A/N: please be advised before reading this. I used to counsel inmates in prison, and heard both inspiring stories of redemption as well as the shocking reality of those who liked the way they were. This story is an attempt to explore some of what I witnessed (through the medium of Warcraft) as well as come to terms with some things I saw.
Please understand, readers: I do not enjoy the characters here. I am not getting some sort of excitement out of writing what evil people do; this is only an attempt to cope with some of the worse stuff I learned of. Nothing more.
This warning will be repeated at the beginning of each of the four chapters. This is a lead in to the much, much lighter 'Before Summer's End.' If this story is difficult to read, then you will learn its resolution in that story and I won't be offended if anybody reads that without reading this.
You've been warned...continue at your own peril.
Earl stood behind Wrecking Ball as the group of four hid behind a large earthen outcropping formed by jutting tree were close enough to the river that the sound of the flow would drown out their whispering, and could speak with relative freedom. It had been a few minutes since Mei Guo had scouted ahead to follow the winding, uneven footprints of the worgen couple, and the others were beginning to grow impatient.
"It's been too long; we need to act decisively!" The Hulk demanded.
"You don't know what decisiveness even means," retorted Wrecking Ball with more than a little condescension in his voice.
"Things are going nowhere with us just waiting here, though!"
Always the most patient in the group, Earl peeked over his squat yet burly comrade's shoulder and waited. He'd partnered with the pandaren rogue enough times to know the boss wouldn't disappoint. It was only a matter of time.
A few more minutes of bickering later, and the devil himself crept out of the shadows. He was taking his sweet time, and the level of comfort he exuded insinuated that he must be feeling rather confident. It proved infectious, and the others soon quieted down as the leader of their merry band of thieves and murderers walked without a hint of stealth about him.
"He fell."
Everyone stood in silence for a moment as they basked in their success.
Once the moment had lived out its time, the blasphemous priest got down to the more significant matters.
"The wife is mine," Earl proclaimed without any justification given.
He needed none, apparently, as he was only met by smiled and nods before he continued. "How bad does he look?" the Hulk asked.
"He only fell about a minute or so ago," the boss explained. "The poison is most likely hitting him hard by now, making him feel nauseous but not allowing him to throw up. If we leave now, we can catch him just as the drowsiness kicks in and knock him out hard."
"Let's roll!" One Ear Guy said in a totally original and non-cliche way, eager for the group to move in for the kill.
Mei Guo led and the others followed, their weapons clinking but their expressions as unassuming as possible. Of course, the couple would know what was happening the moment they saw all of them assembled without their bags and tools, but pretending they were still deceiving was part of all the fun. The last time, Earl had continued claiming they were there to help the old man at the camp they'd stolen get some rest as he stabbed the half dead geezer in the chest repeatedly. He hoped he could come up with some new lines this time, but he would never plan it out; it was always more fun to allow the taunts to come naturally.
Nobody spoke as they hurdled down the road. Along with Earl himself, the Hulk was practicing his best concerned face; up to the very last minute, most of them would still pretend to be coming to the couple's aid. It didn't take long before the marks were in sight, and Earl couldn't have been more pleased.
Clutching his chest, the husband had fallen to one knee and was panting heavily. The wife held both palms over the top of her snout, a look of worry plastered across her wolffish face. She stood before him but didn't help; the one time she tried, he waved her away and dry heaved hoarsely. It only took her a moment to see the group of five approaching, and at the sign of tension in her demeanor, Mei Guo waved for the rest of them to stop. Earl moved forward at his prompting, putting on his best concerned friar act.
"Has he vomited, or has he kept the stew down?" Earl asked, stepping around to the side so the husband could see him clearly. There was no reason to cause the couple alarm just yet.
The husband tried to life his head only for a split second before letting it droop back down. Earl knew that sort of body language; the man didn't want to let on how sick he really was. For sure he must have suspected foul play, but seemed to be banking on his intuition being wrong. The wife, for her part, looked a bit perturbed as well but didn't seem afraid of the berobed, portly priest.
"Not yet, Brother Stevenson, but he appears to have food poisoning," the wife admitted sadly. She must have realized they had little else to do save appeal for help. "Are you sure...did any of you experience issues with the stew?"
"That was nearly the case, I'm afraid," Earl lied, making it all up as he went along. "Tell me, my friend, do you feel capable of standing up?" It was a rash move, but excitement prevented him from his usual patience.
The husband did manage to look Earl in the face, and he saw the deliriousness in the man's eyes. He didn't seem to be in pain so much as he was simply feeling very ill, and his previous hesitation seemed to have disappeared - perhaps due to the delirium. "I'm not so sure, now...I can try."
Earl had to fight off a grin when the man didn't even bother asking why. Making sure to stay on the opposite side of the man from his wife, Earl tucked his hands into his oversize sleeves as he moved in front of the warrior. Earl's back was to the river and he held the mark's attention perfectly; Mei Guo and One Ear Guy ambled away and pretended to look back toward the north end of the road to appear as though not all attention was focused on them.
Whether their unease remained or not, the husband complied, obviously trusting in the medical knowledge of the supposed 'Brother Stevenson.' Rising up, the husband wobbled slightly and stopped before reaching his full height. Earl leaned in close and pretended to inspect the man's eyes, scratching an imaginary itch on his right ear as a signal...
"Stop!" the wife cried, but to no avail.
::THUD::
The huge husband flew forward upon being shoved from behind by Wrecking Ball and the Hulk. Too exhausted to even grunt, he hit the ground chest first, hard, and not a sound escaped his jaws. His two handed sword and its sheathe fell loose from his back strap as he slid down the riverbank, and he lied entirely motionless and halfway in the water. His wife ran forward and then back, clearly flustered and unsure of what to do.
Before anyone else could act, the dumb animal ran in between the wife and the merry bandit band in an attempt to protect her, baa-ing like an idiot.
"You won't be needing this," Mei Guo chuckled as he ran his axe blade underneath the talbuk's neck, stroking the back of its head as though he were tending to a loved one.
The mount crumpled to the ground pathetically, dropping its cargo into a pool of its own blood. The others dragged both potential fresh meat and plundered cargo away, leaving Earl to his own machinations as promised. The wife moved toward her unconscious husband, who was now forgotten and ignored by the group; he was very lucky they took more interest in his possessions than in ending his life for fun.
The wife stopped when Earl took a step in her direction. Frozen in place, she seemed utterly confused, as though she was unused to violence. Grinning, the human noticed that one of the mercenaries had nothing to do while the others tore open the carton.
"Hey Wrecking Ball," Earl called behind himself as the wife wrung her hands silently, unsure of whether it was safe for her to rush to her husband's side or not.
"Yeah?"
"Watch my back, will you? The little lady and I have an appointment that requires...devoted attention." Although his cheesy line was a bit vague, the tone of voice and the look he shot the paralyzed wife sent his message loud and clear.
At first, she didn't run. Earl imagined that everything was happening in slow motion for her, like some sort of nightmare. And when he saw the quaking begin - first in her shoulders, then in her arms - he knew she was beaten. She wouldn't even cling to her husband's worthless body as she was dragged off into the bushes.
All pretense gone, Earl charged. He didn't even try to grab her; his only goal was to terrify her. To fill her with morbid fear until she couldn't breathe. Letting out a yelp, she ran, holding up her dress and stumbling over the uneven ground. It was almost too easy, and the human hummed with an excited whining noise through his nostrils as Wrecking Ball, following but hanging back a good ways, laughed out loud.
Across the main road and through the woods she ran, not even crying out for help. Earl had gone through this so many times, with so many women and girls; he lost count after the first dozen or so. Some of them shouted at first, but they all quieted down into a whimper eventually - once he broke them. That was the point. He didn't even go all the way with some of them. What he was after was the domination: the complete and total dismantling of another sentient being. Earl didn't even want them to beg. He wanted to push them beyond the point of even bothering.
After the wife stumbled over a clearly visible tree root, Earl begin to piece her personality together and then pick it apart based on experience. This woman was unathletic and had likely never been pushed so hard. He began to doubt his earlier premonition that she was unused to violence when she refused to scream; they always screamed if it was their first time. No, this...this one had been broken before. She had to have been controlled somehow. Her movements were frantic yet uncoordinated, as though her adrenaline did nothing to fuel her body. That was terror, he knew for a fact. The kind of terror when their legs wouldn't respond properly to their brain. And when she stepped right in a little hole in the grass that she should have seen, Earl knew she was reliving something. If it was so vivid that her mind straddled both the present and the past so intensely, then it must have been with a stranger before too, rather than with a relative or a friend of the family.
So excited he couldn't even cackle, Earl pressed on, running directly behind her but intentionally not catching up so she could feel the vibration of his footsteps in her own feet. Her dress and surgical apron prevented her from running straight, and her lack of coordination slowed her down. Still, Earl wasn't in the best of shape and knew he'd lose his wind soon. Reaching forward, he snagged the back of her blouse and held two folds of cloth with his grubby hands, forcing her to pull his body weight.
She pleaded, but weakly. She didn't even bother raising her voice, and paroxysms of ecstasy coursed through Earl's veins both at the physical sensation of her struggling and the mental sensation as her weak voice trailed off.
Exhausted from stress, she hit the dirt and crawled against a tree trunk. Finally turning to face him, she reared back with her leg as if to kick him.
"Go ahead," he dared her. "Do it. See what happens."
Opening her long mouth momentarily, she croaked as sound refused to exit, and she struggled to keep her threatening leg up from the strain. Earl became paralyzed himself as horror filled her eyes. The woman had to be nearly seven feet tall and she made no attempt to fight back. Sarcastically thanking an Almighty he didn't actually believe in, he reveled in the absolute control of another living being. He continued staring even when her breathing became shallow and she looked around, hoping for some sort of miracle to drop out of the sky.
"Nobody is coming to help you," he taunted in a low voice, allowing the spittle to collect at the corners of his mouth now that he no longer had to concern himself with making an impression. "There is no relief, no solution waiting to surprise you at the last minute. There is no way out, no way to avoid this." Channeling the hate he held for every woman who ever rejected him, proved him wrong in an argument or stepped in front of him in a public street, Earl leaned close and knelt down slightly, laughing as she tried to back up even further against the tree trunk. "And you know that."
The last line hit her especially hard. Shaking her head rapidly, she tried batting his hand away as he reached forward. Despite having larger hands than the pudgy human, she was trembling so much that she couldn't muster the strength to push him away. He let her try, searching for what made her cringe the most, and the he saw it.
She kicked her heels into the dirt when his hand came near her snout.
That's where it had happened before. Earl always knew. Pushing against her hands, he ran a single finger along her muzzle, pulling back once he had finished. And when she opened her eyes, she knew she had been exposed. A transition occurred, and he saw all the disgust she felt for him transfer back onto herself. Deep, choked sobs from the very depths of her soul filled the air as she curled around her knees, no longer bothering to defend herself. And Earl absolutely loved it. He didn't even interrupt the symphony of torment to touch her again as he listened.
He was so enraptured that he didn't even hear the commotion behind him.
::SNAP:: ::SNAP:: ::SNAP:: ::SNAP::
"Yyyeeeeaaaarrrrggggghhh!" Earl screamed as four of his fingers broke across both hands when he tried to catch his fall from the body being knocked into his back.
Biting blood from his tongue as his teeth clattered, he just barely avoided face planting as he hit the dirt several yards away. His four fingers were bent backward in the most shocking way possible, and the pins and needles only added to the burning pain in the rapidly swelling joints. Tears pricked at his eyes as the pain wouldn't decrease, and he panicked even more when they wouldn't even twitch in response to his motor strip's command. When he turned, he only had a split second to see Wrecking Ball jump back up and unsheathe his sword. The orc only managed to stay in the fight for a few seconds before his hand was cut off by a massive two handed sword.
"Argh!" Wrecking Ball cried in a high pitched voice as his hand fell uselessly to the ground. He clutched the bloody stump to no avail, cringing and doubling over like a coward instead of trying to pick up his sword with his free hand.
Crying openly, Earl snapped his fingers back into place in two motions, whimpering like a slapped child in the process. Snot caught in his throat as he tried to understand what had happened.
Between the trees, One Ear Guy ran by and glanced at the squealing human.
"RUN BITCH RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!"
In a state of mortal terror, Earl turned as he tried to haul his pot bellied carcass off the ground only to come face to face with the worgen woman. Both of them stood on their knees, frozen as they looked at each other. Her breathing was still heavy, but she refused to budge, glued to her spot in front of him and blocking him from the quickest escape route. Pain and adrenaline fueled rage inside the human's heart, only for it to burn out with a whimper in a way which caused Earl physical pain in his chest. Both of them had tears running from their eyes, but the wife had changed. Something wasn't right. The sensation of pins and needles returned to Earl's broken fingers and nausea bit as his stomach as he tried to deny what his intuition was telling him: she wasn't afraid of him anymore.
The v shape of her eyebrows had flipped upside down, and a growl filled Earl's ears as the terror he had instilled in her transferred to himself. Once weak and jello-like limbs stretched taut, and the quaking in her shoulder's wasn't the sort he recognized as being from fear. Rapidly shaking, he felt the sense of control escape him, leaving him cold and alone in front of a dangerous woman much larger than himself. She stalked toward him as though she had not a worry in the world, and just when he tried shouting a feeble warning at her, she struck.
"Nooooooo!" Earl screamed in a high pitched voice as the woman slashed at his groin with her claws.
Three of her sharp-ended fingers cut into the groin of his robe; one of them caught on the fabric and left two to poke through.
Two of her fingers cut into his underwear, opening a hole; one of them caught on the fabric and left one to poke through.
Her last finger connected with his scrotum, dragging the claw backward and tearing something open in the most excruciating pain he'd ever felt in his life.
It was all the motivation he needed, and the human narrowly avoided a second swipe as he bolted and ran, clutching his privates in reaction to the dripping sensation he felt between his legs. Soon enough, it became difficult to discern what exactly it was. Only as if to mock him, the Light responded to his pitiful sobs and sealed closed whatever cut she had opened, ending one source of pain but ignoring another.
At every step he took as he fled behind One Ear Guy, agony pounded at Earl's side. It caused him to limp awkwardly and slowed down his escape as pressure mounted just below his navel. His running hampered by the lightning fast pain in his abdomen, Earl let go of all dignity and released his clenched muscles in order to run unimpeded and defecated in his underwear. The stench was horrendous but the pain in his gut ceased every time he strode once his bowels had been emptied, and his loose motion enabled him to speed up. A quick glance back only gave him a glimpse of Wrecking Ball being sliced in half from head to groin, and Earl could only wonder what had befallen the Hulk.
Mei Guo sprinted ahead of them both, and the three ignored Wrecking Ball's death groan as they all ran for dear life, not even paying attention to which way they were going.
A/N: I actually had to stop writing this for a while halfway through Earl's scene. It's sad that people like that exist in the real world. That was lying around in my head for years since first listening to someone tell the story, and it always hurt a little when it popped into my head unresolved at random times. That isn't the end of this trio, as we find in the next and last chapter...I hope readers can forgive me in this one instance for giving a spoiler by saying that I'm not finished with these guys yet.