Pulvis Et Umbra Sumus
"We are but dust and shadows."
-Horace
I hate this town…
Bare feet felt what little cold they dared and inform their master of said chill beneath tread. The tiled floor left a thin film of dirt on pale soles with each step. The janitor had decided to smoke half a pack of Marlboros and share a few laughs with the rest of the maintenance staff. The smoke pit was so far away, new smoking regulations a real 'pain in the ass' for a nicotine addict. The floors didn't look that bad. He'd mop tomorrow.
The filth beneath his feet only went ignored due to the ambiance of the hospital in the dead of night. A think tank that struggled with thought. Somewhere in the distance and dark were cries and whimpers. Desperate souls…some of which he would free with surgical instruments. The orbitoclast in his grasp scraped its sharp edge against a door as he passed. It called out to them, like a lover in the dark. They would join the ranks of many…soon. It made him sick how ungrateful they were that he chose them to be part of man's ascent. Well, his ascent… man would follow later.
Lazy… Worthless… Worms… And their king entertains me today. A shame a bird doesn't pick him off…
Another step and greyed dead stars observed the man striding to the left. Dr. Jimenez, the plagiarizing moron himself, babbled on and on. Balding and sporting a lab coat, he had been a nervous wreck since Victoriano's arrival. Endless questions about why the need to come to the hospital and… 'Were the test subjects not satisfactory?'
Of course they weren't. They had been fruitless outside of a few morbid laughs. More dead ends, wasted time, and corpses to dump.
Marcelo had even dared to ask…if he required more.
From beneath his cowl, the thirty-five year old Ruvik hardly bothered or even wished to hide his disdain for such awkward questioning. The razor sharp blade of his orbitoclast glided along another door, causing a screech to erupt from within the cell. It provoked a cruel grin on his face. "I might." A sly hue filled the cowl draped man's features. It might just be you this time, Marcelo… Perhaps he'd even entertain himself with something vaguely amusing: making the man lose control of his bowels…and then force Marcelo to eat his own feces before ending his torment.
It's just the beginning of what this fraud deserves…
Perhaps it had been Ruvik's stance when they stopped, skull almost seeming heavy and a hungry for more stare—akin to feeling like the prey staring down the jaws of an impending predator. Dr. Jimenez adjusted his tie with a quick glance toward one of the barred doors. "Well, I suppose I could let one more go for now…"
"You suppose? Did my check not cash?" That was Ruvik's barbed hook to keep Marcelo's cheek aching and bleeding so long as the two dealt with one another: money. Ruvik…had plenty of it. Marcelo couldn't spend the checks fast enough: for his hospital or Ruvik's demand for more warm bodies some days.
"Well…Of course it did, Ruvik! I…I'm just hesitant to give you this one. We can check across the hall for another…" The balding man's left hand lifted to rake over a thin hairline as the younger man looked almost intrigued. "Her parents are…"
"Well connected?" Stepping around the doctor, Ruvik peered in between the bars. A challenge was always something that secretly thrilled him. The dank air greeted the scarred man's nostrils, causing them to flare. His gaze was greeted with the sight of a woman's form sleeping under a thin wool blanket in the bed. The darkness of the room did him no favors, her outline dim at best.
She turned over, brunette hair unfurling with a sleepy sigh. In the dark, it appeared black. White gauze draped a wrist. Her soft features were aesthetically pleasing enough… However, it was her nose and mouth that stirred something in him. Almost a perfect match…
Like Laura's…
His breath mutely hitched. Traces of cold greeted his hands, nails digging against the metal of the door. He wanted nothing more but to slip under the door and crawl into the twin sized bed with her, fantasize about Laura and her long hair. So many stormy nights she hugged him as they slept warm in his bed when they were young. Ruvik could make due with a cramped bed and strange woman. This was all for his sake and sanity anyway…as long as he gazed upon her lips...
Dr. Jimenez just had to bring him back to the shithole that was reality. "No… They're… They're friends of my brother and me. She was admitted last night for a suicide attempt. Her name is Juli." Woman's life story dumped right into Ruvik's scarred palms to squeeze the life and weep the blood out of. Marcelo played a piss poor hand.
It was really why he was Ruvik's favorite to haggle with. A faint smile slipped over the younger man's lips as he continued to stare. He thought of her with longer hair and in a red dress. Not just any red, the red that bled out of two weak and worthless apes that couldn't protect them. Would he dare ask her to dance on their graves with him? He hardly knew her…other than she loathed this existence about as much as he did. That was enough for now. She was just dark enough to be his Laura. Just enough for him to pretend for a day or two… That was all he needed. Then he'd get back to work. "I want her." He spoke so softly, almost fondly… No, almost… longingly?
Laura…
Whatever that sound was in Ruvik's voice, it made the doctor hovering nearby ill. Marcelo frowned deeply, hands up in protest. "I cannot, Ruvik."
His fantasy of 'Ring around the Rosy' on the graves of filthy vermin was shattered. It brought on the coil of angry flame licking out of an already burned out black heart. The heir to the Victoriano fortune leered sidelong at the other man, surgical tool occasionally flicking light off its edge as he rotated it between impossibly long fingers. "Why?" The word almost boomed from his scarred and pale throat. He was eight again, and that Laura doppelganger was the puppy in the window. Marcelo had worn Ruvik's patience enough by being an insufferable bastard who held him back every chance he got.
Then would steal my work…
"Because… Ruvik… I promised them that I would treat her and have her returned home promptly. She… She's their only daughter; there is nothing we can gain from her toward our goals. She is quite normal from my assessment, just put under stress from school and a failed relationship." Marcelo worried his hands, a verbal court jester trying to appease his king before it was off with his head.
Ruvik settled onto the heels of his feet, passively studying the other man from the shadows of his hooded coat. Silence was a powerful tool. It was an 'off with his head' kind of day anyway. Marcelo publishing his research and now flaunting a toy that Ruvik wanted to play with. Yet, Ruvik was not allowed to play with it. He'd light Marcelo on fire without a second thought at this point if the man continued to push his luck. "You will hand her over…or I tip off that idiot cop that's snooping around. After she crucifies you…" He took one step toward Marcelo, voice low and dangerous. "I will make you feast on that graying matter mess you know as your brother's brain."
Silence swallowed the space between the two.
Dr. Jimenez paled. Adam's apple dipping as he swallowed hard, the aged man yielded in the dark of that hallway. "Okay… Okay, she'll…she'll go to you. I'll have the proper arrangements made…" A final thought crossed his mind. "Ruvik, please don't hurt her. She's all they have."
A deep sigh was followed by sagging shoulders as Victoriano's heir glanced back between the divide in the bars. "I won't." His stare returned forward. "After I am bored with her, I'll return her intact. The estate is big enough to keep her from seeing my work."
Jimenez had never looked so relieved. He was…utterly confused by the sudden infatuation with a woman who… He just couldn't ponder it. Ruvik was a mess, terrifyingly rich and powerful. It was best to just keep him happy. If he wasn't going to bring harm to the girl… No point in arguing.
"I expect twenty test subjects in return for my charity, Marcelo." Ruvik was already strolling away from the doorway, continuing on the path they were previously navigating.
"O-Of course! Anything you want, Ruvik." The aging dark haired man was once again all business, dollar signs in his eyes.
Ruvik looked forward to the day he could watch the man pluck those white orbs out of his own skull. Then eat them.
The modified orbitoclast spun lazily between his fingers.
I seem to want Marcelo to eat many vile things before he dies… Oh well, it's insignificant. I have…a new addition to my collection of prizes.
His little grin could not be sank the rest of the visit.