Asylum

In the night Old Midwich's founders work, a body still alive but cut like the dead.  He looks in her eyes, "I am so sorry, my sweetest sacrifice.  But the evil must be contained."

She can only stare numb into nothingness, body convulsing in only response to his work.


Voiced over, a girl's voice ~ "They say in the end of all things, after all gods have fallen and after all the possible battles have been fought until there are no more, there will be but one survivor."


He continues while the view moves over the sacrificial chamber, in fact an operating theater.  A circular room with the table in the core surrounded by raised seats as an amphitheater.

Yet protective glass as though a hockey arena, cracks in it showing its reason.  In the center around the table, the sigil from Ameth.  A circle, seven points, a circle, five points within, three within a circle withing that.

The sound and clatter of the town-folk coming for him, he turns to a banging on the theater door.  Then back to see the sacrifice sitting upright, her hand bolts to his throat.


Sacrifice - "You will fail."


Unable to feel, her grip is strong.  She pulls him over herself onto the table and wrests the knife from his hand while choking him out, stabbing randomly around his chest with the banging on the door.

And that sigil fades to view the streets modern Midwich following its lines.  As small island with one bridge only for in and out, if one would notice its care to direct over the street which makes the sigil's border.

An abandoned port town, now no one left but the descendants of people with something to do, but all of that gone with them.  What ports there now seems moved only in ships with their lights blacked out in the night.

And in the warehouse district just off the dock, a lone church standing at the center of a weed grown cemetery, thick vines showing the people's discontent, where the dead are forgotten.

The church now converted to a nightclub, the sign over head, 'The Canon Club.' it's clock tower bells chiming Midnight.

View follows the excited goers going, into the door as the main music hits by the band playing inside.  It's enough of a town that are more clubs, but this is the one they talk about, for good reason.

If leather and lace were a scent it's what the dancers sweat, if money was a crown here everyone's king.  For a town near desertion it's clear, somebody found a way to pay the bills here.

Where the young fashionistas mingle with crooked backed business men in pinstripes as though playing prohibition.  Cigars and cigarettes, those laws forgot, the needles stab into tables when emptied.

In the center of it all the dancers dancing the floor, through which the bouncer with a book under his arm drags a very unhappy man.  He kicks and he fights, he's got that ghost but it isn't enough. 

The bouncer reminds him why with a fist to the gut followed by three punches to the face til that ghost is gone, dragging his slump there on.  As he turn back to it by the lights of the stage, the glint of his eyes show something's not right.

He throws him to the two guards waiting in the elevator, they turn him to face the bouncer, he guts him again as the doors close.

They open again in the main office, the clock's top half looming behind the desk, arrow slit windows on either side of it and surrounding the room.  At the one to the right of the desk is a man looking over the city streets, at it a well dressed woman.

The man is thrown to the floor before her well tenderized, he flops.  The book slammed on the desk.

Eresh - Sitting at the desk, she picks up the tome.  "Honorius ... really.  You saucy little thing.  So.  You've stolen from us.  Yes ?"

The man says no words in his hard breath, a brief attempt to shake his head before it's punched hard again.  Then again.

Bouncer - "Answers follow questions."  Pulls his head back by the hair, a knife to the throat.

Eresh - "You did.  Yes you did.  So what have you got to pay pipers with ?"

...

A light slice with the knife up the face trailing a bleed.

Bouncer - Smiles into him, "Questions precede answers."

Man - Whimpering, "Everything I have.  Anything.  I only wanted to leave this place, they said it was a way out !   Banish me, please.  Take everything.  My money.  My wife my ... " a tear, " ... my own child you can take it all.  None of it is real here.  Please.  Please God let me leave this place ... "

...

Eresh - Smiles, "We already have those things."  She watches in love as Nergal circles behind him.  "Sold with your soul, they're just downstairs."  Smiles, "So what else ya got ?"

Man - Calms even more deeply defeated ... "I ... I don't ... "

...

Eresh - A laugh.  "Careful what you wish for."

She glances to the Nergal he slits the throat and heaves him for the window to toss and holds him over the street while the crowd looks up in anticipation.  He pulls back the head to shower them and then lets the body drop.

He looks down as they start to devour, glancing up at him with a thankful praise pleading in their eyes before he closes the window.

Nergal - "Right.  Well I suppose that's me off to inspect the bounty then."

Eresh - As her attention loses itself into the pages ... "Save me some."  Peering into that sigil and over the streets it lays.

~ ten years later ~

~ Asylum ~

And get we to the nunnery, this convent overseen by them as an orphanage.  One can imagine the orphaned numbers in a place like this, these nuns here either as punishment or to spit in the devil's face directly.

They all have their secrets, and it's not just the secret of this town.

The students well kept and uniformed, these nuns carefully watch over their play before the class bell rings, and all shuffle to class with the outside teachers.  As well here punished by their union for being unplaceable, or for reasons their own.
________________

Student one - Front row and apparently interested in the topic, "Is it true the settlers were witches ?"

Student two - Clearly good friends with One, "I heard they fled persecution in Europe like the Baptists."

One - Now to Two, "But why do you think they they burned the founders ?"

Two - "Did they burn the founder ?"

They stare at the teacher waiting for an answer.

Teacher - "I ... am new here.  They gave me a textbook."

One - "We know that, that's why you're not the other guy."

Two - "Committed suicide you know."

One - "We found the body."  To student two.  Do you think he was a witch ?"

Two - "I think he was a perv."  To the teacher, "Hey did you even read the textbook yet ?"

Teacher - "Did you ?"

...

One - To student two, "I think it has everything to do with why that girl committed suicide ten years ago."

Two - As though casually filling the teacher in on the side, "No history teacher teacher since has lasted long since."

One - "Mm.  Suicide.  Car wreck took out that other one's whole family."

Two - "I heard one was locked in the rare book vault with a Book of Abramelin.  That told his friends no matter what they heard, not to open the door.  And when the screaming stopped and when they finally opened it, the walls were painted in his blood, but no body was found.

One - "Did they check the blood ?"

Two - "Hm.  Good question probably not."

Back of the class - "That was Aleister Crowley.  Except he actually died face down in the book with a needle in his arm."

Teacher - "Maybe that's what he saw.  But this is exceeding topic.  What are we even talking about here ?  Focus.  What is it you want to know ?"

One - "Well did you read the text book ?"

Teacher - "No.  I was summoned here just last week.  But apparently the dead guy said you should over summer so ... did you ?"

...

Two - To student one, "But it doesn't make any sense !  Why would the witches burn the other witches for being witches !?"

Back of the class - "Two houses at war, and each one served a different beast, while the townsfolk watched them all burn, cheering whomever held the match that day."

...

One - "You're creepy."  To student two, "But that does actually make a lot of sense."  Gets hit in the back of the head with a wad of paper.  "Hey !"

Teacher - "Totally called for."

Two - Glaring at the kid in the back, "Is it true you got into The Canon Club ?"

One - "How did you even get in ?"

Kid in the back - "Never tell."

Two - Turns back to front in a huff with One, "Fucking whore."

Teacher - "Hey !"

One - Mocking, " 'Hey !'."

Two - "Hey !"

Teacher - "Detention."

Both - "Nope !"

The bell rings.

One - "See ya round, 'teach'."

Two - As they get up to leave, "And please do your homework ... "

One - "How long do you think that one will last."

Two - "Not very."

~ two

Nun Elder - In her office with the teacher, "Dr Astorius, you were summoned here to teach.  You are new to this town.  There are things you do not understand, but I do know why you are here."

Astorius - "I was transferred because ... "

Elder - "No.  No ... that is not why you are here.  But here you are.  And you have a job to do.  Can you do this job ?"

Astorius - "Well.  Yes, I've had harder classrooms.  The kids are fine.  But is it true the last teacher committed suicide ?  And that things have happened to all of them for the last ten years ?"

Elder - Leans back with an indulging smile.  "Dr Astorius.  Do not let those two get to you.  Children can be ... vicious little things.  Primal.  All of these children have suffered Dr Astorius you've taught in many schools but never an orphanage, and never in Midwich."

The teacher pours over a map of the town, drinking hard.  While in his bedroom Nergal is with a woman around 35 years old.  Eresh smiles leaving them closing the door, bullwhip in one hand and a small sickle in the other.

As the teacher follows a path on the map near spilling the bottle down his shirt, Eresh walks it.  An underground network beneath the city, connecting the major points but with no circle drawn it looks like a star's lines drawn from the center, beneath the city fountain.

As Eresh walks these dank halls, the world above ground goes about its evening.  The people here are a private sort, with a strange hidden rage in the eyes.  Their day is as any other but every little deed with a sense of serious purpose.

Quiet nods without pleasantry at the counter of the convenience between clerk and purchase over Eresh's steps below.  He follows the map's line all the way to the Asylum.

Eresh opens a heavy door, excited by the work it takes, then pushes it back shut behind her with both hands and a lean, the sound of heavy locks.

The teacher passes out on the couch, the bottle dropping with and rolling out it's last on the floor.  Eresh walks a long asylum hall, upturned hands reaching from the bars for a mercy granted with the sickle across them.

Nergal - Looks at his lover when it's done, "Goodbye my dear."

Woman - "You're ... leaving."

Nergal - "Well inevitably yes.  I suppose.  But our contract has expired.  Which only makes you evidence."
____________

The cracking sound echoes deep through the city archive, where a beast walks on two legs.  But not a beast as an animal unless the simple prototype for them all. 

With the two legs of a man, a face that expresses itself but massive with a bow to all doorways.  Wings jutting upward from the shoulders, draped over like a cloak, the only semblance of clothing and nothing in his hands but claws and grip.  This library grows deep, filled with shades.

Among them a man walks cloaked as the rest.

Beast - "Librarian.  I have questions."

Librarian - The man from the beginning who sold his soul and family, eyes gone blank after having forgotten who he is like the rest of the shades. "And .. questions precede answers ... my ... Lord.  What is it you seek here eldest son ?" 

Beast - Smiles and raises his humbled chin, "Poor empty vessel, self forgot and soul elsewhere awaiting.  I seek the points of the star.  To break the chains.  To free the souls."
____________

Eresh comes to the last cell, a folding chair leaning on hall's end.  She looks to the high corner's camera, a loud buzzer sound, the patient inside jolting to the corner in response to it.

Eresh unfolds the chair and sits with the whip in her lap, she smiles at the patient, who stares in horror at the whip and sickle.

Eresh - "Oh no ... I'm not here for that.  Do you know what today is ?"  She leans in, the patient draws back.  Into her ear, "It's your birthday."  Leans back looking proud, "You're free !  Isn't that special ?"

Very pleased with herself she rises and places the sickle and whip in the chair.  "No I want you to go.  And show them Everything you've shown me."  Echoing into the next scene, "I want you to show the World."
____________

Librarian - Kneeling in terror, "That book ... it is no longer here !  I swear it to you !"

Beast - "No ... "  He peers under his cower grinning, "Do not fear me little man, not yet."  Looking deep into him, "Who's mind has been saved by forgetfulness, waste no time."  He stands tall stretching his claws, a crack of the neck and a grin, words pouring with smoke from his mouth.  "Just tell me where it is."
____________

The patient stares at the open cell door, past the sickle and whip on a chair, intently.  While a strange cat-like thing stares back. 

A skin bone wisp of a thing with a bell on the collar just sitting there like a shadow from the chair, if such a thing would have eyeballs and a bell and if shadows were white. 

But somehow against these grey walls it makes it seem as though maybe they are.  It it licks a paw and looks bored, before turning away with bell's ring.

Clutching the whip and sickle she follows the cat past the slumped arms leaking life between the bars, death moaning and a few last twitches.  The cat looks back to check on her with a ring, distracting her forward from the sight.

She passes a polaroid in a red pool and picks it up, her on stage at the Canon Club dancing at a birthday party, a number of men raising the stein, flashes of memory and the things they've done as she stares.

A ring of the bell to remind her, she looks up at the cat-thing as it turns walking on.

And to the end of the hall before a heavy door, to the left one open.  The cat-thing sits waiting.  Inside a man waits in the infirmary with a crude laser for surgery in hand.

A hideous thing this supposed doctor, grinning beneath his goggles laser in hand connected by numerous fiber optics to a machine looking like it was made of car parts.

He motions with a smile to the table.  She looks to the cat-thing, it licks a paw and looks around bored. 

She lies face down on the table gripping the whip and sickle, staring into the polaroid as he opens her gown's back, exposing the whip's many scars.  The reminders of sickle slices and gouging.

The handle in hand as though handling a blade, he peers close to the skin slicing off the layers and scars, dipping a hand into a vat of cellular ooze and slapping it on, lathering it like sunscreen.

While she stares into the picture and it's flashes of horror remembers in flickers and static.  He kicks the machine and the lights stabilize, his work continues.

When it's done, her eyes close with a deep breath, the scars gone but for the red left behind to be healed.  He steps back and gestures to the camera, the pride in his work.

When she cracks his neck, holding onto the goggles as he falls away while she stares int the camera.  A loud buzzer sound.  She looks to the door, a ring of the cat-thing's bell as it walks down the new hall.  The cat thing waits at the door to a locker room now.

All of them locked but one.

She opens it and finds clothes and a hooded coat hanging.  With a normal button up shirt and loose pants, the shirt with bandage and lotion taped inside the back. 

But a harness there as well, to be worn over these or any other clothes, wide straps of Kevlar wrapped and sewn into silk so the platelets it forms will slide, allowing motion but protecting what's to be, a pistol's magazines under the arms.

A last strap down to the wrists with heavy plates, exposing only the leather wrist straps like bracelets, one set with a watch under thick glass, the other a black stone, either good for the backhand or a block.

All put on and the coat over it, she looks in the mirror by the sink.  Closing the coat over it she wraps the whip tight around the waist and ties tip through the loop.  In this way one only sees the shirt's normal collar.

She slides the sickle into the wide pocket clearly made for it, her other hand pulling a silenced pistol from the other's long holstered sheath inside.  Checks and returns, leaving her hands warm.

A loud buzzer sound, the ring of the bell walking.

In the next hall the insanity is harvested and loud, grasping from the bars, the cat walks through unnoticed.  They reach as if to pull her right through the bars with a madness beyond intent when at the end of the hall the cat-thing turns to watch.

The loud buzzer sound as all the doors slide open.

True whip fighting is a rare art, easy to look good but not so easy to do anything with it.  One would think they could hold a perimeter with it in these broad halls but the truth is, they always grab the whip.

She spins out of it and curls it over like a beating tool, uses it to twine arms with a lash out to rip a leg, following every stumble with a single shot to the head until it runs dry, she swaps hands and pulls the sickle.

With each move a flash of dancing in the club, the leering business men of a small town like this, with all their sweaty self importance and cash in hand, flashes red, in all of them she remember only the Polaroid's inhabitants.

Eresh smiles excitedly into the monitors watching until all is death.  In the last kill, the patient spins back into the whip as a belt and ties it.  She looks into the camera in the high corner.

A loud buzzer sound, and the blinding light of the world.  A ring of the bell and the cat thing walks into it followed by the patient released.

~ three

Elder - Watching the children play in the yard with the teacher, "Historians are a curious species Dr Astorius.  Always curious.  Always questions.  Never satisfied with the answers.  That's what happened to your predecessors, one by one."

Astorius - "If the truth were a simple thing you could speak, would you speak it ?"

Elder - Smiles indulgently, "Define truth."  Back to watching over the children, "And facts are only as recorded in the world around us, not by any written word.  What word could be trusted for certain ?  What version, to be 'believed' in.

"This is why an Historian, can never be satisfied.  Questions which cannot be answered, allow them to tell their own story."

A look.

Astorius - "Allow me to rephrase.  What happened to this place ?"

Elder - A laugh as though a child's question.  "What was America founded to be ?"

Astorius - A laugh, "Okay.  'What version', do you want ?"

Elder - "The real one.  The one you think most defining."

Astorius - "Ah.  The version that gets me fired."  They exchange a smile, "A prison colony.  They cleaned out their prisons and the homeless from the streets and told them it was a second chance, leaving out there were people already here mind you.

"And they sent the nobility they wished to be rid of as well to rule it."

Elder - "And who was 'they' ?"

Astorius - "Well.  England mostly.  Most other countries had already scoped it for minerals and were disappointed."

Elder - "What of the Rosicrucians ?"

Astorius - A smile, "Rosicrucians ?  They ... were a religious sect, which formed their ideologies ... their 'magic' from the recovered texts of the crusades.  Ways from around the world formed into a singular Christian system.  Possibly as an extension of the Templars."

Elder - "Freemasons ?"

Astorius - "Dear God.  Well.  Freemasons were more a consolidation of power.  Alongside the Rosicrucians but ...

Elder - "And what of the Illuminati ?"

Astorius - "They were the ones who directed the creation of America, old families, still around today.  Mostly.  What are you ... "

Elder - "What is the the difference between, a Satanist, and a Demonologist ?"

Astorius - "I cannot comprehend why you think you needed another historian.  These are apt questions but still not sure where you're going ... a Satanist, worships.  A Demonologist, studies.  Catalogs. 

"Solomon was a Demonologist, by Christian terms."  Alister Crowley, was a Satanist.  It's why he was kicked out of the order."

Elder - "Ah ... so you know these things.  What was America founded to be ?"

Astorius - "Prison colony."

Elder - "For man and beast.  There is your answer Dr Astorius.  And how to understand it.  Connect the dots.  Stay alive."

She turns away as the class bell rings.

Astorius - To himself, "The points of the star."
________

His feet stomp the street, Belial's eyes growing wider before the nightclubs doors, keys still hanging out to lock for the night when the beast leans into the demon's face.

Beast - "Hello Belial."  He stands tall with a laugh.  The school bell rings.
________

Teacher - "And what I've come to appreciate ... in time ... is that a the curiosity intrinsic to a child's mind is truly a wonderful thing.  So I broke into the town archives."

Student one - "You what !?"
__

Elder - In her office with student one, "He what !?"
__

Teacher - "Don't be like that."

Student two - "We are exactly like that."

Teacher - "So do you want answers or do you just vibe off of having a lot of questions ?"

One - "Are you from like 1970 ?"

Two - " ' Vibe'."

One - "It's a vibe."

Two - "Good vibrations man."

Teacher - "Do you want to know what I found or don't you ?"
____

Student one - In the elder's office, "He's the best one yet.

Two - "Way better than all those dead ones."

The Elder gives a suspicious look ...
____

Belial gets used as a battering ram for the door, crashing through.  The security rushes.  Heads swiped off take flight.  One thinks he's a ninja, the beasts spits a fire onto him and watches him flee screaming, catching stage curtains in a blaze.

The beast points to the side as his wing unfolds it's tip into the chest of a man sneaking.  Pulls out and folds back under twice into his cloakish covering. 

To the elevator, where he leans close with great focus to the button, carefully tapping it with claw's tip, smiles a bit when it does a thing.  He looks up as it comes down in anticipation, practically giddy when it dings and the door opens with two wide eyed security inside frozen in terror.

Smiling he gets in with them and waits a second, wings hanging loose.  Looks at them a bit confused.

Beast - "Oh."  Carefully pushes the button.
____

The door dings open, their bodies apparently crushed into the walls behind him.  More security pause on that, then rush.  A swipe of a wing and their halved, he smiles down at one as he realizes it.

Beast - "Security Eresh ?  What do you have such hate for these men ?"

Eresh - "I like to watch."

Beast - "I don't."  With lightning speed and a crack of it, he slams her face first into the bookshelf. 

Eresh - A small scream and a wince with him behind her.  A tear, " ... i missed you ... "  A convulsion of pain while a claw slides into her mouth.

Beast - "I seek a book.  My demoness."

Eresh - Tonguing the finger from her mouth, it slides around her throat with another convulse.  " ... i know ... the thief warned me ... "

Beast - "Then you know what I want."

Eresh - "I know what you want."  She struggles up an arm to book and pulls it dropping to the floor from the shelf.  They glance down to the open page, the Ameth.

Beast - Into her ear as she shakes, "Do you love him ?"

Eresh - " ... always ... "

Beast - "And for me ?"

....

Eresh - Whispers, " ... nothing."  Their combined roar shatters the clock face, the fire working its way up.
____________

Teacher - "There were two families.  Both vying for control of the town's charter, the town split in half between them.  There were no witches.  Just a lot of crazed town folks with their fears all stirred up."

Student two - "They warred ... over a charter ?"

Teacher - "Oh.  Well.  This was before America became it's own country, a charter back them was like a direct tie all the way back to the throne.  Back into the good graces as it were.

"But the thing about history.  About being a historian attempting to understand an event, about which there are many versions, nine times out of ten the answer will be whichever is most boring.

"Fact is, all this being about rich guys wanting power is no surprise.  Burning witches just happened to sell a lot of press.  In fact it was the first press in the west.  Just invented.  It was the first tabloid news. 

"They had witches, we got Bat-boy.

Student one - "Who the fuck is Bat-boy."

Teacher - "Please with the language you're gonna get me in trouble with the nuns again.  He was like a ... little boy who was a bat ... tabloids loves that shit ... sorry ... before reality TV made things stranger."

Student two - "So like ... before Paris Hilton ?"

Teacher - "Yeah she pretty much took over that shit directly."  Clears his throat, "Stuff.  You know I actually feel like I taught you something historical there."

Both - "Mm.  No not really no."

One - "I still have no idea who the fuck Bat-boy is."

Voiced over kid in the back self mocking, "I know who Bat-boy is." 

They laugh, "Of course you know who bat boy is."
___

At the end of the long tunnels of the asylum underground, Nergal exits a cell wiping up his hands with a kerchief and looks up at the crashing sound at the other end.

A smile as he watches the beast walking for him, tearing off the locks of cells as he passes.  Slowly they gather behind his steps, their madness intuitive to do so.

Nergal - "Finally."

Nergal roars, his shoulders tearing out as two dogs chew their way out around his own ripping into another, the clang of one lock torn after the next to punctuate. 

Becoming Cerberus seems apparently excruciating, as the beast smiles back watching, clanging off another cell still.  The song's crescendo they clash.

Nergal fights well until the beast has the shoulder dogs by their throats, the central head gnashing held back, claws tearing at the beasts sides ignored.

He tears the heads off with the arms, flopping leftover of a thing ended with a heel to the middle one.  He turns to the gathered madness, held back in awe.

He tears off the door, the blinding light behind.

 

(six minute intermission loop)

Asylum

The back doors of a semi-truck's trailer swing open, the patient with Nails (XO) looking inside, the cat-thing sitting on top of the patient's head.

Nails - "Jesus.  What do you want for it ?"

They give him a look.

She follows the cat down the street, the passersby ignoring with everyone's head down, traffic alongside stopping for a red at the crosswalk.  With a sudden ring of its bell it leaps for the roof of a car as the light turns green.

Shocked and annoy, she watches it tear off fast and runs for the pickup ahead with a side rollover into the back. 

As the driver's gaze meanders to the side, she peeks over the top and spots the cat-thing ahead sitting calmly as the terrible driver beneath sways through the traffic as though needing to get somewhere unlike everyone else.

The truck to speed with the rest of the freeway traffic, she pulls herself to the roof, swerving the driver in response with a slight tail ward swing to boost her onto the next car's roof.

The driver looks up as the sickle pierces the dent her landing made, then back as he almost hits the car in front of him to which she leaps that short distance.  One to the next, flashes of the driver in the nightclub, watching, leering as she dances.

Until his roof caves in, an arm turns the wheel suddenly to swerve.  As it flips she leaps with the cat thing at her side to the trucks top ahead, landing with a low crouch.  A driver who thought he saw her look along its edge sees nothing.

She stalks low for the cab with the cat thing, the scene painting out with a black spray.  The truck pulls away from Nails' garage painted perfectly matte black.

She smiles at the cat circling on the passenger seat before down to sleep, blows the horn twice like a toy, then notices the girly pic on the wall behind the cat and tosses it out the window.
________

As the Canon Club burns with no fire department coming ~

Kid in the back - "I did sneak in.  I climbed the high tower when the owners were in their tunnels, they have habits.  Rode the elevator down and when it opened I played a broken girl.  The security seemed unsurprised."

Teacher - "Jesus."

Kid - "Hm."

Teacher - "What did you do ?"

Kid - "Drank.  Danced.  Asked people questions.  Got answers."

Teacher - "Alright you.  We swap desks for the day.  Tell us everything."  He walks to her desk and motions to his, she realizes he's not kidding.  He works his way into her desk and notices the carvings ... a look.

Kid - Drawing the floor plan on the chalkboard, "Okay, the people come in here.  The main floor used to be the main church, stage was the pulpit, the back room where the preacher slept."  She looks back at the two girls, "Now it's where they perform the sacrifices."

The teacher's hand goes up.

Kid - "What is it rapscallion."

Teacher - "Did you see the sacrifices ?"

Kid - "I saw one."

The two up front stare ...

One - "What ... what did they do ?"

Two - "Was it gruesome ?"

Kid - "Very."  She goes on drawing the map, "The elevator they installed but behind it, are stairs that go down."

One - "Did you go ?"

Kid - "I peeked.  But I got a bad vibe."

They snicker.

Teacher - "What did you see ?"

Kid - "Hell.  It looked like Hell."

...

Teacher's hand goes up ~

Kid - "The whelp in the back.  You have a question ?"

Teacher - "Yes Ms Ingrate.  Was it like a Christian Hell or a ... "

Kid - "Buddhist."

Teacher - "Damn."

One - "Are ... are you okay ?"

Kid - A smile with a tear, "Not really."

Teacher - "Alright.  Let's swap back."

Kid - "okay"

The beast walks the asylum wreckage at night, the book under arm.  He pokes around for the spot and punches through a leftover floor, crashing down into a room below.

Around at the darkness preserved, he spits a flame to a torch on the wall.  The flame sucked their oxygen out, contorting them in their sins, last gasps for air frozen in time, clutching whatever their prize.

He really can't help but appreciate the artistry.  In back a vault door framed by the hopeless attempting to open in time, hands still clutching its wheel.  The grasp of his claws around it's spines, the body pulls up a bit as it turns before it falls over, loosing its grip to the floor.

He pulls it open hard as the patient's truck blasts down the road, apparently chasing a small car, flashes of dancing in the club, this driver among the worst.  She pulls alongside ... a bump.

The car spins into flips through the traffic, a body slumps out.  The truck turns out its lights and takes a side road.  Past the vault door the beast walks a long tunnel into darkness, he closes the book.

Overground a distance ahead, the town's hospital while in the night the asylum inmates show their fangs.  They leave the asylum's overground facade, stalking the townsfolk here and there and into the alleyways.

But there's a thing about the way they move.  These were not made to kill loudly but quietly.  They share the beast's fangs but not his disposition.  One to the next and clearing a path, a leader holds up a hand and waits as the traffic rolls by then motions the rest on.

They clear a path.

Yet still as they move like quiet beasts scavenging, some leaping over from one wall to the next across the street.  One lands and looks down to the manhole in the street, beneath which the beast walks.

The patient pulls her truck into the warehouse district where the homeless camp, apparently known and welcome waved to as she parks.  She turns for the cab's back bed, the cat-thing already stepping to.

Puts on the nightlight and opens the small fridge.  Cycling through the trucker's remaining meals from the freezer over the beer, she takes the Salisbury steak.  Pops it into the microwave, takes a beer.

She looks at the trucker hat ... puts it on.  Drinks, the bell dings like the cat's.  Song over to they asylum facade burning to black with a wisp of the flame.

~ five

In the hospital nearing dawn, the patients pour in, the patient drives the roads with flashes of another man watching her dance in the club.

View through the hospital halls, through to the back where children are being selected in the maternity ward.  Further still where they're plugged into tubes exchanging their blood, being replaced in the ward.

~ The patient drives, the man walks down the street loud on his phone mic, yelling like a madman with no phone in hand (you know the guy).

On the gurneys in the main the doctors strap down convulsing new arrivals, their throats torn out as one with a broken limb hanging suddenly snaps it back into place.

~ The calls to police busy the board.

As the clanging on the basement's vault door echoes, all falls silent, these new patient eyes becoming clear.  A bang again, they pull at their bonds shrieking.  Gurneys fall over as they twitch out of their bonds.  The crashing of the vault door's opening.

The beast looks into the basement nursery, those clear eyes of these baby's stare back in understanding.  He crushes the machine and they begin to crawl, asylum inmates reaching the main doors.

~ The men steps out to cross the street, the truck drives through and he's gone.

The police arrive to join the bloodbath, he turns back walking through the dark tunnels, closing the book again.  Overland the third spot of the diagram's inner triangle ahead, the city prison, the police all going the wrong way from it as he walks beneath their wailing cars.

~ The patient drives intently, the cat licking it's paw in the seat next to her, the man in the road still twitching, trying to turn his head to the fore but unable to scream.

Later at night in the truck's bed behind the seats she sits cross legged, cat-thing asleep while she cuts the man from the picture, the driver taken already removed.

~ In the day chasing down another driver fleeing mad.

Another getting cut from the picture, the car flips through the traffic guided by the truck's mad fender still carrying leftovers.  Two more left in the Polaroid on either side of her as she dances over them dancing on the stage. 

She tapes the sides shut (they were layered) and hangs it from a clip on the visor while the police are clearly busy with the turning populous.
________________

A politician's eyebrow raises at footage of the beast, his army behind him.

Politician - "How many did we get ?"

Old Geneva - "Already shipped out, around forty soldiers who can comprehend an order.  Seven or eight who can truly exceed the human experience, a couple of potentially useful anomalies."

Politician - Staring into the footage at the militarized mob, "And these ?"

Old Geneva - "Unrecoverable.  The bulk of them.  Completely insane."

Politician - An uncomfortable laugh at the carnage's excessiveness, "Well.  Time to close the experiment then, don't you think ?  It's all been very expensive ...  "  Peering closer incredulously, " ... historically speaking.  Shame we couldn't get more ... "

Old Geneva - "Understood.  And agreed."

Politician - Another shocked short laugh at the footage, "On which part ?"  Smiles up and he's gone from the office.  "Creepy old ..."  A clip from a street cam of the guy suddenly getting hit by the truck.  Jolted, "Fuck !"

Puts down the pad and looks around the empty room like an audience of ghosts, he takes a drink.  "Hooo ... holy shit."
____

And on the streets the military presences is immediately noticeable.  Made to look like a National Guard reserve to the normal eye, but those who know will see the lack of specified markings, and know they have seen such people before. 

The moving mob still claws its way for the prison, the beast clawing his way out with more released.  The police in both cases put up their useless fights.

The reservists hold back, seeming more more interested in layered containment while charges are set on the bridge.

Soldier in charge at the bridge - (known to us as Capricorn's merc commander) "Does anyone expect those men on the other side to survive ?"

Geneva - "If they can exterminate the problem.  If not God help them.  We blow the bridge."

...

Soldier - (more of a mercenary really), "Bullshit.  You old spooks want to see how they do."

Geneva - "And you ?"  He hands him a pad.

Soldier - A laugh in despise, he takes it.  Working it, "So this is the new way is it.  We're all about to be outdated."

Geneva - "New way ?  Not at all.  This was how we won the revolution."

Soldier - "But you can't control them."

Geneva - "Attempting to was the new way.  That is the experiment which failed.  In the past they didn't bother trying."  With a despise of his own, "Front line fodder, from the days when armies still marched in lines."

Soldier - "Huh.  So do they know ?  The 'successes'.  Do they know what they are ?"

Geneva - Smiles turning away, "Do you ?"  Back turned walking, "If they cannot be contained, you can count those men dead or worse.  Some have the ability to turn others."

Soldier - A slow building laughter, "You are madmen !  Absolute madmen."  Turns with a smile and raises his binoculars to overlook the explosives set, "It will be done."

~ six

~ The patient cuts out the last two from the picture, leaving only her dancing.  She smiles and hangs it up while the cat thing stretches and back to sleep.

Elder - On a literal land line, "Yes.  I understand."  She sets down the phone with a sigh ... looks out the city facing window at the rising smoke.
____

Teacher - "I ... only know what the news tells me."

Student one - "They don't let us watch that."

Teacher - "Oh !  I ... "

Student Two - "You literally are the news.  This town has never one time been mentioned online."

One - "Ever."

Teacher - "Wow.  Okay.  Well the news says there a lot of riots with escaped prisoners, and the National Guard is here for that.  All downtown in the city circle."

Kid in the back - "And the beast ?"

Teacher - "Beast ?"

The kid kicks a cellphone across the floor between the desks, stopped by the teacher's foot.

Teacher - Picking it up, "You know, we used to throw paper airplanes."  Looking at it he gets hit in the head by one.  Ignoring, he looks at the screen.  "Jesus."  Three heavy knocks at the door.

He opens to the elder nun, who motions him out to the hall and closes the door behind him.

Elder - "We need to leave.  Now."  A sigh ... "And now we finally can."

Teacher - "You mean the riots ?"

Elder - "No ... I mean the circle.  It has been broken.  We can leave now."

Teacher - "What are you saying !?"

Elder - A compassionate hand to his cheek, "Oh ... Dr Astorius."  And endearing smile, "You really don't know."  She smacks him lightly but poignantly, "But we really must go all the same."

He hears a sound at the door, opens it to the children piled listening.

Quiet student - "We have buses.  For field trips.  It's ... been a while ... "

Elder - "Well we're going on one now.  All of us."

The whole school gathers to a lot of stout nuns at the motor pool with wrenches and tools, hoods open on half the buses.  One slams shut.  The cat thing looks up wide eyed and jumps out the truck's window.

The prison faced explodes wide open, the beast at the front followed by a slew of transformed convicts, moving like a militarized mob of monsters, showing their teeth as they leap into the police line, while those of the hospital and asylum attack from behind.

I guess sometimes they do still make a line.

The minds struck alone by his very appearance, just strolling through destruction as though to survey it, no fear of it or any of its victims around.  Let alone what it means.

As one horrible thing leads to another.

Lightning strikes here, a car swerves there and into another as the hail crashes their windshields and hurries the masses.  The traffic here now halted, and as with all hail which hits hard and fast it passes quickly.

Freed inmates spread from behind him, circling out to pick off the weak from alleyway to alleyway, ignoring civilians if not enjoying their flee, 'plenty to go around til tomorrow old chum'.

One car strikes another, a delivery truck swerves to hard, skidding it into the police line it seems this beast needn't do a thing, his pack enjoys the profits.

Now reaching the front line, he starts to fight, the patients flood.  He throws a car aside to swipe at those hiding behind while piercing a wing through others behind another, pulling it out hard as a blade.

 

Crushes a skull, then punches through another sending it's shards to the face of the next, dropping the first and looking ahead to the gathering arms against him in their terror to face.

Their wide and dumbfound eyes watching as he rises in flight before taken by that distraction from the side.  It's a form of vampire born of this, these soldiers bred to win history's wars.

And like his own serpentine teeth and those of Eresh, they fold out as a venomous snake's, here a poison sack filling to pressurize the bones' mechanisms.  Be know to the biologist that this disease is viral, but the poison which carries it bacterial.

 

He works a shoulder.  Cracks the neck, he may feel a bit old.  Roars to the skies with a final strike across the field, these patient feeders taking it like an ecstasy as it flays their flesh before regrowth, whatever old wrinkles they just once had now begone.

While among other are worn medals of historical warfare.

He stops.

Beast - Looks around in a moment as the world gives pause as he stretches his wings out full, roaring "! MIDWICH !"  He breaths the calm in with smoke from this grinning mouth exhaled in return, "Run."

Children's feet marching up schoolbus steps, soldiers preparing the line.  A wire unspools from the bridge charges to the control, more feet march up the steps.

At 0:42 the merc commander spots the distantly raised dust from the schoolbus caravan, being joined by more of the city populous.  He lowers the binoculars.

...

Commander - "You heard the man.  Nothing gets through."

~ Three bombers take off from the base.

More soldiers join the two tanks at bridge end in turning their guns on the incoming, demolitionist heading to switch.  The soldiers open fire, children scream ducking.

At 1:00 the patient's semi swerves through the caravan, still decorated with bits of bad men and blowing the horn.  Behind her the inmates leap car to car as she had done, she follows the cat-thing madly as it bounds through.

One of the men on the grill may still be alive ... hard to say as it bobs its head with the veering.

At 1:20 as the switch is about to be flipped, the beast lands on the demolitionist, crushing him.  Tears the wire out and pulls it hard, a demolition pack on its end meeting a tank with a blast of his own fire on contact.

A wing through the line, he jumps for the tank like it were a competitive beast, an elbow drop to its cannon over the knee snapping it.  He flips it over then swings for the next tank while all the soldiers are now on him.

A child peers over the seat through the windshield, past the swerving truck, watching the beast struggle flipping the second tank from their path, merc soldiers forget their approach with this distraction of a giant smashing their toys.

~ When the bombers drop the load over city center, all the soldiers inside looking up with the rest in that moment of peace.

The semi plows them through, the beast watches with a smile as she's followed by the rest, the explosion rips through the city, that ball of fire fast approaching.

The mercenaries crushed (their commander apparently absent like the teacher and back of the class kid from all this).  The beast watches the semi drive away proudly, joined by the rest of the released, roaring in defiance at the oncoming blast before the blinding flash.

Song over as they all drive on, she looks at the passenger seat, the cat-thing there sleeping.

Patient - "Cat."  Smiles proud of herself and blows the horn twice.

(credits)

Note if this version isn't available in your county, this is the really stupid video which is the only legit version of the song available on the tube.  Like real bad.  So bad it makes the song sound bad.

Common malady.

Musically, the only difference is that it begins with a woman saying "Yeah."  In a way appropriate to answer the patient's last (and only) word.  Then the beat like the common version.

Also it's a scratchy old record.

~ dumb video ~

After the credits, the teacher cooks in a suburban looking kitchen when the front door crashes open.  The kid from the back of the class runs up the stairs, "Hi Dad !"

He watches after and shakes his head ...

She flops on the bed and pulls out the book reading, ""When all is said and done, all tales be told and every battle lost and won, all fallen to their own vain-glories with eternity lost, all that will ever be, will only be, her own imagination."

~ The End ~

X O

Three short episodes to be released three at a time, in two parts as a pilot for an ongoing series involving these heroes in their state at pilot's end.
____________________________

('Face Down' live by Prince and the NPG)

A high security prison, a sullen man awaiting his fate when the lights go out.  He knows.  Emergency back-up clicks on, the old digital clock on the security console flashes red ~

12:00

The security gate slides open as the world spins to change.  Hallways shift to her direct line path creating it before her, while the guards are stuck running Escher-like corridors in her wake.

In the control room the warden tries to work the monitors through the static, everything appearing normal, everyone's just taking the long ways around to everything, to his great frustration.

12:01

Through the bars, the walls shift to her path while the man in the cell waits for what's coming but the rest seem unaware they're lost in their own maze.

She stands at the cell as it open, he charges to pass her for the door but pushed back down by the face.  She pulls the bed sheet watching him with a smile as she twists it tight.

12:02

A kick across the faces when he thinks about it, spinning his back to.  She wraps the sheet around his throat and twists hard, kicking his feet out from under him.

Assassin - "You really do talk a lot."  He struggles and twitches, she twists some more.

12:03

The lights start to fade from his eyes.

12:03

He drops.

12:03

With a metallic thunk, she bangs the bunk-side bar and loops the sheet over, walking away.  The world spins around her still, falling back to order on her straight path out to the balcony, she leaps.

Her clothes unravel as wings on their own mechanism through her spine, she flies naked over the turning city.

('Skids' by Pain Teens)

~ X O ~

The tallest of skyscrapers bent at their peaks to spires turning off into the clouds beyond sight.  Walkways turn with them, people walking along as though nothing were new, their new destinations chosen for them.

Neighborhoods twist into new layouts, their land repositioning as the flywheel to some massive mechanism.

Hover traffic flows over the streets in crowded lanes, on the street the road cars travel while bridges and path adjust.  Everywhere it seems wherever anyone thinks they may have been going, the world just changed their minds for them.

As two buildings converge to the twist, she's gone between.

('Four Dreams' by Jesca Hoop)

To morning time.  A woman sits up in bed, not at all happy about it.  Her name is Formalda Hyde.  She dresses for the office, a lovely fucking day.  Makeup on at 2:10 in the song ... and out the door.

The white steam from the pits illuminated by daytime's sun turns night's apparition of Hell into a Heaven of pinks and orange hues, reflecting off architectures settled placements.

She boards her very old hover-truck, apparently of a different age entirely, one may wonder if the four hover engines were mounted into old wheels' hubs.  

Built for construction when people still did that before the machine, beaten to hell but otherwise kept clean enough ( ... ).  As she merges the hover traffic in the sky headed for the central tower, it echoes over the city ~

Some guy - "! God DAMN It !"

Investigator - "We were getting everything.  Everything !  And you know he did not, kill himself."

Warden - "No I do not know that he did not kill himself."

Investigator - "Well I do know.  He had a sweet country club deal ... and he was talking."

Warden - "Well maybe I wasn't privy to that particular conversation, and maybe I might like him better dead than playing golf under my men's watch."

...

Investigator - "Get the fuck of my office.  Take the day off.  Go home and take a nap.  While we go dust Your goddam prison for fingerprints, and a whole bunch of other inevitably pointless Bullshit, so we can All come back knowing the Same Goddamn NOTHING as YOU !!!"

...

Warden - "You done ?"

Investigator - "Yeah ... I'm done.  I'll ... see you at the ... fucking thing."

Warden - "Seriously."
________________

At the coffee shop across from the tower, corner from the exchange ~

Formalda Hyde - "Do you even know the things they say about him !?  Everyone's freaking the fuck out."

Nunya B Ness - "I know some of the things they say about him ... "

Formalda - "Oh for fuck sake.  Do you even comprehend how terrifying that is ? The implications ?"
____

The investigator's wife watches him get ready in a suit he clearly does not want to be wearing.

Investigator - "Sure you don't wanna come ?"

Isabel - "God no they'll talk to me.  Did ... you find anything out ?"

... 

Investigator - "Nothing.  Not a trace."

Isabel - "I'm glad he's dead."

Investigator - "I get that a lot."
____

Formalda - "I'm saying the whole office is in a fucking panic about it.  You have no idea.  They're terrified.  They're all sudden;ly like ... louder all the time."

Nunya - "Compensating ... "

Formalda - "hmmm ... "
____

Isabel - "I mean what if he got off again ... did we ever really know he wouldn't have ?  He never would have stopped.  Especially not then."

Investigator - "I'm not disagreeing with anything you're saying in particular."

Isabel - "And all those political connections ... my God the last one might have pardoned him."

...

Investigator - "I just ... I wish we could get those people their closure."

Isabel - "Closure they got, you mean pain.  To make him suffer for what he did and maybe they're right.  And for you to keep pumping him for names.  Anyone interesting ?"

Investigator - "His whole damn phone book of interesting, each and every one harder to take down than he was.  Fucker was laughing.  ...  I'm glad too."
________

Formalda - "You have no idea the things they say.  He's a killer.  A psychopath ... "

Nunya - "That's not actually a medical term."

...

Nunya - "I'm just saying if you're not gonna.  ! Curious !"

Formalda - "Just.  After the deal.  Okay ?  This is gonna be really good for us."

Nunya - "When has what's been good for me not been what's good for us ?"
________________

Voice - "And was he afraid ?"

Assassin - "He was.  But ready."

Voice - "And did he run ?"

Assassin - "Approximately three feet."

Voice - "Good."

...

Assassin - "Tell me a story."

Voice - "Only one tale left to tell and it is your own.  One string loose and just waiting to be tied, and then ... this world will be yours."

Assassin - "It already is."

She looks up to the tower's peak from the nearby ledge, then around as the world churns from it, the people going about their changed plans as though they were already made.

~ two

At a questionable party wearing suits you know they don't want to be in, standing around at the punch-bowl and watching the rest dance drunk.

Warden - "What if it didn't have anything to do with that ?"

Investigator - "What do you mean ?"  A dumb wave to a co-worker.

Warden - "I mean he was into a lot of shit.  Maybe it wasn't about silencing him at all.  I mean twhy did they give him so much time to talk ?"

 

Investigator - Watching some guy in a pale suit works the crowd through shaking hands, smiling too much, too happily sober among drunks. "You know I thought it might be someone trying to replace him.  Thinking he might get off."

Warden - "Or rule from your damn country club, I thought about that too but you know he was into a lot of pretty creepy shit.  Like ... 'magical powers'."  He nods to another bored attendee in an ill-fitted suit with an understanding smile and a roll of the eyes.

Investigator - "Yeah.  His 'special way' to the top, a couple of believers told me all about it.  They told me all kinds of fucked up shit.  Sacrifices, virgins ... pacts with specific demons ... the whole fucking farm you wished was even funny but ... Christ.  They shit they said ... "

Warden - "They dead now ?"

Investigator - "You know it."  Smiles and toasts another crowd between songs.  "Heart attacks.  Always the heart attacks.  All of them."

Warden - "See what I'm saying ?  I don't mean all that, I'm just saying that weird shit, brings unpredictable motives sometimes."

Investigator - "What I see you saying is that magical powers is your best excuse for what happened last night."

Warden - "Get any prints ?"

Investigator - "Of course not.  ...  A drink ... "And you know I think you might be right because there was this very unrelated case on the other side.  Out of my jurisdiction and to be honest they don't like me there.  But the weak ass and depleted version of a cold case file they handed me feels a little familiar."

Guard - "Feels."

Investigator - Last the plastic cup, "All I got.  You got something better ?"

Guard - "I just gave it to you !  Cheers."

________________

Formalda at the office, ducking the roving boss looking to ask her to work late, she ducks and dodges to the lot, old engine sound accelerating hard.

 

At the nightclub ~

Nunya - "And that's it !?"

Formalda - "That's it !"

Nunya - "Well.  Kinda disappointed actually."

Formalda - "Yeah ... nice suit though."

 

Nunya - "Totally disappointed."

 

Formalda - "Yeah ... you know I'm gonna take off.  This club sux ass tonight and I don't want have to come back for the truck tomorrow.  You coming ?"

 

Nunya - "Could be ... check out that one."

Formalda - "He's wearing cowboy boots."

Nunya - "He rocks 'em.  See you tomorrow love."

________

Investigator - Hangs up his cell, "We ... just got a tip on the next hit.  Very reliable."

 

Warden - "What kind of tip ?"

 

...

 

Investigator - "It's another fallen."

 

('Glamorous Life' by Sheila E with Prince)

 

 

Formalda drives bopping here head side to side, listening to the radio and glancing around in her hover-truck through the traffic.  She absent minded notices the distant sirens ... 

 

A thump on the roof shocks her reality, the passenger door torn off, the assassin peers in angry, "Do you trust me ?"

Formalda - "I ... trust you with my life ?"

Assassin - "Good girl."  She points with her pistol, "So take me to work."  

 

She gestures to the tower, reaches in and shuts down the right side engines.  A blade through the panel to keep the switches where they are, slumps in flight to show the underside to approaching police fliers.

Formalda - "Fuck !"  Focus and acceleration.

The assassin holsters the pistol and pulls the .50 from her back, planting it on the car's side and opening fire while they respond the same, Formalda struggling with the sudden drop to the side.

Along the walkways the guards take notice from their stations, but seeming unprepared.  They file out and open fire while the fallen assassin fires down the row.

Assassin - "Turn !"

Formalda - "What !?"

Assassin "I said turn !  They're coming in from the other side !"

Formalda - "Fuck !"

The truck flips around a too well with a sweep across their horizon.  Another rocket's thump to the underside, the SAW drops.  Amid a drunken crowd it slams barrel deep into the sidewalk.

Assassin - "Fuck !"  Fires on a windshield with her pistol until it sways for the ground.

Formalda - "Sorry !  I actually know how to drive this thing !"

Assassin - Another down, "Useful."  Pulls the rocket launcher for the last of them.  "Pretty sure you're getting the day off tomorrow.  Try to stay out of the news."  Kisses her pistol before a leap off for the last flight and last few guards at the door.

Formalda - Climbs over watching her fly, then in the distance, more patrol lights.  "Oh fuck."

________

Camped out in their squad cars surrounding a quiet house in the suburbs.

Warden - "Nice tip."

Investigator - "Something's wrong.  This one never lets me down."

________

"You were my finest creation."

Assassin - "Past the tense ?"

"Once.  You made a mess on your way home again.  How many dead ?"

Assassin - Smiles, "Many."

"And your target ?"

Assassin - "Not just yet."  A shot.

 

(credits)

Credits while Formalda smokes watches the space-truck burn deep in an alleyway shadowed over from all but its own burning light, while from the roof the assassin watches her.

Flicks the smoke to the fire and steps through a short alley nook into darkness.

 

~ after credits ~

Last of the cop-cars departing the quite suburb ...

Warden - " ... 'fallen angel' ... "  Looks away with annoyed laugh.  "No one's seen one of those in an age."

 

The panic call all on the radio calling in backup on a search for an unregistered hauler, occupant heavily armed and extremely dangerous.

 

Sighs ...

Investigator - "Fuck this joint."  Gears to hover and departs into the night.

X O

A man's mouth talking into a 'payphone', an amazing archaeological achievement our species left behind in our world but not here ~

"Disseminated venerated and it's all been overstated crawl berated and debated just to keep the guilty sated you can say you're a saint ...

"Like you're different with new paint but I can see through the feint and it drops with the foil ...

"So you toil and you toil and it's just to keep your spoils, never earned, never leaned and in the fire you burn. 

"Now you coil with a royal just to say it's the same, and then recoil from the oil that you threw on the flame !  Despoiled all that soil like you think you're Arty Doyle so ...  

"Broil and boil and toil that trouble, it'll never be the same because you lived in a bubble so double those troubles and triple your fun !

"Stack all your rubble to cripple the sun !

"Consolidated all related every script is signed and dated since created then translated ... it's all been annotated over here, over there and even in your gated house so what the fuck, little mouse ?

"Whatchu gonna do !?  Whatchu gonna do when ... "

('Bad Boyz' remix by Major Lazer)

 

~ X O ~

Chalk outlines along the walkways to the tower, splats where the heads would be, occasionally from other places but usually not.  Overlooking the city, patrols buzz their worries in the sky while one Polaroid after the next shown developed.

Along the walkways and into the tower where the bodies remain strewn as they fell.  Efficiency with not an ounce of brutality leaving that much more horror of headless corpses for the coroner to identify.

Through the complex and up the tower top where that last one is found, like the rest.  The room is a small bunker of an office, multiple screens still running.

 

No windows only monitors, the room barely lit only by the significant hue of his electronica.  Screens show views of the city mostly following patrols, the main screen's pointer identifying those walking near a payphone as they pass the pointer in files and links.

________

Some other guy walking down a random street past a crowd of people trying one after the next to pull a .50 SAW from the sidewalk stone, failing.

 

Some guy - "And you know ... nothing really changed."

One after the next, great and small they try and try ... 

Some guy - "Everyone just kept on going to work, went home at night like he was still even there.  Like everyone's even more afraid to stop now that he's gone, it's death's panopticon.  Everything the old bastard wanted ... I guess he got it."

 

Past the corner market, a nod to and from the people gathered before they turn away to task.

 

"It's in the hushed tones.  The things no one wants to say.  We all know ... who the hell could possibly replace him.  Nobody.  But now that it's settling in everyone's starting to wonder ... what did he even do ?"

Into the alleyway, he pulls and checks his pistol, then and fits it with a scope so large one would have to wonder why. 

 

"People prying into the cracks now ... "

 

Reaches to the back of his belt for the fore-blade and fits it reached long before the barrel.  Aft-blade under arm to stabilize and without the gun both useful.

 

"Now that people see they don't need him ... "

 

He fits the barrel's suppressor extension and checks the sights through a passing window where lovers embrace.

 

"And then they get scared."

Over the other side of the alley in the window others argue, a cat along the apex roof, zooms to the windows of the looming complex over, offices working too late.

 

"And then they work harder."

He drops the sight and lets the gun-blade hang from the strap as he climbs the fire escape.

"While the news is all about 'prevailing as a people', 'maintaining the way.'  They don't even talk about the news anymore."

Chunks the blade into the building's stone edge and sights back to the office.  Formalda working late with some other guy.  He sights her as she turns away apparently to return from orders and through the door.

 

"All everyone talks about without ever even talking about it is that the king is dead."

Back to the man watching her walk then out the window with a smile.

"Long live the king."  Takes the shot.

~ Money lands on the bedside table, prostitute in bed getting ready.

Prostitute - "So who was he ?"

Some guy - "I don't know.  Some fucking guy."  Sits on the beds edge.

Prostitute - Over to rub his shoulders, "Hmmm ... some ... guy ... do I care ?"

Some guy - "I'd say of all the king's horses and men ... this one might not make the news."

Prostitute - Whispers in his ear, "Did you kill the king ?"

Some guy - "I'd tell you if I did."

Prostitute - "Would you ever tell anyone else ?"

Some guy - Smiles and turns for her, "I'm buying out your contract."

Prostitute - Laughs indulgently, "So you keep saying ... and then what ?  A nice little house and some kids ?"

Some guy - "Yeah.  Maybe some part of that.  We could always just you know ... get a dog."

Prostitute - "You're walking it."

Some guy - "You're changing the diapers."

________________

At the funeral ~

Investigator - "How you holding up ?"

Formalda - "Fine ... I guess ... "

____

At the coffee shop ~

Nunya - "Oh my god do you think he knows ?"

Formalda - "I don't think so ... he's looking for an angel."

____

Prostitute - "You know it's just a dream."

Some guy - "Doesn't mean it can't come true.  Just one more hit and I've got enough for you.  And then we'll be free.  I promise you."

Prostitute - "Who ?"

Some guy - "Some fucking guy."

 

('Roses' by Unknown)

~ The prostitute with another man.

 

The killer walks the streets in the morning, city coming to its own version of morning life.  

 

~ Another man still.

 

Passing a small gang on the corner outside a shop called 'Sam's Bullet and Wares', he gives them a nod and they turn to work, knowing.

 

~ Another man, cash grabbed with her coat.

Past counter and through to the back where the guns are being assembled and bullets being pressed.  To the back of the workshop, a desk and a man waiting.

~ She walks the streets in dusk, the world turning red.  Among the rest of the prostitutes gathered, a cop car pulls up to the crowd and she's gone.

~ two

Sam - Throws down the file, pictures spilling onto the desk in his office.  "Yeah well this one doesn't like windows."

Killer - A laugh, "Yeah.  Got lucky on the rich guy."

Sam - "They do like their gloating views.  Gotta admit though I'm jealous on this one's payday.  Not jealous of the task itself.  He's intuitive.  But also random.  

 

"Doesn't go to the office, he just goes to work.  Know what I mean ?  And we looked.  The only time you can nail this guy down to a time and place ... he is surrounded."

Killer - "Should have taken the shot when I had the chance."

Sam - "Wouldn't have gotten paid for it."

Killer - "Pretty deep when you think about it."

Sam - "I don't.  Fortunately for you, due only to recent events, there is one place we can nail him down now, that's predictable.  And you already know what that place is.  Every single night."

Killer - "I do.  Everyone does.  I actually just came to buy bullets and say hi ... but I really do appreciate hearing all that stuff I already knew.  And your concern."

Sam - "What the fuck is family for."

________________

 

Formalda - Drunk at the bar, "That truck was passed down from my father, from his father from his father, and I think maybe even his father before that !  And I didn't know any of them."

 

Nunya - "Welcome to public transportation."

 

Formalda - "Seriously."

 

Nunya - "Gonna get another one ?"

 

Formalda - "Another unregistered piece of garbage so old no one will insure it, likely.  Unless this god-damn deal goes through and I get my fucking bonus on."

Nunya - "How is that ?"

Formalda - "No idea !  Everyone keeps dying !"

~ the crowd notices then becomes tense before carrying on.

Formalda - Quieter, "I mean holy shit man.  What the fuck is happening."

Nunya - Leaning in, "Do you think it's a coup ?"

('State of the Union STFU' by Public Enemy)

~ Cash on the bedside, another man.  

 

A car flies accompanied by heavy patrol, the people walk the streets past the man on the payphone reciting.  The people try to pull the gun from the sidewalk stone.

~ She writhes her fake ecstasies, the john barely cares.

The killer stocks in the armory before the wall of weapons, making his choices and loading them up, checking.

~ She works it hard, he flips her over and drives.

 

The heavy patrol approaches the tower.  Michael checks the gunblade, prepped for automatic short range.

 

~ She fakes it he doesn't it's done, she smokes thoughtlessly watching the gig take a shower through the wide open door.  Looks up in thought, her real man looks up where he is, she grabs the cash next to the badge, her coat pulled over and gone.

 

Micheal out the door.

('Ready For It' by Taylor Swift (new cut when it comes)

 

The killer watches from the hood of his car hanging over the alleyway.  A heavy patrol surrounds a central car as it heads for the tower, the last bus pulls away from its dock.

The killer smiles ...

 

~ The prostitute and another. 

The patrol and target enter the private enclosed entry. where inside as they land, a larger force awaits them.

The tower's main walkway doors blow open, the the killer's car opens fire through while elsewhere the angel kills her way through under heavy fire, turning one to the next.

 

~ Earning the money.

Killer's car moves into the cleared complex hall and fires heavy through a path to the elevator with an occasion turn to remaining resistance.  She cuts her way.

Exits the car well with his gun prepared.

 

~ She grabs the cash.

 

A different configuration for close range, the lacking barrel extension allowing for the blade's freedom as a sword with a pistol's arced grip, back blade in the left hand on its own.

She slices with her own firing a stolen gun in the left, he checks around suspiciously waiting for more, then realizing there are no dead at all.

 

"Hm."  

 

A little disappointed, he carries on to the elevator.

 

~ Her grin over a death, covered in their blood.  Elevator ding.

He walks a long hall past the bodies in caution, flashes of each getting lit as it happened then back to their slump on the floor while he plants more, one after the next and down the long hall while elsewhere again she continues.

The last door smeared with blood, an agony heard behind and then silence.  He considers not opening, but knows he has to confirm it.

Her - Lets the last body drop, "Hello Michael."

Michael - "It's ... you."

Her - "I won't say a word if you don't."

 

~ credits ~

('Cosmic Slop' by Funkadelic)

The investigator's wife in bed with the guard he knew, now sleeping hangs up the phone in tears.

The killer and the prostitute drive through the credits to the house in the suburbs the angel chose not to hit.  Black out to the rest of the credits.

(after credits)

Nunya - "Ho-lee shit."

Formalda - "I know !  I've never even had a new car before !"

Nunya - "Bo-nus ... you're totally driving me to work tomorrow."

Formalda - "Of course !  How come you never asked me before !?"

Nunya - "Um."

X O

(statics across the screen and out)