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The Pleasures Of Violence
Chapter 2.: The False World

Chapter 2.: The False World

Working for the Green family was a mostly quiet affair, she thought while driving down the highway. She sat behind the wheel of an Aston Martin, interior all leather and on the newest technological level. Only sometimes there were days like this, where she had to drop everything and drive to the middle of nowhere. She couldn't even drive that fast with the roads in terrible conditions.

She came to a stop right next to her destination, and was promptly greeted by one of the family's associates, who was responsible for managing the police.

"Hello, Miss Davies, how was your drive?" The man asked, waving his hand once, and looking around as if he expected more than just her. "Is it just you, they sent?" Was his immediate continuation, shifting nervously.

He was on the taller side, around her height, and had short blond hair that was complimented by his sharp features. She had worked with him multiple times before, and never had she seen him this agitated and distraught. She bumped up the expectations she had of this job up a few degrees.

"All good, all good. John, you know you can call me Beverly, we know each other well enough by now, I should think. Also, what's got into you? I have never seen you this nervous on a job." Beverly raised an eyebrow at the man, who was wringing his hands, shying away from meeting her gaze. Another bad sign. John was not the kind of guy who was needlessly beating around the bush, with anything really.

"You'll know, when you meet him. He isn't like the normal guys who unlock their Aura and rove on about being able to lift a fork with it. I can't even tell how many strata he opened. To top it off, he's a psychopath, who takes pride in killing his own father." He said, taking the lead into the police station.

It was an almost impossible story. A boy unlocking his Aura by himself, and being strong enough to kill a grown man with it, no teaching needed. But there was also no way some random no name could just pop up and shake John up this badly, she thought.

They walked through the station, Beverly moving to keep pace with the nervous man, and what she immediately noticed was the sheer number of policemen still out and about. It was almost eleven p.m., and this was not London but a quiet village somewhere in the midlands. Officers of neighbouring towns might have even rushed over to make up these numbers.

They stopped before the window that was looking into the interrogation room, and she felt it immediately upon seeing him, there was no way that she could fault John for getting cold feet, or even hysterical fear, now.

The boy sat in the interrogation room, the only one of the station, cold as a cucumber, and was idly looking around at the depressing whiteness of the walls. There was nothing remarkable about the boy, grey eyes, short dark hair, small stature, and no prior mention of him or his father either. The only notable thing being that his mother apparently died in childbirth.

But his Aura, it was thick, even thicker than Beverly's and dwarfing John's by a mile. The dark red miasma filled the room, and broadcasted the boy's intentions with unmistakable clarity. Right now, he was curious, and a little bored. The fact that someone like him was not found sooner baffled her.

'How could he develop like this without anyone helping him? And it is unlikely that he has some kind of secret master, he would never have let the police even notice him. Very curious.' Was what she thought.

"Why does he wear some kind of school uniform?" She asked John first instead, after she got over her initial reaction.

The man shrugged, for once looking like himself. "Apparently he had nothing else to wear."

Beverly sighed audibly, and steeled herself for what was to come. "Let me talk to him."

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Jacob played with his Power, feeling it flow between his fingers and extending around him. Filling the bright room to the brim with it gave him an eery sense of peace. He liked how aware it made him feel.

After killing his father the Power just kept expanding, both in scope and strength, it kept deepening by the second, with no end in sight. It was just pouring out of him, as if some kind of barrier had been removed, the Power always there, waiting to be released. One of the side effects of this was that he started seeing not only his own Power, but something around everyone else as well.

Where his was a deep red ocean, the policemen's was more akin to a transparent puddle, milky and without purpose. Calling it a Power was doing it a favour in his opinion, and the mere thought of a comparison between theirs and his sent a spike of irrational anger through him. The Power was not something so... fragile.

Guided by this process of thinking, Jacob continued, slowly commanding the Power.

'Why should people without it ever even hold authority over me? I could crush them all like flies!' He thought, poking at their transparent blobs with his own Power, making the men shudder and Jacob giggle disturbingly. 'That's right, weakness is a sin. The strong trample on the weak. That is how it is and always will be. And I am not weak!'

He was curious what would happen if he snuffed their feeble excuses for Powers out like the harsh winds of winter blew out candles, anticipation burning, and pupils expanding, Jacob prepared to make just this happen.

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Instead of acting on this thought though, Jacob reared himself back with remarkable self-control, and continued ignoring the ordinary men, who were trying to piece together what had happened on the murder scene. They asked him questions, which he dismissed in favour of observing and experimenting with his Power.

He was trying to make his Power twist around him, hopefully adding more control to it.

Finally, they left him alone, bringing in a different man, who Jacob had not seen yet. When the man stepped through the door. Jacob immediately trained his eyes on him. He was different.

"Hello, Jacob, I am Officer Gardener, but you can call me John. Can you tell me what happened to the man in your flat?" The policeman said, approaching the boy. He had a different Power, not the weak stains of white that surrounded all others. He was trying to sound soothing and confident as well, but Jacob was positive that the man was afraid. The pause in his step, the slight quiver in his voice, unmistakable.

Jacob had seen these things far too often to confuse them for something else. Even the man's Power was shaking.

Nonetheless, he was intrigued, a blue tinted Power clang desperately to the man's skin. It was somehow more solid, and purposeful compared to the transparent blobs that surrounded the other policemen. It actively resisted Jacob's Power when he gave it a light squeeze, and even endured the light pressure the boy put it under.

This man wasn't his equal, but he was clearly someone who could also use his own Power in some capacity. Jacob increased the pressure his Power applied to the man, constricting him from all sides. It was even stronger than what he used on his father not too long ago.

The man swayed, his Power coming undone at the seams, but as Jacob had no desire to kill the man, he stopped before he would sustain any injuries. Seeing the man's own Power barely resist put another smile on Jacob's face. He was doing that more often now, and he thought that he was beginning to like it.

Getting back to the man's question. "I killed him." Was his response. It was delivered in a proud, and cheerful voice, which looked distinctly wrong on the small boy's face. "It felt beautiful, Officer John." He added, when the policeman stayed silent.

"I see." The man said, slowly. "And who is this man you killed?" He didn't even question the fact that Jacob did in fact kill the person, and that made the boy even more delighted, though confused as to why the man would even need to ask this. Jacob didn't care enough to question it.

None of these policemen had even entertained the thought that this small boy, who looked more like a victim himself than a murderer, did in fact kill his own father, making his corpse almost unrecognizable in the process.

"It was my father." He said, once again seemingly proud of the achievement, his Power swelling with the proclamation, eliciting a tremble from John.

"That so?" The man with the blue Power murmured to himself. Looking down at a message on his phone that announced itself with a soft *ding*, he continued. "I'll leave, for now, please stay put, Jacob."

With this, he left the boy to his own devices, hoping that he would not suddenly make use of his massive Aura.

But Jacob did stay put, continuing to use his Power. The more he thought about its development, the more amazed he became. When first he realized its existence, only a single use was enough to exhaust him almost completely, making successive uses almost impossible, and there was nothing but an ability akin to telekinesis that he could accomplish with it.

Now though, it had become more, so much more. He was becoming restless already. The liberation of killing his father, and the euphoric feeling this gave him, was beginning to wear off, and he realized that all these people were wasting his time. They could not feel it like him, make it swirl and dance to their whims like him.

He had the impulse to leave, and explore the world, search for more people like him. There was so much more to learn about it. Perhaps he would talk to the man with blue around him, it would surely lead him to others who knew about its existence, were Jacob's thoughts, when suddenly the door opened and in walked a tall woman.

That in itself wouldn't have been all that surprising, but this woman also had a Power different from the normal transparency that Jacob came to associate with the weakness of ordinary people.

No, it was a deep green, and like the man before, it clung to her. She sat down opposite him, crossed her legs, and steepled her fingers.

"Please draw your Aura back, it is quite impolite, Mr. Rue." She said, a steely determination in her voice.

So the Power was called Aura? He supposed it fit more aptly than his name, though it was still rather vague on what it actually was. Putting contemplations on the nature of Aura to the side, for now, Jacob complied with the woman's request, and tried rearing his Aura back.

It started drawing closer to his body, slowly, both entering him and compressing, but he could not let it look like either the woman's, or John's, clinging closely, only a thin film remaining against the skin.

In fact, it was still filling about half the room, and felt like he was wearing a jacket that was a few numbers too tight. He didn't like it.

When the woman realized that Jacob could not restrain his Aura further, she nodded once, and addressed him again.

"My name is Beverly Davies, and I will give you a choice." She said, her fingers remaining pressed against each other, and tone flat, like Jacob's former maths teacher.

He didn't like that woman very much, and he was similarly not thrilled by the idea of this woman deciding how he had to proceed, with this choice of hers. He was strong now, and none would ever limit him again!

Before she had even told him what her offer was, Jacob lashed out. His Aura swelled back to its original scope, and crashed against Beverly's own.

A grin was already forming on Jacob's face, but it fell almost immediately.

The woman had not moved a single inch from her spot. She looked unbothered by what he had done, but Jacob was sure that his Aura was strong. He could kill with but a thought! How did she resist him?

The wave of deep crimson attacked again, and again, and again, pushing and pulling at the woman. If Jacob was still paying attention to her facial expressions by this point, he would have recognized that she was visibly straining herself.

"This is quite enough, Mister Rue, Jacob. I am unaware why you reacted this way, but realize that neither I nor my associates wish to offend you." She said, with as much gravitas as she could muster.

"What do you want then?" Jacob said, and he was clearly angry, but also somehow respectful with his voice, even if the content of his sentence did not reflect this. His Aura drew back, but still surrounded the woman.

Beverly composed herself and told the unstable boy what the Green family Patriarch had conveyed she should say in case a powerful Wielder with no association appeared. "We, that is the Green family, wishes for you to join the false world."

Jacob regarded her for a moment, until he came to some kind of conclusion. "Are there many people like you, strong people?" He asked intently.

"There are, and many who are stronger than I." Beverly nodded.

Jacob simply grinned, his decision was made. The world of Aura Wielders, this 'false world', was to be his next destination.