Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama. If I did then Sundae Muddy Sundae wouldn't have been so poorly written. Or most of All Stars in general…There's an idea for a sequel.
Chapter 19: Putting Together the Puzzle Part 2
As Cody finished his story he drank down the can of Coke, before releasing another sigh of guilt "And that's how I ended up getting stuck with him. All this time I've been at fault for his crimes. He's killed 247 people and I've been responsible for almost all of them. It's enough to make me want to…"
"Cody, tell me you aren't going to-" Tyler asked, scared by the geek's depressed silence.
"No, I can't. I've tried more time than I can count. But every bullet I eat. The Hatter always spits them back out." Cody grabbed a plastic knife and made a small cut on his finger, which immediately healed "The bastard made me completely suicide proof."
"Well that's not creepy at all." Duncan carved into the seats with a knife bought in Mexico, to replace the one Cedric broke "Is that all you've got on the guy?"
"Not exactly, but there's a huge gap in my memories from the time I was frozen to the time I managed to seal Cedric off."
"I think I know what gap was! It was when Cedric was locked up in juvie! And Duncan was there with him!" Tyler deduced before turning to an uncomfortable looking Duncan "You can fill in the blanks here Duncan!"
"Yeah…I can totally do that."
Cody was confused by Duncan's reaction to the mention of Cedric, as unlike Tyler he had not yet seen the delinquent in this type of emotional state "Wait a minute. You seem a bit off Duncan."
"It's cause I'm afraid dork. I'm afraid of remembering what happened in there. My first trip to juvie is the only one I don't have a single happy memory of. Because he took them all away." Duncan sunk down further into his chair with every word.
"I know how you feel. I don't like thinking about what he did. But even so I took to memorize the names and faces of our victims; when you kill someone you damn well don't forget them. Because they will never forget you."
"Stop it Cody!" Tyler suddenly slapped the geek before angrily yelling in his face "Stop blaming yourself for what happened! It's all his fault, von Túfeice I mean. I won't allow you to keep badmouthing yourself like this when it's him you should be hating!"
"Don't get me wrong. I hate him still. I hate Hatter with every fiber of my being. I would like nothing more than to just erase him from my life forever. The only way I could possibly describe him is as a monster. There's nothing inside him but a need for self indulgence and destruction. His only desire is to watch the world born. And unlike other men with that goal, he can do that and more."
"I get what you're saying." Duncan said as he stood up from his comfortable seat "I'm not going to hide like a coward anymore. I'm going to face this fear head on!"
The Macbeth family happened to be a long line of police officers in the family. Whether they be retired or having just graduated from the academy, most of them were involved in the police force of Manitoba in some way or another. However one worked on the other end of the law.
The middle child of five brothers, Duncan Macbeth was far from this part of law, even considering the normal mischief boys got into at that age. In fact, he preferred being on the opposite side of the law as a juvenile delinquent much to the ire of his older family members. Recently he was caught vandalizing the side of his school's gymnasium, resulting in the principal expelling him and pressing charges.
After a week long trial, he sentenced to 2 months in the Manitoba Youth Centre. And his eldest brother Malcom, who had just graduated from the police academy, was driving him over to juvie with a prepared lecture "I never thought you could be this stupid. You're throwing your life away on this kind of thing Duncan!"
"I already got this lecture from Pa. Besides I don't see what the big deal is, I used washable paint! They probably had it off within a day." Duncan nonchalantly said as he fiddled with the window.
"That's not the point Duncan! Do you really want to spend your entire life as nothing more than a shady criminal?"
"Heck yeah! Being a criminal is the best. Certainly makes a lot cooler than a crosswalk guarding geek like you!"
"So I watch anime big deal!" Malcom snapped at his younger brother, before sighing in saddened annoyance "You know something little bro, one day your pride in doing wrong is gonna get you in a lot of trouble. And the only one you'll have to blame is yourself!"
"Whatever." Duncan rolled his eyes in indifference to his older brother's lecture as the police car rolled to a stop. Waiting outside for him were two guards tasked with escorting in the new arrival "Smell you in a month."
They then proceeded to go into normal admission procedure for the center, such as getting his uniform and mugshot together. Upon the time of his entrance into the population of the juvie, it was around the lunchtime. It was just what you would expect from a juvie cafeteria, dull and lifeless.
Shrugging his shoulders, Duncan decided to sit down to the first person he saw. The boy was about his age if not a bit older, and brown eyes with curly orange hair which he covered up with a black skull cap "Hey there newbie, what you in for."
"Spray painted a giant skull on my school's gym wall. And you?"
"I hotwired a car and accidentally drove it into Lake Winnipeg. That was a fun conversation to have with the folks. Name's Frank. And you newbie?"
"Duncan. How long you been locked up Frank?"
"About six months. Long enough to know who to avoid in this place." Frank yawned before pointing towards a group of much older boys who were just barely young enough to be interned in juvie "Those guys are the ones in charge of everyone here. We call them the Sabertooth Brothers. They all burned down an entire bank with half the money still inside. Don't mess with them and just follow their rules."
"Sounds easy enough if it's just that I got to worry about." Duncan leaned his chair back.
"That's not it. They may be the strongest gang in juvie, but they're not the only one." Frank revealed and pointed at another gang at a nearby table. This one was very reminiscent of a mafia, with an Italian boy of 8 years age sitting in the center. The boy had brown eyes and dark spiky hair which came down over his right eye, and a gap in his teeth.
"See that kid over there? Rumor is he put one of his teachers in the hospital a few weeks back. He's apparently got multiple personalities, and their keeping him locked up here till they can get the original to come back. They call him Micheal 'Mal' Doran." Frank continued his exposition before turning his attention to a familiar preteen with greaser hair "Then there's Preston Mingus. That guy's really tough and really scary. Broke into an ol' widow's house like a lunatic one day."
"Is that really it? I think I can take these guys." Duncan said arrogantly before he felt someone glaring a hole in the back of his head. The young punk turned around to see a child with red eyes, messy brown hair, pale skin, a sharp grin, and a silk top hat with 10/6 in the rim "Who's the freaky looking guy staring at me?"
"He's the other new arrival, Cedric von Túfeice. Dropped him in out of nowhere yesterday."
"What did he do?" Duncan asked.
"No one really knows. But judging by how much attention the guards always give him, it can't be anything small. I can tell you that much."
"Hark! Is some fool talking about me like I'm not in the room." Both boys jumped upon hearing a cockney voice pop beside them, and they turned around to see Cedric was somehow within very close distance of them "Name's Cedric, Cedric von Túfeice. The world's greatest criminal mind."
"Oh really? So what did you to get locked up?"
Cedric then went into a small laughing fit before coldly answering "I hacked up a bunch of people. 89 to be precise. Maybe I could add on to that number…Also I think your hair's a bit weird…Maybe you should get a Mohawk or something."
Before Duncan could make another snarky remark towards the mad hatter, another delinquent slid up to them and right next to Cedric "Please forgive this child's rudeness. He doesn't know of what he speaks. Name's Mal, and you're Cedric von Túfeice I presume."
"Yep that's my name; don't wear it out. What did you want then Mikey boy?"
Ignoring the nickname Cedric had given him, Mal led him off in the other direction "I'm an aspiring leader in the community of this establishment. I have a few business offers I'd like to make you." While he walked off with the split personality, Cedric turned his head to give Duncan and Frank another cold glare. And while he didn't know why, Duncan felt sick to his stomach.
This changed by the time gym class had rolled around as they were playing his favorite schoolyard game. Dodgeball. Due to his tough and cool-headed nature, Duncan was a terror on his home court. Unfortunately this was likely going to be far from the case this time around.
Several of the older inmates were on the opposite team, such as the Sabertooth Brothers who ran the institution's inmate body. They also had Preston, and even Frank. However he wasn't very intimidated by the latter two, or for that matter the former. On his own team the only ones he knew of were Cedric and Mal.
But they mostly kept to themselves, or silently whispered to one another with devious looks on their faces. Duncan didn't really care about that though, and actually figured that they'd eventually turn out to be gay with how intently they leered. And due to what being gay canned with in an age as divisive as middle school, Duncan preferred not to get involved.
The coach actually wasn't what you'd expect from most gym teachers, especially not in juvie. He was very gangly with blue eyes and short cut dark brown hair. Despite this appearance, no one tried anything due to the taser kept at his side "Alright then, I shouldn't have to explain the rules since you've played this for a while now. Let's get started."
"Hey newbies." The punk turned his attention to Mal who wore an excited gap toothed smirk "There's something you should know about dodgeball here. These guys will always rush the newbies with all their balls at once. So look out."
Duncan merely scoffed at the warning and continued to focus on the game. This backfired quickly when the Sabertooth brothers all targeted him with their balls at one time "Someone should've listened to Mikey."
"Shut up."
The rest of the gang went fairly typically for what the class was used to, as the Sabertooth Brothers had been dominating the game with only Mal and Cedric remaining on the opposite side. Not that this was a bad this as they were both proven to be very formidable with the other team's fatalities being mainly their doing.
Cedric's ball always seemed to hit its mark, and all Mal had to do was snap his fingers and someone would take a blow for him. In the end it finally came down to the Sabertooth Brothers, Mal and Cedric "I think if we were classy we'd let the toddlers win. But we're no toddlers."
"I think that they're making fun of us. Silence them Cedric." Mal ordered his second in command.
"Relax boss; to be fair you are only 8 years old. But I've lived a lot longer, so I might as well show them to respect their elders!" Cedric growled with visible insanity on his face, before swiftly avoiding a ball thrown towards him. He caught the ball on the rebound against the wall, which he proceeded to throw back. Somehow the ball made a u-turn into the back of a Sabertooth. Not being finished Cedric rubbed the ball against his jumpsuit, and aimed it towards another.
Though he jumped out of the way, the ball somehow followed him upward and hit him in the stomach. While Cedric chuckled at this, Mal angrily slapped him on the back of the head "What are you thinking? Using telekinesis like that in broad daylight!"
"Relax Mikey, I can hide this no problem. No one here's smart enough to-" Cedric turned to respond to Mal's whispering, only for a ball to blindside him across the face and knock off his hat. The gang laughed at this while Cedric shook with visible rage, only to calm down and place his hat back on.
"Now that wasn't very nice."
While Cedric walked past them on his way over to the sidelines, Frank whispered in Duncan's ear "Ok new rule, don't mess with that guy."
"Please, I could take him no problem." Duncan brushed off the warning, only for his mind to play a different tune when Cedric gave him a sideways glance with a terrifying grin. Knowing that Cedric wasn't kidding around, Duncan silenced himself.
"Oh great. I'm stuck with the children of the corn over here." Mal sighed in annoyed resignation as the remaining Sabertooth Brothers threw their balls simultaneously at him, eliminating him. As they laughed sadistically at their win, Mal easily got himself back up glaring daggers at them.
Snapping his fingers, the child summoned Cedric over to his side "You rang boss?"
"Yeah I don't like their attitudes. Thinking they can walk all over us like that." Mal growled angrily in reference to the older gang.
"So you're thinking what I'm thinking. That gives me a few more opportunities for souls." Cedric grew an excited grin on his pale face, while Mal summoned the rest of the gang and they walked off.
While this was happening Duncan and Frank watched with particular interest "I hope that gave you a better idea of how this place runs. Remember the pecking order newbie."
"Whatever." Duncan merely scoffed at this warning, while he watched Mal's growing mafia March by. And while he couldn't tell why at the time, he felt a cold chill run down his spine his spine when Cedric passed him.
Later that night, the Sabertooth Brothers were currently grouped together in order to talk about a certain subject. The smaller rival gang led by Mal. Needless to say they weren't happy about the competition from the young boy "What I don't understand is how such a young kid could hold so much power."
"Brat probably threw a temper tantrum and they joined so he'd shut up. Then there's that other kid in the top hat."
"Someone's a bit to big for his britches."
"Bottom line, something has to be done. Tomorrow we show that brat who's really in charge around this dump."
During their talk, more subtle footsteps entered the room with more following closely behind. The footsteps belonged to Mal "I'm guessing you boys are talking about me?"
"Well you saved us the trouble of tracking you down tomorrow."
"Now let's get one thing straight. You may think you're hot stuff small fry, but your fodder compared to us. So don't get any bright ideas about starting a gang here, otherwise we'll beat the tar out of you!"
"That's nice. I actually figured you'd say something like that eventually. That's why I hired him as an enforcer." Mal brushed off the threats, and gestured to Cedric who walked in with a smuggled cane.
"Great job on the introduction Mikey; just like we rehearsed it." The demon quipped, causing Mal to release an irritated groan.
"I'm guessing you can tell I didn't hire him based off his sense of humor."
"Now that's rude."
In response to his banter one of the members burst out into laughter "Are you kidding me? What makes you think this freaky eyed twerp would do anything against us."
"Tell me you're the one who knocked off my hat earlier correct?" Before giving him time to answer, Cedric unsheathed Chesire and jabbed it into his hand. While he howled in pain at first, Cedric made the situation worse by grabbing onto cut and suddenly skinning him alive with his bare hands. Thankfully the man's agony was short when Cedric quickly removed and absorbed his soul.
After finishing the gruesome deed, Cedric flapped the skin in a way one would a cape "Olé." After burning the hide to ash Cedric faced the horrified remainder of the Sabertooth Brothers "Do you want to finish the rest or should I?"
"Judging from how unclean that last kill was, you could use the practice." Mal insulted the mad hatter.
"And how many people have you killed?" Cedric said as he approached the cowering teenagers.
"No! Please! We'll do whatever you want!"
Cedric gave a low chuckle at this request "That's an interesting sentiment. Because I want you to give me your souls!" The slaughter that ensued was just as brutal as expected from Cedric's sadistic toying. All the while Mal whistled to himself as he watched grisly deaths of the Sabertooth Brothers.
The next day, the juvie's population was in a buzz over a certain event. Everybody seemed to whispering about that topic, but Duncan didn't really notice. Or at the least he didn't care. The most he was focused on was getting through the month sentence without much of a hassle. And he considered this an easy task due to his large ego.
Something seemed even stranger around lunch though. Mal's prison table had clearly grown much larger with a group of in,ages sitting around him, with that familiar chilling boy in the top hat right next to him as he ate, as if guarding him. Strangely no one ever saw Cedric himself eating, just playing solitaire or guarding Mal as the others ate. It was almost as if he wasn't human.
And while he would never admit it, Duncan did feel very off whenever he was near Cedric. There was something a tad off about his behavior. The young delinquent pushed such thoughts away however, reasoning with himself that he was like much stronger than that British freak anyways. Duncan proceeded to turn his attention to Frank as he sat nearby.
"Did you hear the news man?"
"What did you run out of things to exposition to me?"
"Oh haha, very funny newbie. But seriously, this is big news. All five of the Sabertooth Brothers broke out of this joint last night." Frank revealed. Upon hearing this news, Duncan dropped his plastic sport into his cardboard macaroni and cheese.
"You're kidding me!"
"I'm serious man! They just vanished from their cells out of nowhere with out a trace. They weren't caught on camera and they didn't set off any alarms but somehow they did it." Frank continued his news, before turning to the mafia table "It's really worked out for them though. I think they've doubled in membership since this morning."
Now Duncan was really focusing on Mal and Cedric, and noticed some of the even more interesting looks they were getting from the other convicts. Many seemed to be looks of jealousy or contempt that were aimed at Mal. The most notable of these looks belonged to the greaser Preston, who probably believed he should be running the place instead.
This attitude annoyed Duncan as while he may have been arrogant, Preston was self-entitled and he hated when boys acted like. Girls on the hand were a completely different story. Strangely the guards seemed to be intensely focusing on them as well though their glares were aimed towards Cedric, and were even more intense than yesterday.
These glares made Duncan even more uncomfortable with the mysterious mad hatter than he already was; not helping this was how no one knew exactly what Cedric did to get arrested and convicted in the first place. His thoughts were broken when a slightly older boy then him, grabbed Mal out of his seat by the collar.
"I'm still hungry short stuff. You're paying for me."
"And what makes you think that I'd spend my hard earned allowance giving trash like you money to stuff your fatass some more."
"Because I'm big and your small and that makes me better than you! Now give me all your coin before rearrange your face."
"You're not very bright are you? Let my boys show you what a bad decision you just made." Mal snapped his fingers causing the members of his mafia to surround the foolish teen, giving him no avenue of escape as Cedric approached "Cedric, please discuss this loan sparking with him."
"Aye aye Mikey." Cedric grabbed him by the wrists and pulled him towards the cafeteria's exit "You ever learned Canadian economy? No? Well it's time you have!"
Before he could drag his intended victim, he was stopped by a guard who knew full well what he was interred for "Where do you think you're going von Túfeice?" Cedric saw this coming and placed his bony hand on the guard's shoulder, releasing a loa to possess the man.
"I'm just going to talk to him about the sudden money he's demanding from my good friend Mikey." Cedric explained to the now red eyed guard, who let him go all of the sudden with the other boy in tow. Only a few minutes later a loud scream of pain rang out which silenced itself a few moments later.
Then Cedric waltzed in as if nothing had happen, brushing what appeared to be soot off his hands and uniform "For those of you wondering, I tossed that guy's ass over the walls. You might want to get him before he really does escape." In response to his warning the guards ran out to search for the boy.
"I can't believe they actually bought that." Mal chuckled to himself, which went unheard by the other inmates.
All the while Frank looked on in confusion "Why'd they just run right past him. Usually doing something like that will get a couple more weeks added to your sentence."
"That's because they don't want me on lesser charges. They want to make sure I'm not doing what I got locked up for!" Cedric suddenly appeared next to him, before walking back over to Mal.
However Duncan quickly noticed that Cedric had dropped something next to Frank's feet. An object with strange symbol carved into it made of metal and wood; only a few inches big. Curious, the young delinquent picked it up to get a better look at the object, only to get a hard punch in the face from Cedric.
When he opened his eyes again, Duncan rubbed his now bloody nose and prepared to get up and retaliate against the Mad Hatter. That is, until he got a good look at his glowing red eyes. He saw that Cedric's eyes contained nothing but anger and coldness with no shine whatsoever. And for some reason this made Duncan weak in all of his joints.
"Don't touch that you little shit. If anything happens to this talisman, you have no idea how bad it will be for me!" Cedric growled in Duncan's face, before walking back over to Mal who was standing on the cafeteria table.
"Listen up you pathetic bunch of worms. The days of the Sabertooth Brothers are over. Now this place belongs to me and only me! And by expansion, you belong to me. You stay in the lines and play by the rules, then you can easily make it out without some much as a scratch. But try any funny business, and my boys will show you personally what a bad idea that was! Now then, we've got fifteen minutes before lunch ends. Sit down and keep your eyes to yourself!"
Life in the juvenile delinquent center got a lot harder for the inmates in the following weeks. To say Mal ran a tight shift among the population was a massive understatement. Every week the prisoners were required to pay 5% of their allowance to Mal and his posse. And if you refused to pay, Cedric would eject you from the centre, and you'd be forced onto the lam.
Since the fall of the Sabertooth Brothers, this had been the case for a number of unfortunate inmates there, resulting in the class' numbers continuously dwindling. It was rare that they had any downtime away from Cedric, and one Christmas night they had that chance.
All the remaining members of the class with the exception of anyone involved in Mal's gang, we're currently gathered around a lantern telling the scariest stories that came to mind, including one about an election with Trump and Clinton. Not wanting to talk about such a scary reality, they moved on.
"Wait Clinton and Trump? Why would they be the nominees, they're both terrible!"
"Well it was a scary story, and they were involved in America's election a few months back. Good thing they wised up and the nominees ended up being Kasich and Sanders."
"Still surprised Kasich won by one percent. At least they had a nice clean race in the end. Imagine how Trump and Clinton would've gone down."
"Why would I?"
Back to the story boys. Currently it was Frank's turn to tell a story, particularly an old urban legend "So suddenly they heard this tapping on the car window. The girl was freaking out, and by this point the guy was starting to get scared. He turned on the car and stepped on it; when they got back to the girl's house, she opened the door and screamed. Because there, hanging…was the bloody hook! They say this killer is still alive, stalking the woods around this very juvie. He could be just about anywhere really. Maybe even right…HERE!" Frank raised up his left hand to reveal a hook in its place, causing those listening to scream in horror.
"Dude, that was so sick! I almost peed!…Almost." Duncan complimented his friend, while the latter laughed his ass off from the reaction.
This lasted for only a couple more minutes until a stern looking guard came by "It's past curfew kids. Get to bed before you get into trouble." Not feeling like arguing, the inmates complied.
"Seriously man that is one cool hook. Where'd you even get that?" Duncan said as he walked back to his room with Frank.
"Got it at a costume shop a few years back. It's made of genuine metal so don't cut yourself with it." Frank pulled the hook out and handed it to his friend "You can borrow it you want. Just return it by the end of our sentences."
Duncan walked away down another hallway, while Frank noticed a light further down. Wanting to see what was going on, Frank ran down to see guards talking to each other while drinking coffee "Did you find anything on that Mad Hatter kid yet?"
"Nothing yet. I'm pretty sure he's linked to all those disappearances that have been happening lately. Too bad we can't find enough evidence on the guy to charge him."
"The brat killed 89 people. It wouldn't be surprising if he had something to do with it. We should be keeping a closer eye on the kid."
"Why is he even here? Shouldn't he be locked up in some high security prison elsewhere?"
"They were going to do that, but a bunch of activist groups made a big deal of sending him to juvie so they could 'rehabilitate the child' because he got abused by his mother."
"Evil is evil at any age. And killing as many people as he did, the ways he did for kicks was unforgivable."
Frank had heard enough, and ran away from the guardspost as fast as he could with his weak knees. Eventually he found a corner to hide behind and catch his breath. It was evident by the look on his face that he was completely horrified by the charges Cedric had been convicted of, and it had become apparent that every prisoner that was thought to have escaped was really killed by The Mad Hatter.
To make matters worse, he heard a familiar whistling sound coming towards him with the tapping of a cane touching the ground. Despite this, he was too terrified to move until he heard a cockney voice whisper into his head "So you've figured out what I'm for eh Frankie? All the more reason to kill you."
The delinquent tried to run away now, only for his left leg to be quickly severed by Cedric. Things only got worse for the unfortunate boy as Cedric quickly cut off the rest of his limbs with a sadistic grin, whistling as he did so. Then, Cedric squeezing onto his head with the talisman covering his grip.
"Somebody please save me! Newbie! Newbie! Duncan!" Frank cried with tears in his eyes before Cedric crushed his head and removed his soul in the process.
"My silencing barrier is still in place you fool. He wouldn't have heard you anyways." Cedric said coldly to the now headless and limbless corpse, before absorbing his soul through his breath. Then, in a final act of cruelty towards Frank he lit the body on fire, leaving nothing but ashes of the juvie veteran.
It had been a week since Frank had escaped, and Duncan was not happy about it in the slightest. The number of people left in their class who hadn't vanished from the center was a measly nine, as the other 18 had broken free of its hold. Duncan made it a point to remember finding Frank and returning the hook he had borrowed once his sentence finished up in a couple of days.
Nowadays almost everyone on the male's side of the juvie had been subjugated to Mal's will. It had gotten to a point where he and goons were actively causing trouble for the fun of it. But not him though. Duncan only did bad for his own benefit and on his own terms. He wasn't going to let anyone tell him what to do.
However he made it a point to avoid Cedric. Though he refused to admit it to himself, he was absolutely terrified of the creepy top hat wearing boy ever since their previous encounter. The look of almost demonic fury on Cedric's face that day wasn't something that would leave Duncan anytime soon. That and there was just something off about him. Something horribly off.
At the moment Duncan was currently stepping out of the showers, since he was around the age he had to start regularly showering. After dressing himself he fully intended to head back to his room and enjoy the hour of TV he was given each day. With Frank gone, he didn't really talk to anyone else, so he saw no reason to come out much. And what would happen to him that day was a good reminder of why.
While walking to his room, he heard some noise coming from the other shower room nearby. He peeked in through a crack in the door to see Preston was arguing with Mal and Cedric "Listen up you little worm. You may think your hot shit, but I'm the toughest guy around here."
"Why are we even listening to this dumbass." Cedric picked at his pointed teeth, while Mal just glared at the arrogant fool.
"I'll tell you what nerds, just admit I'm better than you and give me all your men's and then you let you on your stupid baby ways. Otherwise I'll pound your faces in!. Preston sneered as he cracked his knuckles.
In response to this, Mal simply burst out laughing "Are you kidding me? I have a guy strong enough to throw people over a 50 foot wall and you're going to pound me?"
"Shut your trap stupid toddler! I'm ten times stronger then that British lapdog of yours." Preston gloated in Mal's face, while Cedric stepped up to confront the greaser.
What happened next shocked Duncan to his core. Cedric revealed a blade from his cane and stabbed Preston with it. The mad hatter then pulled his cane down to create an even larger cut, through which Cedric pulled out the intestines of his victim. Once that was done, Cedric reached up into the hole and grabbed Preston's lungs which he peeled the ribcage off of. This silenced the greaser's screams of agony. And then to finish him off, Cedric ripped out his heart.
"Kali ma. Kali ma." Cedric briefly chanted before smashing the heart in his face, and removing Preston's soul with the talisman around his hand. What disgusted Duncan even more was when Mal grabbed what was left of the heart with what appeared a black tentacle rising from his shadow and slid it into his mouth while Cedric inhaled the soul.
"That was delicious."
"A little uncivilized don't you think?" Cedric criticized his bosses' action before he heard the sound of someone throwing up from behind the door. Knowing they had been seen, Mal snapped signaling Cedric to pull Duncan out from behind the door with his telekinesis. "Looks like we've got an eavesdropper." Cedric said with a smile, before grabbing Duncan by the neck and pinning him to the wall. He then proceeded to do so a bit more literally by pulling Chesire from Preston's mutilated corpse and stabbing the young punk with it.
"No please I didn't see anything! I'm not saying anything!" Duncan pleaded with the demon, while Mal just chuckled.
"Of course you won't Duncan. Because dead men tell no tales. Ice him!"
"You got it boss!" Cedric smiled at his new victim with a chilly wind in one hand, and a red glowing talisman in his other one. The symbol engraved on it would haunt Duncan for the rest of his life. The veve of the loa Baron Samedi.
But right before contact could be made with Duncan and the icy spell in Cedric's hand a whole squad of miffed looking guards and SWAT members burst into the room. Apparently one had passed by making sure all the inmates were out of the showers, and came across the murder of Preston through the door on the other side of the room.
"Aw crap." Mal groaned in frustration upon being placed in steel cuffs.
Cedric however seemed much more content with this failure, and even smiled towards his partner in crime "Look at it this way, now my plan is one step closer to completion. Just keep hold of that body Mikey, and you'll be in on it." Upon hearing this Mal returned the evil smirk as he and Cedric were led out of the showers by the burly SWAT team.
All the while Duncan slid down the wall and into a fetal position as he watched Mal and Cedric getting led away and the guards taking away Preston's corpse in a body bag. Now, all he wanted was to get out of this place. But then he remembered the true circumstances behind the escapes, and decided he'd rather just stay put.
"So that's what happened to Preston…"
"Wait what happened next man?"
"They got Cedric to confess to killing all 19 of them and with everyone of them except for Preston he destroyed the bodies. They locked up Mal separate from the rest of the prisoners till his actual personality came back. Now they keep the lunatics locked up separately. The last thing I remembered of Cedric was them transferring him to America while he screamed like a lunatic. I thought he was locked up all this time. Never learned he broke out during the transfer."
"Wait a minute. Cedric never broke out. I sealed him off before he could."
"…Wait what do you mean that? He was out of that box when they pulled over!"
"I think I know what might have happened."
Cedric had been very content lately. Despite getting caught again he was going into the American borders and was one step closer to his ultimate goal of New Orleans, Louisiana. And these foolish humans were taking him there. All he had to do was break out of prison there, and make it to Louisiana.
As a result of this Cedric merely smiled as the policemen sealed him into the box he would live in for the next week or so. Knowing he was immortal, he didn't have to worry about malnutrition. All Cedric had to do was wait for the arrival. But then he lost consciousness.
While he was confused by this at first, Cedric just shrugged it off and smiled "Ah memories of this place. Memories of when I tricked that idiot Beanpole into giving me his body. I wonder if his soul's gone to the afterlife yet?"
"Not quite." Cedric's eyes widened when he heard a familiar hate filled voice from behind, so he turned around to see an unfrozen Cody glaring daggers at him "Been a while Hatter."
"Correctamundo Beanpole, it's been about a month since I put you under. Guess I should try again now that you've thawed out." Cedric created a pack of cigarettes which he lit with his pinkie finger.
"I'm not letting you take my body again Hatter!"
"Who said you were in control to begin with Beanpole." Cedric growled in a menacing tone, before shooting a large storm of flames from his palms. However Cody somehow created a large stone wall from the void.
"I don't care what you say Hatter this is still my mind. You can't beat me in here!" Cody screamed before creating massive blades from thin air, which he threw at Cedric.
Being a demon, Cedric was easily able to avoid the sharp projectiles and descended on Cody for a using his own telekinesis, Cody repelled the attack and sent Cedric flying. He then ran to where the demon landed, and used his imaginary strength to send Cedric back several feet.
After shaking out himself from the blow Cedric bit his wrist and began making a circle on the ground with his blood. The circle then began to light up and Cedric's palms began to blow with a magenta light "This is getting us nowhere Beanpole. And you interfering with my plans is getting on my nerves. So I'm going to end this here."
"What's that thing." Cody asked, preparing for the worst.
"This is the Seven Deadly Sins Seal, which will rip the skin off your soul and seal you in it. Only when all these sins are committed near the sealer will they break. Luckily for me, as long as no one's in fifteen feet of me I can keep resetting it. Now hold still while I skin you alive!"
In response to this Cody used his telekinesis to hold off the spell Cedric was trying fire at him. Cedric was doing the opposite of this trying to push the ball of demonic energy right into Cody. After a certain amount of pressure had been applied by the dueling boys, the ball exploded sending both of them flying back.
Cody quickly got back up, to see that Cedric was glaring angrily at him while seven chained hooks came from somewhere upward in the void "Congratulations Beanpole, I'm starting to despise you. But now I'll take care of you for good!" What happened next shocked both of them. A hook embedded itself into Cedric's skin.
"Shit! What's happening to me?" Cedric cried in pain as more hooks began to pierce his flesh and flay him alive.
"The spell. When it exploded from the pressure of our attacks, it must have hit you instead of me!" Cody came to the realization as all seven hooks pulled at Cedric's skin. In a disturbing sight, Cedric was completely skinned alive as he screamed in both rage and agony. Then he was wrapped in his own pelt.
"You stupid bastard! How dare you interfere with my plans! No one beats me at cards, you hear me nobody! When I get out of here I'll rip you apart and eat your ears and eyeballs! I'll be back! You'll never escape me! No one will ever be safe around you again Beanpole!"
Cedric continued to rant and rave until he was completely covered up by the bag of flesh, though judging by the occasional bulges in the bag he was still kicking at the bag. Within minutes he reached the top of the void and the chains welded themselves to the sections of the circle; the bag was then crystallized in what appeared to be purple gemstone, sealing the demon off.
Cody walked towards the circle memorizing its contents as the seven deadly sins. He remembered that the seal had to be reset and wasn't taking a step until he was sure how to do it. Once he was sure that he had it down, he felt the white void fading away.
The next thing Cody knew, he had awoken in his bedroom. The loa that had replaced him faded away when Cedric lost power, and all of its memories came flooding to his mind. The room seemed relatively untouched from the day Cedric turned his self in, and looked at the calendar on his computer to see it was a new year. He wanted to move on from this experience, but he knew that his life would never be the same again.
"Dude that's heavy." Tyler groaned in response to hearing the stories told by his friends, who looked very uncomfortable with recounting the trauma "But there's one thing I don't really get. Why is he so interested in New Orleans?"
"Because there's something there he needs. The final card in his plan. The original veve of Baron Samedi." Cody said cryptically while munching on a chocolate candy.
"And what exactly is that pipsqueak?" Duncan asked.
"It's a tapestry made by Baron Samedi self which he created his veve on. It contains some of the largest amount of black magic on the planet. It links directly to the loa, even while he's in hell. If it's combined with the talisman Cedric got from him, he could use it to open a white hole on the surface of the planet."
That monster!…What's a white hole again?" Tyler asked, confused by what Cody meant by that.
"It's the opposite of a black hole; it rejects everything that goes near it while a black hole pulls it in. Both of them are exits and entrances to the afterlife. And if Cedric opens a white hole with his talisman it will lead straight to hell, he can use his shadow loa to possess every other demon that comes through. Including Lucifer himself."
"Then why can't God just take him out after he does that. I think it's pretty safe to assume if something like Cedric exists, so can a God."
"Think about it, God is a being strong enough that eternity up till Earth was created seems like a week to him, and he made our entire species from a pair of Neanderthals, some dust, and one of his ribs. Imagine what a being with a fraction of that power could do to our galaxy alone. Even if God does get involved, the ensuing battle could cause a potential cosmic apocalypse." Cody revealed to the shock of Duncan and Tyler.
"So Cedric's plan is to destroy everything?"
"Sort of. If he releases every demon, of every species of the infinite number in the universe he'll have to power to turn the World of the Living into his plaything. He could smash planets together, cause supernovas to happen in nebulas, reverse magnetic polarities. He'll be able to raze everything for kicks. And those who survive will be subjugated to Baron Samedi's will. At least until Heaven gets involved."
"So what you're saying is that we've got to find that tapestry during the final before he can. Sounds like a plan, but how do we do it?" Duncan asked he walked towards the geek.
Cody merely smirked and pulled a tapestry out of his sweater vest "Because I bought it off an online auction years ago. Hatter doesn't know about it, and it's linked to my soul so he can't touch it."
"Alright! That's what I'm talking about bro!" Tyler stood up to high five the geek before wondering aloud "…So what do we do now?"
"I've got a plan for how we can take him out. If we can get the talisman and the tapestry, then we'll have the bastard in checkmate. Now listen well boys, cause the Codemeister's got the plan." Cody revealed his plan to the others. However he didn't seem to see the shadow loa watching them from the walls nearby.
(A/N): 19 down and 1 to go. I'm not going to lie, this chapter was hard to do at points. But now I've only got one chapter left and since I have an idea of how the final battle will go down, it shouldn't take more than a couple days to complete. On another note this was probably the most disturbing chapter I've written so far. But I guess in the end it's all been leading up to the final showdown next time. And I will try to make it as great possible for you all.
Please follow, favorite, and review while you still can and do the same to Lord NV's stories, Voodoo's Disciple: Peanut Gallery, and Total Drama Eden. I'll see you all for the next and final time very soon ;).
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