I sighed. It was a boring day, as usual. I walked the same boring street as always without minding my surroundings or even my own mind. I perceived nothing but my own boredom, as I passed through yet another boring street. 

I hate concrete, it’s so gray and dull. I hate the grass, it’s so itchy and green. I hate the sunny sky, it’s so bright. And I hate the cloudy sky, it’s so dull.

I passed through yet another street whose name escaped me even after 15 years, numerous loud instances of shouting reaching my ears.

My feet stopped as I arrived at the bridge, the only thing in this entire city I particularly liked. There was no spectacular reason why, beyond the simple colorful poles they had put on either side of the bridge. They were simply silly, and slightly lifted my head whenever I walked past. As I crossed the bridge I noticed how unusually full it was, hundreds of people crowded around and shouting.

I looked to the sides. There was a man standing on the other side of the railings, looking like he was about to jump. He was being held by several men who shouted at him and prevented him from jumping off, while the man struggled against their grip. He failed to free himself from their tearing hands, as more people arrived and he was ‘rescued’. I turned around and disregarded it all, when I heard the sound of metal tearing. 

Turning around, I saw an usual sight. All those previously surrounding the man laid dead on the ground, their bodies turned into pieces. The bridge itself had been dealt a huge blow, though the poles themselves were safe. Less important than the status of those poles was a big green blob of… something, several tentacles extended from it’s body and seemed to hold onto the bridge and the dead ‘rescuers’.

For a second, there was a blissful silence. Then, the screaming began. People kept yelling for help, saying to call the FFPA, or simply running for their lives. Yet… oddly, I stood still. I didn’t run, my body experiencing something I had only ever heard described before. The feeling of my heart beating quickly, my blood pumping and my body heating up. 

I didn’t realize why, I don’t think I could, but this… thing stimulated my heart in a way nothing else could. Watching it throw it’s tentacles towards those screaming loudly, climbing out of it’s hole was new. I had never seen it before, and only ever heard the concept. Was he a Freak? Soon, he would get suppressed wouldn’t he?

Soon, his short lived freedom would be ripped away from him. Soon.

The sun suddenly felt so bright today, shining like it never had before. Still, the blob held my attention, nothing could tear it away from me. I didn’t know why, perhaps it wasn’t even the blob… but I needed to witness it, to feel its emotions vicariously. 

Then the bridge erupted into a kilometer tall pillar of flame, swallowing the blob whole as the concrete and metal  near the pillar began to melt. Yet, I still felt like I was simply standing next to a campfire. How.. odd.

The pillar dissipated, and a ball of flame appeared. It was humanoid, shaped like an anatomically correct person but just… missing certain parts.

“Another boring suppression. Why do they keep sending me out to hunt chump like this?

I ran away, the unnatural raging of my heart continuing.

Continuing on my route, I wondered about the selfishness of those rescuers actions. The man had the courage to jump, taking the one step no one else could. And yet, they decided to hold him back, and for what? Because they felt it wasn’t right, and they knew him better than he did? Because of their actions, that Freak had appeared and killed so many of them… 

The rational person I once was would have done an objective analysis, judged that the death of so many was not worth that one man living his life. Yet now… I no longer could. I had felt that man’s passion, that blob’s rage, and that walking sun’s arrogance and heat. Was this… the power of the individual? How… terrifying;

By the time I finished my run and got back to my ‘home’, I felt utterly exhausted. Shambling towards the door I went into my ‘home’. It was dirty inside, and I should clean it.

I should take off my shoes. Remove my coat.

But it just felt too tiring. There was no energy in my body, my clothes felt immovable as if their grip on my body was as immutable as the laws of gravity itself. Who cares, anyway? It’s not like I live with anyone, I’m all alone. And I’m comfortable with living in a space as dirty as this, so who cares?

I collapsed on the couch, and I felt like I should be falling asleep. I felt so tired after all. But I couldn’t. My phone fell out of my pockets with a dull thump. I should either put it away, or use it to entertain myself

Instead, the next four hours were spent staring blankly at the wall, thinking about what happened today.

—

Work was done for today. I experienced every single moment in a dull sort of agony, while doing nothing at all. There wasn’t a single memory of today, of yesterday, or of f this entire week. Just nothing.

People were leaving, and so was I. I didn’t really like any of these people, but I learned how to laugh in their direction and pretend like I liked them.

To them, that’s the same thing.

“Hey, how’s it going?” One of my coworkers asked. He was an older man than me, with a full beard that seemed like it required far too much effort to maintain.

“Hmm. Alright, I suppose” I give him a small smile. People liked smiling and so I smiled.

“Well that’s good! We’re about to grab a few beers at the pub, you wanna tag along? I’m sure it’ll be a nice chance to relax!” He said with a big smile on his face.

I did not want to go there at all, but I realized that if I said no he’d continue talking…. if I just said yes, and tagged along with them I could simply stay quiet until they stopped inviting me along.

I made my face ‘light up’ and smiled, then nodded my head “Sure, I’m down.”

—

The same thing happened, as it does whenever I’m asked to ‘hang out’. I spend several hours in silence, occasionally answering their questions. I don’t like beer, but I don’t dislike it. It just exists so that we can all fit in, because we all want to down a beer with our ‘friends’ after work right?

I do not remember how I got home. I simply did. 

I was standing in front of my door, staring at it. At some point I believe my hands had gone cold… and yet, I kept standing. 

What was the point of going inside? I wouldn’t be doing anything of worth inside anyway, might as well save myself the effort and stay outside. Inside I would be protected from the cold and the outside world, but I would need to… extend more of my will and body.

The world faded away, as I began to unravel. I could imagine myself standing on a grassy field, the sun shining above me as I nestled myself underneath a tree. An apple fell down, and I caught it in the palm of my hand. The apple was big and red and I could imagine the taste of that apple, its succor streaming into my mouth as I bit down.

As I focused more on the apple, bringing it closer to my mouth I felt the world around me fade away without a trace. I could join it, too. I fell down on the grass, its pointy blades piercing my back.

All that I had left was the blades and the apple. There was no sound, no sun, and no pain. Just me and my salvation. 

I wondered why I had not eaten the apple yet. It was the right thing to do, I knew this with all my mind. My heart and soul screamed for me to eat the apple, but I didn’t. Why?

There was no answer. I didn't know. For the first time in my life I was making a decision of my own, and it was the wrong one. 

I crushed the apple with my own hand, it splattered as filthy slime and brown sap dripped on my face. The apple was rotten inside, a disgusting apparition. I had prevented myself from consuming my own poisoned salvation and again I did not know why.

And then I felt my guts begin to churn, like a gigantic worm was inside of my stomach and was rooting through my guts trying to burst out. It hurt a lot, and I found myself hunched over crouching on the false grassy field. Was this some kind of Freak attack, I wonder? No other explanation came to mind. Not that I understood how Freaks worked, no one had ever explained them to me and I myself did not bother finding out. 

Before I could realize what was happening, it burst. It tore through my stomach and into the outside world, looking like a gigantic pure white scaled snake with gleaming red eyes. I should have felt pain but nothing of the sort happened, instead I merely felt… mellow. The snake continued to come out of my stomach, writhing and squirming around as its slimy body fell to the ground.

Slowly, it began to wrap itself around my body. I could feel the slime, slowly dissolving my clothes. I did not attempt to stop it, because why would I? It was a creature too, as living as I was, who gave me the right to attempt to stop it from touching me? Finally, it wrapped itself almost gently around my neck, and its snakey head stared up into my eyes. I was mistaken earlier this creature did not truly have eyes, it instead had two brilliant ruby gemstones embedded where eyes would normally go.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Do you wish to be left alone? To finally become happy, to have a group that both supports you at all times and you can leave whenever you wish, without judgment? Do you wish to be away from the grind of the modern world, away from your depression and melancholy? I can grant you that, you know. True, genuine happiness for the rest of your life. Something to finally get you away from all of this, and back to that field of peaceful grass and trees you admired when you were younger.” The snake’s voice was almost….. soft. Warm and comforting. It didn’t sound like it was hissing, merely gently promising me something. When it spoke, I felt warm. 

“Do you want that?”

Still, it used that same tone. I didn’t know how to speak the words that I wished to, being certain my mouth would be unable to convey my feelings. So, I simply nodded my head.

“Then I will consume your weak self whole, and recreate you in the image you created of yourself” And then it bit into my neck, tearing out my throat. I slumped to the ground, my feet touching the grass. It hurt, it hurt a lot. It hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt-

And thus I existed again. One moment I was an existence of pure pain, the next I wasn’t. Somethin pounded within my chest. It had to be my heart, for what else would roar so much in my chest, like it was screeching in terror at what it was becoming. My feet became roots as I spread across the ground, grabbing the blades and absorbing them into myself. The larger I got, the faster my heart beat.

There was a brief thought in my mind, a thought that perhaps I should stop this. But I ignored it. I would become the world's plainest tree, appreciated yet unnoticed. A forest was growing around me, and I would be a small tree out of the way. Perhaps the children would draw on me, ripping off my branches for their games?

My heart. It needed to be removed. What tree has a heart? The roots crawled inside and I ripped out my heart, and instead found only a rotten apple, its skin brown and rotten yet hiding what was underneath it’s skin. 

Crunch crunch, splat splat, all over my bark. Underneath the rotten apple was beautiful flesh, delicious sap. Not like it mattered because now it was just a crushed rotten apple. 

I allowed myself to relax as the forest grew around me, other tree’s reaching their apex and growing bigger than the sky itself while I myself remained a small tree. Yet we were all connected, weren’t we?

There was a sun beating down on the bark and on the roots, growing in intensity. Wearily we raised our leaves to the sun, worrying we would burn. Then, the sun grew closer and hotter. Perhaps I should have realized what was happening, given my sense of the area. But how could I predict warfare, when I was so peaceful?

The strike itself was so beyond me I was unable to even process it, it struck with such force that the world was… quiet. The aftermath of the strike was not, a roaring sound of fury and pain screamed throughout the forest as it got incinerated.

In the end I was left standing alone as a burnt tree, the only one left in the forest. I could not have processed this, as my Ego felt close to collapsing. A woman wandered through the remnant of my forest, not even gazing upon the corpses of my fellow trees. From her shoulder danced a small white snake with it’s jaw wide open, eyes like red gemstones gazing at me with infinite malice.

“Another easy job? Seriously, it’s literally just a tree.” I could hear the woman’s voice, it sounded like the cracking of the sun. Confidence. It was confidence. This person felt confident in her place in life and that she was above me, the sun swallowing my trees. 

The snake was thrown towards me and it’s jaws nestled themselves within my wood, piercing through my bark to get to the remaining organic matter between. The jaws unleashed a venom, causing my wood to melt. 

What kind of tree dies because a snake bites it? A tree is made of sturdy wood, so why should I crumble to the bite of this damn thing?

I tried to reach that sturdiness but I could no longer grow because of that… parasite. It sapped my energy and I felt myself get crushed into a unified form, a small sphere containing my entire being. All that I ever was, all that I could have been and all that I would be was compressed right now. I wonder why they did this, would they put me on display? 

A display… would be nice. I could deal with that.

—

tick-tick

They put me in a blank, white room. I sat on something, a plastic chair perhaps? On the wall there laid a clock, audibly ticking every second.

tick-tick

There was another chair here, on which sat another man. The man was less plain than I was, his face covered in crawling maggots. His eyes themselves were simply empty holes through which the creatures entered, yet he still managed to find a way to stare at me.

tick-tick

We made eye contact by accident then both looked the other direction. It seemed we at least agreed on the fact that such things were rather uncomfortable, considering the change in my disposition. Perhaps his own mirror mine? I wouldn’t know, I tried to avoid the man.

tick-tick

tick-tick

tick-tick

tick-

I didn’t realize there was a door in this room until someone opened it. They looked like the exact kind of person that worked at my old job, wearing a suit and empty soul as they shambled about without knowledge of the world around them. I wonder if this man, too, drowned his ignorance and sorrows at the bar after work?

The man sighed and walked towards me with his hand at his sides, looking tense as he stopped before me and touched my shoulder. I just looked away from him, not wanting to think anymore about the world surrounding me.

tick-tick

I listened to the clock again as the man pushed me into motion, my own feet moving without my own knowhow. I simply stared at the clock as I was escorted through this place by the man, gaining awareness of my bare feet only because of the coldness that touched them. I wondered if this coldness was because of the season, or if they had made it cold as an act of spite. Ultimately It had to be spite, for there is no other reason that you would make something uncomfortable on purpose. 

Again, I moved. The world dulled around me as I began to slip away and though my mouth talked and body limped my own self was somewhere else, away from those petty matters these people considered important that I could never relate to.

They placed me down somewhere else. There were four people surrounding me now, though I could dismiss them easily as they weren’t interacting with me in the slightest. There was a screen they placed in front of me which made odd kaleidoscopic colors and sounds, and food they occasionally fed me that felt dry yet soggy, salty yet bland. I wondered if they had created this to mock me, to show me that even the food they shoved into my mouth had more personality than I did.

Slowly I closed my eyes and began to fade away. Though my heart still beat, and you could touch my hand and feel flesh, I was simply not there anymore. The world around me was no longer associated with me but simply another plane of existence. I could not feel pain, could not feel anything but the silence.

—

“You should put on your suit, you’re about to meet your new teammates after all!” My handler said. He was an older looking man in his late fifties and always had this small mocking smile on his face, like he hated my entire existence. My handler never introduced himself to me, but he still pulled me out of the quiet. I did not know why I knew he was my handler, but I could feel it. Like someone had made obedience to this man a part of my very being.

I had been moved to a new room by this man. He insisted that I had been ‘spared’ from my ‘horrible fate’ and would now be put to use for the ‘good of humanity’. I guess this is what I am doing now? I felt too tired to really complain about my designated fate, and the collar he had stuffed inside of me didn’t help.

“There you go! I’m so proud of you, managing to put that on all on your own! You know we really appreciate your cooperation here with the agency, it’s great when Freaks cooperate with us so gently.” He spoke, putting extra emphasis on the word Freaks. I don’t know why he does that, but he does. I noticed it, but never commented. Unless he considered me a Freak? I suppose that might be the case.

Either way it didn’t matter, what with my lack of vocal cords and all that. They had deemed them unnecessary to install and I didn’t feel like growing any, so my speech was permanently robbed from me. Personally, I preferred it this way. 

“I would say to put on a happy face but you don’t really have one, now do you? No matter, follow along now and just nod when you think it’s necessary” 

My feet made a funny sound whenever they touched the floor of the base they trapped me in. I was told I would be spending the rest of my life here and that I should get to know the staff and layout more, but I don’t really know why I would want that. I wasn’t going to move on my own anyway so why should it matter that I know where to go, and when. That was just stupid.

The handler stopped at a large sliding door which looked identical to nearly every other door in this facility. He pressed his hand against a scanner beside the door, which slid open when his palm touched it. I followed him inside.

Following him inside I was led to a large lobby room, filled with several people. These people were just like me, their minds finally brought into peace before being rudely dragged back to reality. 

One of them seemed to be a vaguely human shaped ball of pure flame, the heat of their mere presence radiating into the room and causing me to twitch even though they were all the way on the other side of the room. They didn’t have any identifiable features or clothes they were wearing but reminded me of video footage of the sun. Bubbling with heat and plasma, their form barely coherent but managing to say humanoid. felt like I recognized them from somewhere else but I couldn’t place where I recognized them from. 

There were two more people sitting next to each other, but they looked the exact same. The man lacked all hair, and had a warped mutated head with gigantic fleshy appendages in place of his ears, alongside a mouth that stretched across his entire face and wrapped around to the back of his head. Still, he had average enough eyes that stared directly at me. The rest of his body seemed to be bent into odd shapes, yet was still humanoid enough that they managed to create a suit for him to wear. I wondered how I should mentally refer to him, given that they seemed to be exact multiple copies.

The final person was not someone I could recognize. This was not because they were invisible, not because they were too hideous or because they were too pretty. I just wasn’t sure what they looked like. My senses told me that there was an existence there, that a person was lounging on a chair drinking from a soda, but I couldn’t know or remember what their appearance was. What clothes were they wearing? 

I think I admired this final person the most. A perfect stranger who no one could burden with their gaze, who no one would truly expect anything out of.

“Good day everyone! I know it’s unfortunate timing to introduce a new member into the group because so many other members left for work, but here is your new recruit! Make sure to be friendly to him alright!” The handler smiled and dragged me by the shoulder, pushing me further into the scrutiny of the Multitude’s Gaze. “Now, I would give you all his name, but he seems to have memetically burnt it away, so here we are! Give him a quick breakdown of his future life for me now will you, because I have a ride to catch!” The handler continued his explanation, then dashed out of the room. 

I could feel the perfect stranger sigh even though I couldn’t see their body. “Welp, this is a damn clusterfuck. Sup, I’m [      ] and I’m one of the senior members of this hellhole. I know you can’t actually hear my name when I say it, but who cares! Anyway, I’m the MVP of this team!” The perfect stranger was interrupted, their voice not having an identifiable accent even as it entered my mind

The one who interrupted them was the sun who filled the room with their heat to shut them up "You calling yourself the MVP of this team is hilarious, when I am here.”

The perfect stranger just huffed and puffed, before biting back “Oh my god I was making a joke! Besides, you of all people want to complain about ego? All you fucking do all day is project your god damn insecurities into the world and act like your better than all of us. Guess what bitch, you ain’t! I’m-”

I filtered out their future words, the sun and the stranger continuing to argue with each other as I remain a silent observer. Then I got tugged on my wooden arm by a member of the clones attempting to drag me with him as his other self patted a seat next to him. I decided to go along with his motion, sitting down and ignoring the brewing argument.

“Sup bud, how’s it goin? Sorry ‘bout the impression those two are leaving, I’m sure it must be exhausting having ta listen to em after all the events that happened to ya?” The clone certainly had a strong accent, sounding vaguely southern. I wondered how he was even capable of producing recognizable speech with a mouth like that but decided to dismiss the thought, not caring enough.

“Now from wut I’m seein ya can’t really respond to what I’m saying, so just nod if you agree or somethin.” 

I nodded my head once, wondering what he’ll say to me

“So, I’m not sure how much ya know ‘bout the condition ya suffer. You might’a heard about the term Freaks before? Well, it’s what they use to describe people like us, people who had… uhhh. ya know, a real moment of weakness. It’s what messes us up so bad. Turns us into ugly looking sons-a-bitches like this, ya know?” He pauses his explanation, staring at me. Does he expect me to say something to him, is he studying me? 

I nodded my head once, wondering what he’ll do to me.

“Right… well.. anyway. Stuff’s pretty simple ere, and from what I can see He didn’t bother giving you an explanation. Pretty much, our job is to capture or kill otha Freaks like us when He points us to them. Not really much of a freedom aspect, but that’s how it be, Bud.” 

1. I am. I am a hitman. A murderer on command. A tool. A good tool. A stupid tool. I will be pointed and told to obey. I. Hmm.

The clone’s head was surprisingly eager to wrap in my vines as they naturally flowed out around his head. His words were interrupted by this, and before he could struggle I threw it against the wall behind him. A big gash against the back and a yell of pain before he sort of slumps. So I smashed again, and again, and again. 

Now the wall was painted with the clone’s blood, a nice trail leaking down it and the clone was dead. So this is how murder feels. It feels… easy. I didn’t expect it to feel this easy, and yet it was. Shouldn’t there be some horrible instinctual feeling against this, shouldn’t the memory of his split skull and gore and blood be dragged through my mind for eternity? And yet it wasn’t.

Now, I can safely say. I am able to accomplish the job they have given me. 

“Well he's another psycho. Great. Why do I have to keep being associated with you fucks?” The perfect stranger said, moving?.. moving? I was not sure.

I was in this room with two other people, the sun and the clones. The clone of the man who’s head I had just splattered against the wall seemed to barely regard me, having already made another copy of himself and now seemed to be heading for the door. I didn’t pay him much attention, because he was.

The sun was approaching me. The sun was hot. Very hot. Hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot-

“You are nothing special, so stop playing around.” 

And then the sun left the room, leaving me all alone once more. It seems the personalities of my new coworkers were far more unique than my last ones.