A lot of people would go so far as to say the city Legion, Wisconsin is a dark cesspool. The sort of hive of scum and villainy that is a mobster's paradise. Drugs on every corner there wasn't a prostitute. Schools that turn out as many addicts as they do graduates; and twice that in whores. A girl who's still a virgin by 12 is looked at as saintly. By the time she graduates high school her girlfriends probably saw to her deflowering, either by intoxication or other less scrupulous methods, just so that she wouldn't have the glow of moral superiority about her. The mayor eats out of the local Mafia leader's palm, and if we are being honest here, a clearer sign of the corruption is that there is even a local, publicly recognized, Mafia leader Ms. Justine De Saville.
About the only good thing that can be said about Legion, while the police are being fed treats out of the Mob's pockets like dogs, at least they aren't racist mongrels. Which is to say black lives matter... as little as anyone else's life.
Alice slumped against a wall, her back sliding along it. Her letterman jacket caught upon the brick of the wall behind her and in doing so started to bunch up. This binding started to lift up her shirt exposing her midriff, and some vulnerability. This was not a look meant to attract others; or, one meant to be cute. This was a look of absolute defeat. Her boyfriend had dumped her just 30 minutes ago for being "inexperienced," and he hadn't been gentle about it. Alice looked up at the sky and wondered for a moment if this could get any worse.
"Hey Babe, heard you…" it was Beth, things had just officially gotten worse. Beth would not be able to understand. How could she? Beth loved sex. She had her own little Harem of partners; some of which, were actually couples. "Oh, Alice, did he force you?" She sounded worried and Alice looked up.
The concern on Beth's face was easy to read, she rarely hid her feelings. If she was hungry, she didn't hide it, and, if she could, she would go eat. If she was horny, she'd grab her nearest playmate at the first opportunity, drag them off somewhere private, and have a go at them. When she found a bully, she got a look in her eye that was not very far off from, what Alice imagined, an Orca had when it spotted prey. Beth loved Orcas, and even said she felt a special bond to them.
She looked into those dangerous, predatory eyes, and she knew if she said Tim had raped her that he would turn up to school the next day, a bloody mess of bandages, muttering about falling down some stairs to anyone who asked. Beth was the predator who fed on predators; top of the school food chain.
Everyone assumed the normal price for her protection was putting out for her. Alice knew that wasn't true. Beth would do this for anyone who came to her. Beth treated bullies like her beloved killer whales treated seals.
"He didn't rape me...he just...dumped me because I wasn't good at it." Alice was resigned to the fact that the worst of her negative thoughts against Tim needed to be let go despite it feeling good to hate him; letting them out in a sigh to float away. The primal hunter that was Beth lessened its grip on her friend. As if something inside her friend was drifting away, back below the surface of her thoughts, returning to sleep until called for once more. That aspect of her friend had always unnerved Alice. It was as if Beth were somehow two people, and one of them was dangerous. Tim, for now at least, wasn't going to need to doctor to put Humpty Dumpty back together. Though that deadly predator was swimming around in her friend's thoughts still close enough to come if it caught the scent of blood in the water again.
Beth reached down and plucked Alice up from her despaired slump. For Alice's part, she tried to do the work herself and not let the other girl take all the weight, but Beth was stronger than she looked. How she could easily lift the more athletic girl when she was possessed of a lighter build that was all allure and little substance was puzzling. Beth was all ample soft curves with a figure like an hourglass "Babe you are too good for this world." The words that flowed from Beth were gentle, soft words that echoed concern for the girl. "You shouldn't be afraid to let your friends help you when you're hurting." She rested a hand on Alice's shoulders. "You remember the 6th grade when you moved in?"
Alice nodded softly.
"You remember how that girl was picking on you because she thought you were trying to steal her boy?" She looked into the eyes of her friend, that cold predator look creeping back in at the memory.
"Yes I do. She attacked me during lunch, pinned me with my back to a table, and was clawing at my face when suddenly she was sprawled out." She looked at Beth and a small laugh built in her throat. "You caught her off guard and made her roll over so her…" The laugh came. "Legs were in the air and she was flashing the whole school. She must have died of embarrassment." Alice looked at her friend, before touching Beth just in front of the ear on her face where a scar was. "When you offered to help me up I was afraid. I thought you would hurt me by accident, you almost looked like a giant in my eyes back then."
Beth smiled, and pulled her friend into a hug. "I'll always be there for you. You're like a lighthouse, shining so bright, I won't let anyone take away your light." Alice felt her breath catch in her throat at her friend's words, then Beth's eyes lit up as she saw a boy go walking by a plan had just formed in that dangerous predator brain of hers.
"Hey Jeff, you know Alice right?" She wrapped an arm around him and pushed him to Alice. "She needs a shoulder to cry on and some arm candy to make Tim jealous." She grinned. "You be a good gentleman for my Alice and I'll reward you later." She slapped him on the ass before leaning in close to whisper something in his ear that had him going from mildly red to a shade of maroon. She leaned into Alice and smiled. "I punched Jeff's Vcard myself. He's a good boy, I've done my best to keep him that way. Though I should warn you he's a bit...obedience trained."
"What? Wait? Your...I'm not looking for a rebound guy!" Alice's flustered voice trilled in the air.
"I know that, Jeff knows that, You know that. What matters is...Tim doesn't know that." Beth reached out and gave her friend a gentle pat on the head.
"Yeah but...he's...I mean you...I don't know if I want a gim…"
Jeff sighed and extended a hand out cutting her off right there, "In my own defense she meant my home life...well..let's just say I…"
Beth sighed. "He's completely whipped. He comes when called, sits up, begs on command. There are performing animals that don't have his response time to commands." She looked at her friend then at her Jeff. "It's why I trust him with you, because I know when I say be a perfect gentleman and be eye and arm candy for you, that's all he will do. No pressuring you to put out, no expectation of any affection outside of holding hands in public. He will carry your books for you, open doors, the whole chivalry deal. You want a ride to school? Just give him a shout and he'll pick you up and drive you here. Hell, he'll even open your doors for you like you're a princess." She smiled to Alice. "He will treat you right."
"What will this cost me?" Alice sighed, looking at Beth, knowing that one of the Harem Queen's personal lovers couldn't be free. They weren't that good of friends. Even if it was as a fake boyfriend.
"Oh, don't worry about that, I'm going to take care of that payment a bit later." She smiled and touched her friends bangs, brushing them away for a second. "I'd consider it a favor though, if you took Jeff here on a nice date, maybe let him take you to a dinner and movie."
She hesitated and looked at Jeff than back at Beth. "What movie?" She shivered already afraid of what sleazy film it could be that even Beth didn't want to go.
"That new Star Wars one." She said as Jeff perked up like a little puppy who's favorite treat got mentioned. "You know I don't like Sci-fi movies, but I know you do Alice." She smiles cunningly. Somehow Alice couldn't help but feel like she was played.
The man ran down the alley, the girl's blood still on his junk from the moment she became a woman. Currently he was attempting to escape the sharply dressed man in a black suit, blood red shirt, and red and black striped tie. The pursuing man's wingtips were shockingly silent on the pavement, A black John Bull style top hat was perched upon the persuers head, staying perfectly in place without need of any assitance, which shouldn't have been possible but what confused him more was the scythe. A man with a scythe running down the street chasing another should have provoked some sort of reaction from those observing. A gun waved about would have, the thug thought wondering about this matter, How could it be that with so many people on the street no one saw the gleaming silver blade that looked ready to slice him open, or the well polished and loved, dark red brown of the cherrywood handle on that thing? Were they too enamored with it's beauty to know it was deadly? Did they think they they were actors for a film shoot? Or was everyone somehow blind? It just didn't make sense. It was impossible for people to see a weapon and not react to it, or show fear, or be leery of it yet everyone they passed acted like they didn't see anything. No matter how you look at it; top hats do not cling to heads so you can hold a big weapon in two hands while you run full speed. Also, scythes on a city street are not normal!
When he turned around to see if he was still being followed, he let out a sigh of relief. It seemed like he lost the nut job with the scythe so he slowed his pace. When he turned back around, though, he sucked in his breath. Somehow the man was the scythe was in front of him already mid-swing. The blade cut through the air slicing into the calf muscle of his leg his leg before pulling him off balance. He looked up into the man's eyes. "Please… Don't kill me."
Those words had lost all meaning to John and leaned into his captured quarry. "Where did you get it?" He held up a small strip of paper maybe three inches long, by an inch and a half wide pulled from the external pocket of his suit jacket. By the way he held it, and the fact he carried it as far him himself it was clear it deeply offended him. It had something written in Chinese, or some other weird language from Asia on it in red and black ink, with a strange pattern of and curved lines that formed a border for the weird text and a circled star up at the top of it that finished off the weird decorations in traditional asian brush strokes. To the eye of anyone in the know it looked like some sort of asian prayer strip or paper talisman that a buddhist monk or local traditional priest might use. Only John knew better, he had been encountering these, the most dangerous things on the streets these days; The Virgin Cure. A panacea for venereal disease that cured nothing, it merely transferred the corruption into an innocent; if such a thing existed in Legion. The magic in this paper made him feel unclean just for touching it.
"The Chinese market! Madam Yow's" The thug whimpered in fear looking at the scythe carrying killer.
John laughed so hard and so empty that, that the street thug knew that he was looking at none other than the grim reaper. The tone gave him a clear clue this man was someone who and killed enough that it had started to weigh upon his soul. The reaper didn't find what was said funny; the thug had heard laughs like that before, from long time hitmen who had been at it for too long. The reaper's sanity was fraying, making him even more dangerous.
John swung his scythe in a fluid horizontal stroke embedding the perfect silver blade into into a brick wall just close enough to the man's throat that it gave both comfort and threat in the same breath. Comfort that he wasn't going to use it, threat that he could change his mind. His eyes burned with a barely controlled hate as he pulled a cigarette from his suit coat's inner pocket and flicked it at the man, who picked it up in confusion. "So Madam Yao's, that's the first lead I've had in weeks. I'll give you a reward for that. For now, you realize that you transferred that cocktail of shit that was rotting you from the inside out, into a twelve year old girl, right?" His voice held a cold calm malice that reminded the thug of the gleaming silver blade less than a foot away from him. "How long did you have left?" John knew one thing about this so called cure, that the good Madam had only been selling it to people who were going to die.
"One month or so." The thug muttered, taking out a lighter and trying and failing at sparking it. He paused and looked at the reaper. "Did you say transferred?" He looked mildly put off before going back to his lighter trying to summon the flame from the cheap convenience store light, "So that girl…" He didn't really care at all. He was just more following the conversation to save his own skin from the blade inches from him.
"Whom now has only the time you had left." The reaper said, as the shit shaped like a human being looked at his scythe again, while the lighter still failed to produce a flame no matter how hard he tried.
There is an elegance to the blade that is cleaned polished, and sharpened so well that it shines silver and pure. The way it contrasts the dark cherrywood of the haft yet is so effortlessly complimented by it. There was a level of class represented here. It felt the degree of class people don't expect any more, like dressing for dinner or calling people sir or ma'm. Death as a sharp dressed stranger with a classy scythe to take your soul. It is Godfather level class, and respect. It was very posh he couldn't help but to think and more than a low level street thug like him deserved.
"OH? You've been eyeing my scythe for a while. No need to worry about that thing. I am forbidden from taking the souls of humans with it." The man sparked the flame on his lighter and gasped as it exploded on him burning him and consuming him. The mage compelled the flames to consume him, raising their temperature from hot enough to light a smoke to hot enough to cremate a body. The last words his victim would with mortal ears were "Finally. Enjoy your all expense paid trip to hell."
John couldn't create fire from nothing but tricks like this made it much more fitting. Thug's actions sealed his fate by making the flame for him. It was simple enough magic to bolster the flames and make them do his bidding, consuming the target with their own deeds. Poor bastard didn't believe magic really existed till he needed it, then he got his hand on this foul thing and on a hope and prayer used it. He thought it would be just what it was called; a cure. True he was cured but the sacrifice took that poison on herself without even knowing it. John spat on the ground as the flames started to die.
"I'm going to reap the bitch for making this magic. Then I'm going to rip her soul apart for selling it to scum like you. Then I'm going to have to find a way tell my clients their kids weren't just raped, they were the victims of vile magic." John felt the rage fade a little. Harming kids, using magic to do careless harm, these things anyone would be mad about but explaining that magic was what put those kids in hospice? Telling parents their kids would die because of magic? He looked at the burnt ashes that were once a Mafia thug then up at the sky searching for some sign on how to proceed. He closed his eyes and slipped away into the shadows to vanish back home, where there was something to drink to take his mind away from this.
Alice had to admit Jeff wasn't so bad, it had been a few weeks already and she was getting rides to school, homework help, and a chance to see every sci-fi, and comic book movie that had come out. Jeff it turned out was a bit of a Class A Gentleman and a chef. They were on their weekly 'date', tonight he had cooked a wonderful lemon chicken stir fry for her, and she had enjoyed the movie and now that she had a moment to think she thought about keeping him for a boyfriend of her own.
She excused herself from his company to use the toilet, that would give her time to really think about what was going on. That was part of what people used the bathroom for, right, thinking? She pondered to herself as she perched upon the porcelain throne. That's when she felt the pain it was like razor blades slashing through the sensitive flesh of her genitals. The agony made her scream so hard she thought her throat would burst. She grabbed a handful of toilet paper and gingerly dabbed at herself and looked in horror at the grey pus and thick tainted blood on the white paper. Apparently Tim had given the gift that keeps on being given, some form of STD. She looked down at herself and watched frozen as before her eyes as lesions formed in the skin on her groin at impossible speed. Sickly yellow and grey pus oozed out of her body leaking into the bowl below her, contaminating the water. She grabbed up paper and stuffed it against herself pulling on her clothes she had to get out of there. She had to get help, this couldn't be happening to her, it happened to girls who slept around, not good girls like her. Fear filled Alice as she her body filled with taint. There was ooze pouring into her insides from ulcerations that were forming in her most intimate parts, and once it built up it would gush out of her.
She staggered out of the bathroom, the pain ripping through her flesh made walking almost intolerable, each step brought so much pain in her womanhood, her legs wanted to give out. She collapsed after three steps outside the bathroom door and tilted her head up seeing Jeff, who had come running at her scream. Her vision blurred for an instant, everything nearly went black from a new wave of pain bursting out from deep inside her as toxic taint built up inside of her burning to get out and send lances of pain up her spine.
Her voice was a raspy stammer as her mouth went dry her guts hurt as they clamped down in response to the trauma and the feeling as if someone had shoved broken glass into her womanhood. She reached a hand up to him, gripping the leg of his pants with only her willpower allowing her to move for the simple comfort of holding herself up. The steady stream of tainted fluids flowed from the burning lesions inside of her was soaking through the paper she had put there to keep them in check, soiling her pants and starting to leak upon Jeff's floor. She could barely form the word that came out of her next. "Help." The stain left by her corrupted body turning the carpet a rancid color. All she could think about outside of the pain was how she was damaging Jeff's home.