American Albino, Chapter XI: Dawnbreaker
Some words are best unsaid. Shit happens, it's everywhere in nature because it's from us. All of it, human in nature. The mass hysteria in Dadetown-
DIDJA SEE ALL THAT?! THE EXECUTION OF BILL FUCKING MAUSSE!
Im not in support of wannabe vigilantes, it wont last long until they kill the wrong person. you ask me, this jerry cruise person should turn himself in. the incomplete police force made no attempt to arrest him.
Wow, the video-
-Number one trending on various social media platforms, in what can only be described as a conspiracy-
#CRAZY
Oh yeah, I was there holding nunchucks. Next to Billy Barton, and that young man of white hair just kills the junkie. Hey, none of us liked him, but say, what gives him the right to play judge, just and executioner?
Patrick Matthews was-
Patrick Matthews-
The guy running for town office was the one-
Hello, I'm Michael Packer, and I'm here to reveal the content of which I have seen-
Jerry Cruise exposed Matthews and his friends! The sheriff was racist, we knew this line Carole Baskin killed her husband, but damn, a cannibal?! All those pieces of corpses were confirmed-
-Has identified missing teenager Jenna Anderson among the corpses-
THAT'S INSANE, HOLY SHIT! MERCENARIES AND CANNIBALS FOR FRIENDS?! THIS IS NOT WHO I'D WANT FOR MAYOR! #MATTHEWSISCANCELED
Friendly reminder that Patrick Matthews and Jessica Dawson are still missing (on the run) as of yet. No word on Jerry Cruz's whereabouts either. Edit: Oh, it seems it's Cruise. My mistake.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT-
That's a whole lotta death.
That poor girl was shot in the head... I- I can't forget seeing that... The Cruise man said her name was Heather but they've been withholding her full name. It is a tragedy I wish I could unsee.
Fourteen not killed, but devoured.
Hey, Cruise killed David Khan, too. Is this guy really a bad guy or some sort of bloodthirsty Batman? When was the last vigilante we had in America? He exposed Matthews, give him a medal, not a sentence!
Murder is still murder, last I checked.
HAIL HITLER, Y'ALL.
Hearing rumors around the police that there was a shootout in a meth lab. A bunch of Neo-Nazis bit the big one, and they're saying Jerry Cruise was behind it. You don't think this guy really is a real-life hero, do you? He's only been gunning the monsters, and witnesses at the precinct say he only killed Mausse and made no attempt to harm them when they were calling for his blood. That really means something, don't you think?
Dadetown really went to the toilet.
GIRL IN BLACK SEEN FLYING IN THE SKY! REAL OR FAKE?!
I think we can all agree that everyone is some sort of nut. Burn Dadetown to the ground and be done with it.
One Week Later - Minneapolis, Minnesota
The pair had some chamomile tea to ease the nerves. The house was quiet, the entire yard that overlooked the balcony was splendidly empty. No kids to disturb them both. They were glad, they hated kids. It was nice to be home, to feel at home. Patrick sipped his third sip from the cup. "Ahhh, nice and soothing "
"As it should be, Pat," Jessica grinned from across the table. "It sucks that we had to drop everything, but here, who reads the paper and watches the news from a town? Granted I'll definitely dye my hair, you need a cut just like I told you."
"And I said I will," the long-haired man nodded. "I've gotten that covered-"
"So you say," Jessica laughed. "So you say."
"Didn't think you'd kill that poor girl, after finding that she was pregnant."
"You thought wrong," she laughed, taking a sip herself.
"That was really cold, it almost scared me," he admitted. "She was with child, I mean. I bet Cruise thought it might have been a lie to keep him on a monologue."
"Maybe..." She shrugged her shoulders. "We'll never know now. Hey, twenty bucks says he killed himself out of guilt."
"You're on!" Matthews scratched his nose. "By the way, I do think that the Lincoln Loud kid in Michigan might be Cruise's kid. Wheete-Glass' system somehow identified Cruise as Lincoln Loud. There is the single connection of their hair, so I know theyve gotta be related."
"What, you wanna kidnap the kid?"
"Maybe the girl wasn't enough..." Matthews expressed anger. "Cruise killed my friends, I want to take as much as he did from me."
"I'm not in the mood for child kidnapping, Pat. You can do thst yourself, but I'm not helping you."
"Final answer?"
"Just kill the child," Dawson bluntly suggested. "Through someone else, I mean."
"Yeah? I'll be sure to send you, sweetheart."
"Don't be an ass!" Jessica moaned. "There is only so much I'll do for you, you're lucky that girl dying was in range."
"Yeah? You did everything I've asked of you so far," he thought. "Anyways, I wonder where Cruise is right about now."
"Right here," Lincoln revealed, standing behind Matthews with a handgun, not hesitating to shoot Dawson in her stomach with a suppressed handgun. The ex-cop fell back while still in her chair, moaning from the pain. Matthews was the struck with a swing of the gun to his forehead. "That's it, you're gonna be real quiet now."
"What the-?!" Matthews cried. "How did you-?!"
"Magic." Lincoln set duct tape down on the table in front of him. "You piece of shit, you're gonna do what I tell you-"
"KILL HIM, PAT!"
"Or you die!" Lincoln threatened. "GET UP! GET UP AND TAPE DAWSON TO THE CHAIR!"
This was my endgame. Thought about what they said versus what I wanted. Yeah, death was too forgiving, too merciful. You see, I figured now that life was some sort of pain. No, not life. Existing. That was pain. Death was merciful. I could leave him alive so that he could live with all that he'd done. He had not once stepped in before. Matthews here barked the orders, never did anything himself. He could make people delete stuff off of board forums. He could lie to people, trick them into giving them money. A whole lot of deception under the belt but he was never one to dive into violence directly. Every corner, he ran. They fought for him and he ran, what a coward.
That was it. That was how I could break him.
Lincoln watched Matthews tape Dawson's arms to the chair, followed by her upper body to the support, and then her mouth shut when she was frantically screaming while she bled. He didn't care.
"Okay, okay, I've-"
"Do you know what I want you to do to her next?" Lincoln circled around them both. "Take her clothes off. All of it. Get her naked, you piece of shit."
He stripped her down as I told him. The fucker actually popped a boner as he took her bra off and saw her breasts. I knew she'd get cold and highly emnbarassed, but that wasn't the goal here. For a lifetime of nightmares, this is the penance.
"Her skin, Pat," Lincoln pointed to. "Claw at her skin! Peel it all off, skin her alive right now!"
"S-SKIN HER ALIVE?! ARE YOU CRAZY?!"
"MMMMF FMMM FFFMMMMMM!" Jessica Dawson turned red in fury.
"You tossed money at the killers, the sinners who would do anything for it. You and your briberies got you at a cozy little spot in some tower. This tower with a foundation of too many bodies and victims of this madness. I will never know who and how many of them you've hurt and killed to be this high up. Yeah, I know. I know you've fallen but it doesn't mean fucking shit if you never paid for all that you've done. I told myself I'd be the one to hurt you the eay you'll understand. So you're gonna kill this girl I know you care for."
"No... No!"
"Oh, yes!" Lincoln kicked at Matthews' back, forcing him on his knees right in front of Jessica. "You'll use your fingernails, you'll dig them into her skin and you peel her until she dies from the loss of blood."
"MONSTER!"
"Me?" Lincoln laughed. "I didn't start this, it was you and your friend Bart. You thought I'd be a victim, but you were wrong. Today, I am your downfall. Now get to peeling!"
And he did as I said with my gun pointed at his head. She cried out harder the more he pulled on her skin. It was graphic as you could imagine. She oozed out blood like a leaky bag of... Well, use your imagination! He turned her into a doll of nasty flesh- and he threw up at halfway before he bothered to finish. He couldn't finish, he broke into tears, and then started spewing gibberish. I could only assume his own mind broke from this extreme trauma. Yeah, even for me it was extreme.
"JESS! JESSIE!"
"That's right, the woman's luck has run out. Good riddance to her."
Matthews threw up again, sobbing greatly.
"You can try... You can try and tell the judge that the father of Lincoln Loud made you kill her. No, don't even use my name, use these words like I said and see how far it gets you."
I wasn't worried, they'd follow up on it and see and discredit this claim if he made it. He killed Dawson but saying it was me would likely mean the nuthouse. Reason of insanity, it was poetic, it was perfect. All the nightmares the man had caused, now reverted back to him with one single death. Have it, have what the victims on your hand on your head. Now and forever, until you die.
Until you die...
Lincoln took his exit, leaving Patrick Matthews to be found by the police.
Feels funny... Chloe and the kid I put in her oven, gone. Just like that, no second chances. You could be damn certain it hurt me. Catch me saying otherwise and it would be some lie. Her, Heather, and the Blacklist amateurs got dead because of me. That officer, too. Bail, yeah. Damn... I made the mistake of wandering about and not actually just go into hiding. How stupid of me, right?
Lincoln took another sip from the rum he had, back in the bar where he first met Chloe in. The bartender had looked over his shoulder. "Hey, Loud, what happened to Chloe?"
"She's long gone, man," Lincoln replied, taking another sip of rum. "Ahhhhh."
"I see..." The bartender nodded, turned away to tend to another client, and then went back over to him. "So, Jerry Cruise, huh?"
"...Shit, how much for you to keep quiet?"
"Oh, I don't think I'll ever tell a soul, your secret is safe with me," the bartender assured. "Did you ever tell her, though?"
"Nope, it compromises a bit of my past- So that means to not look into it, sir."
"I'm not trying to die," the bartender laughed.
"Hey, I never did get a name..." Lincoln dug out a hundred dollar bill and laid it on the counter. "Just to be sure."
"Hey, thanks," he swiped it off the counter and tucked it into his pants. "I'm Rainer."
"Real name?"
"Nope, just what they call me. I'm a party-pooper variety type."
"Ahhh, I get it."
"Of course you do, ha."
Spent a bit talking to this dude... Then I got bored and fucked off to anywhere but here. Jesus... I felt rather empty, shit was boring now that I wasn't doing anything anymore. Top priority was returning to 2030, but geez, I wish I could have time-jumped forward. I'm... I'm gonna fucking age fifteen years while it circles back. Fifteen plus twenty-four...
Man, I want to kill myself.
They'd soon find Matthews in a fetal position around Dawson's body. Matthews had written two words on a piece of paper and then taped it over Dawson's chest. The message read;
Jerry Cruise is Jessica Dawson's Breaker
Clearly, Matthews didn't think this through, for the note was then pressed upon with blood, and the message had changed drastically. The first four words had sunk into the flesh, and a few letters disappeared from the fifth word. It now read;
Dawn Breaker
And while I wait for the future, I'll have to relive certain things again. COVID-19. The World War III scare in 2023. Freight news. Oh yeah, the president died recently. Surprised I didn't hear of it. Good... Bad, it was that other me. Freights. Fuck me.
Lincoln moaned as he walked down the street.
May you rest in peace, Chloe and Heather. You deserved so much more... But to each their own. And to you all, anyone else around- behave yourself. I'm going to go into hiding for the next fifteen years. Don't bother me.
End. Wanted to knock it out as fast as possible, the main story's gotta be back on track. And now I can finally advance. I'm not talking too much but a few characters in this arc are gonna come back. Not telling you who, nor how but they will. One such character is essential for another's arc. I've got it all planned, baby!
Act VI: Renaissance will take us not to the beginning of the fic, but around Act III again. I'll know take the time to work some chinks out to make sure I get it right.