Chapter
4 – My Sibling’s Executioner
I fly through the light and
darkness of the asylum and reach the surveillance room in seconds, where Bianco
is waiting with my parents tied up.
“It’s over, Bianco. You couldn’t
kill me when I was vulnerable, and your mind tricks work only so well,” I say.
“It is over, but I’m going anywhere
without seeing you squirm in pain, one final time,” he says. In an instant, my
face turns back to normal, and my parents look at me in shock. “Now there’s no
shred of doubt left for them that you, Timeo Severe, are L’Obscurité. I told
you he was, but you still thought I was tricking you. You lied to yourselves,
like you always do, and now, you can’t do that anymore without being like the
inmates you claim to take care of here.”
Getting control of myself, I use my
power that take hold of Bianco, whose face is finally revealed.
“Bogart?” my parents and I say in
unison.
My older brother, Bogart, was
always one to say that life is short and going to end no matter what we do, so
we might as well spend it indulging in as many desires as we can.
“I’m glad you remember something
that I told you, little brother,” Bogart says. “After you beat me within an
inch of my life, I thought the best way to live the rest of my life was to make
you suffer for embarrassing me and to make our parents suffer for living
longer, so I couldn’t get the rest of their inheritance.”
“Why did you kill the rest of our
siblings?”
“They were useless to me, and the
white serpent promised me more power if I sacrificed them. How could I refuse
if it meant making you suffer more?”
“Well, you got what you wanted, and
now, you reap the cost, you bastard!”
Reaching out to Bogart with my
power, he returns to his normal form. His body starts twisting in unnatural
ways as the white serpent in him twists and struggles to escape through his
eyes. While this is happening, my parents tell me to stop because he’s my
brother and to have mercy on him.
Bogart laughs at them and says, “I
don’t deserve mercy, and neither do you! You’re all hypocrites! You never save
any lives! You only prolong people’s suffering in this awful city. You think
you’re good people because you pray and worship God, but you’re no better than
scum like me! At least I’m honest about it and get what I want-”
“Be silent and die already!”
Bogart’s neck and head twist around
and around again, his fingers break and snap along with his arms, feet, and
legs until the life is squeezed out of his body and his soul is sent to be
judged and go to Hell. My parents’ yelling finally gets me to stop and look at
them, and as I do, I feel like a child who’s in trouble and messed up in a
major way.
“He deserved it. My powers punish
people based on their sins,” I try to explain to them.
“You need to let them go. You
killed your brother with them,” my mom says.
“I didn’t do it!” It’s then that I
realized that I didn’t pray for Bogart like I do with the other people I use my
powers on, so they may receive mercy. “I said that my powers do it all on their
own.”
“Then you need to stop being
L’Obscurité,” my dad says. “You’ve caused too much suffering and death in the
city. It’s time to stop.”
“Those people were criminals and
villains! I was given these powers by God to punish them and make Meridian a
better place.”
“Look at what you’ve done to your
brother. There are other ways to make Meridian better. You have to stop,” my
mom says.
“I…I can’t.”
There are a few moments of silence
as I carefully consider my next words until my dad says, “Then we’ll tell the
world the truth behind who you are to make you stop-”
“What?” I say.
“Timeo, look what your powers are
doing! We have to make you stop-”
“I’m not doing anything!”
My parents seem to be choking on
something as my powers get them to stop talking.
“Your identity can’t be revealed,”
a familiar voice says. It’s the same one I heard the day I got my powers.
“My Lord and my God…” I say.
I then get on my knees and
fervently pray for mercy for my parents. Please, don’t punish them for such a
small mistake! They’re just upset because of what happened tonight. Please,
punish me instead! Take away my powers and give them to someone else if you
have to! My prayers go unanswered as I hear a crack and see my parents dead on
the floor.
As tears flow from my eyes, I
simply ask, “Why?”
“Because every sin, no matter how
small, is deserving of death. Your identity can’t be exposed to the world,” He
says.
“What if I tell everyone now? Will
I die as well?”
“You won’t. I won’t allow it.”
“Then take away my powers! I don’t
want them anymore! Give them to someone else who’s more deserving of them!”
“You are still deserving of them.
Do not worry over the souls of your parents. Their grief and the white serpent
clouded their minds so they won’t be punished severely. They are in Purgatory
and will be in Heaven after their funeral.”
There’s nothing more to be done or
said. I walk over to my parents and cry as I hold them for a long while until
my friends, Lancetto, Klinge, Darcy, and Raymond enter the room. They ask what
happened, I explain it as best I can, and they hold me and give me their
condolences. In the official statement that Raymond gives, he says that Bogart
is responsible for the deaths of my parents and many of the innocents, while
L’Obscurité saved everyone and punished the asylum’s staff who caused the
outbreak of criminals and patients, and the criminals who refused to go back in
their cells. I’m given praise by Mayor Jeph and the city like usual, but I feel
empty and less than alive.
When my parents’ funeral comes, I
say a few words and mostly keep to myself. In the days that follow, Darcy stays
with me at my house, as if she needs an excuse to. I would have told her to
stay at her own home, but I don’t have the strength to do even that, and I need
someone who loves me to stay by my side. She cooks and cleans for me, talks to
me about my worries, regrets, and doubts, and holds me at night. Klinge,
Lancetto, and Raymond have stopped by a few times when they can, giving me
updates on the rising crime in the city due to my absence, but telling me that
they’re handling it and I should only go back out when I feel better. I thank
them and try to give them pieces of my parents’ possessions as a thank you, but
they refuse them and only leave with food that Darcy made.
Another morning comes, and Darcy
lets me lie in bed for a few more minutes while she prepares breakfast. I get
up as I wait and look out the window. The emotions I’ve been keeping down boil
back up, so I prostrate myself on the floor with my hands up.
“Again, I say, take my powers away
from me. I’m undeserving of them,” I pray.
Astonishingly, I receive an answer
from my Lord, who says, “You are still worthy of them. Meridian needs her dark
hero to keep her safe from lawbreakers of all kinds.”
“Why? Why me? I haven’t been able
to change anything at all.”
I don’t get any answers until Darcy
enters, who was listening to me praying.
She sits beside me and says, “The
city is worse off without you. I would’ve engulfed the city in chaos,
encouraging people to take justice into their hands and murdering the guilty
and innocent alike. Without you, many innocents would be dead or worse, the
criminals would still be alive to enact their terror, and sinners wouldn’t be
repentant, such as those people who were in that human centipede who went back
to normal after repenting for what they did.”
“I know. It’s a lesson that never
seems to stick with me. Thank you for everything, Darcy. You’ve been helping me
so much that I have to give you something in return,” I say while getting on
one knee and taking a ring out of my pocket. “Will you marry me?”
Darcy smiles and cries at the same
time and immediately accepts my proposal. She kisses me more than usual and to
such a degree that I think she’s going to do something to me that I prefer to
do after marriage, so I gently push her back and calm her down.
“Come on, let’s go eat and then
tell everyone after,” I say.
“Okay, okay. We’ll talk about
arranging the wedding and clothes for the children we’ll have. I think we should
go out today to start picking out some clothes for them. Did your parents keep
your clothes that you wore? Maybe I can find more cute baby and child pictures
of you that they kept somewhere around the house,” she says.
I laugh and say that we should take
things one step at a time. As I eat together with Darcy, I think to myself
about the reminders of what I learned at the incident at the asylum. I must
continue being a dark hero for the sake of Meridian and its people. This city
is sick with sin and crime, and I am the cure. I embrace the madness of failing
and succeeding, sinning and repenting, and sickness and healing. It is a virtuous
madness embraced by my parents that allows me to spiral upward towards Heaven,
just as they did. Please guide my actions, thoughts, and words, and watch over us
and the family that I create, mom and dad. I hope to make God and you proud of
me.
The End
Chapter
3 – The Cost of Love
Making my way through the surgery rooms,
I find that it’s untouched. There are no signs of conflict, and there’s not a
single body in sight, something that is more concerning to me than seeing
bodies. Sure enough, the environment changes, and I see various versions of
myself being operated on in the room, most of which are being injected with a
black serpent and mutating into grotesque versions of my L’Obscurité form who
have legs and arms sticking out of their eyes or mouth, having additional
limbs, or additional bodies of themselves attached to one another similar to
the human centipede that was created back in the cell block.
They cry out for death, saying,
“I’m a failure to God and the city!”
“I should’ve done more to protect
my parents!”
“I should’ve become a doctor like
they wanted!”
“I should’ve married Darcy
earlier!”
“I’m unworthy to be called
Lancetto’s best friend, let alone brother.”
“Klinge had the right idea in
living a humble life despite his mutations.”
“All I do is kill and torture!”
“These powers are a curse!”
“They can’t change the city!”
" Shut up, shut up, shut up!
" I pray the temptations away and see a black serpent manifest from my
dark form, hissing at the hallucinations. In the blink of an eye, I realize
that the people in the rooms are actually the prison’s workers and prisoners,
all of whom seem to be going insane. Some have killed themselves, while others
are barely holding on or have completely given in, crying or convulsing on the
ground. Bianco appears out of thin air in the observation room, accompanied by
my three friends, Lancetto, Darcy, and Klinge, who have ropes around their
necks, arms, and legs.
“Are you ready to end this yet?” I
ask.
“Not quite, but we’re getting
there,” he says.
“What kind of sick challenge do you
have for me next?”
“One that’s more of a deal.”
“I’m not making any kind of deal
with a devil like you.”
“Oh, it’s not the kind of deal that
involves your soul, but it will involve lives, and one that you can benefit
from greatly. First is this deal. Let me kill your friends, and everyone in
this asylum, including your parents, will be spared, and I’ll turn myself in
for your judgment.”
“No deal. Not a chance.”
“Don’t speak so quickly because the
second deal is that you take a bullet for each of your friends in your normal
form. You won’t be exposing your identity to the people in this room since
you’ll be going somewhere else if you accept this deal.”
“Don’t do it!” Lancetto says.
“I’ll die for you instead!” Darcy
says.
“Don’t worry about me! I don’t mind
dying as long as everyone else lives!” Klinge says.
“Oh, shut up, all of you. It’s
going to be fine. He can just turn into his invincible dark hero form after
taking a bullet to heal, right? I know you’ve done it before.”
It’s true, but I’m not sure I can
endure bullet after bullet, and I’m also not sure if Bianco will shoot me in
the head, ensuring that I won’t come back from it. Nevertheless, I have no
choice.
“I’ll take a bullet for each of my
friends,” I decide.
“Such a selfless hero. Let’s see if
you can endure the pain.”
I’m transported to the courtyard
outside the asylum, where the garden's grass has grown unnaturally large, and
the flowers and plants reach the sky like the many skyscrapers in the city. I
revert to my normal form, wearing my usual suit, tie, dressy shirt, pants, and
shoes, and walk through the maze I find myself in.
“Lancetto, your best friend, whose
family has power in many businesses, areas of government, and religion in
Meridian, is one easily susceptible to corruption, and yet, you continue to put
your full trust in him. Don’t you think he’ll eventually cave to the threats
and bribes that he constantly faces?” Bianco asks in my head.
“He’s my brother and a better
brother than my own siblings. He’ll endure everything thrown his way and then
some,” I say without hesitation and full confidence.
“Ha…haha! He’s a better brother,
you say? What has he done for you besides follow your every command? Don’t you
think he follows you out of fear?”
“I don’t, and I don’t need to use
my powers to see that. Since we were kids, we played games together and kept
each other faithful to our God and families. We’ve indeed sinned, but everyone
does, and we always strive to be better.”
“You two are such living saints,
aren’t you?”
A shot rings out, and I feel a
sudden pinch in my gut. Looking down, I see that I’ve been shot in the stomach.
Immediately falling, I don’t let the pain frighten me as I turn into
L’Obscurité to heal myself and turn back into my normal self to find that the
wound has healed.
“See? You can easily come out on
top of this,” Bianco says as the scene shifts to a workhouse where the inmates
work off their debts to society. “As for Klinge, why should he matter to you?”
“You heard it in my inner thoughts
that you manifested. He’s a hard-working and humble man. I pulled him into my
mess of crime fighting because I believed that he should be doing more with his
position at the head of his powerful family, and I have a responsibility to
protect him, and responsibilities for his actions.”
“He was a lazy man who let criminal
dealings happen under his feet. What makes you think that illegal and sinful
activities still don’t happen under his mutated nose or that he’s as active in
getting rid of corruption as he should be?”
“Because he works hard and is
passionate about helping the common worker. He shows me his true heart by
example.”
“How about you do the same?”
Another shot rings out, this time,
I’m shot in the chest, and again, I fall, transform, heal, and transform back.
If I didn’t change as soon as I noticed the injury, that could’ve ended badly.
Picking myself up, I continue walking, this time finding myself in a
recreational area for the inmates who deal with mental and physical
disabilities.
“This is a dirty game you’re
playing, Bianco.”
“You’re surviving it. Stop
complaining, especially because you only have one last bullet to take and it’s
for a special someone. You’re planning on marrying her, aren’t you?”
“I am, and I was going to propose
to her tonight. I still have the ring in my pocket.”
“Really? Do you not remember who
your first foe was, who inspired many to take the lesson you were trying to
teach people, and turned it into chaos? Do you really think she hasn’t wrapped
you around her finger with how aggressive she’s been with getting you to love
her? Your marriage will likely end as quickly as it begins.”
“She’s changed. I’ve seen it in her
soul and actions.”
“Your judgment is clouded by your young
heart. You’re under her spell, and she will play you like a puppet.”
“If it is, then may God have mercy
on me. It wouldn’t be the first time I prayed for something and got the
opposite in return, but I’m going to continue to stay faithful to God and her,
regardless.”
“Faithful till death, as some say.”
The last shot rings out, and I feel
myself falling back as something hits the center of my forehead. My body feels
like a sack of bricks that I no longer have control over. I see that I’m in an
observation room with my friends standing over me, all of whom are frantic, and the ropes removed from their necks. Klinge,
the humble, mutated man who could never be convinced to dress in anything other
than boots, jeans, and a hoodie, looks to be the most upset I’ve ever seen him.
“You can come back from this! You never
let anything keep you down, so get up!” he says.
My best friend, my better than a
brother, Lancetto, who is always dressed to impress with his top hat, glasses,
and fancy suit, looks like a mess as he cries and says, “Come on, brother!
Please, God, bring him back!”
Darcy, who is the most upset out of
all of them and is crying the most, holds my hand up to her face with her
makeup running down from it. I want to hold her face and tell her everything is
okay, but the best I can manage are slight jolts of my body and head.
“Please, come back to me, my love.
I know you can do it,” she says while kissing my hand.
They keep telling me to do something,
but I can’t besides pray. I give my life into your hands as I always have,
Lord. Do with it what you will. It’s then that I feel a sudden surge of
strength that allows me to turn into L’Obscurité, saving my life. My friends
cheer, and Lancetto and Darcy hug me.
“Of course, you were going to
survive. A gunshot to the head is how I got my powers,” Bianco says as his voice
echoes throughout the asylum through the speakers.
“This game is getting beyond old.
Let’s finish this already!” I say.
“We are at the end. Find me in the surveillance
room with the two last special people you need to rescue.”
Not wanting to waste time, I tell
my friends that I’m off to finish this, and they cheer me on as I leave them.
If my parents know that I’m L’Obscurité, then this is going to be difficult.
Hopefully, they’ll make this easy so we can settle any disagreements and answer
questions after Bianco is dealt with.
Chapter
2 – Hypocrites of Healing
As I glide through the halls of the
asylum, I find that I’m hardly going anywhere, no matter how fast I go or how
many turns I take. Going backwards is even jarring, as I find myself in
different places with each turn of my back. This must be another of Bianco’s
tricks. Dymphna Asylum is one of my family’s asylums that we own, manage, and
one I’ve been in many times to do business in. These halls remind me of the
tours that my parents used to take me on to show me where they work, our
family’s legacy, and why I should help Meridian. It’s then that I suddenly turn
into my younger self after turning around the corner of the hallway.
Doctors, nurses, and guards go
about their business with their patients as if the asylum hasn’t been taken
over, and my parents walk alongside me, explaining the rooms and their
purposes. Yet another trick from Bianco. What are his powers exactly?
“Simple teleportation and mind
reading, and manipulation,” I hear Bianco’s voice echo. “You may be able to
read people’s souls, but I can read their minds. A god of my own gave me these
powers, who makes yours look pathetic in comparison, if such a simple power can
stop you from using yours on me.”
Ignoring the man’s obvious attempts
at getting on my nerves, I use these manifested memories as a reminder of why I
should act virtuously. Meridian is a sick city, filled with crime and
corruption from top to bottom, and the Severe family has been charged by God to
educate, heal, and help the poor and needy since the city’s founding. Among the
four founding and most powerful families of the Meridian, we must be an example
for all to follow, even if the other families should fall. I must be an example
to follow, just as my parents are.
“Yet, they weren’t able to be the
best example to their children,” Bianco says.
Turning a corner, I find myself in
my family’s house. My three brothers and three sisters are trashing the place
again with another one of their parties. They never cared about following our
parents’ example and only cared about using our family’s wealth for their own
ends. Once more, turning the corner, I’m with my parents on the streets of
Meridian, reliving a memory I would rather forget. We’re threatened at gunpoint
by thieves who want to take everything we have on us, but as Meridian citizens,
we are armed and know basic self-defense, so we fight back.
Despite doing so, my parents are
critically injured and put in a coma. Taking advantage of this situation, my
siblings take what they consider theirs from our family’s wealth and
possessions and leave, making me and our family’s friends the only ones to care
for them. Even though the doctors say there’s a low chance they’ll get out of
this, I continuously care for them as if they will, talk to them at night, and
celebrate occasions of the year by their side.
“It’s maddening, don’t you think?”
Bianco asks. “People go to hospitals and doctors to overcome sickness and
death, even though everyone dies in the end. Furthermore, it’s just as
maddening, if not more, that people try to heal their habits and sins, but then
drink deep of their vices again like an addict or a whore who can’t get enough
of what satisfies their desires for a cheap price for their souls.”
“Yet, the healing of body and soul
is among the most virtuous of professions, that of a healer or priest,” I say.
“Both vain and hypocritical
professions. Here, in the asylum and other hospitals, the doctors lie when they
say they save the lives of their patients when they only prolong them. The
criminals and mental patients here return to their bad habits or are given
less-than-ideal medications and advice to heal them, more often than not.”
“The path to healing can be slow
and arduous, but it is necessary.”
“Can you say the same of the
healing of the soul? You know the vain profession of priests, hypocrites who
wear the skin of holy men. They sin like everyone else, sometimes more than
others, and remove sins from the souls of sinners in confession, who will be
back in the confessional within a month, week, or perhaps the same day.”
Bianco sounds a lot like my
siblings and what they would say about healing and religion. Now that I’m
thinking about it, he only revealed the faces of two of my siblings but kept
the faces of the others hidden.
“It’s too late for you to go back
to check now. Speaking of them, you beat them nearly to death on your first
night as L’Obscurité.”
“I did. They deserved it for not
being there for abandoning our parents and thinking only of themselves.”
“Do you think any differently?”
“I think of what is virtuous and
good. The path I’ve chosen for my life is the straight and narrow.”
“Straight and narrow is right. All
you do is torture and kill. On the same first night, you killed many at all
levels of power and hung some of their bodies out of the building they were
in.”
“I brought justice to them and
saved the people they kept prisoner in that building. There’s a difference
between murder and an execution that you don’t seem to know.”
“What I know is that my god is
different than yours. Superior.”
Ahead of me, I see four large eyes,
two of which have a two-headed white snake with wings coming out of them. A
smile then forms, and the face enlarges so that it takes up the entire hallway
before lunging at me. Part of my darkness manifests as a black serpent that
stops this face from overtaking me and dispels much of the illusion of this
never-ending hallway, allowing me to actually get somewhere in the asylum, but
I’m brought back into it soon after, before I’m able to get anywhere.
“You go where I want you to. If you
want sinners to punish, I’ll let you have at these, whom you may know.” I’m
teleported to another cell block where there are mutated guards, priests, nuns,
doctors, heroes, and nurses who all have the white winged-snake in their eyes,
mouths, or on a part of their body where it writhes. “I changed these people’s
minds while I was here and in other places where you were. Yes, even while you
were here, we crossed paths, and I sowed the seeds of betrayal within this asylum
so this special night could happen.
Ignoring Bianco’s laughing and
mockery, I focus on the men and women in front of me who fling their arms
around and run at me as if they were possessed. As they speak, they have a
common voice speaking under theirs.
“I hate my patients! They always
spurn my help and never listen to me!”
“They hate me despite me trying my
best to help them!”
“I hate these people who keep
spitting in my face!”
“I come here day and night to guard
prisoners who should be dead!”
“I’m tired of protecting corrupt
people who pretend to be legitimate and caring!”
“I regret sparing all those
villains and criminals I faced. They either bought out the court to escape jail
or escaped prison and kept stealing, killing, and causing chaos! I should’ve
put the mutts down when I had the chance.”
These people air their grievances
while trying to attack me. They’re obviously acting emotionally with little
thought as to their actions, and were manipulated into helping Bianco, so I remove
the white winged-snake from them, and my powers give them a light to moderate
punishments. By the end of it, their minds are cleared, and they stop fighting
me now that they have control of their minds. The reality of what they did
settles into their mind, and many of them start acting out. A doctor cuts his
own throat with a scalpel, an officer shoots himself in the head, a hero snaps
his neck with his hands, priests and nuns bash their heads against walls and
the floors, and many cry on the floor.
I do my best to stop these people
from killing themselves by restraining them, but I’m unable to save them all,
even as I’m helped by some of the people who get a hold of themselves. The
shame and guilt of what the people have done weigh heavily on the souls of
these people as they realize they’re the reason why their coworkers and many innocent
people lie dead in the asylum, and the many dangerous patients are free.
“Behold the people who are meant to
be protectors of men’s souls and lives,” Bianco says. “Look at how pathetic
they are and how easily they have given in to their selfish emotions.”
“All men are weak,” I say before
turning to those who were possessed. “But that doesn’t mean that you can’t make
up for your mistakes!”
“Their lives are over. What they’ve
done has been caught on camera, and they will be locked up in the same cells as
the villains they hate.”
“I promise you’ll get a lighter
sentence because of what Bianco has done to your minds!”
“You know they don’t deserve it. Look
into their souls and see the truth. These hypocritical men and women deserve to
be jailed or put to death, just like this one.”
Tch, bastard. They deserve mercy.
The Chief of Police, Raymond, is
thrown from the darkness at me. “Here’s another treat from me. It's thanks for internally
writhing in anguish from all the suffering I’ve been putting you through.”
Bianco laughs as I help Raymond to
his feet.
“Chief, are you alright?” I ask.
“Yeah, L’Obscurité. I am, but I’m
not as bad as those people over there,” he says as he takes out a piece of gum
to anxiously chew on. “At this point, I’d rather suffer in their place so I
wouldn’t have to see so many good people in despair.”
“Let’s help them then.”
“No, I’ll do the helping. You
should go after Bianco and stop this madness.”
“Are you sure?”
“You’re the only one who can do it,
and I don’t trust this creep with the people he still has hostage, so go!”
“Okay, I will.”
“And kid, don’t let him get to you.”
I nod my head and continue through
the asylum, hoping that my friends and family are okay, and that anyone else caught
up in this mess won’t end up like the people in this hallway.
Chapter
1 – Amid Madness
The first criminal’s body turns
into a mess of bloody confetti. Next, another is shot to pieces by guns in the
dark. One is beaten to death by the spirits of those he has beaten, and another
is drowned in alcohol by his demons until he pukes himself to death. Yet
another is torn apart by hands in the shadows, another is chopped into pieces,
and needles stab another, and he dies by bleeding out through his skin. These
are the wretched deaths of the pitiful criminals I face in another day of crime
fighting as L’Obscurité.
Some can escape and heal from their
punishments due to their genuine repentance and my prayers for them, while most
die and suffer further in the afterlife. Such a pity, but it’s just the nature
of the job. There are better days when most repent, and I don’t find the dead
bodies of their victims in the buildings where they hide, and worse days when
everyone dies and no one repents. I say a silent prayer for my present and
future enemies before calling the cops to have the criminals at this location
arrested. As I leave for the next location, I get a call from the Chief of
Police, Raymond.
“Chief, how are you doing tonight?”
I ask.
“I’m not going to be doing so well
if you don’t come to the Dymphna Asylum, and neither will your friends or
parents if you don’t head over there quickly,” a dark voice says on the phone
before hanging up.
What was that about? I become one
with the shadows and travel between the light and dark of Meridian as I rush to
the Dymphna Asylum. Arriving there within seconds, despite its location on the
outskirts of the city, I find that the place is locked down and completely
inaccessible from the outside because of the shutters closed over the windows
and doors. Thankfully, my powers allow me to slip inside without touching
anything or causing any noise. At the entrance, I discover six hanging bodies-
three males and three females- all dressed in patient attire and wearing sacks
over their heads.
There doesn’t seem to be anyone
here until a shadowy figure who looks much like me with a hood and cloak on
appears out of nowhere on the balcony above me. The figure is white and grey
and has stretched out grey eyes and a smile that reaches both sides of his
hood. He laughs at me in a voice that I recognize as being the same one on the
phone. Not wanting to waste any time, I lunge at the figure and appear next to
him in the blink of an eye, but he gets away from me just as fast.
“Haha! It’s not going to be that
easy for you, Timeo Severe,” he says.
He knows my real name?! I continue
trying to use my powers on him and get to where he is, but he keeps evading my
grasp, and my powers don’t do anything to him.
“Who are you?!” I ask.
“You may simply know me as Bianco,
for now.”
This new villain of mine is back on
the balcony, and I’m on the ground floor as I stop my fruitless chase of him.
“What do you want? Where are my
family and friends? What have you done here?”
“To answer all three questions at
once, I’m here to make you suffer, and I’m doing that by keeping your loved ones
hostage and releasing all the patients here, especially the criminals you help
arrest.”
My friends and family appear from
the ground around Bianco with ropes around their necks, except for Darcy, who
has a living snake coiled around her neck that serves as a rope. All of them,
except my parents who have cloth in their mouths, call out to me for help, urging me not to let Bianco get the
better of me. Before I can attempt anything, Bianco and his hostages vanish in
a flash of light.
“Your parents know your secret,”
Bianco says as he chuckles. “Oh, how they said I was lying and trying to
deceive them until I showed them indisputable proof, such as pictures and
videos of you transforming. Then, they cried in despair over how their favorite
son turned into a sadistic, dark hero.”
“Shut up! You’re lying!” I say.
“Like mother and father, like son.”
“Face me and let’s get this over
with!”
“I won’t yet. The night is young,
and I have many painful challenges ahead of you, such as this one.”
Everything around me shifts and
swirls into a white void before spitting out the scene of a cell block filled
with hundreds of superhuman inmates trying to break out. My appearance catches
their attention, and it seems like they were expecting me because of the people
staring at the spot I was teleported to.
“The weird man was right! He did
bring us the man we all have a bone to pick with,” a man with vines and thorns
sticking out of his skin says.
“You have a lot to answer for,” a woman
with steel skin says as she cracks her knuckles, which sounds like the bending
of metal.
“You may have taken us down individually,
but together, you don’t stand a chance,” an ex-hero says as he lights half his
body on fire and the other half turns to stone.
Many other villains and criminals surround
me and say their piece, flaunting their powers, and the guns they took from the
armory and dead guards. They think I’m intimidated by their numbers, but they’re
mistaken.
I laugh and say, “I find it all
quite humorous, actually. This pathetic display of your confidence in your
abilities means less than nothing to me.”
“Oh, yeah? Let’s show him who the
pathetic one is,” one villain says as they pounce on me with their powers and
gunfire.
In the chaos, the criminals kill
each other more than they hurt me as they throw everything they have at me,
while the smart ones stand back, waiting to see what happens after the dust
settles, but all are hungry for the honor of saying that they killed me, an
honor none of them will have. All the criminals who attacked me are swept up in
a whirlwind that combines them all into a mangled human centipede. Each of them
has their head up each other’s rectum or attached to one another in some
painfully unnatural way that makes it surprising to everyone that they’re still
alive and writhing around. Those who didn’t get caught up in the whirlwind look
at the sight in shock and horror, some even dropping their weapons and returning
to their cells.
Speaking to those who still want to
fight, I say, “I spared your life in our first encounters so you could be reformed
and helped by this penitentiary, its doctors, and psychiatrists, but since you
spurn my mercy, all that’s left for you is justice.”
I laugh as I dispense justice upon
the criminals around me, either executing them according to their sins or
making them a part of the monstrosity that lies in the center of the cell
block. Once that’s done and over with, I hear clapping and laughing from Bianco.
“Bravo! It’s about time you did
something other than rip people to pieces, make them get eaten by vermin, or
die by whatever crime they were guilty of. That human centipede is simply
inspired,” he says.
“Stop these games and give me back
my family and friends or else you’ll end up like the scum in this room,” I say.
The scene shifts back to the
entrance of the asylum, where the hanging bodies are.
Bianco appears beside them and
says, “Oh, but I’ve already given you a few of your family members. Observe!”
He takes off the sacks from one of
the men and one of the women to reveal the faces of one of my brothers and
sisters. Despite not being fond of them, I can’t help but wince at the sight of
their strangled faces, devoid of color and full of horror at their final
moments.
“What’s the matter, Timeo? I thought
you didn’t like these people? You did beat them within an inch of their life
during the first night you made yourself known to Meridian,” Bianco says. “Do
you want to see the faces of the rest of your siblings?”
“I want you dead!” I say.
“You’ll have your chance of doing
that soon enough, but the show must go on for now.”
The scene around me changes to a
hallway of the asylum. I guess I have no choice but to play along with Bianco’s
game and try to find an opening to get to him. He knows my real identity and
told my parents it. I’ll have a lot of explaining to do after this. They’re
healers, so knowing that I’m a dark hero may worry them, to say the least. I
can only hope and pray to God that this sadistic new villain will be swiftly
brought to justice and that my parents will understand why I fight crime in the
way I do.
Chapter
4 – Unintentional Enemies
Tonight is the night I meet Azeria
and my other “fans”. Chief Raymond and the police are on standby to arrest
anyone if needed, and my friends, especially Darcy, eagerly await the results
of the meeting. I go to where they are, an atrium that’s attached to a school
that’s recently been condemned in the middle-class area of Meridian. There, I
find Azeria and what seems to be a hundred or so people here, eagerly awaiting
me. Some are even wearing shirts with my image on them and have signs with
affectionate messages on them for me, as if they can’t wait to say those words
to me. Everyone cheers for me until Azeria calms them down so we can get to
business.
“See? You have your own mini army
here that’s willing to do what you want, and this doesn’t even count those who
couldn’t make it here because of work or distance to Meridian,” Azeria says.
“Hmm, and yet, I can read in your
souls that you don’t all follow my example,” I say.
“Your example hasn’t been affected
as it usually has. You need to do things like you did in your first year and be
ruthless to criminals and evildoers of all kinds.”
“You want me to be ruthless? You
want me to ceaselessly and excessively punish, while executing many and sparing
few like I used to?”
The crowd cheers in approval, not
knowing what they’re asking for, so I give them what they want. Everyone here
faces Divine Judgment. Most are confused by what is happening and why, while
others understand and think they can endure it. People are beaten to death by
their demons, torn apart by visions of themselves trying to replicate what I do
to criminals, eaten by flesh-eating vermin, drowned in suspended water, shot in
every part of their body, cut by invisible blades, and more. Some are able to
repent and pass the test, while others hold onto their delusions that their
actions have been justified.
As for Azeria, her body has been
slowly falling apart and turning to mud as she resists the need for repentance.
Her legs are gone, and her arms fall apart soon after. She tries to get some distance
from me, but is unable to move. Walking over to her, I pick her up and hold her
body in my arms.
“You got what you wanted. What now?”
I ask.
Azeria struggles to smile, “To be
honest, I’m fine with this result. Part of me knew that I was a scummy person,
and there were people here who just wanted to kill people they didn’t like and
cause chaos. So, thank you. I now know my hero won’t hold back against anyone,
even those who say they’re on his side.”
Azeria’s body completely turns to
mud as she dies in my arms. The police bust into the area and only start making
arrests once the chaos dies down. My friends show up as well and tell me they
were keeping an eye on me. Raymond was holding back the police until he heard
screaming and then sent them in afterward. Lancetto, Klinge, and Darcy have
been using their allies to convict Azeria’s followers of their crimes of
murder, theft, and torture. I give my friends a simple thanks for their help,
and I will always appreciate them. I then travel outside to a dark place where
no one will see me and transform back into my normal self.
Looking back at the school I was
at, I breathe in and out now that the latest trouble of the week is dealt with.
I’m sure the calm won’t last that long, and there’ll be a new problem next week
or tomorrow, most likely. I then start my walk to my car, until I see Darcy
racing toward me from the school.
“Are you okay, Darcy?” I ask.
“Yes, but are you?” she asks back.
“I’m…fine.”
“Are you really?”
I rub my face, think about it for
another second, and then admit that, “I guess I’m not as fine as I think. That
was harder for me than it looked. I prayed that most of them would repent. I
even prayed that I would be punished in some way. Maybe…maybe even have my
powers taken away.”
“Don’t say that.”
“I know I shouldn’t. God gave me
these powers to do good, and I have been doing good. At that moment when people
were being judged and brought to repentance, part of me wanted to be judged so I
could see if I was doing something wrong. I’ve tried using my powers on myself,
but they didn’t do anything to me.”
“Of course they wouldn’t. You try
to live a virtuous life, and go to confession and do penance when you sin. What’s
there to punish?”
“I don’t know. My blindness or idiocy
at what God is trying to tell me.”
“Those things aren’t sins.”
“They can be if you do them willfully.
Speaking of which,” I say as I hold Darcy’s hands and look into her eyes. “I’ve
been willfully trying to avoid the love you’ve been showing me. We’ve probably
been in a relationship this whole time in your mind, but I’d like to make it
official now. What do you say?”
Darcy blushes and smiles.
“Let’s seal it with a kiss.”
She then closes her eyes and
puckers her lips at me. I kiss and don’t pull away from her, even as she holds
the kiss for longer than I’d like.
“So, does this mean I get to sleep
with you from now on?” she asks.
“Tch. Wait until after we get
married.”
“But I’m sure your parents won’t
mind having me over again, so we can tell them that we made our relationship official.”
“Then they’ll start wondering about
when the marriage will be and talk about grandchildren again.”
“I’m fine with that and will arrange
the details with them.”
I can only shake my head and laugh
with Darcy as I think about my future with her and this city. There are still
many challenges to face, some of them will test me on lessons I thought I already
learned and problems I thought were already solved. Nevertheless, I have to not
let the struggle of life get me down, because just as gold is tested in fire, men
are tested in the crucible of humiliation and adversity, and dealing with
aggressive women, in my case.
The End
Chapter
3 – The Grind of the Fight
Just as I expected, I wake up in
the morning to see Darcy lying beside me, holding me and staring me down with
her piercing blue eyes. She looks like she hasn’t gotten much sleep, but
despite that, she still appears as beautiful as always, with her long black
hair and a scent of roses.
I caress her face and say, “It’s
okay to go to sleep.”
“I don’t want anyone to hurt you,
my love,” she says.
“Don’t worry. We’re safe here, so
you can relax.”
I hold her close, and she begins to
sleep soon after. Thankfully, she didn’t cover my face in lipstick like she
usually does, or did anything to me while I was sleeping, or at least, it
doesn’t feel like she did anything. What am I saying? She’s not the kind of
woman to do anything like that. Still, she is a bit too obsessive in that she’s
sleeping with me and treats me as hers, despite my not returning the same level
of affection. I have to admit that I don’t mind this that much, and it is
comforting to be with her like this, so I fall back asleep.
Waking up again, I find that Darcy
is holding my head to her chest, and my parents are entering my room after
knocking and calling for me. They’re surprised to see me the way I am, and I
jump out of bed as if jolted awake by an electrical shock.
“It’s not what you think, mom and
dad!” I say.
“You two seem quite comfortable
with each other, and you're close. I mean, you always have so much of her
lipstick smeared across your face whenever you meet,” my dad says, laughing.
I rub my face to ensure there isn’t
any lipstick on it. Darcy’s lipstick is beginning to feel like a brand marking
me as hers, which likely isn’t far from the reason why she always does it.
“At this rate, you might as well
marry her,” my mom adds and laughs as well.
Darcy hugs me from behind and says,
“That’s a great idea! Don’t you think so, Timeo?”
“We’ll see,” I grunt.
“That wasn’t a no.”
“Shut up and give me some space for
once.”
Darcy and my parents laugh as we
walk downstairs to eat breakfast. I know they’re mostly serious about Darcy and
me getting married since my siblings are in the hospital and aren’t loyal to
their parents, to say the least, so it’s up to me to have grandchildren for my
parents. While eating, my parents talk about how they met, their wedding, how
many children they planned on having when they were younger, and what ended up
happening.
“You haven’t visited any of your
brothers or sisters recently. You should make the time to,” my mom says.
“I will, when I have the time,” I
say.
“You always say that.”
“Yup.”
I’m the one who put them in the
hospital with my own hands, but my parents don’t need to know that. I’d care to
see them when God moves me to do so. Otherwise, it’s at the bottom of my
concerns. Seeing that she isn’t getting through to me, my mom switches the
topic back to children and asks Darcy how many she wants.
“I think I’d like…five or more
kids,” Darcy says and then grabs my arm. “That’s okay with you, right?”
She asks me this as if we’re in a
relationship and on our way to getting married. Darcy laughs with my parents,
who say that the number is reasonable given our wealth. I don’t disagree;
however, I’m uncomfortable with Darcy’s hold over me. She acts like she owns my
heart and has me wrapped around her finger, and in this instance, she does. I
feel powerless to prevent us from being together, getting married, and having
children at this point.
It’s funny that despite how
invincible I feel as L’Obscurité, I’m too weak to act when it comes to Darcy.
Maybe it’s God’s will that our hearts were made for one another, or perhaps
it’s just young love that will fade after marriage. I don’t know which it is,
but the answer feels like it’s quickly approaching. After breakfast, I tell my
parents I need to make a call to arrange an important business meeting that I
must manage in private, something that Darcy understands. Thankfully, Azeria is
easy to persuade regarding a day and time to meet with all her allies.
She agrees to meet tomorrow night
at a certain place in the middle-class area of the city. I relay this
information to my friends and keep Chief Raymond informed, but I instruct him
not to get involved and assure him that I can handle it.
“Okay, kid. Just be careful with
her and her friends,” Raymond says.
Since the rest of the day is free
for us, Darcy says we should spend it relaxing to prepare for tomorrow, and I
can’t help but agree. We go out to a public park, and I zone out, looking at
the sky without a single thought in my head and a thousand at the same time. In
broad daylight, a husband and wife are beaten in front of their crying infant
son, then robbed. As the thieves run away, Darcy whispers to me to go after
them as L’Obscurité, but I don’t do anything. I don’t even look at her.
Noticing this, Darcy asks, “Are you
okay, Timeo? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this still before.”
“Do you remember when you were in
Azeria’s place? You inspired people to follow my example like she did,” I say.
“I remember. Do you think she’ll
change like I did after being punished by your power?”
“Does it matter? I just realized
that my powers won’t help it either way. It’s amusing that I’m invincible with
them, but they’re ineffective in permanently changing the city. I say that I’m
fine with the lifelong grind of crime fighting, but the three years I’ve been
working haven’t put enough fear in the common criminal to stop them from
daylight robbery.”
“Timeo…”
“Now, the latest enemy I find
myself against again is someone inspired by my actions. It’s not going to
matter if Azeria and her allies come to my side or die. It’s probably not going
to matter if the next criminals I face do the same either.”
Darcy slaps and then hugs me.
“Stop it! None of what you’ve done
has been for nothing. What about all the people you saved? What about the
criminals who repented and are living virtuous lives now? You’ve inspired many
to become better, not just through fear, but through your example, both as your
normal and darker self. The city will be better through us and the legacy we
leave. For now, hasn’t what we've done so far made it all worth it?”
I think on it for a second, sigh,
and then say, “You’re right, Darcy. Thank you for the reminder.”
“I’ll always be here for you, now,
go get them!”
Going into an alley, I transform
into L’Obscurité, chase after the thieves, take what they stole, and punish
them for their sins by taking their clothes, what they have on them, and
throwing it to the wind and having them stand naked on the streets, unable to
move for the next few hours, as their legs are bound in concrete. I return to
the family, heal them, and give them back their possessions. Their infant son
looks up at me and smiles as he sees a kind person behind my dark veneer.
Leaving them, I find a safe place to transform back to normal and then go back
to Darcy.
I kiss her on the lips, despite
thinking to kiss her on the cheek, take her hand, help her up, and say, “Thank you
again. Come on. We still have the rest of the day.”
“Was that a reward for me? I was
hoping you’d let me cuddle up to you tonight,” Darcy says.
“Ha, as if I have a choice in that.”
“Haha! You’re right. You don’t.”
I laugh, shake my head, and continue
with my day with Darcy, feeling a bit light and hopeful that everything will be
okay in the end and less worried about the future.
