Chapter 4

We had barely made it a couple of steps away from the pawn shop’s front door when I felt that familiar tingling in the back of my neck that inevitably meant trouble was coming my way.

“Hey, baby momma. Why don’t you stay here and hang out with a real man for a change?” said a black man wearing a long coat and white sneakers. Oh, and he was also at least 6’6, with arms as thick around as the freaking light posts illuminating the street - probably just as hard, too.

“Fuck off,” Allie said, not even glancing toward the speaker.

Watching the hulking giant flashing a row of flashing gold teeth in a vicious sneer, I decided that I really should have a serious conversation with my girlfriend about her choice of words in highly volatile situations.

Just 30 feet to the car. C’mon baby, just ignore them. It’s just 30 feet in silence so I can live the rest of my 1 or 2 years of life remaining in peace.

“Oh, I mean to do that and much more with you. Who knows? After a while, you might even like it,” the man said, grinning lewdly while stroking the crotch of his pants. He had three friends who laughed with him.

“Are your ears as full of shit as your pants?” Allie repeated in a frosty tone. “Fuck. The. Hell. Off. I’m not in the mood for asswipes tonight.”

The hungry leer twisted into fury at her words while he ambled over to block her way. “You better watch your mouth, slut. Unless you want my cock-”

“Move,” a new voice interrupted. It came from behind the thug.

I craned my head to look around the thug’s silhouette only to see a scrawny Asian kid with spiky black hair poking out from underneath a hoodie who couldn’t be more than 13 or 14. He was wearing cargo shorts, a Superdry branded T-shirt, and high-top leather boots. What drew the most attention, however, was the bulging backpack that rose a few inches over his head and rode all the way down to his thighs.

“You talking to me, you little punk?”

The kid didn’t bother to say anything else. He simply reached out and grabbed the man by the throat, then lifted him up into the air as though picking up a bag of cotton. The man began choking and frantically reached toward his throat with both hands while his friends were shouting and fumbling toward the waist of their pants.

Before any of them could take out their weapons, however, the kid gave the thug a shake. That was all. Just a quick, barely noticeable shake. The wet crunch of broken bone and crushed flesh was clearly audible over the dying man’s gagging struggles. Foam began to spray out of his mouth as he twitched convulsively, but the kid couldn’t have cared less. He just dumped his body aside like a bag of trash and brushed past us, walking toward the Pawn Shop’s entrance at our backs.

I would never forget the look on the kid’s face as he moved past my shoulder. It was completely expressionless, his eyes apathetic as though he had merely swatted down a buzzing fly, and he hadn’t just murdered another human being in cold blood.

We all stood there frozen for a second, stunned by what we had just witnessed. Then all hell broke loose at once.

“Donte? Yo, Donte?”

“He’s gone, man.”

“Fuck, you’re dead, you piece of shit. Dead!”

“Get’im!”

“F-Freeze! Don’t move a muscle!” Allie shouted, drawing her handgun from behind her back with a lightning-fast motion and leveling it at the nearest thug.

“Fuck you, bitch,” the man cried out, peeling back his shirt and taking out a pistol.

“Don’t do-” Allie screamed at him, tensing up, but the thug paid her warning no heed. Worse yet, he began lifting his gun and she still hadn’t fired.

That’s when I finally realized I was moving. Hell, I was flying in a blur of motion so swift my brain only realized I had drawn my sword when its point had already crossed half the distance necessary to pierce the gun-toting thug’s chest.

If I was surprised by my actions, it was nothing compared to the shock on the man’s face as 32 inches of cold steel pierced through his leather jacket like it was made of paper, then punched into his chest and pinned his heart to the back of his ribcage as it exited out the other side.

Blood splattered across my face but I didn’t even feel it other than a few droplets that got in my eyes. Instead, all my attention was on the man to my right who was fumbling for his gun while babbling unintelligibly at me.

“Da fuq you sumabich..”

I’m sure it would all make sense later, but at the moment my conscious brain had overloaded and shut down. I was operating on overdrive, and thankfully long years of constant drills sticking a sharp length of steel into unpleasant places took over.

My grip was still solid, since most of the blood had splurted high toward my face. I placed my other hand on the dying man’s shoulders, ignoring his bulging eyes as he stared at me and his mouth tried to form words with a breath he would never finish drawing. Then I pushed him away while twisting my body sideways and pulled on my sword as though I’d practiced the move a thousand times. It came free with a wet splotch and even more blood fountained into the air.

Indifferent to the crimson rain falling all around me, I used the same motion to swing my sword toward the next thug’s chest. The poor wretch managed to lift his gun halfway toward me, but that was as much use as nowhere at all, for all the good it did him.

I’d kept the blade’s edge honed to razor sharpness, and it paid off when the blade cut through the thug’s arm in one smooth motion, sending both the severed hand and the gun it was clutching arcing through the air. My slash continued to cleave into his shoulder, just below the neck. It bit deeply, but somewhere near the spine it got stuck on bone with a dull thud that nearly knocked the sword out of my hand.

The man screamed like a stuck pig, squealing so hard that my ears were ringing. I could hardly believe he could scream so loudly when I had nearly bisected his torso. That was when I caught the last surviving thug shouting curses at me while he leveled his gun in my direction.

I pulled on my sword but it proved futile. Whatever bone I had struck in there, it was claiming its petty vengeance and refused to release the blade, no matter how frantically I twisted and strained. I could only look on with helpless desperation as my would-be murderer drew closer to stick his gun to my forehead.

“You fuck! You fucking fuck!” He screamed at me, spittle flying wildly from his mouth. He sounded even more hysterical than I felt. “Y’kno what yo done? Huh? Imma splatter your brains all over-”

Then all I saw was a flash, and brains did splatter out in a gory crimson mist. Smoke coiled in the air and rose up into the hazy orange-lit night sky. It came from a smooth hole the size of a quarter right in between the thug’s eyes. Blood swiftly filled the gap, gushing forth with a sickening gurgle. The other side of his head fared far worse. The exit wound was almost thrice as large and not nearly as smooth, with the ivory white of jagged bone framing the pulped remains of the dead man’s brain.

With a confusing mix of sick fascination and disbelieving relief, I found myself drawing closer to the chunks of grey matter splattered all across the sidewalk. That’s when two more gunshots rang out from behind me in quick succession, making me jump involuntarily.

The same dead man’s skull jolted back in tempo with each loud bang, jostled back and forth from the impact. When it finally stopped swaying, there were two more cavities nestled in his cranium, barely a couple of inches from the first hole.

I whirled around, finally managing to pry my sword free. That’s when I saw Allie panting harshly as she aimed the smoking barrel of her gun toward the destroyed skull of the very much deceased thug.

“Babe, it’s over,” I called out soothingly, holding my hand out toward her and slowly walking forward. “He’s dead now.”

Allie stared at the corpse for a little longer before blinking rapidly and turning toward me, her chest heaving frantically and her face bloodless. She was also pointing the gun’s muzzle straight at my head.

“Whoa, baby! It’s me, it’s me!”

A puzzled frown flickered across her face before she realized what her hands were doing, and she hurriedly lowered her gun.

“Kai?” she called out breathlessly.

“I’m here. I’m alright,” I reassured her, slipping my free arm around her shoulders and squeezing lightly. “It’s all over now.”

“Fucking amateurs,” came a flat voice from behind us.

Gazing over to the source of the words, I only caught the back of the Asian kid as he entered the pawn shop we had just left. Both Allie and I were still staring in mute stupefaction as the familiar electronic chiming sound reached our ears and the door swung shut.

To my credit, I shook it off first.

“Allie, we’ve got to get out of here,” I said urgently, tugging on her hand.

“What?” she said absently.

“We have to leave. Now!”

“B-But the bodies. The police,” she mumbled. “Witnesses. Self-defense.”

“I know, baby. But I have a bad fucking feeling about this whole thing. I don’t know what the hell just happened. The one thing I do know is that I don’t want to be anywhere near this place when all this shit hits the fan.”

I squeezed her hand in mine for added emphasis, and faintly, I felt her squeezing back.

“Y-Yeah, alright. Let’s go.”

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To my surprise, there were no further screams, no one jumping out to shoot at us, or keep us from leaving, or even to point fingers. The few cars on the road just kept on going. If anything, they sped up, anxious to leave the scene of this bloody massacre. The sidewalks weren’t deserted, either. The same gangbangers, drug dealers, whores, and pimps were all still there - minus the 4 men we had just butchered and gunned down.

They didn’t do anything, however. They only watched on with shocking apathy as I bundled Allie inside the passenger seat, then rushed around to the driver’s door.

As I drove away, blood-smeared hands gripping the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip, even the sirens in the distance were conspicuously absent. It was like the world was conspiring with us to keep this dirty little secret just between the three of us.

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“Are you alright?” I murmured, leaning over and kissing the top of Allie’s head as I held her in my arms. We were both naked, our hair still damp from the shower. We had been sitting here quietly for the past couple minutes, curled up together under a thick blanket in front of the fireplace while watching the dancing flames.

“Yeah, I was just…” she began but then trailed off, at a loss of words. When she finally spoke again, I could barely make out the words over the crackling fire. “It’s just, it was my first time. It was so different from how I’d always imagined it.”

I suppressed the shudder that threatened to take over my spine. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

Allie slowly shook her head, burrowing deeper into my chest. “It all feels so surreal. Almost like it was just a nightmare we both dreamed up in our madness of these past few months. Like we’ll both be waking up soon.”

“And we’ll just smile at each other, too embarrassed to talk about such a far-fetched dream yet still disturbed by it. It would be nibbling at our minds while we get up to take a shower, eat breakfast, then head to work.”

Allie nodded wordlessly while we both stared into the fire.

“What’s next?” Allie said, after a long moment of silence.

“We lie low for a while, keep an ear out, talk to your friends at the Justice Department maybe?”

Allie shook her head. “No, I don’t mean about that. I was referring to the important stuff.”

I frowned for a moment, uncomprehending. What could be more important than a potential quadruple homicide charge? It was only after a moment that it slowly dawned on me just how important this whole desperate scheme to cure my cancer was to my girlfriend.

In all honesty, I viewed that whole mess as nothing more than a wild goose chase. Obscure government classified files, superhuman regenerative powers, and mysterious global disappearances, they all sounded like the creatively bankrupt script for a cheap independent film.

In a way, it was deeply moving, the extent to which my otherwise brilliant, tough-as-nails, feet-firmly-planted-on-planet-Earth girlfriend, was willing to suspend her impressive powers of reasoning just for the faint hope of the impossible becoming a reality.

I also felt profoundly ashamed that I had once assumed I would be able to blot out the traces of our love from her heart with just a few cutting words and wounding gestures. Only now that I’d taken a moment to think back on my actions and in hindsight, was I beginning to realize that were the roles reversed, I wouldn’t give a flying fuck what Allie did.

Twenty years is a long time to love someone. Far too long to so easily uproot it from the heart. Certainly not with any kind of efficiency or ease, as I’d naively thought before.

Still, that didn’t mean I was willing to let her ruin her life completely just to chase after an impossible fantasy. Of course, that’s the last thing I could say to her.

“Allie, let’s take things one step at a time,” I said instead, squeezing her in my arms.

“Fuck that noise.”

I stared at her, once again driven speechless by her.

“Don’t patronize me, you bastard. And don’t for a moment think I don’t know exactly what you’re thinking right now,” she said, glaring furiously up at me.

Damn, she’s doing it again. How the hell does she manage to pluck out my innermost thoughts from the depths of my mind when I least need it? Well, not this time. The stakes were far too high. Surely I could think of some way to divert her suspicions. Think, dammit. Think!

“Huh?”

Alright, so I could have done a little better with my defense. Patience. Rome wasn’t built in one day. I may be a slow starter, but once I get some momentum going..

“Babe, stop fighting it. Now you’re just being silly. There’s smoke coming out of your ears,” she pointed out, breaking down in a fit of giggling delight at my expression.

Alright, not everything’s lost. That’s why they call it a comeback victory. True defeat only arrives the moment you stop trying. Failure is merely practicing for success. Yes, I could feel the inspiration flowing. There we go, that’s it. Now, I just needed to channel my thoughts into the charismatic words of a dominant alpha male..

“Erm, yes. I mean, no. Ah, to that. But yes. Kind of.”

Allie’s rich laughter filled the room then, music to my ears. I had to fight mightily, tooth and nail, to keep the silly grin from my face.

Of course, I failed miserably.

“Oh, I love you, you silly fool. You may be a drooling idiot, but you’re MY drooling idiot,” she said, squeezing my cheeks and giving them an adoring shake.

“Uh-huh,” I said, managing to maintain the same gold standard of mental acuity and speechcraft I was apparently much acclaimed for. “Me love you too, pretty lady.”

“Mmm, I know,” Allie said, reaching up to draw my head down and greedily sucking on my lips.

“Mmmm,” I moaned, and for some time after that, no further thinking was required. Which was just as well, since I had already depleted all of my formidable cognitive reserves on those last brilliant lines that really should be immortalized in a book somewhere.

Well, maybe not. But Allie was happy, and frankly, that’s all I really cared about.

In fact, I was ready to dive headfirst - literally and figuratively - into a second round of making Allie even more ecstatic, when she laid a finger against my forehead and pushed my head back.

“Not now, babe. As much as I share your enthusiasm - and trust me, I truly, ardently do - we have much more important things to discuss.”

“Huh?” I said, furrowing my brow. Just what could be more important than this?

Oh.

“Yes, that, you insatiable beast. I swear, if it were up to you, that magic blue pill would have never become a thing.”

Thus, and in spite of my vigorous and increasingly more creative attempts to distract her, eventually we found ourselves fully clothed and sitting in front of our computer.

“Hurry up,” Allie urged me while I squinted at the scrap of paper in my hands and keyed in the web address, letter by letter.

After what felt like a lifetime, thanks in no small part to the impatient little minx in my arms who was constantly rushing me along, I finally entered the final letter, then pressed the Enter key.

We both subconsciously held our breaths while the screen began flickering and the progress bar at the bottom began to fill up.

20%..

40%..

60%..

80%..

Then finally, with one last flash, the page finished loading up, and we both stared, struck speechless by the result.

“Donkey porn streaming live to your home PC NOW for one low price and the first month is free? What the hell is this?”

I shrugged and spread my hands to the sides, and I must admit, a small, rather petty part of me wanted to wag my finger at her and say “I told you so”. Thankfully, saner heads prevailed.

My baby had already gotten her hands bloody tonight, after all. No need to encourage her.

Thus, I looked down at the paper once more and upon close inspection, I noticed a few possible discrepancies.

Allie was quick to notice the same, and not much slower to point them out.

“That six actually looks like a ‘b’. Also, that ‘s’ could be a 5. And that 7 could be a ‘t’. Oh, and..”

Whoever came up with this damn web address, I hope you’re burning in hell right now.

After a few more tries and the ensuing webpage results - which indubitably served to vastly broaden my horizons as to what might constitute sexually arousing imagery to a (hopefully) small section of the net surfing population who (mercifully) remained as of yet wholly undiscovered by me - we finally arrived at a dead end.

Rather, our computer did.

The moment I hit the enter key, both Allie and I were holding our hands tightly while bracing ourselves for whatever new horrors this wondrous new age of endless porn would bring up before our cringing eyes. Slowly, the page began to load.

30%..

60%..

90%..

Then finally, it was done, but only a pitch black screen loaded into the browser.

It was only after a moment or two that we realized the screen was frozen. I tried to move the mouse cursor, but it was gone. I pressed escape, then ALT-F4, then finally, CTRL-Alt-Delete.

Nothing.

Sighing in frustration, I reached for the reset button lying on top of the computer.

Pop.

Still nothing.

After exchanging a slow, sideways glance with Allie and swallowing loudly, I pressed the power button.

Nothing.

“What the..” Allie began.

“Fuck,” I finished, then we both exchanged another glance.

“Try pulling the power cord. Maybe it’s a virus.”

“Damn piece of shit,” I muttered, bending down to reach the back of the computer.

That same motion brought my eyes within a couple of inches of the computer screen. It was only then that I noticed the screen wasn’t completely pitch-black. Instead, there were strange ripples, like circles spreading across the surface of a pond.

“Allie,” I whispered, tugging at her hand. “I don’t think it’s the computer..”

“What?” she said, drawing closer to me. “Speak up, I couldn’t hear you.”

“I said, I don’t think it’s the-”

That’s when all the lights in the house suddenly winked out, and the whole room was plunged into darkness.

“Eeek!” Allie cried, and I felt her arms reaching around my neck as she pressed herself to my back as tightly as she could. “W-What was that?”

“It’s just a black-out,” I chuckled, absently stroking the back of her arm. “Probably just a blown fuse or something.”

“Not that, you idiot. I meant the voice.”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. “W-What voice?”

“The creepy voice just now.”

“Allie, that’s not funny,” I said slowly.

“Do I sound like I’m laughing?” she said, her voice shaking.

“Shh,” I said, tilting my head sideways.

Strange, I thought. I couldn’t hear any voices at all. There was only the silence of the room interspersed with the sounds of Allie’s breathing.

“Allie, I can’t hear any voices,” I said reassuringly, blindly patting her hand. “You can relax.”

“I’m fine now,” she replied, and she must be, because she even managed to sound somewhat annoyed.

I couldn’t help but chuckle softly. “Then why are you still breathing so heavily?”

“Huh? What? I thought that was you..”

As Allie’s voice trailed off, I finally realized that the breathing sound wasn’t coming from my back, where Allie was. It didn’t come from the computer, either. It sure as hell wasn’t coming from me.

Instead, it seemed to come from all around him, as though the darkness itself had coalesced into a malevolent beast that was staring at him while breathing heavily.

In and out.

In and out.

“Fuck this shit,” Allie snarled, but I could feel her shivering uncontrollably at my back as she reached over and smashed her fist against the computer screen.

There was no sound of cracked glass. Hell, the monitor hardly even budged, as though someone had super glued it to the desk’s surface.

Then finally, in the midst of the pitch black darkness of the room, the screen came to life.

Two horizontal lines of crimson light split the center of the screen side by side, just a few inches away from each other. Then both began to expand, growing larger and larger until they had formed two elliptical slits. Then they stopped, holding completely still and unchanging.

It was only after a long moment that it dawned upon me what they were.

Not because of some prodigious act of deduction, or divine inspiration.

Instead, it was only because my gaze was completely riveted upon the two glowing shapes on the screen. That’s why I was still watching in rapt attention when they finally moved again.

They blinked.

They were eyes.

The breathing grew heavier and faster still.

They were watching us.