Reaper of the Guilty: Chapter 2 – On-the-Spot Interview

Chapter 2 – On-the-Spot Interview

Today is a day to spend as my real identity, Timeo Severe. I’m hoping to call an emergency meeting between my friends who are powerful leaders in the four families that control every industry in Meridian, not counting mine. Darcy is always ready to drop whatever she is doing to see me, since her art projects can always be halted and handed over to her associates. As soon as I called her, she asked about us meeting, and we agreed to meet at the usual place in a few hours. Klinge, on the other hand, is too busy helping his mechanics. My best friend, Lancetto, texted me that he's in a meeting with Church leadership, businessmen, and politicians, so there’s no chance to get them to involve themselves.

Despite this, I text Klinge and Lancetto about the shapeshifter, what I know about them, that we need to meet at their earliest convenience, and can’t put it off for long. They both agree on this and promise to meet soon. I breathe in and out to try to calm myself down and remind myself not to be too worried about this new vigilante as I walk through the streets of Meridian.

“Timeo Severe? Can we talk in private?” I hear someone say to me.

I look around, but don’t see anyone looking at me or trying to get my attention, so I keep walking.

“You weren’t imagining anything, Timeo. Perhaps your dark friend told you of me?” the same person says.

“You’re the shape-”

“Keep walking and talking to an alleyway. When I asked if we could talk in private, I meant we will talk in private whether you want to or not.”

“Fine,” I say as I walk and look around for the nearest alleyway. “Who are you and what do you want?”

“My name is Azeria, and what I want is to help you and your friends make this city a better place.”

“What way would that be?”

“By making your mutual friend rely less on the law and work more independently, like he used to.”

“I don’t think he’ll do that. The extremists in the city are why he started working with the law.”

“Are you sure that it was a good trade-off? Things got done, and criminals at all levels of power got punished more back then, but now, criminals, both rich and poor, are still taking advantage of desperate people, no matter how many get locked up, killed, or are said to be not guilty by corrupt lawyers and judges. I’ve even talked to our mutual friend yesterday, who seems to be weighed down by how much things haven’t changed.”

“You don’t know him like I do.”

“Let’s talk more in private so I can and know what to say to him next time. It’ll help us both more if you tell me his secrets, maybe even arrange a meeting while you’re at it. I’m sure you have his number or a way of contacting him. He should have his own spotlight in the sky like some other heroes have at this point.”

“I’m not going to tell you his real identity, if that’s what you want to know.”

“Eh. His true identity doesn’t matter as much as his personal history and why he chose to be a hero.”

I make it to an alley and wait for someone to approach me out of the crowd. Both sides of the alley are open, but it’s dark enough in between so that no one can see us. At this point, I think of transforming into L’Obscurité because no one shows up. Did the Azeria get caught up in the crowd? Before I can transform all the way, I see Darcy walking to me.

“What are you doing here?” I ask her.

“You said to meet you, so I was walking to meet you, and just happened to see you in the crowd. Who were you talking to in the crowd?” she asks.

Despite my always feeling as if Darcy is stalking me, this meeting with her feels more off than usual. If Azeria can transform into Raymond, then she can transform into anyone, including Darcy. I could just transform to confirm it, but at the same time, do I want to expose my identity to Azeria? She said it didn’t matter, though she could have been lying. There is one sure way of finding out, so I take the risk and try kissing Darcy, only for her to push me away.

“What are you doing?” she asks.

“I guess you don’t know that Darcy is madly in love with me, do you, Azeria? Stop playing games with me and show me your true face,” I say.

Azeria laughs at me, walks into the darker part of the alley, and transforms herself into her, presumably, actual self. She has hazel eyes, medium brown hair, tanned skin, and is wearing scrubs and sneakers.

“I thought I’d get you to talk more if I showed up as Darcy since you’re always around her, but I didn’t think the rumors of you two being in a relationship were true,” Azeria says.

“We aren’t in a relationship,” I say.

“So it’s a one-sided deal then? That’s interesting, and here I thought you were the aggressive one for getting the four families to work together to help the city.”

“If you want to meet L’Obscurité, you’d better start explaining yourself to me. How did you get your power, and how does it work?”

“Let’s just say I work at a company that had a secret, experimental formula for shapeshifting, I tried it, and it, thankfully, agreed with my body, so I can use the power. As for how it works…”  pinches me enough to make me bleed and transforms her body, clothes, and voice to match mine. “If I touch a person’s blood, I can replicate their voice and entire appearance. I think it’s better than what happened to the original shapeshifter formula, which needed the user to ingest the person they wanted to transform into. Sure, I can’t take your memories like the original, but this is good enough.”

“Who else do you know that you can transform into?”

Azeria shows me by transforming into Lancetto, Klinge, Raymond, Chief Assistant Ralph, Mayor Jeph, Deputy Mayor Tim, and even an approximation of L’Obscurité.

“This L’Obscurité form is very inaccurate since he’s mostly made of shadow, but I criminals can’t tell the difference in the dark. I got his form when I managed to take a picture with him and get his autograph, not too long ago. I’m sort of a mega fan.”

Azeria reaches into her pocket and shows me a L’Obscurité key chain attached to her keys. I’m not sure if I should be more annoyed or creeped out. At least this isn’t as creepy as Darcy sending me a picture of her sleeping with an L’Obscurité plush with another message saying she wishes I were there. I’m really starting to regret going legit because legit heroes can have merchandise made of them. Heroes and vigilantes can only profit from their merchandise if the country knows their true identity, which may or may not be publicly known, but since I don’t need the money and people knowing who I am, I don’t see or care to see a penny from my merchandise sales.

“I see. So, you want L’Obscurité to go back to the way he was during his first year of crime fighting. Beyond the reasons you gave, what personal reason do you have?”

“I know the results of corruption because I work in the secret labs where it festers. Criminals were scared and quick to make themselves look as legit as possible, just in case he appeared to punish them. Now, they don’t care as much, and things are back to what they were. I think the moment I snapped was when I heard them say that he was leashed when he started working with the law.”

“Violence and disrupting society to create change won’t yield much benefit. You’ll merely reduce everything to ashes, and innocents will perish alongside the guilty.”

“I can assure you that the negatives can be alleviated because L’Obscurité has hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the city and beyond who would follow his every command.”

“If they want to follow his lead, then they should do as he already says and does. If they don’t, then they’ll find themselves opposing him. It’s as simple as that.”

“That’s why I want you to talk to him. Here’s my number. Set up the meeting, or you’ll be seeing me more often than you’d prefer, and I will be doing more to you than just a simple pinch.”

“You’re not afraid that I’ll find out who your employers are and report what you’ve done?”

“I don’t care if you do. I’m sick of that place and need a change of career anyway. Now, I must get going. My allies and I need to find more ways of getting our hero’s attention than acting in his name.”

“Wait!”

I try grabbing Azeria, but she runs away and slips into the crowd, where she presumably transforms since I’ve already lost sight of her. Great. Everything that I do just seems to turn against me. I don’t even feel like going hunting for criminals at all today, so I simply head into work at one of my family’s charities to help the food kitchen there and get my mind off my worries. After work, I calmly call my friends, let them know what happened, and this time, the situation makes them agree to arrange a meeting the next day. We meet in the usual spot, a private room in one of Lancetto’s office buildings where no one can hear or see us. Lancetto is dressed up like he’s meeting with the president, as always, with his top hat and dressy suit, pants, and shoes, Klinge is dressed as if he just got out of the car mechanics in jeans, a hoodie, t-shirt, and beat up boots, and Darcy is wearing a homemade dress, a large circular hat, heels, and her favorite snake scarf.

Lancetto is the first to speak in the meeting, like he usually does, as he says, “Does she know L’Obscurité’s true identity?”

“She doesn’t. I don’t even think she cares to know,” I say.

“What? Do you guys know?” Klinge asks.

Lancetto, Darcy, and I look at each other as if mentally communicating with one another since we all know what we’re thinking about.

“Since Azeria can disguise herself as any one of us, there’s one sure way of knowing if you are all who you say you are,” I say. “Who do you think L’Obscurité is?”

Lancetto and Darcy say it’s me, which stops Klinge from guessing because of the confidence in their statement.

He then says, “Is it you, Timeo?” I transform into L’Obscurité to show him without saying anything, and then go back into my normal form. “You kept this secret from me? Why?”

“We didn’t know when or how to tell you,” Lancetto says.

“We’ve been working together for three years now. You could’ve just told me out of the blue, and it would’ve been fine with me.”

“Doesn’t this count as out of the blue?” Darcy asks.

“Tch. I guess it is. It’s also nice to know I’m not the only freak in the room. No offense, Timeo.”

“None taken.”

“So, how did you figure out she was being me without transforming?” Darcy asks.

“I tried to kiss her. When she pushed me away, I knew it wasn’t you-”

At this moment, it occurs to me what I’m saying and to whom. Why did you allow me to talk without thinking, God?

“You tried kissing her?!” Darcy says as she gets up and grabs me by the collar.

Lancetto and Klinge can’t help but laugh at me.

“Darcy, it was the only way.”

“At least we know this is the true Darcy,” Klinge comments.

“Come on. Calm down. Nothing happened and he didn’t kiss her,” Lancetto says.

Darcy grunts, sits back down, and says, “Fine, but remember, your lips are only for me, Timeo.”

“Sure,” I say as I fix my collar and tie. “Do your contacts know of any extremist fan clubs of mine?”

“Lots, but none that are well-connected. They all have an idea of what crime-fighting should be like, and most are associated with legitimate hero and vigilante groups.”

“Keep an eye on them and remind them that I don’t approve of going above the law without a good reason. Lancetto?”

“People acting outside of their contracts is a given, especially in hero and vigilante businesses. I have my most trusted friends looking deeper into what gets ignored.”

“Thanks, brother.”

“I’ll be sure to do the same on my end, but it won’t be easy,” Klinge says. “You have a lot of fans in the lower and middle classes who want the existing system to be done away with yesterday. Many organize and hold protests and conspire to hurt or steal from certain people.”

“Damn it,” I say. “If speaking publicly about what people should do and be their example doesn’t work, and taking breaks doesn’t do it either, what should I do?”

“You keep doing your best and what you think is right. You’ll always have your nay-sayers and enemies,” Lancetto says.

“I know, I know. I’m not as used to it as you are, but I guess that’s my only course of action. I just have the feeling that even if I stop Azeria and her followers, then that won’t stop others from doing the same, just like how what I’ve been doing hasn’t stopped crime to any significant degree for long.”

“People are always going to be bastards,” Klinge says. “You can’t let that stop you from trying to be better than them.”

“Whatever villain or challenge pops up, we’ll always face it with you, Timeo. No matter how many times or how long we have to fight, I’m sure we’ll make a lasting difference,” Darcy says.

I sigh and then say, “Thank you, my friends. Let’s find a way to change the minds of these extremist fans of mine before we resort to violence or turning them over to the law. I’ll arrange the meeting with Azeria and see what I can do on my end.”

Klinge and Lancetto agree, and the meeting is dismissed. Darcy continues following me even though the other two have gone their own way.

“What is Dar-”

Darcy kisses me over and over again until I forcefully hold her at a distance.

“I’m not leaving your side until this business with Azeria is finished. I don’t want her taking any of your kisses or for you to think that she’s me,” Darcy says.

“It won’t happen again, Darcy. You can leave me-”

“No, I won’t!”

I struggle trying to get Darcy away from me, causing a scene in the office where people are laughing and rooting for either one of us to win. To not embarrass us further, I stop struggling and let Darcy stay by my side. She has an iron grip on my hand that makes it almost feel as if they’ll never come apart. On the way to work at one of my family’s schools, Darcy calls her parents to tell them that she’ll be staying with me for a bit, news that they seem overjoyed at.

“Why are they so happy?” I ask.

“They’re happy that my dark prince is finally accepting me into his heart,” she says.

“They don’t know, do they?”

“Maybe. Probably. If they do, they figured out the same way I did. Through your art that we’ve made together.”

“Great. Everyone might as well know at this point.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what is it that they know?” the driver of my limo asks.

“Don’t worry about it, and I’ll pay you double to forget about it.”

“Yes, sir!”

For the rest of the day, Darcy stays by my side and works with me as if we were glued to one another. The people at the school are glad to see her, especially those who know her and she’s worked with before here. By six in the afternoon, we head to my house, and I have to explain to my parents that Darcy will be eating dinner with us and sleeping over tonight, something that they don’t mind because our families are friendly with one another. At night, I have to struggle to get her off me so I can take a shower alone, and then struggle again so that she doesn’t pull me into the bathroom, so I don’t take a shower with her when it’s her turn. There are multiple bathrooms here, why can’t she just leave me alone for a minute?!

Finally, my last struggle of the night is getting her to sleep alone in the guest bedroom. She holds my arms, and we go back and forth arguing why we should sleep separately until she finally gives in.

“Okay, I’ll sleep alone if I get one good night kiss,” she says.

Wanting this to be over with, I concede and kiss her on the head.

“No, I want a kiss on the lips.”

“Darcy…please…”

“Just one quick kiss.”

“…fine.”

After kissing her on the lips, she holds me to make the kiss last longer, as expected, until she’s satisfied. She then lets go, tells me that she loves me, and goodnight. I walk out of the guest room, and as I’m walking to my room, my parents notice my tired condition.

They ask if I’m okay, and all I can muster is, “Tch. Women.” Without elaborating, they know what I’m talking about and laugh as they call me and Darcy a cute pair. Whatever. Heading over to my room, I crash on the bed, and despite knowing there’s a good chance that Darcy will walk into my room to sleep with me, I can’t help but let my tiredness take me as I fall asleep.