El Bolero de la Chica Loca de Demonia

The Skeleton man stood beneath the stone gateway, his gem eyes looking up at a temple surrounded by side streets and gift shops. All tourists traps gave way to his fiery judgement and the weak people fled. So weak, so unimportant to the Gods he worshipped. Each one had a life that he could feel, that wavered inside of his empty chest. Their energies buzzed like an angry bee hive, especially as the Skeletal man walked closer to the great temple. El Dorado was so close, so close within his grasp. And when there, he would bath in the waters of eternal life and gain flesh once more, instead of this broken form supported by lesser gods from lands far north. With a rise of his hands, the darkening sky was filled with a blinding green flash, lightning which rocketed down from the heavens and struck the top of the temple. Car alarms in a mile radius burst alive and screamed their distrust, while also mourning the slow lost of a girl called Ileana. Again, green lightning as thick as the trunk of a tree hit the tip of the temple, before another and another, as the once blue energy that bathed the skeleton flared into a sick jungle green.

A rumbling rolled over Mexico City, as stones began to shiver and bounce from vibrations that came from the earth itself. The Priest King clenched his fists close together, one gold and bare while the other was bone and creaked. With a small movement, there was a sudden CRACK! Thick, ancient stone blocks were pulled apart as a sudden fault ran from between his legs, over the urban temple, and into the streets beyond. As the Priest King pulled his hands apart, metal screamed in protests and earth was shaken free. In the streets beyond, a fire hydrant exploded and suddenly rained it's contents down, before power lines were shaken from their home, plunging this part of Mexico City into darkness. The façade of a building slipped, exposing the contents within.

The Priest King's fists were shaking, but now were in a position as if he was holding a railing and leaning against it. With a jerk his fists were pulled out and stood wide apart, which seemed to do massive damage to the front of the temple, ripping and throwing chunks of stone around the small courtyard that embedded into walls and crushed stalls. Screaming voices went through out the city as what would later be described as a minor earthquake came to an end.

In the hollow but hidden centre of the ancient building, golden stairs covered in grime were exposed to the low light of a Mexico City evening. The Priest King descended them, his shoes kicking up dust. The destroyed temple soon turned into a incredibly dark tunnel, which he illuminated with a ball of green energy that formed in his palm. Soon, the gateway to El Dorado would be open, and he would reclaim his city of gold.

Clayton took a moment to study the map. It was not written in any alphabet Clayton could recognize. The only writing on it seemed to be some sort of series of pictograms that most would be entirely unfamiliar with. The pictograms were accompanied by a map of a large city, and two crudely drawn pictures. One of the pictures was of a golden temple that appeared to be glowing, and the other was of a fountain of water with a symbol Clayton did recognize; a sideways figure-eight meant to represent infinity or eternity. Clayton was not sure what to make of it. He thought that maybe Ileana or Elaine would know what to do. He delicately rolled the map up and delicately put it into his inside jacket pocket. The map felt like it could crumble at the slightest touch which meant he would have to be extra cautious getting it back to where it could be read. There were more gunshots coming from outside. It was either due to the cowgirl, the skeleton, or both. What if the skeleton came for Ileana and Elaine? They would need him there, or at least Ileana would. To hell with being careless, he thought as he rushed recklessly back the way he came. The good news is that there were no fiery skeleton priests in sight. He wondered why his heart was sinking if the skeleton hadn’t gotten to the girls.

As Clayton walked to the building, the air was abnormally still. He caught sight of Elaine’s pill bottle on the ground with its contents scattered across the alley. There was absolutely no way that was a good sign. Clayton wanted to call out to the girls, but his better judgment forced him to remain silent. He did not want to alert anyone to his presence. He climbed up the fire escape as quickly as he could while still remaining silent.

Elaine was kneeling over Ileana.

Clayton was nearly at a loss for words. A million thoughts seemed to rush through his head all at once. He did not even mean to say it; the words flowed out of his mouth without any conscious thought behind them, “Elaine, what did you do?”

"I didn't do anything. I killed him, and she's still bleeding." A viscosity of vicious life ran onto Elaine's leg. Blood poured out of Ileana's back. She never saw it coming. "She never saw it coming." Ileana could hardly hold herself together. The gunshot took away any composure she could have feigned. She felt terrified. Why her? She had no one in life. Why her? Her hand trembled as she reached up for any comfort she could receive. Blood ran through the cracks of the building; forever painting it with the blood of just another girl, another face who lost her life along the streets of El Dorado. Gold streets always ran red with blood.

"Clayton..." She wept to the air. "...I couldn't do it..." Her voice trembled into the darkness. "But..." She choked back on her fear. "I want you to know, that before I go..." She cried a sob to fight back the blood that pooled in her mouth. "...I never had a family. No one cared about me..." Her pulse subverted. Her hand squeezed with all the force she could sequester. "...Don't forget me..." Tears mixed with blood. "I want someone to remember me." Her cries faded into nothingness. No one goes quietly into the night. They twitch; they fight; they cling to something. "Give me something Clayton; give me anything..." She erupted into what tears she had left. "...Give me everything. What was it like, to live for someone, or something. I want to live so that when I die, I actually have something. Why couldn't I have anything?" She blubbered off. Never to make a coherent sentence again. She went limp.

Clayton was barely able to force himself to jump from the fire escape to the roof top when he rushed to Ileana’s side. It was clear that she was fading, and there was nothing he could do about it. As unreal as the situation felt, there was no doubt that it was happening once his knees were warmed by the pool of blood spreading out from Ileana’s back onto the rooftop as he pushed her hair from her face. His heart felt heavy in his chest, and his breathing was becoming heavier and more desperate with each breath. He clenched his teeth and tried to force a calming smile on to his face to show her everything would be all right even though all present knew that was not the case. He knew what he was doing; for the first time in years, Clayton was trying to hold back tears. “Just …” he swallowed hard “No. Don’t talk like that.” He could feel a drop of warm water slide down his cheek, “You’re gonna be fine, okay?” She was not going to be fine. She was not going to be anything ever again. She looked at him while she cried. Her focus was on something far off like she was looking through him as she spoke and continued to squeeze his hand. “Of course I’ll remember you.” Clayton was not even sure that she could hear him, but he wanted her to know that he would. She stopped squeezing and let go when she went limp. “Not yet.” He spoke as if she would be able to stop. He had known her for less than a day, but he was going to make sure he remembered until he met his own fate. Clayton half picked her up with his one functioning arm, and cradled the body. That was all she became, a body.

Once he was able to convince himself there was no life left in her, he gently placed her back on to the rooftop. There was a body not too far from hers; it was Esteban’s. At least he would never be able to end another life again. There was something Clayton couldn’t help but wonder. His mouth suddenly felt very dry while he attempted to regain his composure. “Should this be your blood?” He looked to Elaine. “Was that bullet meant for you?” He was certain that it was.

"What? No. I was talking about stuff, and then he shot her. I didn't even see him." Elaine watched as Ileana's eyes closed for the last time. "Why did she die like that? Why did she cry?" This feeling perplexed her. It was not that she did not know about death; she never knew that people, good people cried when they died. "Do something!" She shouted. "Do something to help her!" Tears rolled down Elaine's face. "What did it even mean? It wasn't heroic; why is she..." Elaine trailed off and walked towards the fire escape. "You can have the box."

Elaine was crying? Elaine was crying. She was truly showing human emotion. It was something that Clayton was not entirely prepared for, and being so harsh towards her made him feel even worse than he already felt. How could he blame her when he was just as much to blame? If only he was not so selfish, he would have been there. He could have saved her. If only he killed the cloned Esteban when he had the chance, Ileana would still be standing there. If only he never came to Mexico, she would still be alive. He could torture himself over what could have been done for the rest of his life. He was sure that however he felt, Elaine likely felt much worse. She was there, after all. It seemed to him that she almost viewed Ileana’s death in the way a child would. There was nothing sensible about it, yet she still struggled to make sense of it. How could he live with himself if he parted ways with Elaine in her current state? She clearly needed a friend, and so did he whether he would admit it or not. He wiped his tears with his sleeve, and stood up. “Elaine, wait…” Clayton wiped his palm down his face from forehead to chin. “Sometimes things happen…” He struggled with what to say. He was never good with emotion. “They don’t always make sense…” He stared straight at the ground. “…and… Look, you didn’t pull the trigger. It’s not your fault.” He wished someone would say the same to him. He was not sure if any of what he said would get through to her. It only took a few hurried steps to catch. He placed his hand on her shoulder.

Green lightning filled the sky. The sounds of car alarms and cries of terror that filled the night finally caught up with them. It was the skeleton. What else could it have been? If they wanted to prevent any more Ileanas that night, something would need to be done immediately. Clayton was good, and willing to admit Elaine was better. If he wanted any hope of doing any good that night, he would need her help.

"I want to make a deal." Elaine turned her head back to Clayton. "She needs to have a family. Even if it's too late. we can give her something. I want her to be related to both of us, so I need you to sign a marriage certificate. Then we can bury her in Montana, and we can have both of our families visit her grave. We can give her something she never had, and we can make sure that we keep her memory alive." Her intentions and connection with a girl she almost had no interaction with ran strong. "We can let everyone know who she was." Elaine pulled out her pistol and rested in against her temple. "This guy down there breathing fire is probably going to be my ride home, so we should take priority measures."

Clayton paused for a moment. He understood that being married would not make either of them actually related to Ileana. That did not matter to Elaine, and it did not matter to him.; he was willing to sign whatever he had to in order to give Ileana any kind of family. Even if that meant marrying someone he barely knew. If anyone deserved a family, even one as dysfunctional as his and Elaine’s would be, it was her. He refused to let this near stranger be forgotten. “Whatever it takes.” He got his point across in as few words as he could, and absolutely meant what he said.

“I have to take care of something before we go.” he turned around, walked past Ileana’s body, to Esteban’s, and grabbed the side arm Esteban was unable to reach earlier. Clayton checked the gun’s safety. It was off. He stared down at the face of Ileana’s murderer. Her face would be remembered. His would not. He lifted the weapon slightly enough to be aimed perfectly at the clone’s face and clenched his jaw once again. Clayton pulled the trigger. The corpse’s head popped from the impact of the bullet and blood splattered up onto Clayton’s face. He wiped it with his sleeve for the second time that night, before turning around. “Okay. Lets go.”

The gently sloping tunnel walls of rough stone gave way, as the broken and dusty gold stairs sloped and expanded into a vacuous room beyond. Pillars with bases of stone and entwining snakes and spiders were cast with an eerie green shadow that sent phantoms and ghosts across walls. Large angry faces looked down upon the Priest King as he followed a flowing river carved into the smooth gold beneath his feet. Finally he found it, half buried in stone that had grown around for millennia. Here, the precious material that seemed to be running through out this whole possession glowed like his skull and arm; a red aura as dark as a sunset surrounded alien and unknown symbols that were not created by his people, but found by them so long ago. It's origins were clear, for only gods could guide his people to a city where disease and death would no longer separate families or force fathers to say goodbye.

As his hand moved forward, reality bent and the flame in his palm sprang forward, curling and spinning in the air before it settled between the ragged rectangular shape. With a sudden and sharp flare, the doorway to El Dorado was opened.

The Priest King passed through and was rewarded with a familiar site. The valley could have been described as a basin, with the highest points gradually sloping down to the very centre, where a small village sat on stilts, on top of a clear, crisp blue lake. The gateway was the highest part of the valley, with another sloping path of gold cutting through a thick and healthy green jungle that never waned. The most breathtaking thing was the temple of course, a structure that had slopping walls to a small home atop of it. But ignoring the ornate and highly religious idols, the thing that made it unique was a huge waterfall that fell from the sky, into it's very heart. Wisps of water splashed down the walls and onto the village as it seemed to pour from the flowing sky itself; of course, the entire valley seemed to be surrounded by flowing water. The rushing water ran up from the curved lips, over their heads and into the temple, where assuredly it began the process again.

He looked at it for only a moment before his eyes were drawn to the skeletons draped along the stairs, crawling towards the exit which had been sealed to them. He mourned each one but knew that with the return of the water, they would live again soon. He began a quick decent down the stairs, making his way around the skeleton of a giant beast that was once a lizard with fearsome teeth; a lizard that had been here when they first arrived and which they had worshipped as an idol of their gods.

It took him minutes to cut his way through the walkways of the village, scrambling up the side of his temple as he couldn't help but laugh with joy. Soon, he would be out of these ridiculous clothes and back into his ceremonial headdress and mask.

From the rooftop of the bar Elaine walked towards the blazing lightning that circled like a vortex around the street. Closing her palms around each of her pistols gave her some relief in this moment. The movement of locations around her gave her an odd feeling of displacement. For years she used her powers to shift through space, but this feeling gave her none of the disparity that normally accompanied her. This felt unusual in the case that she felt normal.

The temple unfolded a vast landscape of jungle and rivers around her. Golden pillars and buildings reflected brightly the shine of the sun over the lost city. Elaine took a step towards the tapestry and back into the pages of history. "I cam here to kick ass and chew bubble gum..." She took a step towards the skeleton thief. "...And I can't walk and chew bubblegum at the same time." Peacefully she rested the palms of her hands upon the hilts of the pistols.

It did not take long for the two to get to the pyramid the skeleton raised from beneath the city. Clayton was surprised to find the street empty. Where were the police, and all the distressed onlookers? He was expecting to have to push them all out of their way and fight past a police barricade. Instead the streets were just as empty and still as the place Ileana lost her life. It made the portal all the more ominous.

Clayton followed Elaine up the stairs, and their steps echoed throughout the empty antechamber on their way to the whirling vortex portal. Passing through it was far different than the sensation of shadow jumping. It was practically normal. Upon seeing the city through the portal, he knew it was the one from the map. He would stop to check it when they had a moment. They continued onward through the streets paved with gold, and came up the priest king that inhabited Bones’ body. Elaine confronted the skeleton with a statement about not being able to walk and chew gum that made Clayton shoot a brief puzzled glance in her direction. “Yeah...” he chimed in “... and that’s my skull you’ve got on your head there, you backstabbing, skeletal bastard.”

The Skeleton had pulled open his shirt, the buttons scattering as his bony hands went to the suspenders around his shoulders. He tugged them down off his collar bones and sighed happily, as if freed, before he undid silver cuff links and let them fall with a scattering sound onto the steps below. He paused, though, as he heard the voice of a woman that he found incredibly irritating; not only did he consider it an intrusion on his paradise but it seemed ingrained into his very bones that the voice meant trouble. He turned as gold bled down his collarbones and over his rib cage, turning his body from one state to another, taking a small step down from the temple walls as he looked into their faces with wide, green gems.

”Your skull?” He said, in a voice that sounded overlapped onto another, a voice which echoed over the roaring waterfall and into the bright impossible day. The ripples of the water that made the sky sent bright beams dancing overt the steps. ”So it was your head that was decapitated thousands of years ago, stripped of fleshed and then dipped in molten, precious metal?” He took another step now, as from the ridge of his forehead there rose a thick arch of metal, like that of a crown. From it sprang green feathers, made of crystal as green balls of energy burned in his hands.

”You have no right to be here. This is hallowed land, not for a little girl who plays with weapons and doesn't understand death. Or a little boy hoping stealing trinkets will impress a missing father.”

Elaine giggled. "This guys like a million years old and even he knows your dad doesn't love you." The severity of the situation came over her. If for no other reason she would make sacrifices for Ileana; she would be nice to people. "Right." She straightened up, bringing her shoulders parallel to the golden steps. "I think this guy may mean business..." Assessment of the situation only took Elaine a few moments. "...so we should probably start shooting." The spiraling events lead them to this nonsequitor of a showdown.

Elaine darted to the right of the skeleton with her pistols drawn. She fired two remote rounds towards at the foot of the skeleton. As her finger slid over the buttons to detonate the rounds, Elaine shadow stepped behind the skeleton. Timing would place her behind the skeleton just as the rounds exploded. Explosive rounds rolled into the chambers and erupted from her pistol, aiming for the golden skull of the skeleton.

Clearly, something in the skull had taken over Bones. Whatever it was would probably be a bitch to take care of without harming the body the spirit inhabited. “Way over the line, Bones. What’s gotten into you? Whatever you’re doing stops now.” Elaine giggled off to his side and verbally high-fived the villain. “Really?” Clayton’s posture slouched while he raised an eyebrow at the girl. “You heard her; we’re going to give you to the count of three. One…”

Apparently the cowgirl counted differently than the criminal. She sprang into action which forced Clayton to take action of his own. Clayton did not want to move around the skeleton, because with both of them shooting at such a thin target would likely lead to them shooting each other. Instead he pushed himself slightly in one quick, staccato, jerking motion towards Elaine and fired to the left in the event that the skeleton tried to move away to save itself.

He smirked as the girl made her first, move, like usual. She shot two bullets at him and he replied with a flick of the wrist, the ball of green fire sending scraps of metal skittering down to the steps. But he watched her move and saw her disappear; if she was intelligent she would move higher up the temple, but he suspected that soon she should would be behind him. And he was rewarded when he turned his skull and flashed a golden grin at her, before twisting his body and flinging himself down the steps, rolling beneath the gunshots. His bony body clattered down the golden stairs, before his shoes found grip on the gold, looking up at them. ”Don't you understand? I can give you gold, Thief. And I can give you the eternal gift of life, Murderer.” He spoke in the same disjointed fashion as he held out his bone hands to them, sinking to one knee before he folded them against his ribcage, looking slightly to the side of the two of them. ”And the crying girl, Ileana, whom follows you lost and lonely. And so sad. I can bring her back from Mictlan. Back from the dead.”

Elaine felt the heat against her face. It bore a sweat drip from her brow. "She wasn't alone..." Elaine narrowed her eyes. "She had someone with her." This guy retained his knowledge of how Elaine moved. His knowledge of her and their past gave him unnerving insight into how she moved. "You can't bring her back. People don't come back." Elaine reloaded another round into the chamber. "We can only remember her. And one day we will be reunited; only selfish people want to live forever, and that's not me." If the new Bones predicted Elaine's behavior by her past, her next attack would catch him off guard. Elaine shadow jumped to grapple the skeleton. An explosive round fired into the ground at his feet. Elaine slipped her finger to detonate the round with the two of them entwined.