Uphill Battle

Flash Fiction by

Christina Chapman

1,000 Words

Shauna stood at the bottom of the hill, watching as the executioner swung his machete. A head flew off shoulders and a body dropped to the hard ground. The head rolled downhill, stopped face up by her feet, the body tossed aside.

She lifted the head by the hair and shrugged. “I never liked him,” she yelled up the hill. “I can still forgive your foolishness.” Shauna tossed the severed head over her shoulder. Balor stepped out of the way, letting the head fly behind them. It was someone else’s problem now.

“Seriously, you can stop this right now,” Shauna said. “There’s no need to fight.” Facing her was an army of thousands, swords drawn and gleaming. Behind her was an army of sorts, only about fifteen total, but Shauna would rather fight with these fifteen battle born than with the whole world.

“Honestly, I don’t know what happened between us,” Shauna said. “We were here, just minding our own business, and you just show up, build your killing stand, and start beheading people.”

A response came in the form of another rolling head, another body thrown into the pile. Much to Shauna’s annoyance this head landed face down. “Now that’s just rude,” she said, again taking the head by the hair.

All sound was sucked from the air as she looked into the face of another someone who meant nothing to her. Shauna dusted off the head and handed it to Balor, making a show of her imaginary affection. “Make sure he is reunited with his body,” she said.

Balor nodded his head and gently passed the head off to the next guy, who passed it off to the next, until it eventually ended up out of sight and back on the ground. Shauna held out her arms as if beckoning the masses. “Now that I cannot forgive!” she declared. The whole world seemed silent, not even the wind dared make a sound. It was always unnervingly quiet when Shauna went to war. Balor couldn’t stop the smile from showing on his face, his too many teeth gleaming wickedly.

The executioner tried to speak, his feeble attempt at offering an excuse. Shauna didn’t allow the sound to leave him. Oh no, she controlled that now. She let out a laugh loud enough to shake the ground, raised her dark sword, and stood much taller now than she had mere seconds ago.

“Onward!” she called and her small but unnatural army charged up the hill. Balor had grown by two feet already and he hadn’t even killed anyone yet. Once the call to action had been made Shauna rushed up the hill. The first kill was always hers and she had her sights on the executioner. He died quickly with disappointingly little fanfare as she plunged her long talons into his chest and withdrew his heart.

“I really should wait,” she said, staring at the heart in her hand. “It’s rude having dessert first.” Shauna scanned the scene, no one was looking at her. Her forces were terrorizing people, ripping them apart, and they weren’t worried about when to eat dessert. With a smile she bit into the heart, savoring the warm metallic blood. It was electrifying, the energy from the heart poured into her, renewing her after centuries of being locked away.

Panic ran wild among the humans, who hadn’t even seen her true form yet. Balor lunged, bringing his broadsword down, severing the heads of two fighters who’d been unlucky enough to stand next to one another. The humans ran, retreating in terror as Shauna’s army chased them down. Heads were flying, then arms, hands; the melee was a delight.

And silent. Shauna enjoyed the silence, basked in it. God had given the gift of speech to mankind and she’d been forced to listen to their infantile babbling ever since. Now at least she could get some peace. She wasn’t like the other demons, she didn’t want the whole world, just this corner of it. She was happy to live here with her friends, a few worshippers, and only came out when she was disturbed.

If the humans could just stop with their noisemaking for five minutes she could let them live. But no, that was too much to ask of the little flea ridden flesh bags. They wanted to make their music and sing their songs and talk, talk, talk. They were always talking.

Shauna heard a snap and realized she’d been holding someone’s neck. She dropped the corpse, let it roll down the hill. She bet even now somewhere some human was talking. Maybe she should take the world. Very few moments had passed and her warriors were already through more than half of the army that had come to meet her. If this was their best how hard could world domination be?

The panic was electrifying. She fed on it, breathed it in. Shauna had been weakened by her long sleep, but now that she had begun to feed she was ravenous. Dark wings sprouted at her back and before she even realized that she wished it she was soaring over the battle. Her beautiful and terrible wings had been sealed for so long that Shauna had forgotten she even had them.

There was no audible cheering because she didn’t allow it, but she saw fifteen shadowy fists raised in the air to salute her. She couldn’t help but smile. They wanted her to come back down and end it, and who was she to deny her dear friends?

Shauna swooped down, just barely above the heads of the humans, soared again, this time showing off. With one final swoop she landed gracefully back on the hilltop and released all of the noise that she had captured. The sound ruptured and sparked, burning the frail humanity beneath her.

The earth still wasn’t quiet. Miles to east she heard the sounds of humans talking and laughing. Perhaps she should go put an end to them, too.

Artwork by Tara Cumella at lenoircitysnakeoil.com