Curse of the Snake Demons

Chapter 8: Blood Markings

Author: YES the plot is underway 8D… also I feel like a dumbass for not knowing they were called Road Runners… though the only one I've ever seen is the one on Looney Tunes so that's my excuse xD But thank you DEVINE.L for telling me so I can name them in the future and now… to the fan fiction!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in Rango but I do own any Oc's and the plot to this fan fiction.

Rango was riding on his road runner alongside his deputy Wounded Bird outside of town. The reason was not to find Jake, for he was now staying in town for the human girl's sake, but to investigate something else. The day before when Rango was out there he thought he spotted something shining in the sun under the sand. He was so distracted by Jake he almost didn't take notice of it, but he did and now he was going to investigate it.

"I wonder what kind of contraption this is…" he said as he and Bird looked at a rectangular screen covered in white with purple flowers around it. He poked at it and the stumbled away, as if he was ready for it to move; but it just sat there… sitting in the hot sun. It was a little hot from the heated sand but other than that it was an immoveable object. "Well… at least it ain't alive" he said to himself with a sigh

"Take back to town" Bird said plainly, as if he was ordering it, but just merely suggesting the thought.

"Of course we'll take it back to town; I want to get a closer look at it without bein' in this blasted heat!" he said before looking at the thing. It was big, almost too big for their rides, this could be a problem. "We're goin' to need somethin' bigger to haul it back to Mud…"

"Beans has wagon; use it?"

"Of course! I'm sure Beans wouldn't mind lettin' us use her wagon to bring this in, good thinkin' deputy!" he said as he got back on his steed and road off to Beans' ranch to ask her the favor.

Claudia was laid out on her bed again, back stinging like crazy and head pounding like there was no tomorrow. She had to say this was something she was not used to; usually her headaches didn't go through her sleep. But this time they did… it worried her a lot; not only that but these… tempting thoughts were plaguing her mind. What thoughts? Well they are thoughts that cause her to think of violent things; sometimes they're a voice, talking to her, other times they are just imagines of death, destruction and blood.

The scene she remembered the most was that there was a city on fire and a figure sitting among the debris with their head down. She didn't know what it meant but it kind of frightened her in a sense, she had never thought about these things in her life. Not until that moment…

"Where I first drew blood by cutting them. In my first fight I ever had in my life…" she said to herself as she laid there. The moment her sword made contact with her captor she felt something rush through her… something that felt unnaturally good. The rush that went through her gave her ecstasy that she almost couldn't control herself. It might have been the small part of her that was still attached to her but she didn't kill the two members of Bill's gang. She injured them, yes, but she did not kill them… she's afraid that if she didn't keep herself then maybe she would have.

Right then she wondered; why did she feel like that when she cut the jackrabbit yet she didn't when she cut the hawk? Neither died from the wounds she gave them but only the latter had given her that feeling. When she thought more about it she realized that with the hawk she was just protecting someone and not just herself. It could also be because she could understand the jackrabbit and that made him more… human-like so to speak. It made sense… though it didn't because she wasn't supposed to be like that in the first place!

"This is such a bore" she said to herself, hoping that maybe saying how bored she was would get her to forget about the weird feelings she had. Along with worrying about her own thoughts and feelings she was bored out of her mind. She thought about going out and walking around again in town like yesterday…

"Don't even think about it, woman" suddenly Jake's voice said as he appeared outside her door when she tried to leave. She gave an irritated face

"Oh C'MON Jake, I can walk FINE" she told him "My ankle didn't crack yesterday so I can walk on it as long as I'm careful" she added. But he didn't back down, instead he held his head a bit higher than hers, almost hitting the doorframe.

"Look woman, it's my job to look after you whether I want to or not. So until the doctor says yer fit to walk around, yer not goin' ANYWHERE" he said, flickering his tongue in her face. He then smirked and added "'sides I shouldn't be the only one to be forced in a confined space". Her face turned to a pout, realizing his real reason

"Oh I get it; this is just revenge for forcing you into that container isn't it? Well let me tell you, it was for a good reason!" she told him. He had an amused expression on his face

"Do tell" he said, practically taunting her.

"In the beginning, if you had the chance, you wouldn't hesitate in hurting/killing me and my family even if we were helping you. You were a danger, it was a good reason for keeping you contained till you were better" she said with her arms folded. He knew this, he knew this and more yet he still acted like a bit of an ass being all high and mighty. "If that ain't a good reason then I don't know what is!"

"You may have a point, still won't let you out though" he told her, the amused expression gone from his face. He picked her up with this tail and moved her back onto her bed; she struggled but it was of no use as she landed on the soft mattress.

"But WHY?" she asked as she sat back up

"Cause I said so that's why; besides I'm sure yer gonna get in trouble the moment I take my eyes off of you" he told her.

"Even if I did I can take care of myself; you saw how I handled Bill and his men!" she told him, stopping after that. What made her think like that? She never really saw him watching her… the thought just got into her head without her even thinking. Jake was also looking at her with a surprised expression, wondering how she was able to figure out he was there without him making a sound. Well he guessed it wasn't that hard, but still, she had an eye for perception if the time came for it.

"Don't matter, you need yer rest because of that ankle of yers" he told her anyway. She scoffed at it

"I told you its fine… frankly I can't just sit here all day, I have nothing to do but sleep!" she complained. Jake snorted

"Then sleep, that'll make the day go faster for ya" he told her as he slithered away, closing the door behind him with his tail while Claudia pouted.

"What fun is that?" she asked herself as she crossed her arms while sitting on her bed. She didn't want to sleep, she wanted to look around, explore around the town by herself not sleep! But it seemed like she wouldn't be able to leave the building unless she wanted to get Jake irritated by being caught outside her room. "Well there's no way in hell I'm going to be sleeping all day" she said as she got up and, carefully, went to her room's window.

Inside the sheriff's office Rango waited around, looking at the blank black screen of the object he had only just recently gotten dug up. He was curious as to what it was, but no matter what he did he just couldn't seem to get it activate, no matter how much he tried! There was a screen on it so something had to pop up on it, but it was so hard to figure out what!

"You sure it's somethin' that you can turn on?" Beans asked as she looked at the large object.

"O'course! There ain't nothin' I can't figure out!" Rango said with determination, though he was still stumped on how to turn it on himself. "It'd help if we knew what it was, that's for sure"

"You really don't know much do you sheriff?" asked a voice as Jake came into the office. "It's a human-made object" he told him; hell even if he never met Claudia he knew something made by the human race when he saw it.

"I-I know that!" he said; since he used to live with humans he knew that but… well he hadn't seen an object like that before so he was stumped about what to do with it. Luckily Jake did though because he recognized it; it was Claudia's phone, it must've fell at some point out of her pocket or something. "It'll only take me a second to figure it out" he said, Jake gave a doubting look though. In his time being with her he had seen her use it a few times, so he knew how it worked. This idiot of a sheriff wouldn't even know how or where to begin

"Then attempt to turn it on" Jake challenged, watching Rango try to do something as simple as turn a phone on. It took a while as Rango fiddled with it until he finally found two buttons on the side. It had an unlock engraved on the button, getting his interest and he pushed it, causing the screen to show the time of day, the actual date and small words that said 'Press [Unlock symbol] to Unlock'. This was pretty explanatory in instructions so Rango pressed it again, getting a screen up and successfully turning it on. "Wow you actually managed to do it" Jake said; he was quite surprised that Rango figured it out at all even if it took him a couple of minutes.

"O'course I did, was there any ever doubt?" Rango asked, all proud of himself that he was able to figure it out. The outlaw snorted, knowing it was dumb luck than he was able to find it. Looking back at the screen he noticed that it was not the usual background that appeared when turned on, instead it looked like it was on some video that had just been recorded not too long ago. Jake looked at it with interest, not sure what it was; it may have something to do with the human girl or it may not.

"What in the world is that?" Beans asked, not sure what she was looking at, the screen seemed frozen, but you could click it just fine.

"A video it seems" Jake said as he looked at it. He had seen the human go into this screen once but this picture wasn't in it, it was new… and it bothered him because the only time it could record was after she had released him and before she appeared again with that cracked ankle bone. No he didn't want to know what it was if it had something to do with her, but his own curiosity, along with everyone else in the room, overcame him.

"Well we ain't goin' nowhere just standin' here, there has to be a way to start it" Rango said as he looked at the screen. Jake sat there, staring at the chameleon wondering if maybe he should just tell him the obvious about how to start it up. Nah, he'd let the sheriff figure it out and it would only be a matter of time before he did. All that was needed was him to go up to the screen and touch it with a padded finger and the video played from the beginning:

Gun shots were heard through the house with screams of adult humans and a child that gave the video a startling start. The phone had been turned on by the child who was going to try and leave the vicinity with the phone. He was dragged away by men in red robes with their face covered with white paper

"Mom! Dad! Wake-up, please! CLAUDIA!" he cried, crying for his parents before calling the human girl. After that a door was heard being shot open and the cultists turned their heads

"Jacob!" cried the voice, as a figure ran passed the screen in order to reach the young boy before getting restrained by two of the cultists. The girl struggled as much as she could but it was no use, the men were two strong for her and dragged her away, past the phone a little bit.

"Who is this?" asked a figure who was before Claudia "Ah, I gather you are the one and only daughter of this household, correct?" he asked. All she did was growl at him while trying to get away, though that failed miserably "And a tomboy at that" he added.

"What the hell did you do to my family?" she asked "Where's my parents? Where did you take my little brother?" she yelled. The leader scoffed

"He has been taken somewhere else for a later date but since YOU'RE here, perhaps we can make an additional ritual" he said. She struggled some more before she yelped from her arms being constricted with a hand. "I don't think we've ever tried a female 'volunteer' before, so this experiment should work nicely" he said as he turned around and started to leave.

Jake watched, a growl almost coming up from his throat as he witnessed the treatment Claudia was going through. He was sure she was going to get out of it but he couldn't help but feel a bit bad for not being there for her. He shook his head, no she didn't need him there; she was able to get to him from this situation so of course she was going to be alright. There was no reason for him to worry about what was going to happen to her… right?

"May I get a glass of water?" she asked "I just went for a ride around the block and I'm parched" she told them. The figures looked to each other, not sure if they should heed her request or just drag her down to the next location.

"Fine, I'm sure you'll need it for when the ritual starts" one of them said as they let her go. She traveled past the phone again and went to the sink before gulping down water as it came from the faucet. She did that for about ten seconds before standing straight and turning the water off and walking past the table. She then tripped, running into the table and knocking the phone on its side. Once she had gotten her footing she proceeded back towards the two cultists, but not before the screen turned pink as the flesh of her hand covered the screen of the phone before darkness over took it.

For a couple of minutes nothing could be seen but the dark while footsteps echoed when feet connected to concrete.

This was odd, because Jake never thought there was concrete in her home, there was just the wood floors and the carpeted stairway that led to the basement… Unless of course the basement was concrete also but he saw the bottom of it and it did have carpet. It was quite the problem but he figured one of the rooms in the basement must've still had concrete flooring.

"What is that?" asked a voice

"It's nothing" Claudia said in the most monotone voice as possible, but she still couldn't lie very well and suddenly there was light and a picture again on the video. It was too fast to see the picture well but form looking at it one could tell the room they were in was dimly lit. The figure from before held the phone in his hands and looked at it

"Trying to record and file it to the police?" he asked her, not sounding very pleased.

"No, it's for my video diaries" she told him, almost with a sarcastic tone in her voice.

"Very funny, but this isn't going to help you in the slightest" the figure said and the phone was then flown to the side, hitting the wall. It landed on its side but somehow was still able to be propped up enough to see the feet of the humans in the room. "What we're about to do is very confidential in our dear cult; and by the end of it, you'll be a part of it too, a VERY big part of it" said the leader probably smirking at his words.

"There's no way in hell I'd become one of you freaks!" the human girl yelled, her feet shuffling while she tried to get free of her captors. Of course it was of no use, two full grown men were too strong for one young woman to handle.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice child, your family was chosen by the Dark Prince, you and your brothers more specifically" the man said. He then look towards the two men holding her "Bind her with a chain on the wall so she cannot escape, I shall come back with the chalice" he said before he left to go back upstairs.

The cultists tried their best to bind her but she was proving herself to be difficult, struggling as much as she could. But soon it back fired and she was pinned to the wall. A rattling of a chain echoed through the room as one of the men who had held her brought over a chain attached to a clasp and latched it to the wall. Then the clasp, which was almost too small for her ankle, was locked on her foot, making her grunt out of discomfort.

It didn't take long for the leader to come back with a black chalice, causing the other two cultists to push Claudia on her knees before their leader. Of course, with the phone being so low, they couldn't see the liquid of the chalice, but the red droplets coming from it suggested something else.

"With this blood that runs through the animal representing our Dark Lord may you be transformed into a new being. May you let go of all other things in this life so that you are able to serve our Master to your full potential!" the man said as he lifted the chalice up before shoving it in the girl's face. The metal rim went to her lips but she tried her best not to drink it "Do not resist, you must drink the Blood of the Dark Prince!" he said. He gave more pressure towards the girl as the men behind her clutched her shoulders firmly. Eventually the liquid got into her mouth and she was forced to swallow, the red liquid running down her mouth.

Only for a few moments did she drink before the cup left her lips and she cough, trying to spit whatever it was that was forced within her mouth. The rim of her mouth and around her teeth had the liquid residue all over it; it really did look like blood. "Now that you have drunk the blood of our Master, the contract can be made" the leader said. Then, all of a sudden, the girl was lifted up and, by the looks of it, had her shirt ripped off of her; having a big hole in the back before it was thrown to the ground and her with it.

Ropes went around her body and were secured so that she could not move hardly. As she struggled her bare skin rubbed against the floor that actually had engravings on it. She was lying on her chest, making it hard to see her breasts that were being pressed onto the floor. When she was secured the leader came up, her sword in his hands, outside its sheath and red. "With this blade that is now sacred with the Blood of the Dark Prince I will carve the contract onto your flesh" he said. He then bent down and had the blade almost connecting to her skin "A piece of the Dark Prince's soul will now be connected to your flesh". He told her before having the sharp metal sink deep into her flesh, beginning the carving of flesh.

Jake, Rango, Beans and Bird watched in horror that the next few minutes of the video held. The blade carved into Claudia's flesh as she screamed in pain; at one point Beans couldn't even watch anymore. Rango was dumbfounded and horrified, too scared to look away. Bird watched with a sad look on his face, pitying the girl for having to go through all of it and some. Then there was Jake who was watching with shock, anger, and hurt mixed into his bare face.

Blood spilled on the floor, going across her back, down her pants and on the floor. She kept screaming until her voice became hoarse from doing it so much even when she was still making weaving sounds in pain. Her eyes were now dulling; she was losing consciousness from the pain, coughing up, every now and then, blood from her mouth till she was too tired to do so any more. Still, at the last part when her eyes were flashing in and out of consciousness, she stared towards the phone. Her right hand, which was outstretched next to her, lifted up as much as it could with the little strength she had left and the ropes binding her.

"…" at first she couldn't say anything, nothing but wheeze coming out of her exhausted lungs. But, eventually, she got the strength to speak "J-J… Ja…ke… h-hel…p m-m-m…e…" she said softly. Tears fell down her cheeks from the pain she was enduring; she was reaching out, calling towards the only protection she knew even if he wasn't there. Then her head fell and her hair covered her eyes, giving the sign that she became unconscious as her pendant got covered with the blood that came from her back.

Out of that entire video he had seen, Jake had only been horrified and angry when he saw that scene. Claudia was there reaching out, calling to him… calling him to come back and protect her from the suffering she was enduring. The creepy thing about this was the fact that it looked like she knew he was there, watching this from another time. But, out of all the emotions he was feeling, anger was the most prominent, anger at himself. If only he had stayed there one more day if ONLY he had he could have protected her… he could have kept her from suffering as much as she did.

'Dammit… if only I had been there…' he thought to himself, looking down to the ground, having so many emotions going through him. This confused him, why were all of these feelings that he had no trouble keeping them away suddenly trying to erupt? The last time he had let his feelings out were towards someone he had thought he loved but turned out that it wasn't as mutual. Looking up again the video was still playing and for about twenty minutes she had laid there, unmoving like she was dead.

At one point during the watch the video came to a static screen and something started to talk.

"Ekaw pu ym raed retsis, uoy t'nac yats ereh yna regnol ro esle ll'uoy nrut otni eno fo meht" it said. The language was unknown and there seemed to be a dark shadow went across the screen before it cut back to the girl's body. A hand twitched and she groaned, finally awakening from being knocked out from all the pain she felt. When she lifted her head up to find that all of her bindings were undone and she was alone in the room. Lifting herself up her arms covered her chest as she looked around before seeing her shirt and grabbing it. She used it to wipe away the blood with the sleeves and then putting it on before getting up and grabbing the phone and turning it off.

That was the end of the video and they could only assume the tears in her pants and sleeves were because of a struggle to get away and to find help for her brother. And that is how everything came to pass, how she was in the desert and managed to find Jake. Now he felt a little guilty how he treated her when he saw her again, but he didn't know either… she didn't tell him. And she lied about having nothing on her back, causing his eyes to harden when he realized that.

A small creak sound came and Jake sharply looked behind him to the source and seeing eyes looking through the crack in the door. The person gasped and started to run off, causing Jake to slither after them, giving them chase through the main in the town. When he caught up to them he swiftly coiled around the body and firmly held so they couldn't get away.

"And JUST what are you doin' out of bed?" he asked as he looked own to see the human whom he had thought he had locked in her room.

"I couldn't just sit in there all day, and I wasn't sleepy, I had to do something" she told him. She then looked away, knowing that this was just a cover-up to what he really wanted to say to her.

"Well I'm takin' you back, then we'll have a nice long chat" he said as he dragged her back to her room, where they could talk in private. Rango nor anyone else in the sheriff's office went after Jake, they knew he wouldn't hurt her; they just needed a private talk with one another, about what happened.

Author: FINALLY I get this thing up! Sorry for being late with this one, I took a few days off from typing because... well lets face it I was doing this fan fiction 24/7, I needed a break xD. Also I had another speech, thankfully I was one of the first ones to do it so that's out of the way for another few days while I watch others do theirs. And YES another valuable plot point for our main heroine that gets our beloved Jake all upset and concerned; don't ya just LOVE making the outlaw feel so confused? I do xD Anyway next chapter Jake and Claudia have a talk then someone returns to finish the job! Or at least it seems like it anyway x3

Anyway see you all in the next chapter~

P.S. I'll be proud of anyone if they can figure out what the mysterious shadow said~