The Body of Pain

by Ian Wallace Roarke McKenner

Sollzen, a man between himself and someone else lives and kills to live.

Chapter 1 - Ends

Hello. Pleased to make your acquaintance, I am Solzen. I will here write some episodes of this dimension. Be warned, however, blood and pain will be abundant, take care.

Space/time: city of Namoh (pronounced na-mÓh, slightly longer "o"), and I will call this year 0, first day of Yeran (first month).

Location: Dars Asezd (a-ssezd), a bar where I would usually go to drink a bit and relax if things were too hot.

- Sol, g'night, what's gonna be?

- Glass a' sere, weak. - sere, a refreshing beverage brewed only in Asezd, by the owner, Hefr. An old friend, always well informed regarding all aspects of how the politics were swinging, and especially how the streets were. He knew the city better than anyone, well, we both had a long lasting "fight" as to who knew the city better.

- Anything you wanna share? - I took a sip, the chills began to take effect immediately

- The gangs have been quiet, though I gotta job for ya.

- Type? - I set my glass aside

- Basic, but the pay is good. 5000.

- Who wants it?

- Shenker.

- Where? When? How? Who?

- They dunno where the kid's at but they want him down by the first sun's dawn of the last day of this month, quiet. But people must learn not go messin' around's business.

- 'k.- I flipped a coin at Hefr, tipped my hat and left.

Dark alleys, the suns were already out and the soacc was pitch black. I walked to the avenue, the cold air was thick with moisture, and the shadows were alive with silent, furtive movements. In a second a bum was set against the wall with a little friend of mine by his throat.

- Tell me, why should I not whet my friend here on your bones?

- (Incoherent gibberish).

- Very well. - with a swift and graceful movement of the arm the blade cut his throat to the bone and his body went falling towards to glistening hungry eyes from the shadows. The rats, wolves and men would have a nice dinner tonight.

I made my way to the deserted street up ahead. Since the start of Yeran people would simply avoid being out after the sooac (the "true night", after the two suns, Czole and Golir, had set). They feared bumping into someone with a great thirst for blood. As I walked along the street I started thinking of the job at hand:

"5000 bouls (the real name was boulerian-efron after some historic event) for a kid? Well, Shenker asked for it, ... Dum kid... Thanks for the hunt, though..." - I mindlessly lit a cigar - "I wonder what he heard, or saw... "

The street lamp above me was flickering, the other one across the street was out. I was indeed the only one on that street. A sudden gust of misty wind put out the cigar, forgotten on my lips, and I made my way to a modern lined sky-scrapper. Modern lines, but completely tattered. I went in, the once shinning hall was now not even a shade of its former shape. At its end the stairs were hidden behind what once was a niche holding a little statue. The elevators were broken, but nobody really cared. I shared the building with 2, maybe 3 people. I made my way up. At my floor I simply walked through the corridor, doors were displayed in what was once an attempt to impress. Now? A decaying spectacle of cracked, destroyed, missing and simply wrecked doors really summarized the shape Namoh was in. The only door still ferociously clinging to its hinges was mine, fifth of the second corridor counting form the left.

A simple apartment, 1 bedroom, 1 living room, 1 kitchen, 1 bathroom. I threw my keys to the little table on the hall/corridor. The mirror was skewed and 2 of the light bulbs were out. The living room had a window that had a view over the street and between the opposing buildings there was a strip of beyond. When my mind would switch I would spend hours on my old armchair looking at that crack between buildings, in silence wishing... Waiting... Bah, delusions of a lost future, my life was not as I wished it to have been, but now there as no turning back. Death was my business, sadism my new pleasure, and my way of sustain. A hollow shell of something, with timber and flames of hate burning... Death... Funny thing, I found it scary once, then she visited me. (a new cigar was lit). I saw her, it, him, a corporeal spectre of great kindness, took something from me, and gave me something else, completely different...

Enough with the idiocies.

A simple house, that's all. I had covered the big window with a curtain with many holes (damn moths...). Went into the kitchen and got something on the stove, I had never been, as far as I could remember, a gourmet, eating anything as long as it had a slight taste that wasn't completely disgusting. The menu for the night: some fried shellfish. While it crackled happily on the frying pan I turned to an old black board with some maps next to it pinned to a . The board was a place where I would often draw a strategy, synthesize the info on the target, imagine new ways of torture (yes, my job is that of a hitman and that of the hangman). The maps were covered with pins, some of which had strings hanging down with notes such as:

- "Dangerous marshes."

- "Improperly charted."

- "... was last seen ..."

I spent an eternity there (not paying for water is a very good thing), in various trains of thought, especially that one question that kept bickering my mind: "Why would the chief of the most powerful criminal organization in Namoh offer such a high amount of money for a kid...?"

The curious thing was that I had been given neither a picture nor a name, or even some sort of location for this "kid"... Hefr was to be consulted again... During the shower the first sun, Golir, came out. I should explain, this planet, which we called Ryfur, orbited one star, however, there was a special thing about this star, Czole: it had a smaller start orbiting it, with a very strange orbit, resembling the number "8", with many circles, so we had more than one sun rise: the first, of Golir, a small, orange/red star that only really lit things up as if in a photography studio, and after its first setting, came Czole, just like your very own Sun. After the two suns were in the sky, Golir would disappear again and reappear as Czole set. As I showered Golir came out painting Namoh with blood. I came out of the shower and saw the blood drops on my bedroom's floor, streaming from the hole in the curtains. The bloody dust swirled in the air as I walked through it.

"Funny world..." - more smoke, bloody and eccentric - "Just like the cigarette that consumes itself delivering the new death, ..." - the smoked poetry was interrupted by a slight noise on the hallway. Quickly I slid my hand behind one of the cork agglomerate boards and withdrew a foot-long, inch-wide blade. Throwing the towel on the bed, I approached the door and looked through the spyhole. As expected the corridor was empty, the lights flickered as usual and I saw the guy from the seventh floor walk by, casually. Relaxing a bit I put the blade (in Namoh these blades are unknown, but somewhere else they're known as Sareth, swift cutter). I went to my room and got dressed, the usual: casual trousers, some running shoes, fingerless gloves, a t-shirt, shirt and I hung my overcoat by the Sareth. Went to get cigars.

- Damn, all out... - I got my keys and left. Nah, my door has no keys to open, I just turned the lights off, strapped the Sareth to my belt and left. Went down the old stairs, and as usual, nobody as there. The door got opened and my shade preceded me in exiting the building. The mist was now slightly thinner, but now it was red all over, it seemed the skies had bled a thousand gallons of blood that was now floating, and drifting to the wind's delight. Namoh had a very strict division: the city was divided in to Chanos, each of these is a neighbourhood where only a certain activity or group of activities could be done, as an example, there was the economical and financial Chano where all the people whose jobs revolved around finance, law and justice were concentrated, the commercial Chano where all the shops were located, and many others. There was also the forbidden Chano, the Gyera Chano, where lowlifes, whores and all the illegal activities of the city took place, at least as far as the law guys were concerned. I turned right under the bloodmist and made my way to the nearest transport a tram of sorts without a driver. Namoh was a big city and since only the truly wealthy could afford to buy vehicles for themselves the rest of us poor fellows had to get around by using this tram system where one would enter a tram and pay a value depending on where he or she wanted to go. Then, indicating what seat he or she was going to sit on, and enjoying the ride, if sitting on an old, dusty and foul smelling tram could be considered pleasure. I paid my fare and set course to the shopping Chano, lower level (the Gij Odr Chano [low shopping Chano]). This Chano, like some others, had a division based on how much you could or were willing to spend. 5 levels existed, from the Gija (lowest), Gij (low), Sen (medium), Frin (high) and Riha (highest). The Gij level had some nice shops that preyed on the normal fellows who wanted to save some money, among them my tobacco shop. Hidden away in the end of the level, farthest from the tram's stop, among old and abandoned shops, it thrived because of its quality and discretion when selling the many articles it had in store. Among which was tobacco from another dimension. Yes, here in Namoh we found about your dimension centuries ago and not much after that we found out how to travel between our dimension and yours. Of course those who wanted to go there had to pay very high fees, however, some of the old engineers who worked on the trans-dimensional gates now had escaped the tight security and still possessed the knowledge to continue their travels at will. Jo-Chan was among these men and women. He had been one of the medium-level engineers who had worked on the gates, and after the completion of the works he feigned his death in order to live on his life undisturbed.

As soon as I stepped off the tram I made my way to his shop. The Odr Chano was a maze of streets that had no clear order (at least the Gij and Gija levels), and only a cognoscenti of the area could really get around and not get lost, which usually meant, depending on how you looked, either getting mugged or stripped of all your belongings, necessary information and then thrown into a tank of acid so that someone else could assume your identity. I made my way through the many people that walked around there at that hour, since this was the time most shops would open up to regular customers, with my right hand on the Sareth's hilt, ready for any confrontation that could come to me. (Un)Fortunately, all went smoothly and I reached the "Dimensional Emporium" in 20 namir (they are just like your minutes, last the same amount of time but have a different name, plus, since we have a different solar disposition we have also a different hourly division. One her (hour) here are 100 namir (minutes), each one lasting for 100 fero (seconds) [the words for hour (her), minute (namir) and second (fero) have no plural]. One day, which is a full cycle of light and darkness, is divided in the following manner: the first rise of the Golir (orip), its first setting (yuoi), the rising of Czole (numahn), the second rising of Golir (otrip), the second setting of Golir (yuroi), the setting of Czole (sorahn), the third rising of Golir (totrip) and its third and last setting((tyutroi) is a yorie (day). Sooac is the night, after both suns are out. The full cycle is called lurahn. Each lurahn has 40 her).

- What was that which we rescued from the claws of fate?

- That which we had forgotten where we have never set foot.

- Welcome, Solzen.

- Jo-Chan, the Traveller. How have you been, old man?

- The usual?

- Yes, please.

- Amount?

- 10 doses. - Jo went through a little archway to the back rooms and returned with a couple of big packs of cigars. - Thanks. Can you throw a lighter too?

- Sure. - and he disappeared to the back rooms once again, but this time he literally threw the lighter at me, I caught it as it was a normal procedure. - Thanks. How much?

- Three fifty b. - I reached into my trench coat and pulled out the notes, placed them on the counter and waited until he finally was done counting them and making sure they were not fake.

- Jo, please, tell me, have you hear anything about Shenker's activities?

- The old storage closet needs a good key to open. - I took out another note and folded it.

- The key is here, now open it up. - he slid the folded note between the topmost layer of the counter and the next layer and the top lifted, there the hollow counter was filled with folders of all sorts, carefully organized. There was one of the most complete mines of information about the underworld of Namoh. - Who was it you were looking for? - he asked looking over the lenses he had just put on his nose

- Shenker. - he started looking though the folders, until he took one out, a rather slim one. He put it on the table. - That's all you've got on him?

- Yes, however I recall having more about him, after all we is who we know who he is... - we traded expressive eye contact in which all that had built the name Shenker was understood.

- Well, what can you tell me?

- Well, Shenker has been very quiet lately. Not much has been going on with his industries, though I'm missing pages, I can tell you he is readying himself for something. What it is? I have not got the palest idea, but it is big.

- Where has he been hanging?

- That, I'm afraid, was taken. - he showed me his folder: pages had been both either rudely torn and surgically removed. Our eyes crossed again.

- Well, I'll be off of your back now, Jo. Take care. - I flipped a silvered coin at him and left with the bundle under my left arm. As I stepped out of the shoppe I saw the Chano was bustling with activity, as usual. The odd thing was that now everyone and everything seemed more threatening. I pulled a cigar out and lit it. The poisonous smoke filled my lungs, curiously, clearing my head. The people around me went on, living their lives, simply, easily. I made my way through the maze of alleys and streets until I reached my next stop. This time I was in front of a sealed off area. It was a dark hall, with its gates shut with chains and padlocks. I stopped for a brief moment and inhaled the smoke. I remembered what had happened there... "The Ruunemh"...

When I returned home, I got a bunch of cigars out of the bundle and put them into my metallic box. The rest was carefully hidden around the house, in various drawers, behind the boards and inside the couch. The numahn was happening and finally Namoh was taking on decent colours. The warmth of the Czole was slowly taking the mists away, and I glanced again to the fissure between the buildings in front of me. I threw myself on the couch and looked at the boards reflected on the glass. The ragged curtains fluttered with the slight breeze that was coming form the swamps. Namoh had been built near a river, or so we were told in history classes. However, since the big explosion in the areas of scientific, industrial and technological Namoh saw unprecedented growth that led to the building of bridges and the usage of massive amounts of water. This led to the near drying of the river, but the relentless exploitation of the Suir River did not look at this as a sign that perhaps things were going a bit over the edge, no. They seized this opportunity to divert what had been a great river to the surrounding plains, and since by now the Suir was no more than a diseased little stream it simply swamped the areas to the Inura and Vosh of Namoh, (Inura is the North, Vosh the East, Firw the South and Keol the West. When referring to the middle points one should always use only the first two letters of the point so the Northeast can be either InVo or VoIn and so one).

I went out again. The bright light forced me to take my sunglasses with me, darkening the streets. I made my way to the Dars Asezd. I chose a different way this time, since the Dars was somewhat of an underground place. The authorities had been looking for it for many years not only because it was located in the Ikuria Chano Dure (Third Residential Chano, the number is the "level" of the Chano, much like the Odr Chano), when it was not supposed to, but also because Hefr had been responsible for the death and maiming of many Namoh's prominent citizens. The Ikuria Dure had been designed to be the neighbourhood of the middle class citizen, with a family of 3 or 4, both parents with steady jobs and the kids in school at the Yurina Chano. It was a great idea, however it had a grand flaw: the lokiren (the swamps, singular, lokir) that were very near. The people that lived nearest to the lokiren started to make desperate attempts to move to the other sides of the Ikuria Chano. This led to the desertification of the Vosh side of the Ikuria Chano. This was further hastened when the children of many couples started to turn up dead in the lokiren, in very gruesome scenarios. This spree of murders was one of the reasons I started attending Dars Asezd, since its owner had evaded the authorities in the face of such high profile crimes he was the man to talk to regarding any underground business or information, and as the years went by a "friendship" or sorts started to grow. We never spoke of our activities since the Varesk Nodr (secret branch of law enforcement) had people in many places and usually we had to take a few of them to the "Sewage Trip" every night.

When I reached the unmarked door, I knocked making sure my rings hit the mahogany. The specific sequence and rhythm led to the opening of a narrow spyhole through which an eye looked attentively. A cavernous voice:

- How is named the City of Ghoshthir?

- It is the name that aches in the mind of Homan, forever burned with tepid blood and blades of unknown.

- Be entered, Adersz Solzen-iv. - the door opened on its well oiled hinges revealing a spacious room. The dimly lit room had a number of tables scattered with some old fashioned chairs around them. Each table had some sort of lightning, either through a class globe on its centre, called a firtu, or by the same globe, however embedded revealing only the top half, called fir. There was a counter at the end of the room, opposed to the entrance, occupying half wall. The other half was occupied by a big mirror, a discreet door leading to the sewer access, the back room and the roof access and a table, close to the counter, in a dark corner. That was my table. From there I had my back covered by the wall, and a view of the whole room, though some parts of the room had no view of me.

- Dre numahn (good day), Hefr. How's it going? - he was carefully reading a paper. Upon hearing my voice he lifted his eyes from the page and looked me straight in the eye, then I knew things were not good.

- V. D. 's here, they've spotted us, and they're taking it seriously this time... - he gently put the paper down and rotated it so that I could read it: it was an intercepted communication between the Varesk Nodr (the police's pawns) and the Nodr itself (police). A particular name called my attention: Nhes. With my nail I underlined it

- See this? Shenker sold you. Need some help? Something tells me the raid will start in 3, 2, 1... - a dry knock on the door. The bouncer opened the spyhole and asked the questions:

- How is named the City of Ghoshthir?

- It is nothing but the death of blood. - he looked at Hefr and took out his gun. - Be welcomed, eire-iv (sir friend). - and he opened the door. That second he shot the space immediately in front of him hitting some of the officers, however he was quickly dominated and bound. I jumped behind the counter while the V. D. 's stormed the bar.

- Shall I? - I asked with a glimmer of blood lust in my eyes

- Let's go. How many?

- I suspect a medium unit of 25, with vests and plenty of crowd control.

- Well then... - Hefr drew a sniper rifle from under the floor tiles - Time to bleed. - we traded a sign known only to us and he shot the main power line of the bar. Suddenly the bar went completely dark, and I grinned in the dark. I drew the Sareth from its hilt and held it with the blade back. Now I must confess I'm not really "normal", for once, and for now, in a dark room (not absolutely dark) I can see a bit better than most people. This came in handy since the V. D. 's were turning on their flash lights telling me exactly where they were and which way they were facing. The first guy I noticed was clearly there on his first mission. I was now close to my table, and he was about 3 meters ahead of me. I breathed, and with a quick move I stabbed him in the back, striking its middle, a bit to the left. He fell heavily drawing attention to that place. I swiftly got to the counter again and heard the noises: they were an initial group of 25, 3 had either died or been injured at the door, plus the kid I had taken care of, I had 21 to take out. Hefr had disbanded the scene. I heard they were drawing close to the counter so I took out my lighter and cut a piece of my trousers to make a fuse of some sort. I took a bottle labelled as "Erexes" and simply lit the fuse throwing the makeshift bomb over the counter. The small boom and the flames gave me time to get to the other end of the counter where more tables were. The firtun and firn were out, but I knew they had a very dangerous gas inside, rather flammable. Slyly grinning I took one out and threw it at the counter. There, it simply crashed. I threw my lighter afterwards making quite the large flame, which in turn set fire to the wooden counter. The heat led to the explosion of many bottles, which in turn were set on fire. I heard with great satisfaction the pain-filled screams of 5 of the men.

- 16. - the new found light dazzled the men approaching the counter. I ran quickly at them slashing through their bullet protected chests and abdomens. I took a bullet to the left arm letting out a savage scream. The flaming counter shielded me from the eyes of the V. D. 's. 4 bodies were slashed. 6 of the remaining men were exploring the back ways while the remaining 6 were trying to discover who had set the fire and killed the young one. I heard a yell and knew they now had their guns pointed at me. I threw myself clumsily to the floor, cutting my head on a shard of glass on the floor as well as shredding a bit more my coat, back and overall clothes. The men started shooting at the tables standing between us. I ducked near the corner opposing the counter. A bullet hit a fir which due to the hot atmosphere burst into a big flame. I seized the chance and ran towards the guy who had shot it, getting himself knocked back. I stabbed his heart and left the Sareth there. Getting behind him I used him as a shield, which was smart to the point where I got shot on the left shoulder and hand. Picking his gun up I shot the remaining 5 V. D. 's on their feet, finishing them off with the Sareth.

Bloodied, I went to the counter and retrieved my lighter. Smudged and dented, but still worked. I lit a broken, smashed cigar on the fires still on the counter and made way to the door. As composed as possible I went through it witnessing the first body, shot on the eye. Upon getting there one had three choices: to the left you had an oblique manhole that lead to the sewers, in front a archway to the interior of the building and adjacent buildings and to the right there was a flight of steps leading to the roofs. The aforementioned body was lying face up on the stairs. I calmly passed my leg over it and went on to see what the commotion was on the top floors. I peeked carefully to see 2 dead V. D. 's and the remaining 3 shooting a barricade. I drew the Sareth and walked up to them carefully. When the one closest to the stairs stopped to reload I stabbed him in the eye. This drew the attention of the remaining soldiers which gave Hefr the opportunity to shoot them both down.

- All done?

- Yes. I'm sorry but the counter was burned to a crisp.

- Damn it! - he got out of his position and we both went to the bar. Well, to summarize the view it was a complete chaos of burned things, shards of glass, pieces of the walls, bullet holes, blood, etc. Hefr's face contorted with the sight of all his work burned, shot, wrecked. Carefully, we made our way to the counter where all the liquor was either burning or simply spilled all over the floor creating a nauseating pool of a multicoloured liquid that was slowly but effectively eating away the floor.

- Hm... This is not good... The Dars is a wreck and the V. D.'s will send in unit after unit until we're both either dead or arrested. What do you plan on doing now, Soll?

- Remember the job Shenker had for me? Well, I could use some money, and he just tried to get us both killed, so, I think I will pay him a social visit. Bring him some cookies and discuss this occurrence. - I paused to blink - WHAT DO YOU THINK I WILL DO TO THAT PIECE? I WILL STRIP HIM OF HIS SKIN, OF EVERY PIECE OF HAIR HE HAS, OF ALL THAT HE HAS, I WILL CAUTERIZE THE WOUNDS, SALT THEM, POUR ACID THERE, CHOP HIM MILLIMETRE BY MILLIMETRE, HE WILL KNOW HOW WRONG THIS COURSE OF ACTION WAS. - during the screaming session I turned tables over (or what was left of them), punched holes in the walls and brandished the Sareth cutting anything in my path. - If you still have something to drink I would gladly accept a glass.

- Is the scream and destroy session over?

- Yes, I think so.

- Now, get your "glass" and get out, the V.D's are closing in again. - we exited through the back door. Hefr went to the upper levels in order to set up the defensive traps that would simply obliterate all trace of who we were and of his work there. I went into the sewers, though foetid, they led me wherever I needed to go undetected and at a time like this when I suspected the bulk of the Varesk Nodr would be expecting some grand exit through the roof, back door or some other stunt, as supposedly all entrances to the sewage system were monitored by the Nodr. My only thought at that time was towards what kind of vengeance I would enact on Shenker... Then another thought ocured to me: if Shenker had indeed spoken of me and Hefr, he must have also spoken of my "house", if only I could remember what was the address I had given him... It is not easy to "own" a dozen houses throughout the city and remember whom I told of which... Was the the one Keol (West) of the Gyera Chano (prostitution neighbourhood), or the one smack dead in the centre of the Yuroi Chano (medical and pharmaceutical)...