Unseen Shadows

The man groaned in pain, his head still spinning. He tugged at the rope binding his wrists in futility. He looked up at his assailant, a hooded figure whose only reply was to crack on his right ring fingers, wearing a worn set of brass knuckles dripping with blood, His blood.

They had stashed him inside an abandoned warehouse; stacked boxes filled with useless trinkets had been pushed up hurriedly against the walls, layers of thick dust on every one of them. A solitary bit of moonlight shone from the skylight a good forty feet up, giving the man at least a small amount of illumination -- just enough to see the thugs pounding his jaw out of its socket.

There were three of them in total, each taking their turn. There was the hooded one, who remained silent but wore a sinister grin; then there was a slender guy brandishing knives, rubbing his chrome blades against a stone for sharpening -- the blades had also been put to good use against the men bloodied chest, his once white shirt matted scarlet. The last was a woman with a skull cap easily the smallest of the three, yet no less vicious. All of them wore matching grey suits with red ties, not too dissimilar to the men's ruined outfit. The woman approached, tapping the hooded one on his side to trade places. With a huff of disapproval, the hooded one obliged, stepping aside.

“Ya ready to talk yet?” said the woman, a sneer across his face. “Or can ya say anything at all with that busted jaw of yers?”

It hurt for the man to talk; even trying to open his jaw sent a searing jolt of nauseating pain to his brain. Despite that, he managed a bitter, biting laugh. “Well enough to tell you to go fuck yourself.”

The woman sneered tightened into a thin-lipped frown as he took a step back, then forward again, putting all of her force into a punch that landed on the side of the man's jaw. He let out an agonizing cry, straining against the chair as he pulled against the ropes binding his arms and legs, enough that they too began to bleed.

“Still got some sass left in ya.” The woman peered down at him. “Yer gonna die here, ya know. Unless ya talk.”




The taste of copper filled the man's mouth, forcing him to gag as he spat out a bloody glob on the floor, surrounding a canine tooth. “You heard what I said, asshole. Go --”

“Go fuck yourself. I heard ya the first time.” The woman took another step towards the captive man, her fingers wrapping around his neck, squeezing roughly. “And yer about five seconds away from me ripping yer fucking tongue out.”

“Do it,” the man managed to choke out. “Means you’ll have wasted your time.”

Now it was his turn. He approached the woman from behind, his knives out and at the ready. The woman raised her hand to hold him back. With an irritated grunt, the henchmen stayed put, snarling in protest.

“Ya have something we want, Kyle.” The woman grip loosened his grip on the man's throat. “But we have more than one way of getting it back. Killing you is just a bonus. Ya might walk out of here with some of yer body parts still intact if you’d simply cooperate.”

Kyle gave the woman his answer, spitting another bloody glob out, this time against the woman’s cheek. A look of disgust filled her face as she pulled out a handkerchief, quick to wipe it off.

“You fucking asshole,” the woman snarled out. “Alright. Have it yer way.” With another wave of his hand, the man with knives was set upon him, who was quick to drag his blades across Kyle’s chest again, drawing another anguished scream out of him. The red continued to flow, further staining Kyle’s tattered shirt. Yet despite the agony, he managed another laugh.

“What’s so funny?” The woman pushed his way past the henchmen, her finger jabbed in Kyle's bloodied face. “You’ve lost your Goddamn mind if ya think this shit is funny!”

“Oh, I do. You have no idea what kind of shit show you’ve just walked into,” Kyle said between blood-stained teeth.

“That so? Ya think yer friends are going to come in and save ya? This isn’t Hollywood, Kyle .”

“In a few seconds, you’re going to wish it was. At least the actors stop beating you up when they say cut.”

“What the fuck does that mean --”

Before the woman could get an answer, the wall behind him came crashing down in a sea of dust and debris that blinded his vision, causing him to cough. A few heavy thuds followed as soft light poured in from outside. There a long-haired woman stood, silently watching the goons. There she stood a solid
9 feet of her, head to toe with heavy Kevlar armor on her body and covered in numerous scars across her arms, long grey hair tousled over her shoulders. She easily loomed over everyone in the room, her gaze an ice-cold stare.

“What in the fuck?” was all the woman could get out before she and her henchmen pulled their pistols and open fired. Bullet upon bullet was shot at the mysterious figure. Kyle wiggled his way out of the crossfire to the only land on his face and got stuck. A large cloud of dust, dirt, and concrete remained as the skull cap woman held her fist up. As they let the cloud dissipate they reloaded their guns, the cloud finally cleared but no large woman was seen. All they were astonished, “ Where is she “ said the knife-wielding henchmen. As he waited for an answer a voice answered. “ I’m right here,” she said with a smirk. They all looked up including Kyle they saw her clinging on to a bar. She dropped down like a missile, her feet connecting with the henchmen s chest, crushing him with her muscular tree trunk sized thighs.



Her impact left him in a crater on the hard concrete surface. For the first time that night, the hooded one spoke, letting out a terrified scream as he fumbled for the extra clip at his belt. He didn’t get the chance to pull it out. The giantess's fist collided with his face, forcing his head to the ground with a sucking thud.

The woman, however, did have time to reach for her extra clip, which she was quick to fire in rapid succession at whatever parts of the giant's body she could hit. Several of the rounds landed on her arm near her shoulder but stopped in motion once connected to her body. One, however, managed to strike her cheek, forcing her to rear back, her right hand raised instinctively to cover the injury.

“Big mistake,” she snarled.

With a quick dash, she made contact with the woman’s throat lifting her off the ground, a primal fear striking the woman where he stood. In her panic, her gun slipped out of her hands, landing on the concrete below. Her arms flailed as she found himself lifted towards the giantess's face.

“Oh, shit,” she whispered out. “Look, I dunno who ya are, but...we were just following orders. Our boss told us to rough your pal up a little, y’ know, tell us where he stashed our goods --”

“Shut up,” she growled, squeezing down hard enough to force the air out of the woman's lungs, her tan skin began turning an unhealthy shade of blue.

“Oh God, no,” she coughed out, gasping for air. “Please, d-don’t kill me…I was just doing my job!”

The giantess's face remained eerily expressionless. “So am I.”

Suddenly, the woman found herself released from the giantess grasp -- well, less released and more flung -- towards the wall to her right as if she were a doll she had grown tired of. Her body landed against the surface with a sickening crack before he collapsed onto the boxes below, groaning from the impact as splinters of fractured wood kept her in place.

When it was all said and done, and the realization hit him that his torture was over, Kyle starting laughing again, despite the pain.

“Shit. What took you so long?” he protested between pained breaths.

“Sorry, got caught up on the way here.” Despite his predicament, she showed him just as much disdain as the trio she had just throttled. With no effort she lifted him off his face and unbounded him from the chair, wrapping her finger around the rope breaking it. Kyle slowly rose from the chair, standing was hard against his wounded body and caused him to yelp in pain.


Kylecrumbled to the floor but was caught by the giantess, wrapping her arm around him. Kyle looked at her with a comedic gin, she met it with a terrifying stare at him.





“Cold as always. My hero.” Kyle grimaced as another realization hit him, “ wait I’m forgetting something” as he leaves her support and limps to a body.

Kyle would be more than happy to be in his current predicament; the blood loss and resulting vertigo of being lifted so suddenly put a quick end to any sense of enjoyment he might have had.



K, however, kept her pace the same, moving briskly with him so he wouldn’t fall.

There he moved to the man she had crushed under her feet, Kyle tugged on the black gun to take it from the man's cold hand. The corpse finally released, almost throwing him back.

“ What are you doing,” K asked

“ This is mine it’s a custom m9 with—
“ Never mind, can we go” She interrupted

He shrugged and stepped across the body to get with her”

“ Don’t you wanna check the bodies “ he interjected

She rolled her eyes in annoyance and turned in anger. “ Look all of them are on the ground, bones snapped and bleeding. How could anyone still be alive?” But as she finished the hooded man stood up, cradling his gun. He aimed his pistol at K, in one last attempt to end it all but failed as the ammunition jammed. The giantess clinched her fist ready to attack but was stopped by Kyle's arm.

“ Please allow me,” he says in glee, he raises his pistol and puts the man down with a head shot. K smirked "yea right.... i'm the cold one here", Kyle turned back to her as he holstered his gun "hey he got what he deserved" he points straight between his eyes " a bullet right between the eyes. Kyle's energy was finally waning and he grabbed his chest while crumbling to the floor coughing more blood. K knelt placing her hand on his shoulder in comfort, "OK now can we leave Kyle shook his head slowly as she helped him out of the gaping hole, waiting for them was a matte black suburban. She helps Kyle into the truck and opens up the back to undress, her body began to steam and shrink down to a meager 5'8. They were finally ready to leave as she pulled off from the abandoned warehouse, leaving this night for good.