With Susie still asleep on his
back, the Silencer makes his escape off the island. His head with an extending
eye constantly scans the area around him as he makes sure no one is around him.
A nearby noise gets his attention and to take out his weapons. The noise keeps
getting closer and closer and with so much debris to hide behind, it’s nearly
impossible for the Silencer to see what’s making the noise. He leaps up into
the air while holding onto Susie and lands on a rooftop. Looking over the sides,
he can find nothing even though he can still hear something approaching. With no
other option, he leaps from rooftop to rooftop in the hopes of escaping whatever
is chasing him.
No matter where the Silencer goes. No
matter how many turns he takes the sound follows him. Again, it seems like he
has no other option, so he stands his ground in an open field where he can see
everything with his weapons ready to stab and shoot. The noise keeps getting
closer and the Silencer still can’t see whatever is making it. He starts
slashing and shooting in different directions to stop the noise, but it only
stops for a second before resuming. He then stops attacking altogether as he
waits for something to appear. The sound of something approaching stops right
in front of him and pauses before a cloaked reaper with scars across his bones
in front of his face. The Silencer is about to shoot and stab the reaper, but
the reaper puts his scythe near the neck of Susie, which makes him pause.
“Your sins are great, Mr. Silencer,”
the reaper says, “You wouldn’t want your little girl getting hurt, so give me
something of value in reparation of your deeds.”
Knowing what the reaper wants from
the fairy tale, the Silencer cuts off his head with mouths. Even with this, the
reaper holds out his hand, so the Silencer cuts off his head with a gun.
“Thank you.”
The reaper then disappears into the
darkness with the Silencer’s cut off heads. The Silencer’s wounds don’t bleed,
so he won’t die from losing his heads, but since he has fewer heads, he hurries
ahead. A dark fog seeps out of the cracks of the city and obscures his vision.
He knows what fairy tale this is from and wishes he still had his head with
mouths so he could scream at the bad timing of similar fairy tales.
“Silencer. Is that the name you go
by? It’s fitting,” a woman’s voice says in the darkness.
His head with a blade starts
cutting at the darkness.
“You always wanted to distance
yourself from us. It was for our own safety or at least that’s what you wanted us
to believe.”
The Silencer tries to get out of
the dark fog but keeps ending up in the same place as the fog has trapped him.
“It must still be killing you that
you were wrong and that your actions have led to this. You can do so many
things, but you can’t do the one thing you wanted to do the most.”
Skeletons dressed as government
agents start coming out of the fog with guns in their hands. The Silencer cuts through
them all while shielding Susie from any incoming fire. The skeletons keep
coming with new ones that come out dressed in civilian clothing.
“How many have suffered because you
wanted to protect your own? Did you really think you were doing the right thing?
Just look at what you did to sweet little Susie.”
The attacks keep coming until one
bullet grazes Susie’s skin that causes her to bleed and cry out in pain even as
she sleeps. Seeing Susie in pain causes the Silencer to get angry as his heads
go back in his cloak then come out with seven heads all of which attack the skeletons
around him.
“This is the most amount of emotion
you’ve shown in a while, isn’t it?”
The never-ending horde of skeletons
finally stops. This gives the Silencer his opportunity to heal the little wound
inflicted by the bullet. He hears something approaching him from behind and he
uses one of his many blades to cut whatever it is. When he looks behind him to
see what it was, he sees a familiar face, which makes him regret acting so impulsively.
“You always were overprotective,”
the woman he cut says as she disintegrates into dust.
Even with all his heads, the
Silencer can’t keep the woman from falling apart.
“Make sure she lives a happy life.”
The Silencer takes the hand of the
fading woman as she disappears completely and keeps holding it until he hears
Susie beginning to wake up. He quickly takes her and heads into the direction
of one of the many docks on the island. In one of the docking areas, he tears
apart the concrete to reveal a switch that makes a ship come out from
underneath the water. This special ship is undamaged and releases its metal
coating so that it can take the appearance of a normal fishing ship. He’s about
to take her on board until he gets shot by someone behind him. The Silencer takes
out his seven heads again as he turns around to see who the shooter is. He sees
that the shooter is a man dressed in heavy clothes and makeshift armor made
from street signs and torn leather.
The man says, “I’m assuming you’re
the Silencer? My intel told me that you owned a hidden ship around here, so I’m
assuming it’s you. That cursed look of yours suits you.”
The Silencer stays silent as he
waits for the man to do something.
“Is that your daughter? She’s the
reason I’m alive. She told me how to defeat the monsters you made. That’s
right. I know you’re responsible for what happened here. I was tasked by our boss
to stop this mess you’ve made.”
Susie begins to wake up.
“Hmm? Oh. You’re that man saw from
before. I’m glad you’re alive. What’s going on?”
“I’d tell your father to explain
himself, but it looks like he doesn’t have a mouth.”
“What are you talking about? Where’s
my dad?”
“You didn’t tell her? I guess I
wouldn’t tell my daughter either.”
“Silencer? Dad? Is that you?”
The Silencer hangs his head down
and tries not to look at Susie with all his heads.
“It makes sense. When the three
witches who kidnap runaway children attacked me, they disappeared when you
defended me. I’m so glad that you’re alive. I don’t care about the way you
look. I love you.”
“She’s such a sweet girl, unlike
her father who kills and silences people who he deems a threat.”
“What are you talking about?”
“He didn’t tell you that either? Your
father is a government agent who gets rid of threats to the country from outside
and within it.”
“So, he is the Silencer…”
“Is that how he told you what he
does? I guess you had to tell your daughter somehow what you were doing.”
“All of the stories that you told
me about the Silencer were actually about you, dad?”
The Silencer tries to speak but can’t
manage to.
“He probably told you those stories
to relieve himself of his guilt. What? Can’t tell a priest?”
The Silencer continues to struggle
to speak.
“What did he do?”
“He got rid of all kinds of criminals
and threats to protect his country, but this side project of his to bring fairy
tales to life was his own making. Many people were hurt because of his efforts
and people helped him presumably because they were afraid of what he might do
to them if he didn’t. I arrived here too late to stop him from activating his fairy
tale making machine, but I’m hoping he can still stop it.”
The Silencer uses one of his blades
to cut open a mouth in his primary face.
Finally, with a mouth to speak, he
says in a mechanical voice, “No. I will not stop it. Not until the perfect
fairy tale for Susie is formed.”
“What are you talking about?” Susie
asks.
“The machine reads fairy tales and
makes them. It reads fairy tales and constructs beings inspired by them with a
mix of science and magic.”
“Why does it have to make dark
fairy tales?” the agent asks.
“Susie loves all the fairy tales I
told her, so she gets all of them. That’s why I made the fairy tale machine.
After her mother died, I never saw her truly happy. No matter what I gave her
or did, I never saw a real smile on that face, so the fairy tales will give her
the happy story she deserves. Just give it some more time and you’ll see.”
“Dad. I don’t care about having a
happy story like in the fairy tales. I just want to be happy with you. Please.
Shut off the machine.”
“It can make your dreams come true!
Maybe it can even bring mom back!”
“Mom is in Heaven and I’m sure she’s
thinking the same thing. People are hurting because of what you’re doing.
Please. End it. For me?”
The Silencer considers his action
then puts down Susie.
“Okay. I see what I’ve done now. I’ll
shut it off. Can you forgive me for what I’ve done?”
“Of course I do. I love you, dad.”
Susie hugs her dad and he hugs her
back. He then leaps off into the air and after a couple seconds of waiting. An
explosion erupts from the city. The sky turns blue and grass begins to grow
from the ground. Susie and the agent go into the city to find people happy that
the nightmare is over and that everything is back to normal. What they don’t
find is Susie’s dad. They wait and wait, but he doesn’t show up, so Susie assumes
the worst.
“I’m sorry, Susie. Your dad turned
out to be a better person than I thought he was by sacrificing himself for you,”
the agent says.
“He always was. He always was my
hero, the Silencer.”
The End
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