- Madness Infinity -
(or 'We got a problem, but it only makes the trip more exciting than planned.')
Beta-reader: Ant0nius
It's been… a while since I found myself pulled in this frustrating conundrum. I blamed the fact that I was now responsible for a broader set of issues I really asked for. But then again, there was nothing of the things I was forced to handle in the last few months that were caused by my direct intervention and willingness. In fact, this was quite the development I hadn't predicted.
Lucy was cackling madly as she scared the ever-living out of the man that we had just kidnapped. The guy looked fairly young, around his late 20s and early 30s. Dark hair, his skin was Mediterranean and from the slim figure with a couple of muscles, I could tell that he trained on a regular basis.
Tied to a chair in the middle of that abandoned warehouse, the man that I knew being Armand Lebas tried to make sense of the situation he had been pulled into. His poor mind wasn't up to the task judging from the screams for help I heard from the tiny office I had taken to study his documents.
Born in Marseille, he started to live in Lyon shortly before his parents died when a fire burned his childhood house. The man looked like a solid bag of problems that was prone to starting fights at the bar when he wasn't busy working as a private driver for a rich family. He seemed pretty average by all accounts… except he wasn't.
Closing the folder in which I had put all the details I needed for further studies, I decided to leave my little hideout and check on our current guest. The man's panicked face turned to look at me the moment he noticed my footsteps.
"P-Please, sir- You- You need to help me."
I nodded, staring blankly at him. "I will help you. I understand you are afraid and confused, and I would never do this to a poor man with nothing to do with my current issues."
I took a seat by the chair that Lucy had previously used to ridicule the terrified guy. The kivouachian appeared on my shoulder, clinging on the back of my head as she smiled deviously at him.
"He is a boring one. Are you sure this is it?"
I gave a slow nod, gaining a confused look out of the unaware man.
"W-What is she talking about?" He asked. "This- you are both in this together- why!? What did I do to deserve this?"
"Armand Lebas didn't do anything to deserve this. In fact, he should by all means be wandering around and be left alone by me," I quietly muttered as I looked deeply in his eyes. "Yet you are here, to entertain us with screams and your delightful act you have been working on for a few weeks now."
"What? Are you insane?"
"Of course I am, but that hardly changes the fact that you have been a fool to believe it would ever work. You should have known that for every minnow, there is a bigger fish that stalks the pond, and that you are not enough to handle me," I lamented calmly.
"T-This is ridiculous."
"It's ridiculous that someone that flunked the most basic English test is capable of speaking it rather fluently," I interrupted dryly. "It's ridiculous when he is behaving like a wimp when he should be thrashing around and fighting back the little imp of true despair that strikes fear in his heart."
"Flatterer," Lucy commented and I sighed.
"Anyway, your performance is bland. It's shit. Like dog shit, but more generic. It's generic shit."
His eyes narrowed at the swift insults-based streak. Annoyance coupled with fright at the prospect that I knew the little secret about him. Or it. Mostly it. It had to be an it.
"How do you know?"
"I'm a wizard. Check my hat and you will see the brightest but most horrifying smile you can find in this world," I flatly joked and then I shrugged. "Or maybe I am an anomaly that really hunts little pricks like you."
"I-I'm Armand."
"You would like to be Armand. You desire to be Armand. But not because of what he was, but what he gives to you the more you keep wearing his face as his mask," I rebuked. "A safe blanket to put on, so the 'monsters' around you don't understand you are different and you can survive the worst."
…
"You… You can't be serious..."
"Oh, I am. By the way, how are your siblings? I can tell that you were in such a hurry when you decided to ditch your workplace to go on a one-way trip to the British Isles," I added. "Sure, they are lovely this part of the year, but I doubt you really want to be this… eager to go there. It's still way colder than what a man from Marseilles is capable of handling."
"I will be fine."
"I sure know you would. The cold never bothered you anyway since, you know, being non-human and planning something big I really want to know about."
"Dream on it,
anomaly. I know you got nothing on me."
"You are mostly right," I agreed before standing up and starting to walk closer to him. My right hand rested by his left shoulder. "You see, there was a time when I was clueless of what you were planning. But now that I'm closer to you, I can tell you didn't wash your hands when you left the latrine a few hours ago. Naughty fragment,
naughty."
It was only in that moment that he realized that my left hand was piercing him through his back, stopping by his chest as I studied and analyzed everything that I could find there. His thoughts were pretty dull, boring even. Then I realized what malicious idea they were trying to get through with.
"A family gathering. People from all over the world, from Asia to the States, all joining together to see the beauty of England…" I said with a long sigh, pulling my hand out of him and allowing him to fall down. "What a brilliant idea to ruin people's lives. I guess it's true, not even death can kill a bad habit."
Screaming and convulsing, the man's body cracked and broke down before our eyes. It collapsed entirely, and then… it self-combusted. There was silence at first, but then my companion spoke up about the situation.
"So… did you absorb him?"
"No," I quietly replied, leaning back as I stared at the decomposed mass of molecules that were left in a charred pile in front of me. "I destroyed its mind, decentralized its atoms. I shattered it."
"I thought you were planning to absorb him? What changed?"
"Something about that idea feels… wrong. Dangerous. I managed to overwhelm the fragment, but I doubt I would be able to preserve my current mind if I tried to add more to the mindless fragment that I currently use as a body and a platform to keep alive," I explained. "Destroying it feels like the better choice. It's safer and… it diminishes the chances of the current threat ever attaining true fruition. I have names."
Her grin widened. "Oh, does that mean that we will have to kill some more?"
"I will handle the fragments. But I think they will have some protectors of sorts. They will lie to them in an effort to gain meatshields, trying to make it seem like they are the good guys-"
"While the truth is the opposite. Eh, I don't mind this setting," Lucy happily commented as we started to leave the warehouse. "I've been feeling a little craving and I believe it's been a while I decapitated multiple individuals at once."
"Then I guess you will be the happiest if I tell you that it's a solid possibility."
"YES! Still, we need to handle those in Europe. What about the ones in the States?"
"I've plans to call Fontaine. With the names I have, he should be able to run a campaign to disrupt any efforts of those bastards from reaching any sort of reunion," I answered. "It shouldn't be difficult to keep things indirect enough to prevent any suspicion from the fragments."
"Can we go to the ones you know will have defenders? I really need to get this itch scratched, else I might lose my mind."
"...They are pretty distant. And I thought you would save the best for last," I pointed out, gaining a sigh out of Lucy.
"It's a matter of opinions… and it's been way too long," The Kivouachian lamented. "I need to play with some meat. I want to make some real art for once."
I hummed quietly, offering a slow nod.
"I will see to get us to the one with most guards. But I hope you will not whine when we end up killing the last one and it's a lonely one."
"Of course I will whine! But I will still have someone to harass no matter what."
"Pest-"
"Love you too."
With a smile appearing on my face, we both walked away from the abandoned building and back to the hotel. We had a few calls to make before we made the best holiday trip ever thanks to this bloodbath in the making.
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AN
And with this, Unwanted Visitor ends… and a Sequel will eventually start. I don't have a name just yet, but I was thinking of something like 'Madness Infinity' or something like that.
Also, what are your thoughts on the story altogether? And what are your opinions on the fact that Satellite City is rebooting with 'First Night', starting by the end of this year?
