Hey guys, did ya miss me? No? Thought not.
In this chapter we are introduced to Mandy's relationship with her other friends Irwin and Junior, we get a glimpse at the real Endsville, and the nature of its people, and we have our first cameo appearances. Also my main OC is introduced. I won't say anymore at this point except he'll be a recurring character.
Here's chapter three. Hope you enjoy it. Remember, your reviews inspire me so please tell me what you think. Thanks.
Max.
Grim, Billy and Mandy walked the hour and a half journey to the ice cream shop in relative silence. Each of the three found contentment in their own private world, Billy smiling and thinking about dumb things, Mandy casually reflecting on her contempt for other people, Grim feeling a little bit sorry for himself for having met the two, all under the bright midday sun. Oddly enough the presence of the clear blue sky and the long walk did much to alleviate the brooding negativity and hyperactive idiocy the three tended to immerse themselves in, just as Grim had suggested they would. Together they made their way along the concrete footpath all the way in close to the city's centre, coming into a string of small shops, cafes and other small businesses.
Walking in through the front door they were glad to find the ice cream parlour had air conditioning as the outside air was hot with the summer day. Up behind the counter stood an average young, dopey looking casual worker with more pimples than skin. He held a look of utter boredom on his face that did much to prevent people from ever returning. For a moment Mandy wondered if any of his greasy pus had gotten into the ice cream, but quickly crushed that train of thought once she felt her stomach twist in revulsion. They had come here regularly for the past few months, and had once even bought their chubby green pestilence with them on their ill fated day spent with Grim prize. She'd managed to put aside her suspicions so far and she wasn't about to give in now.
"Hello, welcome to the Freezing Brain, what can I get you." His voice was as dull as they came. Inside part of Grim felt slightly sickened and heavily disparaged that not even the Grim Reaper, death incarnate himself, could shake up the creature's pathetic existence. Then again, this was Endsville, which was becoming known for not exactly being the average 'Anytown U.S.A.' it once was. Regardless of how bad it was, at least it wasn't Townsville.
"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! CHOCOLATE! ME WANTS THE CHOCOLATE, or as the French say, LE SHOKOLATE!" Billy started bouncing back and forth from one foot to the other.
"You know Billy, there are other tings dan chocolate mon." Grim tried to persuade the hopeless fool. "Why not try-"
"NO! No poisonberry. Ever!" Alas he was a lost cause.
"Billy it's not poison, it's…"
"Give me a large boysenberry." Mandy spoke with the dull edge of having been around Billy far too long. No matter how hard they tried, mainly Grim seeing as Mandy had long since given up, they could never get Billy to try anything outside his usual pallet, as diverse and disturbing as it most often was. As odd as Billy was though Grim had shown that he could himself occasionally match it.
"I'll have rainbow." Grim spoke. Billy sniggered while Mandy's eye twitched. She gave a sigh as she held the bridge of her nose.
"Grim, my respect for you, however limited it may have previously been, has just shot through the floor." Mandy muttered much to Grim's displeasure and Billy's amusement. Releasing her hand from her face she rolled her eyes towards the ceiling, remembering the peculiar nature of her relationship with the two. "Why can't I have better friends, someone else like me perhaps?" She asked herself.
The puss faced youth didn't seem to react or notice, his pimpled face staying a bored neutral as he scooped the desired flavours and dumped them on top of the cones, handing them over. Grim and Mandy payed seeing as Billy didn't know anything about money. But they didn't mind. He was usually in debt to Mandy for her continuing guidance in his life, handing over his allowance every weekend to her in exchange for her frequently bailing him out when he got himself up to his neck in trouble. Often she just told him to pay up and he would without fuss.
'And there's the beauty of befriending an idiot. I was wondering why I kept him around.' Mandy thought to herself.
The three sat down at one of the tables beside the front window. Grim and Billy chowed down on their semi-frozen treat, Grim not having to worry about the dreaded pain of brain freeze due to the lack of a brain, his consciousness spread throughout his entire skeleton and cloak. Billy however had no such invulnerability. Neither of his friends told him to slow down, not that it had made a difference when they did on previous occasions, and due to the lack of warning…
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
Billy screeched in pain, grasping his searing head in his hand as he ploughed it violently into the table.
"BRAAAAIIIINNN FREEEZZZZE! THE PAIIIINNN! MAKE IT STOP! OH MAKE IT STOP!" Turning from the table he hammered his forehead up against the glass repeatedly until large cracks spread across its surface. Mandy grabbed him by the back of his collar and stopped him before he could break it, knowing she would end up paying for any damage he caused. She would be paying with his money but still the matter remained unchanged.
Mandy ate hers as it melted, savouring every sweet drop of the creamy delicacy as beside her Billy proceeded to make faces on the glass, pressing his lips against it and blowing out his cheeks, showing off the chocolaty interior of his mouth. Mandy and Grim turned to watch as several people outside retched at the horrible sight. Around the parlour the other few customers turned to show them a look of scorn.
She groaned to herself as the feeling of so many hostile eyes on them became more than she could bare. Mandy had long since become accustomed to being an outsider, scorned and looked upon with derision by the shallow people that made up the majority of the population. Their constant disdain and contemptuous sneers behind her back served to stoke the flames of her hatred, fuelling her lone wolf lifestyle of brooding darkness, power and vengeance. Currently though the combination of the obnoxious stares of the other patrons and the irritating slurping noises of Billy's mouth on the glass made her feel lethargic and even slightly sick. With a heaving sigh she rose to her feet.
"Let's get outta here."
Billy threw down the last of his ice cream as Mandy yanked him by the collar up out of his seat, Grim following the two out the glass front door back into the summer heat.
Just across the road was a park, a long field of open green grass, trees and footpaths. It was a deceptively optimistic front however, a bright and leisurely façade for a society slowly collapsing under the weight of its people. Behind it rose the cluster of skyscrapers at the centre of Endsville, where the corporate executives, accountants, sycophants and many of the upper-middle classes worked. As bright as the front provided by the park was, it could not hope to cover up the stark backdrop of corruption and greed that overshadowed the fit young people jogging and relaxing below. Whereas Mandy and Grim saw through the front easily, Billy was simply too ignorant to see the truth. He yanked out of her grasp and took off across the road, an act that caused one man to be hospitalised after going through the windshield of his car.
"Is it his time? Mandy asked looking to Grim. He took out his list from within his robe, scanning over it as he held his ice cream in his left hand.
"No, he'll live. It's us I'm worried about. We're around him every day."
They watched on as across the road Billy walked up to a large dog and bent down behind it to sniff its hind quarters, to which it was none too appreciative. The large beast snarled and bit him on the nose, thrashing him around and throwing him into the branches of a nearby tree.
Mandy deadpanned as she watched on. "You'd better go watch him."
"What about you?"
"I'll be around here, a safe distance away from the living weapon of mass destruction." She replied, reminded of how dangerous her friend could be. "No wonder Eris chose him for spreading chaos."
"Chaos! Where?" Eris cried as she appeared next to them in a golden flash, the Apple of Discord at the ready. Mandy pointed to Billy off in the distance, about to sniff another dog's rear end.
'Or is that a little horse?' She wondered quietly. The ensuing violence gave her the answer. 'Dog.'
Grim and Eris hurriedly crossed the street to watch over Billy while Mandy continued to lick at her now quickly melting ice cream.
Checking left and right across her shoulders she crossed once there were no cars, heading over to a park bench facing the skyscrapers in the distance. Walking along the green grass she took the time to gaze around her, studying her surroundings.
Here was the city of Endsville, a small metropolis situated in the heart of California, inland between San Francisco and Los Angeles, with a population of two million including the outlying suburbs. As far as cities went it was unimpressive, a regional centre of population with nothing in particular to offer the nation in the way of industry or skills. The city's economy was based largely on retail and mindless consumerism, with the majority of the middle class employed in customer service roles. There were only a few reasonable industrial works in the north of the city, the most prolific being warehousing and logistics, tended to by the lower class ethnic minorities that lived there. The town did however boast a number of manufacturing facilities and a chemical plant, in addition to the numerous utility works necessary for keeping the town habitable. The downtown sector directly ahead of her was home to several local insurance, banking, media and legal firms, few of which were of any importance on a national scale. Endsville's tallest building was the Endsville Central Tower, a gleaming sixty storey geometric office block home to several legal and financial institutions, and was the city's official heart.
Seated in the Central Tower, Endsville's local government, bureaucracy and other administrative bodies were commonly known as a model of just how corrupt and twisted a system could become due to the simple greed and pompous buffoonery of the mayor and those under his wing. Obscene levels of bribery took place every day between the wealthy industrialists in control of various parts and parcels of the city, and the bureaucrats whose duty it was to ensure they did their business responsibly. This inevitably resulted in dangerous levels of toxic pollutants entering into the people's environment, and many thousands of people being exploited, usually the lower class poor. Embezzlement was even worse. With so much public money being used to line the pockets of the wealthy elite, little was left over for actually maintaining the city. Yet most people simply didn't notice that the schools were falling apart or the potholes in the roads weren't being filled, preferring instead to gossip about their celebrity false idols.
The Endsville Police Department however was the worst of the worst. While they did the bare minimum of their job, policing the streets, attempting to solve crimes and feeding people into the revolving door legal system, that was where the similarity to honest police ended. Their ranks were made up of a mixture of seedy lying cockroaches and street thugs, and were themselves responsible for committing more murders and other violent life destroying crimes than they had ever solved or prevented. The force was responsible for a massive extortion racket. It was their job to ensure that the supply of dirty cash filtering down through the bureaucracy wasn't interrupted by anyone brave enough to stand up to them. This part of their job they carried out with brutal and remorseless efficiency, usually killing the person in question in addition to their families. All manner of criminal enterprise and organised crime was permitted within the cities boundaries, much of it sanctioned and endorsed by the police, so long as they received their cut of the profits.
Culturally the city showed off its twisted underbelly in almost every facet of daily life. Corruption at all levels was not only tolerated, it was expected as the norm. The violence and crime going on in the streets, workplaces and schoolyards went on without opposition. This debase set of standards had led the people here to become even more narrow-minded, arrogant and selfish than ever. Issues like poverty, the sorry state of the economy, or the ever growing ridiculous greed by the government didn't matter in the slightest to the vast majority, preferring something that entertained their more base instincts than something that would actually make them think. Prejudice and discrimination of all kinds was rampant and growing worse by the day, again caused by the same mentality of selfish small-mindedness and collective arrogance. A rigid caste system had developed over time due to the people of the different social classes ruthlessly crushing those below them in an attempt to further their own petty goals.
If any one saving grace could be found for the unsightly local culture, it was their unusual love of Halloween. The festival was held on several separate occasions each year. Aside from that however there was little to be found that could be considered appealing. Needless to say tourism was not a major industry.
In conclusion the city of Endsville was a malignant puss filled boil on the already pitted and scarred face of human civilisation.
Returning from her bleak muse Mandy focussed again on what she saw of the park in front of her. All the people here seemed to be the definition of beauty, young men and women with toned bodies, tanned skin and healthy builds. Part of her felt somewhat confused by this.
'Why are they putting so much effort into being fit and strong if underneath they're just as lazy and vain and shallow as everyone else?' She wondered as she took a seat on the bench, scrutinising the people around her with interest. 'And why do they all come here to exercise? They probably want to be stronger and more beautiful than everyone else, and come here to show off.' Her cynical thoughts were not unreasonable however as she could see many of them jogging with their heads held slightly higher than normal. Many of the women were clearly wearing cosmetics. She could almost feel their mocking derision and contempt for everyone else as they passed by her field of view. 'Why is everyone in this city a pompous jerk? Well, almost everyone.'
As per her thoughts the girl found herself graced with the presence of one of the few people she had any faint respect for. Unfortunately following on his footsteps came another person for whom she had absolutely no respect for whatsoever.
"Hey Mandy. You mind if I sit here with you baby?" Came Irwin's cooing voice, sending a shiver of disgust up the fiery young girl's spine. Beside him Junior stood watching the dorky dark skinned boy at work with a similar disdain mixed with all round apathy. "Come on honey, you know you want me. Don't you want me to hold your hand?"
"I'd rather hold your throat. Would you like that?" She responded calmly, sending him a harsh glare, as if he were a rat to a snake. For all his seedy desire he took the hint, backing away from her with his hands held up in defence nervously. "I thought not."
"Hello Mandy." Spoke the young pale skinned boy to Irwin's left.
"Hello Junior." She replied in a much less cruel tone, allowing him to step around to her side, taking a seat beside her where Irwin had hoped to sit. Junior payed her no particular interest as he sat beside her, just as she remained quiet and neutral towards him, the same quietly respectful interaction the two had shared for some time now.
Mandy's perception of the paranormal youth had changed greatly since they had first met at the winter camp months ago. Whereas originally she'd regarded him as nothing more than a dangerous mutant freak, a scientific oddity trying to masquerade as a human being, she'd since seen the error of such thoughts. Looking back she felt a simmer of shame at having considered him with such small-minded contempt. Since then Billy, Grim and her, and a very small number of their acquaintances had come to see him as he really was, a misunderstood young boy who simply wanted to live in peace. In fact she had allowed him into her tightly controlled inner sanctum of friends and acquaintances, provided that he not get too big for his boots like everyone else seemed to do at the first opportunity. They weren't particularly close friends, as shown by the fact they still occasionally found themselves rivals, but she enjoyed the restrained sort of company he gave her nonetheless.
Irwin was a different matter however. From out of the corner of her eye she thought she noticed him looking at Junior with a strange partly veiled hostility, more than likely jealous of him for being able to sit next to her whereas he could not. It disgusted her that he thought that way, that if he could not have the object of his desire, then it was wrong for anyone else to, as if she supposedly belonged to him. What's more she sensed his jealousy was strong, dangerously strong.
"So what are you guys doing today?" Junior asked in his particular accent.
"Nothing right now. We just came out here to get away from the house." She answered as Junior watched the crowd passing by. "We were watching a documentary about Nazi's and-"
"Oh yeah Nazi's, they're the greatest." Irwin answered in an attempt to impress Mandy. "Sieg heil! The Reich will rise yo!" He shouted, raising his arm in an enthusiastic Roman salute. He looked down, eager to see if he had impressed her. Instead he was alarmed to find her boring a hole in his face with her angry stare.
"Irwin, Nazi's are intolerant, hateful bigots and chauvinists, just like you. I loathe Nazi's and anyone like them."
"… Uhhhh…" Raising his hands in defence a film of sweat broke out across his face, partly fogging his glasses. "Yeah, me too baby. They're just… like… not us yo. I'm not-"
"Irwin, why don't you just go home. You're making yourself look really bad." Junior stated, urging the young boy with his hands still in the air to accept defeat and leave. Finding himself cornered Irwin flicked his eyes nervously back and forth between Mandy's angry stare and Junior's almost indifferent gaze. With a sigh he complied, turning to begin walking away, as defeated as his conceited friends at the end of the Second World War. Mandy relaxed her angry glower as she and her companion returned to the calm, quiet respect they shared between each other.
"Freak."
It had only been barely above a whisper but they heard it. The two turned around again to face him as he walked away. Pausing momentarily Irwin turned his face to look back to the green eyed boy and the pink clad girl. Though she held little more than disdain for the pathetic little fool, there was something in his face, some flash of malice in his smile and his stare that disturbed her. She kept looking to see what it was, but it was gone a moment later, Irwin turning away as he left their presence.
"Did you just… see…" She began, only to cut away. "Never mi-"
"Yes, I did." Junior responded grimly. Mandy turned to face him in interest as he lowered his features, a solemn grimace taking over his features as he thought about the boy. "He's been acting strange for a few days now, ever since he fully opened up his mummy-vampire abilities. He just seems… I don't know how to put it, a little bit different. I think that power's gone to his head. He's become more aggressive and arrogant than usual, especially around you." At this point however he relaxed back in his seat, his grave expression replaced by a carefree visage. "Don't worry, it shouldn't last long, he'll come back down soon enough. I wouldn't worry about it."
Though he played himself off as being calm Mandy saw through it. While Junior's face was relaxed she could still see the tension in his eyes, his hands at his sides also unusually taught. She knew it alarmed him the same way it had alarmed her. Irwin was already unreasonable in his relentless pursuit of her, almost to the extent of being deranged and unstable, and with his new strengths he could easily start to slide downhill. This she suspected was something that may have already begun.
There was something else in that momentary flash of malice that disturbed her however. The other thing she had noticed was how he had disrespected Junior with a particularly vicious hatred. Irwin hadn't called him a freak at a time when he was acting in an insane and dangerous manner as he had in the past but rather when he was perfectly stable and calm. He had venomously insulted him because he abhorred the fact that he was who he was.
It was these thoughts that led her to her next alarming realisation. As she looked out towards the sparse crowd of joggers, her gaze following her friends, she began to notice the people turning to stare in Junior's direction. She noticed one couple walking along, when the wife noticed them. She touched her partner's shoulder, talking to him as she pointed towards Junior. Watching her mouth move she could distinctly recognise the movements for the word 'thing', after which her husband began talking, wherein she picked up on the word 'abomination'. She and Junior watched as they both stared in open revulsion at the green eyed boy until they passed out of range a few moments later. This same pattern appeared again and aga-
"Hey, you're that freak Nergal Junior!" A boy a little older than them spat, standing beside their bench pointing at Junior. "My mom and dad were talking about you. You're a monster! You should just go and die! Why don't you just go get run over by a truck or something!"
Mandy openly gaped in shock and overwhelming outrage at the boy as another couple, presumably his parents came up behind him. "Hey mom, dad look! It's that freak Nergal Junior!"
"Yeah that's it my boy." The father said as he came up to tassel the boy's brown hair. "Heh heh! Now don't you get too close to it or it might bite."
"Can we kill it dad? Please?"
"No sweetheart, we'll let the thing go for now." His mother cooed softly as she put her hand on her son's shoulder affectionately. "It's the government's job to get rid of vermin like that. To be honest I'm surprised they haven't gotten rid of it already. They're probably waiting for the right time to strike."
"Yes, they may want to capture it so they can torture it and conduct all sorts of tests on it. Don't you worry though, someday that thing will get what it deserves for being such a monster, heh heh." The loving family smiled warmly between each other before turning to send Junior a horrific glower. Though it hadn't any effect at all on the seemingly apathetic Junior, staring blankly as the woefully bigoted family left, Mandy was out and out horrified and sickened by the display. She turned back to him gasping for breath, her eyes and mouth still wide in shock.
"Junior… What was that?" She stammered out, trying to keep the queasy feeling in her gut down.
"That is what happens when everyone finds out about me and what I am." He explained flatly. "It's been happening for about a week now, ever since they did that story Monsters Among Us on the news about me, people have just started glaring at me and calling me a monster and a freak whenever I walk by. Before now it was only a few people who knew who I was, but now that word has gotten out to the entire country about how I'm the son of a demon, everyone has started to hate me. I can't say I'm surprised. "
"But it's just so wrong! They can't treat you like this just because you're different!" Mandy cried in outrage. "Doesn't it make you so angry that they do this to you?"
"It does but what can I do?" Junior replied with a somewhat sombre note in his voice. "I can't prove to them that they're wrong about me because you can't reason with bigots, but I can't fight back because that would make me just as bad as them doesn't it."
"No! It doesn't! There's a difference between fighting back against people who constantly attack you and being a bigot like them!"
Junior remained quiet. In truth he hadn't really believed what he'd said from the beginning, but once again he came to the same problem. "There are six billion of them Mandy, and only one of me. Besides, why should I have to fight back against them? Why should their blind hatred concern me in the slightest? I'm better than them, and I don't need to be a stuck-up jerk to say that."
Mandy was actually somewhat surprised by his detached manor of speaking, seemingly indifferent to the people's despicable habits. He seemed to be in the midst of developing a calm, detached persona with which to simply become aloof to the people's ever increasing intolerance. In his face now she could sense a mild self-satisfaction, content that he was neither the abomination they said he was, nor affected by their petty, insignificant cursing of him. It was pride without arrogance, contempt without conceit. He even possessed a faint charm in his cool, detached manner, his half-lidded eyes visible under the green shaded glasses, a slight smirk of content on his lips.
'Hn, I didn't know people could be confident and proud without being pompous like that.' Mandy mused.
Gradually she recovered from the shock, returning to her ice cream to ease her raging heartbeat and her shaken mind. The stress eased its way out of her system, Mandy taking a deep breath as they returned to their quiet state regardless of the people's hateful glares. Craning his gaze to the sky above Junior squinted, shading his face with his hand against the hot sun.
"It's too hot out here." He spoke quietly, rising to his feet. "I'm gonna keep going. I'll see you later."
"Yeah, see ya." Replied Mandy as he left, leaving her alone once more.
Mandy sat alone for the next few minutes quietly eating her frozen luxury, brooding in her anger and hatred and other dark and negative emotions. She built her anger up and up, feeding it into the depths of her soul, painting her entire being with a deep darkness that hung around her in an overpowering cloud. From further down the park a yellow frisbee landed at her feet. A young boy a few years her senior wearing a white and black shirt with a bulky green watch ran towards her to retrieve it. When he had come within a few feet of her Mandy whipped around to look him straight in the eyes, piercing him with a spearhead of crushing intensity, her face set in a cold and foreboding scowl. Without having to utter a single word the youth froze, his appearance matching that of a rabbit caught between a car's headlights, eyes wide and skin draining of colour in terror. His breath still caught somewhere between his lungs and his lips he slowly backed away from her as she focussed all her anger and fury into his terrified eyes.
His friend, a girl about his age with orange hair and a blue shirt came up to him asking something along the lines of why he didn't get it. Mandy dismissed the two amateur heroes to return to her brooding torment, the air around her heaving and swirling on ionising negative fields, further charged by the girl's annoying condescending voice.
"Well? What is it that's messed up your empty little head dweeb?" She heard her probe obnoxiously again. The boy however was simply too distressed to answer, instead raising his hand to point shakily in her direction, his face still yet to regain any of its natural colour. Looking across to the girl sitting alone on the bench, the frisbee at her feet, she indignantly strode over. When she reached the same distance as her friend had, her finger raised as if about to give an irritating lecture, Mandy rolled her eyes across to stare her down. Just like her friend the older girl found herself caught within a spiralling vortex of malice and deep hatred, the merciless deathly stare of the girl sitting before her making her back away in terror, hiding behind her friend as they both turned and walked away unsteadily.
"Ben, I think I just saw my own death." Mandy heard the traumatised girl say
"Me too. Was it poisoned smoothies?" Her male counterpart replied.
"Uh huh." The girl's voice flittered halfway in and out of her mind. It wasn't that she had anything really against the two, at least no more than she had against everyone else, it was just after having seen what people thought of Junior, how they had heaped all their vile corruption onto him, she was set in a particularly bad mood. Now as the two left the vicinity she once again found herself alone in the comfortable stasis of her own presence, allowing her to resume building up her anger and hatred for the world.
Taking another few last seconds to focus her misanthrope and feed it into her inner furnace she finally relaxed, content that she had reinforced herself enough to continue her fight to enslave and destroy mankind. She continued eating the last of her melting ice cream, before devouring the cone. Mandy was satisfied to see that everyone else saw sense to keep a ten metre exclusion zone around her for fear of the deathly field swirling around her being, making them all feel like lambs before the slaughter. She saw fit to just sit back and simply enjoy the atmosphere of the day as best she could in the city of lowlifes, leaning back with her eyes to the ground.
'Perfect, just the way I like my people, living in fear of me.'
It was out of this peace where Mandy sensed she was not alone. She flicked her gaze up to watch the park before her, the sounds of the birds, the wind and the people fading out as she first picked up on the faint rhythmic sound of soft, slow footsteps on grass. She forgot about the world around her, focussing all her attention on the approaching sound as moment by moment the slow muffled rhythm of steps gradually became more pronounced, and she was able to discern that someone was approaching her from behind. Her eyes swivelled left to the edge of her vision as she listened to the sound, each step after step drawing her out. Her heart tensed and fluttered in anticipation as the hairs all over her body began to stand, as if sensing something was different.
The sound of footsteps became louder and louder as they came up to her from behind, before finally stopping. Mandy's breath stilled as she sat on edge. Casting her eyes down she could make out the dark shadow cast on the ground looming over her just next to her own, indicating that whoever had approached her now stood just over her left shoulder.
"Delicious isn't it."
Mandy frowned and turned in her seat to face the source of the young male voice, readying herself to mercilessly crush whoever had dared to intrude on her solace. Standing there looking down on her she found a boy about her age, with short blue-black hair combed up in a simple yet dignified short back and sides style cut, wearing a dark blue long sleeve button up shirt and pants. Studying him she noticed every part of his dark appearance was immaculate, right down to the black boots on his feet. His face was handsome and had a calm and sophisticated appearance. A kind, light-hearted smile graced his features, the type she'd seen on the type of person who always saw the diamonds amidst the dirt and always wanted to make someone else's day a little bit better, something she had little time for. All up the stranger held a subtle, mysterious air, like a deep blue sapphire under the midnight full moon.
"Excuse me?"
"The ice cream, boysenberry wasn't it?" His voice sounded soft and welcoming, so unusual for someone in his position, and made her raise an eyebrow in wonder. It didn't take long for her to figure he was some preachy religious or moral activist out to convert another mindless sheep to his flock.
Mandy nodded once while looking at the light-hearted idiot, staring him down the same way she did the other two. The Opiate of the Masses would not save him from her wrath, the threat of what she would do to him heavy in her scowl, her entire being directing her caustic angry vibe into the stranger.
He continued to smile back.
"What's you're name?" He asked, eyes wide open, face devoid of any sign of being threatened by her powerful and dangerous presence as he continued to smile, the girl's anger now faltering.
"Mandy." She replied, dropping it like a blunt weight, not quite sure what to do with this strange saintly figure of kindness and joy.
"Hi." He greeted her. Turning his eyes down he looked to the seat beside her. "Uh, do you mind if I…"
Mandy found herself taken aback, her scowling eyes relaxing and widening as her disdain gave way to surprise and even a vague feeling of curiosity. He, who had every appearance of being a god of flowery meadows, public forums and sunshine, would want to sit next to her, goddess of darkness, revenge and pollution? Her stare alone could break the will of what she guessed to be ninety percent of the people alive on the planet, so for him to be completely unmoved by her threat showed a potential strength of will she hadn't quite come across before.
'Interesting. He's clearly unique.' As she looked up at his kind face she noticed something else that caught her. 'His eyes are like mine.' He looked upon her with two deep, dark onyx orbs, strangely at odds with his nice personality, two mysterious event horizons beyond which anything could lie.
As much as she still felt aloof to the strange boy, her curiosity demanded to be answered.
'For now I'll go along with this, and see where it goes.' She gestured for him to sit at her side, to which he did so gladly. Stepping around her left the blue-clad youth made his way to sit himself down beside her. 'This could be interesting.'
"Correct me if I'm wrong Mandy, but you don't seem like the type to want to go out to parks and spend time out with friends. You seem unique among these people. You look more like the strong-willed, lone wolf type who doesn't need others for support." The youth spoke with a feeling of knowing, like just from meeting her he already understood a lot of her character. Then again, she knew for someone with a keen eye it would be easy to discern.
"Well maybe you're right. Maybe I'm not like all these pretentious jerks. What are you gonna do, sue me?"
The boy smiled and gave a light chuckle. "Heh heh, no I don't usually sue people for being different to me, although I'm sure plenty of people here do."
"I could name a few who would." Mandy replied with her usual sarcastic wit.
Her new companion smirked as he continued. "I saw how you took care of those two before, just by looking at them. I don't think I've ever seen someone with that strength of resolve before." He had seen her ward off the two who had thrown the frisbee earlier, therefore he already knew about her foreboding aura and dark personality. And nevertheless it didn't seem to bother him; yet another tantalising mystery for her to uncover.
Mandy had to know about him, her interest in the strange new boy growing by the second.
"Who are you?" She asked him at last, fixing the youth with a wondering, probing gaze, taking in every feature of his calm face. So far she could only speculate on what he was. He could potentially be her missing equal, a parallel entity to herself, or he could be some pathetic suck-up. So far she couldn't discern which.
"My name's Max." He answered, putting a name to the new face. "I moved here a few days ago from Townsville. Too many monsters and destruction there for my liking." He remarked with a slight sense of humour in his smile.
"If you came here to get away from all that, you'll be greatly disappointed." Mandy continued. "After all-"
"Yes, I know about Endsville not being that much better. This was the only place where the rent was affordable. Besides, I wasn't looking for a boring place, just somewhere that's liveable. At least here everything's a lot smaller and easier to deal with. Here I don't have to worry so much about being crushed by a collapsing building like in Townsville." Another new piece of the puzzle came to light. It seemed Max knew a bit about demons and the like from prior experience.
"So you left Townsville because of the monsters, and came here because of… monsters?" Mandy asked incredulously.
"Like I said it was the only place that was affordable. I know it's not a particularly good place to live but I've dealt with worse things in the past. I've actually gone up against a few of the weaker things that came through Townsville. Did you ever hear of Fuzzy Lumpkins? It taught me how to fight and survive, but if I stayed there any longer I would have been killed in the end." It seemed Max had combat experience, albeit running and hiding against everything that was over eight feet tall. Could she have just stumbled across a mini Hoss Delgato?
"You know the last guy who came here looking for trouble has already lost two limbs, and I doubt it'll be long before he looses all four."
"Don't worry, I can take care of myself." He assured her with confidence. Mandy
"Well you better, because this place is not going to be your friend." She explained with dire weight in her voice. "Do not trust anyone. These people will eat you alive if you let your guard down for so much as a second so be warned."
"I can handle that. I've been through this before. Because of all the damage, robberies and incompetent leadership, Townsville's economy has declined badly. Unemployment is skyrocketing, people are leaving in droves, businesses are failing in their hundreds and the property market has collapsed. The people there are turning on each other like rabid dogs. The crime rate has exploded. It's a stones throw away from becoming the world's largest ghetto. It was already a dangerous place to live because of the people alone when I came here."
"Well I have to admit, the place has really gone downhill, despite having their own three superheroes taking care of it." Mandy had seen an article in Time magazine about how it had been decaying over the last two years. Add to that the fact that people nationwide had gradually became more and more small-minded and selfish, and it looked like the whole western world may well be looking at troubled times in the years ahead.
"I never really cared much for super heroes." Max said with a sigh.
"Neither do I, but why not? Why don't you mister perfect little saint?" She asked to which Max smirked.
"You shouldn't judge people until you really get to know them. After all, you're choice of clothes," Indicating towards her pink dress with a pretty flower in the middle, "indicates that you are a sweet little ball of love and compassion." He never stoped being kind and polite, even as he continued "But neither of us is like that now are we?"
"Oh come on. You dress almost like a Goth, but you sound and act more like a girl scout. We're polar opposites." Mandy replied, tired of the guys annoyingly sweet disposition, even if he sounded like he knew what he was talking about. He was probably an idiot in disguise, or a pathetic fanboy like Irwin. "You're obviously some pretentious idiot out to prove how perfect you are."
"Polar opposites you say? If I may, what do you honestly feel when you see homeless people begging for money on the street?"
She shrugged. "I don't care. They're not my problem. The strong rise and the weak suffer and die, just as it has been for millions of years." Mandy's reply was short, blunt and brutal, exactly befitting of her. "They're the product of people's contempt and selfishness. If not them, they would do it to someone else."
"And what do you feel about all the people in countries like China and North Korea, who have to go about their lives living in fear of the oppressive government?"
"Again I don't care. The strong will naturally rise above the weak. It's just simple Survival of the Fittest. Do you think a Lion would feel sorry for the Gazelle it just killed? Do you think someone or something would feed the Lion if it decided not to hurt another creature? No, it would starve, grow weak, and eventually be preyed upon by another predator." Mandy had long known the facts of life, facts which most people refused to believe or were too weak to implement into their lives. "Besides, that's what they signed up for when they chose to support communism."
"I know how you feel. I think the exact same way." Max said with a grin on his face, his reply coming as a surprise, knocking Mandy off balance mentally.
"You're right. Emotional attachments, chains of love and compassion, only serve to hold us back, chaining us down to the people around us. If we break free of these chains, then we can be free, within reason, to do whatever we want. We could dedicate our lives to doing great things, to changing the world into what we want it to be, and not be held back by sentiments of guilt or remorse." Max continued holding up his open hand.
He then turned to her with a kind and benevolent smile on his kind face. "You know you're the first person I have ever met to ever truly take that on board and successfully put it into practice. All the others are too arrogant and stupid to do anything. They lie and cheat their way to the top, and think its wrong when someone else does the same thing to them. I've never met anyone else who could cut through all of that. I suppose you deserve my respect."
Mandy stared at him, pleasantly surprised. He had essentially spoken her own thoughts. He had even said what she herself had spoken earlier that day, including his apparent disdain for humanity. Aside from the polite and friendly attitude he was, as far as she could see, very much like herself.
Why can't I have better friends, someone else like me perhaps?' Her words earlier called out in the back of her mind. Could it be she had just found someone she could truly connect with, someone who would understand her, perhaps even work with her? He even respected her simply for being her, something the majority of people viewed with disdain.
"Well… thanks, sort of." She answered awkwardly. "You know, though I don't particularly have any special interest in you, I guess I could learn to live with you. So long as you don't do something stupid like muscle in on my turf, I think we could get along. Try anything funny and I'll crush you."
"Deal." Max said.
"Good. In that case, welcome to Endsville." She stated. "Now let me brief you on some things you'll need to know. Firstly the local deity in this place is money. The majority of people here are obsessed with having more of it, regardless of where it comes from or how much they already have. They use their money to get power over other greedy people, and also to buy expensive stuff like fast cars, big houses and anything that will make them look more important than they really are. Now the upper class are few in number but they have a lot of money and they hold the reigns. They're the ones riding around in Lamborghinis with thousand dollar suits and dresses. The middle class are the most common and they work in all the most common positions. They will do anything they can to take advantage of you to further their own greed. The lower class have no money, live in terrible conditions, and have been preyed upon by everyone, so they're the most aggressive. Half the violence and crime this place suffers is from this one group."
"Sounds lovely."
"Indeed. Now not all the people in this place are back-stabbers and psychopaths but don't expect to find anyone who'll willingly stand up to protect you. That's how the other half of these people work. If it's not them that's being beaten down they won't even lift a finger to help. I hope you're ready because you're in for the fight of your life, and that's not counting the monsters and hordes of demons. Other than that we welcome you and hope you survive your stay."
"Thank you." Max answered happily, confident in his skills.
"Gehehehehe!" Yaaay! This is fun Grim! I'ma flayahinnn! Ehehehehe!"
Mandy twisted around in her seat and looked to see Billy and Grim coming up to her right from further up the park. Grim held an indignant grimace as he made his way along the footpath, holding a giggling Billy under his right arm, still trying to squirm out of the reapers grip.
"Alright my friends are back. I gotta go." Mandy spoke as she rose to her feet. Max stood up as they approached gazing over the two newcomers with a wary visage.
"Who are your friends?" He asked calmly.
'The short idiot with the big nosed is Billy." Mandy spoke with a deadpan voice. "And I think you should know the Grim Reaper when you see him."
Max flicked his dark eyes up to the bleached skull, scanning him over methodically. "You're friends with the reaper?"
"Yeah. Billy and I won him in a game of limbo. Well, mainly me, but Billy… No, just me."
"Dat and you cheated." Said the angry and begrudging Grim as he continued to grimace at the girl and the new youth. "You two never let me live dat down."
Max smirked and gave a nod. "Good for you. That's quite a catch too." Grim grumbled in response at the mysterious boys comment.
"Alright. I'll see you round maybe." Mandy answered as she stepped away from the bench towards her companions.
"See you later." Max replied as he walked away, stepping on and mercilessly crushing the frisbee under his shoe. Mandy noticed this with interest, and paused to glance back, staring at the broken yellow plastic. That small momentary show of force seemed to conflict with the polite persona she'd seen, further deepening the mystery. Raising an eyebrow she spared the crushed remains one last glance before she turned and left down the street with Grim and Billy, back towards their houses.
"Who was that guy Mandy?" Billy spoke up, looking at her suspiciously, as if he was going to be replaced again.
"Just a guy I met. His name's Max. He was a lot like me." Mandy said in a bored tone as they walked slowly back the several miles towards their suburb in the early afternoon heat.
'I met someone who could end up being quite useful in the future.' She mused, the time passing by as she withdrew into her thoughts. 'Dark yet polite, smart, knows how to fight. This day turned out alright.'
Her reflection broke away as they neared Billy's house, where they were unfortunately again greeted to the sound of...
"FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FredFredburger FreFredburger..."
The three stood back and stared as the chubby monster rambled on and on, continuing his knocking on the door unceasingly, unaware that they were even there. Billy's face twisted uneasily.
"He's not breathing. Why isn't he breathing?"
"Who cares." Grim rolled his hollow eyes skyward and waived his scythe at the green demon, sucking him back to the underworld via a portal beneath his feet.
"Come on, let's go to my place until he's gone for good." Mandy spoke up leading the two away towards her home nearby.
"We could be there awhile." Grim added.
"But Mandy has the big TV." Billy piped in happily. "Cool! We can have sleepovers every night for weeks! Yaaaayyyy! Thanks Mandy!"
Mandy deadpanned and urged herself for calm as Billy threw his arms around her shoulders and embraced her in a warm hug. She clenched the bridge of her nose before trying to lever herself free of her stupid friend's affection as he pressed his nose into the side of her face. 'I just had to bring it up didn't I?'
"Fine. Come on cadaver-to-be." Mandy grizzled, a stern frown set on the girl's features as she dragged a smiling Billy along towards her house where they would spend the rest of the afternoon. Grim fixed them with a look of disparagement before he followed after them.
Back at the row of shop fronts facing the park, a lone figure sat kneeling atop the tiled roof of a cafe, silently contemplating what it had witnessed so far having observed everything that had happened that day. Nobody noticed it from its vantage point high above the park, and even if they had looked, their narrow minds would have likely skipped straight over the small crouching figure in the black cloak.
Three days into its mission and it was already underway. It had arrived on the outskirts of Endsville's northern industrial park in the dead of night, and had immediately set about gaining its bearings and tracking down its main objective. It hadn't taken long to locate her. The strange entity had been silently watching Mandy since yesterday, keeping a good distance so as to avoid detection by her or any of her associates, along with planning and preparing for what lay ahead.
'Getting her to trust me will take time. The execution of resistance founders should not be difficult. Securing her trust will be more challenging though. I will continue to observe her from afar for now.'
The being rose from its place to leave, moving along the rooftop down behind the row of shops, going completely unnoticed by the denizens and shoppers as they went about their day. It payed them no attention as it past through the alleyways and left the district, heading west away from the city centre.
'I need a base of operations to use for the duration of my activities here.'
It had one particular location in mind, a secluded place residing in one of Endsville's more isolated suburbs further out from the hub of activity. The burning midday sun did nothing to bother it as it made its way calmly through the empty streets, passing through the middle class housing estates, continuing ever forwards on foot even as mid afternoon arrived. With the sky overhead growing a heavy orange hue from the pollution it stopped and looked up as it arrived at a dilapidated wooden fence. Scanning it over quietly it searched for an opening hidden in amongst the various keep out signs. A loose plank of wood served the purpose.
Ducking down it pushed through the opening and stepped out into the long grass on the other side. Taking a short moment to scan its surroundings it saw the brown wheat grass towering above, with a barely noticeable path leading on ahead. Following the faint path forward it walked through the dry undergrowth, stepping out into a more open pathway. An old scarecrow stood to the right. Over the top of the grass it saw what it had come for, the old mansion known to be haunted by a spirit. Abandoning the new path it made its way through the untamed grass straight towards the entrance.
Opening the front door inwards it found the interior of the decrepit house to be in far better shape than the outside. Onyx eyes roved over the rose rug and blue-grey walls, suspicious of the state of the house as it shut the door and made its way further into the new environment. It paused before a flight of wooden stairs to listen.
It sensed the presence of another being, some spectral entity responsible for keeping the house alive as it had been in years long past. Reaching out with its senses it detected movement coming from atop the staircase.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" A lively male voice called from beyond the stairs to the right. Turning to the source of the sound the figure watched as the shadow of a large ungainly creature moved in across the wall, before an enormous spider came into view
Jeff searched the area below the stairs for any sign of whoever had caused the disturbance.
"Is anyone in here?" He called out again trying to keep his tone from sounding dangerous. "Don't worry, it's alright. We don't get visitors in here often and you're more than welcome." Clambering down the staircase he listened for any sign of another person. Not a sound greeted him as he made his way to the bottom.
"Huh. Oh well." Shrugging it off he turned around to return back to his resting place higher up. "Guess I imagined-"
His voice fell silent as from out of the shadows beside the staircase the spectral figure lanced out and struck him over the abdomen. The enormous spider's eyes shot wide as its body shuddered and slumped dead on the ground, his many legs contracting inwards as he lay still, the once great beast of a spider dispatched with a single effortless strike.
Regarding the spiders body with indifference the raven cloaked creature turned to face the true source of the house's haunting presence as she stood atop the staircase. The spirit of Mrs. Doolin stood staring in shock down at the body of her companion, watching as the small cloaked figure looked upon her from below.
"Who are you?" She spoke with anger in her voice, gritting her teeth as the black void beneath the cowl stared back. "Talk! Who are you?" Her words demanded with growing anticipation. Once more the wraith-like figure remained silent and still, a deathly calm that did ever more to unnerve the spirit. Opening her palm a golden rapier materialised in her hand.
"Answer me!" Raising the pointed blade she threatened the newcomer.
Without a moments hesitation the cold figure launched itself up at her, darting over the stairs in an instant. Mrs. Doolin's eyes widened as it reared its hand back and struck her chest, an unnatural black energy bursting forth from its extended fingers blowing straight through her.
She gaped in shock, the raven figure landing just behind her, looking back as she dropped the sword to the floorboards. The spectral image of the old woman flickered as she lost her strength, her legs buckling under her as she keeled over. Her body fell forward down towards the staircase beneath her, the surrounding house fading in and out as she collapsed. Upon hitting the floor her body vanished, the sword flickering out of existence with her.
Standing facing where its vanquished foe had fallen the wraith looked up to gaze at the walls around it. It watched on dispassionately as the well kept plaster, paintings and rugs, the source of their life sustaining force gone, now melted away all around. The features ran down to the floor, dissolving as their master had moments before. When the illusion had completely faded away it revealed the great old house as it really was, decaying, broken, and completely abandoned by society.
Turning away from the body of the spider below the cloaked figure continued on into the upper floors, accompanied by nothing more than the low howl of the wind through its empty corridors. Within the walls of its isolated sanctum it continued in its preparation for the task ahead.
The house's previous master had been strong enough to beat death. It had taken but a second for it to succeed where the reaper had failed.
How's that? Three chapters down and already the death toll begins. About that last bit at the end, I just wanted to gauge our newly arrived creation, easily defeating someone who had herself been able to defeat Grim in the past. As for the pointless Ben 10 cameo, this will only come into any relevance much later in the story.
Hope you liked it, tell me what you think.