Eric

Eric could have sworn he had seen the smile of the mask one more time before everything had glitched to nothingness. Darkness enveloped him once again. Devoid of senses, emotion and even thoughts, he floated through limbo. It was like drifting into the void, diving into the darkness.

But after a few moments, he felt his senses return. They were blurry, not clear somehow, but they got more and more real by the second. He could feel his arms behind his back, something cold against his ankles. As he opened his eyes, he saw blue symbols in an unknown language rapidly flashing in front of his eyes. They vanished as something heavy was pulled off his head.

It was like waking up from an eternal slumber. Eric’s eyes were heavy, needed a moment to get used to the light. His ears felt like they had forgotten to hear. Things still looked and sounded like before, but it was still different. Something had changed for sure. Had he made it?

Is this… Reality?

As his vision cleared, he felt something forcefully pulling him upwards by his wrists. He stumbled up, more or less getting dragged upwards by the firm grip. A cold, smoky voice got raised behind him.

“Eric Hoffner. You are now going to be brought to your temporary prison cell.”

Eric didn’t respond, inspected what laid in front of him. He was inside of a giant room, rows upon rows of humans sitting on chairs like the one he had sat on. They all were hooked up to some kind of machine, a mechanical device covering most of their heads like an oversized helmet. From each device, a large blue cable went upwards towards the ceiling, where it then went sideways and out of sight. All cables led in the same direction.

“Where do these lead to?”

The man behind him didn’t respond, pushed him forward as Eric was forced to comply. They moved between the rows of people, all of them unmoving and sitting in silence. Were they all people currently trapped inside of the C.U.A system? Were they all inside of their own game?

“Get moving.”

The grip had tightened again, the handcuffs limiting Eric’s ability to fight back. He grunted in a sign of unease, responded, “Don’t joke with me. Bring me to where these cable lead to. I need to turn off that fucking machine.”

A bitter chuckle was audible behind him. “You wish.”

Eric stopped moving. Had his ears deceived him right now?

“What’s the matter? Get moving.”

No. He had definitely heard that voice before. But from where?

The person pushed him forward, used more force now to drag him along. Eric fake stumbled forward, and the person took the bait. There was a short moment in time where the person’s grip was weaker, a moment when he didn’t hold him tight enough. A second later, Eric had managed to land a kick backwards, got a slight distance between him and the person.

He spun around,

saw a gun was pointed at him.

He saw the face of the man holding it.

His eyes widened.

---

Officer Jeff

Anger filled every fibre of Jeff’s body. He held his arm straightened, his gun gripped with a tight hand as two fingers were leaned against the cool metal of the trigger. His other hand stabilized the gun as it hovered unmoving mid-air, not even a slight tremble visible in his aim.

In front of him stood the man he had wanted to kill for so long. Three fucking years he had thought about that case, had remembered the damn side street where he had caught that son of a bitch. And now he was standing right in front of him. He had him at gunpoint, yet Eric Hoffner didn’t look concerned in the slightest. He was standing in front of Jeff, the arms still cuffed behind his back as his eyes peered into Jeff’s soul with a narrow gaze.

Dark, long hair dangled off Eric’s head, his unkempt beard almost as long as his hair. Jeff felt his posture tighten.

“It was you! You were that police bastard!”

“Silence.” Jeff’s voice remained calm, but there were hints of suppressed anger.

“Ah, ah, ah. This is great. Now I got you in place already. Where are the kids?”

Is he joking? he thought. No matter how delusional he is, no matter how broken his mind is, even he needs to realize that I can just end his life with the tightening of a muscle. Has he gone mad in there?

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“They aren’t even close to this location. And you will also never see them again. Your life is over, Eric. Now play along before I make you regret it.”

“So they are alive, eh?” Eric asked. He managed a chuckle, then a full-fledged laugh. “Good… good.” He made a step towards Jeff. “You want to make me regret it? What are you gonna do, shoot me?” He took another step. “Or perhaps you want to run me over again?”

Jeff played with the thought of pulling the trigger. He could just kill him here and now, show him that he indeed could just gun him down and watch as his brain sprayed the wall like an abstract painting.

Eric took another step, was now around one meter away from Jeff.

“This is your final warning, Eric,” Jeff said, moved the trigger even more.

“Come on...”

Eric stepped closer.

“...Shoot. Prove to me I’m immortal. Try to kill a god.”

Eric took one last step forward, pressed his forehead against the gun. He had the brightest smile on his face, no fibre of his being showing any sign of fear. Jeff felt his heart beat like crazy, but it wasn’t caused by fear. He pressed down the trigger more, barely managed to contain himself.

He isn’t worth it, he told himself. He needs to get a real punishment. He doesn’t deserve to die here.

“Heh. I knew you coul-”

Jeff moved his arm with a quick movement, hit Eric’s head with the back of the gun. Eric stumbled, then collapsed to the floor.

“Lights out,” Jeff said.

“You do not deserve the relief of death.”

---

Jeff pressed down a finger as a small flame lit his cigarette. He took a long drag, tapped against the concrete wall he was leaning against with his other hand. His gun was back in his holster. He was inside of a room without windows. The room was separated in two parts: one in front of the bars, and one behind them. Eric was behind the bars, still unconsciousness. At least he had been for the last hour, but now he started to move again.

Jeff had repositioned the handcuffs to in front of Eric, leaving him at least some space to move his arms, which he probably didn’t even deserve

He sat up, held his head. Jeff sure hoped that it hurt like hell. “So you're finally awake, huh?”

Eric muttered something. Jeff couldn’t quite hear it, but he thought to have heard the word ‘coward’.

“You will stay in here until someone comes to get you. Depending on how fast they are with your case, that should take between one day and one week.”

Eric got up, threw himself against the metal bars. The metal bars didn’t look very impressed.

“You couldn’t do it, right? You couldn’t shoot me.”

“You do not deserve to die yet.”

“Just wait until I get out of here and smash your head in with my bare hands. After I kill you, I go for the kids that pitied me, and then I turn off that machine you guys are so proud of. Go ahead, try to stop me.”

He really has no sense of what’s right or wrong, he thought. How I despise that trait…

“I am your new god. And you will bow in front of me once the time comes.”

“Have fun alone burying yourself in your delusions, Sinner.” Jeff turned around, pulled on his cigarette. Then another time. He crossed the room, opened the door and put one foot in the hallway. He hesitated. Jeff closed the door again, stepped back closer to the bars.

“One question.”

Eric spat in Jeff’s direction. “Go ahead, officer.”

“What was the reason behind all of this? What was the starting point, the lever, the one thing which caused your entire existence to fall apart? Justify yourself, don’t you have some excuse filled backstory you have to tell, something to make people pity you?” He pulled on his cigarette, blew the smoke into Eric’s direction. “Come on, tell me.”

“The last thing I want,” Eric said while facing Jeff from the opposite side of the bars, “is to perceive anyone pitying me.” He put one hand against a metal bar, gripped it tight.

“Tell me your damn excuse.”

“You people really are all the same, aren’t you? You are always searching for the one reason, the one single thing that pushed someone over the edge. Do you guys really think there is one defined moment in time where someone turns evil? Goes mad and abandons all logic? There is no such thing. You are just deluded by your own systems, caught into a net of pathetic bullshit and lies.”

Eric hit the metal bar with his fist, continued, “You guys are always so self righteous.”

“Don’t act like you have any idea of what’s right or wrong.” Jeff returned. “You aren’t even worth taking the word ‘righteous’ into your mouth.”

“Oh please. You guys are trying to fight a disease by killing the infected. You never even think about what made them go sick in the first place.”

Eric smiled. “There was no reason. That’s your answer. There never will be one and there never has been. I just did it, that’s all. There is no difference if I justify it, since it would only be an interpretation of what’s right and what wrong. There is no right and wrong. All which counts are opinions, and on which side you’re standing on.”

“So you want to tell me what you have done was right?” Jeff felt himself tighten up.

“There is no difference between right and wrong. You kill people for what you think is right, and so do I. And every single person that ever killed someone else thinks it’s the right thing to do, so how can you judge me?”

Jeff took another drag, realized that there was only filter left. “Do not, under any circumstance, compare me with you.”

“The only thing that separates us right now is on which side of the bars we are standing.”

Jeff bit down on the filter, moved his arm with a quick movement.

A loud bang echoed on the smooth prison walls, was followed by a surprised yelp.

Then, the smell of iron filled the air,

as Eric fell to the floor.

---