The Composer of Screams

by Matthew McCollum

  Eventually, he managed to pull enough aside—creating a rotting slurry of half-decayed body parts and blood in the process—to expose the source of the flow.

  It was a crack.

  There was a small crack in the wall, maybe a foot wide. Water was bursting out of it at a pretty decent pace, maybe... call it a gallon a minute. One of the pipes embedded in the wall had probably burst during one of the colder nights recently.

  Someone had used several dozen corpses for nothing more than to plug a hole.

  He had seen terrible things in his life, a few worse than this. But even so, he had to take a deep breath to keep from throwing up. Immediately, he cast about for answers. What kind of person could—

  The migraine came back, a thousand times stronger than before, and light flashed before his eyes. He was afraid he was going to lose consciousness, but he kept my grip, though he did fall to my knees.

  What in the—he shook his head. He had periodic headaches pretty much his entire life, but never this hard and this close together. He had to get back to the others. He—

  It hit him again, though not as strong. He was able to bear through it easier.

  That sold it. He had to get back. Heartbreaking as this grisly scene was, he couldn't do anything for the dead, and if he passed out where his friends couldn't find him, nothing good would come of it.

  He managed to make it back to the room where they found Lizzy with nothing more than one more small spike of pain. He found it exactly as he had left it. Akane stood off near the entrance, sword drawn, with Adam close by with his Caedes. Ling was picking at the empty torture table, still slick with blood, apparently trying to figure out what to do with it. And Laura still held Lizzy in her arms—

  The migraine came again at full strength, and again he was forced to his knees. He blearily noted that everyone rushed over to my side, but Lizzy was at the forefront.

  “Derek?” she asked gently. “What's wrong?”

  “Headache,” he managed. “Just... need a doctor.”

  “The retinue—” Ling started, but Lizzy waved her off. They were too far away anyway.

  “Derek. Derek, look at me.” Her voice was soft as she held his head and forced him to look at her. His vision was turning blurry. It was like he was at the end of a long, dark tunnel, with only her golden eyes on the other end. “Look at me Derek. Listen to me. Look at my dress...”

  He felt something snap. Something in his mind broke, as something... something smashed against it. His soul? Or just sheer weight of evidence?

  But something snapped.

  And then everything made sense.

  Hypnotism. Gods-damned hypnotism.

  He was a sleeper. Or something close to it.

  And that little white dress was the trigger.

  He pushed her away as hard as he could, utterly revolted. Now she looked shocked. She tried to crawl forward but he stopped her with a barrier and scrambled over to Laura, who was the closest person.

  Lizzy looked pained. Even now, he couldn't see it. Her eyes looked the same as they always did: Gold and beautiful and innocent as a dove.

  “Derek,” she whispered, sounding hurt. She stood up. In his short flight to escape her, he had come out on the unprotected side of his barrier. There was nothing between the two of them now. “What's wrong? Talk to me.”

  “Everything she says...” he whispered. He managed to scramble to his feet. How had he not seen it before? “Laura, it's all... lies.”

  Laura stared at him. “Are you insane? It's Lizzy. If she's a sleeper, we'll handle it. Besides, my power has been on the entire time. She can't—”

  “I never thought to analyze her words more carefully,” Derek said quietly. “Never thought to notice that she speaks almost entirely in questions and half-truths.”

  He gave Laura an iron look.

  “The kind of wording that slips right past your ability.”

  Laura blinked slowly, trying to think back.

  Lizzy, for her part, looked like he had slapped her across the face. “You... we've known each other since we were kids!”

  He didn't let up. Everything was starting to fall into place. “Then why are you covered in blood, but you aren't wounded?”

  Lizzy looked like she was about to cry. “Derek, please, I don't know what's going on—”

  Then her head exploded.

  Derek turned to see Laura, still standing not three inches away from him, with her Occisor raised and smoking. She was crying silently, tears spilling down her cheeks, but her face was hard. She turned her head and looked him in the eyes without blinking.

  “Lie,” she said levelly.

  Derek would have thanked her—she had the right idea—but someone else beat him to the punch.

  “Oh, thank you so much for that. I had this click in my jaw that just would not go away.”

  He turned and saw Elizabeth rising from the floor as though nothing had happened.

  No, not nothing. That familiar vapid, “I don't know what's going on but I'm fine with that” look on her face was gone completely. In its place was a smile wide enough to reveal every single one of her shining teeth. It was the smile of a torturer, of a killer as blood splashes on his skin.

  It was the smile of their enemy.

  Her eyes weren't innocent anymore. They held the cold, predatory gleam of a hunter lurking in the dark. The way she stood, the way she moved... everything she did reminded Derek of nothing so much as a panther, ready to pounce.

  “That's a nice gun,” she hissed. “But it will take more than that... to kill a composer.”

  Derek stumbled back in shock. He had assumed... “You're supposed to be a sleeper.”

  The smile got wider, if that was possible, and the thing that called itself Elizabeth Greene licked her lips. “Yes... that's it. I wanted to see it.” She giggled, not the warm, honey-like sound of his old friend Lizzy, but the cruel cackle of a hyena. “I wanted to see that FACE! I wanted to see you when you realized it!” She laughed again, a piercing, echoing sound. “Now, scream for me!”

  She rushed forward, a look of naked, gleeful bloodlust on her face—

  Her head exploded again.

  This time, she didn't fall, though she did stumble back, and he could see her skull restructuring itself, broken bits of brain and bone reversing course, flying back through the air to slot into place as if nothing had happened.

  She shook her head quickly, then glared daggers of hate at Laura. “MEDINA! You're next, just wait your turn—”

  Laura fired again. Adam joined in with his SMG, filling the small room with the smell of gunsmoke and the deafening roar of automatic fire.

  Whatever regeneration Elizabeth had, it clearly wasn't perfect. She shrieked in pain and rage and fled to the intersection Derek had just come out of. Unlike him, she fled left.

  Ling and Adam followed, but there was a great crash, and a large part of the ceiling came down, nearly burying them. Derek could see daylight filtering down, but they would never climb over that in time to catch her.

  “Let it go,” he said tiredly, sinking to the floor. “Let it go.” He took a long, deep breath. “We have other things to do.”

  “Body jumping,” Akane said, a shocked look on her face. “That's it, right? The Composer can possess people or whatever.”

  Laura holstered her gun and wiped away her tears. “Probably. But if she's been dodging my power this entire time, Lizzy must be one of her favorite hosts.”

  “We need to follow her,” Adam insisted, looking at the rock-filled corridor. “Ling, can you get us through here?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “But she didn't set off explosives or whatever. She used a power like mine to bring the roof down. I could feel her rip at the concrete.”

  Laura cursed. “This just keeps getting better and better. Start making a hole, but take your time. We're not following.” She pulled out her cell. “Kelly? Lizzy is possessed by the Composer. Don't engage; she might have all the powers. Just
follow her.”

  Derek couldn't move.

  Seven years he had been pining over this girl... and why? Because some... demon or whatever thought it would be advantageous.

  Sure, Lizzy was still in there somewhere. Unless it had killed her...

  No. Lizzy was still in there somewhere. The love might not have been real at first, but seven years doesn't just disappear over night. He... he...

  Silver and gold, he didn't know what to do.

  Laura shook his shoulder. “Can you hear me? I said we need to go.”

  Derek blinked. Everyone was standing around him, waiting.

  “Go where?”

  “To talk to Butler,” Laura said, offering him her hand. “He wants a full report, in person.”

  He took her hand and pulled himself to his feet.

  Butler. Yeah. Maybe he'd have some answers.

  Chapter 58: FUGAE

  ROBYN JOAN

  Robyn Joan Clarke was the daughter of Doctor Isaac Clarke and Janet Gertrude. Robyn never understood why her mother kept her maiden name, but she supposed it doesn't matter. She had an older brother, David, but he died a while back.

  She sat on top of a skyscraper, not far from the entrance to the sewer the Paladins had dived into. She had a good angle from here, and could see everything clearly with her binoculars. But at forty floors up, no one would notice her unless they were looking very hard.

  It had been over four hours, and she was starting to get worried. Cell service was virtually impossible to get in the sewers. You'd need to be right next to an opening to the surface to get any reception. For all Robyn knew, they could all be dead by now. But Derek and Akane were experienced dungeon-delvers, and Laura had a keen sense of direction. They should all be fine.

  She had to admit she was a bit worried about Adam and Ling, though for different reasons. Adam could handle himself in a fight. Disturbingly well, in fact. But if they ran into a singer, it was all over for him.

  Ling, on the other hand, was not a fighter. Oh, she did well enough against the screamers, but they were so stupid they hardly counted. The kind of monsters you ran into in sewers would take more than a few improvised soccer tricks to kill.

  Robyn's headset chirped with the real MC's voice. “Robyn? You there?”

  She tapped the device to activate it. “Yes, what is it?”

  “Long story. Short version: Lizzy came out of the sewers two miles northwest. Find her, follow her, don't let her see you.”

  The eye screen on her headset lit up with a map and a destination marker, indeed a little over two miles away from her current position. She guessed the lair was just a lot further underground than they thought.

  She frowned though, disturbed at the unspoken implications of MC's statement. If she wasn't supposed to be seen by Lizzy, that almost certainly meant she was a sleeper, and anything she heard or saw would be reported back to the Composer.

  That was by far the worst case scenario. Robyn wasn't the greatest of friends with her, but she still didn't want to see her brainwashed and forced to spy on the people she cared about.

  She shook her head to clear it. That was something to worry about later. Every minute she delayed, Lizzy got farther away. The sun was already beginning to sink towards the horizon. Once night fell, she'd have a hard time finding her.

  “Robyn Joan Clarke,” a voice called from behind her.

  Surprised, she turned to see... Obould, the orc Power, standing next to the stairwell. Huh. That was strange. He normally preferred to stay home in his lab. He looked serious, more so than Robyn had ever seen him.

  “Honored Devil,” she said smoothly. She racked her brain for a way out of this situation without revealing too much. “Wonderful to see you again. Ah... what are you doing up here?”

  He met her gaze. “Don't follow her, Honored Paladin.”

  Robyn cocked her head in what she was sure looked like a genuine gesture of confusion. “Follow who?”

  “Elizabeth Greene. She is the Composer.” He frowned. “Or... she is possessed by the Composer. I'm not clear on that.”

  This time Robyn didn't have to fake being skeptical. “Lizzy? The Composer? Where'd you get that idea?”

  “I began suspecting a few weeks ago, when Adam failed to get her blood sample,” he said. “That's when I realized she is significantly more careful about her words around Laura—almost as if she knew about her ability.” He shrugged. “And it was confirmed when I overheard the other Paladins telling MC.”

  Robyn blinked. “You overheard them? How?”

  He grinned, baring his fangs. “I hacked the network.”

  “YOU WHAT?” MC shrieked in her ear. Robyn had to rip the headpiece off to avoid being deafened. MC had switched it to speaker mode remotely. “When the hell did that happen?”

  “Well,” Obould said, “most of it was Garona, with some help from Veronica and I. It was a group effort, really.”

  “HOW DID YOU HACK MY NETWORK?”

  Even though he was wearing daygoggles, Robyn could tell he was rolling his eyes. “Calm down. Garona snuck into the Cathedral. With a hardline, she was able to upload a hack we wrote, and suborn one of your spy programs.”

  MC cursed. “Which one? LS0099827? I'll bet it was her, she's been glitching on me for months...”

  Obould cleaned his tooth with his tongue, thinking. “It was... I'm not sure. Little Sister... 17? No, it ended in a nine. Anyway, it was five years ago, right when you were starting up. It's been there for a long time.”

  There was a long, long pause, and Robyn could easily imagine MC taking deep breaths and counting to ten. “Okay, I need to know exactly what this hack does.”

  Obould shrugged. “Garona will have to tell you. I didn't contribute much.”

  “You can do all this later,” Robyn said. “Right now, I have to go find Lizzy.” Despite what Obould had said, she was still skeptical. Lizzy, the Composer? It just seemed too silly. Besides, it wasn't like she was going to walk up to her and ask.

  “No, Miss Clarke, you can't,” Obould insisted, stepping forward and grabbing her arm. “She's extremely dangerous, and we know too little about her powers.”

  Robyn shrugged him off. “This isn't my first rodeo, Knight Obould.” She didn't like how familiar he was getting. Really, they only knew each other peripherally. “I've been scouting for MC since this whole thing started.” She snorted as the pieces fell into place. “Of course, you already know that.”

  He shrugged a little helplessly. “Well... yes. Although I don't quite understand why you never told the others.”

  She just glared at him. “Didn't see the need.”

  He rubbed his horns and sighed. “Look... I realize I can't actually physically stop you. But you'd have enough trouble finding her during the day. By the time you get over there, it will be dark, and she'll be in a perfect position to ambush you.”

  “I can take care of myself. Even at night.”

  “Really?” He cocked his head. “I thought those red eyes were just cosmos.”

  He was right, of course. Her eyes—and her hair, for that matter—were colored red, but were not improved in any way. She was as nightblind as any other baseline.

  But she had gone to far to back down now. And besides, they really did need intel on Lizzy or the Composer or whoever.

  Obould could clearly see the determination in her eyes, so he just shook his head. “I give up. MC, help me out here?”

  “One sec,” she muttered in an annoyed tone. “I'm yelling at your sister-in-law.”

  Robyn tossed Obould the headset, and he caught it by reflex.

  “Don't follow me, Honored Devil,” Robyn said, as she stepped backwards off the roof of the building. “I'm a little better at this than you.”

  She only fell a few feet before she activated her power, reversing gravity for her and her alone. Suddenly she wasn't falling down anymore, but rather up, head angled towards Lizzy's last known location. As she rose, she slipped on the gas mask Lizz
y had bought her recently. It was designed for... well, gas, but it worked pretty well for high-altitudes as well.

  Once Robyn was above the clouds and comfortably away from prying eyes, she changed her angle to be almost completely horizontal. She also increased her speed, simply by stacking a few more gravities on herself, making her “fall” faster in the direction she desired. Her reservoir depleted very slowly, so she had enough for a little over an hour at this speed.

  She knew most of the others had wondered why they had gotten their particular powers. Not Derek, of course—it was perfectly obvious why he got the power to protect people. But the others were more confused. What did Laura have to do with lies, or Akane with superspeed, or Ling with controlling earth and stone? You could see reasons for them if you squinted, but still, it was odd.

  Robyn was confused as to why everyone didn't get flight.

  Flying was the most exhilarating experience in the world. She had known that ever since she was a kid, when she snuck onto one of the airplane sims at the aerospace museum. It was primitive and clunky, but she went there every single day, at least until it burned down in a gang war.

  But flying without a plane... with nothing between you and the air, seeing the clouds unfold beneath you like a white ocean... well. She could understand why the aves were going to such great lengths to get wings.

  Obould had asked her why she hadn't told the others she was like them. She had lied. She had a reason. A very simple, very selfish one.

  She wanted to keep flying for as long as she could. She wanted to feel empty air around her, taste the wind through her hair. She knew that when they eventually found out, she wouldn't be MC's mysteriously competent scout anymore. She would be a Paladin, with all the duties and responsibilities that implied.

  Was it any wonder she chose flying over that?

  Chapter 59: SOLACIUM