The Visitor
By: Chase Buie
Chapter 1
Smallville, an already quite town at night, appeared completely abandoned due to a series of storms that had started several days before and were promised to hang around for at least one more week. Puddles of water had started to accumulate in the alleyways, sidewalks, and streets as more raindrops fell to the earth, causing tiny, liquid explosions.
With the exception of a few cars and occasional voices, the streets were only filled with the sounds of the rain, like the patter of a small drum. The combined force of the dark night and the sheets of rain made the town's surroundings nearly impossible to see. A few bolts of lightening struck across the sky with tiny, spider like fingers that stretched out in all directions looking for anything to hit. The light given off by the flashes made everything just nearly visible for a few moments.
A large, metal building stood in the outskirts of downtown with a large sign hanging above the door. The words read "Smallville Storage" in bright red paint. The warehouse held a few windows, most of which were broken, and had a skylight on top to save energy. On the inside there were no lights, except for five separate flashlight beams.
"Tell me, did you really think that you'd be able to slip it past me?" A small man said to another man that was tied down to a chair in the middle of the large building. The room was six full, five people holding flashlights that were all pointed at the sixth man that was sitting.
"Please, I have a family!" The man in the chair pleaded with no man in particular. Both eyes were blackened and swelled shut with large bruises, his nose was broken at the top of the bridge, his lips were both busted in several places, and his white, collared shirt was bloodstained all over.
The small man chuckled at his comment a little before pulled a wallet out of his pocket. He opened it up and flipped to the picture section. "Believe me Jake, I know that you have a family." He turned the wallet to point show Jake the photos.
"That's mine, how'd you get that?" His voice cracked as he talked and he swallowed a large amount of blood just to get it out of his mouth.
"Jake, tell me what you did with my money or else I'm going to spend a little time with your family." A grin formed on his lips as he spoke. "Two daughters and a beautiful wife? Must be my lucky day!"
The words turned like the blade of a knife in Jake's heart. "Mr. DeBaldy, I honestly didn't take your money." He could feel himself starting to slip into a black abyss. The apathy starting to take him over, he tried to open his eyes further, with was impossible due to the swelling.
DeBaldy looked over to one of the four "muscle men", and that was enough. The largest of them all closed the distance in between him and the chair stuck man, and, with his large hand, he punched the man with a great force to his already broken nose.
Jake cried out with pain as stinging tears rolled down his cheeks into his wounds. Thoughts of his family went through his head over and over and it made the tears come in greater drops.
Then, with a sudden explosion of sound and glass, one of the large skylights above the men shattered and fell to the ground in large pieces. The sound of the shards hitting the hard, concrete floor followed by the sound of wet drops took everyone by surprise. All four of the muscle men pulled out handguns and looked up towards the broken window.
DeBaldy shinned his light up to see a black rope dangling through the window towards the ground. The bottom of the rope was hidden behind a stack of boxes, so it was impossible to see what was happening.
"What the hell?" DeBaldy couldn't hold back his fear. "Is it the cops?" With that one word the larges of the muscle started off to find what was behind the boxes.
The large hole in the ceiling was just over twenty feet from the men, so the view from where they stood was quite strange. It appeared that there was a small rain cloud in the building, giving off small drops in just one little area. The flashes of lightening from outside showed the rope with more visibility, showing that it was coming from outside on the roof.
The largest of the muscle wasn't hesitant at all; never losing a single fight will do wonders for a man's ego. He held the flashlight out in front of him, next to his gun, as he turned the corner around the boxes.
"What tha' hell?" A muffled voice came from the opposite side of the large wooden crates. DeBaldy's eyes grew just a bit wider, very curious as to who or what was on the other side of the boxes.
Suddenly, the sound of gunfire made all of the men's bodies' shake. The first shot was followed by two more and then the sickening sound of bones breaking and the muscle's voice sounding out with a shriek of pain.
The following silence grew so thick that it could be walked on. DeBaldy looked at the rest of his crew with large eyes and then back to the stack of crates. Scared and confused, everyone stayed focused on the scene before them.
The boxes started to sway back and forth as if being pushed from the other side. DeBaldy and his crew couldn't tell if it was just an optical illusion given off by the rain and lightening or if they were actually moving.
"Shoot them!" DeBaldy yelled out. In one quick motion, the other three pointed their guns at the moving boxes and started to fire into them. Pieces of wood shot out from the boxes in miniature explosions.
The farthest one from the boxes was interrupted by a sharp pain to the back of his head. His gun stopped firing as he fell to the ground. Trying to see what hit him, the man spun his body around as his body collapsed. He caught a glimpse of a man that was clad in all black with a black mask with two holes for eyes and one for the mouth covering his face just as a fist caught him to his nose, knocking him out cold.
The others had not heard anything due to the sound of the gunfire, so the dark man moved with ease towards them. They were standing shoulder to shoulder, still focused on the boxes. DeBaldy stood next to them, but at least four feet to the side, and he didn't have a gun.
The dark man grabbed the two men by their heads and forced them together with all the force that he could manage. Their temples slammed against each other with enough power to knock them out cold.
The gunfire stopped, and DeBaldy looked over to see what had caused the delay. He got a good look of the man that stood in the place of his fallen crew. He wore a black sweater, a pair of black pants, black combat boots, a pair of black gloves with metal, chain link armor on the knuckles, and a black, cotton ski mask. His clothes were soaked from the rain outside, and he kept his blue eyes locked on DeBaldy.
Being the leader of the crew, DeBaldy never carried a gun because he didn't think he would ever need one. In a panic, his body turned as fast as he could to run towards the door. He reached out, grabbed the cold, metal handle and began to pry it open just as a small, odd shaped metal disk that resembled a Chinese throwing star hit the door, scaring DeBaldy so badly that he fell backwards to the ground.
Left in a sitting position, DeBaldy looked up at the dark man and saw the metal fist slam into his face.
(Author's Notes: Well, I hope that everyone likes this fic so far. I hope to get some feedback on it, positive or negative. I am trying something new here, so please give feed back that can only help my writing.))