Romance Dancing with Horror
Copyright
2018 Albert Oon
Published
by Albert Oon at Smashwords
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Since not many people knew about them, Bryce, Olive, and their group of workers were kidnapped by a secret group of scientists from the private sector of the government. The scientists experiment on all of these people to make human weapons out of them, but most don’t survive. Bryce is the only one who survives out of the entire group. Because he is able to control himself, he uses his newfound ability to tear up the hidden facility. He manages to escape the facility and the destruction is large enough for locals to notice. They report the incident and the people involved are jailed though some of the people in the private sector haven’t been caught yet.
Bryce is still alive in the world with no place to go. His condition has worsened with him being in constant and increasing pain. Half of him is completely red with black scaring. His right arm is mutated along with his right leg, which can both be used as weapons. Because of the nature of his skin, his clothes slowly melt away to expose his mutations, so he constantly has to wear more than two layers of clothes and bandages in order to not attract any attention to him. He’s tried to get help from the best doctors in the country, but no one can help him.
Because of his condition and pure soul, God has allowed him to make any request he wants. Bryce asks for the ability to see the purity and atrociousness of people’s souls so he can use his mutations for good if he has to. Since he knows he can’t kill himself for moral reasons and because his mental condition is decaying, he’s asked for someone along with his guardian angel to assist him in making the right decisions. All of these requests are granted immediately. The spirit of his wife attaches herself to him and help guides his actions.
Bryce is currently in the final moments of his life where his mind is weak, and his pain is almost unbearable. His wife is currently helping him replace his decaying clothes. He’s looking through a donation bin since he’s not exactly stealing because the clothes are meant for homeless people like him. This bin is not that far from a department store that has it there and only gives it to a local charity when the person in charge of looking over it knows it’s full. The store itself is full of atrocious souls, but none of them are too far from the light of salvation, so Bryce does his best to keep away from them.
“We have to make you look as handsome as possible,” Olive says, “I should shave you one of these days. You’re not as well trimmed as you used to be.”
Olive usually talks to Bryce in this manner to ease his nerves and make himself remember who he was. Something spikes his nerves as an atrocious soul passes him and enters the department store. Bryce can’t help but follow this soul into the store to see what he’s going to do. This person doesn’t have any demons attached to him since his soul is so rotten and yet, he acts possessed. He gets mad at the staff after a few minutes of waiting for something and impatient when they don’t have what he wants for a certain price. He then begins to make a scene with his yelling. Things take a turn for the worse when the man slams his hand on the counter then grabs a cashier by the throat.
This is when Bryce moves in, shakes the man, and says, “Stop.”
“Why should I?”
The atrocious soul pushes Bryce away, which ignites Bryce’s rage. Half of his clothes melt away to reveal his mutations much to the shock of everyone in the store. Bryce then grabs the man with his mutated arm and uses his other arm to release the cashier.
“What are you?” the atrocious soul says as he tries to free himself from Bryce’s grip.
The chemicals on Bryce’s mutated body may melt clothing, but they only give human skin a light burn. Still, his mutations give him almost superhuman strength and agility at the cost of his pain and degrading mind. He throws the man clear across the store without hitting anyone else. Because Bryce touched the man, the man’s clothes are mostly degraded so he is naked and humiliated in the store. Bryce is about to further harm the man until Olive stops him.
“Stop, Bryce. Can’t you see that you’ve done enough to him? He’s learned his lesson.”
Bryce doesn’t respond and stands in place with his mutated arm ready to strike the man.
“Do you remember those days when we went to stores like these to find outfits for me? You hated being here, but you wouldn’t rest until you got me the best outfits. I swear you’re a bigger fashion critic than most women.”
Bryce cracks a smile as he regains control of himself. He then quickly runs out of the store, grabs whatever clothes cover his mutations, and leaves the area. He makes his way to a nice suburban area to calm himself down.
“It’s okay, baby. I’m here,” Olive says as she caresses him, and his guardian angel keeps away the demons from tempting him.
A single demon is allowed through to further test Bryce.
Bryce then turns his own mutated arm on himself and mutters, “It isn’t fair. It isn’t fair. It isn’t fair.”
Olive holds Bryce.
“I know what happened to us wasn’t planned, but He’ll make it up to us and then more. Just hold out a little longer. For me. For God like we said. Do you remember how many people we helped? How many people we saved with that mindset? Help us save you now. Just wait a little bit longer and everything will be fine.”
Bryce begins to cry a bit, before wiping away his tears and getting up. Driven by a need to make his last moments count, he heads out to a part of the city known for crime of a different kind. He goes to the houses of different corrupt politicians, businessmen, and other individuals of influence to fix their ways. He asks God for the ability to help purify these people. Because of his desire mercy instead of justice, he is granted this ability, but he has to control his anger as he sees the sins each atrocious soul has committed.
He sneaks into people’s houses and touches them with his mutated arm. During the purification process, he sees, feels, and hears everything the person felt while committing the sin. He keeps himself from killing them while Olive and his guardian angel keep his mind from going. More than twenty atrocious souls are temporarily purified as they know what they know they did previously was wrong. It’s up to them now to change or stay the same as they were before.
Because of everything he’s experienced, his mind is almost gone.
Olive says, “Stay with me, Bryce. You’ve done amazing work today. Bryce, do you remember the song you made up for me. Let me sing it to you.
Sweet Serenade
Tell me why you're in pain
Is it the world you live in?
It tears at you and rips your skin apart
Tell me what I can do to alleviate your worries
Bleeding Beauty
Tell me your sorrows
Give me your pain
Let me take away what troubles you so you can be the Perfect Beauty I know you are
My Everything
Tell me makes you weep
Is it the mistakes you've made?
Does your guilt still haunt you?
Let the past be the past
I know you're a better person now than before
Bleeding Beauty
Sorrowful Love
Tell me the source of your suffering
Allow me in your life to help you
Let me take away what troubles you so you can be the Perfect Beauty I know you are
I can be your strength
Your source of happiness
You only have to share your love with me
So you can bleed no more
And be the perfect beauty you were meant to be
I honestly thought it was kind of cheesy when you first sang it to me, but I still treasure it. Do you remember it, Bryce?”
“I…it was cheesy?”
Olive softly laughs before softly kissing Bryce’s face. Currently, Bryce only has a few more hours left to live. He has one more thing in mind to do, but before he does that, he looks for new clothing since his old ones are showing his mutations through the tears. He goes to a nearby church to find a donation bin similar to the department store’s. Before he leaves, he turns his attention to the atrocious souls within the church.
“Nothing is worse than fake goodness,” he says as he enters the church.
The people and priests within the building try using the name of God to cast Bryce out, but God isn’t on their side. Bryce touches everything he can with his mutation in the church to melt what he can. He touches people’s heads to make them see their sins, but then only try to fight back against him. Since bullets don’t hurt him, he shrugs off his attackers and buries them in the ruins of the church. After his demolition of the church, he heads out to a flower garden.
No one is here and since the flowers are free to pick, he gets as many as he can with his normal hand. He takes them and delivers them to as many people as possible. He doesn’t know these people, but even in his decaying mind, he knows that surprise gifts to people can make their day. After delivering these gifts in secret, he realizes he barely has an hour left.
With everything else done for the love of God and his wife, he heads to church for one more sacrifice. He stays from the beginning and does his best to control himself until the Eucharist is given out. This is one act should heal his soul of any sin that possibly resides within it. He receives the Body of Christ and is glad, but the man behind him drops the Sacred Body, steps on it by accident, feels no remorse, and asks the priest for another one.
Bryce quickly scoops up every last particle, holds it up to the man, and says, “Take it.”
“Ew, no. It’s dirty. Throw it away in the trash or something.”
Bryce’s nerves go off as he punches the man across the church and into the statue of a saint. The statue doesn’t break, crack, or move, in fact, the man bounces off it as if the saint punched the man away from it. Despite the force he was hit with, the man is knocked cold with no major injuries. The next person fearfully accepts the Sacred Body just as Bryce’s mutations show through his clothes. Some people in the church are confused, others are fearful, while others think Bryce is wearing some kind of outfit.
A blind bishop, who is known to be jolly, joyful, and fully aware of the spiritual, is attending this mass and turns his eyes to Bryce.
He says, “Look at this magnificent soul who is with us today. Tell me, what is your name?”
“Bryce…father.”
“You have a wonderful wife and guardian angel, Bryce.”
“I am very thankful for them.”
“Hmmm, I can feel that you are hurting and sick. Let me help you.”
The bishop gives Bryce a blessing that immediately kills him.
The people in the church are shocked by this then the bishop says, “This poor man is freed from his suffering. Let us give him a proper funeral and burial. We should also pray to be like him who held his sufferings and never lost his faith in God.”
Bryce is given a good funeral as his body ascends to Heaven with Olive. After days of suffering not intended for him, he receives a just reward and then some for his devotion and integrity.
The End
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