May Sickness: 27

Chapter 27

“Hey mom?” Roy said to his mother, as he entered the living room, holding his tattered shoes.

“Yes, what is…” She stopped, seeing his shoes, “What happened?” She asked.

“Um… I don’t really know.” He answered. Seriously what happened? I got into the room and they fell apart.

“What do you need?”

“New shoes.” He enunciated each syllable with a condescending and slight sarcastic tone.

“Okay.” She copied the tone.

“So can I have some money?” He asked.

“Sure. There’s some money in my purse, it’s on the kitchen table.” She pointed to the kitchen. On the table sat a little blue purse.

“Thanks mom, see you in awhile.” Roy said as he walked to the kitchen.

“Your not going right now, are you?” She asked, looking at the clock hanging on the wall. The clock’s hands displayed that it was ten forty-five, an hour and forty-five minutes pass the town’s curfew on children, which Roy was one of.

“Well I need shoes.” He answered.

“For what? You don’t go to school. How are you going to get there? Your still recovering.” She said, trying to convince him to stay.

But Roy’s body was no longer feeling weak or tired; right after his clothes fell apart he became rejuvenated, full of life and vigour, the opposite of what he felt that morning.

“I’m feeling much better.”

“Enough to walk God knows how far?” She still persisted on him staying.

“Yeah I actually feel better than before.”

His hair was still thinning but his face was back to its original tone, some of his weight he had lost had returned, all of this happening as he walked into his room.

“Okay, but be careful, please.”

“I will, don’t worry.” He reassured her, “See you when I get back.”

“Do you want a ride?” She offered.

“No thanks, see you.”

“Okay, bye.”

Roy walked out the front door. He wore a lose fitting sweater, because it was a tad nippy; a pair of sweat pants, because he liked them; and on his feet he wore a pair of flip flops, in contrast to the bundled up appearance of the rest of his outfit.

He knew that their was a super shopping centre in the town, but not where it was located.

Where is that place? Roy thought to himself.

Roy then expanded his vision and looked at the city from several feet in the air. He saw a large building, with an even larger parking lot, with hundreds of cars parked. The building was a couple miles from Roy’s house, not far, but would still take a while to get there.

There it is. But his vision started drifting subconsciously, and soon he was above a crowd of people. What is this? He asked. Soon his vision narrowed and from the crowd of individuals, two individuals were all Roy could see. Kevin and Nina. That bastard, how dare he! Kevin’s arm was around Nina. I’ll, I’ll… He stopped, he left that state and looked at his feet. The bottom most part of his pants was starting to fall apart, in small shreds, the same was happening to his sweater’s sleeves. I need to calm down. I have to accept this, Nina’s decision. Who knows maybe Kevin’s a good guy. Maybe he would have reacted differently. He started to walk in the direction of the store. Maybe Kevin wouldn’t have had an anger problem, maybe Kevin wouldn’t have got Raven killed, maybe he would have saved her. Maybe he wouldn’t play his hand in other people’s lives. Roy cried as he walked. He’s probably a better person than I am. It’s so hard, I’ve done everything to see Nina in person, to embrace her, but it’s her life, if he makes her happy, then that’s all I need. He wiped his eyes. Yeah, we can still be friends, and not that awkward ex boyfriend girlfriend friendship, but real friends. Being around her will be good enough. He took a few steps. Yep I think I’ll be good.

But he was disillusioning himself, he was not alright, inside he was dying, no emotions, except for one and that was anger. His anger was directed at two people, Kevin and himself. The new leaf he had tried to turn over; one of less violence, a more peaceful one, made him weak, not wanting to fight for what was important to him. He should have fought for her, senselessly fight Kevin, show his love for Nina. And the anger toward Kevin was fuelled by jealousy, having the girl Roy loved under his arm. Deep down Roy hoped that a plan, a way to win her back would form, that one would spontaneously pop up.

Roy continued to walk down the street. The clouds blocked the waning crescent of the moon. The street lights provided light in the form of islands of light in a sea of darkness. Just ten foot stretches of light followed by another hundred of dark. Roy walked with confidence, despite the darkness, what could anyone really do? Nothing.

He walked another block, the street was completely illuminated, but it made no difference.

Roy walked with a more relaxed strut.

From the corner of his eye Roy saw a police car, as he walked pass, it started to follow him. Don’t even think about it. Just keep going. He to the officer. Whether the officer was going to stop Roy or not, it made no difference, as he continued to drive pass Roy, and continuing down the street, out of sight.

From what he could judge he was then only a mile from the store. The urban sidewalks lined with houses, turned to sidewalks illuminated not only by the street lamps but also by the lights cast by the shops and other businesses that occupied it.

There were gift shops, restaurants and building with no discernible markings to identify what it was the people in them did, or the type of business it was and conducted.

Roy found little interest in them and continued walking. His feet were cold, he was tired and all he wanted to do was get home, lay in his bed and feel sorry for himself.

After another fifteen minutes of walking Roy arrived at the store.

“Hello” a greeter greeted him.

“Yep.” Roy replied, seeing it worthless to say anything else as the man was doing what he was paid to do.

Roy continued walking through the vast store, through aisles of trivial garbage that no one truly needed. Novelties that served no purpose and had no practical use, the embodiment of useless.

Why would anyone want or even need any of this crap? He asked himself, as he looked down the many aisles.

He reached an aisle with thousands of shoes on either side. Damn it, this will take a while.

Elsewhere in the store a man stood in front of a glass case, one with various expensive items in it.

He pressed his hands against the glass case.

“Sir, can I help you?” an employee, passing by, asked.

No answer.

The man continued to press against the case.

Soon the man’s hands started to go through the glass. The glass around is fingers moved away, as if displaced by his hands. His hands continued to go through.

“Ah… Sir can I…” The boy’s words stopped, but that was just one of the many things to do so.

The immense, overwhelming noise of the store vanished, the air was pure of noise, absolute quiet.

Shoppers stay mid stride.

Items dropped by children stay inches from the floor.

A stream of water from a water fountain became frozen, still a liquid but static.

Everything, people, objects, time, everything was frozen.

Roy stood in front of a wall covered in shoes. The abrupt absence of sound startled him. “What happened? Is the place getting robbed? Lets go see what’s going on.” He said out loud.

He started walking, but he saw a woman, motionless, just standing there. “Hey are you okay?” He asked.

It was quiet to such an extent that he could hear his own heart beat, but Roy could not hear if the woman was breathing. “What’s going on?”

The man pulled his hand from the case and looked around.

“Dude, isn’t it a little late to be doing stupid ass shit? I hope your happy, dragging my ass out of bed.” Came a man’s voice.

“Who is that? Where are you?” The man asked.

“Your pretty stupid. Look behind you.”

“What?” The man looked behind him. There stood a man, dressed in a black suit, clean and pressed. He wore glasses, half rim, they covered brown eyes, his hair short but messy, showing that he possibly was just sleeping. The man was young, early to mid twenties.

“It’s to damn late to do the whole long speech, I’ll just introduce myself and we can get it done with.”

“What are you talking about?” The man asked.

“I’m Lucius, Lucius the Diligent or something of another, it doesn’t matter.” He started, “I’m here to kill you, just so you know, let me do it, I’m really tired.”

“You think you can kill me?” The man asked.

“Well yeah, why else would I say that.” Lucius replied.

The man raised his hand, his palm facing the glass case. “Is that so?” With an explosion, the glass shattered and the remains of the case went flying through the store.

“Am I supposed to be impressed?”

Roy heard the explosion, but what’s more he felt something, a presence. “What is this? I feel two people. Did they cause this?” He saw the cloud of debris from the explosion and started walking to where he sensed the people.

“Before I kill you,” the man started saying his words in an imitation of Lucius’s, “Let me introduce myself, I’m Jack, the recently divorced.” He then chuckled.

“That was quite funny.” Lucius laughed.

“Thanks. I’ll see you die with a smile.”

“Yeah, cracking jokes like you killing me, it’s quite funny.” His face went from a laughing smile to a stern seriousness.

“Let’s cut this school yard shit talking and shoving and get to killing one another.” Jack said as he raised his fist.

“That sounds perfect.”

Roy walked be a pile of debris, “My god!” There laying amongst the various broken items and discernible object, the mangled bodies of two children, half buried. His eyes where wide open, he could not look away. “Who would do this?” His face contorted with disgust and sorrow.

The two men exchanged blows.

Lucius punched Jack, destroying the ground beneath him. Jack returned a kick to the stomach that sent Lucius flying. His body smashed through the aisles of merchandise, and finally stopping in an open area full of shoppers.

Roy stood among the crowd, in the back just seeing as the man crashed in. What is this?

Jack followed Lucius and looked down at him. Blood came from Lucius’s broken nose and from his mouth, from the his broken teeth, and from the busted capillaries in his throat and other locations.

“I know who you are Lucius, I know what you are.” Jack started.

“You where just playing dumb?”

“Kind of, you think I just acquired this power? I’ve had it since I was just a young boy, probably longer than you have. There’s few among you that can do any harm to me.”

“Once you kill me, more will come. So go ahead and do it.”

“No I think I’ll have some fun.”

What the hell are they talking about? Roy thought.

Jack walked over to a woman. He groped her breast, slipping his hand down her shirt. He smelt her hair and licked her neck.

“Stop it.” Lucius said.

“Stop it? Why? Like you said once your dead more will come and kill me. Then the Clean Up Squad will take care of her. She’s fucked either way.”

“Then do that once you’ve killed me.” Lucius started to speak. “I won’t have any of this.”

“Your no fun.” He grabbed the woman’s head and with a twist, her neck made a cracking noise, breaking. He let go, her body fell to the floor.

No! Why?! Roy was horrified by Jack's actions.

Jack ran toward Lucius and kicked him. Once again he was airborne, his body crashing and ripping through the people in the crowd. Their bodies broke and tore in two, mangled and twisted, as Lucius’s arms and torso hit them, with great force. Blood covered the floor.

This is too much. Roy froze.

Jack walked to where Lucius had stopped and stood over him.

“You know why you’ve never faced some one as strong as me?” Jack asked.

No answer.

“It’s because you attack when people are vulnerable, they are not expecting a battle to the death. This power is like people, like us, it matures as we age, becoming stronger, more refined. Fighting someone that has just acquired it is different from someone that has had it for any significant length of time, isn’t it?”

No answer.

“I guess you could call this a hustle, but who cares?”

Lucius made no reply.

“If your not going to talk your useless.” Jack placed his foot on Lucius’s head.

But then a shock wave hit Jack and threw him several yards from Lucius.

“What?” Jack yelled.

Lucius looked around, only to see Roy emerging from what was left of the crowd.

“You know, I wasn’t really in the mood for this kind of bullshit. I’m hardly dressed for this.” Roy said as he rubbed the side of his face, his cheek.

“Who are you? Are you with Lucius?” Jack asked as he stood up.

“Who’s luscious, you mean like sexy? Well I guess I’m pretty sexy.”

“No you idiot, the man on the floor!” Jack yelled.

“No I’m not with him. Look, I don’t care what you two are fighting about. Seriously I don’t care. But you,” Roy pointed at Jack, “killed innocent people, a lot of innocent people. To do that over some meaningless thing… just fuck it. I’m not going to try to justify what I will do, it’s pretty self explanatory.”

“And what is it that you’ll do?” Jack said condescendingly.

“Simple, I’ll kill you.” Roy looked him in the eyes.

A chill shot up Jack’s spine.

Jack lunged at Roy, holding his fist back, readying to punch. His fist shot toward Roy’s face.

“No way!” Jack yelled.

As his fist came close to Roy, he raised his hand and caught Jack’s fist.

Jack yanked his hand back, removing it from Roy’s grasp. He then jumped back, creating distance between himself and Roy.

“Dude you really fucked up. I’m not in a good mood, it’s been one fucking retarded week, well more like one fucking retarded day. Honestly the worst day of my life.” Roy said as he walked toward Jack.

“Oh poor baby, I’ll put you out of your misery.” Large spikes protruding from the glazed cement floor shot at Roy. They were large, the base started at the floor a foot from Jack and continued to Roy.

As they shot at him, Roy stopped moving and looked at them. “That’s cool.”

The spikes stopped extending and started to crumble as if weathered by time and the elements.

“What the hell?” Jack looked from Roy to the spikes and back to Roy. “Why can’t I control the spikes?”

“You are.” Roy answered Jacks question.

“What? What are you talking about?” Jack looked at Roy in puzzlement.

“I’m just imposing an apposing force on it. It appears though that I’m a little stronger.”

“Oh yeah, if you think your so strong stop this!” Jack squinted in concentration.

Hundreds of spikes, similar to the two Roy just stopped, started to engulf Roy.

That time the spikes did not stop.

They all hit Roy, but they broke as they hit his body. The tips crushing against Roy’s body, only to turn to dust.

Roy placed his hand on one of the spikes, “It’s always quality versus quantity, isn’t it?”`

The spikes broke apart with the end result as a material the size of gravel, covering the floor.

“As I said before, I don’t care about the squabble between you and that man. It was when you involved random people that your fate was sealed. I will thank you for two things though.” Roy started.

“What?”

“The first is with those spike things, I would have never thought of manipulating material in that manner.” Roy spoke formally, “I feel quite stupid for that now. And the final thing is this…” but he was interrupted.

“What the fuck are you talking about?!”

But Roy continued, “The final thing is this, like I said before, I am in quite a lousy mood, fighting you has raised my spirits.”

“Your pretty cocky. This fight has just started, I’m more of a hand-to-hand fighter anyway.”

“Good I would have to say the same thing.” Roy smiled, This is just like in the comics.

Roy made the next move.

Roy shot at Jack, with the speed enough to create an air pocket behind of him that displaced the gravel once he passed. On the floor, Roy made a path through the gravel and debris.

His speed amazed Jack.

Roy did a downward punch at Jack. Jack made a desperate lunge to the side to evade.

Roy’s fist hit the floor, the floor cracked, compressed, the cement displacing, with Roy’s hand the epicentre of a crater, several feet in diameter.

“Sorry, I guess I’m cheating, supplementing my strength with my power. Would your rather me not do this and have a good old fashion fist fight?” Roy asked jokingly.

Jack got to his feet, “You think I’m impressed…” but was interrupted by a kick in the face.

“I didn’t say you were impressed.” Roy looked at Jack as he held his mouth, blood flowing through the gabs between his fingers. “I’m so sorry for this, but I’m going to kill you. it’s getting late and I don’t want my mother to worry.”

Jack looked up at Roy, he then jumped to his feet, head butting Roy in the teeth, he then followed with a “Mule-Kick” to Roy’s stomach, sending Roy sliding across the floor. Jack started walking to Roy, looking down at him, but what he saw surprised him.

Roy was smiling.

“What are you smiling about?” Jack took another step but his foot would not move. He looked down, his foot was embedded in the floor. “What the hell is this?!” Jack yelled, seeing that he was sinking into the floor. He struggled to move, raising his hand to take action.

“Let’s end this.” Roy said as he stumbled to his feet.

The gravel on the floor started to swirl, like a twister, around Jack. As it swirled around him, pieces stuck to him and soon he was encased in the gravel.

“Now just to add another layer of protect.” Roy snapped his fingers, a large slab of concrete wrapped around Jack. I bet I looked so cool doing that. Roy thought to himself.

“What the hell is this?!”

“It’s about three feet of concrete.” Roy joked. “It’s a little bit of an over kill but I don’t want you to pull any rabbits from your hat.” Roy walked to the mass of concrete, he stood only a foot or even less from Jack.

Hack spurt! Jack spat at Roy, but he froze the spit in mid air and redirected it to the floor.

“Go ahead and kill me.”

“It’ll be painless.”

“What? After all I’ve done your not going to rip me apart and make me suffer?”

“You deserve a greater punishment than this but it’s not my duty to do it.” Roy placed his hand on the mass. “I’m sorry for this.”

“Hey kid,”

“Yes?”

“Don’t lose any sleep over this, okay.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I deserve this, you haven’t done anything wrong. If you do it, then it’s doing me justice.”

“Again, sorry.”

The concrete enveloped Jack’s head, Roy looked away. Then the mass compressed and shrank to a third of its original size.

Jack was crushed instantly, feeling nothing as Roy said he would.

Roy fell to his knees, staring at his shaking hands.

“Kid, are you okay?” A hand fell on Roy’s shoulder.

“What?”

“I owe you one. That guy was strong, damn you must be a monster.” Lucius laughed.

Roy looked up, seeing Lucius standing, with his tattered suit, messy hair, cut up face and missing teeth.

Lucius helped Roy to his feet.

“Are you okay?” He asked Roy.

“Yeah, it’s just…” Roy stopped.

“Don’t let it bother you.”

Roy sat back on the floor, Lucius copied.

“What’s going on?” Roy asked looking at Lucius.

“It’s hard to explain but I owe you. I’ll tell you.” Lucius started. “I’m like a cop.”

“Okay?”

“Well a cop in a sense that I enforce a set of rules.”

“Wait, before you continue what it your name?”

“I’m Lucius the Diligent, and you?”

“I’m Roy. What do you mean, “The Diligent”?”

“It’s my title, I’ll explain that in a second, okay?”

“Okay.”

“As you know some people have powers, like you and that man.”

“Yeah?”

“Well don’t think your special, all humans are capable of what you and him can do, just maybe not to such an extent. I came here to kill him because he had used his powers in front of someone that didn’t have them.”

“Why?”

“Because when someone uses their power in front of someone it creates a domino effect, “unlocking” the witness’s power and so on.”

“Yeah but what’s the problem.”

“That’s when people like me come in. When people have power they will fall to their desires and act out their fantasies.”

“People like you?”

“Yes, there are people like me that try to contain who has power. We have been doing this since the beginning of civilization.”

“Again what's the problem?”

“If everyone has power, what’s to stop them from breaking the law, murder, rape, every sin imaginable would engulf the world, and civilization would collapse and soon mankind. If someone has power and uses them in private, then we just ignore it, but if someone uses it in public in front of someone, we freeze time, as you can see, to minimize damages, and kill that person and the witness.”

“What right do you have, though, to do it?”

“Most people just go with it, it goes closely with religion. They use religion as a pretence to do what they do. They say, “they use demonic powers to feed their sin. They worship the devil and they must be expunged from the world.” But there’s no difference between my powers and yours, it all dates back to a long time ago.”

“I see, so will you kill me?”

“No. I’m not like the rest. I don’t do this because the higher ups tell me to, I don’t see this as angelic versus demonic, I see it as a blessing, a gift from the Big Man to fight the tyrants. But if I continue someone might hear and I’ll get my ass torn to shreds, so lets leave it at that.”

“Will you kill these people?”

“I won’t, but the Clean Up Squad will. Those fuckers are sick, but their weak so it evens out.”

“What do you mean, “Clean Up Squad.”?”

“If the, let’s call me a Priest, us Priest, after we take care of the main target don’t have the nerve to kill a bunch of innocent people, we call the Clean Up Squad, and they do the fucked up shit.”

“Priest?”

“Like I said it’s closely associated with religion. Our little club, organization, what ever you want to call it, though nameless, has been called “The Church”.”

“The Church? Why are you telling me all this?”

“Because, hell, I don’t know. I’m always around Bible thumpers or sick twisted fucks, none of whom would have helped me like you did.”

“I see man, I appreciate it.” Roy stood up, he held out his hand and helped Lucius up. Lucius’s words started to penetrate Roy’s mind. “Lucius?”

“Yes?”

“Would it be, I don’t know, against the rules if I used my powers to manipulate someone in public?”

“You can control people?”

“Yeah.”

“Your pretty strong, not many people can do that. It’s really hard. To answer your question, no, it’s perfectly fine.”

“Really?”

“Yep.”

An emptiness filled Roy’s mind, he could not figure out what the reason was, but something was collecting, an idea.

“Well Roy it was nice meeting you, I’m glad you saved me, but let me tell you one thing.”

“Okay.”

“If you ever openly use your powers, you might not be lucky enough to have me arrive. I’m fairly weak but the others are hundreds of times stronger than me, and ruthless. Some are twisted and kill for fun. If it ever comes down to it and you have to face one of us, run, run as fast and as far away as you can and hope they don’t find you.” He offered his hand to Roy, Roy shuck it. “Thanks again man, I hope we don’t see each other again.”

They both laughed.

“It was nice meeting you Lucius. I guess I’ll be leaving.”

“Yeah when you get outside, run.”

“Why?”

“It’s best if you just do it.” Lucius smiled.

Roy was running down the sidewalk.

Boom!

The store blew up.

It blew up. It fucking blew up! Shit. That’s the Clean Up Squad? Damn.

Roy got home and went directly to his room, not seeing or even looking for his mother. She slept in her room.

I’m not God. I’m not special, unique. I’m just lucky.