A Calculated Descent
Dan Schneider looked down at his packed suitcase. Why had he done this? Had he gone too far? No. This was necessary. This was what he was meant to do since the beginning...years of planning. Decades of anticipation. All for this. He picked up his suitcase and rushed out of is penthouse apartment. Into the busy streets of LA and frantically got into the driver's seat of his rusted, lemon tinted 1970 AMC Gremlin. He planted his rump into the leather driver's seat and started the car. He put the pedal to the metal and raced down the roads at top speeds. He was speeding but it be no matter if they try and pull him over. He had nothing left to lose. He didn't even use his brakes until he finally reached the countryside. He parked in the middle of a field and planted his face into his hands. He was in over his head. He looked up from his hands, through his windshield and saw the star filled night sky. "Night?" he asked allowed, he hadn't even noticed the change...how long had he been driving? Where was he? He didn't know the answer to any of these questions. All he knew is that he had to keep moving. He went down the road again, slower this time. He Wouldn't want to attract attention after all...the truth was too terrible for anyone to stomach...anyone but him. Mr Schneider. He decided he would turn on the radio to see if anyone had caught on, with a flick of the wrist, Dan switched it on, "Police still have more questions than answers," Dan smiled, so far, he was in the clear. "We still have no Idea why Dan Schneider has done such a despicable act of…" The switched it off. He continued down the road until he noticed the stench. The horrible smell...for a moment, he questioned qhat it might be...until he remembered the obvious answer which lie within his trunk. He continued driving for hours, until the smell and guilt became unbearable. He stopped at a small countryside corner store. He walked into the shop and looked around...it was empty. Not a soul, except of course for the elderly man behind the counter, who smiled at him, receiving no such smile in return. "How can I help you sir? I feel I should tell you we'll be closing soon." Dan slammed down a pack of cashews and an air freshener unto the counter. "How much?" the clerk smiled, "Sixty nine cents." He said contently. Dan, after putting some coins on the counter, looked back up at the clerk...he was making it clear he wasn't in the mood for conversation. "Getting a little stuffy in the car?" asked the old man with a slight chuckle, attempting to lighten the mood, again to no reply. "Getting any rain your way?" he asked with a slightly nervous smile, Dan, now trying to contain his fury said aloud, "What way would that be?" The man replied, "I saw from your plate you're from Los Angeles?" Dan looked out the window at his car which held more horrors than then a man would see in a thousand lifetimes, Schneider, was forced to take control of the situation. "What business is it of yours where I'm from friendo?" The man was clearly caught off guard, "I'm sorry sir I really am, I didn't mean nothing by it." Dan took a stride closer to the counter, looking down at the man, "You didn't mean nothing by it?" The old man, clearly taken off guard, took a step back and shuttered, "Well sir, I apologize. If you don't wanna except that I don't know what else I can do for you." Dan stood there, towering over the frail old man, staring at him. He began eating his cashews. "Will there be something else?" the old man asked, "I don't know. Will there?" Dan replied without expression. "Is something wrong?" the old man asked, leaning in sympathetically. Dan, growing impatient replied, "With what?" The old man leaned in even closer, showing all of his empathy, "With anything?" Dan, just for a second considered telling him everything. About what he had done...what he had become, but just as fast as those thoughts entered his mind they left. The old man, left without a reply, said again, "Will there be anything else?" Dan had enough. "You already asked me that." The old man was clearly uncomfortable, "I have to close the store now si-" "What time do you got to bed?" Interrupted Dan. The man, clearly not following asked, "Sir?" Dan was done playing games, "A bit deaf aren't you? What time do you go to bed?" The man didn't understand but answered, "Around 9:30...Why?" Dan's expression was dead, "I could come back then." The old man tilted his head and squinted, "Why would you do that? We'd be closed?" Dan pulled out a quarter, "How much have you ever lost on a coin toss?" The old man was surprised by the change of subject, "Why...I don't know I don't remember." Dan flipped the coin and let it collide with the countertop, he then covered it with his hand. "Call it." The man was confused,"Call it?" Schneider nodded, "Yes." The man looked down at Dan's hand, covering the coin, "For what?" Dan replied, "Just call it." "I didn't put anything up?" The man said, struggling to come to grips with the situation. Dan scoffed, "Yes you have! Your whole life you've been putting it up you just didn't know it so now call it." The man looked back up at him, "I need to know what I'm standing to win here." Dan looked at him square in the eye, letting the blackness fill his mind, "Everything." the man's breathing deepened, "How's that?" Dan looked back it him with the utmost intensity. "You stand to win everything. Now call it." The old man, now sweating, and letting the millions of possibilities flow through his mind answered. "Heads" The man said, "I call heads." Dan, for the first time in a long time, cracked a smile. "All right! Heads then!" He picked up the coin and looked at it… "Oh...lucky day." Dan said with a newfound smile stretched across his face. The old man sighed, "Oh thank god!" The showrunner tilted his head in confusion, "Now why would you say that?" The man's celebration was cut short, "I thought that-" Dan interrupted, "Lucky day for me. Not you friendo…" He lept over the counter. Before a scream could escape the man's mouth, Dan dislocated his elderly jaw bone with a single bone crushing wallop. The man collapsed to the floor, twitching and moaning in pain. The great and powerful Dan unleashed a powerful stomp which severed the old man's torso. Blood spilled all over the musty tiles as the man's now exposed spinal cord spasmed and spirited it's contents all over schneider's glutenous face. Not long after, Dan was driving, now content with the evergreen aroma which now filled his vehicle. It would mask it...but not for long.
Dan continued his travels, booking it down the country roads towards an uncertain future. He looked down the seemingly endless pavement path, pondering what, if anything, this new world had in store for him. But then...it slowly began to fade to black, Dan's eyes were growing heavy with exhaustion. He broke jumped and came back into consciousness. He knew he could not last much longer, not without sleep. Just as this thought entered his twisted mind, a motel came into view. "Perfect." He said aloud as he made all 1.5 tonnes of his vehicle search into the parking lot of the motel. He hasrilly exited the vehicle and locked the door behind him. He entered the motel's office and, with heavy footsteps, brought himself to the front counter. An attractive young woman stood there and looked up from her book to bless the villainous Dan with a soothing smile. Schneider stopped for a moment, just to admire the angelic qualities of the woman who now stood before him. Her smile was like that of a mother's; Caring...kind...and full of mercy. Her seemingly endless black hair was contrasted by her pale skin and deep blue eyes, eyes which saw straight through Dan's sin and saw the person who was buried beneath. Dan knew, however, that should she know the truth, if she knew what he had become...her reaction to his presence would not be of kindness, but of dread. "Hello...I want a room for the night." She looked in her book and finally looked back up at him with an even more inviting smile, "Alright sounds good, what's your name?" Dan smiled back at her, "My name is Dan S-" he stopped himself, that was close. Too close. "My name is Dan Snolo...populous…" She smiled and wrote it down in the books, "Greek huh? Me too!" She laughed as she shut the book and looked up at him again, "So what brings you here tonight mr Snolopopulous?" Dan started to sweat...he had to play it cool. "FISHING!" he said just a little too loud. The woman seemed to be caught a little off guard but in the end she returned to her smile, "Ah yes, get a lot of fishermen around these parts. You're in room 8...you want a cookie?" she motioned to a plate full of homemade chocolate chip cookies on the hard oak desktop, Dan nodded and took one, then looked at the wall behind the woman and saw a crucifix hanging there. The woman then turned to see where Dan's gaze had lead to, "Are you religious?" Dan said with a tired rasp, the woman turned back to him quizzically, "Why yes I am, catholic, born and raised." she flashed him yet another grin, "You?" He gave her an empty look, "No. I don't believe in such things." She raised an eyebrow to insinuate her disbelief in this statement, "Is that so?" she said with a chuckle. "See what I've seen and you'd know there is no God." Dan replied with a groan, "I'm sorry woman. I really am...but there is no force of good or force of right...only evil." The woman touched Dan's now quivering hand. Her satin-like touch contrasted his cracking digits, "See what I see, and you know that can't be true…" She smiled up at him with the brightest eyes, "And I'm no woman...I'm 17." That's when everything went tits up. Dan, using his laser eyes, disintegrated the desk which divided the two. The young lady screamed and fell back, looking up at the schneider who hung over her, eyes looking like pools of hellfire. "Another for my collection!" He screamed sinisterly as he pulled out his revolver. The girl got up and raised her arms defensively, backing towards the door slowly, "Your name...it isn't Snolopopulous at all...you're Dan Schneider isn't you?!" Dan cackled, "Yes child...but do not fret...soon you will be with the others…" Dan fired a single shot at the girl, hitting her in the centre of her chest. She fell hard unto the tiles and lay still. Dan then dragged her surprisingly heavy carcass towards his Danmobile, but...as he was preparing his buzz saw, the girl stood up. And removed the bulletproof vest. Dan turned when he heard it hit the pavement in disbelief…"What...are you?" The girl smiled, "Not what...Who." she said as she removed her flesh mask, "I'm Chris Hansen with dateline NBC and we are doing a special report on child predators...more specifically...on you Dan." Dan's jaw hit the fucking floor. "Goodbye you sick fuck...we got you." Chris Hansen, using his fabled cybernetic enhancements, peeled the skin off of Dan Schneider like a banana. It was not long until police scoured the scene. "Mr. Hansen!" an officer said as he ran towards him, "What was he hiding in there?" Chris opened the trunk of the Gremlin, and immediately regretted his decision. There were feet. Severed and coated in dry blood, all within the interior of the trunk. Chris jumped back, and vomited, as did most of the police force, all save one . ASAC Hank Schraeder, who marched up to Hansen. "What on God's green earth was his motive?" asked Hank as he lit his cigar. Chris, still spilling his guts, had a difficult time replying, "In all my years...I have never seen a case such as this...he was doing this...out of his lust for sure, he always was unstable but...there was something...else with him. A force possessed him...those eyes...that power...something must have entered his mind and pushed him over the edge...but what?" Hank grimaced...something wasn't right. '"Thank you Chris...I have to make a call." Hank ran away from the crowds and pulled out his cellphone, eagerly punching in a number, "Nick...we got Dan… but something else is afoot here...we may have to assemble…"