Jack whistled as he walked toward the front gate of the Hent estate. All the lights

were on, and he could see plenty of security along the walls. He decided that maybe

he could just talk to the guards at the gate and see if they would let him in. If that

didn’t work, he had other ideas about dealing with things.

He hadn’t heard anything from Josie yet, so he was putting that down to good news.

She had either handled things at the Hole in the Wall, or she hadn’t. There was

nothing he could do about that now.

After he was done with this, there would be time enough to rampage through the

streets in true Hulk style.

Hopefully the Society would understand about that.

Again he briefly wondered about the nature of the quests and the contractual

meanings. He came to the same conclusion that they weren’t supposed to add on to

the quests, but were supposed to get done and go home without really touching things

in the Fantasy World.

They had picked the wrong person in Josie Fox not to touch stuff.

“Hey guys,” Jack called. He waved as he walked up to the gate. “How’s things?”

“Do you have an invitation?,” asked one of the guards. He had the Makeover, and

a list on a board. He looked at Jack in his Deadpool shirt and jeans. This was not

someone who looked like he should be hobnobbing with rich people was in his eyes.

“I have a message for an Emer from the Exchange,” said Jack. “I was told he was

here.”

“Give it to me, and I will give it to him,” said the guard. The others had drifted over

to see what the fuss was.

“Ready?,” asked Jack.

“Go ahead,” said the guard.

“Dear Master Emer, it is the sad duty of the Robby Reed Appreciation Society to

inform you that you are going to die shortly. I regret that such a message has to reach

you in this way, but it was felt that you should know with swiftness the events that

have been triggered have prompted your death above all your peers who will also

shortly be eliminated. Regretfully, the ARR ARR AY ESS,” said Jack. He paused.

“You got all that?”

“What is the Robby Reed Appreciation Society?,” asked the guard. He looked at

the other guards. “I have never heard of that.”

“They’re weird guys who like to sit in a dark room and plan to remove threats

to the world using agents,” said Jack. “Are you going to take the message in, or

do you want me to do it, or are you going to call Master Emer to the gate so I can

talk to him out here away from the other guests.”

The guard considered things and thought the guy at the gate looked harmless. He

didn’t even have a sword on him. How was he going to overpower the amount of

guards on his own?

And the Duke might want to hear the threat also.

“I am going to pass you through,” said the guard. He waved at two of his contingent

to approach. “Go with these two. Don’t touch anything, don’t say anything until they

bring you to the Duke and Emer.”

“That’s great,” said Jack. He waved at the two men to lead on. He whistled as he

followed them up to the giant main house. He wondered how much money had gone

into that, and how they had built it out in the wilderness where random monsters

seemed to be a thing.

He supposed if you had enough men, you could cut down anything that might show

up to stop you from building your dream house.

“Do you mind?,” asked one of the guards.

“Hm?,” asked Jack.

“Do you mind not whistling?,” said the guard.

“No, I don’t mind at all,” said Jack. “It’s just something that got stuck in my head.

I guess you never heard of Disney here.”

“No,” said the guard. “I haven’t.”

“He was a storyteller famous for taking stories and sanding off the rough edges,”

said Jack. “And one of the stories is about this princess whose evil stepmother

banishes her from the castle. She falls in with these hard working miner dwarves. And

that’s there signature tune, ‘Whistle While You Work.’ It’s been on my mind because

it’s only like three or four repeating notes.”

“Really?,” said the guard.

“Yep,” said Jack. “Disney has a lot to answer for in my opinion.”

The guards shook their heads. Escorting a strange messenger through the manor had

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

not been on their list of things to do for the night. Mostly they wanted to enjoy the

end of the party after the guests started leaving.

The trio made their way to a giant hall. Guests and guards were everywhere. Most had

the Makeover from what Jack could see. The ones who didn’t seemed like minor

nobles trying to get in good with their higher ranking society, or merchants who

might be on the make.

He wondered if the curse worked on new members. That was something he would

have to check on when he was done with what he was going to do.

“This is exactly what Josie wanted,” said Jack. “She’ll be kicking herself when I tell

her about this.”

“Really?,” said the friendly guard.

“All these people in one place is exactly what she wanted,” said Jack. He grinned.

“Too bad for her that she isn’t here. I’ll be able to rub that salt in forever.”

“Why?,” asked the guard.

“So she can kill them all,” said Jack. The guards looked at each other with concern.

“Let’s see this Emer. The night is turning to the day, and I have other places to be.”

The guards paused at the entrance of the great hall, and looked around. The friendly

guard pointed at the table with the bank executive and others taking finger foods off

plates.

“He’s the fat guy with the two women,” said the guard. “Green stripes.”

“Thanks,” said Jack. “You guys seem okay, so I am going to give you a friendly

warning. Grab whatever you think is valuable and head out on the road. There’s going

to be trouble, and you don’t want to get killed getting in the way.”

“What do you mean?,” asked the other guard, speaking for the first time.

“All these people are going to die,” said Jack. “And you will too if you hang around.

Grab some gold you can melt down and get out of here if you want to live. If you

don’t, that’s good too.”

Jack sauntered through the crowd, grabbing food off people’s plates. Some of it

was okay, some of it was bland enough that he put it back after chewing on it. He

grabbed a cup of wine and sipped at it before putting the glass down on another table.

“Master Emer?,” Jack said when he reached the guy pointed out by the guards.

The dialer agreed with the unspoken assessment of fancy duds. The man nodded at

his identity. “I have a message for you.”

“A message from whom?,” said Emer. His bulk pushed the women sitting on either

side of him out of the way.

“The Robby Reed Appreciation Society,” said Jack. “They sent me to tell you that

your time is up, and so is everyone else’s here.”

“What did you say?,” said Emer. He looked around. A lot of the people at the table

were looking at the confrontation, wondering what he was going to do.

Jack dialed down to a name he had spotted that he had never used before and had no

idea if he should use it here. He pressed the button and hoped he had made the right

decision. A dark cloak formed around him as his face became a skull. A scythe fell

to his hand.

“Your time is up,” said the thin voice of Death.

Emer aged twenty years and dropped dead. The women on either side of him jumped

up and started running. Their lack of clothes didn’t slow them down.

Jack turned and swept his gaze over the table. Everywhere he concentrated people

aged to their natural limit and fell over. Some of the men suffered wounds as if from

blades, or monster claws.

He turned in a slow circle. Everyone with the Makeover dropped dead. He started

walking to the door. He turned his gaze on the guards who had rushed in at the

screaming that had attended his use of power. They fell over from future wounds and

bled out.

He walked down the stairs. He touched everyone with the markings and let them drop

dead as he passed. He paused at one of the minor nobles he had noticed earlier who

shielded a woman behind him.

Neither had the markings on their face.

Jack frowned at the two of them. He checked his watch. Numbers had grown with

the amount of deaths he had caused. He supposed it was the same thing as Josie’s

vampire.

“What are you doing?,” asked Jack. He spared a glance for a man trying to run over

a woman down the hall. The guy dropped dead from a heart attack.

“I am protecting my love,” said the noble.

“Do you really want to protect your love?,” said Jack.

The man nodded. He didn’t seem that old to Jack. He might have just come into his

office.

“Go out the other doors and flee across the grounds,” said Jack. “Don’t look back.

Shun any member of the Montrose you see. Go on, get!”

The pair did as he said. He wished them the best of luck. And they had a cool story

out of all this if they could make it back to the city without dying.

He walked down the hall, searching the rest of the castle. He met a few of the servants

that didn’t seem involved in Hent’s trafficking so he pointed them to the nearest doors

and told them to go if they wanted to live.

Jack reached the front door. A guy dropped dead from what looked like arrow

wounds. He stepped out and started for the gate. He had enough time to get down

there and clear out the gatehouse and then head down to the city. He wondered who

was going to fill out the slots he had emptied in the upper class.

It would be a hoot if Lord Endwright had gotten promoted from his hard work. I can

become a duke in my sleep. What can I do now that I am awake?

Jack started whistling as he reached the gatehouse. The guards were gone. He

wondered if he had done the wrong thing. He probably should have killed them first.

He hoped he had killed the Captain of the Guards in all that. He didn’t want the police

to retaliate against him now that he had adopted nieces in the way. Maybe the next

one would be smart enough not to allow criminals to operate in the open.

He hoped Josie was having a better time of it. He let the persona go and started

walking down the road. Death had been a good call in the massive room. It would

have taken him forever to cut people down as Blade.

He decided to call Elaine. She would know something about the Hole in the Wall.

He could change directions depending on what she told him.

He doubted he could catch up to Josie if she was on a spree.

He also needed to talk to Guin and let him know that he might have to look around

for assimilating whatever he could in the aftermath of what had happened. He

doubted the godfather would want a haunted castle in the woods, but there was other

things he could pick up before any of his rivals got involved.

He expected Guin not liking the extra heat they might have drawn down on the city

and his operations. He would have to work to mitigate that after the show he had put

on. He supposed the survivors would start spreading word that a monster was killing

all of the Montrose.

He supposed a monster was what the Society had wanted to do their jobs for them.

He hoped they didn’t regret that now.