AN: This is one of my chapters where I was trying to get creative. I'll continue to work on the story and it's chapter while trying to create another storyline. I do work for school district still. Anyway Here's the chapter. Enjoyed.
Warning: There may be some disturbing moment in this chapter, including some violence that occurred. Viewers are advised.
Chapter 2: The deadly night
Far from the river park, a school, Fresno State, where students were minding their business, night class, rehearsals, hangout, etc.
Across the college is campus point, a small plaza for stores, like Pieology, Mad Ducks.
In front is the theater, Maya Cinemas. Many have come to see movies, Joker 2 or others. Two people comes out through the door, with one of them holding Popcorn. Their names were Frank and Thomas. Frank was a tall thin fella while Thomas was short and thin. They were walking back Frank's car behind the theater.
"Honestly, what do you think of this sequel?" Frank asked, "better than the first one?"
"Nothing is better than the original Beetlejuice," Thomas answered, "but I guess it was good."
"Like how you would rate it?" Frank asked, "I would say at least 8.5 out of ten."
"For me," Thomas said, "I would say at least 8 for me. They would have included some stop motion animation, like the first one."
"That's fair," Frank said, "but what about the actors?"
"Jenna was actually fine, I suppose," Thomas said, "I really appreciated what she tried."
"True, I'll give you this," Frank said, "She did portray as a gothic person like Wednesday."
"The Netflix series?" Thomas asked, "I'm almost close to an end. I can see why she got this role."
They reached the car as Frank unlocked it. As they got inside the car, they heard a sound, like a thud. They look around and see nothing. They gave each other confused stares.
"You heard that, right?" Thomas asked.
"Yeah," Frank said, "but where did it-"
Out of nowhere, a body slammed the car in front of them. The Duo startled and hugged in horror. They screamed for a moment before they released themselves and got out of the car.
They were terrified to see a motionless body in front of the car. Bloods were spread all over the hood. The duo walks up to it and attempt to reach for the body, only it fell to the ground. Bloods were now dripping down to the ground. The duo tried to look around for other witnesses, but none were around.
"We need to call someone," Frank said.
"On it," Thomas said as he dialed on his phone. He hopes someone could answer. Luckily, a dispatcher answered.
"911, what is the emergency?" dispatcher asked.
"There's a dead body in front of my friend's car." Thomas said, "It's behind Maya cinema in the parking lot. The body looks like he was-"
Thomas hears a gunshot, close to him. Yet, he sees his phone drop to the ground. The phone was shot and shattered. He and Frank ducked and covered. They heard more gunshots yet couldn't see where it's coming from. The gunshot was close to them until it stopped. The duo looks around and see people running from the place. The duo turns to face each other.
"We need to get out of here now," Thomas panicking said, "We need to get to the campus fast."
"I was thinking the same, Thomas," Frank said, "Let's go!"
They begin to run through the parking lot. As they were close to the road, they were stopped by a black-clothed figure. Frank and Thomas were horrified to see the figure. He was wearing a black trench-coat long down to his shoe. He has a chain around his arms and his body. He wears a shoulder pad with knives attached with more sharpness. He also wears a necklace, resembling a Panda in robotic looks. His face is covered in a mask resembling a panda face mask attached to a helmet with horns and eye's vision were dark red.
"Evening, Frank and Thomas," a figure said through his mask like a speaker, "sorry for the body, but he was considered a rude person, not giving me information."
Out of nowhere, more figures in suits and black clothing form a circle with the figure part of them, circling around the duo, trapping them with their weapons armed and ready towards them. Frank and Thomas were scared to see all of them and viewed themselves as targets. The Figure leader steps in to the duo.
"At ease, my troops," The figure leader commanded the figures, a group of his troopers. The troopers lowered their weapon down.
"Who are you?" Thomas shockingly asked.
"Allow me to introduce myself," The Figure leader said, "I'm the slayer of both sides. I'm the virus that spreads with fear. I am The Dark Minder."
His troops raised their feet and stomped to the ground three times. Frank and Thomas had no words to this, stunt less.
"The Dark Minder?" Frank asked as he realized something about the name. Same goes to Thomas.
"Ain't you the fella who murdered Pastor Peter years ago?" Thomas asked the leader. The Dark Minder clinched his left hand into a fist. The troops looked at their leader, startled. The duo looks at the leader, feeling a bit scared. Dark Minder then lifts his hand up, which startled Frank and Thomas. His left hand is mechanical, a mixture with metallic dark silver. The Dark Minder stared at his hand.
"Never mention him again," The Dark Minder said with anger tone, "he's worth nothing to me." He stares at his hand with sympathy, before switched his eyes towards the duo.
"So," said The Dark Minder, "I decided to took his life and keep a part of him on me." He pointed to his shoulder pads, and arms, giving a goosebumps for Frank and Thomas.
There were symbols attached to his arm and the pad. There were few cross signs with blood stained, few rainbow flag pins with blood stained, a red elephant pin, a blue donkey pin, and now have other symbols, like the religious Pagan, Voodoo.
Frank and Thomas are frightened to see the deceased symbols
"And I'm sure people like you don't want to end up in my arms and shoulders, do you?" The Dark Minder asked the duo. The duo shook their heads.
"Good," The Dark Minder said, "Now, where can I find this man?" He touched the right side of his facemask, tapped it, and a projection came out, revealing an image of a man in his 60s. He wears clear glasses, while having a gray beard and a mustache. Frank and Thomas looked at the elder man. They both stared hard to refresh their minds.
"Hey," Thomas said, "ain't that the scientist from CART?"
"I was thinking the same," Frank said, "His name is Dr ... .Dr…..I can't even remember his damn name."
"Dr. Shawn," Thomas answered.
"Yeah, Dr. Shawn, that's the guy," Frank said, "Thanks Thomas."
"Anytime," Thomas
"Wait," Frank said, "Wasn't he gonna be at the convention tomorrow?"
"Oh yeah he is," Thomas said, "I'm pretty sure he was demonstrating his project-"
"Quit your nerdy self!" The Dark Minder interjected, "Now where is he?"
"We don't know about him, honest!" Thomas and Frank said simultaneously.
"We just know that he's going to appear at the convention tomorrow," Frank beggingly said.
"Just over at Fresno fairground," Thomas said in mercy, "That's all we know, man. Don't hurt us!"
The Dark Minder stared at the duo as they were begging for mercy. He reaches to the side of his facemask, and deactivates the projection. His facemask eyes turned to blue.
"That's all I need to know," The Dark Minder said, "Thanks for the intel, you two." The Dark Minder walks away from the duo. Frank and Thomas were relieved that they were spared. At least what they think before…
"If only you couldn't make a call," The Dark Minder said, earning a horrified looks from Frank and Thomas.
"Kill them both," The Dark Minder commanded. The troops then lift their weapon, blasters, towards the duo and begin to fire at them.
Frank and Thomas tried to run, but were shot in their bodies, multiple bullets went through them, spilling out their bloods out. They collapsed to the ground, motionless. The bloods begin to spread out next to them. They were dead.
The Dark Minder looks back at the duo.
"It's a shame they thought they were gonna live," The Dark Minder said as he leaned over to the duo's bodies. He spots two pins from their shirts, one was an avatar "A" symbol, and the other was a batman symbol. He snatched the pins and attached it to his left arm by welded it. He looks at them amused.
"They would never learn," The Dark Minder said as he then turned to his cyborg arm. The arm begin to have a monitor in the forearm, speaking to it like a radio.
"Captain James, come here," The Dark Minder said to the radio.
"Yes, sir," Captain James said from the radio.
The dark Minder then faced the rest of his troops.
"The rest of you, get rid of the evidence at once," The Dark Minder commanded. The troopers begin to lift the dead bodies off the ground, including the duo's and the body they killed earlier. They buried it in the trash box. Some have wiped the blood off the ground. Some troopers deployed some of the tech, the size of an apple, towards the car. It automatically activated and the tech, Atom, shrinked the car as it was shrinking down into nothing.
Out of nowhere, a portal, size of a door where a figure comes through the portal, steps up towards the leader. His name was Captain James. He wore a black military uniform suit with red and silver stripes. His hat resembled a peaked cap, only it was decorated with black along with red and silver strip with the robot panda symbol in front.
"Captain James, reporting, sir," Captain James said, "What is your command?"
"I have a job for you tomorrow," The Dark Minder said, "for tomorrow might get interesting."
AN: Well, at least we get the name from the figure. In case you are confused, the figure from the prologue chapter and the figure from this chapter are the same person. I was originally gonna hold the name for later chapter, but I guess I can put in here, just to give an idea for the readers who pondering the character since prologue. That's the only clue I can give for the fella until then.
I decided to adapt the names Frank and Thomas as an homage to Disney legendary animators, Frank Thomas, only I used it as a different person, well two different people because I split the names in two. I based the duos from people i knew from the past who are nerds.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Until next time.