizzling on the pavement as if it was acidic. She could only move back a little, while praying for salvation.

- So much... light... - The beast growled. - So tasty...

She opened her eyes even wider and froze. The fact that it spoke was much more frightening than the beast itself. She felt like drowning in an ocean of dread. But like an angel coming down from the heavens to smite the devil, the boy drop kicked the demon right in the head, he must have run insanely fast, because the beast was pushed a good two meters away. His heavy boots increased the impact. She could see few teeth flying away from its mouth. He quickly stood up and run up to it but the beast kicked and hit him with its jaws, poking few nasty holes in his chest and stomach. Boy screamed and as he got up in a mix of pain and rage, he started furiously punching it with his bare hands. His strength was beyond human. He wouldn't stop until beasts head mixed with the pavement in a gory mess. He kneeled, and closed his eyes tightly, breathing heavily, bleeding from his fists, nose, mouth and the wounds in his chest and abdomen. He looked like he could die any minute, yet he still clenched his fists and eyes. He turned away from her.

- It’s over. You should go now. - He whispered calmly. Emilia snapped out of her fear induced paralysis-like state. She had so many questions, but the only thing she did was she slowly approached him and asked with a shaky voice.

- What... what should I do? - He slowly stood up and picked up his glasses from the pub table.

- You just wait here girl. Am goin to call Doc. You should just stay put for now... - He said as she felt her consciousness slipping away. The fog started clearing up and in just few seconds, the gray fog, the confusion, and the feeling of impending doom. It all disappeared. She was standing in the middle of the ever-crowded Długa Street. She caught a glimpse of the stranger disappearing in the crowd but as she followed him around a corner, he was gone. She looked around again, looking for answers that were nowhere to be found.

Alone with her thoughts. The song in her headphones has just started playing.