Mania and the Executioner

by A. L. Bridges

  I glance at the car and see Lila staring at me in horror out of the back window.

  “Sorry to shatter your illusion of me, but this is what I really am Lila.” I whisper aloud as I look away from her.

  I stumble off to the side where I throw up my lunch; Cheza just follows me and starts rubbing my back as I puke my guts out with my hands on my knees. I look around and see nine dead auras, but the driver of the wrecked SUV is still alive.

  “Are you alright?” I silently ask Cheza.

  “Yeah Cole, I’ll be fine.” Cheza thinks as I see the two sealed bullet holes on her stomach. We need to get those out of her quickly.

  “What about nonphysical things?” I ask, referring to her state of mind after she just killed someone.

  “I’m alright Cole. I did what was necessary.” Cheza thinks, hopefully not just rationalizing it to herself.

  “Wait here, I’m going to get some answers.” I think to Cheza as I walk back to the crashed SUV.

  I wrench open the back left door and pull my Sic dagger out of the driver’s seat as the driver moans; it seems that he’s almost recovered, which is rather impressive. I rip open the driver’s side door and drag the driver out of the car. He groans loudly as he falls to the ground and is dragged about fifteen yards from the car. I stab the Sic blade into his right shoulder and twist it, causing him to scream.

  “I need answers. Who gave you your orders? Who is your master?” I ask and stop twisting.

  “FUCK YOU!” the werewolf screams.

  “Look…I’m tired and I have a dozen cacti spines sticking out of my ass so I’d like to do this the easy way. You are going to talk eventually, they always do. Once I start flaying them, it doesn’t take long for them to give me the information and beg for death. So do you feel like going through immense pain before dying or do you feel like telling me what I need know and get to die painlessly?” I ask.

  “Fenrir told us to inform the being that flayed anyone of us, that he was looking forward to seeing his child soon.” the werewolf says and starts laughing before I slice through his neck.

  I don’t know who my father is but…

  Oh Fuck Me

  Chapter 25: The Rice Crispy elves are pricks

  “Natasha, are you alright to drive?” I ask after walking back to the car, upon seeing Natasha holding her arm.

  “Yeah, no problem. What did the wolf say?” she asks.

  “Fenrir.” I reply, leaving out the part about how he might be my dad…oh, and the one that raped Lila. “Lila, can you please sit on Cheza’s lap? I need to lie down in the back.”

  “Sure Cole.” Lila says quietly.

  “Natasha, come here.” I say as I take my switchblade out and slice my hand open. “My blood will be able to create a more effective seal than stitches will and it will allow your arm to heal without leaving a scar.”

  “Don’t worry about it Cole, you don’t have to do that for me.” Natasha says.

  “Who says I’m doing it for you? I just don’t want you bleeding on the upholstery. Don’t worry, none of my blood will be going inside so I won’t be able to do anything with it and I wouldn’t if I could.” I tell her as I limp over and gently grab her right bicep. My blood creates a seal around the chunk of arm that she is missing. I put a little more in and have it fill in the place for her missing muscle. Well, I guess I lied a little.

  “Cole, you can’t really talk about me bleeding on the upholstery when you are currently dripping with blood and I can’t even tell which of it is yours.” Natasha says teasingly.

  “Touché!” I laugh so nothing else surfaces.

  We all pile in the car, Natasha drives the fifteen minutes that it takes us to get home, and we pull into the driveway. Sara and Tia rush out to meet us just after we step out of the car.

  “What the hell happened? I know shopping can be brutal, but this is ridiculous!” Tia exclaims.

  “We were attacked by ten werewolves. Sara, I need you to go inside and prep an area for surgery to remove the two bullets from Cheza’s stomach; don’t worry about having a completely sterile environment, my blood won’t allow anything to get infected. Tia, I need you to grab a pair of pliers from the garage; needle-nose would probably be best but it doesn’t really matter. Natasha, watch the second Harry Potter movie with Lila.” I order as we walk into the house.

  Sara heads off to her room while I limp inside; these spines are really a pain in my ass…har har.

  Tia comes back from the garage as I head to the corner of the kitchen and into the laundry room. I take my jacket off and place it in the large sink to let it soak so that it doesn’t dye the inside of the washer later. I walk back into the kitchen as Sara comes out.

  “Cole, Rei, Tia, come on.” Sara says and waves us down the hall.

  We follow her back to her room, and into her closet. We pass by rows of various materials and parts to I don’t know what. She opens a door at the back of her closet and leads us down a spiral stone staircase…at least this one has lights. We reach the bottom of the stairs and walk down a hallway with doors on both sides. Judging by how far we’ve walked, I’d say that we are under the garage…I think; a terrible sense of direction falls into the ‘geography is not my forte’ category.

  I suddenly get this picture in my head of me opening one of the doors and seeing Narnia. I chuckle as I get another picture: I open another door and I see the Keebler elf tree-factory. Then I get another picture: I open a third door, a rush of steam flows out and I see the three Rice Crispy elves sitting in a sauna. One of them shouts “Hey Asshole! Shut the door, you’re letting all of the steam out!”

  I’m laughing now, causing the girls to turn around and stare at me, even Cheza.

  “Why didn’t she tell me…” Cheza says quietly while she pouts.

  “Hey Airi, why didn’t you let Cheza in on the joke?”

  (Because Chezarei has two bullets in her stomach and laughing would have hurt, thus making the joke less funny)

  “Wow…thanks Airi; that was very considerate.”

  (Plus, don’t you find her pouting face to be rather endearing?)

  “Yeah, she does look pretty cute…”

  (Like videos of animals close-up with a wide angle lens)

  “No, Cheza is cuter than that.”

  (Like close-up animals with a wide angel lens…wearing hats?)

  “Cuuuute; Suuuuper Cuuuuute.”

  (And we don’t even need to ingest massive amounts of cough syrup to think so) 13

  I start cracking up, which only causes Cheza to pout more. The nice thing about making jokes with the voice inside your head is that you both understand all of the obscure South Park references. I can make these jokes with Cheza and she gets the majority of them because she grew up around Jason and me, but it’s not quite the same.

  “Uh…Cole? Are you okay?” Tia asks.

  “Heh…Yeah; Airi is just really funny, that’s all.” I reply.

  Sara keeps walking until she reaches the last door on the left side of the hallway. She enters the room, revealing it to be like one you would find at a clinic, complete with an examination table.

  “Alright Cheza, hop up on the table and take your top off.” Sara says casually as she starts putting on gloves, a mask, and eyewear. Cheza gets on the table and takes her tank top off. Sara starts rubbing the area on her stomach with surgical alcohol.

  “Shouldn’t you be using iodine instead?” I ask.

  “Yeah that would be better if we had to worry about infection, but it’s a bitch to get off of your skin so I’m not going to.” Sara replies. I walk over to Cheza’s side and she looks embarrassed.

  “Oh, don’t worry I won’t be watching,” I say guessing that that’s what she is embarrassed about because I had already seen her topless nine hours ago when I was humping her brains out in the shower. “I’ll be preoccupied while I’m bent over the counter as Tia rips these spines out of my ass with a pair of pliers.”

  “Okay, and don’t worry C
ole…I forgive you for…knocking me out…again.” Cheza says while falling asleep as I block the blood flow to her brain.

  “Sara, can you please inject a local anesthetic, like Lidocain, into her stomach? It would be a bit of a help in keeping her asleep.” I ask.

  (Anesthetics are not recommended for your plan; transference of pain will be interrupted)

  “I have Novocain, but that’s about it…” Sara says.

  “Never mind, Airi says I shouldn’t. Don’t worry about bleeding or stitches; I can take care of that part.” I say as I walk to, and lean over, the counter.

  “Airi, I need you to block Cheza, disable her healing and transfer all pain to me please.”

  (Of course, my masochistic master)

  “Alright Sara, Tia; anytime you two are ready, but please try to make it quick.” I tell them.

  Tia pulls a spine out and it kind of stings…until I compare it to the feeling of getting eviscerated.

  “AUGH!” I scream as blood pours out of my stomach.

  “Oh it didn’t hurt that bad you big bab— FUCK COLE! TELL ME BEFORE YOU DO THIS SHIT!” Tia screams as she notices the blood flowing down the counter. She kicks it into god-speed and pulls the rest of the 39 spines from my ass and legs in less than ten seconds. Tia pushes me down onto my back and grabs a giant wad of gauze to block some of the bleeding.

  “Sara! We need you to hurry the hell up!” Tia shouts as I scream, “FUCK! WHY DO MAGICAL INJURIES HURT SO MUCH!?”

  “I’m going as fast as I can Tia! And they hurt worse because you don’t have the endorphins to help block some of the pain Cole!” Sara shouts.

  After what feels like a small eternity, Sara shouts, “Done!” and I restart Cheza’s healing in rapid fashion while inducing further trauma to my guts. My vision fades as I feel her stomach heal fully, allowing me to stop the transfer and turn my healing back on.

  “Cole!” Cheza shouts as I hear her jump off of the table. “Oh, Cole…”

  …

  [May 29th]

  I wake up in my bed in only my boxers. My clock tells me that it is 12:03am and I hear sounds in the living room. I slip on some shorts and walk out there to find that the sounds are the title screen of the fourth Harry Potter movie playing repeatedly. Natasha, Cheza, and Lila are all asleep on the couch.

  I pick up Natasha and carry her to her room. I don’t know what the protocol is for taking off a girl-friend-who-is-not-your-girlfriend’s pants is so I just close my eyes and pretend it’s Cheza. This way if Cheza somehow sees this, I can say I didn’t look and pretended it was her; in other words, the truth. I peel down Natasha jeans, tuck her into bed (sorry Natasha but you are just going to have to sleep in your bra because I am not going there), and head back into the living room.

  I scoop Cheza up, carry her to her room, and strip her of her shorts, shirt, and bra, before throwing a pajama top on her and tucking her into bed. Now, what do I do about Lila? I’m hardly in any shape to port to Tir na nOg and back. I guess she can sleep in the master bedroom; I think that will be okay and hopefully Aine won’t freak out too much. I pick Lila up and take her to Uncle Eric’s room. I tuck her into the bed, being careful of her wings as I place her on her back. I leave the door open as I exit the room and walk back to my room, leaving my door wide open; this way, if Lila wakes up in the middle of the night and walks down the hallway, she will be able to see me. I use the bathroom and brush my teeth quickly before taking off the shorts that I put on earlier, climbing into bed, and turning onto my right side to fall asleep.

  …

  Several hours later, I feel a naked body press itself against my back.

  “Cheza, this will have to wait for tomorrow. I’m still really low on blood from before so I’m going back to bed.” I say quietly as I reach back and pat her hip. I feel her jump at my touch and then I hear the sound of wings fluttering off the side of my bed as tears drip across my back.

  “Lila? What’s wrong!?” I ask quietly but urgently as I sit up. She kneels up and throws her arms around me.

  “I want to stop feeling like this…I want to forget what he felt like…Please Cole…Please help me forget.” She sobs quietly as she moves to sit on my lap; I stop her before she can even raise her leg up high enough.

  “I’m sorry Lila…I can’t do that.” I say softly as I hug her.

  “Why…? Why can’t you Cole?” Lila continues to sob.

  What the fuck am I supposed to do? Is there even anything I can do to help her forget all of this?

  (Take your switchblade and slice into her neck)

  “SHUT THE FUCK UP AIRI! NOW ISN’T THE TIME FOR STUPID JOKES!”

  (And then slice into your own. I’ll take over from there)

  “…will this help her forget?”

  (Trust me)

  I pick up my switchblade and flash a small incision into her neck and mine so fast that pain doesn’t even register. I feel my blood slip from my neck and go into Lila’s bloodstream.

  “Cole…? What are you—” Lila asks as her eyelids start to close.

  “Shhh, everything is going to be alright. I’m going to fix this.” I say as her eyes close while mine grow heavy. I lie down on my back with Lila on my left side.

  “What’s…next?” I ask as I feel my consciousness slipping.

  (We are going to obliterate her reality)

  ****

  Chapter 26: Does this look as bad as it looks?

  I’m floating in some dark space; in front of me, a large frame that is approximately the size of a movie theater screen is about twenty feet away. Identical frames popup and expand to the left and right horizons. On each frame is a still image. When I focus on the image in front of me, it starts moving; it’s reminiscent of some scene selections for movies where if you highlight the frozen image, it shows you a little clip from that section.

  The current frame I’m in front of shows a kidnapping…these are Lila’s memories. I move to the right, assuming that the time flow of frames is from left to right, and I stop at a frame that is two down. This frame is of her naked in the dark so I move on to a lighted frame I notice that is five down on my right.

  I see a tall man with silver hair that looks almost spikey because of the cowlicks that branch out all over the place. I watch as he moves towards Lila; she tries to fight back, but he just laughs as she watches the scratches heal instantaneously and realizes that her efforts are futile. His eyes light up in insane joy when she stops her efforts and starts sobbing. Those steel-blue eyes stay in that state of insanity as he violates her.

  “How do I stop it Airi? How do I obliterate her reality?”

  (It is quite simple. Use what is around your waist)

  I look down, and around my waist is some kind of strange silver belt that has a buckle with three horizontal lines on it.

  “What is it?”

  (Wrap your right hand around it, just to the left of the buckle)

  I do as she says and the buckle releases as the belt uncoils and springs out. I see now that I am holding a sword (I think) with a blade that is roughly 2” wide, 1/8” thick and 6’ long, ending in three staggered points that remind me of a trident. I look at the pommel that also ends with three staggered points, and I realize that the pommel and tip interlock for the buckle. I notice that there are 24 notches along the blade as I swing the sword a few times, finding that it doesn’t wobble at all.

  (Now swing it at the frame)

  I listen again thinking that this must be some sort of magic wand instead of a sword because the frame is approximately twenty feet away. The sword divides at each of the 24 notches into three inch segments. The segments telescopes out twice, tripling the overall length of the blade and the segments start moving independently of each other so that the sword acts like a rigid, bladed, whip. I notice these 3” long by 1/4” wide bladed teeth that swing out of each segment with the momentum of my swing. The sword hits the frame and the tiny blades rip through it as I swing down. The sword retracts back to the h
ilt like a measuring tape, until it’s back to its original 6’ blade. I swing over and over as the blade shoots out again and again, tearing the frame to bits.

  “This is an interesting sword. It’s kind of like a mixture of the Urumi Indian whip-sword, a chainsaw, and a tape measure…Anyway, am I correct in assuming that I can just hack up the other similar frames and they will be erased from Lila’s memory with no ill effects?”

  (That is correct)

  “Well…I’m going to miss you Lila, but it’s best if you just forget all about me and this whole shitty kidnapping.”

  (That will not work)

  “What? Why not?”

  (Deletion of memories from when Lila was in the basement will be successful because her sense of time is distorted so those memories can be easily deleted without gaps. The only other memory that may be altered is the one of her frantic state this morning, but only the section of the memory where she mentions Fenrir. The rest of it her mind will just naturally fill in)

  I get to work finding any frame with Fenrir in it and I use the sword to shred it. I go to the memory from this morning and alter it by removing the section where she describes Fenrir to me. There is no memory of what she was doing before she said my name or of her dream so I don’t have to worry about that part, thankfully. I go and delete the events leading up to when I sliced into her neck so that the last thing she remembers is falling asleep on the couch. After I’m sure that I’m done with anything related to Fenrir, I go back through and delete any memory that might feel scarring like the one of her getting her clothes stripped from her or of her getting beaten.

  “Alright…that should be it. We just have to make sure to heal her bruises before she awakens”

  (Don’t worry, this will work and Lila will be none the wiser)

  ****

  I wake up to a blade at my throat, behind which stands Cheza with an expressionless face and glazed over eyes.

  (Since Jason is not here, I will say it for him: ‘I think she is going for the yandere character!’)