Scherzo for a Dark Hero: Chapter 1 – Nightmare of Criminals

Chapter 1 – Nightmare of Criminals

It’s another day in Meridian. As the sun sets, the scum of the city begin to become bolder and start stalking and pouncing on their prey. One such unfortunate victim is a father in great debt with the wrong people. He hasn’t managed to pay them back on his weekly dues and is being brought to an unassuming house to “make arrangements” to make up for what he couldn’t pay. The two guards in casual clothes, smoking outside the home, smile at the man as he enters the house, and he nervously returns with a smile of his own before looking ahead with unease coursing through his body. The door closes behind the father, and his fate is sealed.

“Another fish takes the bait,” one of them says.

“It’s been easier nowadays, now that you know who hasn’t been around as much,” the other says.

“Yeah, but we still got boy scout heroes, vigilantes, and cops to worry about.”

“Relax. Most of them are in the pocket of the new big man in town.”

“Quiet. You know we can’t talk about him in public.”

“Who’s going to hear us? It’s going to be night soon, and most people are either rushing home, or the cops will be too busy to deal with people on this side of the city.”

“But you know what the boss said. We can’t take any chances.”

Something in the shadows of an alley across the street catches one of the guards’ attention.

“Hey, do you see that in the alley? I think we’re being watched.”

The guard squints at the dark.

“I don’t see anything. I think you’re just being paranoid.”

“Maybe. No, I really think I see-”

Before he can say anything else, I sweep him and his friend with me into the dark, and they disappear in the blink of an eye. Inside the house, the father is sitting down at a dinner table with four criminals surrounding him, one of whom has superhuman powers. The normal humans lay their guns and knives on the table and assure the father that they won’t hurt him to get their money.

“Debts can be paid off with servitude,” one of the criminals says.

“What…what do you want me to do?” the father asks.

“Relax. It’s simple and can be done tonight. We’re not going to ask you to strip or do anything dirty like that. You’re not that attractive to us. Instead, you’ll take a gun and a knife from the table, go to where we tell you, and take what we tell you.”

“What will I be taking?”

“We could let you know, but we’ll only take half of your debt away, and then you’ll have to do the same thing tomorrow. Don’t worry about it. It’ll be quick and painless.”

After thinking about it, the father decides, “I…I’ll do it.”

“Smart man,” the superhuman holds out his hand to shake on it.

Before the father shakes his hand, I blow the superhuman’s hand off with my pistol. Everyone in the room looks at the stump where the hand used to be in shock before the superhuman screams out in pain, and another shot blows his head clean off his shoulders. Looking at the only place the shot could have come from, the criminals quickly grab their guns and look at the empty hallway that leads to the front door. It doesn’t look like anyone is there, nor is there any place in the hallway to hide. The single light in the hallway flickers a few times before the two guards from outside crawl out of the floor as if phasing through it.

The two guards are now stitched together into one body, their arms and legs broken, and they now walk on four legs and arms like an injured spider. They painfully crawl forward, moaning in pain, and trying to reach out for help, but their friends just scream and shoot them several times until their guns are empty.

“Hahaha. Vermin like them should be killed without a second thought, and now, it’s your turn,” I say.

The three criminals turn their heads around and reload their guns.

“Where are you? Show yourself, and maybe we can make a deal?” one of the criminals says.

“I don’t make deals with devils like you. If it’s money you want, then I can give you it.”

The body of one of the criminals turns into paper bills bit by bit until it turns into a pile of cash all at once and is then eaten by moths that come out of the pile of cash that was once a person. I drag another criminal into a pantry where he is crushed, and the last criminal is taken care of by falling through the floor and into a pit of barbed wire. During this entire time, the father has been glued to the chair, unable to even turn his head as fear has him in its firm grip. With no one left but him, he assumes he is next and closes his eyes in anticipation of a horrifying fate.

“You,” I say. “Open your eyes and look up.”

Tepidly opening his eyes, the father looks up and looks upon my dark and featureless face in terror.

“What…do you want?” he asks.

“I wanted some information, not out of you, but out of the people you associated yourself with. As for you, I wanted to see what you would say to those people and save you from making another idiotic mistake. You didn’t know it, but you were going to go kill another person who hasn’t paid their loans to these scum, and now, both the lives of that person and you are saved and neither need to pay their debts.”

“Thank you-”

“Don’t thank me yet,” I say while slamming my hand down on the table. “You were desperate enough to reach out to criminals to take a loan from them. By doing so, you endangered yourself and your family in turn.”

“I couldn’t think of anything better to do! We were struggling, no new job would accept me, and the greedy men who run the banks would’ve given me a similar loan anyway.”

“Even if there was no better option, it would’ve been better to live in poverty than unnecessarily risk your family’s lives so they can live in some sense of comfort. A man who risks his family’s life in this way should not have the honor of being called a husband or a father.”

“You don’t understand-”

I drop five hundred dollars on the table.

“I do. You can keep this.”

“Huh? Really? I won’t have to pay you back for it?”

“No,” I say before grabbing the man’s hands. “But you will pay for your sins.”

My hands burn the father’s, leaving black burn marks in their wake, and make him cry out in pain.

“If you ever prefer comfort over virtue again, remember to look at these burn marks. If you don’t, then I’ll be back to burn the rest of you.”

I laugh as I leave the father to his lesson and find a dark alley to transform back into my normal form. I call the Chief of Police, Raymond Ellory, to inform him about my findings.

“So, there is a new big boss in the city that’s been pulling the strings of the gangs and villain collectives. Did the memories of those criminals tell you anything else, like a name, or give you a face?” Raymond asks.

“All I have is the name, The New Boss. Nothing more,” I say.

“That’s unoriginal, but so is trying to control all the crime in the city, so I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“He’s an amateur. I’ll bring him to justice tonight.”

“Really? Tonight? Does that mean L’Obscurité is back?”

“He is, and he’s better than ever. Trust me when I say that I have what I need to bring him to justice tonight despite his extensive network and elusive nature.”

“I’m hoping that you do. It hasn’t been the same since you had to focus on your family for a while, not that I’m complaining.”

My phone buzzes, and I see my wife, Darcy, is calling.

“Speaking about them, Darcy is calling me right now.”

“Understood. Good hunting, and call me if you need anything.”

I hang up the call and answer Darcy’s call.

“Dinner is ready. I hope my dark hero isn’t too busy to have dinner with his family,” she says.

“I am, at the moment. If I move now, I’ll be able to bring Meridian’s latest villain to justice before breakfast,” I say.

“You’ll be able to bring him down even sooner if you hear what I found out about him, but you’ll have to come home to hear it.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll be home in a second.”

Always such a tease.