by M. O. McLeod
Santino directed Kosner to move the camera closer to the podium.
“Right there,” he said. He looked squarely into the camera and gave a big, toothy grin.
Santino, Kosner, and VIN had all left the pier bruised and battered, with Allie in tow. They were now in the Seven News Studio in downtown Alexandria. Santino had opened the door and let his newborns in. He needed them to clear everybody else out of the building while he got his message out to the city of Alexandria and, more importantly, to Kurma. He didn’t care where she was hiding out or where her pack of cronies laid low; all he wanted was for her to know that he was coming for her—he and the whole army of Phantoms that he would create. If Kurma wanted a war, she would have it.
Santino wasn’t going to turn himself in. Why should he? Kurma was going around killing his Phantoms. Who was going to stop her? He was! And, he knew just how to do it.
“Settle down, settle down out there,” Santino said. “To all my viewers: yes, what you see is real. I am really on the news. The time is now eleven o’clock on Friday the eighteenth.” He leaned back in his chair. “People, I am what you call a Phantom. I’m very much as hideous as I look. Outside there are more things like me running around, tearing the place up.” He paused and leaned toward the camera. “You can stay inside all you want, but we’ll find a way in. Understand this, Alexandria: I am a Phantom, and when I touch someone else”—he held up his right hand—“they turn into a Phantom like me.”
He laughed. “You see, I’m contagious. I can spread and I will spread, all over the city until I have completely taken control.”
He rose out of his chair, and Kosner had to adjust the camera’s angle. Santino said, “People of Alexandria, unless you become one of me and join my side, you will forever be on the bottom of the food chain. That’s right.” Santino’s voice became deeper. “I will eat you. All the Phantoms will gorge on the bodies of this city until it is bled dry and the bones have disintegrated into dust. Then I will move on to the next city and then the next. Think I’m lying?”
Santino walked around the newsroom desk and marched right up to the camera that Kosner was steadying. “Look outside, people of Alexandria. This is not a game. I am not the only one you have to fear. There are more things out there that are worse than I am—or at least almost worse than I am.”
His faced hardened as he thought of Kurma and how she had killed Leon. “To Karmenia Rosales, also known as Kurma.” He smiled into the camera. “Because of you and your little birdies, Alexandria now has to suffer—and it will.”
Santino backed away from the camera and yelled to VIN, who was standing in the studio’s green room. “You can bring him now!”
Santino looked back into the camera and made room for VIN, who was dragging a man on his back. VIN left the man by Santino’s feet. Santino roughly picked the guy up and brought his face to the camera. They stood shoulder to shoulder, Santino smiling and the man crying.
“I want to show you what I can do to all of you who think I’m lying. Join me as my new friend has. You won’t be disappointed.”
Kosner caught the man’s transmutation on camera for everyone to see, just as Santino wanted him to. Santino wanted people either to join him or fear him. He wanted them to see exactly what he was—what regular people weren’t. Whatever Kurma was, he wasn’t, and that was obvious. Whatever he was, she wasn’t. That was all that mattered.
There were clear sides to be on: winning and losing. Kurma could walk around being smug all she wanted. Santino would gain more Phantoms that would destroy her and all like her. Either you became a Phantom and helped kill off Kurma and her friends or became Santino’s food. Santino would let the citizens of the city decide. He didn’t care. Humans were not his concern any more than a cat or dog would be.
Santino dropped the man on the ground when the mutation was complete. “There’s room for plenty more like him.” He opened his arms wide and welcoming. “Kurma, I’m coming for you.” He pointed at the camera with a long, purple-tipped finger. “We’re all coming for you!”
Santino grabbed the camera out of Kosner’s hands and smashed it on the ground, shattering glass everywhere. Then he walked off, and Kosner followed…and so did Santino’s newborn Phantom.
36.
The After Hours