The Social Media Murder Corp

by Stephen Signorelli

  “Girls, it’s late, and mommy is tired, and you both need to go wash up and go to sleep.”

  “Yes, papa is right, it’s time for bed,” Genesis nodded.

  “Ok mommy,” Danger said as she kissed Genesis.

  “Good night mommy, sweet dreams!” Destruction added as she kissed Genesis.

  “Goodnight my precious ones, I will see you in the morning.”

  The twins happily bounded out of the room and hugged Stepan.

  “Goodnight papa!”

  “Goodnight little ones, pleasant dreams.”

  The girls made their way to bed as Stepan watched them. He closed the bedroom door and looked at Genesis.

  “Why won’t you tell them?” he asked.

  “They are young, it will be too much for them to handle,” she replied.

  “You are their mother, they have a right to know what is going on. Besides, you will not be able to hide it from them forever. Eventually they will suspect something is wrong.”

  Genesis smiled and motioned for Stepan to sit next to her on the bed. He sat down next to her and gently brushed her hair back from her face.

  “You always know how to defeat me,” he said with a sigh.

  “I want them to hold onto happy memories for as long as possible. They deserve as much. They are only 8 years old, they have their entire lives ahead of them without their mother in it, let them hold onto me, and me onto them, for as long as possible.”

  “The illusion will not last for long, you know that right?”

  “I know, I am not blind to what is happening. They will not take it well when it does happen. Maybe I am selfish for not telling them the truth, but they need to be as happy for as long as possible, I will not rob them of their childhood.”

  The twins lay snuggled with each other.

  “Mommy is sick isn’t she?”

  “Yes, she is.”

  “Why won’t she tell us?”

  “She probably thinks she is protecting us, she doesn’t want us sad.”

  “But I am going to be sad anyway!”

  “Me too, I will miss Mommy, but we will see her again someday in heaven.”

  “I hope so, I love mommy.”

  “Have faith, we will see her in heaven, along with papa and Yuki and Mr. Fluffywoogums, then we will always be together.”

  “Yay!”

  “We should have killed that old man.”

  “Yes, we were a little too slow. Next time we need to act faster.”

  “When we fight we have to kill as fast as possible.”

  “I like killing.”

  “So do I, it makes me feel powerful.”

  “Do you feel their souls leaving their bodies?”

  “Yes, they pass through me, they give me strength.”

  “I loved the smell of his blood, it smelled like the earth and soil.”

  “I want to spill his bowels out all over the floor.”

  “We will get another chance.”

  “Do you think so?”

  “I think he will come back, and he will bring some friends to play with us.”

  “He was mad, I can see him doing that.”

  “We will kill all his friends when they come, and we will kill him slowly.”

  “Oh yes, that would be fun! We can stick needles in him to see what happens!”

  “That would be funny, we can poke out one of his eyes and show it to him so he can look at his own eye!”

  “Oh my God yes!”

  The twins snuggled closer, their bodies entwined.

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  “The universe speaks to me.”

  “It speaks to me too.”

  The girls drifted off to sleep.

  Trial by fire

  “I don’t want any more peas they are icky!”

  “Eat your peas they are good for you.”

  “They are icky! Can’t we have tater tots?”

  Stepan rolled his eyes, Marcela hated peas, but she loved tater tots. She would eat them for breakfast if she could.

  “Marcy, Yuki worked hard on making these peas, please eat them.”

  “She got them from a can how hard is that?”

  “Marcela Anna Rosita!”

  “I’m sorry, I will try and eat them.”

  “Did you finish all your studies today?” Genesis asked.

  “Yes mommy, well I know I did anyway,” Gabby answered.

  “I did too mommy, all of it!”

  “Good, I am very proud that you do all your homework and lessons in a timely manner.”

  “Mommy did you go to school?” Marcy asked.

  “Yes, I went to school, but not for long.”

  “Why not?”

  “Where I lived was very poor and I had to stay home and help my mommy with the chickens and goats and the garden.”

  “Oh mommy what was your mommy like?”

  “She was, she is, a very nice person. She would love you both.”

  “We should visit her!”

  “Yes can we visit her?”

  “Someday, I promise.”

  “Mommy why is Mr. Fluffywoogums always so angry?”

  “I think it’s because you dress him up all the time, I do not think he likes it.”

  “But he looks so cute!”

  “And we love him!”

  “Well sometimes we do things to the ones we love that they don’t always like.”

  The twins contemplated this for a few moments.

  “So if we dress him up MORE he will learn to like it!”

  “That makes sense!”

  Genesis laughed.

  “That’s not exactly what I meant,” she said.

  “Girls how would you like to go into the city tomorrow?” Stepan asked.

  “To Phnom Penh?!”

  “Yes! Please can we?”

  “Oh yes, can we?”

  “Yes we can, if you finish your dinner and help Yuki wash up,” Stepan told them.

  The girls finished their dinner (peas included) and cleared the table. Marcela almost dropped the entire collection of plates but Gabriela steadied her as they carried everything into the kitchen.

  “What will you do with them in the city?” Genesis asked.

  “There is a park there I think they will like. You will come with us I hope,” Stepan answered.

  “If I feel up to it, I get so tired sometimes,” Genesis answered.

  “About that….”

  “Don’t, we agreed.”

  “We agreed not to tell them, but we did not agree to not talk about it among each other.”

  “So what do you want to say?”

  “I know a doctor in Moscow, a specialist, probably the best on the planet. I want to take you to him.”

  “The doctors here…”

  “Could be wrong. We haven’t explored every option.”

  “Didn’t we?”

  Stepan looked at Genesis and bowed his head slightly.

  “I don’t want this to end. This, this family, this life we built. I don’t want it to ever end.”

  Genesis smiled and took Stepan’s hand and stroked it.

  “It won’t. It may be interrupted for a little while, but one day we will pick up right where we left off.”

  Stepan kissed her hand.

  “You really hold onto that faith don’t you? I wish I could say the same for me.”

  “I have more than enough faith for everyone in this house. And I am still here, still breathing. We do not know how much time there is left. But whatever is left, we WILL spend it together, all of us, as a family.”

  “Will you let me try? Will you go to Moscow?”

  “You have done so much for me already. You took in a battered and beaten stranger, rescued her from an alley, and took care of her and her children. I will go to Moscow, because I know it means so much to you.”

  Stepan got up and walked to Genesis. He looked into her eyes and held her head close to him, stroki
ng her hair.

  “Even one more day with you, I would do anything.”

  Yuki clasped her hands together three times. She was kneeling before a small shrine, incense burning on both ends, her husband’s photo in the middle. She said a small prayer in Japanese and clapped her hands together three more times.

  “I will see you again someday my beloved. I continue to honor your memory.”

  Yuki got up and turned off her bedroom light. She got into her bed and drifted off to sleep.

  The twins lay snuggled together, their legs entwined. They stared into each other’s eyes, barely blinking.

  “I hear them coming.”

  “I do too, they will be here soon.”

  “Do we tell papa and Yuki?”

  “They will figure it out once the killing starts.”

  “The universe wants us to kill them all.”

  “Yes, they must pay for this intrusion with their blood.”

  “The old man is with them.”

  “Yes, we will kill him last. We will kill him slow.”

  “There are a lot of them.”

  “It doesn’t matter, we cannot die.”

  “Forces of nature cannot die.”

  “The universe demands balance.”

  “Balance it shall have.”

  “Let’s go get ready, quietly, we don’t want to wake anyone up.”

  “Ok, I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  Genesis slept peacefully in bed, her head on Stepan’s chest. He had his arm around her and on her back, holding her close. He stared at the ceiling, his mind going in many different directions. He laid out the trip to Moscow before him, passports for everyone, a private charter as opposed to a commercial flight, and enough luggage for however long they needed to stay.

  Stepan had given up on his other life for Genesis and the girls. He had been happy the past 9 years, happy and comfortable. He was perfectly fine with growing into an old man, with Genesis at his side. But the twins, as much as he loved them, they concerned him. Their uncontrolled violent nature and bloodlust terrified him. They were normal, sweet, innocent, even naïve among the family, but put them in any sort of stressful situation or combat setting and it was like they became possessed. He didn’t know what he was going to do about it, but his first priority was Genesis and her health. The twins would have to wait. He bent his head down and kissed the top of Genesis’s head. He had never been in love before. He had been with many women, but as sexual objects, mutual arrangement. Genesis, he loved. He loved her more than anything, and he loved the twins, no matter what they did. He supposed this is what being a family meant, what it felt like, and he would not let it go without a fight. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but it was difficult.

  Outside the enemy was closing in on the compound. From every direction, unseen and unfeeling merchants of death crept closer to the house. From the forest and grass they came, silently, their camouflaged fatigues hiding them from all eyes. There were 25 of them, 5 each from every side of the house, 5 held in reserve, standing next to the Bell of St. Mark, who had come back to see the girls put down. The Cambodian moonlight shone down, bathing the scene in an eerie silver, evening mist rising from the ground. The soldiers, battle hardened mercenaries from France, specially recruited by The Bell for this mission, silently and effortlessly crept forward.

  The first soldier died on his knees, an unseen steel flechette round smashing through his body armor, tearing his heart to shreds, and exiting out of his back. He fell silently to the ground, without even a groan, his blood spilling onto the grass.

  Behind him, his 4 comrades froze.

  The second soldier died instantly when another flechette pierced his helmet, splitting his skull in two, and slamming into the ground behind him. Bits of brain matter sprayed over his comrade behind him, who immediately threw himself to the ground and spoke into his mic.

  “Deux ver le bas. L’enemmi utilize tours de flechettes!”

  The Bell looked at the 5 guards standing next to him.

  “Flechette rounds? They know we are here. Warn them what they are up against.”

  “Surprise n’est plus realisable. Reglez comme bon vous semble!”

  The third, fourth, and fifth soldier on the west side of the property died in a matter of seconds, flechette rounds piercing their body armor, tearing them in half.

  Danger stood over the corpses of the dead soldiers, her breathing calm, her pulse steady and normal. She knelt down next to one of the soldiers and reached into his opened wounds. She pulled out his intestines, stringing them out like sausages, a slight smile on her lips.

  Destruction emerged from the grass, a needle gun at her side.

  “Danger, we don’t have time to play.”

  “Can’t you smell it? Their bowels. It’s quite lovely.”

  “Yes I can, and it is quite nice. But we have more people to kill, and they know we are out here now.”

  Danger stood up, her hands bloody.

  “I love killing, I do so love it.”

  “We’ve lost contact with the west team.”

  “Stealth is over, all teams, light them up. Burn this place to the ground.”

  The 20 remaining soldiers stood up, unslung their heavy weaponry, and began to fire into the compound.

  “YUKI!” Stepan screamed as the property motion detectors started wailing, “CODE RED!”

  Yuki was already up and brandishing her weapons, she hit a button on the wall next to her bed, activating the house auto defense programs. Steel shutters slammed down on the windows and doors, searchlights immediately kicked in, flooding the property with light.

  Stepan grabbed a Glock 9mm from the night stand as he quickly put on some clothes. Genesis was awake and yelling.

  “What’s going on? Where are the girls?”

  “We are under attack, the house auto defense system has triggered, the doors and windows are barricaded. We are fortified. Get to the panic room.”

  Stepan pulled Genesis out of bed and carried her out into the hall. The house had a panic room, fully self-contained and stocked with enough food and water for 5 days. He intended to put Genesis and the girls in there and deal with whatever was happening along with Yuki.

  “Stepan the girls!”

  “YUKI!”

  “Master, the girls are not here!”

  “WHAT?”

  “They are not in their rooms!”

  “Marcela! Gabriella!!!”

  “Stepan where are they?!”

  “YUKI!”

  “Master, I cannot find them anywhere, they are NOT in the house!”

  Stepan’s mind raced.

  “Genesis, here, stay here,” he said as he carried her into the panic room.

  “NO! Stepan don’t you dare leave me in here without the girls!”

  “They are in the house, they are probably hiding, let me go find them, stay here!”

  “STEPAN do NOT leave me in here without my girls!”

  “Genesis, my love, my true love please please believe me, the girls are ok. They are just hiding, I will find them and bring them here. Please just trust me!”

  “Stepan please don’t!!!!”

  Stepan closed the panic room door and activated the lock. He could hear Genesis pounding on the door, her muffled cries reverbing off of it. The truth was he knew exactly where the girls were, and he didn’t want Genesis to see what they were capable of doing. He braced himself and turned to Yuki.

  “The girls are outside the house, you know that correct?”

  “Yes Master, it is the only possible answer.”

  “And you do know those men out there are as good as dead, correct?”

  “Yes Master, I believe the young mistresses will kill them all.”

  “Yuki this may be the only chance we will ever have to control them, to teach them restraint. If we fail here, we will never be able to stop them.”

  “I know Master.”

  “Ok, open the main door
and let’s go outside and may God help us.”

  The present day

  “This field trip is going to be fun!” Danger exclaimed happily as she ate her Hello Kitty cereal.

  “Oh my God I know right? Anything to get out of school for the day,” Destruction answered as she drank her orange juice.

  “I totally wanna see some fossils. It’s cool that they were like alive trillions of years ago and now they are dead and turned to rock.”

  “Oh my God do you think we will turn into fossils someday?”

  Danger thought for a moment.

  “I guess, I don’t know. Maybe. I will ask someone at the museum today.”

  Destruction finished her juice and got up from the kitchen table.

  “Bus will be here soon, we don’t wanna be late.”

  “Did you get the permission note signed?”

  “Oh yeah, right, forgot. I’ll go take care of it now.”

  Destruction took the permission slip and walked out of the kitchen. The house was large, very large, and as she walked down the hall of one wing she hummed a slight tune to herself. She reached a door and gave it a gentle knock.

  “You can come in dearest,” came the soft voiced reply from within.

  Destruction smiled and opened the door and entered the room.

  Seated on a recliner, sipping tea on a tray, Yuki looked up and smiled.

  “Good morning Mistress Gabriella, how are you today?”

  Destruction walked up to Yuki and hugged her, kissing her on the forehead.

  “I am well Auntie Yuki, how are you feeling?”

  “I am good mistress, thank you for asking. Today will be a good day for me, I think. My thoughts are clearer today than yesterday.”

  “I am glad. Can you please sign this? Marcela and I need permission to go on a school field trip today to a museum.”

  “Oh of course dearest, let me put my glasses on.”

  Yuki struggled to put her glasses on, finally succeeding after Destruction helped her. She took a pen in hand and signed the bottom of the paper.

  “There you go mistress, all signed.”

  “Thank you Auntie Yuki,” Destruction said with a smile, “Marcela and I will see you tonight when we get home, and we will make you salad!”