LIZARDS

Wilson drop of his cab in front of the old building. The rain, cold and unmerciful hit against his face, making him use his brief case as a makeup umbrella. Horrible weather, he thought, in a horrible coast town in the middle of nowhere.

He was a short, unpleasant and arrogant man, and his mood, usually nasty, was beyond terrible. How dare those small little researchers, to make him come all the way from Michigan to this dumpster? Oh they would regret not picking the phone and not delivering the reports as scheduled. Who they think they were, to take federal research money and don’t account for it? Oh he would cut them off, and tell them what he think about their freaking lizard experiments…

He knocked on the metal door, already furious, and waited, soaking in the rain, for almost five minutes, until a soft, dragged voice spoke through the intercom.

-This is a research center, we aren’t buying anything…go away…

-Look you son of a Bitch, here is Wilson Mitchels, I’m here for the reports. Now open it or I next time I will come with the cops! Dammit!

He Kicked the door, but only silence come from the other side of the intercom.

Five minutes later, when he was already dialing his cell phone after a taxi, the door opened behind him. A tall, thin figure, stared at him. The figure, that could be a man or woman, was wearing a biosafety suit, covering his (or her) entire body, the visor was a dark mirror that wouldn’t slip any hint of the identity of the user. A little startled, he spoke mildly.

-So you decided to open the door? Very nice of you…what’s with the outfit?

*

The tall figure answered slowly, as if he just woke from a deep slumber:

-…We were…conducting… a …experiment. Sorry we took sooo…. So long to open the door… Please… follow me…

Was the same apathetic voice from before. Damn, experiments? You were sleeping you lazy asshole!

-I suppose it was a experiment involving sleep?!

-…No… Genetic Engineering and chimerization… experiments…

His sarcasm was totally deflected, what made him even more angry.

-I heard about that crap before, but I am here to see the results! And you better have some good ones!

The man in the biosafety suit, just nodded and guided him to a laboratory, two floors above. The entire building was hot, humid and dark, the lab was no exception. Even worst, it was hotter and carried a mix of nasty chemical smells and something that remind him of rotten flesh.

-Damn, would kill you freaks to open a window here? What is that smell?

-…The animals… we feed to the test subjects… some must fester before feeding…

-Disgusting…

He covered his nose with his handkerchief, and brushed his sweat with the other hand. For the first time he noticed the metal cages in the center of the laboratory.

*

-What in the name of god…?

Four large cages, and eight smaller ones, each one occupied with one or two grotesque figures, a deformed mix of man and beast, part human and part reptile.

The figure beside him calmly took a clipboard with some data and pointing to the disgusting creatures start his report:

-Our…initial goal was… to develop chimeras through genetic engineering of test subjects… test subjects already fully developed, not embryos… using changed steam cells…cells directly injected on the organs that could be of… military… interest.

-God, those thinks… what are they?!?

He hold the vomit in the throat.

-those are… the test subjects…

-The lizards? The LIZARDS become those… things?!

-Not… things. Chimeras… a Living organism holding, producing…keeping… organs that have…the desired aspects… and are eligible to transplant…As planned in the…original…original plan.

-No way… explain this to me…!

-As you…wish.

*

-In…the…the first cage…test subject zero-one…Female. External characteristics are… human torso, gila monster’s lizard head… Arms…both amputated…but re-growing one centimeter per hour…where crossed with Japanese giant salamander gene…resembling… human arms perfectly… the rest of the body become a huge tumor…with teeth, hair, eyes, etc… a large group of teratomas. Objective… a donor that could produce limbs… to replace soldier limb’s lost in action…successful…

-So..this animal…can produce people arm’s?

Suddenly he look at it, the human eyes…but he saw nothing but a very profitable medical product…

-And the others?

-Test…subject…zero-two…upper body become a single teratoma…lower part is part human, part newt… He generate…over forty…forty harvestable human hearts…per week…

-Impressive!!! And the others?

*

And the figure went on. Every single aberration had a very profitable end… and he was marveled at the results. While his tour guide went up to get some copies of the reports, reports he would use to double the funding to such wondrous research, something flew and hit his leg, a small, dirty, piece of paper.

-What?

He looked behind him, and to his horror, one of the creatures was waving to him, and pointing desperate to the paper, where he could read, in blood, the following:

-“HELP! HE ARE NOT LIZARDS, WE ARE THE RESEARCHERS. THE LIZARDS SCAPED AND MADE US THEIR PRISIONERS!”

Rouge of the Blades

A two part story, also, tomorrow i will post the weekly chapter of "YOU NEED A HERO", thanks!

The full moon shines in the clear night sky, as the wind blows furiously, but the hundreds of armored soldiers guarded the fortress built as a ancient Japanese castle, a perfect cut stone in the middle of a artificial lake. The men were silent, and heavy armed mechs painted in red scanned the area searching for intruders. Inside the castle, an old man watched over his scared master:

-Master, the defenses are in place. Now this fortress is inexpugnable, so please rest.

-Quiet you old fart! Damn… Why I accepted making part of that foolish plan? “attack from north while we move from south, then we will take the land of Ord”… idiots, all idiots, got themselves killed miles before reaching Kardis! Now that scum, Ord, put a bounty on my head…

-Master, there is no proof of that, and even if he did so, there is no guarantee the Blades would accept such task…  Also the regular troops and the mercenary we hired are now watching the perimeter.

-Silence you stupid goat! That arkharian viper, Mariz wouldn’t waste the opportunity… As long war is declared, the assassin guilds can kill nobles without fearing prosecution… she would take the job for free, just for the taste of my blood! If I knew those morons would get slay so easily I would never enter this enterprise!!! Damn… my only chance is to negotiate a truce with Ord and suspend the war state… then the assassin guilds won’t be able to touch a nobleman like myself… You! Why I have no news of my messenger??

-Master, we dispatch several diplomatic messengers, but none return. Ord’s troops don’t let anyone leave his feud…

-That fat bastard!! He wants to see me dead? Then take my land? I have no choice than draft the commoners and try a surprise attack. Even if they all die, I can cause damage enough to force peace talks…

Suddenly an alarm sounds.

-What is this? Is an attack? Go check it! Now!! And call some guards to my room!

The old man leaves in a hurry as the feudal lord thrown books and paper weights at his heels.

Then the sound of gunfire and explosions fill the air, as a battle starts outside the castle. Too afraid to leave the room alone, he grabs a elegant energy pistol and touch a large crystal ball that lay over his table. It project a hologram with images of several security spheres around the premises. Smoke, confusion, gunfire everywhere, shadow figures moving too fast to be tracked, but none inside the castle, yet. They all are gathered at the main gate, fools!

-Guards! Ardann! Come here now! Is time to leave! Bring a squadron!

He touch a hidden button, and a wall opens, revealing a vault, full of treasures, gold, jewels, a feast to eyes, which the feudal lord try to fit inside leather bags and travel trunks.

-Where are Ardann and my guards? I will punish that old fart for making me wait like that…

-Ardann is dead, like the guards on this floor.

The voice, feminine, strong, cold but with a little drop of spite came from behind him, and he recognized it instantly.

-M… Mariz! It…it’s you!

He stuttered as his shivering hand slid discreetly to the pistol grip.

-Mariz, my dear… Please, don’t do anything rash, see all this gold? I’m sure I can outbid anything Orb offered you for my head… Let’s talk…

Quick as a snake he took his pistol and shot at the shadows, but she wasn’t there anymore.

-Don’t call me “dear”.

Her fist, wrapped on solid leather hit his jaw, as her feet kicked the pistol away, without effort.

-And above all, don’t forget: You don’t own me. Not anymore.

Her big green eyes shined like jade, filled with hatred.

- Ahh! Please Mariz! Forgive me for what I did before, I was just a boy!!! Look, now I am serious, take everything, as an apology! Just… don’t kill me!

Her cold face didn’t warned him about the kick she gave in his guts, and his cries didn’t made her stop kicking him after his fall.

-I remember. You had fifteen. I had eight, my sisters had six and four. You remember them? Alirah and Tabatha? And our mother, Neptunia? I bet you do.

He tried to crawl away like a maggot, just to be hit on his lower back. A snapping sound and a terrible pain were followed by the numbness of his legs.

-My mother wasn’t your doing… Your father killed her. I remember him, grabbing her neck, after the guards finished beating her, like she was some kind of broken toy.

-Sorry! Please let me go!!! It’s not my fault!

A soft “click” was the only indicator that she pulled the trigger of the energy pistol, hitting his hand, which burst in flames like paper in a furnace. His left hand had disappeared, leaving nothing below his elbow.

- I will never forget, me and my sisters, we watched it all. But it wasn’t over yet. He slowly stabbed her, just bellow the ribs, and waited her die in his hands, before throwing her dead body at our feet. You looked impressed.

-It was my father fault, everything! He was a sick man! I hated him too!!! Believe me when I say I tried to help!

She kick the back of his head, and he hit the floor with his teeth, that brake soaking him with blood.

-Shut up. Help us? Like when your father asked if he should “give something to the dogs to play”? Oh I remember well that you smiled like a devil and said that the dogs would love to play with… Tabatha.

She kicked him again, several times, until he was covered in wounds. He cried and beg, but she wouldn’t stop.

-She was only four, and you feed her to war dogs, laughed as she cried and screamed, while your beasts ripped her to shreds! It was you way to help us?!

-… Please!!!

-But it didn’t end. No, as your father leaved, drunk, to his prostitutes and little boys, you challenged your brother, Despain, to some night shooting practice.

-I was drunk! I didn’t want to! I swear!!!

She punched until he stop moving and laid still on the floor, crying.

-You were drunk… But still had a gun and two girls. Alirah wasn’t your type, I recall you saying she was thin as a stick, not the type of girl to take as a prize.

-Please…

He cried as she took her sword of the sheath.

-You were pretty good with a rifle, better than Despain. I remember that killing that inbreed pig was like crushing a maggot. A maggot like you. If I recall you won that night, first hit her in the leg, let her crawling in the mood and finally burst her head with a beam of energy. You let her body there, to rot in the middle of nowhere. For the next two years you told that tale to everyone, how you won a little slut in a bet against your brother. You would always say “she screamed like a hog, so annoying, that I decided to blow her head of”. Two years in your hands, chained, tortured, raped, humiliated in everyway possible way, as you would mock me over the death of my family, and how easy was to take this land from my father.

-You…You want the land back? I give it to you! Right now! Take it please!!!

-I want to see you dead, like the rest of your wretched family. I killed every single one of them, now only you are left.

-You, you WHORE! YOU CAN’T KILL ME, I AM A NOBLE MAN!!! I AM THE LORD OF THIS LAND!! YOU CAN’T KILL ME!

-Oh, true. Noblemen can only be killed during war time, accordingly to the war rules. Was difficult to be the first to get the war-time jobs I needed to kill your family. I had to sleep with many filthy men, kill some good people, pay off important politicians, and above all, lie to many, many nobles. Oh was so hard to plant false information good enough to make you and your allies attack Ord. But I could always count on your greed, isn’t true?

-You...You set me up! You started a war so you could kill me!!

-I started nothing. I am one of the Blades. We just finish things. Things and people.

Her sword cut his head of swiftly, and his two last beats gushed blood over the once precious treasure. Everything on that room disgust her. How many times she tried to kill him, to kill herself, just to fail and to be tortured even more horribly.

 If she wasn’t left behind in the battle field during one of the many failed military attacks of the Drepain… Only the gods knew what would be of her. She armed incendiary charges inside the vault and in the damned bed, pick his head and wrapped it on a thermo blanket to preserve it and leaved. On the door of the master bedroom, the Blades mark: A long dark steel dagger. That part of her life was finally over, she finished her businesses there.

Without looking back, she disappeared in the shadows, not Mariz, not anymore. Now she was finally one of them. Her name, Rouge of the Blades.

She managed to leave the castle without be seen or heard. Like a ghost, she avoided the confuse soldiers, and planted discrete energy bombs. As she entered the cold waters, s the pressed a small button on her discrete wrist-computer, and the entire castle was engulfed in a huge ball of fire. The men outside the castle panic, mercenary, knights, samurai, professional soldiers, they all started to run around like insects. Some would fall to friendly fire, others would be killed by a sniper from the Blades, one of her team mates.

One hour later they were reunited, hidden in the dense woods, close to the border between Ord’s and Drepain’s feuds. They were in five, and one of them, older and with red cybernetic eyes talked first:

-Give me your reports, first you, Stonehands.

A muscular man, bald and in his twenties smiled, he have a ordinary face, and could pass easily as a commoner.

-Yesh! Mister Wireblade! My assignment was to track down and kill a rich weapon trader called Mori Gaspent, Drepain supplier, destroy the guns and ammunitions he would supply to Drepain forces, and plant virtual evidences that he was murdered by his younger brother, Adrani. The mission was a success! I caught him with his favorite prostitute, no guards. Killed both – The man make a movement with his hands, like he was snapping a stick –Too bad about the girl. The weapons were a far cleaner job, made it explode in the river harbor, investigations will show that a malfunction on the fuel lines of the barge made the entire thing explode! Was beautiful!

-Good. Next, you Lionant.

A man with a face covered with scars bow down respectfully and spoke in a cold tone:

-Sir. My mission was to sabotage the West Gate bridge, destroying both, the bridge and a convoy with supplies and reinforcements. The bridge is no more. I used a patrol boat as a Trojan horse, filled with directional charges. When they figured something was wrong, was already too late. The bridge and anything in a two hundred meter radius was destroyed, and all reinforcements killed.

-Very good. Now you two, Crowfeather and Rouge, spoke.

Rouge had a calm look, but the young Crowfeather, a energetic girl tall as her sniper rifle, took the lead and narrated the attack to the castle:

-Was a piece of cake! Was a show, I killed 85 foot soldiers, 41 mercenaries, 9 knights and even took down four mechs, and Rouge made her part while I distracted them! Show them what you got, Rouge!

Crowfeather’s hazel eyes shinned, but Rouge was at best, bored. She unwrapped the feudal lord’s head and offered it to the leader.

-The last… The only one in the Drepain bloodline. Now all his samurai are ronin, his knights are homeless and his land vacant. This war is practically over.

-Excellent. Tonight the blades did well. In two of three jobs, our mark was left, so they will know our strength. Now we split again. Crowfeather, you will come with me to the frontline, where we will meet Ord’s generals. Stonehands, Lionant, in this self destructive letters you will find each one a new mission. Rougeblade, the feudal lord Ord asked you to deliver Drepain’s head to him, and to describe his death in details.

-Yes, will be a pleasure.

The woman get up grabbed the morbid package and left, looking annoyed. Stonehands scratched his muscular neck and spoke one last thing before they all went their separated ways.

-Ehh, she just made an excellent job, and still can’t smile… I wish I was assigned good jobs like killing feudal lords… !

new chapter of "YOU NEED A HERO"

Weekly chapter of "YOU NEED A HERO". enjoy!

0004#

Less than a month after the murders, the city was close to hysteria, fearing the “One hit killer”: He was in all papers, most of times stories of people who allegedly meet and survived to tell the tale. Police had to investigate all possible witness but all were attention whoring nut jobs. Radio and TV also had a poor record of people who pretend to know the killer, but the real problem was the internet: Leaked photos and record, and even official reports flooded the net, in blogs, spam, chain mail and dozen of web sites claiming to belong to the killer, or to his spokesman, the Hammer head. Soon it become a political scandal, once “Hammer Head” exposed the posture of the city authorities to ignore all the previous attack. Accused of negligence, the mayor put all police force on the fire, and some heads were cut, but only of  sacrificial lambs.

Josh and Sammy were on the first line of heads to be cut, but the reports exposed how they were forced to let go of the case, what made them untouchable before the public eyes, but even keeping their jobs, they didn’t escaped unharmed: Several accusations of misconduct and selling information were made and internal affairs rained over them.

After they proved to be innocent, the harassment begun to stop, but they still were deemed un-reliable, and once more they got swapped off the investigation. On the paper they were part of a “task force”, but reality was different, they were sent in pointless missions, to investigate obviously false evidences and testimonies. Josh, a practical man, kept below the radar, but Sammy had a whole different understanding of the situation, and frequently would enter verbal fights with the higher ups, as usual.

That afternoon a meeting on city hall between law officers, the mayor and city’s representatives begun at close doors.

The mayor was under heavy fire from everyone but the police, to which he delegated all responsibility on the “errors” and “misunderstandings” on the investigations, but was clear to all that his position was more and more threatened. After the meeting, he returned to his office, dodging reporters, and spoke with his secretary, a man called Vincent.

-Those jackals are eating me alive! Damn, I won’t make to the elections next month if it stay like that! Fucking police, make them work harder! A man who kill at least two persons every night can’t be this hard to find!

-Sir, we already put any available resource in this task. To increase the man hunt, we would have to reassign police officers from other areas, like narcotics and …

-I don’t give a fuck! Do you hear me? Not a single fuck! Put those lazy fuckers on it too, my career is on the line, and I wont let a maniac with a knife bury my political future! Now go and make it happen!

Furious, the mayor throws the stapler against Vincent, hitting him on the arm. He apologized and left, the mayor was always like that, when dealing with his subordinates at close doors. Son Vincent was on his car heading to police headquarters to address in person to the chief of police.

-What? The mayor want us to drop any other case and focus only on the “one hit killer”?! Are you nuts!?!

-Please chief, it’s not me. It’s a direct order from the mayor, he thinks the “one hit killer” is a serious threat to people’s safety and that justify extraordinary measures…

-I’m not a moron, I know he is doing it to save his face in time for the next elections, but damn, crime raised 46% in the last year as our force shrunk almost 20%. We are already working at 200% of our capacity here! If I do it…

-Chief, you will do it or you will be kicked of the force. The mayor don’t want your excuses, he want results. There is no excuse to letting a murderer escaping with two kills every night, in the middle of town.

Vincent soon leave the chief and the police head quarters, but he don’t return directly to the mayor’s office first he stop at a medical office. The installation is an old mansion, beautifully kept, with pure white walls and golden details in all doors and windows, dark windows. Inside, only a couple of rich patients wait on a luxurious waiting room, Vincent go straight to the receptionist, who is already waiting for him. She open a door marked as “STAFF ONLY” and he enter with naturality. Soon he is sitting in front of a huge man dressed with a unspoiled white coat.

-Doctor Krane, things are going swiftly. I think we can inform our associates that police will be completely unstructured in the next weeks…

-They are not our associates; they are just pawns, PAWNS, with their wicked schemes and ignorance… Dover is keeping the flood of news on OHT-D, but he will need more reports.

-Ahead of you doctor, here, and an extra:

The fat man smiled.

-What it is?

-A pen drive with audio recordings from today’s meeting in city hall. The mayor sound completely lost and incompetent on it.

-It won’t compromise your cover?

-No. The room was crowded, anyone could have it recorded.

-Well done. Soon we will start phase three.

-Already?

The fat man laughed:

-Are you scared Vince?

-Not at all doctor. But after all this time waiting, it is… dazzling how fast things are moving.

-Indeed, but this speed work in our favor. The bait we served with the “Hammer Head” signature already brought the right players on the court.

-I see, Doctor… Aren’t you afraid they found you?

-To them I am dead. All they see is that some of my work survived. The only ones who know about what Hammer Head was really about were the Israeli, and the Mossad will never ever admit to reveal it to anyone. Now, son, enough talking: Go to the mayor, take this new dose of hormones and drugs, and make sure to increase the dose in mayor’s food in the following weeks.

-Yes father, I will.

The medic watches Vincent leave though the CCTV monitor and smile. He remembers with satisfaction how he managed to fool all his persecutors.

-Ah Vincent, my most reliable son. I should have manufactured two of you when I had the opportunity…Well; one is good enough for now.

Away from there, a man lifted weights. Over 140 kg on supine position, almost effortlessly. He didn’t count it, just did it as many times he could. A smile on his face reveled satisfaction and tranquility. He decided to stop, was getting late, and he need to take a bath and sleep before leaving for his night activities. He was very satisfied with the public response to his actions; people were already looking at him as a supernatural killer. The TV, turned on news channel, spoke about him all the time, suddenly, something grasp his attention on the screen:

-… Extra! We managed to acquire a video of the serial murder, as you can see, he seems to use a mask, or even holds some deformity…

An enhanced image of his face, well it truly didn’t made justice to his looks, but “deformity”? Ruffians, he would visit them tonight, and teach them some manners…

He was about to turn off the TV, when a cell phone ringed.

-Yes-He answered at same time he muted the news about some leaked mayor’s meeting.

-It’s hammer head.

He felt dizzy, as usual.

-What can I do for you tonight hammer head?

-Your fans are very excited with the developments, but they feel like it’s getting repetitive…

The killer froze, with his hands shacking and voice failing, almost bursting in tears, he asked again, despaired:

-No… NO..what thye want me to do? I will do! I can do more, I can do BETTER!!

-That’s the spirit! See, I see some suggestions from your fan pages… what they really want to see is see you killing some…Pigs! Those cops are unbearable and incompetent… I’m sure if you start killing cops they will love you again!

Calmer, with his eyes shinning, he just repeated:

-if I kill cops… they will love me again… I have to kill the PIGS and they will love me again!

On the other side of the line, a man called Dover turn off his disposable phone.

-Well, phase three, just like good doctor prescribed. Now let’s see how long this one can survive until they blow his brains off…

TO BE CONTINUED.

-Come on boy! Give them hell! - he shouts at me -Let’s paint the world rrrrred!!HAHAHA!

I try to cover my ears and dodge the disgusted looks on the subway, and I almost run when I get to my stop.

-Wrong direction boy! They are all back THERE not over HERRREE…

He never stops laughing, day and night, his face white, bald, a black white striped suit, those yellow eyes and that mouth full of razor sharp teeth.

-We could have fun, but no, here are you, straight back to home, to take those stupid pills. RrrrRRight…My poor boy is an ssscaredy cat.

-Shutupshutupshutupshutup. You are just a voice in my head and all voices in my head are my voices so when I say to shut up you shut up, now shutupshutup…!

I dash in my filthy, claustrophobic, apartment. I hate it.

-Ohh! I am a VOICE in your head and I belong to you?! Oh well, look at the bright side, it means we belong together, and that we will stay like that forever and everrr! Delicious! Simply de-li-ci-ous! Hmm so tasty! See, we both know you will brake at any moment, then we will have FUN.

I bash my hand on the wall. It bleeds and the buzz in my head deafens his everlasting laughs. The smell of blood is too much to me to take… Shacking I drag my feet to the kitchen and swallow more pills than I was supposed to, like I do most times. Soon it hit me good, and I can barely reach my old, smelly bed before falling sleep in the pharmaceutical haze that don’t send him away, but still, make him behave nicely for the night.

I wake up. The radio clock mark 4:00 am with its glowing red numbers, my head burst in pay and laugher.

-Darrrling! Get up and see, in the strrreet, something nice to you…

I feel compelled to obey. His hands feel so real, more real than usual. I look down, in the street a single little girl, cant be older than 9. But she is NOT normal:

The pale skin is like white paint, the eyes are two small glowing beads, yellow, deep in the eye sockets. Mouth like a beak, fingers are snakes, colorful and dark. I don’t want to see it anymore, I need more pills!

-Stay put son, that’s little Mary, oh Mary! She agreed in come all way herrrre from… your…mind, to help you to man up a little! Look, you can see across the street, that bum who always scare you shitless, and that call you crrrazy? That MOCK you?

His hand now is solid and cold as steel, pressing my head against the window, I can’t break free. I watch the little monstrous girl waltz to the sleepy bum.

I can see clearly as the thin colorful snakes that are her fingers move into his nostrils. He wake up, scared shitless. I am scared too. He open his mouth, but no scream come out, just a torrent of thin snakes, hundreds, they bite his flesh, ripping off the skin of his bones. Oh my god, there is no ending to it. His abdomen is shredded from inside. And a very tall figure emerges. Its blonde and use nothing but a boxer-short. His hands are two clown heads with huge demented eyes. Now both stare at me, the girl, the boxer, I want it to stop. I try to break free, but them, they are all gone. He too, isn’t there anymore to hold me still. I am bleeding from my nose. I cant stand the blood. I took a handful of pills and I awake only two days later. As usual, no one missed me, no one looked for me.

As I open my eyes and sit on my bed, terror overwhelms me as I see not only him, but so many others. Mary, The boxer with heads of clowns as hands, a man with a dog head in the stomach and a bear trap as mouth, his skin stretched over it; A fat woman with two heads and ape feet. All so white, all so terrible. He come for me, jumps in the bed and holds me down, still:

-Hello my dear kitty!! Look how many new frrrieds I found forrr us, they were all there, in your mind! Oh we have such imagination!

He drag me by my apartment, I can’t escape his grasp, is it real or a delirium? I don’t know, I just want it to stop. As we leave my apartment, I see hundreds more of those demons from my mind, deformed and insane. The streets, covered in blood and gore, corpses lay mutilated, and the smell: Blood, I don’t think I can’t take it anymore!

There are so many, they all look at me, so insane, they offer me gifts, limbs hacked from their victims, guts ripped off and tapestry made of bloody skin. A scepter  from a broom covered with blood and ornamented with finger nails. Flesh still hang from them. A crown made of foreheads and teeth, tied together with barbed wire is fixated to my head. A huge cloak, made of thousands and thousands of human scalps is tied around my shoulders. In the middle of the city, thousands of them, no, millions: Am I so insane?

He sit me on a throne made of old chairs and tongues, then lean over me to speak cordially:

-First yes, you this crazy my boy! That’s fine, we love you for that, so much! Second, we waited forr you, but you took so long… So we started the parrrrrty without you, please don’t be… MAD at us!

A deafening roar of thousands laughters exploded.

-But now my dear general, we cant wait anymore. You see, there are a world out there… and we totally want it! We want to see it burrrrrn. And is like you said, we are voices in your head… Your voices…What means that YOU want it. So no more fooling around, lets get down to business!

He throw me on the ground and drag me to a cage, filled with people, living people. They are crying, naked and horrified at my inner monsters.

He grab a pistol and give it to one of them. He hold it unsure of what to do. I can see his sanity sliping away.

My personal demon look at me and smiles:

-Never forget, I am you, and you are us. So I hope you wake up and starrrrrrt having some FUN!

The man pull the trigger, crying and laughing, until the gun is empty. I feel horror and joy. My demons is dead. But it mean I am dead too, part of me.

I jump over the man, and maul him with my fists. My mouth on his neck, my teeth on his jugular. The blood and the insanity, both flow beyond my control.

-It’s so tasty… Sorry my friend… But relax… I prrrromisse you, from now on it will be parrrty all day, and all night… until this world burns to the bones… KIDS: is PARTY TIME!

The one who felt dead wasn’t my demon, was my weak human side, in eternal denial. I choose it to die. It was so annoying. Scarredycatscarredycat… No more shutyourmouth…

I laugh, the world is mine.

Outside a padded room, a medic watches a man laugh hysterically, his face disfigured in a cruel smile, tied in his strait jacket.

-Well look like pills wont help this kitty anymore… Sorry son, I trried to put you back in line…Hmrrr

A pale man, bald, turn his back on the dement patient and walk away.

Fin.

YOU NEED A HERO part 3.

 "YOU NEED A HERO" PART 3, Also "I BELIVE IN" will be updated later today, thanx!

0003#

Crime labs, a week later:

-Hey! Sammy! Josh! My darlings! – A young blonde girl with glasses and a white coat warmly welcome both investigators on her evidence lab.

-Sup Marcy. Got news to us?

-Well, I do. Like you expected, it the same type of blade: the same shape, composition and length.

-Are you sure? It’s the same used on the dogs and the homeless?

-Hard to miss it, a thin 25 centimeters, high quality carbon steel blade. See not the kind of knife you see much around here; or there, or anywhere. Damn, this shit is so expensive no one uses it to actually chop and stab people, its something you see in heavy industries. I asked the boys to run a search with military manufactors and specialized black-smiths. None actually in this country, but they all mail shit like this world wide.

-And?

-Most of them told us to fuck off, so we will need a judge to issue a warrant to be sent by mail to another judge on another country, who will consider the evidences, and if he feel like it, issue a new warrant to make those guys send us piles of sales files. Will take probably three to eight months.

-Great. Local traders?

-As stated before, shit is expensive as fuck. So a deal like that would appear on the records, even if made through importation law’s holes. Most guys are afraid of an investigation, so they are helping us in anyway they can. Obviously they are hiding lots of shit from us, but none involving a master-crafted blade.

-Fine, society helping fight crime once more.

-Yep, also our guy is 1,80 to 1,85 tall. Very strong, precise as hell and with a outstanding knowledge of human, and canine anatomy.

-Why so sure it’s a guy?

-Sweat. DNA still running, but we found enough testosterone to say is a guy. Also this guy is insanely strong. The hilt of the knife crushed a couple of the victim’s vertebras, not that it would matter.

-You say insanely strong?

-Yep, even with a knife that good, stabbing  through someone’s bones, and swiftly taking the blade off the body causing minimal damages to skin and muscle isn’t something a normal med student would manage to do. Also we had plenty of sawdust, extremely thin sawdust.

-So he is a medic who pulls weigh and work making wooden chairs. It sure helps!

-Shut up Sammy. Sawdust this thin is probably from everyone’s favorite home infestation, termites. As usual lab is checking to be sure.

-I heard you guys enhanced a video?

-Yesh, if you call a miracle “enhance”, we “enhanced” a video. Sick shit, guy is creepy and fast. Come and check it!

The girl open a tab on her computer and click on a video file. Even from a distance, the crime is visible.

-Now the fun part. Look at his face… Here!

-Goddamn!

-Shit! What in God’s name?!?

-A guy this “pretty” must be easy to find.

-If its not a mask.

Soon the investigators leave.

-Not very productive, but if we have DNA, things get easier as hell. But why you didn’t told Marcy about the “spiral pattern”?

-Why didn’t you, Josh?

-Hmm, Marcy is a nice girl, but she report anything and everything to her bosses. That’s how things work when you sleep half of your way up in the hierarchy.

-That’s sexist Josh. Only because we saw she blowing a couple of higher ups you think she only got her position due to sex?

-We? You are the paranoid one who tagged her for months.

-So true. But back to our case…

-Well Sammy, things got narrowed: Guy live in someplace filled with termites, is highly intelligent, male, very strong, have medical and veterinary back ground and… have that unique face.

-God, I told you, this city is fucked up. I should move to some small town where people don’t look like that, even if they are serial murderers.

-Guy love Jason and Leather face, work in our benefit if he isn’t using a mask, what I hope isn’t the case.

*

On the office of one the major city’s journals and intern knock on the editor’s door:

-Boss, I think you have some mail.

-brad, I know you are the intern, but you don have to bring me no damn coffe, no damn tea, no fucking lunch, nor mail. I have people to do that. What I need you to do is to help me to edit this journal. For the rest I could use even a trained chimp, here I need a real journalism professional and…

-But boss, you HAVE to look this…

He hands over the brown, unidentified envelope to his boss. Inside, several dozens of pictures. Murders. Very close and personal pictures, many pictures took during the murders, and not just after.

-Fuck. Call Fred. And jack. Fuck, call Everyone, including that wench, Kelly, do it now, say to them to be here in an hour or to find a new job. And damn, call our Lawyers too. And while you are at it, bring me some fucking coffee. Black, no sugar.

Inside a sheat of paper, a hand write letter:

“This is the One Hit Killer. His deeds are bounded to become legendary. Those pictures were sent to you, once we believe you will not bend to political pressure.

Signed

Hammer Head.”

*TO BE CONTINUED.

CHANCES part 02

Part 02 of "CHANCES", my monthly series, please enjoy!

0002#

In this mad world you only got to live three times, no matter who you are.

And every time you come back from death, you bring a strange gift with you, something people call simply Ability.

Ninety five per cent of the people get a strange, but mostly harmless Ability, like guessing the real weight of all people with blue eyes in a ten meter radius, or always knowing when your favorite TV show in on. The rest, 5%, are called FoG, Favorites of God, people with Abilities far beyond… harmless. But there is a catch, a big one:

More powerful Abilities have more dangerous Fatal Flaws.

My first’s Ability Fatal Flaw is that my perfect shield only cover 30% of my body at any time, and I have little to none control over it.

That’s why I am now turning my back to the same girl who just saved my life, while a bunch of punks are about to kill her, as many times they can.

I don’t look at her, just…Walk away of the bullets that will rain down her at any minute.

I am now at left and a little behind this criminal firing squad, and the girl looks at the punks and give them her middle finger as she provoke them, fearless.

Now I look at her, no fear on those tiny brown eyes, she look tired, I think her Flaw is to get drained after use. She will simply die there, and probably twice.

I wait her to beg, but she wont, damn kids nowadays don’t value life.

-OHM!

I clap my hands and say the mantra and I release a wide shock wave over the good-for-nothing punks for whom I have been working in the last three months. I hate them, to be honest.

My shock wave is my second Ability, and like any second Ability, is a derivation far more powerful of my first. I literally use my perfect shield to create a air pressure canon. And I guess no further explanations are necessary.

I got them all at once, they are not bothering anyone in the next few hours. I grab the one closest to me and take of his ridiculously colorful jacket with a hoodie , and I throw it over the girl shoulders.

She look at me puzzled, then smile, a honest smile, to bad she hide it bellow that annoying irony most kids have this days.

-Hey grandpa, easy on the goods, this bird here have a dislocated shoulder… Also I’m not into old guys, if you expect something afterwards.

-Just shut that pie-hole while I get us out of here, the rest of the punks will get here at any moment!

I get in the elevator and use the illegal Priority Key I have to turn our elevator in a private cab. Now she rise her head and look at me with adamant determination.

-Your guys upstairs were right. Velvet wants me dead.

-Yes, yes, I believe in it, a shorty girl has been attacking Velvet business around town in the last months, no brainer to see you fit the description.

-You KNOW who Velvet is, right?

I look at her like she just said the most stupid thing on Earth, of course I know.

-Kid, there are forty million people in this city, and every single one of them know who Velvet is. Fuck, people who never heard about Buda or Jesus know who Velvet is, what he does and why is so stupid and suicidal to mess with him, but look like you are kind of a crazy person, once you have messing with him.

-He, look who is talking, now you are my side kick.

She try to laugh, but both of us keep silently until we got to ten floors under the street level, the metro-city, the door open, but she just stand there.

-Grandpa, if you keep helping me you are good as dead. But if you kill me now Everyone will think you wanted to keep all the goodies for yourself, and Velvet love that on people.

-I’m not senile; I know how things work; now move or I will simply drag you like a trash bag.

-I am sorry to sound like a little uppity daisy, but this shoulder is kind of slowing me down.

-We should put it back in place. It’s actually worst than taking it off.

-I know, not my first time grandpa. Just let’s find a corner and do it.

They walk among a crowd of thousands, the metro-city crowd, the largest public transportation structure of the world, designed to transport from five to fifty million people every eight hours, 24 hour a day, seven days a week, non stop, never, twenty to eighty meters below surface. It was a city on it own, Shopping centers, schools, restaurants, bars, apartments, hotels, hospitals, public gardens and even public pools, thankfully a crowded hell to digital surveillance. Was easy to disappear from police on  “downstairs city”.

As any city, it had some bad neighborhoods and we were in one: Police cams jammed or broken, hookers on every corner and lots of unsanitary things going in the alleys. We found a dark alley of our own.

-It will be painful, girl.

-Yeah, yeah, just do it.

She fold one of the arms of the jacket I borrowed and bite it. I push and pull her arm back to place. A muffled scream and she lost the balance. I’m over her now, it’s a brave kid, I admit.

-So how was it?

-Not as bad I thought it would be. Am I a little brave girl scout or not?

We both laugh of this lame and weird observation, But she suddenly stops.

-Someone is watching us… Jesus, it’s horrible.

-Damn, they found us already?

-No, it’s much worst.

-…Velvet men?

-No… It’s a decrepit old dude jerking off, Jesus all mighty, should we say we aren’t doing it? I mean. If he keep it I think I my eyes will bleed.

I feel like dislocating that shoulder of hers again, damn, I can’t afford to die from a heart attack.

-You little… just shut up and let’s move.

-Sure, hey play along…

-What…?

-Oh daddy! Don’t worry; I’m sure some Viagra can fix it…

-SHUT UP GOD DAMNED BRAT!

I can’t believe, things couldn’t be worst, the Boss of all crime bosses of this town is after us, and I am now tied to a dimwit. This time I am really done for.

I have some old tricks up my sleeve, and I’m the mood to put them to good use.

-Where are we going, grandpa?

-Stop calling me that!

-Aw daddy, don’t be so mean!

-My name is James, you wreckage of our educational system!

And both disappear in the alleys.

Back to surface, the everlasting party on the streets continues but several floors above a police line isolate the drug dealers-den.

A cop in uniform gives a detective a quick report:

-Plenty of “Dingos”, also a “Cherry” from down stairs, one more in the roof, the entry point. Plenty of cash and drugs.

-Fuck, what I’m supposed to do? Those guys are in Velvet “do-not-touch” list. You know we can’t arrest DNT guys.

The elevator door opens, and a large man and a tall girl walk off it calmly.

-Good news detective! Velvet sent us here to say hi!

The cops literally freeze in fear. The detective is the only one to talk back, politely:

-Good night Mistress Holly, mister Fracture. So you have orders on this case?

-Oh Fields,  is always a pleasure to work with you! First good news: Velvet decided that those gentlemen abused his patience, so their DNT privileges have been revoked. Me and Frac here will just take the organization part on the money and erase some shit from the computers and videos, and you can arrest them all for dealing those dangerous drugs!

Little surprised he look at the corpses in Lazarus State.

-All of them will come back in three days, any special treatment to them?

-Not this time, just let them know that they are back to the bottom of the food chain, but still in the game. Also, please report it was an inner fight, without Ability Users involved.

-As you order. I guess you already know that she was here.

The woman, dressed in leather, hit her heel on the floor.

-Yeah, don’t worry about her, we already have someone on her tail, isn’t guys?

Three figures in dark street-camo coats walk of the elevator; a woman, a man and a third person wrapped in bandages, so smaller that could be even a child.

-Yes, Piercer got a trail; she says they are on downstairs’ city.

-So she is out of her environment. Velvet wants her in pieces, split in boxes so he can delay her Lazarus state at his will.

-And the other?

-Who cares? Kill him; take him to dance, whatever. He has two abilities, and Velvet doesn’t give a damn about him, that’s all I have to say.

They return to the elevator, down to Metro-city.

TO BE CONTINUED.