Liam

Monday, April 25th, 2022 (34 days after the Shutdown)

Letting go of him, the guard’s body silently fell backward and collapsed in a cloud of dust. All that remained of the guard was his face, frozen in an expression of horror, and the arm that Liam had grabbed.

Liam stood up, waiting for the feeling of disgust to hit him but the longer he waited, the emptier he felt.

I thought I was supposed to feel… something, like a full stomach. I feel nothing. Why?

‘It was incomplete. You might have absorbed around 35% of the human's essence. The rest went to maintaining the connection to my power.’

So I would have to go around, killing more people just to get to normal.

‘Yes.’

Eyeing the cell door, Liam carefully approached it.

He found himself in an old corridor with dead lights stretching further into the shadows. A set of glass doors stood in front of him, and he could see another set beyond them leading further into the building.

Returning to his cell, he nudged the guard’s clothes with his shoe and the result didn’t disappoint. Tinkling like sleigh bells, he retrieved a set of keys.

Score, he grinned, his thoughts turning towards the larger issue of how to hide the body.

That made him pause for a heartbeat.

The idea that he had to hide a body came so naturally to him, that it should’ve been terrifying but it wasn’t. His powers might have gotten to his head but something inside stood at the tiller and kept him on track.

Hiding the body wouldn't make a difference. They would realize something happened to the guard and since they already had their suspicions… well it was obvious who they would blame.

As he was about to leave, he noticed a glint of steel on the deceased man’s waist. Twisting him over, Morales’ knife they’d taken from him was strapped to his side.

“Mine,” he muttered, unfastening it from his waist.

Parts of the man crumbled under his hands.

Time wasn’t on his side.

Maybe 30 to 40 minutes had passed from the 1-hour deadline and Liam couldn’t hold that 60-minute mark accountable since these people could disregard it and return at any minute. Yet as he reached the door, he cast a skeptical eye on the door next to his cell.

His curiosity won him over and he opened it.

“What the hell, there’s nothing in here,” he mused, frowning at his cell like he must’ve misheard the direction it came from.

But there was no other room on this side of the hall.

It could’ve heard something in the vents and thought—

His eyes fell on a lump in the corner. A ragged blanket barely covered it though he could see their bare feet poking from under it. If it weren’t for the smell of their fear oozing out of it like perfume, Liam would’ve assumed they were dead by how silent they were.

“Umm… I was your cellmate,” he croaked, looking back at the glass doors to see if anyone was nearby. “I’m… escaping. Do you want… ah, never mind.?”

Waiting two seconds for their response, he sighed and spun on his heel.

“Alright, then. Bye.”

“W-Wait,” a female voice pleaded.

Barely clothed, a woman around his age gazed at him, her eyes betraying her contempt for Liam. Noticing him staring at her, she pulled the blanket tighter around herself. Pressed against her body, Liam became aware of how starved she was.

Her shoulders looked like knife blades and her disheveled black hair was matted to her forehead. His attention was drawn towards her lower body. Dried blood ran down her legs. By how they trembled, each step looked like it sent spikes of pain through her.

Clenching his jaw, he stared at the disintegrating guard lying in his cell.

What the hell is wrong with you?

“Are you fine? Do you need help to move?” Liam asked, offering her a hand.

Looking upon it with aversion, she shook her head.

She’s going to slow me down. If I leave her here, that should be enough.

Pushing open the doors, he didn’t check if she was following him. Holding up the lantern, he tried to find his way back based on his memory of being dragged but it was impossible to depend on it. In the end, he had to rely on his enhanced senses.

Turning off the lantern in case someone passed by, he retreated into a crevice. Closing his eyes, he took a page from the demon’s book. Shadow domain — the name he’d given to the skill the demon had shown in the tower — manifested shadows from himself and created an area he had control over. Within it, he knew the location of everything.

Using that as inspiration, he tried replicating it with his senses. Pushing out his perception till his head started to buzz, he focused on anything that might give him a clue.

There’s… nothing.

Slamming his palm into the wall, he flinched at his mistake.

No, try again.

He didn’t have enough strength to keep it up for as long, but as he expanded his senses, he noticed the air wavering on the floor down one of the halls.

It must’ve been friction from someone’s shoes. Judging by how they’re faded, the last group that came through here was the interrogator.

Having no other clue to go by, he followed it. Every so often, he would stop again and try to expand his perception. The more he did it, the more efficient it became. Soon, he found himself in front of two metal doors.

“This is it,” he muttered to himself.

Inspecting the light coming from under the doors, there didn’t appear to be anyone on the other side but just to be safe, he tapped into his sphere of perception. A mental image came back. On the other side, he could hear the ruckus of hundreds of people and smell their distinctive emotions like they were inches away.

… inches? SHIT!

Throwing himself into the corner next to the doors, they opened just as he turned off his lantern.

“... did you see something?” one of the men asked.

As light from the other side was cut off, his friend threw his arm around his shoulder.

“You’re overreacting, buddy. Keep your eyes on the prize. Remember what he promised? ‘A surprise is waiting for you if you follow this path.’ Just let those heebie-jeebies pass on by. Yo, take out your flashlight. I can’t see my ass.”

“Why would you be able to see… forget it.”

With a flick of a switch, the hallway’s darkness was dispelled. So was Liam’s cover.

Liam didn’t give them a chance to react.

All he saw were two walking batteries that would give him the energy to escape. Clamping their mouths shut, his fingernails dug into their cheeks till he drew blood.

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Now.

This time, the effect was immediate. Dodging a wild haymaker from one of them, the other managed to land a kick to his groin. Tears gathered in the corners of his eyes as he firmed it, tightening his grip so no one could hear their screams. The more energy he siphoned, the stronger his grip became and he managed to force the weakened men to their knees. Clenching his jaw, his body grew denser until he was brimming with vitality.

‘It is complete. You have drained them… Is it because you have grown accustomed to killing your fellow man that it was quicker? Interesting.’

Releasing them, Liam remained quiet as their bodies soundlessly hit the floor. Again, he felt nothing. The amount of death and murder he’d seen in the past week, he could tell he was growing desensitized but what of it? He didn’t have a choice.

“... I have to drag them out of the way before someone” — Liam glanced up at a sudden spike of emotion in front of him — “... sees me.”

Further down the corridor, the girl was staring at him in horror. From the haze of fear surrounding her, she’d seen him.

Should I kill her?

Hearing another pair of footsteps, his body tensed. Grabbing both of the corpses, he ran towards the girl and pushed all of them into a nearby cabinet.

“Don’t… say… a word,” Liam hissed, pushing himself deeper into the small space.

Her body trembled against his, her soft puffs of air tickling his neck. Slowly, her chest contractions became more infrequent and she grew still. In the close quarters, the scent of fear that had rolled off her was now hidden behind the smell of sweat they both exuded.

“Who left the flashlight here? Ah, and it cracked. Leon is too freakin’ generous with them. We don’t have any to spare and he keeps handing them out,” the reedy man complained.

More than half a dozen people filed in after him, quickly filling the corridor. They didn’t linger long and continued on their way.

… those were the people he was going to have “greet” me, right? Wow, I see he wasn’t trying to take any chances.

Sending out a pulse to check their surroundings, Liam was surprised to see the range of his sphere had grown. Between his first attempt at extending his sphere and now, the only difference was the amount of “vitality” he’d stolen.

Lives equals power…

Climbing out, he felt the woman uncertainly watch him to see what he did next.

“You coming?” he whispered offering her a hand again.

Hesitantly taking his hand, she climbed out of the cabinet. Shooting a last withering look at the corpses, she shut the door. A leg was jamming it.

Three people… I’ve killed of my own free will. How many more will I have to go through by the end of this? he mused as he opened the door… into the largest collection of people that he’d ever seen in this city.

Four floors were laid out in front of him, each one brimming with life. With a huge opening in the center of each floor, he stood by the rails and watched his surroundings with fascination. The reedy man had downplayed his description of this place.

Each floor specialized in something.

Below him, the ground floor of the mall had transformed into a new industrial complex with heavy machinery being used to assemble fences and walls. It was hectic now, likely due to the floating monster outside, yet even in that chaos, there was a functioning assembly line.

On his level, places that looked like they’d been stores were retrofitted to accommodate the thousands of people living here. Gazing upwards, he could see that the residential areas stretched to the second floor.

The third floor had the most exciting thing of all.

Greenhouses.

Had it been daytime, he could imagine tons of natural sunlight streaming through the skylights on the roof of the building. Curling over the upper railings, he could see young beanstalks growing to gradually form a canopy that would trickle down to the lower floors.

But with the stars in the sky, torches and smokeless fires had substituted the natural light source and it was clear that all the activity was dying down for the night. Ignoring the confused looks of people as they stared in Liam’s direction, he watched in bemusement as people started to enter the stores. Doors were pulled shut and metal shutters were pulled down like it was part of a natural routine.

How… how long has it been for them?

The sheer number of people that must’ve lived here was baffling, and their emotions started to mess with his mind again.

Someone tapped his shoulder.

The girl’s eyes were darting between the door they’d just come from and him, desperately trying to tell him to hurry up.

“W-Where are we?” he asked, mostly talking to himself.

“... the mall,” she replied, unsure what to make of his question. “H-Have you never been here?”

“My family couldn’t afford…” he immediately replied but stopped himself to see the girl waiting for him to continue.

Clearing his throat, he coughed out awkwardly, “I didn’t see the point of coming inside. I’ve only seen it from the outside… I didn’t think it was this big.”

Spellbound by the size of the structure, the sound of doors slamming behind him woke him up.

“There he is! Grab that bastard and the whore!” the leader screamed, his reedy voice no longer as amusing as it was. His face was flushed and yelled instructions at the six men he’d brought inside with him.

“And that’s our cue.”

Running through the crowd of people, the onlookers moved out of their way as if they were trying to distance themselves from the situation. Seeing a pair of doors on the right, Liam slammed into them and dragged the girl in after her. Barricading it with whatever he could find, he stepped back, admiring his handiwork as his pursuers struggled to come in. Sneering, Liam stuck up his middle fingers.

Veins bulged on the lead jailer’s neck as he glared venomously through the windows. Moving his eyes to something behind Liam, the reedy man gave him a toothy grin.

“You’re screwed now, asshole,” he exclaimed, his voice muffled through the door.

Swiveling around, there was nothing except for the darkness.

“How exactly am I supposed to be ‘screwed’?” he spat back until with a flick, far in the back corner, a man’s face was suddenly washed in light.

Oh…

He wasn’t holding a light. It was fire; a small flame hovering over his pinky finger.

Swallowing hard, he looked back at the reedy man who was flicking him off.

Well… that’s new.

“So you’re the shadow guy? Reaper, I think is what I heard. Cool name, man,” the man said in a monotone voice. “Guess what mine is? Hellfire.”

The flame grew until his whole hand was engulfed. More of his features were revealed as the darkness cowered away.

That glass eye… he was the one who robbed the store on the day of the Blackout.

A ratty brown hoodie was all the man wore to cover his upper body, but it didn’t cover enough that Liam would forget. Because of him and his gang, someone innocent died that day.

“What happens” — the fire grew larger until it started roaring across the top of the ceiling — “if I make the shadows disappear? Where would you go then?”

“Rameriez, stop playing around before you burn down the base! Kill him!” the reedy-voiced man ordered from the other side of the glass.

Frowning at the growing crowd of onlookers on the other side of the doors, Rameriez shrugged, “Duty calls. Sorry man, it's nothing personal.”

The opposite end of the room was ablaze with a roaring fire, its intensity tingling Liam’s face. He couldn’t escape back through the doors because of the henchmen and Rameriez was blocking the only other exit outside.

There was no way out.

Some help would be appreciated?!

‘... I have already told you to limit your connection to me until I say otherwise. Else, you will face repercussions,’ the eldritch creature announced, humming with displeasure from within Liam’s mind.

Well, I’m about to burn to death, so that doesn’t really matter, does it?

‘What a poetic way to go. Like father, like son,’ it mused. ‘Oh, sorry. Did that touch a nerve? That was insensitive of me.’

Unsure of whether it was messing with him, Liam startled the girl by grabbing her and pulling her closer.

‘I can open a passageway through the shadows, but I am not at full strength. Once you go through, there is no telling where you will end up.’

Pal, I’m about to become human barbeque. I-I don’t care.

‘... steady your soul.’

“Wait… I know you,” the man mused, his eyes narrowing contemplatively.

His fire fractionally died down.

Shit, does he remember—

“Yo, I know that girl. Shit lady, did you miss my visits that you came all this way to see me? Forget that pale-faced high school reject and come over here. Give me a few seconds and I’ll make you love me,” he grinned, pursing his lips.

The girl’s hand started to tremble in Liam’s.

“Fuck… YOU!” she screamed, her voice raw with unbridled pain.

Rameriez’s fire stopped completely. In the dark, they heard him chuckle.

“I see how it is…”

FWOOOSH!

Coils of fire tickled every corner of the room, drying Liam’s sweat-drenched shirt in a second.

Anytime now!

‘Three.’

From within the fire, Rameriez stepped out, unscathed by the flames.

“If you want to play hard to get again, I’ll play along.”

A sinister smile wound its way up to his face.

‘Two.’

“I’ll find you wherever you go.”

Stretching out his hand, all the fire in the room started gravitating towards his hand like it was getting pulled in.

Slowly condensing it into a sphere the size of a beachball, he shouted over the roar of the fire, “Die, bitches!”

With the sound of cannon fire, the ball of fire shot from his hand and tore through space, closing the distance within a heartbeat.

I’m dead—

‘One.’

As the people on the other side of the glass doors ran away, the shadows hanging behind him jumped out and pulled him in.