“Hey I really think we should tal…….” “shut up.” Kevin’s words cut her off like a knife. He had not spoken to her as they had before. Since her advances on him in the locker room several weeks prior Kevin had ignored her every word. She had begged him to listen to her. He confined her to the innermost vaults of his mind. Under lock and key she reached to be heard.

He had become consumed by his own brand of twisted justice as more and more pages in the strangers tome turned to ash. She had watched on the side-lines as the shy innocent boy she knew faded away in a tidal wave of blood and bone. The closer he came to power the further he was from his humanity.

Kevin had taken to playing with his victims like dolls. Each one a practice dummy for his latest acquired talent. Blood had boiled, bone had shattered and souls had been torn asunder. In his mind they had earned their fate. Criminals and reprobates every one he felt nothing as he forced them from their mortal coil.

“Look it's important I need to talk to you” his dark circled eyes bore holes into her as she pleaded. The lack of sleep and the endless nights hunting his quarrel had starved him of rest and transformed his visage into one of malice and contempt. He breathed heavily as he turned to face her.

“You have thirty seconds.” he leaned against the sink of the school bathroom poised to judge her words. She brushed her loose hair over her pointed ear and swallowed her fear. “Someone is coming for us. I've felt it for the past few days and you haven't listened. He's real close now.” he sighed and rubbed his palms into his eyes.

“I know.” she reeled back, surprised at his words. “I can feel him. It's like nothing I've felt before. It's not fear but a familiarity. Why do you think we have slowed down? Any more names checked off are going to draw him in.” she sat atop a vacant toilet as she rubbed at the recently sprouted black bone protrusions on her head anxiously.

“Then you know why I'm worried, Kevin. The boss doesn't even scare me this much.” with her final words Kevin slammed his fist sideways into the stall door. “He's not our boss! He's a creep who is holding our lives hostage. Don't you ever talk about him with respect.” he pulled his fist from the large dent it had become embedded in. she made her best attempt to stay stoic as he cursed to himself.

“Hey there aren't many pages left in the book. Soon we can go our separate ways and you won't have to see me again. That's what you want right?” he sighed and slumped down to the floor. “I don't know what I want liv. Part of me wants to just live normally but you have seen what we have learned. What we can do. When we are finished with the list, why should we stop?”

A great feeling of pressure and anxiety radiated through them both. They felt as if their hearts were being crushed by an impossible weight. High pitched ringing filled their ears as their very bodies seemed to quake. Summoning great strength and dragging himself to his feet Kevin reached for the bathroom door. Stretching his fingers he felt his bones quake as he struggled to breathe.

Opening the bathroom door he found it completely normal. The feeling faded as quickly as it came. A calm silence overcame his mind as a single voice entered “Kevin Williams.” The voice held no malice yet struck fear into both their hearts. Liv began to breathe heavily as her claws began to dig into her own crossed arms.

“He's here.”

In a storm of sound and light the fire alarm system erupted. Flashing strobe lights blinded his eyes as Kevin strained to see. The sound of screaming filled the air as students ran for cover from the activating sprinkler system. Soaked masses pushed past each other trampling those too slow to react.

Kevin was buffered from side to side by student after student running for any exit possible. Through the sirens and the haze Liv’s screaming cut its way to his mind. “Kevin, this is him we need to get out of here. Get to the counsellor's office!” her words hung with the desperation of a hunted animal. She was practically begging as Kevin began to push through the crowd.

Struggling through the mob he came to its end. He ran for the office kicking up floods of water as he went. Rounding the corner to the office he was met with a figure standing in front of the door. “He's not in there. Trust me son, that's the first place I looked.” The man stood in ankle high water. The end of his leather duster floating on the surface.

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His masked face revealed only a pair of piercing blue eyes. They seemed to stand out in the darkness of the hallway as the emergency lights flickered. “It's you isn't it? You’re the boy who has been carrying out his dirty work? Doing in all of his past associates?” the man reached inside his jacket.

“Tell me mate is there anything you have noticed about all the blokes he's had you sort?” The man threw three polaroids into the water. Their image floated just above the surface. They showed three corpses each with the same burn scar. The same scar that adorned Officer William’s arm. Four long thin fingers.

“So what Mary Poppins?” If not for the man's appearance his accent would have stood out on its own. Lamplight didn't get visitors from other countries. Kevin attempted to hide his fear with bravado. The man saw through it like a clear glass pane. In his bloodlust he had never cared to look for any common thread in the people on the list.

“Oh yeah, that's inventive. Not completely overused at all.” the man sighed as he reached into his jacket again. “You have been taking out people he has used in the past and guess what? When he's done with you he will just send the next twat to do you in.” Kevin began to brace his legs as the man talked.

In a flash of the emergency lights he could see the man was now holding a large chrome finished pistol. He raised it to Kevin's level and spoke once more “that's how he marks his servants. He gives them something but then they are his forever. Even your adoptive father. He only took you in because he was forced to. To look after his pet.”

Kevin's blood boiled with the man's words. He took a step forward knowing it would take more than a bullet to stop him. “If you calm your arse down and talk to me we can see about getting rid of him together. You won't have to kill for him anymore.” heat began to build in Kevin’s palms as he clenched his fists.

“No. This power is mine. Not his. Not yours” Kevin slammed his heated palms into the water sending a cloud of steam bursting into the air. Two loud shots rang out and echoed around the hall as the alarms continued to blare. Black blood dripped to the floor as Kevin leapt at the man through the steam cloud.

Tackling him to the floor they both rolled in the shallow water. The man hit Kevin with a punch to the gut that sent him flying into the fibre ceiling. Panels came crashing down into the water with him as he rolled backwards to his feet. his nails reshaped into dark black claws as he pulled a chunk of a supporting wall beam from its place and threw it.

The hard white stone crumbled as it impacted the mans raised crossed arms. With a swift movement three orbs of water formed into shards of ice and flew towards Kevin. Raising his left arm in defence the three shards embedded themselves in his forearm. A shower of dark blood began to rain from his arm as he let out a pained scream.

Steeling himself against the agony he used his right arm to break the portion of the shards protruding from him. He snarled as steam exhausted from the edges of his mouth. Through all his targets none had ever been able to provide a real fight for him. This was exhilarating. He chuckled as he sprinted towards the man.

His black claws dug into the man's chest as he lifted him from the ground. His pained winces brought a smile to Kevin’s face as he began to relentlessly claw at the man's torso. Liquid crimson filled the water as he pushed him further and further back. His push was ended by a double handed strike to his back and a casual kick sending Kevin flying back.

He tumbled back, stopping only when he crashed into the pillar he had taken a chunk out of before. The remainder of it crumbled as Kevin stood back up to face his foe. The ceiling began to creak as the man threw off his ruined leather duster. His black t-shirt was slashed to pieces revealing deep ruby gashes down to the bone.

Kevin watched in disbelief as the man leaned his head back and grunted. His wounds began to close as he bought his head to meet Kevin. “I really liked that jacket you prick.” Kevin's wound pushed a bullet from his right shoulder as it healed. It plopped down into the water as he leapt forward swinging his right fist towards the man.

Blow for blow they exchanged fists as each became more and more beaten and bloodied. Kevin bought his hand up before the man. His fingers formed a familiar claw-like grip as the man froze in place. Smiling in triumph he began to close the fingers on his hand. The sound of muscle tearing and bone snapping began to ring from the man's body. His frame quaked in his struggle against the force.

The man took a step forward. The corridor shook as Kevin pushed harder to stop him. The man took another step forward. Kevin's nose began to bleed as he pushed with all his might to stop him. The man took another step and formed a fist. Arcs of blue electricity began to emanate from his fingers. It began to arc to anything metal nearby as the man continued to step forward.

“Kevin, get down!” from behind him on a raised staircase Officer Williams aimed his firearm at the man. A fear unlike any other gripped Kevin's heart as he turned and dropped to the ground. A hail of shots rang out as the Officer fired his pistol at the man. Each bullet was zapped from the air by arcing lightning and turned to ash. The man raised his hand and pointed it towards the now defenceless officer.

Kevin leapt from the ground as a bolt of electricity shot from the man's hand. Kevin reached out a hand and with an open palm without touching him pushed the Officer back along the hall. The bolt hit him in the chest right as he used his other hand to pull down the fragile ceiling.

Rubble began to fall as the old hallway began to collapse. Kevin lay in the water convulsing as the man reached a hand backwards. His pistol came to him as the arcs of electricity carried it. The man wiped blood from his mouth as he racked the heavy slide. “I was willing to work with you. You stupid prick.” he lifted his hand to take aim at Kevin’s head.

Through his blurred vision Kevin saw as Liv leapt onto the man's back and bit into his shoulder. He slammed his back into the already crumbling wall knocking her off. Pointed a hand towards her as he unleashed a jolt of lightning . She screamed as she fell to the ground. “I'd heard your little friend had started to manifest. Too bad she couldn't do it for long enough to make a difference.”

The man raised the gun again as Liv began to fade away. Kevin struggled on his back desperately to move. The electricity surging through his body prevented his muscles from pulling him to his feet. The man kicked him down into the low water and cocked the pistol's hammer. A single shot rang out as the rest of the corridor collapsed.