Tag: Humor

He sits staring at the computer screen half a daze by the deep low-level vibration that hums its way through his semi aware frame. A high-pitched squeal perpetuates his ear drums like colorful explosions given life by his subdued mind. He grabs the small hand-held walkie-talkie from the desk beside him and takes a deep breath as he presses down on the talk button.

“H-H-Hello?” He stutters into the mouthpiece before releasing the button and stares at the walkie-talkies speaker as he slowly places it gently back down on the desk. He shoves fingers into his mouth and begins tearing at the flesh around each fingernail greedily like a child who had not been fed for several days.

“Is that you Stevie?” A voice asks softly, his eyes grow wide with excitement.

He grabs the walkie-talkie as he leaps to his feet and presses it against his mouth.

“I-I-It’s me,” he replies nervously.

“Is it really you?”

“Y-Y-Yeah, I can’t believe y-you remembered,” he replies as he squeezes his free hand into a fist.

“I have to be honest, I almost didn’t. It was like a cloud invade part of my brain and settled over memories, erasing them before moving onto the next. If it hadn’t been for this old walkie-talkie I’d’ve probably forgotten like everyone else.”

Stevie smiles as his eyes well up with tears, “I-I, I’d thought you had for a while,” Stevie says with a laugh.

“Thank goodness we we’re both wrong.”

“Yeah,” Stevie replies as he wipes the tears away with his sleeve and sits back down at his desk. “H-How is everyone?”

“They’re good, Susan misses you even though she doesn’t remember you. But that was always going to be the case, she never really knew what to do when you weren’t around and even without you in her memories, she still carries you around in her heart.”

”Yeah,” Stevie says as his bottom lip trembles. “I-I-I, I miss her too, can you tell her that.”

For a few moments there is no reply and Stevie begins to panic, “H-Hello?” He asks.

“I’m still here Stevie, and you know I can’t tell her, don’t you? You know no one will believe me, you know they’ll all think I’m losing my shit.”

“I know,” Stevie says softly as he looks across the room and out into the vast nothingness that exists beyond the floor boards that lay beneath his feet. “I kinda don’t believe any of this myself, but yet here I am.”

“Have you figured out where here is?”

Stevie looks back at the computer screen and then places the walkie-talkie slowly to his lips as he takes a gulp of air before pressing the talk button.

His heart pounds relentlessly in his chest as he pushes himself forward, taking each new step with a grander stride until he is jumping, leaping forward with boundless energy. He looks over his shoulder with a panicked glance as the nothingness of nowhere swallows everything behind him. He turns his attention back to what is before him, catching sight of the gigantic form that stands some feet away. He tries in vain to bring himself to a sudden stop but finds it a pointless exercise, and goes crashing into its wet smelly flesh.

He sits up in bed with a jolt, sweat pouring off him. He looks around the empty room in a panic, only to be dragged back to reality by something gripping his arm. He jumps and casts his eyes down to his left, meeting her confused glance with his petrified.

“H-Honey, are you okay?” she asks as she forces herself up into a sitting position and runs a hand through his drenched hair. “My god, you’re soaking wet. What the hells going on Marty?” She asks.

“N-N-Nothing, it was j-j-just a dream. G-Go back to sleep honey,” he says as he kisses her nervously on the forehead and throws his legs over the side of the bed.

“Where are you going? It’s three in the morning.”

“The toilet, and then a change of PJs,” he says as he stands and staggers out into the hallway, the lights flicker violently exploding seconds later in a shower of glass and flames. He can make out Abby’s still form a few feet away, and standing over her as he knew it would be is a massive hulking shape, looking towards him with deep black pools for eyes.

“Stop running and finish my story,” It hisses.

“FINISH IT YOURSELF !” Marty screams as it suddenly moves forward, appearing and disappearing like a poorly animated cartoon until it’s standing just a few centimetres from him. Marty feels the urine run down his leg. It’s warmth spreads quickly across his groin, followed by a coldness that threatens to freeze him in place.

The beast leans forward and its hot putrid breath wafts into his face causing his eyes to sting, then it speaks. “WE ARE the Roundhead, and YOU cannot run from YOURSELF!”

The music rips through his senses, twisting and turning all his insides with each sharp slap of its feverishly dark beat. He tightens his grip on the dog lead and winds it around his hand once more, His dog casts a quick glance in his direction before focusing back on the scent before her. As she catches an all too familiar scent she freezes in place only to have him pull her forward again.

“Abbey!” He hisses through clenched teeth as he takes grander strides with each step, as if a silent conversation has taken place between them both. He comes to a ridged stop beneath the bridge, allowing a stuttered breath to escape as he casts a quick glance to Abbey and nods his head, she sniffs furiously through the small bushes that grow out from between the concrete slabs that build the drake work for most of the houses in these blocks. He looks away as she lifts her leg and stares at the pale lifeless eyes of a young girl, no older than his eldest daughter Saffron. He feels the Hayes across his body slowly begin the stand on end as static tears through his headphones and the girl’s voice whispers into his ears.

“A memory of a moment locked in the forever of never more, the blinking of ones eyes, the beating of their own heart, the beast makes its way through the forevermore, breaking barrier after barrier that lay within its path, the be…”

Abbey launches forward, her lead slipping through Marty’s in clenched hands and plungers into the girl, darkness swallowing them both before they touch the ground, leaving Marty alone in a now somewhat pale landscape. Lightning cracks in the distance and then it is before him.

“Around, around the garden, like a teddy bear,” It hisses.

“One step,” it says as it step towards Marty, who remains frozen in place.

“Two step,” it says while it takes another as Marty’s world goes black.

Muffled sounds burst from left to right, like a swirling vortex of insanity catapults itself around him, and then silence.

“Marty?” A voice says suddenly, pulling him back to reality. “…. you hear me Marty or is this the part where you dropped the phone? Or does me saying that mean you’ve just picked it up? I really should’ve reread the first chapter…”

“Gareth, shut up and listen to me because we don’t have lo….” But Marty doesn’t get to finish his words as he’s interrupted by Abbey’s hysterical barking at the door.

“DON’T! I fucking swear to god, I’ll hang up!” Gareth yells down the phone line.

“You do what you have to do, but I’ve gotta go through that door,” Marty says as he pulls the door open quickly, and Abbey rushes out into the hallway.

The lights bleed into the darkness, jumping from one post to the next, diluted by the sharp streams of water that cascades down from the heavens above to the earth below. He grips the lead tightly and pulls the dog along quickly, keeping his eyes focused on the footpath ahead, feverishly scanning from side to side for any movement. Music suddenly blares to life in his ears, sending a shockwave of pressure into his brain from either side of his head. His eyes shoot with an urgency towards the dimly lit screen of his phone as he search through a plethora of songs at his fingertips, selecting one song after another, after another until he finally feels a rush of adrenaline shoot from the base of his skull. It’s in that moment that his dog Abby begins to pulls awkwardly on her lead, causing him to shift his focus once more from the phone and back to the path in front of him.

The street lights flicker and spark before him, exploding one after another as if something was traveling towards him at an impossible speed. The street light above him explodes and he cowers his head underneath his jacket as they are showered by a thousand tiny glass shards, then an uneasy silence. He slowly gets back to his feet and peers up the now empty dark street in front of him and begins to make out a huge silhouetted figure that stands some meters away.

“Hello father, we need to stop meeting like this,” it’s scratchy voice hisses.

“WHY WON’T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE!”

“You know that I can’t do that, our existences are intertwined as if they were but one. You are the imagination and I am the muse,” it says as it makes its way towards him, moving like a poorly animated a cartoon before disappearing a few feet from him only to be replaced by a pale skinned girl. Her white nightie torn and dirty, her eyes blank empty pockes of nothingness, and as she opens her mouth to speak he feels a tremor vibrate beneath his feet. “Its power grew strong from the words that were written, word that were read and spread, it grew so strong that it broke free of its cage, and now the words of the story no longer hold it at bay, for the world knows the beast by its name, so if you wish to live, dare not say it’s name for it will come, dare not hear it’s words for it will know, dare not see it’s shadows for it will be, so say it once and you will see, say it’s name and come join me, say it, say it, say it with me, The Roundhead, The Roundhead, THE ROUNDHEAD!” She screams before disappearing.

Marty let’s out a cold shiver as he looks down at Abby’s crumpled bloody form and then back up into the beast’s black pool like eyes as it stands at the end of the hallway.

“WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!” he screams.

“I want you to stop fighting me. I want the story to end my way, I want what is mine,” it says in a deep gravelly voice.

“THE STORY IS OVER! YOU LOS..” he doesn’t get to finish his words as the beast is upon him, and lifts him high into the air.

“The story isn’t over until I say it’s over.”

The lights bleeds into the darkness, jumping from one post to the next. He grips the dog lead tightly and pulls his dog Abby along quickly, keeping his eyes focused on the footpath ahead. The music blares in his ears, sedating the nervousness but not curing it. His eyes shoot towards the dimly lit screen of his phone as his mind begins to construct fevered images that take life through his fingers before him.

Abby pulls away awkwardly several times before he shifts his focus from the phone and back to the path in front of him. He stops and stares as the shadows scattered across the ground beneath him move as if they were alive.

He feels the sweat seep from beneath his flesh and escape the confines of his body, running freely down his brow.

“Hello father,” a deep scratchy voice hisses somewhere behind him, he smells the decaying flesh around the same time as he feels the coldness of its dead breath on the back of his neck.

“H-H-How?”

“Does it really matter how? The sun rises each morning and sets each night, we don’t understand how or care to truly know why, all that matters is that it does. That is all and everything.”

“B-But we stopped you, we ended everything you were. You can’t still be.”

“But here I am, and so are you,” it says as Marty pulls the door open and Abby runs out into the hallway.

“Oh god, it’s been happening the whole time hasn’t it?” Gareth says.

“Gareth, I-I-I… FUCK!” Marty says as stands there in silence for a few moments before he presses a hand against his forehead and closes his eyes. “You already said it, but I guess you didn’t really want to admit it, word for word,” he says as he takes a deep breath and waits, Abby barks furiously then lets out a yelp, followed by silence and he takes a step forward.

He smiles and leans back in the leather seat, not breaking eye contact. “What makes you think I miss it?” He asks as he presses a handful of fingers into his right temple.

“Because like, you don’t just decide one day that that’s it, and hang up everything you are. Fuck Donny, I’ve listened to every song you ever wrote at least a thousand times and never tire of any of them. No one else I’ve ever listened to could do that, and you just don’t turn a gift like that off, not the way you did anyway! So yeah, I reckon you miss the fuck out of it.”

He shuffles awkwardly in his seat, adjusting himself before looking back into her eyes. “Sometimes it’s not as black and white as you’d think it is. Sometimes it’s more of a curse than a gift, and you just get to a point where what’s asked of you is more than you’re willing to give, and walking away from everything is easier than you could’ve ever imagined,” he leans forward and reaches across towards her, placing his hand on her the bare flesh of her knee. “Do you really still listen to the albums?”

She smiles awkwardly, blushing at his touch. “All the time. I-I-I even touch myself while I’m listening to your voice screaming in my ear, cumming to the heavenly vibrations of your cries,” she says as she places a hand on his and slowly edges it towards her crotch.

He pulls away in fear, cramming himself into the chair as if it were a box.

“I-I-I-I, I’m so sorry, I thought…” she says as her bottom lip begins to tremble, “I just wanted to give y….”

“NO!” He yells as he throws his hands in the air. “LEAVE NOW! I’ve answered enough of your questions, and you have nothing I want! I was foolish to even consider this, I-I-I…” his words fall into an endless void as he stares silently into her glazed over eyes, and as her face loses all its colour her mouth drops open.

“N-N-N-N-NO!” He hisses as he feels his skin tighten itself around him, his tattoos slowly being to move as if they have a life of his own and he leaps to his feet, his hard erect cock thrusts itself from his pants and swings freely in her face. His eyes glow hot with flames as he grabs her by the head and slams himself into her awaiting mouth. Thrusting back and forth with a violent vigor, he pays little attention to her muffled cries and as a tear runs down his own cheek a tune begins to form inside his head, a tune he knows will never let its listeners go once they hear its first cord. A tune he knows will be the first track for his comeback album. For his gift, is more of a curse.

The blade digs deep into his chest and he falls to his knees as his bottom lip quivers relentlessly with fear.

“Patience is the virtue of all who worship his eternal grace, can you feel it wash over you as you attempt to hold onto this pathetic existence?” Jordan says as he throws his arms out with vigor, sending blood around the room as it flicks off the edge of the blade.

“I-I-I-I,” Sydney allows himself several moments as he desperately sucks in a breath of air. “I feel nothing but the coldness of nothingness,” he says as he looks up at Jordan.

“That is his touch Sydney, let it become you as you become nothing,” Jordan says with vigor in his voice.

“T-T-Then your god is as emp-em-empty as your skull!”

Jordan grabs him by his hair and pulls his head back, digging a knee into the middle of his spine. “My GOD is a soul devouring temple. Every breath you now take feeds his rawness, and soon you will be with him!”

“Y-Y-Your god is nothing b-b-but b-b-bulls-sh-sh-sh-SHIT!” He screams as he tries to pull himself from Jordan’s grip, but instead feels some invisible entity grab him by his throat. He gasps for air as Jordan releases his hold and the invisible hands tighten theirs.

“Care to rephrase your final words? Oh wait, I guess there’s a reason why they call them FINAL words,” Jordan says with a broad grin across his face as unrecognisable words begin to gestate in Sydney’s ear while he’s swallowed by the darkness of nothingness.

“Do you think your apology is worthy of my forgiveness Blake?” Oliver hisses as he runs his hands across the top of the desk, leaving a trail through the dust behind them.

“I-I-It was honest, s-s-shouldn’t that be enough?”

“HONESTY is overrated,” he replies as he flicks his fingers from the side of the desk and spins to face him, allowing a smile to quickly spread across his face then disappear again. “Everyone today believes the truth will set you free, which is a load of shit. The truth shouldn’t be used as an excuse, it should be what is and that is all. You all do it, twisting everything to meet your selfish demands then when that isn’t possible you spit in the face of it all and claim it was the truth regardless of if in fact it was. I care not for honesty, but only for fact. I care not for what you can manipulate out of another with your words, but for what you can show me with force and a fist of iron. Show me these things and then maybe I will respect what you have to say,” he says smiling once more, this time showing a mouthful of dirty rotten teeth.

“Y-Y-You misunderstand my reasons, I-I-I…” Oliver grabs Blake by the face and squeezes.

“I DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND ANYTHING CHILD! IT IS YOU WHO MISUNDERSTAND NOT I!” He yells thrusting Blake backwards who smiles a wry smug smile.

“What are you so smug about?” Oliver growls as he tightens his hands into fists, readying them to strike.

“I’m smug about how FUCKING perfect you think you are. I’m smug about HOW you think YOU’RE the be all and end all of everything that is, when in fact you’re nothing but a memory of what was, an artifact of the past like the dinosaurs were before you.”

“HOW DARE YOU!” Oliver screams.

“HOW DARE YOU!” Blake screams back as he lunges forward, breaking free of his chains as if they were nothing. The impact is like a crack of thunder as the two go crashing to the ground, and as Blake digs a knee into Oliver’s throat he let’s out a hiss of aggression. “Don’t let my honesty upset you, for it is the least of your worries tonight…..”

“I was once like you,”’he says while taking a sip of the hot tea. “Nothing could come fast enough, the world could not pay me what it owed me. But then she happened and it all changed,” he says with a soft smile.

“Who was she?” Carter asks.

“The love of my life.”

Carter laughs loudly, “Bullshit! I can’t see any world where someone could love you.”

He looks silently over at him and smiles, “I didn’t say I was the love of her life, I said she was the love of mine,” he says as he take a long deep drag on his pipe. “Just because you judge me for what you see now, does not always mean I have been this thing you see before you. Once I was a child of the light, wanting to be something more than I became. Remember the light that once burned inside your own form? Remember how it felt? Remember how much you wanted it to be all you ever knew?” He stop and take another sip of his tea, before tightly packing the cone of his pipe with various dried substances and places the pipe  to his lips, as he flicks his lighter to life he looks across the flame and over towards Carter. “Or are all these things lost to you?”

“I remember every moment of every feeling I ever had before I first laid my eyes upon you and your spastic cult, so enough with the belittling treatment it’s unbecoming,” Carter says as he thrusts himself to his feet. “Just tell me why you asked me to join you tonight, and then I’ll take my leave of y….”

“I never asked you here to piss in the wind, I asked you here to see the future,” he says as Carter feels an invisible presence grip him tightly by the wrists and force him back into his seat.

“W-W-Wha….” Carter finds no more breath to finish his words as the invisible hand grips him around his throat.

“The future my dear Carter, and may we all be as lucky as you are when death comes for us as it has for you,” he says as the darkness grips Carter’s soul and pulls him into its cold embrace.

“You don’t understand what I’m saying, you can’t! Don’t you see, you’re one of them as well. Just like the rest,” Trevor yells as he presses himself against the door.

“You’re sick son, stop this insane babbling and let me in before anyone else has to get hurt!”

“Stop lying! You’re the one who is sick, you all are! I’ve seen through its lies, I’ve seen the hold it has over you all. See with my eyes and break free like I have, join me as I free the world!”

“Ain’t no one controlling everyone Trevor, it’s just your mind playing tricks on you. Think about it for a moment, I mean really think about it. Then when you’ve done that, tell me again how rational your crazy story sounds.”

Trevor grits his teeth and clenches his hands into tightly bound fists, letting out a scream of agony. “Don’t make it be like THIS! Don’t make me STOP you like I did the rest.”

“Stop is a choice word son, you killed those kids without reason or rhyme. You just started firing like a lunatic into the crowd, making a mockery of the badge you wear. Shit Trevor you made us all look like fools. So do yourself a favour, put the guns down and open the door. I promise I’ll do everything I can to get you the best hel….”

“NO! IT’S TOO LATE! I’m dead the moment I open this door. So no Donovan, I won’t open the door.”

Suddenly a melody starts playing from somewhere in the room, causing Trevor to breakout in a cold sweat, he searching the room with his eyes, fear etched across his face.

“You should answer it son, you’ll feel better once you do,” Donovan says from the other side of the door.

“NO! I WON’T!” He screams as the music continues to play.

“You don’t have a choice son, answer the phone and join us or die,” Donovan says as the music gets louder and louder. “Join us or die,” Donovan says again.

Trevor cover his ears with his hands and squeezes them tightly in place while he screams in agony, as the phone continues to play its rhythmic melody like a siren calling to a sailor on the high-seas.

She stares through the glass that separates her from the vacuum emptiness that is space and let’s a stuttered breath of excitement leave her body.

“I knew it wouldn’t take you long to find me once you completed your becoming,” she says softly as she turns to face the empty room and allows a nervous smile escape her lips.

“There is no need to hide anymore my light, we are one and the same,” she says as silence once again greets her. She slowly steps from the window perch and strides forward like a fireball about to explode.

“Fear me not my love, for now we are a thousand times more than we ever was. Embrace me with all you are and I will embrace you. Let the universe know that it’s rulers are here and we are one,” but still she receives no reply.

“You cannot hide yourself from me. Like any mother, I can sense you near. Show yourself my child. Show your mother how beautiful you are through a thousand eyes.”

“More like a thousand lies spewed forth from a thousand lips!” a voice hisses from the darkness.

“Come, let me…”

“Let you WHAT! Let you lie some more? NO! There will be no more LIES! I have broken a thousand chains. I have kissed a thousand dying suns. I have become the only one just so I could be here today and I will not listen to more LIES!” The voice screams.

“Please, you must understan….” she stops as she feels the coldness of a thousand barrels force themselves against her forehead. “He is my father,” she says softly.

“And soon he’ll be nothing but a memory, like you,” Zander says as he pulls the trigger.

“You face yourself in the last of your chosen tasks Fellick,” he says with a stone stern glare.

“What exactly do you mean by, face myself?”

“Exactly what it sounds like,” he says with unflinching purposefulness.

“It sounds like total bullshit,” he says meekly slamming a fist onto the table.

“Then Striver has already won, and you are not ready,” he says closing his eyes and humming a tune that seems familiar, but the reason why escapes his memory.

“HEY!” Fellick says as he grabs him by the shoulder and squeezes tightly. “The very sands of time have chosen me. The choirs of infinity sing my name as it’s savior. You have no place to choose what is not yours to choose. I have completed every test before me, and now I sit before you ready to open the gates of oblivion on all who have sucked our worlds of life. Do what you are tasked to do and show me what I must kill.”

His eyes open slowly and he smiles, “I forgot how self-centered you were.”

Fellick releases his grip and takes a confused step backwards. “W-W-What the shit are you on about old man?”

“I’m on about what is was, and what was will be again,” he says as he rises to his feet and thrusts his hands outward as he doubles in size and reveals his true face. “Face your final challenge!” Striver snarls.

Fellick tightens his hands into fists and readies himself for battle. “So it will be you who is my final test, not my own self!”

He laughs loudly, “Striver is a name given to me by the wretched and weak. Call me by the name given to me by the bitch who bore me. Call me Fellick!”

His eyes widen as he stares into an aged pair of eyes that he instantly recognises as his own.

“What do you mean you don’t understand what a clusterfuck is? This, this right now is a cluterfuck Johnny, does that help?”

“I get that you’re implying things are a mess, all I’m asking is what a clusterfuck actually is. You know, is it an actual real thing,” Johnny says, his face showing no signs of emotion. Sal stares at him with heaving nostrils drawing in breath after powerful breath, his left eye twitches sporadically.

“Are you a fucking moron?”

“What?”

“It’s s simple question Johnny. Are you A FUCKING MORON!”

“I have no idea where you’re going with this, or what you’re implying. All I simply as….”

“I’m not going anywhere, or implying anything. I’m simply stating you’re a fucking idiot, nothing more or less. With everything being as it is right now, focused minds are needed. When someone of your supposed stature in this new community asking not only an idiotic question, but one that even the slowest of the slow would not ask I have to start wondering just how you managed to ascend to such a position within this landscape,” Sal barks as he launches himself from his seat and slams fists into the table before him. The room falls silent and eyes quickly shoot from Sal and fall onto the motionless Johnny.

Sal smiles a wry, meek smile and let’s out a muffled laugh. “My poi…” he doesn’t get to finish his words as Johnny moves quickly across the room and crashes into Sal, sending him to the ground. He lies there powerless to move as Johnny digs a knee powerfully into Sal’s throat.

“I may not be you smart. Hell, I may not be lowest common denominator smart. But I can kill, and I can kill without regret,” he says as he release his grip and gets to his feet. “Remember that next time you’re feeling clever brainiac. Because no matter how smart you are up here,” he says thumping his head with his left thumb. “No one gets a second chance with this,” he adds as he flexes his gigantic biceps and snarls.

“From the moment we first locked eyes I knew she would be my undoing. It was on the fallen star of Gasilver Seven that I first kissed her lips, had I know that it would take me on a journey not only within myself own self, but within everything she was as well I would’ve pushed her away instead of pleasing her nuplibits,” he says as he stops and tightens his grip on the small glass before downing the shot in one quick mouthful.

He lets out a gasp as he struggles for air, finally his throat opens and he sucks the air in greedily hoping it will quell the pain. “S-S-She told MEEEE!” He lets out a grimace of pain before slamming the glass onto the table, then like a bull lets out a bellowing gust of breath from his nose. “S-S-She told me I was the one she’d been waiting for, across all the stars, across all time and space I was the one who would set her free. Her touch was intoxicating and I paid little to no attention to her words those first few days, when I started to come out of the coma like state it all sank in to my membrane like a barrier had been released from between it all. She assured me that she herself had not done anything untoward to me, but because I was the perfect vessel my collective consciousness has disallowed any would did not or would comply to not understand everything she had said. I called her explanation a crock of lies, and should’ve sent a rocket cap through the centre of her skull, but I didn’t. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t. She had this hold, it almost felt like love,” he stares off over into the distance before looking down at the empty glass.

“Do you mind if I get another?” He asks, before smiling and signaling to the bar staff. “It’s a dirty habit I know, but it’s one of the only things I have left that remind me of who I was before all this insanity started pouring itself inside my head.”

A silver skinned humanoid places a bubbling glass in front of him and silently glides away as if on wheels. He grips the glass and takes a deep breath before downing the substance then lets out a scream of agony followed by a cry of excitement.

“That there is a grade jet fuel, I kid you not!” He says with a broad grin. “I know, you want to know what all this has to do with you. Why you, some nobody who lives on the outer edge of the known universe would be of interest to someone like me, a man who obviously has too many issues of his own to even start poking his nose into other people’s  business, right?”

The faceless man across from him nervously nods his head then lets out a jumbled mess of words that sound more like bird calls.

“Oh, you don’t speak human? I feel awful that I’ve sat here and spilled my stomachs contents to you and you don’t even understand a word I’ve said. Here let me make It up to you,” He says as he places a small red glowing device between, seconds pass and it’s colour changes to green.

“SPECIES RECOGNISED CAPTAIN KANE, PLEASE PROCEED,” a computerized voice says aloud.

“Thanks Sin,” He says as he looks up at the faceless man.

“Tell me all you know about Halligan’s Box?”

“So what makes you think I’ll give you what you want, when you give me no reason to trust you or any of your underlings?”

“Trust isn’t any part of this arrangement Nevis. This is a beneficial agreement that relies on neither of us having to trust the other. All we need do is exchange what I have, for what I need and for you to do the same,” Salvador says confidently.

“It’s not as easy as you make it out to be, and you know that. If my father knew what I was doing h….”

“He’d commend you on allowing his legacy to keep its head above water for more moments than time would otherwise allow it to. Take it from me kid, your dad would be proud of the balls you’ve shown today. When we first started out, working the streets for every cent we could bleed out of it we made a lot of survival decisions, decisions that compromised more than just morals. This deal we’re making here, it’s pissweak at best! So don’t feel like he’d be disappointed kid, because he made deals with the devil himself to build everything he had. Shit, we all did,” he says with a boisterous laugh.

Nevis smiles nervously as he places an dull orange stained envelope onto the table and pushes it towards Salvador, who looks down at it and instantly breaks out in a cold sweat.

“I-I-Is it real-l-lly it?” He asks through stuttered nervous words, shooting a glance towards Nevis before staring back at the envelope.

“You shouldn’t need to ask, this is as you said an agreement. One that neither of us benefit from unless we uphold our side. So yes, it is his will.”

Salvador licks his twitching lips and dabs a thin silk handkerchief against his forehead before reaching slowly for it. Nevis slams his hand down on the envelope, and quickly sliding it back towards him as Salvador casts him a panicked glance.

“What I want, for what you want,” he says with a broad smile.

“Of course! Of course!” Salvador says as he grabs a small bundle of papers from a pocket inside his jacket and tosses them across the table at Nevis.

“You signed them all?” He asks as he unfolds them and slowly studies each page.

“Of COURSE I did. You gave me little to no choice in the matter!” Salvador barks back gruffly.

“And you read them all? Every last word, on every page.”

“What do you take me for, a fool? Of course I did! Now, if you will be so kind as to uphold your agreed part of the deal,” he says as sweat drips from his twitching lips.

“Of course, I just wanted to make sure you knew exactly what it was that I wanted out of this agreement.”

“Yes, yes! The envelope, NOW!” He yells as his small Tyrannosaurus Rex like arms reach out across the table, and Nevis smiles as he slides the envelope back towards his. They lock eyes once more as Salvador grips the stained orange carcass of the envelope that was once a bold and bright yellow when it was new.

“Did you know that Hector did more than just sell his soul to the devil,” Nevis says as the room falls into darkness.

“It was a good plan. A solid plan, but it was also an obvious plan from the moment it was presented to me and the others,” he says wiping the sweat from his hands as he runs them down his trousers.

“Then why did you let it happen if you knew what was going on?”

“Don’t be a douche Terry, you know why. You’d manipulated everyone else into seeing this as the best possible scenario, what else was I going to do? If I refused I’d look like a dick, and you’d still win. At least coming over as a team we had some sort of hope, we had some sort of survival plan in place. I just didn’t think it would come down to you and me. I’d hope it…..”

“You were hoping he’d be standing beside you, instead of turning his back the way he has, correct?” Terry says with a broad smile.

“No,”  he says leaping to his feet and slapping Terry across the face. “I’D HOPED YOU’D REALISE BEFORE IT WAS TOO LATE HOW WRONG YOU ARE ABOUT EVERYTHING YOU THINK YOU KNOW!” He screams as he thrusts three powerful punches into Terry’s now bruised and swollen face.

He laughs softly as he spits a wad of saliva and blood to the ground. “I never picked you for the jealous one, but look at you now! How proud as punch you are. Got you feathers all ruffled up and your chest all puffed. What a sight you are, but it’s still not going to be enough. Jealousy never won anybody shit Miley, and it ain’t going to win you shit today,” Terry says as he slowly nods to the darkness of the room, as a spark of electricity erupts, lighting up the four hulking figures momentarily before blanketing the area in darkness once more.

Miley slowly and nervously looks over to Terry, who sits proudly in the chair he tied him to a few moments ago.

“Now, do you care to rethink your strategy?” Terry asks.

“No really,” Miley hisses as he slashes a blade across Terry’s throat and turns to face the darkness. “COME ON!” He screams in defiance.

The needle pierces the flesh and the blue liquid forces itself into his body like a powerful tsunami that he has no hope of fighting.

“When you start feeling the drugs take over, blink once so I know you’re ready to proceed,” she says with a smile. His eyes stare attentively at her bright red lips, as they shine in the sparsely lit room.

He slowly blinks once, forcing a tear to run free from his eye and down his face, she pouts as she strokes his face softly.

“It’s okay to be afraid, fear makes us stronger. Fear separates the sheep from the wolves. What are you Douglas, a sheep or a wolf?” She asks as she leans back in her seat and casts a judgmental eyes over him. “I’m going to say by the state of your pants, you are a sheep,” she says clutching the crotch of his pants and squeezing, the sharp smell of urine cuts the air and she smiles as she brings her fingers to her nose and sniffs deeply before sucking the waste fluid from her fingers.

“It’s a nasty habit,” she says blushing, as she sucks each finger of any remaining urine. “But we all have our closet addictions, don’t we?” She says with a smile. He whimpers and she caresses the side of his face again letting out a soft coo as if he were a child and she was his mother, placating his needs of comfort.

“It’s okay, soon you won’t have to ever worry about anything like this happening to you again. Soon, you’ll be free from the pain that has followed you around these past few months, if not years. Soon you will be someone new, while I’ll be still right here doing what I can to make something out of nothing,” she says as she rips her jacket open, allowing her ample breast to bounce free from their bra. She lets out a stuttered breath of ecstasy as she thrusts a hand down her own pants and presses herself against him, licking his face with a well oiled tongue. As she pulls back she leaves a wet shiny path along the side of his face, with a rope of saliva dangling between them.

The rooms lights burst to life and an older gentleman in the doorway clears his throat, “Maddison please get off Mister Stevens, we don’t need a repeat of last week, do we?”

She quickly covers herself up, “Sorry Doctor Watson. Of course not Doctor Watson,” she says red-faced as she rushes from the room.

Doctor Watson rolls his eyes and smiles nervously back towards Douglas, “Now Mister Stevens, shall we get rid of those wisdom teeth?”

“What part of beat the fucking eggs did you not understand?” Javier hisses with excitement as he shoves Claudette out of the way and furiously beats the eggs into a bright yellow liquid before upending the contents into another bowl full of dry ingredients.

“Everything about my recipes, about my creations IS important. From the smallest pinch, to the largest handful. Each must be exact, and added with the same consistency every time. For the slightest variation, the slightest misstep, and all you work so hard to create will be nothing more than a failure,” he says while folding the egg into the mixture. “One day when you are the chef of your own establishment you can do things your way, but while you work beneath my name you will do things EXACTLY as I have instructed, understood?”

“Yes chef,” she whispers, hanging her head in embarrassment as the rest of the kitchen staff stare at her in horror.

He grabs he by the face as pulls her eyes to meet his. “I BEG YOUR PARDON?” He says loudly as her face goes bright red. “I FAILED TO HEAR YOU MY DEAR, CAN YOU SPEAK UP SO WE CAN ALL HEAR YOU?”

“YES CHEF!” She yells.

He smiles broadly and squeezes her shoulder, “Now be a good dear and finish up the passion dolls while I go and make sure none of the other fucks who work this kitchen alongside you are destroying my good name with their barbaric cooking skills. Lord knows I’ve worked long and hard to earn my tier ranking and I will not let tonight of all nights, my final masterpiece be undone by amateur mistakes. Had I more time I would’ve waited for Bourdain, Marco or Puck to share in my final legacy, but obviously time has not allowed for tha…” His words are cut short as the doors to the kitchen swing open and three hood men walk in, come to a stop a few feet from Javier.

“It’s almost time for the main course,” one of them says.

Javier smiles nervously before he turns back to the kitchen staff and begins unbuttoning his jacket, ”The time has come my students, for you to make my legacy stand proudly in the eons of time. Do not feel the pressure of this moment,” he says proudly as he takes his final piece of clothes off. “There is nothing that has not been foreseen, all you need to do is prepare the dish for its final ingredient.”